Lush Haul

I've been a Lushie for a while, but I had never gone into a Lush store until yesterday.

It was quite the experience and now I know what I should get online from the UK site. I advise you to not ever buy anything from the Lush USA site, it's way overpriced in comparison to the UK site due to the currency exchange.

Case in point-


This is what I got yesterday.


This totaled 33.86.

I got -

1 .36lb slab of Demon in the Dark soap-13.61 dollars
1 .23lb slab of Karma soap- 8.69 dollars
1 3.3 oz bottle of Yummy Yummy Yummy shower gel- 8.95 dollars

This totaled 33.98 dollars.

I did lots of calculations to figure this out. 28 grams to an ounce, 16 ounces in a lb etc etc

USA versus UK price per gram (since they do it by grams)

Demon in the Dark- 7 cents a gram/4 cents a gram
Karma -8 cents a gram/5 cents a gram

The difference sounds small in terms of individual gram but it's about a 40% difference overall most of the products.

To be fair, there are some differences in ingredients for some of the products, but you can always look it up. As far as I know, UK Ocean Salt is different from USA Ocean Salt, ditto for Coalface.

From now on, I will order from the UK site minus for the fresh face masks. The masks are sold on the UK site but would probably go bad by the time it got to me here in California.

Shipping by the way is about the same as for the USA site, but so much faster! I would recommend you go to a Lush shop to figure out the scents and decide on what you do or do not like. To be honest, I didn't like most of the scents there, they were a bit too sweet smelling for me so I know what to order now!

I'll be reviewing the Lush things soon enough :)

Another giveaway you should know about!


Chelsey of Fashion and Beauty is having a 125 followers giveaway!

The Prize is for a 40 dollar giftcard for either Mac or Forever 21!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway! The link is on the top of the blog!

EOTD:Neutrals

Just a simple eye of the day








I need to better curl my lashes.



Products Used

Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
Fyrinnae Platinum on the lid
MAC Coco Pigment in the crease (discontinued)
Mac Provence pigment as a highlight (i think it's discontinued)
Essence No Limits Mascara

Private Label Cosmetics?

Recently there has been a lot of controversy with repackaged cosmetics (cosmetic companies taking straight mica from a wholesaler and then packaging them under their own brand). Something related to that is private labeling where a cosmetic brand has a deal with a private label cosmetics manufacturer (a company that creates basic cosmetics products) wherein the PLM makes the product and then adds the label to it.

I wasn't too aware of this until I started buying things online and discovered companies like Ladyburd and Diamond Cosmetics

Any of those products look familiar? The Indelible Creme Eyeshadow or Indelible Gel Eyeliner? Do those polishes look familiar?

Now I don't have a problem with companies that sell them as a startup to their company before branching out onto more unique cosmetics.

What I do have a problem with are companies that sell them but then market them as "organic" and then crazily jack up the price *coughPriticough* *coughKarmaOrganicscough*

What does organic even mean in those cases? If they mean chemical free I guess it counts because they're Big 3 free but it's nail polish, it's not all that natural to begin with.

My First Giveaway/Quick Review

So I just reviewed the L'oreal go360 Scrubbie tool that I got along with the cleansers as part of this campus tour that L'oreal did and I have an extra green gel cleanser that I wanted to give away along with some fun deodorant. I don't think you smell by the way, just got an extra one :)

I wanted to include a quick review on the Green gel cleanser itself.

Now L'oreal has marketed this cleanser on their site as a "everyone can use whichever type" but when I went to the L'oreal event, they had it as dry/normal=the cream version, oily/combo=gel version, in need of exfoliation=scrub version. They also have a sensitive skin version.

I have to say, I'm not too fond of the cleanser. I understand everyone's skin is different, but I've definitely been noticing dryish patches on my skin which didn't occur before with my old cleanser. My skin feels a lot tighter after washing which I don't like. It has helped my forehead (which is oilier) but my cheeks and chin are not having it

Hopefully your experience will be different! I'd say oilier skin might benefit from this. For the giveaway, if you don't have oily skin and you win this, you can definitely still use the scrublet!

The fragrance is eh, I actually also have the scrub version of the cleanser and it smells much better(like apricots) but again, not too likely on it.

Anyways, onto the giveaway!

Prize:

Yeah, that deodorant is kind of randomly there but I got 2 free so I'm giving one away!

Rules:

You do not have to be a follower to enter :)
US only please! Shipping would be killer otherwise

Comment once for an entry. If you blog about it (and link me to the entry in your comment) that's another entry!

Hmm. I say the contest will close on April 25? I'll use randomizer blah blah blah. You'll also have to be okay with giving me your address so I can ship it to you :)

L'oreal go360 Clean Scrublet

Background:Today on my school campus, L'oreal Paris came and had their "The Go Beyond Clean" campus tour, where they had stations displaying their new go360Clean cleansers and other free swag. I got full sizes of the green gel cleanser and the orange exfoliating scrub.

I'm hesitant to really review the cleansers themselves because skincare is so subjective.

I do want to talk about the scrubbie thing though. It looks exactly like Soap and Glory's Face Massage Mini Mitt that I saw featured on Emma of Birds Decorate Branches's blog.

I got an extra green gel cleanser so I'll do a giveaway for that soon :)



The scrublet comes in colors that match the bottle. This one came with the gel cleanser.

It's actually a pretty nice scrubbie tool. When I saw it in stores, I thought it was made of plastic but turns out it's made of really soft rubber. It feels nice on the skin and in a sense, makes washing your face a bit more hygienic because instead of washing your face with your hands, you can use this. I do wash it afterward with hand soap to keep it a bit clean.

I kind of worry though because with the handle it almost feels like it could break from the rest of the base and I don't think it's all that well fitting between my fingers.

This is better than washing with my hands so I'll give them that. It's also good for exfoliation, but I think it might be much for those who have drier or sensitive skin because it might be too much for daily use. It is also very flexible, and I was able to scrub around the contours of my nose.

Cost-?/5 It comes with the cleanser so I can't comment on it
Effectiveness- 4/5 As an exfoliator it works and feels more effective than washing with my hands.
Packaging-5/5 I think it's pretty innovative to have it stuck into the cleanser bottle. It keeps dry and such.

Pros:
Soft and flexible
I love that it sticks into the cleanser bottle
Works well, my face felt like a baby's butt afterwards

Cons:
You'll have to buy the cleanser to get the scrublet
It could be too much exfoliation for daily use
I worry a bit about its longevity

Would I repurchase? If mine falls apart sure, but only if they sold it alone. I don't think I'm convinced that the cleansers are all that great

All about Konad: Plates and sizes

When I got started with Konad, I originally had the small art stencils, which were just small images that I could put on my nails like flowers, leaves, etc. I'm going to post some swatches of the M2 and M3 plate eventually and you can see how small they are.

I sprung for my first full nail designs and I have to say, these suckers are really really small.

I mean I have small fingers, I think my ring size is 5, and if I think these are small, it must be small for the normal person.





That's 13mm



by 15mm

If you wanted to know, my nails are Sinful Colors in Rise and Shine with the lace and flowers full nail design from M71. That's definitely not color accurate, it's so much more green and neon.

Fyrinnae Haul and Swatches

Background: I've been a lurker of Fyrinnae for quite some time, back when they were named Bombshell Bath. They used to make perfume oils and such but are mainly in the business with vegan eyeshadows (at last check I believe they are all vegan but the site is closed for updates)

They do make other face products and by make, I mean they literally make them themselves. They're a very popular site, so popular that their Turn Around Time around the time I ordered was 16-20 business days. However, they are upfront about the fact that their TAT is long and they make many efforts to tell us the customer that.

I ordered on March 12 and I got it today, the 19th. I got a shipping notice on the 17th which had indicated that the USPS got the shipping info on the 15th. According to USPS, the shipping time would be 3 days.

So they got it done faaaaast. 4 business days worth fast.

My Haul: sample sizes of
Pixie Epoxy which I'll review later
Velvet Gel Silica Primer-face primer
Platinum eyeshadow- golden silver taupe with lots of shimmer and sparkle
Fluff Powder- diffusing powder for the face
Winter, Again eyeshadow- white/teal eyeshadow with rainbow sparkle/shimmer

Free sample of Otherworld eyeshadow-pale teal with blueish/teal shimmer



My haul in its entirety. I'll review everything later


Platinum, all the eyeshadow samples (minus the free one) are 1/4 tsp samples in 3 gram jars so it looks a lot fuller than it is.


Winter, Again which is not color accurate. More blue tinged but still whiteish.


Otherworld



The wee little pots of Pixie Epoxy and Velvet Gel Primer are adorable

Hope you enjoyed this post :D

All about Konad: Special Polish

So if you weren't aware about Konad, it's this nail art stamping kit using engraved plates that you put polish on and then stamp on using a stamper to put the image on your nails.

It's very addicting by the way, I got a kit with 2 plates and I ordered 3 more after wards.

What I wanted to talk about today is the polish needed for stamping.

A lot of people use the Special Polish that they recommend you use as the polish for the image and some people say there are other alternatives. I'll say this, if you haven't ever used the Special Polish, you're fine without it; but once you have used the Special polish, it's difficult to go back to normal polish.

What makes the Special polish different is that it's intensely pigmented, a lot more than other polish brands. Some people have said that the polish is also a lot thicker, but I don't think mine is all that much thicker than normal polish.

Here's a list of polishes that have been said to work well for stamping

I have to say, the black special polish is really pigmented but man it's so messy and it stains my fingers like no other.

Hope this helps :)

Adventures in dissection

One of my favorite products to use for makeup is Urban Decay Primer Potion. I've been using this since it came out, at least since I was able to get my hands on it after the huge frenzy died down.

However, I have haaaaaated the stupid packaging. Okay I get it, it's a magical genie in a bottle that helps with my makeup, but really, couldn't you pick better packaging?

Too faced did it with a squeeze bottle, how come Urban Decay can't. They need to stop with their druggie names and pick better packaging.

So I decided to be knife-happy and rescue my primer potion from its confines. Many others have done this and in fact I was inspired by Clumps of Mascara and that post.



I chose this old fluidline jar I had. The reason I did was because I had heard plastic containers made gels and the primer dry out too fast so glass was supposed to help.

EnKoreMakeup
has another suggestion as to what to do with the decanted primer potion. I wanted to use my jars up so I used that but I think the pens would be good too!


Do you see how the shape of the bottle means that the wand can't get to it? To be fair, Urban Decay has revamped the wand but even then, it's still difficult to get to.


This is what I got out of my primer potion bottle. I've had this bottle for over a year so that's quite a bit leftover.

Be careful if you end up doing this, cutting open the bottle can be a bit dangerous.

Interesting skin care effectiveness tip

I was watching one of my new favorite makeup gurus Gossmakeupartist (love the accent by the way plus he's not bad on the eyes ;) ) and I heard a really useful tip as to how to figure out if your skincare product is effective and properly working in terms of pH.

Certain skincare ingredients like Beta Hydroxy Acid and Alpha Hydroxy acid require a specific pH (around 3 or 4) in order to properly exfoliate the skin. Paula Begoun is the "cosmetics cop" and her book reviews sometimes go over products that have shoddy pH for the active ingredient it contains.

What Wayne (gossmakeupartist) suggested was that in order to figure out if your skincare product had the right pH for the active ingredient was to test it with litmus/pH paper. He also suggested going to cosmetic counters for prospective choices and doing the same there.

I don't know why this never occurred to me to do so but now I'm realizing that that's such a ingenious idea.

Nail Polish Cleanup

Ever wonder why so many polish bloggers like Scrangie and Nihrida have that little space between the polish and their cuticles? That little space is called the "gap" and I don't mean the clothing company.

A lot of people already know about it but I just thought I'd go over it. A lot of people do this in order to make polish removal much simpler, especially for those who swatch several polishes in one day.

Lots of polish bloggers do this, I just listed a few of my favorites :)

If you want a tutorial on how to achieve the "gap" FaintlyMacabre on makeupalley has a tutorial in her notepad.

What I want to talk about today is a way to help clean up your gap plus a cool brush I found to do so.

Here's this cool tutorial on how to get a really nice cleaned up gap by Little Music Boxes. I saw it and went to get acetone and a proper brush.



This is a concealer brush by Studio Tools, which is the brand that Target has.



Note the super clearance stickers, 74 cents wooo

It's really small but thin enough to get around my cuticles. Pure acetone is best because it will work the fastest and evaporate quickly. I'd use it on day old manicures because it eats away at new polish too fast.

Hope this helps in your polish endeavors :D!

NOTD- OPI Do you Lilac It

I now know what a pain purples and lilacs are when it comes to photographing them. I tried so many different lighting before settling on photographing in daylight versus directly in the sunlight.



I think it's fairly true to color




Originally I got this to stave off my want of the Eyeko Lilac, which I should have gotten before they changed their definition of free worldwide shipping to mean UK and Europe unless you bought 35 UK pounds worth of makeup. So I shall be without it then.

NOTD China Glaze Dorothy Who?



This was taken in the shade, fairly true to life as to how you'd see it in everyday life.

I'm kind of eh on this color, but am attempting to use it up.

I got this when there was a lot of hype about it being rereleased knowing that I haaaaate jelly polishes. I hate seeing VNL (visible nail line meaning the smile line) but I saw all these pictures of it and I just had to buy it.

Well. I'm using it up but I think it's more trouble than it's really worth.




These were taken in the sun.

This is 3 coats with Seche Vite Top coat, and you can see that it's darker in the middle by the way everything pooled.

It looks nice in the sun but I can't get over how uneven it gets plus the jellyness. Oh well. The wear is kind of crappy, it chipped 12 hours after I applied it when my other manicures last days if I let it.

Wet n Wild Mega Eyes Creme Liner

I was looking for a cheap black gel or creme eyeliner, so I figured I'd start from the bottom up and try Wet n Wild.

Description- A black creme eyeliner that has a brush that comes along with it.

My Thoughts- It's very pigmented for a drugstore liner but I found it difficult to remove. It didn't work at all with Almay's Oil Free eye makeup remover but it does better with oilier/two part makeup removers.

It wears quite well but I don't like the packaging. It's plastic which makes me feel like it has dried out a lot faster than my other liners. The brush is worthless because I prefer to use a bent eyeliner brush.

It's 3.99 for 3.8 grams


Cost-5/5
Packaging-2/5
Wearability-5/5

Pros-
It's a decent drugstore black creme eyeliner
It wears like no other
It's super cheap

Cons-
A bitch to get off
Packaging is eh, but considering the price, not a surprise

Value- For 3.99, it can't really be beat.

Lush Fair Trade Foot Lotion

I got this foot lotion as part of a sample kit. If I had to pick my favorite out of the Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes kit, this would have to be it.

Description- It's a pink foot lotion that has cocoa butter, arnica infusion(which I have no idea what that is), spearmint and peppermint.

My Thoughts-I absolutely love the scent, it smells like Winterfresh or Doublemint gum, in that sort of minty sugar way. If they had a shower gel in this scent, I'd grab it up so fast. I apply this after my shower and it makes my feet feel very soft and smooth.

The lotion sample was in a clear plastic screwtop jar with a black plastic lid. I like it because it's handy to bring everywhere. The normal size is of a black plastic pot and lid. Save all your pots! If you bring 5 black pots into a Lush store, you get a free face mask.

Cost-3/5
Effectiveness-5/5
Scent-Subjective, but 5/5
Packaging-4/5

Pros-
I think it's an effective foot lotion
Nicely scented as it is, I do love me some spearmint and sugar.

Cons-
Cost is iffy.

Cost-
The cost of the sample was about 1 dollar, the full size is 7.9 ounces for 19.50.

Would I repurchaseDespite the cost, I would definitely repurchase :)

NOTD China Glaze For Audrey

Just another NOTD. The index finger nail looks too light, the rest of my fingers seem to be color accurate, although I do apologize for the shadows, the sun was being a little bit funny with me.




Oy my cuticles look bad, I don't know why the ends of them keep getting dried/cut up like that. I'm going to blame the SoCal weather because we've had a week of normal days and cold drippy rain days.

EDIT- this was 3 coats with Seche Vite top coat