Mateja's Beauty Blog: november 2012

E.l.f. Haul

I ordered from E.l.f. UK website again after ages. They had an offer with free shipping to Europe so I bought a few bits and pieces.

I got one of their Studio cream blushes in the shade Heart Breaker, Studio pigment eyeshadow in Golden Goddess, a liquid eyeliner in the colour Copper and a Flawless Concealer brush.

Heart Breaker is a matte bright bubble gum pink shade. I actually expected it looking a bit more coral pink rather than just pink. The texture is so odd, it's like play-doh. Not creamy like Maybelline's Dream blushes, but more dry and doesn't have that slippery feeling, it's so difficult to describe. Because of the texture I find it a bit difficult to apply nicely. There are always pieces of blush that stick to my fingers. So I'm not too keen on the formula, but the colour is pretty. I don't have a colour like that in my collection. The packaging is huge and I mean massive. Way too big to fit in my plastic drawers where I keep my make up. Overall I'd give it a 3 out of 5. It's not a bad blush, but there are better from the drugstore range. I paid 7.5 € which is expensive for an E.l.f. product (it's 6$ in the US, which currently about 4.6€).

Liquid eyeliner in the shade Copper is actually a glitter eyeliner that is gold with a touch of copper. Granted the name is not the best, but the liner is really nice, especially for the price (1.7€). With one brush stroke the glitter is sparse, but just do some more coats and it looks fine. It's a nice addition to spice up the make up.

I'm on a search for the perfect gold eyeshadow. Since I'm very fair, most golds look a bit orange on me, especially when blended out. Urban Decay's Half Baked for example looks, for my taste, too orange on me to be described as a gold (I do love it, though). Basically what I want is the same shade as is Revlon's luxurious pencil in Antiqued Gold. That is the perfect gold shade that is a mix between proper gold and old gold, if that makes sense. E.l.f. Studio pigment eyeshadow in Golden Goddess is close, but still looks a touch orange when blended out. I prefer to apply it wet to get maximum intensity, the look of liquid metal. Applied wet it last the entire day and is still very intense. It's the best gold eyeshadow I have so far, but I'll keep looking. There is also a mini brush included, which is actually quite good quality. It's too small for applying eyeshadow all-over the lid, but I love it for applying highlighter in the inner conner (I finally have a good brush for that). There is a comparison with the MAC's 239 on the second picture.

And the last thing is the Flawless Concealer brush. Here is a comparison with MAC's 217.

It's actually quite a lot bigger than I expected. I'd like a smaller brush for applying concealer under the eyes, but nonetheless it's a very nice brush. In fact I've been using it loads since I got it. It blends concealer under the eyes, around the nose, on the chin and I use to dot concealer on blemishes. It's a very dense brush and super soft, so quality-wise it's brilliant. I just wish it were smaller. I'm planing to get some Real Techniques brushes in the future, but until that time it's become my every day brush.

Thanks for reading!

petek, november 23, 2012
16 Comments

My Current Hair Care - Part 2

I talked about shampoos and conditioners in the first part (here) and now for the second part, dealing with serums, leave-in conditioners/treatments and styling products. Light green text are links to where you can get these product or to original reviews.

Redken Extreme Anti-Snap is a leave-in treatment that also provides heat protection. If you have dry hair, using a leave-in treatment/conditioner is very important. I apply 2-3 pumps on damp hair after conditioner.This is a protein treatment that helps prevent breakage and split ends. It's a very light lotion consistency with a sort of artificial sweet fruity scent. The bottle is massive, you get 250ml. I've had mine for about 1/2 year and I still haven't used half of it yet (I use it every time I wash my hair). Do I notice my hair being less damaged? Yes. But it's not a dramatic difference. I like it because it's very light, it has heat protection and I noticed my hair is more tamed. I'll probably repurchase, if I don't decide to try the Kerastaste Nectar Thermique and like it more. I bought mine on feelunique.com. Before this, I used John Frieda Brilliant Brunette Shine Shock and I really liked it, but it didn't have heat protection (they changed the name now into Glaze or something).

Orofluido oil is a product I've raved about for years now. I'm actually still using the same bottle, but now I have just a few cm left. This is your basic silicone treatment with argan, linseed and cypress oil, just like all other argan oil treatments which are all the rage now (Morrocan oil, Kerastaste Ultimate oil, L'Oreal Mythic Oil and numerous drugstore replicas including Garnier Fructis, L'Oreal Elvive Extraordinary oil , Syoss Beauty Elixir, etc.,...). It help with the frizz, gives amazing shine and keeps it looking more healthy and not dry. What differentiates it from the others is the luxurious oriental vanilla/amber scent that is to die for. Also this is a very thick oil, thicker than most others and you only need 2-3 drops or it might be too much. My only gripe is that it needs a pump, but the bottle is gorgeous. I bought mine in Simple hair saloon, but it also available for Slovene shoppers on StudioMa. Some other online shops where you can get it are feelunique, cheapsmells and eBay.

Alverde Haaröl Mandel und Argan is an exception in the argan oil trend. This one does not contain silicone, just argan, almond, soy and walnut oil with some vitamin E, but works all the same. For a very reasonable price 3€ you get an amazing quality oil. Just read my original review if you want to know more. I use it almost every day and it really helps taming the frizz and more importantly helps with the dryness. I highly recommend it.

Orofluido Sahara is basically a lighter spray version of the original oil. It's a dry oil that protects your hair against sun, wind and dryness. It has UV filters which is great for protecting your hair against the damaging sun, also for helping your hair colour from fading (If you color it, of course). If you ever used dry oils you know how it feels, you can spray a lot of product in your hair and it won't be wet like with spray conditioners. It's smells amazing, identical as the oil, oriental amber and vanilla. It leaves my hair very shiny and smelling amazing. I use it either before or after I use a hair dryer and every time I want my hair to look a bit more shiny or it feels dry. I got mine from StudioMa (16€), but it's sold everywhere you can get Orofluido products.

Tigi S Factor Flat Iron Shine Spray Heat Defender is an absolutely fantastic heat protection with a lovely sweet apple/pear scent. It feels sort of oily so it instantly smooths, gives shine and makes your hair look very healthy. After straitening or curling your hair, it looks so smooth, even your ends look healthy. You get only 125ml which is not a lot for the price (I paid 13,74 € on cheapsmells.com), but still the quality is superb. Anyway, I'm still using the same bottle and I use this a lot, so it's not ''that'' expensive. This is one of my staple products.

Garnier Fructis Surf hair (around 4€) is a product I use when I feel too lazy to blow dry my hair or at least curl/straighten it. I've done a review with pictures here. My hair is naturally curly, but the curls are not defined. This is a great product for defining and amplifying your curls, but it's difficult to get the amount right. Too much means too scrunchy and weird feeling hair, too little means no effect at all. Also despite that the curls look great the first day, on the second day it looks way too frizzy. I don't use it as much as I used to, but the first day effect is great.

Syoss Volume Lift Dry Shampoo (around 4€) is something I use a lot. Not because my hair get greasy, but to get some volume and freshness. This gives amazing volume and the scent is really fresh and strong. My first can had an odd working nozzle and the gas was leaking, but other ones worked fine. I've used a few bottles so far and I still love it as on the first day. I did a mini rave here.

I rarely use hair spray, but my favourite is L'Oreal Elnett. It has great hold, but doesn't leave your hair scrunchy. I have the travel version, gold-blue one, it's sold in Müller and not DM. I have some voluminising products, but I rarely use them. One is Got2b Powder'ful Volumen Stylin Powder. It's the Osis+ Dust It dupe (Got2b is also from Schwarzkopf). It gives amazing volume, however, it lasts only 10 minutes. I also have travel sizes of Balea Power Volume Mousse and Hair spray. The hair spray is fine, but not as good as Elnett. The mousse is great for massive volume that lasts.

For combing my hair I have just an ordinary cheap wide tooth comb from Müller and a black Tangle Teezer which is now about 6 years old.

I never used a hair dryer before this Summer. I hated them because every time my hairdressers completely abused my hair and left them dry as a Sahara (I haven't found one that would actually know how to cut and treat my hair *sigh*. For the same reason I rarely go to the hairdressers.). So I stayed away from hair dryers and let my hair dry naturally. Of course this only resulted in frizziness and an unkempt look, also my hair felt coarse and hard to the touch, like I used too much hair spray. So my Remington Ionic Protect&Shine hair dryer was just collecting dust until I found this youtube guru, who has similar hair to mine. I bought a round ceramic barrel brush by Ebelin (DM), which has a orange line that turns yellow when it gets too hot (9€ at any DM). Thanks to Carlibell55 I finally learned how to properly style my hair with a hair dryer. It just makes my hair look more sleek and soft. This leaves me with straight hair with volume. If I want really sleek hair, I use my ancient Remington hair straightener (It still works great, though. Half on my family has been using it for the last 6 years). But more often I use my Remington Pro Soft curls curler with an 1'' barrel (2,5 cm). I bought it in the Summer and it was around 30€ in Interspar. It gives me lovely soft curls. I also have a curler/straightener with an 1,5'' (3,8 cm) barrel. This one does not make your hair curly, but more wavy with volume (watch this to get the idea of how it looks). I used to use it a lot, before I got Pro Soft curls.

Here is a picture of how I mostly style my hair in the past moths (bare in mind the lighting was horrible, the weather is horrible lately). I used Remington Pro Soft curls for curls like that. My entire care for this look was: Pyhtopolleine oil, La Roche Posay Kerium shampoo, Dove Oil Care gold conditioner, Redken Anti-Snap, I then blow dried it and straightened it with a brush. I put some Tigi heat protection on the ends and curled it using Pro Soft curls. I finished by combing with fingers through the curls and added some Orofluido. It still looks a bit frizzy, but I never really got rid of that. This is my natural hair colour.

This completes my long epic about my hair care. I know it's a lot of products, but as I said my hair is very high maintenance. But anyway, I wash my hair every 4-5 days. I hope this was useful and thanks for reading!

četrtek, november 15, 2012
6 Comments

My Current Hair Care - Part 1

My hair is not the easiest to deal with. I have naturally very dry, curly, frizzy, coarse hair that needs a lot of heavy-duty conditioners and oils. Also I have very thick and long hair with lots of volume. It's in my genes, in fact everyone in my family has hair like that. When I was in my early teens my hair dried up like a sponge and got really hard to work with. So I do use a lot of products on my hair and most drugstore products just don't work well for me, I learned that the hard way. I used to be just-Fructis/Dove/L'Oreal/Gliss-girl, but my hair and scalp was in horrible condition. I tried a lot of different products in the past decade and in the last two years I finally found what works best for me. For my hair more is better. Most of the products mentioned I've repurchased numerous times and are some of my favourites so far. This will be in two parts. I'll talk about serums, styling products and tools in the second part.

I use a lot of oils on my hair. A few times a month use oil as a pre-wash treatment. I use anything I have at hand, regular olive oil will do, I even use whatever body oil is lying around (such as Weleda lavender one), but the best oils for dry hair are macadamia and coconut oil. I get them at the supermarket. I apply it all over the hair, including the scalp, focusing on the ends and leave it on for at least an hour (the more the better). So far I've never been left with greasy, limp hair no matter how much I used, but keep in mind that my hair is very dry and it just soaks up everything. If your hair is not as dry, use just a few drops mainly on the ends. Alverde mandel and argan oil as a pre-wash treatment is light enough for someone with hair like that. I then proceed with shampoo and conditioner.

Another oil I use is Phyto Phytopolléine universal elixir. I've already raved about it in one of my monthly favourites post, so I'll just copy my review. It is my mini super expensive miracle worker. I've been suffering from dandruff for more than 10 years, used almost every shampoo on the planet and nothing really worked (dry hair and scalp, fantastic combination). This completely purifies my scalp, no other product I've tried was that effective. It's a heavily scented oil (it smells of rosemary and lavender, beware that the entire room you're in will smell like it) that you massage on your scalp before washing your hair. The instructions say to keep it on for 20 minutes, but I leave it on for a lot longer. It costs an arm an a leg - over 20€ for a small 25ml bottle, but one did last me about 8 treatments. I've repurchased it already and I got mine from eBay, because it's a lot cheaper than in our pharmacies.

The shampoo I've been using for a year now is La Roche Posay Kerium for dry hair. It's one of the rare dandruff shampoos that does not dry out my hair. I can even comb through it with ease. It's very creamy and thick and has a pleasant medicinal scent. I've used a least a half of dozen bottles so far. I buy it in pharmacies for around 11€.

Alpecin Medicinal Forte is a clear liquid that smells very strongly of herbal schnapps, but it works. It's great for relieving an itchy scalp. I used to use it every day, but now I use it only when my scalp is acting up. I bought my seventh bottle in a row last week. They need to change the bottle though. The application system is really bad because there is no nozzle, just a hole. I buy it in Müller for 5-6€.

Currently I have four different conditioner/masks/treatments in rotation because I use gallons of this stuff and I don't want to buy new ones every 3-4 weeks. Most drugstore conditioners are not moisturising enough for my hair, so I do prefer saloon brands. The main difference between them is that if I use a drugstore conditioner, my hair gets really dry the second day, even though the conditioner might seem really moisturising. I then have to resort to Alverde Mandel and Argan oil to get some moisture back into my hair. I also always leave the conditioner on my hair for a lot longer than it says on the packaging. I honestly can't imagine the product working it's magic in just a few minutes and I notice a massive difference if I leave it on for longer. I leave it on for at least 10 minutes, often for more than an hour (I always wash my hair in the evening).

Joico Moisture Recovery Treatment Balm for thick and coarse hair is some heavy-duty stuff. It's probably the most moisturising treatment I ever had. If my hair is feeling particularly dry, then I resort to it. Even I have to use a moderate amount and I'm always very generous when applying conditioner. It smells really nice, fresh but a bit sweet and it's super thick. This is my first tube. Another fantastic product from Joico is their K-Pack Intense Hydrator Treatment for dry, damaged hair, which I had before this one. The only gripe I have is the scent which is a bit odd. These two are the best treatments I ever had and trust me I tried a lot of them. I buy Joico from feelunique.com, it's also a sold in selected saloons.

Tigi S Factor ''Serious'' Conditioner is another seriously moisturising stuff. I've already reviewed it here and I remain impressed. I bought my 750ml pot last September and I still have some left. It's so thick you don't need much. Earlier this year I tried the vinegar treatment which is so highly recommended on MUA. It completely wrecked my hair. Nothing has ever dried up my hair like it. This mask worked like magic and completely transformed it into normality. It does contain a lot of silicone, hence the very silky feeling afterwards, but it's still one of my favourite treatments. Read my original review if you want to know more.

Dove Nourishing Oil Care also known under lots of other names, but the important thing is that it's a tube with gold writing. It's one of the two drugstore treatments I use and I've repurchased it a half of dozen times. This is the most moisturising drugstore product I've tried to date. It's very thick and smells very nice (''Dove like''). I buy it in Müller for 4-5€. I did a short review here.

Herbal Essences Hello Hydration mask was an unexpected and pleasant surprise from the drugstore range. I honestly didn't expect much because it feels quite light, but it is moisturising enough even for my hair. However, the best feature is the heavenly scent. It's smells like tropical paradise, something like sweet tropical fruit with coconut. I adore it! I'm currently using my second pot. This is light enough for someone whose hair is not as dry as mine. I also really like the shampoo from this line.

Some other conditioners I liked are Redken All Soft, John Frieda Brilliant Brunette and Fructis masks. I repurchased the latter two numerous times.

This completes the first part of my hair care. I'll talk about other hair care products I use in the next post (it'll be up soon). Thanks for reading my long rambling! There is more to come.