The Body Shop Pure natural Lip Roll On in Rose

I cant say no when I see ‘rose’…  

This flavored roll on balm is supposed to moisturize and leave lips soft with no tacky waxy feel. Of course, made with 100% natural ingredients.

 Here’s the list…rinicus communis seed oil, glycine soja oil, lanolin, helianthus annuus seed oil, olea eurupeaea fruit oil, aroma, helianthus annuus seed waz, aqua, tocopherol, persea gratissima oil, prunis amydalus dulcis oil, sammondsia chinensis seed oil, stevia rebaudiana leaf/stem extract, linalool, citronellol, geraniol, citral, limonene, citric acid. 

Basically: castor oil, sunflower wax and oil, avocado oil, olive oil, almond oil amongst others. I don’t fancy castor oil feeling on my lips… had I known there’s castor oil in there, I don’t think I will purchase this. 

Packaged in plastic tube with roll on top, this is practical. Yet, I have bad experiences with roll on stuff… so I am kinda worried to have this in my bag. 

The product itself is textured like light lip gloss. It goes on clear and makes my lips look glossy. Is it moisturizing? Not moisturizing enough for me. I still prefer my traditional lip balm…

Bottomline…

I wont repurchase, give me my regular lip balm please…

Kanebo Kate Mineral BB Gel Cream SPF 30 PA++ in OC-C

I have been making this baby a staple of my daily make up routine for a while now… yet I haven’t made a proper review… so, here it is…

Honestly, I couldn’t remember when did Kate launched this one… I think it is part of their spring 2012 release. It contains mineral powder, moisturizing complexes and collagen. Oh, it’s alcohol free too! Like any good Japanese base make up … it has SPF and PA thrown in.

The texture is … well… gel cream. Easily blended, easily set, with sheer coverage. 

What I love the most about this Gel Cream is the matte yet fresh look it gives me. My face still get oily as usual ( I can feel it), but it somehow still manage to make me look fresh. No grayish cast too.  Lovely. 

Unfortunately it only comes in 3 shades OC-B, OC-C and OC-D. this wont be suitable for those with deeper skin tones…

Bottomline…

I am loving it. Unless something better comes along, I will repurchase this when I run out.

Kose Visee Mineral Liquid Cheeks Baby Finish in RD 401 and PK 800

I have been waiting for this product for ages to appear in my favorite e-retailers…but I didn’t see any sign of it appearing… when my bestie, the wonderful Astrid happen to visit Japan. She grabbed me RD 401 and PK 800! Thanks a lot, angel!

Now the product… it is a recent spring 2012 launch which is part of the mineral series. Previously they also offered blusher in compact powder form. I have to say, the compact powder blusher is hit and miss. Sometime they give you wonderful color payoff, sometimes not.

Not so for this baby! This light thin cream packs a lot of pigment. A little goes loooonng way… see here, I blended out a little of the product, and you can still see how pigmented it is. 

The light cream texture is lovely. Easy to spread and blend. But once it sets (after 30 seconds-1 minutes) it wont budge. After swatching this product, I went off and did some cleaning and washing chores. To my surprise, the pigment was still there until I wash it off properly with soap and water.

I am so super loving this product… even though each tiny tube only pack 10gr of the product… considering the pigmentation, these can lasts me long time.

Bottomline…

Instant love…

The Body Shop Beautifying Oil in Moringa

Recently, I am drawn to everything oil… cleansing oil, dry oil, massage oil… you name it! Of course I have to grab The Body Shop’s new beautifying oil. 

 (picture from thebodyshop website)

TBS claimed that this dry oil is suitable for body, face and hair. Well, I am going to use it only for my body and hair… for simple reason, I am already happy with my L’occitane cream & Clarins Lotus oil for my face. Plus… I don’t like overly fragranced products on my face. And these oils are surely heavily scented. The Body Shop USA website lists 11 variations, but I think in Asia, there’s less. I picked up Moringa, which has creamy white floral scent which I adore. 

The oil is supposed to moisturize, smoothen and illuminate skin. My skin has been ultra dry lately, and extra moisture from any product, is greatly appreciated! So, I tried this on my bare skin after shower on my left arm and compared it to Nuxe Huile Prodigiuse on my right arm. Well, I can say both are as easily absorbed and pretty much equally moisturizing on the skin. But Nuxe oil wins in the illuminating department.

For the hair, I do think TBS oil is more easily absorbed than Nuxe, leaving my dried hair lightly moisturized with little extra healthy sheen.  

I am so happy to find out that this product doesn’t contain silicone products. Yes, it means it is not going to be as light on the skin/hair… but lately I’m just bored with the silicone feeling most hair serums and oils give. 

Here’s the ingredients list:

Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (Emollient), Dicaprylyl Carbonate (Skin-Conditioning Agent), Sclerocarya Birrea Seed Oil (Skin Conditioning Agent), Parfum/Fragrance (Fragrance), Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis Oil/Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil (Skin-Conditioning Agent), Moringa Pterygosperma Oil/Moringa Pterygosperma Seed Oil (Skin-Conditioning Agent), Aleurites Moluccana Seed Oil (Emollient), Linalool (Fragrance Ingredient), Tocopherol (Antioxidant), Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-t-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate (Antioxidant), Geraniol (Fragrance Ingredient), Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil/Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil (Emollient), Ascorbyl Palmitate (Antioxidant).

Bottomline,

I am loving this on my hair. Definitely going to repurchase when I run out. For me, TBS beautifying oil is going to be on heavy rotation with my favorite Vrai oil.

DIY Peel off base coat!

I haven’t been feeling this ecstatic about glitters nail polish recently. Not because I don’t like them, I luvre myself some glitters in this life, but… as everyone know… glitter polishes are pain in the arse to clean. It simply take forever… and lots of effort…

It was really a moment of discovery when I read a blog about using craft glue as peel off base coat. NOOO…. Don’t close this window yet!!! I will explain why I am not nuts for applying glue on my nails.

I heard it all started with Essence’s limited edition peel off base coat. Someone genius figured out that that base coat is pretty much craft glue or white glue or PVA glue. Unfortunately, I don’t know who is that genius and I couldn’t find the blog where I read about this glue as peel off base coat thing from…

Anyways, now… I finally got my hands on a bottle of craft glue/white glue/PVA glue. I started with a coat of Poshe base coat, just to protect my already weak nails from further damage the glue technique may (or may not) add to my nails. A glob of glue… then I simply evened the glue out with my fingers. No need to be perfectionist here, as the glue will dry pretty much flat. as you can see in the last picture below, the glue has dried out for 4-5 minutes and turned clear and glossy. In case you are still wondering,… yes, it still smell like glue a little bit, but after 5 minutes +, I cant detect the smell anymore unless I dug my nose to my nails…

This time, I am using 2 coats of Etude House in bling blingrose, part of winter 2011 Wannabe Perfumed Syrup Nails . Then I topped up with Essence nail polish in  72 time for romance. Final coat using my favorite Seche Vite top coat, and I’m done.

You might think of its durability… the PVA glue is water based anyway. Will it melt or get dissolved when you wash your hands? Good news ladies (and gentlemen), it wont. I tried it. In fact, the next day after I applied this DIY peel off coat, I do a lot of housework and washings. And no dissolving here. 

Of all 10 nails, only one chipped by the end of day 2. The picture you see below is my chipped nail… to see if the peel off effect really works, instead of repairing the chip, I moved on peeling it. And… as you can see below… it was super easy to peel off once the nail polish started to chip. no more lengthy soaks and neverending massaging the nails… woo hooo!!!

Bottomline…

Surely, I’m gonna buy and wear more nail polish using this technique. I do think the extra step of using glue is totally worth it if you are planning to wear glitter polishes… but for crèmes, metallics, duochromes and other ‘regular’ colors… I wont do it, since they are easy to remove by usual technique…