Naive Facial Cleansing Foam Part II

I was hoping my last Naive Facial Cleansing Foam in Aloe would finish sooner so I can start using the Peach one, but it lasted all the way through December, so I got impatient and started using the Peach one anyway :P



And what do you know - I like the Peach one much better! It actually smells better! It still has a little bit of that generic soap smell, but mix in with a bit of peach and powder. During washing, it actually reminds me of the soft powdery fragrance of the original Olay beauty bar (couldn't find a good picture - I guess they don't make those anymore!), before they added all sorts of different scents, formulas, and whatnot. So yeah, I guess I really like the scent of this Facial Cleansing Foam in Peach.

For comparison sake, the Peach one actually gentler and less stripping than the Aloe one. I use the same amount to wash my face, but the Peach hasn't dry out my face yet and I've been using it daily for more than 2 weeks now. And given how dry it is in my apartment right, that's pretty darn good! We'll see if it will keep up though. It's not my perfect face wash, so the search's still on. I enjoy trying different stuff anyway, so it's not like the search will end anytime soon :)

See my previous Naive Facial Cleansing Foam post.

L'Occitane Verbena Body Lotion

Over the duration of my trip to visit my parents, I finally got to use the L'Occitane Verbena Body Lotion from Getaway Treasures set. I bought the set a year ago but didn't get around to try everything in it...until now. Good thing the lotion was perfectly fine and wasn't all melty and nasty like old lotion can get.


This Getaway Treasures set also includes the Shea Ultra Rich Shampoo and Conditioner, Verbena Shower Gel, Lavender Hand Cream, Shea Extra Gentle Soap Milk, and Shea Extra Gentle Soap Lavender.


I expected this Verbena Body Lotion to be light, and it was light, but to my surprise it was actually quite moisturizing too! I switched back and forth between this lotion and the Victoria's Secret Naturally Acai Berry & Magnolia Hydrating Body Lotion, you know, on days I didn't want to come out of the shower smelling like a berry shake :P


This lotion was thicker than the VS lotion, but it absorbed just as quickly and was even more moisturizing. The downside was that the verbena scent was really strong, a bit too strong, which was why I had to switch to the berry shake for a few days. Hubby really liked it though, and oddly enough, the strong fragrance didn't bother him. So over all, this lotion was good, but again, like the VS lotion I'm not going to buy the larger size. Let's just say the price isn't worth it: the 15.2 fl.oz bottle retails for $38, 8.4 fl.oz for $24, and a 1 fl.oz travel size for $3. Forget it.

Canmake Cheek Gradation Part II

After 2 years, I'm finally posting a follow up for my first post on these Canmake Cheek Gradation! My sister brought me 3 of them this time, including the newest addition to the lineup.

The colors available are:
- 01 Pink Stripes
- 02 Orange Stripes
- 03 Brown Stripes (this color has been discontinued)
- 04 Chocolate Stripes
- 05 Peach Stripes (the newest color!)

The texture of the blush hasn't changed at all since the first color #02 Orange Stripes I tried more than 2 years ago. It's not the softest blush I own, but it's still much better than some of the older Maquillage highlighter -ahem!- Design Face Color, and it costs only a fraction of the Maquillage offender, $7 vs. $20 refill only! More good points include not puffing up a cloud during application and the different color stripes can be used as eye shadows in a pinch ;) Over all, for what it costs, it's actually a really decent steal!

There are down sides too, of course. The packaging is totally generic, so for those who are into nice packaging, you're in the wrong market with Canmake. Also, the included brush was crappy, but I use my own brushes anyway so I don't really care :P And I really shouldn't say the included brushes were all crap because I saved them to apply facial masks with instead! They work quite well there.

- 01 Pink Stripes: my mum's favorite blush, believe it or not. It actually isn't anywhere as bright as it looks, and I can tell you it looks pretty darn intimidating in real life too, not just in pictures! Fact is, though, that this "blush" is sheer, and therefore the unlikeliest pick for most people who are looking for a real blusher. I think this is my most preferred Cheek Gradation, but only because I prefer sheer makeup in general. On me it only gave the tiniest hint of fresh pink, so really it will be more of a face brightener/highlighter for most people. My mum sweeps the bottommost bar on her eyes and the upper 3 bars on her cheeks, and she says it keeps her looking alert all day. I think she went through like 3 or 4 of them already and my sister keeps her stocked up pretty well :D


From top to bottom:
- Dusty rose, some shimmer, low intensity. It looks more shimmery than it actually is.
- Muted hot pink, scarce shimmer, sheer. Applies almost matte.
- Bubblegum pink, fine shimmer, low intensity. Applies matte.
- Pinky chalk, shimmer, sheer. The most shimmery color bar, goes on with violet iridescent shine.


- 04 Chocolate Stripes: this color was introduced as a limited edition, but it was sold out everywhere and was so popular they brought it back permanently! This blush is also the most pigmented one out of all the Cheek Gradation (probably the reason it's so popular). The colors intimidated me at first, they look so dark (on the computer screen and in pictures) I thought it was supposed to be a bronzer of some sort. As a result, I skipped over it many times until my sister brought me one out of the blue and then I thought, oh, it doesn't look so bad :) Anyway, the blush turns mauvey on me. Pretty nice, although it will probably look better on a slightly more tanned complexion. The gray winter sky and my pale face just don't do this blush justice right now. Also, this blush is definitely more shimmery than the others!


From top to bottom:
- Milk chocolate, fine shimmer, medium intensity. Goes on luminous with some brown, and yep, pretty pigmented.
- Bronzy mauve with some copper, shimmer, medium intensity. Probably the most shimmery color bar out of the bunch.
- Powder pink, shimmer, low intensity.
- Beige, shimmer, sheer.


- 05 Peach Stripes: one of the prettiest peachy-coral blush I've seen, very similar to Este Lauder Tender Blush in Peach Nuance. It looks bright, and it goes on bright being the second most pigmented out of the 4 Cheek Gradations I own, so I have to be careful during application or I'll look overdone. With a light hand though, it's a perfect wash of peach. I know it looks just as shimmery as the #04 Chocolate Stripes, but it's not. Love it!


Top to bottom:
- Coral, fine shimmer, medium intensity. Applies luminous like the top color bar in the #04 Chocolate Stripes above.
- Orangey-peach, scarce shimmer, low intensity. Applies almost matte.
- Fleshy clay pink (although it looks pinker in the picture, it's not), fine shimmer, low intensity. Applies luminous.
- Airy pink, shimmer, low intensity.


See my previous Canmake Cheek Gradation post.

Victoria's Secret Naturally Acai Berry & Magnolia Hydrating Body Lotion

This Victoria's Secret Naturally Acai Berry & Magnolia Hydrating Body Lotion is another deluxe sample tube I got from one of those "beauty bag" promotions at VS. I brought it with me on my trip to visit my parents since I didn't want to bring my cold weather favorite, the Oshima Tsubaki Oil. Pure oil in a heavy glass bottle is not something I'd want to travel with.



I had low expectation for this lotion (because of the magnolia thing), but it turned out quite alright. My first impression of it was exactly as I had anticipated - waaaaay too flowery! Putting this on after my shower, I smelled like I had doused myself in perfume. Ick. It was so strong that I decided to give it a few days' break, lest poor hubby will suffocate. When I came back to it several days later, the berry scent somehow became dominant over the flowery scent, and since then over the course of a couple of weeks, it actually sort of grew on me.

Moisture wise, it was a lot better than I thought. I applied it right after my shower when my skin was still damp, so it absorbed instantly and didn't leave any greasy aftermath. As dry as it is where I am right now (with my folks), it's been doing a heck of a job keeping my skin soft and balance. So far, so good. No scratchy scaly itches yet! No, I'm still not about to go out there and buy the full size in this scent (at $12/bottle). However, I did go check out the lotion and found that the lotion is also available in Grapefruit, Lime and Mint scent, which sounds very darn interesting. I have a thing for citruses and mints. I might just take that bait, provided there's a good promotion/sale :P

Last but not least, I know I'm being anal but I want to point out that the name of this lotion this is a classic case of mis-nomer/faulty-misleading description, making hydration and moisture out to be one and the same. The descriptions on the bottles all says "blah blah blah & hydrating shea butter." Erm...the last time I check, shea butter is a "natural fat" and since it is an oil, it can only be moisturizing and not hydrating. Surely the lotion can be formulated to be moisturizing and hydrating at the same time, but the shea butter itself cannot be hydrating. That is all.

Lancome Renergie Eye

Lancome Renergie Eye is another product way overdue for a review since I have been using it for a few months now. I didn't buy the full size product but got an extremely generous deluxe sample size that contains almost half the full the size product! And yeah, a few months into usage and I still have half a pot to go even though I use it more deliberately now because it's so dry! At this rate, that little pot will probably last me until the warm weather arrives. Crazy!


***Picture from Lancome USA.

I use this at night as a more intense eye treatment before going to bed, and yep, that's about all it's good for, intense moisturizing, because I have yet to see any firming or anti-wrinkling action. That said, I'm not *that* old and yet to need *that* much help. It would be sort of unfair for me to judge this eye cream given there was not much it could have done for me to begin with (for now...). May be I should have given it to my mum instead. Now that I think about it, it's sorta...a waste on me :S

Anyway, it is a decent and moisturizing eye cream. If I use too much, it can get a bit greasy and won't absorb completely. It is scented, as with all Lancome products, but the scent is a light powder fragrance and nothing intrusive.

DHC Light & Smooth Shampoo & Conditioner

You know how DHC gives out 4 free samples with every order? I was already curious about this Light & Smooth Shampoo & Conditioner, and plus traveling with toiletries is such a b*tch nowadays with airport security, so whenever ordering I always remember to get myself a bunch of these samples to satisfy my curiosity and travel with. Each sample packet is quite large. A shampoo packet lasts me 3-4 days and a conditioner packet lasts me twice as long since I use conditioner sparingly. As a result, a stack of these samples and I had enough shampoo and conditioner for a whole month of travel! Two (or was that three) birds with one stone - very convenient, no? ^.^

DHC Light & Smooth Shampoo & Conditioner

***Pictures from DHC North America.

First off, let me say I absolutely LOVE the scent!! It smelled soooooooo good, a mix of fruity apple, just heavenly and I couldn't get enough of that smell! Secondly, it made my hair really soft, no where near the instant foaming and rinsing softness of the Asience Shampoo & Conditioner, but you know, my hair was soft when it was dry. Unfortunately, I'm actually glad I gave this shampoo and conditioner a fair trial and didn't buy the full size. They're too moisturizing for my hair. I shower and wash my hair at night, but no matter how little shampoo I use or whether or not I rinsed with conditioner, my hair was a greasy mess the next morning (yep, Asience did the exact same thing!).

Perhaps another reason why I'm glad I didn't buy the full size is the (outrageous) price - $19.50 per bottle!!! I guess that price is normal and is even on the low range for salon-brand haircare products, but goddamn, it's DHC for poop's sake! It's not a salon brand and they're not even specialized in haircare! Good thing I didn't buy the full size or I'd be totally outraged right now, and not just because the stuff wasn't compatible with my hair.

Anyways, done ranting. If you have thick and/or dry and damaged hair (and don't mind paying that cut throat price), you might want to consider trying this shampoo and conditioner. As for me, thank goodness there's still Shiseido Super Mild.

Lavshuca Press Color Powder

These Lavshuca Press Color Powders are old and were discontinued a few years ago, but only recently did I started using them. Talking about catching up with the time :X These came in pretty white pearly compacts with pink iridescent sheen. A mirror and a small brush were included but I didn't use the brush at all. There were 3 colors available: YL-1, PK-1, and BE-1, but to be honest I'm not sure what was the point of the "colors".



The powder inside was divided into 2 color blocks, the left block was a pale powder that perhaps was meant to be a highlighter with some shimmers that were not really visible at all. And regardless whether the left block or the entire compact, I think both failed as a highlighter anyway. Upon application, it brightened a little, but mostly it was just an okay translucent powder and nothing more. The right block was "colored" and matte. While it was supposed to provide *some* coverage, again it was so sheer that it was practically another translucent powder. So yeah, that was why I don't really get why they even bothered having different colors or separating into color blocks inside the compact.

The powder itself was just alright. It wasn't too chalky but a bit on the dry side and nowhere as soft as I would have preferred. It was definitely not the best translucent powder I've used, not even one of the better translucent powders I have. So really, these Press Color Powder weren't highlighters but were not exactly translucent powders either and I guess in the end, I don't get the *whole* package!

- YL-1: pale ivory with some shimmers on the left, and matte, muted mustard-yellow on the right. Because individually they didn't make much of a difference, so I swirled them both together and sweep over my forehead to brighten things up just a tad.




- PK-1: pale powder pink with some shimmers on the left, and matte strawberry milk pink on the right. Again I swirl them both together and sweep underneath my eye area above the cheek bone for a wee bit of brightening.

Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF50+ PA+++

This Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF50+ PA+++ is waaaaay overdue for a review! I've been using it daily since more than a month ago, after I ran out of my Allie Comfortable Sunscreen EX WaterTouch.

Skin Aqua is a fairly new line of sun screen products, introduced only about a year or two ago. I've been dying to get my hands on these, but my usual online sources didn't carry them for the longest time. Sasa.com only started stocking them recently, albeit under the wrong name. The product page calls it SunPlay (another Mentholatum sun screen product line), but the accompanying picture shows Skin Aqua instead and the descriptions says "UV Mosture Milk SPF50 PA+++." Whatever, my sister brought me this bottle on her trip home this past summer, but I will probably get it from Sasa.com next time. Someone's clearly confused and Sasa.com needs to fix either the picture or the product page/description, but for $10.80 for 40 mL, I think I'd buy it anyway and hope I'll end up with the right product :)

See the list of ingredients translated from Japanese.

Soap Crazy Part IV (Picture Heavy!)

I know I'm just now posting this, but the below were all pre-holiday appetite whetting, not that I was eating the darn (albeit yummy smelling) soaps or anything...

Anyway, I'm not sure if my family/friends are all sick of soaps now since they get soaps from me a lot :X Don't get me wrong, I never ever EVER sell these soaps for money. Most are given to my immediate family or to close friends/colleagues. I only keep a few to myself and hubby to use. And yes, everyone got even more soaps from me for presents this holiday :D So there will be a major soap post coming soon in January LOL!

As usual, my favorite Anderson Soap Company.

- Oatmeal Milk & Honey Exfoliating Soap: after the very first use, hubby exclaimed "Wow, I love this soap!" and asked me if we have any more of it. Given that he rarely expresses such enthusiasm with any of the stuff I blog about, this bar of soap was impressive indeed. Its name makes you expect a warm and sweet scent, but it had a warm and woodsy scent instead, which was why hubby liked it so much. The soap itself was also surprisingly milder than most soaps from Anderson Soap Company. Loved it and will probably buy again and again.








- Peppermint Oatmeal Exfoliating Soap: this soap smelled heavenly pepperminty but not too overwhelming like the Heathen's Hearth Tea Tree & Peppermint Glycerin Soap below. I'm using this right now while visiting with my folks. Out here, it's brutally dry and I'm very thankful this soap hasn't crack up my hands yet!








- The Body Shop Daisy Soap: I bought this soap because for some reason, when I saw "Daisy Soap" I thought, aww...how cute, soap with a daisy picture on it. Little did I expect for it to smell like a freakin' daisy bush too! Yikes. I'm soooooo not a floral person and this bar went straight to my mum, who probably appreciated it more than I did.


And the last of my Heathen's Hearth bars.

- Tea Tree & Peppermint All Natural Glycerin Soap: This bar made an appearance in my very first Soap Crazy post. I love peppermint anything and had wanted to keep it to myself but in the end, it became a present to a dear friend, who peeled the wrapper back to give me a whiff of the soap. The tea tree and peppermint combination was ridiculously fresh and invigorating, and soon after I went back for a second bar for myself. When I was communicating with the seller, she mentioned she had 2 types of Tea Tree & Peppermint soaps, one regular and one with activated clay, which turns the soap black. In fact, the label on the bar below had a line that was crossed out with black marker, that line was supposed to say "with Activated Clay." Now I'm fine with black soaps, but I wanted to the try the regular bar since that was what my friend let me smell and I LOVED that smell! So in the end I went with the original, good ol' regular bar.



But boy, oh, boy I got a bit of a shock when I actually got my bar. Before removing the plastic wrap I smelled the soap again and it smelled like what I had hoped. Then I peeled back the wrap and took a whiff, just like I had done with my friend's, and thought, hmm, it smelled...different. Very different. This time, the tea tree and peppermint combination was much, much, stronger than the bar I first bought for my friend. So strong that it began to smell like...gasoline. I mean, woo wee, it stank! I quickly got rid of the plastic wrap, thinking it was just the concentration of the scent that repulsed me. After all, these soaps are scented with oils, which are all pretty damn potent. Sadly, however, after more than half way through and the bar still had this lingering odor of gasoline, I concluded that this batch of soap was unfortunately botched and over-scented. Yuck. So glad my friend's bar was way better. I guess that's the risk with hand-poured/homemade soaps. Each batch is made slightly different than the last, and sometimes, that difference is killer!



- Pomegranate Vanilla Natural Goat's Milk Soap: this lovely smelling bar went to a friend in dryer climate, knowing the soap's melty nature.




- Lavender Vanilla Natural Goat's Milk Soap: this bar also went to a friend in dryer climate.






- Oatmeal Milk & Honey All Natural Goat's Milk Soap: I also have a thing for the combination of oatmeal, milk, and honey and I have several bars of soap in this exact same scent from different Etsy shops LOL! Anyway, so it was hard for me to part with this bar too, but it ended up going to another friend.




- Vanilla Brown Sugar Natural Goat's Milk Soap: I was hoping for something more original but this turned out to be the Bath & Body Works-type Vanilla Brown Sugar. Yeah, I was a bit disappointed, so off it went to yet another friend.




- White Tea Natural Goat's Milk Soap: Same here. I was expecting a tea-like scent, what I got was spiced tea, which was really too spicy for me. I passed it on to a dear friend who loves tea.




- Pelican Rice Bran Amino Soap: Pelican is a Japanese brand, but all I could find was another soap they make though, the Deitanseki Clay & Charcoal Facial Cleansing Bar for sale at Amazon.com, nothing else though, unfortunately. The Rice Bran Amino Soap itself was just okay. It smelled good, a light soft scent, but upon washing there was another slight odor very similar the plastic-y foamy odor in cold process soaps that I hated. Luckily, this odor didn't linger on and went away quickly as soon as my hands dried. Other than that, the soap was very drying. I've read that rice bran is a very gentle and mild ingredient in cosmetics, but this soap sucked the moisture out of my skin and turned it into a dry twig. So yeah, I probably won't buy this again.


See my previous posts:
- Soap Crazy
- Soap Crazy Part II
- Soap Crazy Part III

SkinFood Carrot Collagen Eye Sheet

Back in the beginning of this month, I received a fabulous surprise from my friend Cacaopack, and it includes a SkinFood Carrot Collagen Eye Sheet. I promptly used it the very next week and wrote up the review below but didn't get around to actually posting it until now. And yes, I had only 1 pair so I must warn you that the "review" below is more like an initial reaction :)



The first impression was that this eye sheet was very similar to, but ultimately lighter than, the Hadabisei Under Eye Gel Masks. The eye sheet was packaged in a plastic tray sealed with aluminum foil, and this tray was then sealed in the outer packaging as seen in the picture above. Overall it gave a very clean feeling, since the final product was packaged twice, but really I thought that was a bit much.

Upon opening the foil seal to the plastic tray, I immediately understood why the final product was so carefully packaged - the eye sheet itself was actually quite thin and there was minimal serum inside the tray, so the eye sheet ran the risk of drying out if not packaged tightly. Applying the eye sheet to my eyes was a breeze. They were no where as sticky as the Hadabisei ones, so I could easily adjust them until I got them where I wanted them to be. Unlike the Hadabisei, there wasn't any extra essence dripping down my cheek either, which can be interpreted both positively and negative depending on your skin. Since my skin is extra dry, so I would have appreciated a bit more essence.

In the end, these SkinFood eye sheet dried up rather quickly, in about 15 minutes. Mind you, it was also very extremely dry inside my apartment at the time (about 20% humidity content), and I will have to get more of these to try during the summer to see if it would any longer. Regardless, my eye area was decently moisturized, a bit more would have been nice, but overall it wasn't bad.