Review: Pirouette My Whistle

Some of you may recall i received "Pirouette My Whistle" for my birthday last month, so i felt it was about time to show it off. 

It makes a gorgeous top coat more then a nail polish to be used on it's own. It consists of a pale silver tiny glitter mixed in with larger hexagonal silver glitters. When you put it on top of another polish it provides a faint milky sheer cover so it's a nice way to pale out a bright color and make it that tiny bit more feminine and soft. It also works quite nicely for jelly sandwich manicures.

It's from the New York City ballet collection released early this year; the whole collection is very pretty and girly; soft sheer colors. The formula on this was very good and smooth, the larger glitter is dispersed a bit randomly but it's very workable.

Lovely!

Review: Black Magic Soap

Coming from One Hand Washes the other is the original Black Magic Soap bar; containing all manner off good-for-you things. Here's a list if you can't be bothered going to the web site:

-Tea Tree Oil is antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral, fungicide, antiseptic; its believed to heal wounds quicker and protect them from infections, as well as help neutralize the scar marks and after spots left by eruptions, boils, pox, acne etc.-Peppermint Essential Oil contains Menthol, which gives a cooling effect. It nourishes dull skin and improves oily skin.
-Grapefruit Essential Oil is antioxidant, antiseptic, disinfectant; it's said it keeps the skin clean and is particularly good for treating oily skin and acne.
-French Green Clay is very absorbent, and literally drinks oils, toxic substances, and impurities from your skin. Its toning action stimulates the skin by bringing fresh blood to damaged skin cells, revitalizing the complexion, and tightening pores.
-Calendula has a long history of use as a wound-healing and skin-soothing botanical. It has impressive healing powers, and can clear up many different types of skin problems.
-Vitamin E helps skin look younger by reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
-Activated Charcoal has the ability to attract other substances to its surface and hold them there. This is called "adsorption" (not absorption). Charcoal can adsorb thousands of times its own weight in harmful substances.
-Glycerin aids in preventing breakouts and keeping pores clear. It also can speed healing of present acne lesions. It is not inflammatory and will not irritate skin like many other products with harsh chemical ingredients.

After a couple of days of using it I can say that yes it's a damn good product; it does what it says. It helps with oiliness and makes your skin feel great. It can be drying if your skin isn't exceptionally oily but I think it's gentle enough to use anywhere, though the peppermint is a little uncomfortable near the eye area. That is gentle enough assuming you don't use it every singe day.

It smells minty, rich and slightly medicinal, personally I like it, it smells clean but I suspect it could be too strong for some people. It lathers very nice, the lather has a purple/black tint to it but the product doesn't stain your skin at all, which i was a little concerned about when i first saw this.

Overall the soap leaves my skin feeling very clean, soft, and cool (literally), it's quite good post makeup and doesn't seem to leave any residue or left overs.

(Size comparison; large size black magic soap and a regular Palmolive hand soap)

Honestly there is only one thing stopping me from raving about this product even more; I already have my HG cleanser. Fresh Farmacy . If I didn't have it, this would become my go to cleanser. I feel i get a better feeling overall from FF then from Black Magic. FF feels like it's literally sucking the bad stuff out of my face and the chamomile helps calm your skin not irritate it like the mint does (a bit).

My boyfriend prefers FF as well as he finds it helps with after shave burn and makes his face feel much calmer and clean and there is no menthol to irritate the eyes and nose.

I will probably repurchase Black Magic, but more as a supplement and for something a little different, it won't be replacing my HG Fresh Farmacy.

Great Product and super cute packaging, totally recommend it if your still looking for you  HG cleanser, this might just be it.

A Touch of Black Magic

This here is the rest of my Strawberry Net order, and an order id almost given up hope for; my black magic soap order that i made back in July finally turned up.

So here is the stuff:

(from Strawberry Net)

Ultraflesh, Perfect Pinks mini lipstick set;

Not sure why but this part of the order was beautifully gift wrapped; at least the lipstick set and the Korres in iridescent pink wrapping paper. Not sure what i did to deserve that but thank you Strawberry net.

Ultraflesh, black magic eye set; contains 6 lipsticks in smalls size; there are three shades and each comes in a matte and sheer type. The mac and lip butter are in the photo for a size comparison. (This pack also comes in red shades)

This is so cool; it was a freebie too due to the fact i ordered using their mobile site. This travel set is pretty awesome; it's like a swiss army knife of makeup; the top layer has a black matte eyeshadow and a shimmery black eyeshadow with gold glitter. The second layer has a gel eyeliner in black and a brush for application, and the third layer has two mascaras.

Korres Lip Butter in Quince;

I don't know what "Quince" is but i love the color, the texture on this one appears a bit thicker then on the wild rose or mango version. Has anyone else found this to be the case?

(from One Hand Washes the Other)

Everything here was packadged in such a lovely way; perfectly wrapped. Included a handwritten thank you, a wax sealed (wax sealed!) evvalope with my invoice and a whole pile of stickers plus a candy.

Large Size Black Magic Soap Bar;

I suspect this will be somewhat simmiliar to my HG facial cleanser Lush's Fresh Farmacy so I'm pretty keen to have a go at this as it's gotten awesome reviews from everything i have found. 

perfume samples;

in Honey Crisp & Jack in  Black and two solid perfume sample in Vanilla and Tea Rose Mimosa

(i should point out that i only ordered one of these sample (the honey crisp) and the rest were freebies included in my order, i suspect this may be due to their current 18-20 day turn over) but still awesome. Makes the month+ wait a little less painful.

Let me know if you have a review preference :)
Enjoy your weekend

Double the Movies

After i did a post about my nail polish stash here i pointed out that my copy of Not Like the Movies by OPI was the full duochrome version not the lame un-chromy version.

So, as i was asked for (and totally spaced on, sorry Rebecca!) As has been done for a few other OPI's (my private jet anyone?) the original release for "Not Like the Movies" was a lovely duchrome goddess with lavender, silver, blue flashes and pretty metallic-ish microglitter.

Later on, either their suppliers changed or demand was too high but the next and seemingly future releases did not include the duchrome effects and were closer to just a glittery silver polish without the thing that made it special. Hence if you go buy it now, especially from an on-line retailer it's next to impossible to tell which version you will be getting. Though there are a few ways you can tell the difference;

• Firstly the true Duochrome is farm more  sheer in terms of application and the silver glitter is the same size throughout where the non-duo is thicker and has varying size of microglitter.
• The duchrome, because of the bottle shape looks both darker and should, if turned at varying angles should produce a pink/lavender color change.
• The serial code appears to be different as well; 1036AAV appears to indicate the true duochrome while the other code is the silver version.

Not duo/duo

The duochrome on close up

The silver on close up

Th silver version, as you can see it just looks grey/silver. Nice but not that unique.

Sadly my photo of the true duochrome got corrupted so i will need to re-swatch it, but if you want to see it on the nail have a look at this post at Rainbows and Sparkles. But now at least you can tell which is which, and cannot be tricked. 

So which version do you have?

PS. If your looking for a dupe then Essence Where's the Party is a excellent dupe and only costs $2.55

Korres & Strawberries

Not really a haul and not really a review; a little of both i guess. All thanks to the awesome strawberry net and their (still going, still tempting) free shipping deal.

Since i got that mango lip butter for my birthday I've been quite interested in Korres, but again they are so very expensive here for a brand that isn't really high end but not really drugstore either. Thus i didn't wasn't to buy anything at KIT or at Myer but still wanted to try some more stuff, as well as add to my lip butter stash. So Strawberry net;s free shipping gave me the best excuse to try some stuff. Since i wasn't sure what i wanted i got this pack; Wild Rose Triple Benefits Color Collection (Limited Edition) found here.

The pack contains;
1 x Wild Rose 24 Hour Moisturising & Brightening Cream (For Normal & Dry Skin) 2ml/0.07oz
1 x Wild Rose Instant Brightening & Illuminating Mask 4ml/0.13oz
1 x Wild Rose Brightening High Coverage Concealer - # WRC3 (Beige) 1.5ml/0.05oz
1 x Wild Rose Brightening & Long Lasting Foundation - # WRF3 2ml/0.07oz
1 x Wild Rose Sheer Lip Butter - # Red 6g/0.21oz
1 x Sunflower & Evening Primrose Eye Shadow - # 10S White 1.8g/0.06oz
1 x Cosmetic Bag

I felt this was a good try all pack since it comes with a bit of everything including a full size lip butter and full size concealer, plus cosmetic bag which is so pretty.

Here's a closer look at the stuff in the boxes;

Wild Rose is a bit more dark then the mango version and much more on the red toned edge where as mango was more orange, i like them both. This one feels just as nice and seems to have the same lip softening effect as the other. Plus it smells quite nice (still like the mango scent better though).

The concealer was a big reason for why i choose this pack over the other one i was spying; I've been after a new concealer for a few weeks now but nothing really appealed to me so this was a good chance to try something new. Also smells lovely. Haven't tested it out properly run so this will likely be a review later in the month.

This small eyeshadow is super cute, it looks like a little chocolate square and the color is a white slightly silvery color that makes my boyfriend think of "mithril" (aka lord of the rings). Looks like a good highlight or inner corner color and a great test for the brand.

The other items were a sample of their foundation, wild rose brightening cream and a wild rose mask. Looking forward to testing these, the mask and foundation in particular.

Plus since it was my first time buying from them i got the mini Stilla eyebrow pencil.

(Seriously tiny, smaller then my little finger)

If their free shipping is still going in two weeks i might break down and get one of these; 

Have you tried Korres?

Review: OPI Glitzerland

This is Glitzerland from the Swiss OPI Collection which i believe was released in 2010, I've been wanting a gold nail polish for a while now, the only only one i have is the Essence's Love me Tender from their 50's collection but that one is not very bright and much more toned down then Glitzerland.

Glitzerland is a smooth, slightly sheer polish with great application; it's a color I've been wearing a lot since i got it because as i explained to my boyfriend "it's perfect by being both shimmery bling and neutral cool toned gold". It's a color with a lot of depth; it's shimmery if you look close at it but from further away it's just a cool toned gold perfect for the season change as the moment.

It's a lovely color and i will be wearing a lot in the coming future.

P.s. I have noticed that David Jones has slightly lowered their OPI price from 21.00 to 19.00 a slightly nicer alteration.

Most Reached for August

These items will probably not be a surprise to anyone who has kept even a passing watch on this blog this month, as 4/6 of these got a review this month. I like that actually, i feel like I'm on top of things. So following are the items i reached for most this month;

Korres Mango Lip Butter: Reviewed Here This gives me ultra soft lips and i this, more then anything else has convinced me that lip balms actually serve a purpose. I would buy these again, in fact i have the wild rose version on it;s way to me now (Thank you free shipping strawberry net). There hasn't been a day since i got this that i have not used it at least once a day, usually more.

Haus of Gloi Bubbling Scrub in Satyr: Reviewed Here Love the smell but i especially love the consistency,  this is the perfect amount of exfoliation for me without leaving behind any graininess (yay bubbles). The scent is great and very friendly, the product seems to last a good deal longer then i expected and i am happy to try more of these, as well as other Haus of Gloi products.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Lip Stain: Reviewed Here I love this due to the long lasting color, especially the stain which means it's no big deal if i forget to reapply my lipstick. I use this everyday sometimes on it;s own or under a different color and then i have a nice fading effect during the day. I don't love the dryness this causes to my lips which might explain lip balms showing up in my repertoire.

Emotional Brilliance Sophisticated Eyeshadow: Reviewed Here The easiest most long lasting eyeshadow i own, the application is a breeze and cuts down morning makeup by a good deal of time. It lasts hours upon hours, probably up to 18 hour with little to no wear and it's a beautiful color to boot.

Thursday Plantation Tea Tree Oil: Since i started dying my hair with the bright pink my scalp seems to have gone very very dry and this is the best way that i have found to deal with that; even just a small amount mixed into my conditioner or directly on the head works wonders and the next day i have no issue with itching or anything ekse that dry scalp can cause. I worried that it might be a bit harsh and too strong but i have had no ill effects and i would totally recommend it if you have similar issues.

Lastly my now almost empty A'kin Pure Radiance Rosehip Oil, this was used literally everyday (well evening technically) and being new to the world of beauty products i have started experimenting with different moisturizers to see what works for me and im totoally sold on this; it applies smoothly and seems to have real results when it comes to my skin feeling hydrated and healthy the next morning. I'm not 100% on the smell so i will look at some different varieties when this one finished any day now.