Month: April 2017

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Beauty

Recent Eye Makeup Products

mascara brow pencil eye liner

Isn’t this the greatest photo to ever grace the beauty blogging scene? It ought to be. Unfortunately, I couldn’t reshoot, because these were all empties that got thrown out the minute I snapped this picture.

Though I brought back the Outgoing! posts, there’s still a bit of a backlog of stuff I’ve used up when I wasn’t doing any empties sharing with you. These eye makeup products are one such thing.

Chanel Mascara, sample size

I suppose this has a more precise name, but I don’t know it. I loved using this, though I found the brush a bit unyielding and messy. My main gripe was that it dried out. so. fast. I don’t know if it was just my sample, or the air in my room, or something else, but seriously. I got this sample for free with a magazine, but I imagine how pissed I would have been if I had paid an indecent amount of money for a luxury mascara, only to find it barely alive about two weeks later.

Curious: How have Chanel mascaras fared for you? I want to invest in a big size one, but if it dries out in a couple of weeks, well, then I don’t want to any more. 😛

Relouis eyeliner pencil

Relouis eyeliner pencil has been my go-to brow pencil until I ran out of it. It was difficult to use as an eyeliner – rather low pigmentation, not a lot of staying power, the formula is just on that side of being a touch too harsh… – but as a brow pencil? Gimme. I think I’m going to repurchase it once I run out of my current OFRA brow pencil.

AVON DIVA Eyeliner

This AVON eyeliner was a purchase influenced entirely by nostalgia. Long time ago Oriflame came out with a similarly themed collection, and my mother bought me the entire range of that as a gift. When I saw this AVON offering I had thought of mum immediately, and had to snap it up. This is actually a very good eyeliner. It is a dark silver grey that is not matte but not sparkly either. Stayed put throughout the day. The brush was thin and easy to work with even for someone like me. It also lasted me a while and kept really well. Didn’t dry out one bit – and honestly, the only reason I’ve given it up was because it’s hella old. I don’t even want to tell you how old it was lest you shun me off the face of the beauty internets. This was a limited edition collection, but I would totally buy again.

Categories
Beauty

Oriflame Optimals Seeing is Believing Eye Cream

Oriflame Optimals Seeing is Believing Eye Cream

To be honest, until recently I’ve been fully prepared to give this Oriflame Optimals Seeing is Believing Eye Cream if not a fully negative, then a lacklustre review at best. Yeah, an eye cream. Sure, better than nothing. Meh, comes in glass, good.

But then one day I’ve been awake for more hours than it’s decent to be awake for, and my eyes were burning and feeling very heavy inside my skull. I took out my contacts, washed my face, half-arsedly applied some moisturiser, and then decided that I need to go in with an eye cream as well.

That was a very wise decision, because my eye area felt instant relief. It was a very cooling, refreshing, ever so lightly tingling (in a good, absolutely non-burning way) sensation. For a while there it didn’t hurt to blink.

Now, I can’t tell you how long the effect of Oriflame Optimals Seeing is Believing Eye Cream lasted, because I went to bed and promptly fell asleep for once.

Other things I’d like to tell you about Oriflame Optimals Seeing is Believing Eye Cream:

The packaging is cute, and the colour is nice, and I love the fact that it’s glass – but mate, it’s not convenient. I have no problems with creams in jars. Unlike many, I do not feel squeamish about possible contamination or something. It’s just that the jar of Oriflame Optimals Seeing is Believing Eye Cream is pretty small, and the glass is slippery, and it requires certain finger dexterity to maneuver the product around, especially as you reach the last few uses.

The jar will last you a long while.

Oriflame Optimals Seeing is Believing Eye Cream often appears in Oriflame catalogues with a good discount. I recommend that you wait for the discount, because the product is not worth its full price.

In short: Oriflame Optimals Seeing is Believing Eye Cream is great at cooling and moisturising the eye area. It will help fight puffiness, and I am inclined to agree with its claims to brighten the eye area, if only a little. It will not do much else, however. If fine lines are your problem, you need a heavier artillery.

That said, I’m on my second (maybe third) jar of Oriflame Optimals Seeing is Believing Eye Cream, and I plan to repurchase.

Categories
Beauty

Two Bourjois Skincare Disappointments

bourjois paris cleanser and makeup remover

Spoiler alert. 😛

Some months ago a local make-up shop was running an additional discount. Hence why I ended up hastily buying three products – all of which ended up not to my liking. Granted, I read reviews and looked up swatches, but… meh.

So what is it about Bourjois facewash and Bourjois makeup remover that I did not like?

Let’s start with the facewash.

Bourjois Fresh Cleansing Gel

The scent of Bourjois Fresh Cleansing Gel is a rather typical Bourjois fare, which I really hope they will eventually update. Did you know that I gave up on their blush after three uses for the sole reason of this scent? I hear it dissipates with time – I certainly didn’t catch it in the shop on tester products, but sweet Jesus mother of GOD, do you have to use such a scent? A lot of people complain about the ‘dated’ scent of L’Oreal lipsticks. Well, Bourjois blush arguably has it much worse.

But back to the Bourjois Fresh Cleansing Gel. The scent in Bourjois cleanser is less pronounced than in the powder products. The cleanser itself is a blueish transparent gel. You don’t need a lot to cover your face. Leaves skin feeling fresh, but freshness quickly migrates into tightness. After a few uses I felt like it just zaps moisture from my face. It also left me quite red-faced. And by red-faced I don’t mean some redness around the nose after being too active with a washcloth around there or something. By red-faced, I mean genuine beetroot red, forehead, cheeks, chin, everything. It would give a very slight burning sensation as well. Both the redness and the feeling would go away quickly, but I really wasn’t in the mood to use this product any longer after that. Currently I use it to wash my hands. I tried to wash my make-up brushes with it, but it’s not suitable.

A note on the packaging: The lid on the Bourjois Fresh Cleansing Gel tube is simultaneously difficult to open (save yer nails) and hard to keep closed. Something about the plastic being easily disturbed, I gather.

Bourjois Express Eye Make-up Remover

I have used Bourjois Express Eye Make-up Remover on my entire face. It’s a bi-phase liquid that you need to shake before using. I’ve always loved these types of products, because for some three weeks in primary school I was a chemistry nerd, and some things stuck. Watching liquids separate and then mix and then separate again has a calming effect on me.

Whatever.

So yes, Bourjois Express Eye Make-up Remover is a transparent blueish bi-phase liquid. Though it is a non-oil, it does leave just a bit of a filmy residue in its wake. Of course, it easily goes away after all the other cleansing steps. It is okay at removing makeup. Just okay. Which is why I would really like to dispute its waterproof make-up remover claims. None of the products I currently use are waterproof, yet Bourjois Express Eye Make-up Remover, stated as an ideal cleanser for waterproof makeup, still has trouble with some of them.

The packaging is a plastic bottle with the classic Bourjois topper. I’ve always found these things very cute and wanted to own a bottle for the sake of that top alone. Well, it’s got both form and function – I’d wager it would be very hard to open the bottle if the ball wasn’t there. However, the plastic is still rather flimsy, and one of the links holding the topper to the rest of the packaging broke after about two weeks. I could still close the bottle, so the product wasn’t exposed.

Of the definite good things about Bourjois Express Eye Make-up Remover I would like to point out that it never irritated my eyes one bit. After one stares at the monitor for 16 hours whilst wearing contacts and full-face makeup, one’s eyes are bound to be just a touch sensitive, you know. However, Bourjois Express Eye Make-up Remover doesn’t add insult to injury. No pain, no tingling, no burning. For that alone I am considering repurchase. That, and the price is kind. It’s a big bottle, and it doesn’t cost a fortune, even considering the local economy. I guess I would just have to keep in mind that it might not do well with actual waterproof mascaras and eyeliners.

Any make-up removers and cleansers you swear by? Do share in the comments.