Magic Potion

Happy July! I wanted to get this post in before I pass out from exhaustion--I am so sleepy. I have been meaning to do a post on this product since I began this blog, so here it is: Terax Crema. This stuff is magical, no joke. I have the most unruly, dry, textured hair ever. And this stuff just makes it do right. Just plain, old DO RIGHT. It makes my hair soft and more manageable and just better.
I actually bought my first bottle 2 months ago after years of hearing rave reviews from people about it. Terax Crema kind of has a cult following. After discovering how much it costs, I was hoping I would actually hate it! At Sephora it retails for $22.00 USD, for 6.7 oz. But no. I love it. And now, for who knows how long, I will be stuck on a very pricey conditioner. Lovely. Because my hair is very long and I have a lot of it, I only get a half dozen uses out of one bottle! Oh, damn Terax for making such an awesome product! I love this stuff.
The smell is something I could do without. It has a very powdery, almost baby powder scent. I prefer more fresh scents in my hair care products. But this conditioner is something I recommend to everyone. It will give you incredibly soft, moisturized hair. It really is like magic.

Mission: Box Sets Week 3

Last weeks mascara was horrible. It was Hourglass Superficial Lash--absolutely the worst mascara I have ever worn in my life. I stopped wearing it after the 4Th day. I was going to push on and wear it the full 7 days, as this mission calls for...but I just couldn't put myself through it. I don't want to rant on like a mad woman, but I really don't have anything good to say about this mascara. It doesn't add volume, it doesn't lengthen and it doesn't darken. One thing it can do is clump! The most alarming thing about this stuff that I discovered was that it doesn't dry!!! Even after hours of wear! It just sits like goo on your lashes! Not cute. Slightly disturbing, actually. I will never wear or recommend this mascara. As soon as I finished the picture, I tossed it out!


The perfume of last week was Tocca's Cleopatra. It was ok. Not something I would have chosen for myself, but it was nice. I got alot of compliments on it, so I guess others found it more appealing on me then I did on myself! For me, it was just ok. It's a floral scent with a hint of an oily note (almond oil) that I associated with candles probably because this brand is known for their candles. Its a crisp scent, that I would probably wear as an evening perfume. But at $68.00 USD for a little more than an ounce...I have to love a perfume to spend that much, and as I said--this was just ok for me.

On to the next round!

Mission: Box Sets Week 2

I've got Katie Perry's California Gurls song stuck in my head. Someone help me. I still cant decide if I like her or not. Moving on...

Ok, week two has ended on Mission: Box Sets. During week 2 I used Bad Gal Lash by Benefit (LOOOVE!) and Very Hollywood by Michael Kors.

The good stuff: I absolutely love Bad Gal Lash. Its one of my new favorite mascaras. I kind of don't want to move on to the next mascara this week, but I will for the sake of this mission. Ahh sacrifice in the name of beauty. Haha! As the kids are all saying, "Whatevs". Bad Gal Lash does everything I want a mascara to do. It gives volume like nobody's business, its superduper black, it does not flake or smudge or clump or do any of that annoying junk we all hate, and it doesn't cost an arm and a days pay. On Sephora you can pick up a full sized tube of this gorgeous mascara for 19.00 USD. I used it for 7 days straight, for more than 10 hours a day and it never failed me. Love. And the wand is amazing. I guess bigger really is better...moving along.

The perfume. For me, Very Hollywood was very dangerous. As I've tweeted all week, this stuff is like honey to bees--literally. Bees are drawn to this perfume like mad, and since I'm allergic to bees (hello, anaphylactic shock) it made for an interesting week. I'm not too crazy about this perfume all around. Its smells like gardenia and nothing else. Its very, very strong. You just need a tiny bit and the smell will encircle you and the entire room. Not what I look for in a fragrance. On a personal note: I'm from Hawaii, and this is a scent older woman use there. Older like senior citizen old. One of my favorite aunts, God rest, used a gardenia fragrance often and this reminded me of her. That was the only good thing about it.Ok my pretties, until next week. Love.

Not So In Vouge

I picked up the new Caress Whipped Souffle body washes after seeing them in an ad in this month’s vogue. There was a spot on the ad that you could smell the Blackberry Vanilla, and it smelled incredibly nice, so I got both the Peach and Blackberry. While they both smell lovely, that’s about all I like about the product. I don’t exactly know what the whipped part of the formula is for, as far as I can tell it does nothing to enhance the product. Their trademarked Silky Fragrance Infusion is advertised as triple moisture and fragrance infusion intended to moisturize your skin while leaving a nice smell. The nice smell I get. The moisturizing is average; no worse or better than any other body wash I’ve tired. The big problem I have with these body washes is that it leaves my bathtub very slippery after rinsing the product off my body. Not good. I’m not even half way through the first bottle and I can tell I will not be reaching for the next. I’ve been eyeing the new Dove body washes, so I might try those out and review them as well. Anybody have any favorite body washes they would recommend?

Mission: Box Sets Week 1

Ok. Week 1 of what I have decided to call Mission: Box Sets, is now over. This past week for 7 days I used Laura Mercier’s Thickening and building Mascara and Yves Saint Laurent’s Parisienne perfume.
On the YSL website Parisienne is described as: PARISIENNE, the fragrance of ultra femininity, ultra sensuality. A grand floral with a woody structure, luminous even in its mystery. Blackberry - Damask Rose - Sandalwood I will agree with that description. I really liked this fragrance. It’s very appropriate for Spring/Summer. It is very, very feminine and florally. I am usually put off by fragrances that have too much floral, but this contains just enough of that Sandalwood scent to tone it down. I would also only wear this in the spring and summer months, it may be too florally for my taste during other seasons. There is one big drawback I did find with this scent, and that is that it fades quicker than any other perfume I have ever tried. But, like all things fragrance related, that could be because of my body chemistry. All in all, I enjoyed wearing this scent.
The Thickening and Building mascara by Laura Mercier is marketed as volumizing mascara that will allow you to apply multiple coats without clumps-which is good because while I did find that the mascara does not clump at all-I also found that I needed 3 coats to get a really good voluminous look from this product. The mascara is very fine and liquidier than any other mascara I’ve tried to date. But that does allow you to apply the product liberally and build up the volume of your lashes without getting clumpy or giving you spider lashes. There were lots of benefits and one major pain with this mascara.
The Benefits: It holds up for hours. Every day that I wore this mascara it held up for over 14 hours! It didn’t smear or start to fall at all. It’s easy to remove and has vitamins A, E and C to condition your lashes.
The pain: You must allow it to dry properly or run the risk of getting it everywhere. And because it is so fluid and you do have to apply multiple coats to build it up, it does take a few minutes for it to fully dry.
So that completes week 1. Now onto week 2—Bad Gal Lash Mascara by Benefit and Very Hollywood by Michael Kors perfume. Woohoo!

NYX Pretty not Pricey

I placed an NYX order from CherryCulture.com a couple of weeks ago when they had that 30% off all NYX products sale. I’ve been using NYX shadows for about a year now and I love them, but until I placed this order I had never tried anything else from the line. I am very glad I decided to give them a go; I really like everything I purchased. I even LOVE some things.
I have used the NYX jumbo pencils in the past and I adore them. They are comparable to MAC Paint Pots, but I actually like them better then the Paint Pots and they are a fraction of the price. They provide an excellent base if you wear them under shadows, but can absolutely be worn alone. Word of caution about these pencils though: always wear a primer under them and do not use a heavy hand with them or they will crease. Since they are so pigmented you really don’t need to apply much and they blend beautifully.

I got two brushes: the B04 Cheek Cream brush and the B13 Shadow 1 brush. The shadow brush I loved instantly (I have a thing for shadow brushes). It’s sort of tapered at the end and I think that’s what allows it to pick up product so easily. The Cheek Cream brush I actually didn’t like at first. I didn’t really know how to use it. After playing around with it though, I really like it. It’s very sturdy and holds up to the cream consistency very well.

The concealer stick works very well. I’ve tried a lot of other concealer sticks, but because they weren’t very blendable and caused too much tugging on the skin, I tend to shy away from them and stick to liquid concealers, even though I do not prefer concealer in liquid form. But the NYX concealer stick is very blendable and covers very nicely. As with all NYX products, you can’t beat the price.

I got a cream blush in the shade Glow. It’s is absolutely gorgeous and incredibly pigmented. I couldn’t get my camera to focus properly on a swatch, but believe me when I say this is a must have for the summer. After it’s applied it just melts right into your skin and is very light weight. It lives up to its name and makes you glow.

Now onto my absolute favorite out of the whole lot, the Mega Shine Lip Gloss. I LOVE these Glosses. Every color is beautiful and pigmented and not at all sticky. I have to be honest, when I first stumbled upon these Glosses I passed them up because they are “Mega Shine”. While I like shine just as much as the next gloss junkie, I am not a fan of overly shiny lips. You know, the kind that look like you just swiped baby oil over your mouth. Not a good look. I was very pleasantly surprised with the NYX glosses though, they provide just the right shine. I love, love, LOVE them. They have doe foot applicators and smell like candy, what’s not to love?

If you haven’t tried the NYX line, you’re missing out.

A Series

I received a very big box from Sephora today, full of lovely things I had ordered last week. I was literally squealing with joy. I was at work so it was almost embarrassing...almost. The two main things I need to talk about are the Sephora Favorites Deluxe Fragrance Sampler and the Lash Stash Deluxe Mascara Sampler, seen below.

I ordered these so I could do a series here. The idea is I will wear one mascara and perfume for a week straight, and then post a review of them each Wednesday. I cant wait to get started tomorrow! OK, so onto the loot!

The Perfume set includes:

Very Hollywood by Michael Kors

Clean by Clean

Euphoria by Calvin Klein

Very Irresistible by Givenchy

Parisienne by YSL
Omnia Crystalline by Bvlgari

Flora by Gucci

Cleopatra by Tocca

These are said to be very spring/summery fragrances. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the size of these bottles, they range between .14 oz to .5 oz. At 40.00 USD, for eight bottles, you can't beat it.

The Mascara set includes:
Superficial Lash by Hourglass

Thickening and Building Mascara by Laura Mercier

Skyscraper Multi-Benefit Mascara by Urban Decay

Supernova Mascara by Fresh

Abyssinia by Korres

Lash Stretcher by Sephora

Bad Gal by Benefit

4 Day Stay Lash Stain by Tarte
Lash DNA by Smashbox

LashActivator by Cargo

Right off the bat I'm a little concerned about the 4 day stain by Tarte. The box says it holds the pigmentation on your lashes for up to 4 days with one application. I do not want anything on my face for four days. At the end of the day all my makeup gets removed. So we'll see about that one. All of the mascaras are in various shades of black.

Did I mention I'm excited to start this process?! Mascara and perfume are my two favorite things in the cosmetic world.

Alright Beautiful People, I am off to bed. When I wake-up I get to make the first two selections for review. FUN!