Tag: face cream

Categories
Beauty

Products I’ve Used Up: AVON, Dove, Oriflame, etc.

products i've used up

AVON Naturals Hair Care Essential Balance Mango & Ginger 2-in-1 Shampoo and Conditioner

Can I just say… Tone it down, brands. All y’all name your products in a way that’s not at all Twitter-friendly.

I bought this product for its scent alone. Previously I had a shea butter and apricot one from the same series, and it smelt so good, I never wanted to do anything but wash my hair over and over again so I could just bathe in the scent. That’s saying a lot, because washing hair is one of my least favourite beauty procedures. This scent doesn’t disappoint either, but somewhere in the middle it became tiring. Not sure why I buy these ten-gallon packages, because commitment to one particular scent or formula is totes not my thing when it comes to bath products.

Shampoo-wise, it’s a good product, but didn’t match my scalp and hair exactly. It’s a hard thing to do, though, so I hold no grudge against it. It’s a 2-in-1, and if you’ve got short hair, or maybe even well-behaved mid-length hair, then I dare say the 2-in-1 will work, at least occasionally. Everyone else would need to use a conditioner with it.

Maybe I will repurchase it, but in a smaller size.

P.S. How many convincing words can one fit unto one label? Natural, science, technology, essential, care, balance… It’s either natural or tech, tho, but whatever.

Dove Hair Therapy Nutritive Solutions Daily Moisture Shampoo

I love Dove hair gels, deodorants, and body lotions — in fact, I’m going to do dedicated posts about each of these things soon enough — but their shampoos are horrible for me. The scent is harsh. The product foams up a whole lot. It’s not ‘moisturising’ in the slightest, rather, it stripped my poor scalp off of all oils, sending it into an overdrive each time, leaving me with greasy roots in something like 12 hours. The formula is thick and feels soft during the application, but it was very harsh afterwards. This is one of the worst shampoos I’ve tried in a long while. Will not repurchase, will not recommend.

Eveline Lip Gloss

This thing is old. It’s so old, I can’t even tell you the colour and the correct product name. I bought it on a sale long, long time ago, used it as long as it was usable, and then I just kinda forgot to discard it. It had a lovely vanilla-ish scent, and it was one of the less stickier glosses. They have since then discontinued this particular product, I think.

Oriflame All-Over Makeup Remover

(FYI, that’s not a piece of gum holding it. It’s an unfortunate bunch of sticky tack.)

Needed a make-up remover, and this was on some epic offer. I was a little hesitant, because the previous variation of Oriflame makeup remover (green rectangular bottles) was not good. It wasn’t particularly offensive, it just… didn’t remove much. This one is a certain upgrade of the formula, but if you need a heavy-duty remover, then this is still not your guy. I want to check out their waterproof makeup remover, see if it’s any better. Will probably repurchase if on offer.

Oriflame Volare Perfume

Very rose-scented, a little too much for me. The bottle was redesigned, however, and I’m going to buy that thing just for the bottle alone, because it’s in a shape of a crystal rose, and who doesn’t want a crystal rose on their vanity?! No one, that’s who.

Chistaya Liniya 48 hr Phyto-Deodorant in Calendula

Rather on the wet side, and a little bit harsh smelling, but overall I was pleased with it. What I loved most perhaps was the packaging. It is upside-down. How brilliant is that?! No weird balancing acts required to use up all of the product. I wish it were in a bit of a less… cone-like shape, though, because at times I found it hard to grip. Might try other scents, but I think calendula is the lightest of them all.

Pur-Lisse face cream sample

This came with my Lip Monthly bag. I hesitated using it at first, because it’s for normal to dry skin, and I’m as oily skinned as they come. However, this was a very nice cream. It moisturised well enough and didn’t leave any greasy residue. It smelt pretty much like nothing — an odd trace of non-offensive dust, maybe?.. Don’t know how to describe it. Anyway, these non-smells are a huge plus in my book, and I rather more prefer them to any kind of artificial or natural fragrance. No irritation, no break-outs, no rough patches. I cannot say this was an ideal match for my skin, though.

Categories
Beauty

Sample Thoughts: Givenchy Le Soin Noir.

givenchy le soin noir

This cream has a gel-like texture, but applies buttery. It’s black/ very dark grey, with small black particles and what looks like very fine glitter. The black isn’t visible on the skin while applied, but it does leave just a touch of a… tinted greyish veil over your face to be noticeable. So I used both of my samples at night.

It’s both very light and very nourishing. Takes its jolly time to absorb. Also, it’s perfumed up the wazoo. I cannot imagine using this during my headache spells. It would slay me.

Obviously I cannot judge the packaging from my tiny magazine sample, but the photograph on Sephora looks exquisite. It better, because the darn thing costs nearly $400 US! (And it’s out of stock?!) That’s about as much as I make a month, so I think the magazine sample is as close an acquaintance as I can ever hope to have with this cream.

But would I actually buy it for this price after having used the two samples? Not sure. Perhaps over time it gives a noticeable effect that’s worth spending $400 for, but the 10 ml I had in my possession could not provide me with accurate basis for such judgement.

(This is not a sponsored post. It does not contain affiliate links.)

Categories
Beauty

Two Nivea Products: Toner and Cream.

nivea toner and face cream

Nivea Pure & Natural Moisturising Day Care

I had two samples of this face cream, and I remember falling in love. It felt buttery smooth during the application, but didn’t leave any shiny residue and didn’t look oily, just glowing.

Well, there’s something to be said about testers and samples always being better than the actual product, because the cream in the jar, while it wasn’t bad, simply didn’t live up to the expectations set by the sample.

nivea pure natural face cream

I used this up before the freezing temperatures set, but during the milder months of September-November I say it fared well in terms of hydration. I wouldn’t expect miracles, and if you have dehydrated skin, then you need to look for something more hardworking. It doesn’t help keep your face matte, but it doesn’t add any oiliness to it either.

The container is a glass with a plastic lid. It holds the standard 50 ml of product. The scent of this cream, although strong, didn’t annoy me, even when I had headache spells.

Overall, it’s a standard enough cream for its price range. Oriflame Optimals costs about as much, and I think I would’ve gone for another jar of that instead of Nivea Pure & Natural.

Nivea Aqua Effect Purifying Toner

Formulated for oily skin and claims to be mattifying. I haven’t noticed my skin being any more matte, but it didn’t throw my sebum into overdrive either. I used it during a bit of a mishap with a face washer by a different brand. The washer gave me irritation, and I can say that this toner was safe to use even on irritated skin. It didn’t take the redness and sensitivity any further, though perhaps it hasn’t assisted in cooling my face either — but it doesn’t claim to do that, so I’m fine with it.

nivea toner

The 200 ml bottle lasted me for about two-two and a half months, which is saying something, because usually I go through toners really quickly. The scent is a rather standard Nivea one — if you’ve ever used their Nivea Creme (the one in the blue jar), then you know approximately how this toner smells like.

While not a bad product and one that I might return in the future, right now I’m looking for a product that would help me gently exfoliate the skin day to day, which was something that this toner didn’t do.