I love me a good face wash and while I’m normally using the Mirati face wash these days, I was cleaning out my cabinet and realized that I actually had quite a few uses left in the Ole Henriksen African red tea foaming cleanser – it was just hiding in the back and I forgot about it.
Anyway, I decided to start using it again and I remembered how much I loved this since the day I got it. It’s a foam cleanser that is easy to massage into damp skin and simply rinse off. It contains anti-oxidants from the red tea which is another bonus.
I see that it gets my skin really clean and ready for my make-up routine. But more importantly, it wakes me up in the morning – an instant refresher, if you will. The smell is simply amazing and really rejuvenating. It could probably also be used to remove make-up, but I tend to do that with less expensive products and only save this one for my morning routine.
The product is not tested on animals and without parabens and sulphate-free.
The downside of this amazing product? The price. A 207ml bottle that will actually not last that long (probably 2 months or so) will set you back about 32€ on Look Fantastic website.
New Bits and Bobs for July 2016
It’s the same story every month – I don’t really feel like I’m shopping at all, but at the end of the month when I try to take a photo of all new products, I fail miserably. So yes, there are a few missing in the photo above.
Let’s start with some bigger things. I’m going to start using this Biobaza 3-1 cleanser this week since I just ran out of my previous one from L’Oreal yesterday. I got sent the Avon Sun Light spray – perfect timing as my vacation is quickly approaching. I bought the Verde Vera hand cream in Spar because I like the packaging and I also like having a cream in a jar for the kitchen. View Post
Recent beauty disappointments
As you probably know from your own experience, not everything in sunshine and rainbows in beauty land – every once in a while we all encounter products we expected a lot from but didn’t perform as we hoped for. And since I like to write honest reviews about the products I use, it’s only fair that I also talk about the ones I didn’t like. I will say that I love these brands, just not these products, and while the products did not work for me, you might like them – I am just stating my own personal experience.
Starting off with deodorants which is a frequent topic (read *here* about the two I didn’t get along with recently) on this blog, I am also not in love with the Dove Maximum protection (original clean) anti-perspirant deodorant cream. The formulation is incredibly thick and I can literally feel it clogging my skin up. An anti-perspirant? Sure. Good for me? Most likely not at all.
I heard great things about the Balance Me brand and I was happy when I received the super toning body polish in my Look Fantastic beauty box. The product itself is actually more of a peel than a polish which looks and smells like perfumed walnuts. While it does the job well, my skin is incredibly dry and feels quite damaged after I use it.
Another product from a LF Beauty Box is the Briogeo Don’t Despair, Repair! deep conditioning mask without parabens, silicones or phalates – so goo free, basically. It promises to reduce breakage for up to 81 % after 3 uses. I must say that I used it more then three times and I don’t see my hair getting any better, or better said, I haven’t noticed any difference at all.
Moving on to make-up, I found another mascara I’m not a fan of, which is quite a common occurrence. It’s the Manhattan Long&Swing mascara. As you can see from the wand shape, it really does curl the lashes nicely, but the formula is quite thin so the curl doesn’t hold. I have quite long lashes so I prefer some volume which unfortunately is not something this mascara was able to do for me.
I also didn’t enjoy the Avon Outstanding eyes dual-ended kohl eyeliner. As you can tell from the swatches, both are quite patchy and the pigmentation is simply not there. I like the idea of dual-ended products, but I would like it to perform a bit better.
Sadly, I also cannot vouch for the Artdeco strobing fluid from their new line. You can see it in the photo above- unblended and blended. Again, this goes on quite patchy and is a pain to blend out, but once blended, I literally can’t even tell I put anything on my face at all. I was expecting a radiant shine, but found it lacking. I would suggest their strobing powder though, it’s simply amazing and highly pigmented.
That’s it for the recent disappointments. Until next time, stay beautiful.
Happy birthday to L’Occitane!
Would you believe it if I told you that L’Occitane is celebrating their 40th anniversary? No, I didn’t think so. I admit I had to look twice to believe it. But thinking about it now it makes sense – it’s one of the brands that really combines tradition and quality as it once was with contemporary designs and fresh approaches. Today, we get to enjoy all of the amazing products because of Olivier Baussan – the founding father of L’Occitane who believed in the power of nature.
To celebrate, L’Occitane decided to pay a tribute to two plants that have been with them from the very beginnings – verbena and lavender.
Verbena is a plant commonly found in Provanse, the birth place of L’Occitane. It carries the notes of distinct freshness of lemon. L’Occitane put a modern twist on the new collection. We can find a bunch of new products on the shelves – a refreshing body mist, moisturizing body mousse, refreshing peeling shower gel and many others. If you wish to really sample the products, I suggest you go for the goodie bag below – for less than 20 € you’ll get to explore a bunch of new verbena products. View Post
Product empties
I haven’t emptied my trash can in a long while – too long, I might add, so I was presented with a pile of used products that you now get to view for your own pleasure 🙂 I’ll try to write short reviews, but you know how it is with me – short posts are definitely not my forte.
Starting off with hair products, I am done with the Aussie Repair Miracle shampoo and conditioner for damage control. I found these two OK, but after using them for a long time I noticed they did make my hair a little bit heavier and they got greasier a bit quicker. I will not repurchase.
I also finished up the Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner for dry and damaged hair. I love the smell of the Fructis products and the thickness of the conditioners which really sit on my hair and don’t leak all over the place. These two made my hair nice and soft. I will repurchase in the Fructis line in general.
Sadly, I’m also done with my Batiste Dry shampoo (clean&classic original). You can read my detailed thoughts about it *here*. I will definitely repurchase.
I’ve also been burning up deodorants like crazy. Both of the Garnier antiperspirants were a huge miss. I like the idea behind the new version of Garnier Neo since the new spray format really distributes the product nicely. But it left white patches on my skin and I think that about half the bottle evaporated into nothing – I wasn’t using it at all and then, all of a sudden, the bottle was empty. Definitely not a repurchase which also goes for the Garnier Mineral InvisiCalm Post-Depilation antiperspirant. My skin literally hurt after I applied this. I honestly don’t know why I bother with antiperspirants at all since they obviously mess up my body chemistry.
My life saver in the beginning of the summer was the Bionsen deodorant. It’s intended for sensitive skin and without aluminum and parabens. It works like a charm, but unfortunately I would like the scent to be a bit more prominent for a summer deodorant. Will repurchase as a back-up. View Post
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