Tag: perfume

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Beauty

Lip Monthly January ’15.

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OFRA Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick in Laguna Beach

A lip gloss packaging for a lipstick like product. The doe-foot applicator picks up more product than necessary so it’s important to remove excess lest you end up with a cakey layer of product on your lips. The product takes a bit of time to dry, but retains a bit of tackiness throughout. Not the lip gloss-like tackiness, though, just a bit of presence on the lips.

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Longevity-wise, I’d say it lasts longer than Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet lipsticks. Also, this lipstick is a perfect match for a lip pencil I have previously received via Lip Monthly, and a lip gloss that I own. Rather happy with this item.

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Harvey Prince Imperial Gardenia Perfume Sample

Oh this is good. Still can’t talk about scents normally, but this did leave a lasting impression and made me look up the company. I’d call it a head turner, in a good way. It’s a very strong and heady scent, though, so it should be used sparingly.

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Eco Lips Ecotints in Rose Quartz

Haven’t opened this product yet as I’ve another tinted balm going on, but if this is as good as the other Eco Lips product I’m using (from Lip Monthly too, by the way), then I’ll be happy with it, because I love my Eco Lips balm.

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MICA Beauty Cosmetics Tinted Lip Balm in Velvet Rose

This one was not at all what I expected. For whatever reason — perhaps because it’s potted and because of its name – I was under the impression that this is a balm-like product, or a very sheer lipstick. This is not the case at all. Even a thin layer of this is rather opaque, and the formula is such that you almost forget it’s on your lips. You can build up coverage to make it fully opaque if you like. I wouldn’t call it matte, but there’s no gloss either. It’s somewhere between creme and matte. The colour is a gorgeous deep red – actually, the title ‘Velvet Rose’ is apt.

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Swatches of OFRA Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick in Laguna Beach (right) and MICA Beauty Cosmetics Tinted Lip Balm in Velvet Rose (left). Apologies for the washed out photo. It’s still hard to control the amount of light with my phone camera.

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(Lip Monthly link is referral link. I will receive a free bag or shop points for people I refer. Subscription paid for with my own money. This is not a sponsored post.)

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.

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Beauty

Today’s Scent: Escada Especially.

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(Just a bit of a heads up: I’m not a ‘nose’, nor even a domestic fragrance connoisseur. I know buggre alle how to talk about scents, and can’t even use them most days because of my headache spells. I just love how pretty they are on my vanity.)

At random, my father gave me a bottle of Escada Especially about a month ago. Couldn’t even try it for the first few days, because I was felling headachey. Those who suffer from migraines and trigeminal neuralgia will understand that trying out new perfumes — or wearing old, for that matter — when there’s even the slightest chance of a headache is no go. There’s always a probability of ‘pain association’ developing even with the nicest and most favourite of scents.

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So my father kept asking, and I kept saying that I haven’t tried it yet. Then I opened the box, and got a tentative whiff without even spraying, and put the box away, and decided that I’m just going to call my father and say how I love it, but then never, ever, ever wear it, and maybe spritz a bit of it in the kitchen before his visits or something.

Then I decided to at least give it a proper chance.

I sprayed it on my wrists and on the back of my neck. Then I closed my eyes.

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Olfactory triggers are one of the deepest one, as far as memory goes.

This one transported me right back into childhood. I could clearly see being picked up by my mother in my bedroom in our old flat. I could see spring outside the window and sunlight patterns on the carpet and myself in the mirror trying to plait my hair for the very first time tying it up with clumsy blue and pink polka dot bows. I could hear grandmother calling after my very first pair of kittens.

I never wanted to stop smelling my wrists ever again in hopes that it would just keep me enveloped in that perfect childhood memory forever.

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I wish I could end this post by saying that I’ve worn this perfume ever since all day, every day, and even to bed, but that would be a lie. There’s something in it (its aquatic notes, I think) that are too much for me on most days, and I have to be really careful with my headache predictions to be able to wear this one. But I enjoy it. Love, it even. It paints that golden-lit perfect childhood afternoon in my head with such precision, it’s almost scary.

I gave my father a reserved ‘thank you’ and a promise to wear the scent. I’m kinda pants at expressing genuine gratitude.

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Beauty

Today’s Scent: Agent Provocateur Eau Emotionnelle.

agent provocateur official image

I’ve just spent about seven minutes staring at my screen blankly. See, I want a series about perfumes, but I have no idea how to write about them, or what to say. I don’t have the world’s best nose — not even close — and my tastes are… I wanted to say ‘selective’, but really, they’re just rather queer. The ridiculously expensive scents reside right next to the ridiculously cheap. Flirty and floral, musky and seductive, lighthearted, or sweet, or heavy — I don’t have a refined palate.

September this year my bottle of Eau Emotionnelle will turn eight years old. Eight years! By then it will be finished, since there’s only very little left. I included the official image, because my bottle, as you can imagine, looks rather dingy.

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I lost the release ring and the bit of lace attached a long while ago. Agent Provocateur Eau Emotionnelle is my go-to perfume. I can’t think of a scenario that would make this perfume inappropriate. It’s great all year round, both for work and for fun. Overall a really well-rounded scent. I’ve never had the original, only heard it described as quite heady. Compared to my other favourites, this is almost light. It opens up floral, and then proceeds to darken.

On my skin this is very long lasting, but with moderate sillage.

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Originally released in 2006, Eau Emotionnelle has since then been discontinued — a fate that seems to befall every single perfume I genuinely enjoy. It is still relatively easy to find on Ebay and the likes, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg either, like some other recently deceased favourites. (Looking at you, Midnight Poison, looking. at. you.)

(Official product image nicked from Fragrantica.)