Remember how a couple of years ago Julie did a Bio Oil trial for us? Well, I have some seriously messed up skin under my arms, so when the Bio Oil people got in contact to ask if I wanted to do a blogger review, I gave them a big ‘ole hells yes please. They stressed that you have to use it every day, twice daily, for two weeks in order to see results. My skin is nasty. Like real bad. So I’m going to put in a jump so you don’t have to see it.
Archive for the ‘body products’ category
Another Bio Oil trial
February 23rd, 2012More Christmas ideas: L’Occitane
December 15th, 2011L’Occitane is one of the shops that Eccentric English Boyfriend refuses to accompany me into. Apparently the smell gives him a headache. And yes, to enter a L’Occitane shop is to experience olfactory overload.
I’ll quite happily leave EEB outside the store though because I do rather like L’Occitane. I had a hand/body lotion of theirs once which I absolutely loved both for its formula and its scent, plus they have gorgeous packaging.
L’Occitane’s range of gift sets contains something for most tastes, including those perennial favourite scents lavender and rose (both of which I don’t like so please don’t buy them for me!):
Relaxing Lavender Box ($90.00), contains 500ml Lavender Foaming Bath, 100g Lavender Candle and 75g Lavender Soap:
Rose Shower & Body Duo ($72.00), contains 250ml 4 Reines Rose Shower Gel and 250ml 4 Reines Rose Body Lotion:
How about cute stocking stuffers for a little bit of luxury at a budget-friendly price?
Delice des Fruits Perfumed Soap ($8.00):
Delice des Fruits Bath Ball ($6.50):
Something for the men in your life?
Shaving Essential Gift Set ($79.00), contains 150ml Cade Shaving Cream and 75ml Cade After Shave Balm:
Verdon Essentials ($26.00), contains 50ml Verdon Face Wash, 50ml Verdon Shower Gel and 100gm Verdon Soap (Verdon is described as a blend of peppermint, citrus and aquatic notes and while it may be aimed at the guys it sounds like exactly the sort of scent I would love, so feel free to buy this for me!):
And of course you can’t go too wrong with a nicely presented set of body care products.
Shea Butter Gift Set($123.00), contains 200ml Ultra Rich Body Cream, 150ml Shea Butter Hand Cream and 250g Extra Gentle Milk Soap.
Mini Hand & Foot Kit ($32.00), contains 30ml Shea Butter Hand Cream and 30ml Shea Butter Foot Cream:
L’Occitane can be purchased from their New Zealand website, or from their stores around New Zealand.
So how goes the Christmas shopping pretties? Panicking yet? I know I am!
Christmas gift sets from Revlon
December 9th, 2011At this time of year you can’t enter a department store without tripping over displays of cosmetic and perfume gift sets.
Revlon’s Christmas gift set range is always fairly extensive, with something in there for most budgets. While I personally find the colour choices in their sets fairly safe, not everybody is as fond of green nail polish as I am, so here’s my pick of gift sets to please the makeup lover:
Perfect Plums Set ($35.00)
Includes a Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Plumalicious, Revlon LashFinder Mascara in Black, Revlon ColorStay Lipliner in Plum and a beautiful kiss-lock purse.
Mini Delights ($35.95)
Includes a Revlon Simply Enchanting 10ml Roll-on, Revlon Love Her Madly 10ml Roll-on, Revlon Classic Nail Enamel in Coral Me Wild and a cute coin purse with matching compact mirror.
Colourburst Lips Set ($45.00)
Includes Revlon ColorBurst Lipsticks in Soft Rose, Blush, and Soft Nude together with a gorgeous bow purse.
From Day to Night Eyes Set ($45.00)
Includes a Revlon CustomEyes Shadow & Liner in Sweet Innocence, Revlon CustomEyes Shadow & Liner in Smoky Sexy, Revlon CustomEyes Mascara in Black and a gorgeous coin pouch. Exclusive to Farmers stores.
Fire & Ice 5 Piece ($69.50)
Includes a Revlon Fire & Ice 50ml EDC, Revlon Fire & Ice 10ml Roll on, Revlon Fire & Ice 150ml Body Lotion, Revlon Classic Nail Enamel in Cherry Crush, Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Plumalicious.
Living Nature special offer – buy the body wash get the body lotion free
December 8th, 2011
Over on the Living Nature website they have an excellent deal running on their Refreshing Body Wash and Lotion. Buy the 200ml Refreshing Body Wash for NZ$29.50 and get the Refreshing Body Wash for free. Perfect for Christmas gifts, or keep them for yourself, the deal is only available on their website and lasts until 31 December 2011.
I’m calling it: it’s summer
October 30th, 2011Look, I had my legs out today and I didn’t need a jacket. That’s summer around these parts, so I am going to write this post and knock on wood, because if I don’t get to start wearing my nice summer shoes and dresses soon then I may cry.
The great thing about winter is being able to hide under layers of clothing and blame the wind and lack of sunlight for your pallid girl-from-Twilight complexion. But those days are over, and now you may want to defoliate, exfoliate, and paint those toesies a pretty colour. If not, then you are going to have way more time than me this summer to make cocktails and organise pool parties. I salute you.
If however, like me, you wish to have a (fake) tan and just generally have an excuse to buy fun new things from our friends at Farmers, please read on.
Summer = tan. But tan = early death. So the first product in my summer arsenal is always fake tan. I’ve used Piz Buin a lot, since my Mum used to use it and introduced me to it, but since the arrival of gradual tans things have gotten a lot more convenient. So much so that I don’t think I would trust myself to do a proper fake tan job now. I’m currently using:
Now, the colour is good, it’s non-streaky, I don’t mind the smell too much, but the spray thing is useless. I spray it into my hand and then apply (I paid good money, I will use it up). So it might pay not to buy the gimmicky spray version.
In summer I also want to look well-rested and “glowy”. Get ready for my number one product of all time (and not just summer, all year round) – I recommend this product 100%. It is:
This is the Maybelline Dream Touch Lumi concealer. It is wonderful. It brightens, it doesn’t crease, and it’s basically the best concealer I have ever used. It makes me look awake even when I’ve had five hours of sleep.
For additional glowy-ness, I recommend a good highlighter. This product is ridiculous, I know. But trust when I say that it does make a difference for night-time “yes, I look naturally fabulous” makeup. The one I love is discontinued (dang it, Natio) but for overall glowy-making goodness, I hear Mac’s Strobe Cream is good. Someone try it and tell me whether I should buy it.
This summer has a very distinct beauty trend, which I plan to embrace whole-heartedly, even though I think beauty trends are dumb. Get the chapstick out girls and drink plenty of water because it’s time for a bright coloured lipstick. My personal summer selection is:
Revlon's Love that Red
Rimmel Funtime Fuschia
Chi Chi Lah de Dah
Yup. Red, hot pink, and a lipstick that is bright orange regardless of the outrageously poor photo quality above.
We gotta look after the tresses and with my curly mop this is particularly important. I already use Kerastase’s Ultime product which I highly recommend. It smells amazing and it is the reason I haven’t had a cut in 6 months and don’t have any split ends. Hooray! Summer is a great time to start using a good quality conditioning product as your hair gets pretty dry from the sun and salt water combo. V05 oil treatments are really good too, and are super cheap times which is cool if you have masses of hair.
Finally, don’t forget the sunblock on your face AND your decolletage at a minimum, and break out the waterproof mascara because you never know when an impromptu after-work swim will happen. Have a FAB time this summer and remember that having fun and enjoying all the good stuff out there is what will really enhance how gorge you are!
These are a few of my favourite things…
December 14th, 2010I think every lady has an arsenal of key items which they fall back on whenever they need to feel just a touch prettier. They run the gamut from cosmetics (expected) to websites dedicated to an adorable Scottish Fold cat (for your inner happiness, see: http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com/). After all, nothing says pretty like a girl with a smile on her face.
So, apart from the adorable Maru, these are a few of the things I am finding myself loving.
Lucas’ Papaw Ointment. This stuff is the bomb-diggetty. Never have I had lips so chapped that this stuff couldn’t heal them, which is grand because in the past chapped lips have led to a resurgence in my eczema. It is like some kind of hippie magic, which I love, because sometimes you decide that tomorrow you want to wear bright red lipstick but you know that your lips are waaaay too chapped for that action – enter Lucas (who is Lucas? Is he single?) and his fresh fermented papaya. Buy from health shops.
Lindauer Limited Edition Summer “champagne”. This will come as a surprise to all who know and love me, because I swore off all Lindauer products after a wee incident in my first year at University involving tequila and a bottle of Lindauer. Turns out, they aren’t a good combo. However, the other day I got some jolly good news and my good friend and all-round bad influence Kerina suggested we drink to my success. Enter Lindauer at $10 a bottle. This is no good for the ladies who love the dry wines but its cheerful label and deliciously drinkable taste has added it to my arsenal. There’s just something about a glass of something sparkly (with the mandatory strawberry soaking for later) that makes the world seem brighter.
Butter nailpolish in “Chancer”, Orly nailpolish in “Glitz”. Both of which I have worn to work. Potentially metallic gold fingernails are a touch inappropriate for a lawyer, but watch my face and see if I care. I am deeply into metallic or glittery nailpolishes at the moment; they are tough to remove but they look so pretty in our summer sun! Thanks to Farmers Beauty Club for giving me a voucher at just the right time – at $30 each the Butter polishes are a bit of a sting to the wallet. The Orly polishes come in the convenient mini size for just $10.
Any song by Katy Perry. That girl knows how to sing an uplifting summer anthem. It’s all very well to love some little-known band who only play in basements and sing about global terrorism, but come summer you want to blast some sweet saccharine pop about how you’re great (baby you’re a fiiiiiiirework!) and walk around in the sunshine feeling uplifted. I only wish I had a jeep like Cher from Clueless so I could spread the Katy Perry joy everywhere I go.
Chanel Chance fragrance. So, in winter I wear Chanel Coco. Every day. And I was getting a bit sick of this and thought “why don’t I ever wear Chance?” Well, in winter it felt…wrong. It wasn’t musky and heavy enough for my winter feelings (i.e. everything I am around or touch needs to be warm). But then the miracle of summer happened, for approximately one day, and it was just enough to get me back on the Chance wagon.
Hydrating face masque. I am planning to write a whole bit about this, comparing a high end and a low end product. For now I will just say that air-conditioning is a cruel mistress and a hydrating face masque, slapped on while I paint my toenails and listen to my girl Katy, cures all ills. I wear as little make up as humanly possible in summer – which I know technically is no makeup at all, but that’s a topic for another day – so I may as well make sure my skin looks good.
Summer fruit and veges. Oh yes, after a long winter of f’ing apples and pears, we are finally at nectarines, strawberries, apricots, watermelon et al. I am going to eat my own body weight in strawberries by Christmas: believe it. In addition, it’s the season of fresh salads, avocado on toast with ripe sun-sweetened tomato and a whisper of cracked pepper, crunchy cobs of corn and capsicum grilled on the barbecue. All of this is good for the body and the mind. Shove as much of this down your gullet as you can before we’re back to pies and comforting pastas.
Shorts, skirts, breezy dresses. I am so sick of my jeans. If I wear another pair of leggings ever again it will be too soon. My white legs want to get amongst it and (controversially) really want a bit of tan. So, right after I slap on a layer of Piz Buin (the fake tan favoured by all women in my family) I will be getting out my denim shorts and I will be putting on a white shirt and I will be marching myself down to the beach to read a book. If the wind stays away I might wear that really cute white dress I bought two years ago and have only had the opportunity to wear twice.
So, that’s my list of cheeriness for this time of year. Naturally it would be totally different in winter – pies would be getting a lot of screen time for starters. I’d love to know what everyone else is enjoying at the moment (maybe we can all steal from each other!) – the more happiness the merrier. And Christmas is the season of merriment after all!
Gives you wings?
August 30th, 2010
A gift basket
I have had the Death Flu of DEATH over the past week, and having my period has made it that much worse. Every time I cough or sneeze or blow my nose, my tampon has shifted around inside me. It’s not like I have a particularly capacious vagina or anything either – as far as I’m aware, anyway. It’s just a sucky part of life.
Another sucky part about having your period? Feeling continually damp. Sure, you’ve got a tampon in to catch the blood and most of the chunks, but yet there’s still “liquid” that escapes. I’m using the very euphemistic term from the accompanying literature because damned if I know what it actually is. It doesn’t seem to be blood. It’s not lady selflubrication. It’s just there and wet and if you wear all cotton underpants they stay wet all day and it’s not comfortable. But Carefree Flexia think that they can change that for me.
“CAREFREE® Flexia® tampons are the first and only tampons designed with SOFTFOLDS® flexible wings that catch the fluid other tampons may miss. These wings draw the fluid to the inner core of the tampon helping to prevent leakage from the base.”
When they offered to send me out a gift parcel to try the tampons, along with some bath soak and chocolates, of course I said yes. Will the tampons leave me feeling dry? Confident? Carefree? Will I totally be jetskiing around in white togs if I use them? Stay tuned to find out!
Remember – you’re never going to get a promotion without a fresh vag. So do what you gotta to get ahead!
I Smell Pretty: Linden Leaves Review
June 2nd, 2010Out here in the Hutt we like to bathe every month or so just like the big city folks. So I was pretty happy when Jo asked me if I would like to review one of the Linden Leaves gift sets just in time for my scheduled bath.
The set she gave me was the “In Love Again” fragrance which is a blend of neroli, vanilla, and sandalwood. Sort of. I was expecting something hippyish and essential oily, but it is really more of a perfume-y scent. It actually reminds me of a perfume my mother wore in the late 70s/early 80s which I have no idea of the name of, but which makes the fragrance very comforting to me.
The soap comes in a printed cardboard box and my easily pleased mind was happy to find that the print extends right into the box. So excited, in fact, that I had to take a photo:
It has a nice creamy lather and strong perfume, which doesn’t linger on the skin–a plus or minus depending on your preference. It’s a decent sized soap and if I’d thought about it before diving into the bath I would have cut it in to two pieces.
The body lotion has a light whipped texture making it a good choice for summer and the fragrance in this definitely hangs around. Does it moisturise? I have absolutely no idea. I have the kind of skin that stays resolutely normal no matter what I do to it. The lotion does sink in quickly without leaving any greasiness behind and given that the second ingredient–behind water–is almond oil, I’m assuming it’s doing something at least vaguely moisturising to my skin.
Linden Leaves have given us four of these gift sets to give away so if you’re a fan of being clean and smelling nice enter here.
Review: Bodyshop Nutmeg & Vanilla body scrub
March 29th, 2010
Amy and I always strive to make it really clear when we’ve been given products to review and when we’ve paid for them, because that always effects our reviews, even if we try to not let it. Another ethical dilemma that I’ve come up against recently is what happens when the product I want to review is a gift? So, full disclosure, for Xmas the lovely Lisa gave me this body scrub. It was an excellent present – she knows I like body products, and she also knows that I love the smell of vanilla and spices. So, absolute props to Lisa for the thoughtful gift. But she’s not under review here, the scrub is. Does it do what it says it does?
Get smooth, radiant skin this season with a luxurious creamy exfoliating scrub with nutmeg and natural exfoliants to leave skin feeling soft,smooth and delicately fragranced with the comforting scent of toasted nutmeg and vanilla.
Well, it smells lovely in the shower, although the scent doesn’t carry much further afterwards. And it does feel luxurious and creamy. But it doesn’t feel like a scrub! I know that I have strict scrub requirements (I like it to feel really really rough) which both products I’ve disliked (Celebration Banana Cream Pie scrub) and products I love (Nature’s essence) fail at, compared to my awesome homemade sugar scrub. This Bodyshop scrub contains crushed walnut shells and petunia seeds for exfoliation, so it feels a little gritty, but not very. Plus, the petunia seeds look kind of like bugs, and so they’re not very much fun to have all over you – although it’d be hilarious to give to someone who’s been smoking P and is already freaking out about insects anyway. It’s a bit messy in the shower floor and walls, but washes away pretty easy with a direct stream of water. If you just want a very very gentle scrub, it could suit you, or you could use it with a scrubbing mitt for a real good go. It was a present so I don’t know how much it cost, but Bodyshop stuff in general isn’t very cheap. You can feel virtuous that the honey in it is fair-trade, but for an every day thorough scrub, I’d recommend you invest in some almond oil and a nice essential oil and make your own instead.
Review: Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me
March 4th, 2010
Paula, I’m never going to the cosmetics counter without you…never ever again.
I’ve said it before: Consumer Magazine NZ does not give enough thought to the beauty industry. Think about the proportion of your personal or household income spent on hair products, body washes, lotions, fragrance, cosmetics….it’s huge! I’ve looked many times at Consumer’s index of product reviews, and while it’s brimming with appliances, electronics, and service providers, you’ll find very few beauty product reviews.
I can’t think why, because Paula Begoun, author of ‘Don’t go to the Cosmetic Counter Without Me’, makes it look easy.
Basically, she looks at the ingredients list of each product; cross references them against published research; checks back against product claims; weighs the price of the product; and bam! product is reviewed. (OK, so there is a little more to it.)
The book is really a database of the vast majority of beauty products reviewed using the same robust method alongside a simple rating system. Readers can quickly read up on a particular product before purchasing, or look up Paula’s recommendations. If you have preferences for non-animal tested products, paraben-free products, etc there’s enough info there for you to narrow down your search for the best products for you.
And, Paula has a complete and frequently updated database online at beautypedia.com which I also subscribed to. (The book came with a coupon for half price subscription using the code: BP50. But you didn’t hear that from me.) I haven’t been posting on ppp recently because I have been scouring the database for reviews of every product I can think of.
I love beauty products, but that doesn’t mean I have to be made a fool of by marketing and sales creeps. Not anymore! Thanks Paula.
