Store Review - Syndrome

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about a super cute store called Syndrome! I made a purchase from this store last year (yep, I buy a lot of stuff) because I really wanted to try a lighter coloured wig. I always wanted to have blonde hair as a child, but because my hair is really dark brown (not black) it's incredibly difficult to maintain a light colour without having to spend a lot of money and time to touch up your roots ever couple of months.

Website Practicality

I made my purchase through Storenvy which is a website that I love to shop on! It's super safe, it tracks your purchases, you can create massive wish lists, watch stores and search through all of the stores to find a certain product. The Syndrome Store is incredibly aesthetically pleasing, easy to browse through by types of clothing and accessories, but the search bar is pretty hidden down the very bottom of the page.

Price Comparison

There are massive price differences between quality wigs (around $50USD) and super cheap wigs (off Ebay for about $5USD) but I since I'm new to wearing wigs I didn't want to try my luck out with Ebay wig and decided to try out the middle ranged wigs.

Syndrome Wig - $34.50 + Shipping $0.00 = $34.50
Insomnia Wig - $30.00 + Shipping $10.00 = $40.00

Bodyline Wig - $20.00 + Shipping $22.00 = $42.00

I'm not sure if Syndrome is offering free shipping because of Chinese New Year, but hey, free shipping! It was quite difficult finding similar looking wigs let alone identical wigs!

Shipping and Packaging

My purchase took the standard three weeks to arrive from China and was wrapped well in plastic wrap. The wig was stored in a plastic zip lock baggie and in a light net to stop it from getting tangled. Syndrome does not provide free wig caps, so I bought one from Ebay for $1. Nothing was harmed during transit.

Products

Finding a photo of this wig proved to be a little difficult since Syndrome no longer stocks it, but I found a photo lurking on Google Images. 

The first thing I noticed when opening the wig was that the colour was slightly off. On the original listing there were "real life photos" which showed the wig to be more of an ashy blonde, the above photo looks like a brown blonde and my wig looks more like a strawberry blonde.

It also shed a lot of hair when I picked it up. I wasn't running my fingers through it or brushing it either, it just shed clumps of hair.

The structure of the wig irritates me a lot. There is about 1/3 fringe and 2/3 long hair - barely. Either my head is super huge (a possibility for sure) or this wig is just cut weird because it's really hard to position the wig right to cover up the side hairs. Lets not even talk about how bald it looks on the top! No matter how I part it, this top section just looks wrong and a lot like a wig. The wig looks great with a hat or beanie, but in the 28 degree Celsius weather that I'm taking photos in, a beanie over a wig is the last thing I want to wear.

In all honesty, I'm not a fan of the colour of this wig unless I've colour corrected it (like below). It's just too strawberry and warm toned for my liking, not to mention that I need to wear a hat and pin the fringe to make it look legit.

What I Love

- Super cute selection of clothes and accessories

- Good selection of wigs

- Well priced (for the most part)

What I Don't Love

- Wig colour is quite different

- Wig structure and quality isn't fantastic

Final Thoughts

I feel incredibly under qualified to review and talk about wigs, so I will leave the comment section open to debate about the wigs quality! I actually enjoyed shopping with Syndrome and I would recommend the store for well priced clothes and accessories (I can't comment on the quality though!). I don't really like the colour and cut of this wig, but I really want to try and find a cute pastel pink or lavender wig in the future anyway! I'm also totally keen for these Sailor Moon sweaters from Syndrome though - how cute are they!!

First Impression - LUSH Toothy Tabs

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about LUSH's Toothy Tabs! There are currently trending on Makeup Obsessives (but to be honest by the time this is posted it's most likely old news) and the claim is that these little pill sized toothpaste tabs give you whiter teeth!

 What Does It Do?

Dirty
Give your mouth a blast of freshness before a night (or day) of Dirty fun. These innovative, revolutionary tooth cleansing tabs will clean your teeth and leave your mouth minty fresh. Helen Ambrosen worked incredibly hard to create our new solid toothpaste and she's made us proud; Dirty is made with spearmint to freshen your breath and foaming agents to scrub your pearly whites clean in the morning. (1)

Ultrablast

Wasabi has a powerful antibacterial action. It also hits your mouth with a refreshing blast of spice that makes your mouth feel completely clean. As Simon says, “It will blow your *ocks off.” (He meant socks.) (1)

How to use:
1. Pop a Toothy Tab into your mouth.
2. Crunch it up.
3. Start brushing with a wet toothbrush.
4. Brush your toofy pegs with the foam.
5. Do it for a good 3 minutes to get them extra clean.
6. Rinse your mouth out.
7. Et voila. Clean gnashers, a big cheesy grin and fresh breath

I didn't really want to take photo's of me brushing my teeth (weird) but basically what happens is you have to chew the pill and then brush your teeth with the crumbs. If the thought of chewing up pills makes you gag, or you don't like feeling weird textures in your mouth, I wouldn't recommend trying this product. I didn't think I would have a problem but holy moly I almost threw up the first time I used these little magical tabs. 

Likewise with the smell, if you don't think Wasabi/Lavender is going to be delicious for your mouth, or if you smell it and gag a little, DON'T PUT IT IN YOUR MOUTH. Learn from my mistakes. I couldn't stop gagging when I used the Ultrablast Toothy Tab. The awful combination of of the crumbled up pill texture and the smell of wasabi and lavender just did not do it for me and I had to rinse my mouth out with strong mouthwash like 5 times. Gross.

On the positive side, the Dirty Toothy Tabs worked well, (once I got over the gross texture) because they just taste like spearmint toothpaste. They didn't whiten my teeth (nor do they claim to). They get my teeth clean and are highly portable, I think you could even take these on a plane if you wanted to! ^.^

Would I Purchase This Product?

Absolutely not the Ultrablast flavour unless I wanted to throw up morning and night! The Dirty flavour only gets a maybe because it's just not pleasant for me to use because of the texture. I love that they are teeny tiny and super portable, perfect for camping or traveling because you only need a teeny bit of water to get a good clean, but the texture just kills me.

Have you tried LUSH's Toothy Tabs?

Review - The Body Shop Vitamin E Range

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about The Body Shop's Vitamin E range! I obviously don't have all of the range, but only a select few products that I've purchased full size! The packing is the cutest, pastel pink colour and everything smells amazing, (sort of like baby wipes smell almost), which is what initially attracted me to try this range!

 The first product that I have is the Vitamin E Gentle Facial Cleansing Wipes!

These wipes are supposed to remove makeup, cleanse, and tone the skin. I prefer not to remove eye makeup with these because I don't find them nearly as effective as my regular oil cleansers, but I do quite like them for removing face makeup! I try to cleanse my face after using these wipes anyway because my skin breaks out if I don't, but these are great for taking makeup off in a hurry, or late at night when you can't be bothered!

Vitamin E Gentle Facial Wash

This cleanser is amazing for a thorough yet gentle cleanse. It has the most pleasing pastel pink colour, foams slightly and leaves my face feeling clean and moisturized.

Vitamin E Sink In Moisture Mask

This moisture mask is absolutely adorable and amazing for moisturizing skin! Depending on how dry my skin is depends on how I use this mask. If my skin is super dry and sad, I'll pop a thin layer of this mask on my face and sleep with it over night. This leaves my skin feeling super soft (albeit greasy) in the morning. Otherwise, I'll use a slightly thicker layer of this mask for 20mins, wipe off the excess and massage the remainder into my skin! ^.^
 

Vitamin E Facial Oil

I was incredibly underwhelmed by this facial oil since I am a Rosehip Oil fanatic. This Vitamin E Oil provides a small amount of moisture and nourishment without leaving your face feeling greasy and oily, however it's not quite as nourishing as what I'm used to from Rosehip Oil! The dropper also only picks up a small amount, which is a little irritating.

 What I Love

- Well priced

- Cute packaging

- Lovely scent

- Products work really well

What I Don't Love

- The facial oil isn't my favourite!

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed using this range of skincare and will definitely be repurchasing everything apart from the Facial Oil, just because I really prefer the Rosehip Oil! Everything smells amazing, the packaging is pink, the price point is fair. What else could you need! ^.^

Have you tried the Body Shop Vitamin E range? 

Store Review - Skinlosophy

(Sponsored)
Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about a fairly new Asian Beauty store from Australia called Skinlosophy! As most of you know, I live in New Zealand, and we only have a couple of stores that physically sell Asian Beauty products. These stores are all in one mall, in one city, in the entire country, and I don't live in that city. -.- We also have one online store called Hikosencara, and these stores sell the "mainstream" or "marketable" cosmetics and skincare like Missha, Etude House and TonyMoly. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the mainstream brands, but there is so much more out there in terms of Asian Beauty and Skincare, and Skinlosophy fills a little of that gap with brands like 3CE, BanillaCo, Iope, Nature Republic and Sulawasho, so I was incredibly excited when Skinlosophy reached out to me to send me some Korean beauty goodies! ^.^

Website Practicality

I find the website design aesthetically pleasing, it's very clean and fresh looking! I love that there is a very obvious search bar (sometimes they get a little hidden with busy backgrounds) and that you can browse through brands, types of products (lip products, face products etc) or price range.

It's easy to create a login, sign in, add products to your cart and check out. I really like that every product has a description, ingredients list (great for people with allergies or sensitive skin) and pictures of the products.

Price Comparison

This is a little difficult because Skinlosophy is in AUD while Hikosencara is in NZD and Roseroseshop is in USD. I've converted them all into NZD but since the AUD is so low in comparison to USD this could change by a couple of dollars!

Skinlosophy - Kiss Kiss Patch $3.21 + Shipping $10.71 = $13.92
Hikosencara - Kiss Kiss Patch $4.00 + Shipping $3.50 = $7.50
RoseRoseShop - Kiss Kiss Patch $2.09 + Shipping $4.78 = $6.87

All of the prices are relatively similar for the products, but you can see that the shipping is where the difference in pricing really lies.

Shipping and Packaging

My package arrived after six working days, and came in a standard little box. All of my items were securely bubble wrapped and nothing was broken!

Products

Too Cool For School Egg Mousse Pack (100ml)- $18.00

Too Cool for School Egg Mousse Pack is a wash off type essence pack with very soft texture.


It forms very fine lather like genuine mousse, helping remove excess sebum and impurities without leading to tight sensation in addition to the functions of whitening, moisturizing and nourishing. 


The contained protein and vitelline extracted mainly from eggs are great skin moisturizers to refine your skin and make the skin shine with radiance.


Too Cool For School Egg Mousse Pack will turn your skin to become as smooth as the eggs surface. This is for all skin types, to use day and night.

When I saw the packaging for this product I was really intrigued! Eggs are supposed to be amazing for controlling pore size, but the smell of egg whites makes me want to vomit (literally, unfortunately) so I've never really been able to try out an egg white mask properly. The second I pumped out some of the product I was overcome by giggles. It has the exact same texture and feel as shaving cream! Don't worry if like me you can't stand the smell of raw egg whites because this product smells like lovely flowers.

I can't comment on the claim that it will whiten your skin, but it definitely made my skin feel a lot more moisturized! I used this mask at night, and in the morning my skin was quite oily and shiny but still moisturized, so I'm not sure if I would use this mask in the morning if it makes my skin produce excess oil.

I find the appearance of the mask quite hilarious, and it feels really funny to use! It pumps out a thick velvety foam that you massage it into your skin. Leave it to sink in and you will feel the mask bubbling a little bit while the foam deflates. Look out for a full review in a couple of weeks! ^.^

INNISFREE No Sebum Mineral Pact - $16.00

Innisfree No Sebum Mineral Pact is an oil controlling pressed powder encased in a cute green packaging.

Formulated with nourishing Jeju natural minerals and mint extracts, this powder takes away shine from your face to leave you with fresh looking skin.


This powder pact is translucent in colour, making it perfect for every skin tone.

This powder compact has the most beautiful embossed leaf pattern around the edge of the powder. It's super compact, so great to keep in your handbag for touch ups and comes with a plastic separator to keep the puff from sitting in the product! The powder isn't too finely milled, so you do need to make sure that you press it into your skin quite well, otherwise it tends to look a little cakey. I find this product does a great job of setting my makeup and helping it stay matte throughout the day.

3 CONCEPT EYES LIP PIGMENT (BRIGHT ORANGE) - $15.00

3 Concept Eyes Lip Pigment is a multitasking product that can work as a lipstick and a blush.

With a creamy formulation, the product blends seamlessly into lips and skin for an opaque or sheer finish.


Blend this lip pigment with other shades for original, flattering colours to suit your individuality and style.

This product is quite small and great for traveling since the lid screws on securely! You guys all know that double duty products own my heart, and since this product doubles as a lip and cheek product in a really flattering colour, I am so sold! I also really love that you can buy other colours to mix your perfect shade as well as a white mixer to create lighter shades. This product isn't nearly as bright orange as it looks out of the tube, but more like a salmon orange that's really flattering on my pale warm skin. It's also quite forgiving on dry and deep wrinkled lips, so I am a happy girl!

What I Love

- Well priced products
- Fast and secure shipping
- Easy to navigate website
- Good selection of Korean Beauty products that are hard to find in New Zealand stores

What I Don't Love

- Moderately expensive shipping

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed my shopping experience with Skinlosophy! The products are well priced, the shipping was quick, nothing was broken and the website is really pleasant to navigate! I would definitely recommend Skinlosophy to New Zealand and Australian residents because the products will get to you a lot faster (6 day wait in comparison to a 26 day wait) which always makes me feel a lot more satisfied! Plus for all my Australian beauties, Skinlosophy offers free shipping on orders over $99 (and I'm sure the shipping is even quicker for you too!). ^.^

Do your local malls stock Asian Beauty Products?