Resolution '14: Better Cleaning the face; the house is a different priority

Do we need yet another resolution? Yes, when it's in the cutest bottle!

Cleaning up is one of the key-elements of healthy skin and I've never really skipped on that. I only wanted to stop using 'the chemical' and leap over to 'the organic side' to see if my flake-prone skin would improve.

Since I had gotten a sample of cultproduct May Lindstrom 'the Clean Dirt' I wanted to explore cleansing grains/clays. May Lindstrom is quite expensive and also quite potent with warming spices and cleansing clays. That is fine on some days, but when skin is sensitive...soothing is a better option.

 The Rose Cleansing Polish has been branded as their most gentle and still effective cleansing scrub:

 

source: FrenchGirlOrganics

This sounds really credible looking at the ingredients such as softening Rose Hip, Hibiscus, Lavender and the ayurvedic wonderpowders such as Neem & Tulsi.

French Girl Organics has gotten a couple of a good reviews on various blogs. And ofcourse I've gotten too enamorated on the cute packaging...

Hence, my new powder habit is a healthy one:

 

I have only used it a couple of times; too little for a full review. However, I will discus it when I have used it more oftenly.

I bought it over on etsy from FrenchGirlCosmetics (here).

New Vanities

I complained about not having my beauty-Mojo a couple of posts ago.

FaceQ Hello Kitty Sheet-Masks on a happy plate

 In the meanwhile I bought some new vanities:

This Works has a new line going on named "In Transit": aimed for the frequent Travellers. I am still looking for my perfect primer and 'Camera Closeup' has the right name & raves (see here & here) to get me curious. My review will be there soon after I have tried it for a while

I have gotten in a neo-teenager period, facewise, which means I had to buy a good pimple buster: Skin Doctor 'Zit Zapper' also has the right name & reviews . I hope it will make my skin behave because combatting the wrinkles is a task high enough for my vanities right now : ).

Rouge Bunny Rouge is having an awesome sale (hurry, still a couple of days left). Some eyeshadows that I was already curious about went from €24.00 to €14.40. The teal top one is Mysterious Tinamou and the bottom Periwinkle Cardinal. I also bought the peachy Tantalising Lovebird. The lipstick was the only colour on sale: Perfume of his Gaze. It has been reviewed as too sheer & neutral (here) but since it has been discounted from €24.00 to €9.60 and I love a sheer with a sparkle in a pretty tube I though "oh well".

Product availability:

The Hello Kitty FaceQ sheetmasks were bought from ebayseller whitecat3845724: I gotten 2 free masks when buying 5. The This Works & Skin Doctors are from lookfantastic.com: they give out a free Macademia Haircare kit worth £45 when you spend more than £50: code THGMAC.

Deal Alert: Omorovicza GWP

Today's motto = "From one GWP into Another"

Before I'll explain the quote above, I'll let you know that urbanretreat.co.uk has an incredible GWP when spending £50 or more on Omorovicza.

First, something I really like from my previous GWP from Omorovicza:

The Copper peel has been everything to me what the peel I discussed yesterday hasn't been: fast, gentle, effective, and a breeze for the skin. 

And left my skin representative enough for going to more glam occasions than the IKEA.

So from one GWP into another: I've purchased this peel in full-size and (already) received my new GWP and the full-size peel

This GWP is slightly different than the one from Omorovicza's site earlier:

The night cream & thermal balm wasn't in their other set, so more to experiment with

(and perhaps another GWP from an earlier GWP)

Not promoting Urbanretreat but if you haven't ordered from them before:

Yours sincerely,

 Deal-alert-er Birkie

Caviar & Icecream

Mmm, you've probably seen these before with some other brand (hint: it also starts with a C) but Catrice has done a gorgeous nail collection:

Pretty pearlies for nails

But I couldn't go for Caviar alone, so I went for Ice cream too:

Catrice C01 I scream Ice cream!

I fell in love with the pretty pink glow inside of the pale lavendel colour...

Meal for the day for the nails: Caviar & Icecream

Pretty Springy Things

- Something Cheeky

(YSL Creme de Blush 9)

-Something (from) Lush 

[Mumkin]

- Something Glossy 

[Le Metier de Beaute Sheer Brilliance Cannes]

Cannes looks really sparkly in spring-sunlight, but it's quite subtle on lips: 

- Something Mask-y 

Etos (Dutch Brand)

I guess it's more of a no [stop] buy for me lately....

Owly

My wallet was stolen about a week ago. Good thing I've purchased this cute purse at forever21 beforehand, so the loss wasn't too bad.

I should get something sophisticated (leather) soon, but for the moment I love my canvas cutie!

Catrice Neo Geisha lipbrush; or the art of neo-NARS-ing

I really like Catrice: it's easily available in this part of Europe and has decent quality for the price.

My eye did spot something familiar in their latest Neo-Geisha range:

Wow, a totally gorgeous lipbrush with that bonding on the stick. However, haven't I seen it before (let's say, last week)?

It's not the first time Catrice has done something that looks-a-lot-like-something-else (see here)

According to the webpage:

The Neo-Geisha limited Collection is a beautiful range, but I found the lip/cheekcolours to be lacking any intensity to make a beautiful colour on either lips or cheeks. Also, their eyeshadows felt slightly gritty and didn't swatch beautifully: I might bring my smaller UDPP next time so see how it looks on a layer of eyeprimer.

So, I only bought the lipbrush to add a sister for my NARS Yachiyo I dearly love.

There is a larger range of the collection, see their webpage here

The Child & the Housewife

*drink me*

My latest Alice-in-Wonderland  bunny mug will do the trick in letting my inner concience believe I can still believe in Wonderlands.

Perhaps if they would make brooms and cleaning goods like these...*it might magically get clean* (Or that robot vacuum cleaner...)

(You can find Rory Dobner on Liberty.co.uk)

I also found an ornithologist token of a cup for various food-experiences.

Tiger.dk is a cheap Danish shop with various household tools & cute items stocked. This mug only costed me €2.

Sort of similar credits as the Rory Dobner, only I cannot decipher who the artist is. 

Although not really makeup related, LeaMarie shows us that you can use cute household things like these as makeup storage too (see here)

Using... Used... Gonna Use

One of my beauty resolutions is actually using up things...it's going all right. 

I will start off with the Using category:

• Using: Sunday Riley Good Genes treatment 

 Marketed as both a serum for 5 days a week or as a mask which has some potent Lactic Acid for that bit of exfoliating

Right now I find it a bit strong (read: stingy) for my delicate skin. I think I will alternate it and use it as a mask.

Talking about masks?

• Used: Glamglow mud mask (sample)

Although I love my sheetmasks, I really like the deep cleansing effect I will get from a mudmask. I have tried a variety from BeautyDIY Glacier Ice mudmask to Fango's various types, and I especially love them in summer when I pile up the sunscreen.

Glamglow has been marketed as the "Hollywood Mask" and the name already suggest "Glamour".

I really liked using this...as you can see from that picture above, it's that mudmasky green colour that would make Kermit envious. Also, it has some grains in it that become effective when you rinse off the mask in scrubbing motions.

Is it more fabulous than my other mudmasks? Not really, but I already have a really good stash. The Borghese Mudmasks each target a different aim, eg whitening or cleansing and are really effective for each cause. The Beauty DIY Glacier Mud is also so gorgeous as you only need a thin layer and it dries so fast. Moreover, Glacier Mud has a variety of minerals that really have an effect on the skin, besides the wonderful cleansing effect.

in the Clay department: Borgese & BeautyDIY

Still, I like it and it gets a 2-in-one action by cleansing(tingling) and scrubbing.

• Gonna Use: My gmarket diary

 

Wow, I purchased this one 1 1/2 year ago when I still was quite attached to Gmarket. I ordered a couple of their agendas then (eg this Alice in Wonderland) and forgot about this one untill I found it again. 

Most of Gmarket (Korean) agendas do not have fixed dates but only days of the week, so you can start and finish your agenda whenever you want.

Moreover, don't you think the "Plans of the Week" are cute? I am going to schedule in "Falling in Love" & "Beautiful Travel" soon.

Falar...Benamor?

Lingering on other sites makes you crave new thingies. The dear "Worship" once showcased some European goodies with those old-fashioned packages (here). That made me even more curious for this tube when seeing it in Portugal

It comes in one of those metallic squeezy tubes that stays like that when once squeezed.

It has been used since 1928 by various famous Portuguese, eg. the last queen of Portugal. But the romantic part was buying it during one of my journeys.

Not so romantic, but you can buy it from this place too.

Review: Lavshuca Girly Whip Cheek PK-2

Cute, girly and in an affordable pricerange: I really understand the appeal of Kanebo Lavshuca as a brand.

This time the focus on the kawaii factor is nothing to be dissapointed about: check out the adorable box in candy-floss colours and the most adorable heart at the cardboard end. 

In my last post I had the case of mistaking a lipgloss for being a cheek-product.

Today I have the opposite feeling with the Lavshuca Girly Whip: Doesn't this one look rather shaped like a dainty lipgloss tube?

And check out the wand...if the product on it wasn't so opaque and creamy it could be another lipgloss (or one of those velvety lip-products that are out these days)

Ok, before going to swatch-land, what does it state on the box?

Ok, the English part as I'm not that fluent with the Mandarin nor Japanese yet: 

The cautions are slighty on the obvious site, but I like them still being stated and for the English (read: American) public they have to be certain they don't get any lawsuit-cases behind their pants for not having listed any warnings.

 I was a bit aware of trying out this one: it has some visible gold-hued sparklies inside and I wasn't too sure how this would show on my skin:

The product itself has the most velvety consistency and has the feel of a high end primer on the skin

Blended out:

I think it is more of a pinky highlighter than a blush and it reminds me a lot of the Lunasol Cream Cheeks EX 4 in Tender Glow Pink (review/swatch here)

VERDICT:

When I received my 3 lovelies last week (here) I tended to like the Visee Mineral Cheek a bit more as it was more targeted in colouring cheeks instead of highlighting. I compared the two and perhaps I shouldn't done that, however, I wanted to show my readers how something targeted as a cheek-product can be sooo different.

Anyway, I have stepped over my initial fear of sparklies and have to say I LOVE this one as a pink-toned highlighter on the upper cheeks, and also as a anti-dark-circle diffusing product under the eyes. The velvet consistency glides over less-perfect skin and doesn't sit in pores or the undereye wrinkles. Perhaps you can see the sparklies in direct sunlight or in those areas where they have budgetized on lightening (metros, etc), but it's not NARS Superorgasm-glittery terrritory so I think it's wearable.

It is also so easy to carry around with you as it really has the size of a lipgloss.

The only con I can think about is the hygiene factor: but similarly as a lipgloss there are ways to apply it on a sanitised spatula and then on the skin.
However, because it's relatively cheap you can also use this a couple of times the original (direct) way and toss it away when you suspect it's not so hygienic anymore.

CONCLUSION:

A surprise LIKE for this one. Cute, the colour and texture is not just perfect for younger skins but for the slightly maturing ones too, travel friendly and the price is not too expensive for $14 (here)

Pursued and a cheeky wait

After I haven't dared to put any makeup in the Miu Miu purse I bought a while ago in case I would smudge it's daintiness, I decided to buy something more playproof:

And if my lack of swatches and review has left you slightly dissapointed in me, I have some cheekies somewhere between Hong Kong and the Netherlands that are waiting eagerly to be swatched:

Goodie: I have quite some blush, mostly powder and some cream.

However, I have little in gel-form, only the Pixi and a Rouge Bunny Rouge from the Decadent Duo side (Tango-Argentino). I love these consistencies so I get three of them at the same time!

Looking forward to it and hopefully you too :}

Wonder-find

I am in the mid-summer beauty blahs: I got this craving to buy something from any newer collection but the ones that are available now do not really appeal to me (NARS) or appealed to me until I read what they were like according to my sweet commenters (Jill Stuart blushes).

Thus, a rediscovery:

I have quite the stash of MAC I collected for a while. However, I hardly buy them anymore because I don't reach for MAC enough. Beautiful colours and recommended textures (by MUA etc), but somehow I found brands that suited me better.

I Ilike the Wonder Woman Amazonian Princess for it's girlpower box and name.

Most of all, I have fallen for the cooler pink colour. And there must be better versions of this colour out there but I still have it in my stash and it's fun to use that little red box.