Maša M blog
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Empties #8 (hair & body care)

It’s been almost six months since my last empties. The results are tragic – a full bag of empty product, so many that I cannot possibly fit them into one post. Today, you can read all about my hair and body care products. This post will be followed by skincare and make-up empties in the following week. Let’s jump right into it.

Empties: hair care

empties shampoo loreal elseve

I haven’t been very good when it comes to shampoos because I’ve been loving the L’Oreal Elseve Extraodinary Clay&Purifying shampoo and conditioner so much. Again and again, I’m amazed how clean, shiny and fresh my hair feels after use. I especially like the fact that it prolongs the time during washes for a day, if not more. I’m now on my fourth pack of these. On the other hand, I wasn’t too impressed with Precious Argan shampoo and conditioner. I didn’t like the scent and my hair got greasy very quick. Wouldn’t repurchase either of them.

empties shampoo nivea pantene briogeo

I was also relatively pleased with the Nivea Care & targeted care shampoo and conditioner for dry hair. My hair was soft and more manageable, but products for dry hair really shouldn’t be used by those of us who have problems with greasy scalp. I should have paid more attention to that. I also used up two samples of Briogeo Don’t despair, repair hair mask and didn’t find them to be revolutionary. In fact, they didn’t do anything that a regular conditioner can’t do. Last but not least, I also used up the Pantene Aqua Light shampoo which was good for my hair but made my scalp itchy and dry.

Empties: body care

empties shower gel nivea afrodita just

I generally forget to save up shower gels, but I really wanted to show you these two – Nivea Waterlily & Oil and Afrodita Sweet almond oil gel. They are similar in the sense that they both lather up nicely and have a wonderful smell. I would repurchase those but I need to get through my stock of Afrodita shower gels before that. I also used up what is probably my tenth bottle of Just Intimate Gel. It’s not irritable and I think that’s extremely important when it comes to personal hygiene.

empties deodorants nivea le couvent des minimes dolce gabbana

Last but not least – deodorants. All three have been lying in my empties bag for months, since I’m now a religious user of Mirta deodorant (you can read all about it *here*). I cannot many nice words about the Nivea Pure&Natural deodorant except for the fact it doesn’t contain aluminium salts. It didn’t fare well when it comes to body odor. I could probably say the same about the Dolce&Gabbana Light blue deodorant, but I only used this on special occasions and didn’t put it through as many paces. On the other hand, I have only nice words for the Le Couvent Des Minimes deodorant with essential oils. It did the job and I personally think it’s worth the money, since it took months to use it up.

If you used any of the product above, I’d love to hear your opinion about them. Until next time, stay beautiful!

Best deodorant EVER? Mirta natural cosmetics lavender deodorant review

I often get asked by my readers why I don’t write more about natural products. I must admit that I often feel a bit guilty, especially because I often get sent natural products to review but they simply don’t amaze me enough to warrant a post of their own. That certainly isn’t the case of today’s TOP product since I fell in love with it after just a couple days of use.

Dekleta me pogosto sprašujete, zakaj večkrat ne pišem o naravnih izdelkih. Priznam, tudi sama se dostikrat počutim krivo, sploh zato, ker kar precej naravnih izdelkov dobim v last za testiranje, vendar pa me le redko navdušijo do te mere, da o njih pišem. V primeru današnjega TOP izdelka pa je zgodba malce drugačna, saj sem se v njega zaljubila že po nekaj dneh uporabe.

In April, I visited the Love Beauty Forum in Ljubljana and had a little chat with the nice representatives of Mirta natural cosmetics. They also provided me with a few samples, including their two deodorants with eucalyptus and lavender – first one being a bit too fragrant for my liking but the lavender one just perfect. The 10ml sample was more than enough for me to use for more than two weeks and by the time I hit the bottom I was sure that I absolutely needed to buy this product. Since I gave birth about a year ago, I tried more than ten different deodorants but none of them worked as it should which really stressed me out a lot.

Na sejmu Love Beauty, ki je v aprilu potekal v Ljubljani, sem na stojnici Mirta naravne kozmetike spregovorila nekaj besed s predstavnicami in dobila tudi nekaj vzorčkov, med drugim vzorček sivkinega in evkaliptusovega deodoranta. Evkaliptusov mi je bil po vonju nekoliko premočan, zato sem do konca porabila vzorec sivkinega deodoranta – 10 ml vzorčka mi je zadoščalo za več kot dva tedna uporabe! Ko je bil lonček skorajda prazen, je bila odločitev na dlani – to je izdelek, ki ga vsekakor moram imeti. V zadnjem letu od poroda sem preizkusila kakšnih deset različnih deodorantov, vendar pa so me pogosto pustili na cedilu, kar je resnično neprijetno. 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.