Friday 24 October 2014

The henna project, length shot

Time for a length shot and a check of my barely-there henna and indigo.




Weird: I thought my hair was more calf length and less knee length?

Thursday 23 October 2014

Baobab oil

Does anyone know how this is supposed to smell?


I received this all the way back in July from a Memebox, but it has been stuck in the back of my cupboard ever since. I suspected it is baobab “oil” like how Moroccan Oil products are Argan “oil”. ( = Cones, cones, more cones and they accidentally spilled a drop of argan oil in there somewhere)

But this thing just smells odd. Like alcohol to be honest.
I wish I could find an ingredient list somewhere, but it has proven impossible.
Yea, that’s the problem with ordering a product with an ingredient list I can’t read.

I think the idea of a baobab oil is super cool though. I mean have you seen what the trees look like?? 
It’s like it came from another planet!


Anyways. Can anyone tell me anything about this product?

Even the tiniest little thing would be helpful! 

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Memebox Special #38 My mask box

Cool, another box without any paper stuffing.



Top left, outside box
Tosowoong Help Me Neck Patch
This is a bio cellulose neck mask for dry and sagging skin around the neck. I have started placing extra sheet masks down my neck/chest when doing facial masks, but a real, actual neck mask is new to me. I’m looking forward to try this! I received two, so yay.
Its kind of funny: When I first starting really caring for my hair, I started noticing when peoples hair desperately needed some love and attention, now where I have put an effort into my skin, I really notice when people have sad-looking skin. Some times it’s obvious that women don’t care for skin past their facial contours and the skin on their neck or chest (Depending on neckline) is miserable, wrinkly and parched.
I have the same “I don’t get it” reaction to that too. My benign neglect-routine for my hair is just as easy as most peoples “normal” routine, and extending your skin care regime to your neck and chest really, truly isn’t an extra hassle.
But I guess that’s the classic reaction when you care about something?
Anyways. TL;DR: Yay, a neck mask!

insobeau Beauty Secret Step Up Bust Mask
Hehe, this pack totally looks like Jessica Rabbit! Well, if it gets the girls to behave like hers, I won’t complain!

I wonder how many guys around my age got their first warm and tingly feeling in their stomach because of this character?
Bad jokes aside: This actually sounds very interesting. You put the mask on your boobies and can even sleep on it. I think I will do just that.

Top right, inside box
Purederm Wrinkle Reducer Gel Patches
Under-eye, anti wrinkle masks. 6 pairs, not bad. Strangely, these say you can also wear them overnight and that you should rinse off with water after use!
I wonder if these "work" because they keep the skin under your eyes from wrinkling up when you sleep? 
(I sleep on my sides and always wake up with this funny line under one eye, from the last side I slept on. Guess my cheek gets squished upwards or something? It disappears something like 10 minutes after I've been awake and upright. An overnight patch like this could probably keep it from happening.)

Milky Dress Aqua Sleeping Pack
I’ve never entirely understood the difference between night creams and sleeping packs. My skin responds well to not always sleeping with cream on, so this doesn’t entirely make me excited. Also, I feel like this isn’t exactly a “mask”, so yea, I’m a bit disappointed.

Elizavecca Green Piggy Collagen Jella Pack
A “jella pack” which I guess is just another sleep pack?
Hmm. Slightly annoyed at this. This isn’t really a “mask” in my book, you know?

Below box
Pro You Pore Control Facial Mask 
This is a cleansing pore mask. It contains aloe vera. Booh! I might give it a shot anyways though, since I don’t have a lot of cleansing masks.

Pure Smile Mask sheet
5 masks randomly selected from Mayu, Sake, Citron, Placenta, Pearl or Honey.
I received mine in honey, which I gotta say is probably the second least interesting possible option. Hmpf. I would have liked to try one of each more than a pack of 5 though.
Pure Smile is a brand a lot of bloggers complain about receiving in the boxes because it’s a cheap brand and some feel its just “filler”, but I really don’t mind.

The product information sheet

A sample of Milky Dress the white platinum whitening… cream?
I guess it’s a cream of some sort. In the back of the sample, it says to apply it “after base skin care”, but no hints to whether it’s an emulsion, essence, cream, sleep pack or anything.

Verdict
I like the mix with under eye masks, neck masks, bust mask and regular masks.
But I’m disappointed in receiving not one, but two sleeping packs. Sleeping packs are not masks!


I want to see how many masks I can pile on in one go: Bust mask, lip mask, hand mask, foot mask, neck mask, nose mask, under eye mask, spot treatment masks? Stick a normal sheet mask on top of it too? lol

Tuesday 21 October 2014

There and back again, now with more skin stuff

As I complained about previously, I can’t do my deep conditioning at the seminars anymore.
So I’m bringing this instead to treat the skin on my body instead:


  • Exfoliating Hello Kitty-gloves
  • A gold and pearl (lol) body cleanser
  • A light body essence toner (Was the only hit from the Hair & body 3 box, but I really do love that one!)
  • A rich body essence
  • A handful of serums that came for free with the Finco body products
  • A mist that was too heavy and sprayed too unevenly for the skin on my face
  • A fabric perfume to spray my stuff with since my pillow and stuff often ends up with that… summerhouse-y… smell from being in my locker for so long without being used.


I think I’ve done my best to continue my little “spoil myself” routine. 

Monday 20 October 2014

More Memeboxes

I received the 3-pack today: My cute wishlist 3, K-style 3 and OMG 3.

Something smelled in one of the boxes because I got a weird whiff of something as soon as I opened the grey cardboard box it all came in. It lingered around the apartment, but I haven’t been able to determine for sure which one item gave off the weird stink.

I don’t know why my camera is acting up like this today. None of the pictures I took were very sharp or good. It looked good on the display but once I transferred them, they were all bad.

Memebox superbox # 61: My cute wishlist 3
On the pamphlet it says it’s a superbox but it isn’t. Stuff like that annoys me more than it should. This box is supposed to contain the cutest of the cutest in packaging and products. I only do limited amounts of “cute”, so I was a little worried this would be a pointless box for me.



Hope Girl tinted lip balm in 03: Hot cherry
Okay, first of: The packaging isn’t cute. It’s tacky. Pink leopard print? Yea: Tacky.
Second: I hate lip balms that without any kind kind of applicator. Am I supposed to just dip a finger in there? Or have a lip brush with me as well?
Colour me unimpressed. Since I’m pretty much stocked up on lip products at the moment, this will be stuck in my sell/trade/gift-pile for now.

Shara Shara Fairy’s make-up synergy sun cream SPF 45 PA ++
Eh… I think the cardboard box is actually cuter than the plastic bottle. Also the bottle itself is just too big for just 30 ml of product!
It will go into my sell/trade/gift-pile and hopefully I can find someone with a daughter of the right age to take it. If not, I will probably empty it into some other container.

Ddung Family foam cleansing cream in 02: Family milky foam
Okay, I realise I’m difficult here: I think this looks like an ordinary K-beauty product and it doesn’t impress me. But the more “done” packaging like the sun cream above annoys me because it seems to try too hard to be super cute. Eh. Yea, I’m difficult.
But I guess it really is difficult to find “extra” cute products when Korean products are often cute by default.
I’m happy receiving a foam cleanser though. I’m stocked up on all sorts of moisturising products but I only have the charcoal cleanser I got in the Earth&sea box.

Shara Share kissing sugar lip scrub
A lip scrub. Eh. Into my sell/trade/gift-pile with it.

Youngwoosa Oh! It’s lovely and soft cream
This packaging just isn’t cute. At all. The cardboard box has a childish pharmacy thing going on and jar itself is boring white with some seriously fugly art on it. Not. Cute.
Also I suspect that this is the product that stunk up the box. I tried it on my dry shins and even though it doesn’t smell 100% like the smell from the boxes, I think this is the source. It has a smell like hoof oil, not actually unpleasant but not pleasant either. It’s just odd. Like a hint of tiger balm in there or something. Hubby says he thinks it smells like when you walk into a beauty store and you have a million odd smells going on at the same time.

Tonymoly Red cheeks girl’s patch
This is for soothing dry, red patches, especially the cheeks. I think it will be good for winter.

Verdict
Hmm. Yea, not impressed with the My Cute Wishlist box.

Memebox special # 43: K-style 3
I considered opting out of this one, but in the end I decided to get it too. Usually my makeup consists of foundation and some blusher and on fancy occasions concealer, foundation, blusher, white eyeliner and mascara. But now I feel I would be up for experimenting a bit more.



Secret kiss face fit strobe cream
So this is a makeup base but can also be mixed with foundation and also be used as highlighting?
Alright. “Made from 6 kinds of gemstone powders” it says. It came in a funny plastic bag that seriously looked like it had come for free with some magazine.

Vella Flower flower BB
This seems to be a perfect match for my skintone. I’m seriously weirded out by this! This is the third foundation-type product I’ve received through Memebox and the third time it’s been a perfect or seriously-close-to-perfect fit!
I am 1/16th German, 1/64 Spanish and thus 92% (Plus a bit, but who cares about decimals when it comes to this) Danish and yet standard Korean foundation products fits my skin?

Tonymoly 7 days tattoo eyebrow 02 dark brown
First thought: Eyebrow pen, yea, that’s a waste on me.
But then I figured I could use it for eyeliner. It has a fine brush tip that will probably be perfect for tightlining.
It says it can stay on for up to 7 days, but it washed off 95% after just swiping it with a wetwipe, so… lol, no. Not that I complain about that: It would creep me out if it had that crazy much staying power.



Style Y Soft fit mix&match pencil and powder shadow in 02: Brown liner & peach tip
This is the hit of the box for me. I’ve been considering a similar dual-end product at ELF, right down to the colour. It has a medium brown liner and a peachy brown powder shadow.
The colours and colour combination are perfect for me!

Style Y color fit creamy lip & cheek in 02: Smoothie pink
Wow. This is a new for me. Normally I can’t get my colours light enough, but this one manages to wash out all colour in my face! Sell/trade/gift-pile.

Color World jewellish stick shadow in 05: Twinkle green
I quite like this one actually. Easy to work, easy to build. Glitter flakes are a bit too large for eyemakeup in my opinion, but really not bad.


Swatches all lined up
  • Secret kiss face fit strobe cream
  • Vella Flower flower BB
  • Tonymoly 7 days tattoo eyebrow 02 dark brown
  • Style Y Soft fit mix&match pencil and powder shadow in 02: Brown liner & peach tip
  • Style Y color fit creamy lip & cheek in 02: Smoothie pink
  • Color World jewellish stick shadow in 05: Twinkle green
Verdict
I'm very happy with the K-style box!


Memebox special # 32: OMG 3
The previous OMG box really failed to impress me, so I actually considered opting out of this one too. But the OMG box feels like a “must have” to see if they would have some whacky exotic stuff to try.


On the Body Makgeolli Soap
Another soap? Ugh. Sell/trade/gift-pile.
What makes this OMG anyways? “Makgeolli is a milky white rice wine made from fermented rice, wheat and water”. Has a lengthy explanation of how you should use it. Eh. Not impressed. Soap is soap. Needing 10 minutes on your skin to work (or whatever) only makes this a bad OMG.

Cleomee Three-Layer Perfume Donkey Oil Mist
Okay, I give. This is pretty cool. Not sure if I count it as OMG or not though. It’s made with donkey oil and donkey milk. Pretty cool. I guess it’s the same as emu oil which I’ve seen in quite a lot of products by now. It actually feels rather moisturising on the skin, but doesn’t leave a nasty residue. I like and I would buy this as a body lotion too.


Migabee Bee Venom & Honey Cream
Bee venom, royal jelly, propolis and honey. Cool. I got a peeling mask from the same brand back in the honeybox. It doesn’t make me go OMG, but I like it.
There’s a weird stink to the jar though. It doesn’t come from the cream itself, but rather from the lid?! Odd! I think the stink must have combined with the stink from the Youngwoosa Oh! It’s lovely and soft cream into a nasty synergy-stink to stink up the grey cardboard box. (4 “stink”s in one sentence. That’s a new one for me. Hmm)

Tonymoly Delight Tint Crayon in 06 Neon Pink
Hah. This is actually pretty OMG: It says the lip stain should glow in the dark. Colour is even pretty cute.

Tosowoong Platinum Total Solution Miracle Skin Pore Tightening Pack
There’s a cool feeling of quality and exclusivity to this product. Pretty, pretty packaging. “infused with platinum gold powder and tea tree oil”. Hah, what an odd mix! 

Verdict
I'm very happy with the OMG box!

Not sure if I like the K-style box better than the OMG box, but both are good. Who would have thought I would like a makeup box?

The henna project, day 16

Indigo-day!
I wasn’t sure how much indigo mix I would need so I doubled the test batch


  • 4 ml indigo
  • 20 gram cassia
  • 80 ml Syoss Silicone Free Repair & Fullness conditioner
Of course it got pretty heavy, but it worked pretty well. I rinsed my hair well, dried it and started braiding it. From around mid back I started pushing the mud into the braid. First a thin layer, then thicker. Then I put a bag over and wrapped a bandage over like my usual Nodosaurus.

After rinsing I used conditioner…

I decided to freeze my leftover henna and split it up in two portions for two more super light henna treatments like I did 3 days ago (Just even lighter). 
Of course this means I have to take precautions!
I love Mr. Igor to death, but for a smart guy he can be pretty moronic. He seems to be under the firm assumption that anything and everything found in the fridge or freezer is a delicious treat made by his loving wife. In 99% of the cases this is the truth, but I have caught him about to poke a fork into my half done DIY hair treatments out on the kitchen counter before, and of course there’s the lemon incident.


So yea, it was necessary to mark the little henna mud bags with “Is uneatable”.

Sunday 19 October 2014

Sell/trade

I have put some skincare stuff I will never get any use out of up for sale/trade on UTT if anyone should be interested.
Link here

The henna project, day 15

Hubby and I went to get groceries and had the following exchange:

Hubby: *Reads grocery list* “Tresseme ‘cone free?” What does that mean?
Me: Oh, just that I need the check for the silicone free Tresseme. ‘Cone is short for silicone.
Hubby: Right, because when it comes to Wifey and hair, the “silly” is implied.
Me: 

Hubby: 

Hubby’s genius/incredibly stupid pun aside, I couldn’t find the Tressemme ‘cone free conditioner, so I will improvise with the Syoss for indigo.