Garnier Clean Sensitive gentle cleansing milk review

    Ok so as far as I can tell, this product isn’t for sale anymore, however I think the new Garnier cleansing milks have a similar formula, and this could serve as a rough guide to whether you’ll like cleansing milks overall (that’s what I did anyway). I really should have dumped this bottle like 2 years ago but since I barely used it in the beginning, I had an almost full bottle and I just couldn’t dump it. (hello, it says hoarder in the blog title).

    First off, my understanding of the cleansing milk concept is that they’re sorta like a pre-mixed dual-layer makeup remover, containing both watery and oily ingredients emulsified together. You apply it to your face or a cotton pad and wipe the makeup off, no need to rinse after. This cleansing milk isn’t the consistency of milk but more like a cream moisturiser. It’s not runny and I feel the need to rub it into my face when I’m using it, to help break down the makeup. The bottle is sturdy but squeezeable, and the lid is great for keeping the product air-tight and making sure thers minimal mess. The only annoying thing is that since the lid is curved, I can’t stand the bottle upside down to get at the product at the bottom.

Revlon quick dry top coat review

(I know it's nearly christmas but I have no christmas ideas whatsoever so maybe next year I'll be able to do something fun, but this christmas you'll just get reviews :I )

    I've never tried using quick drops so I can't compare this topcoat to those mythical magical liquids but compared to other topcoats I’ve used, this dries pretty fast. I haven't timed it so I can’t say exactly how long it takes but it takes less time than the average Revlon nail polish. Another good thing is it doesn't have that problem, where it looks and feels dry but as soon as you touch fabric or something, bam the textures transferred. When it feels dry, then it is dry, and hard.

Ulta3 nailpolish in orchid and waterlily review ( . . . and a little bit on the brand overall)

I own two ulta3 nail polishes and the only reason I don't own more is because I’m picky when it comes to nail polish colours. (Read: I have a duochrome addiction.)

 . . . Also because the bottles are often damaged. What can I say, it’s cheap and people seem to think that means they can do whatever the hell they like.  

Natio Acne Clear Pores detoxifying face scrub with jojoba beads review

from the beautyheaven website because I finished mine last year

    This face scrub from Natio is part of the acne solutions range that came out last year I think, and since I generally have a favourable view of Natio's skincare products I figured I’d try a product. The line has 2 moisturizers, a cleanser, a scrub and a spot treatment. I was in need of an exfoliator, so I got this face scrub. I can't remember how much it cost but the Natio website puts it at 12.95 for 100g.

    To begin with, this face scrub isn't just gentle, it's kind of weak. There weren't a lot of beads in my scrub, and they were tiny and didn't exfoliate much anyway. I have slightly sensitive skin, and i'm pretty sure I could have gotten away with using this daily. I used it every two days and felt fine, no redness, no raw feeling etc. I didn't mind the herbally scent and it honestly wasn't that strong,

The Body Shop Seaweed range pore-cleansing facial exfoliator review

(So I've sort of decided to put out 2 posts every Tuesday and Thursday until I work off this backlog of stuff I meant to review, but I'll need to slow it down next year so the schedule will probably be 1-2 posts a week. P.S. at the moment I'm working through reviews but if there are other types of posts you're interested in seeing, let me know in the comments below ^_^. )

    Today’s review is on the Body Shop’s pore-cleansing facial exfoliator, from the seaweed range. I’ve always seen the Body Shop around, and I’d heard of their sustainable sourcing methods etc. and was interested, but their prices were always too much for me to pay, at least for a product that I’d never tried before. They have recently (as in like 3 months ago) lowered the price of many of their products by a few dollars, so if you ever thought the Body Shop was just a bit too expensive, check them out now and see if you’re happy with the new prices.

taken from the bodyshop UK website

Cedal dry shampoo for dark hair review (mini bottle)

    Today’s review is on the first dry shampoo I ever tried, a mini bottle of Cedal dry shampoo for dark hair. I didn’t really get the hype around dry shampoo, so I wanted to try some but I didn’t want to buy a full sized bottle in case it didn’t work for me so I bought a mini bottle of Cedal in Priceline for $3.99. 

picture from Priceline website because I dumped this last year

Garnier anti-shine cleansing gel review

Oh look a review for a product that came out this year! Hurrah! 
(I’ve already finished it tho ;D)

So Garnier skincare released the moisture match product lineup earlier this year, where they had a moisturiser for each category (dry, oily, normal, dull), + an extra product, which varied depending on the category e.g. scrub for dull skin, wipes for normal etc. 

Neutrogena oil-free moisture . . . moisturisers review (sensitive and SPF15 versions)

Amazing, an old review for a product that HASN’T been discontinued or possibly reformulated~! (I’ve still got a lot of reviews to edit, but I’ll be mixing some of the newer ones in with the old reviews like this one)

    Anyway, I bought these way back (like two years ago?) and since I used the sensitive one first the spf 15 bottle was a bit old by the time I started using it. The packaging of either doesn’t seem to have changed, and I haven’t heard of a reformulation so these reviews should still be relevant.

    Also they put the ingredients list on the box (annoying), which I recycled way before I started the blog so I can’t comment on the ingredients used (darn).

Sensitive: 

    I got this bottle ages ago, and I don't think they had the combination one out then but I probably should've gotten that instead, since I do get a shiny T-zone. This moisturizer wasn’t too heavy feeling when I put it on, but I wouldn’t call it light either. It took a little bit to absorb and felt a little greasy but that went away after a while. While I didn’t mind it much I don’t think that would work well for people with very sensitive skin. The texture was about halfway between a lotion and a cream, not runny, but not like a rich cream either.

Revlon CustomEyes mascara review

First makeup product review~!

 

setting 1: length and drama

Which is not going to end nicely because to sum up this review before it’s begun, this mascara is not very good.

    First of all it’s one of the 2-brushes-in-1 mascaras, which in this case means that twisting in the handle gives 2 options, “Length and Definition” and “Length and Drama”. As can be seen in the pictures this mascara clearly has a plastic bristle brush, which started off purple-blue (bought it before starting blog so no pictures of clean brush).

Cutex strengthening nail polish remover review

bad picture i know, there was a lot of stuff in the background so i erased it all

    I've used Cutex nail polish removers before, but I don't remember much about those bottles, other than 'nothing spectacular', which is basically how I feel about this remover as well. 


    I don't use a base coat normally, because none of my nail polishes stain my nails, so I usually wear two coats of colour nail polish and one of top coat. I need to soak the cotton pad with this remover and wait a bit to get it most of it off in one go, but with 3 layers of polish I reckon that's fairly reasonable. What's kind of annoying for me though, is the remover seems to evaporate while I'm using it, so that even though I should've had enough for one hand, by the time I've gotten to the ring finger, it's not very wet anymore. Granted that’s physics/chemistry, so there’s nothing I can do about the fact that acetone has low cohesion. It’s really just me complaining about my laziness being thwarted. ;P

Clean & Clear essentials moisturiser review

So, working through the backlog of products I went through this year . . .

*I remember still seeing this moisturiser on priceline shelves like last week, but the Clean & Clear website (no Australian one) shows only a “Dual Action” moisturiser in their essentials range, so this review might not be relevant to that formula. It looks like it’s the same product + emphasis on salicylic acid though.

    The essentials range from Clean & Clear appears to be meant as a good basic range, for when your skin doesn’t have any particular problems ( you know except for acne because why else would you use a brand called Clean & Clear?). And that's pretty much how I felt using it too, ok moisturiser, not amazing, not terrible.

Garnier Fructis Fortifying shampoo and conditioner: Sleek and Shine 72H review

Now, onwards with the reviewing!

(I meant to put this one up before I started studying again but I got a bit lost as I'd never even thought of reviewing a haircare product before. Turned out to be a good thing as I had the time to do a little more research)

    Today’s review is on the sleek and shine shampoo and conditioner set from Garnier. This set is supposed to be for thick, dry and frizzy hair and claims to smooth hair as well as preventing frizz, static and humidity effects for 72 hours. The shampoo packaging claims the product provides “97% humidity resistance” and contains “strengthening Phyto-Keratin and argan oil”. The conditioner claims the same humidity resistance, but only contains Phyto-Keratin, not argan oil. 

Hi . . . long time no see . . .

Yeah . . . . I meant to keep this up if not during semester, at least during the midyear break but unfortunately I selected a field unit that was done during the midyear break so I was always studying if not distracted by studying and my tiny little social life.
Or procrastinating from studying.

Thankfully, at this point I don't have any readers to be upset with me and now that my exams are over, I can start putting up the posts that I did put together during bouts of procrastination and spare time.

shall I give you a batwinged heart as forgiveness?

(Bat-winged heart origami made from watching Jo Nakashima on Youtube - I think he was making someone-else's design tho)

not a review . . .

So I was going to put up a review, but i'm not finished yet ^^".

    On another note I was reading Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simmer, which has a great premise (what if Faerie went to war against modern humans?) which i felt could have been executed better, but it's not bad. And I was thinking about what war makes of people. As Ian and many other characters of fiction have said, they did "what needed to be done."
    I understand that in war bad decisions are made, where there is no good result, only a slightly less horrible one, And that sometimes you can't take the good road because your opponent/enemy is not above the horrors that humans can inflict on each other, let alone the environment.
But no matter what, one day the war will end. And the consequences of those choices will reverberate for generations to come.
If everyone who had to make these choices had to think about the responsibility that truly lay in their hands, the innocents they could cause pain and suffering for, often the people whom they are bound to protect, and the ultimate pointlessness of their actions, maybe they wouldn't always take such actions.

Then again many of the people who start wars probably don't possess the empathy or compassion required. And thus the rest of the world is forced to react accordingly in the belief that their decisions will save them. For now at least.

Neutrogena: Oil Free Acne Wash Pink Grapefruit Facial Cleanser

    wow that's a long name, but yeah today’s review is of the grapefruit cleanser from Neutrogena. Now I’ve heard they changed the formula recently, and I also noticed a packaging design change a couple of months ago, so this review may be slightly less relevant, but anyway. I finished my bottle months before starting this blog so I’ll just substitute with this picture from Neutrogena.com. ^^"

    The product itself was a translucent light pink gel, packaged in a clear pump bottle. You could control how much the pump dispensed, which I liked, because some pump designs just give you one big pump and you can’t stop halfway. The straw for the pump also goes all the way to the bottom of the bottle, which I love. It’s a pet peeve of mine when you buy a bottle of hand soap or something, and the straw stops just before the bottom. >:I That’s just stupid design. The gel was smooth and not too runny, and foamed up well. This cleanser smelt lovely, like sweet red grapefruit (as in a bit sweeter than a red grapefruit), and left my face feeling clean and refreshed without feeling totally stripped. I think the citrus scent aided in the refreshing feeling and I liked using it in the morning, as it wakes you up a bit.

In the Beginning . . .

    Years ago when blogs first started, I swore I would never participate in this madness. Why on earth would I want to tell the internet what I did everyday?!?

These days however, I trawl certain blogs on a daily basis, and have realised a different purpose for blogs, at least for myself. To gather the experience of others and, yes follow some people for their personalities. Following other people’s blogs makes me feel like I know this person, and I laugh at their jokes and antics as if I was their friend listening to them over the phone. It sounds kind of sad but other people’s lives are just too interesting for me to pass up on. 8D

    So I set up this blog with the intention of posting my reviews of the skincare and makeup products I buy and use, written the way I want to. I don’t have a giant makeup collection like a lot of other bloggers, and I probably won’t post nearly as often, but ah well. :9 Depending on whether I really want to, and if anyone is interested, I may also post my opinions/reviews about other things, e.g. books, whatever. I will also probably rant every now and again about various things, some pointlessly insignificant and some at a global scale, though possibly no less silly. It’s a rant, not a formal debate guys.

THE RULES OF MY DOMAIN D:< (you can already see the craziness can’t you)

I tend to accidentally offend people sometimes because I have a blunt way of saying things, and it can come off even more so in writing, so you have been warned. I’m more than willing to apologise if I (actually) hurt someone’s feelings.

If you disagree with anything I have said, or have heard evidence to the contrary, please feel free to comment in the comments section, and provide references to your argument if you so wish. I’m an information glutton, make your argument as long as you want.

I like arguing/banter, but I don’t put up with assholes. If you have nothing more constructive to say than ‘you’re wrong because I said so’ then please keep it to that level of politeness, to myself or to any other people.

In relation to the above, I also don’t accept discrimination or prejudice of any kind as an argument, or really at all. (I’d like to argue with every such person but a) Freedom of speech says I’m not allowed to b) I probably wouldn’t be able to change anything and c) I have better things to do with my life) You are entitled to your opinion but that doesn’t mean I have to put up with it.