Friday, 27 June 2014

First Impression: The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about a product that I've been itching to try for a while, and since I finally got my grabby hands on a little sample pot I can tell you all about my First Impressions of The Body Shop's Vitamin C Skin Boost!
What Does It Do?
"This instant radiance-booster refreshes and smoothes skin and enhances its natural glow.

  • Enhances natural radiance
  • Contains light-reflective particles
  • Gives skin a silky-smooth finish
  • Can be worn alone or under make-up
 
Ingredients
Cyclopentasiloxane (Skin Conditioning Agent), Dimethicone (Skin Conditioning Agent), Cyclohexasiloxane (Conditioning Agent), Dimethicone Crosspolymer (Emulsion Stabilizer), Synthetic Fluorphlogopite (Viscosity Increasing Agent), Mica (Opacifying Agent), HDI/Trimethylol Hexyllactone Crosspolymer (Anticaking Agent), Ascorbic Acid (Antioxidant), Bertholletia Excelsa Seed Oil (Emollient), Tocopherol (Antioxidant), Glycerin (Humectant), Parfum/Fragrance (Fragrance), Ethylhexyl Hydroxystearate (Skin-Conditioning Agent/Emollient), Polysilicone-11 (Film Former), Linalool (Fragrance Ingredient), Limonene (Fragrance Ingredient), Silica (Absorbent), Benzyl Benzoate (Fragrance Ingredient), Citral (Fragrance Ingredient), Aqua/Water (Solvent), Myrciaria Dubia Fruit Extract (Skin Conditioning Agent), Hexyl Cinnamal (Fragrance Ingredient), Citronellol (Fragrance Ingredient), CI 77891/Titanium Dioxide (Colorant)." (1)
This is such an interesting product to try out, and I'm really glad that I picked up a tester size first because I'm totally not sure what to think about this product! As you can see above, it has a thick silicone texture and contains a lot of gold and pink shimmers. The shimmer does translate to the skin, but instead of looking shiny and glittery, it gives you a warm healthy glow which I totally love!
This skin boost makes my skin look healthy, moisturized, glowy, matte, (weird combo right!), and the silicone texture makes for a really great makeup base! It smells like oranges, which to me smells absolutely divine and makes me feel happy in the cold morning while I'm doing my skincare.

However

I don't think it works particularly well as a skincare item. Because of the huge amount of fragrance in this product, I cannot imagine that it would work well with sensitive skin, and a quick look of my favorite skincare reviewing site Paula's Choice Beautypedia shows that she somewhat agree's with me in her scathing review of this product.

"Vitamin C Skin Boost is a silicone-based serum that contains more fragrance than vitamin C (listed as ascorbic acid). In addition to the fragrance, this also contains several fragrance ingredients which only add to the irritation the fragrance presents. Fragrance isn’t skin care and there are plenty of serums with vitamin C that either omit fragrance entirely or contain a much lower amount. This isn’t the serum to choose if you’re keen on vitamin C, especially because there are precious few other beneficial ingredients to be found here. For the money, if you’re concerned about signs of aging and want a serum with vitamin C and lots of other youth-enhancing ingredients, look no further than Paula’s Choice RESIST Super Antioxidant Concentrate Serum." (2)


Would I Purchase This Product?
Maybe! I do love it for a swift boost of endorphins in the morning, but since it's almost $50 here in New Zealand it's a little on the pricier side, (although in comparison to other primers it's right on price target!). A little does go a long way with this Skin Boost and it does give me a lovely healthy glow with a smooth foundation application afterwards. To be honest, if it was on sale I would probably buy it, but for $50 I'm just a little iffy.

What do you Princesses think of this Vitamin C Skin Boost? Have you used this product or something similar before? 

Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Review: Sasa.com

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about my shopping experience with Sasa! Sasa is an extremely popular store that sells Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Western beauty products and I have no idea why I've never shopped with them before! I decided that I should probably try shopping at different stores other than Roseroseshop and Cosmetic Love who are my favorite stores so that I can try a wider variety of products (as well as let you Princessess know what I think about my shopping experiences!).
Sasa took two weeks to ship to New Zealand, which is pretty standard. The box actually took another two weeks to get to me because it got a little lost and ended up in the international holding area! *sigh* NZ Post. I'm not super impressed with the packaging of the products to be honest. They were packed neatly into a bubble bag and then into a box of Styrofoam chunks. Nothing was broken, but if anything was made of glass (nail polish bottles, foundation bottles, skincare etc) then it would be so easy to break as opposed to being individually bubble wrapped.
I've had these items for about a month, so I'll be giving you my brief first impressions on all of the products! ^.^
Holy sweet cheesus these have gorgeous packaging! They are totally up there with my Etude House Etoinette packaging (I'm a sucker for pretty packaging!)
This pencil is everything I wanted Etude House's Creamy Drawing Show pencil to be and more. It's a soft white (not too harsh for waterlines), creamy with subtle shimmer and amazing packaging. If you love Sailor Moon or just cute products and packaging, I totally recommend this pencil!
My favorite Holy Grail liquid eyeliner is the Dolly Wink Black Liquid Liner - but this is a serious competitor for the Holy Grail status! It does have some glitter in the formula, but I can never really see it on my line, so that doesn't bother me. It's easy to use, lasts all day and does not smudge. The pretty packaging doesn't hurt either! ^.^


I'm actually really disappointed in both of these products. The mascara works really well for voluminous fluffy lashes, but it is really sticky, so whenever I blink I can feel my lashes trying to hug each other. The eyeliner is ok, but it smudges on my oily lids, so I won't use it very much. These products are probably suited to people with non oily lids I guess! It's such a pity because they have gorgeous, elegant packaging!

I love this cheek duo! The peach pink is super pigmented, blends fabulously and lasts all day even on oily cheeks! Also the packaging is just plain beautiful. I will totally be collecting the rest of the colours!

This is an absolutely lovely BB Cream! It's fairly pale and very warm toned, which means it does a fair job of matching my pale warm toned skin, and when I'm feeling lazy I'll slap this on and it'll match me well enough (as long as you don't look closely at my neck!) Its has a nice soft matte finish and doesn't get too oily throughout the day. Also the packaging is SO CUTE. Can you see a theme in the haul?
 Ok, how seriously cute are these little endangered animal lipsticks?
Ok so the bad news is that these are absolutely TERRIBLE if you have dry or flaky lips. They settle into the fine lines on my lips and make me look tragic. :S Some shades are worse than others, with the Orange bear looking the worst, and the Pink Dolphin looking the most flattering. They are quite pigmented, glossy and appear a little brighter than the bullet looks. 



My seal came to me a little damaged :C I was actually surprised that all of the others were ok, because lipstick is so squishy and fragile!


I've been very curious about EOS for a long time since New Zealand doesn't sell that brand and finally went ahead and purchased one of their lip balm and hand cream sets. I'm not actually too disappointed in this lip balm despite it's huge hype here! It's fairly moisturizing, smells amazing and comes in a highly portable little ball. I think the hand cream is even better, because it's so highly fragrances (a total plus for me) and portable, plus they are in cute pastel colours! I think they're a little overpriced (especially when you see them being sold in NZ for $20) but they're good products nonetheless.
I've also been interested in these acne dressing patches for some time! I'm TERRIBLE at picking acne and scabs (which results in more scars) so these were actually a godsend for me. They helped my cystic acne calm down as well, instead of staying a huge sore red lump for two weeks, they were large for two days and then gradually disappeared over the next two weeks. I've already run out, so next time I'll be buying a bigger pack! ><
What I Love
- Great range of products
- Genuine Authentic products
- Fairly priced products
- Average shipping time
- Lots of sales
- Pick/earn samples
What I Don't Love
- Products unsafely packaged


Final Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed my shopping experience at Sasa! I thought that they had a fantastic range of products for very fair prices and they seem to be having a sale 24/7. I will definitely be shopping there again!

Have any of you Princesses shopped at Sasa before? What was your experience like?

Monday, 23 June 2014

Manicure Monday: Louis Vuitton and Rhinestones

Hello Princesses!

Today I have the last manicure in my little designer mani series, which is a Louis Vuitton and Rhinestone manicure! I really love the Louis Vuitton Speedy bags, one day I'll be able to afford one of those *sigh* but until then, here's a manicure which is not based on Louis Vuitton bags, but literally just stuff I wanted to have on my nails this Monday.
I used Zoya's Gaia for the white base, and Designer Metal Plates and AB Rhinestones (2mm) from Fullmoon07! I really like how this manicure turned out, the white was much more wearable than I had anticipated but the LV metal plate looked really tiny on my long nails ><

What do you Princesses think about this manicure? 
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