Product Review: Muji Moisturizing Milk

But there are cases where as much I don’t want to use them, my skin demands for it. I need to moisturize my skin especially during those times that I drank less water making my skin too dry like a chalk board. I am not too fair skinned, that is why a mere scratch on my dry skin is really visible. :p
Thanks to my best find (and probably the only one) at Muji – a bottle of moisturizing milk which served as my savior during my “dry” season. The top selling point for me is the non-greasy effect once it glides on my skin. I need not to worry when I’ve mistakenly poured in more than what I need in my hands as the product just seem to adjust to my skin’s needs!

Supplementary reason why I love this product is the simple and conservative approach of the packaging. As much as I love pastel colors and girly designs, I also equally like a touch of minimalist sometimes. Muji hits this theme with their all neutral color products. The bottle of the moisturizinf milk tops this minimalist thing. I love how it exudes serious ambiance because of its transparent bottle and purely white product. It is just very neat.

This bottle does not break your financial life as well. I only bought this at less than 400 bucks (not sure though if this has already increased). This is perhaps one of the few soundest prices in the entire Muji store. It is really worth the buy and the price.

Overall, I'd say that Muji moisturizing milk gave me an option to try out other alternatives other than the traditional lotion or body butter!
So, will you try this one, too?

Product Review: Evolution Of Smooth (EOS)

Every face of my vanity life, I do have something that I am drooling on. At the moment, I am in my lip balm hauling. Well, it all started when I was in dire need of a solution to my cracked lips. It’s been going on for weeks and it irked me more and more everyday. Then I met Carmex. It solved my problem. I thought that was the end of my search for this product behind a good lipstick application. No, don’t get me wrong, I am all praises for Carmex. It is just the “hauler” in me that I cannot sit down with only one brand for a type of product. Yes, that is me.
 

My ever reliable online shopper, the CareFreeShopper, bursted once again with a brand called EOS. As the women behind the shop confessed, it is their favorite. Add up a friend who is really not into these kinds of vanities but managed to like EOS, it awakened my curiosity on what these raves are all about.

EOS redefined the shape of lip balm. While the traditional ones are in tube, or in a small jar which you need to dip you pinky finger and dab on your lips, EOS packaged their product in a spherical shape, with a very smooth texture. Yeah, the texture itself denotes how smooth the real product is!

Twisting the sphere clockwise, you’d see a dome shape lip balm (although they got one in a traditional tube). It actually felt weird when applying it as unlike the typical lip products, I felt that a lot goes beyond my lips when applied. It is because of its big shape. But after several tries, I figured out it was designed to be rolled over you lips, not minding that it may “go beyond” since in the first place it does not have any color like a lipstick. LOL. The gliding on is a total experience. You could do it like forever!

Another thing that captured me was the scent. It just seems so natural. It is friendly for my nostrils.

Best if all, I woke up with an oh so smooth lips! Now if you ask me I permanently changed my heart from Carmex to EOS, I did not. It is sharing my heart to both!


Note: EOS can also be bought separately.

Product Review: Asian Secrets Body Scrub

I first knew about this product through Liz of Project Vanity. I do love body scrubs, not because I am desperate to get "white", but because I love the feeling of being clean. In this product though, I was not that keen on trying it as I felt it might just be some sort of "advertising" as the mentioned blog got a sponsorship from the brand.

It was when I visited Watsons last time that I've seen these tubs of Asian Secrets which brought me to curiosity. The tub is an eye candy in white and green packaging and the price was too affordable (at 80 ph)for a body scrub. I grabbed one, tried it, and the rest, they say, is history!

I am on my third tub now and I am still loving it! The selling point for me actually is the scent, the texture, and the effect it gives on my skin.

SCENT. Upon popping up, you will be welcomed by a very luxurious scent wrapping up your senses. It is not strong, neither too artificially scented. There is a pang of natural smell that would let you dip your hands on them and lather on!

TEXTURE. Unlike other scrubs, it is not sandy that would cause your skin to become reddish when applying. Its creamy texture makes you lengthen your "lather moments" which enables you to rub of more dirt. I specially like this when I feel too cold of a morning shower that I start my bath by lathering Asian Secrets on my skin. It does not feel awkward having the product on your body without letting the water run first on your body. You see, it can actually save you time!

EFFECT ON MY SKIN. The after bath is soothing. It does not dry your skin, in fact I feel like I am mositurized after! Yeah, another factor why it saves time - you don't need an ample amount of time to put on lotion through out your body!. =)

To sum it all, this product is such a steal! I would definitely continue to use it!

Product Review: Olay Ultra Moisture Bar

The back of the packaging tells me about this soap. It says:

"Regular soap can leave your skin dry. The Olay Ultra Moisture bar is specifically formulated creamy, Olay lather, and Shea Butter. It does beyond cleansing, delivering Olay deep moisturizers to the skin while helping to wash away dry surface cells. So after you dry off, all that's left is skin that feels clean and petal soft. It's even gentle enough to use on your face."

Having read that, I tagged this soap as a promising one. Why? For one, I love soap that is creamy. The Shea Butter in it was a plus points! I am also a lazy freak when it comes to putting on lotion or moisturizer everyday.  I also don't need to swipe any card to have it paid as it is very affordable at less than a hundred bucks. And, uhm, I love the gold-ish design of the package. I must admit, I am easily convinced by good packaging AS LONG AS the price is not sky-rocketing.

The moment I had the bar glide on my skin, I instantly felt the moisture it has for me. I normally can't go on with soaps and shower gels without a scrub but this morning was an exception. I know that the scrub can give you a richer lather but I was amazed as to how creamy it was on my skin without the scrub. I just love how it "interacts" with my skin, and not just merely sitting on it. The smell was decent too.

After shower, I did not bother applying lotion because as I have confessed, I am too lazy to put them on. But as I am writing this, its has been more than four hours since I took a bath but my skin still feels so soft and moisturized. I tried scratching my arms with my growing nails but I did not see any mark of it. I love it!

So if you ask me, would I continue using this? Hell, yeah! :)

 

Product Review: St. Ives Blemish and Blackhead Control

I was spontaneously telling Levy that his nose was as rough as a sand paper one day when I spotted a tube on his bathroom the next day! I fancy how I effectively convince Levy to be a little vain. Ha ha! I look through it and I found out that it was from the same brand that I use to exfoliate my face - the St. Ives. The product is specially formulated for blemish and blackhead control.

I checked on Levy's nose (and face as well) to see if the product has done some good into his face and was surprise to see that indeed it made wonders! Touching his nose was a LOT smoother than the last time I touched it. I closely examined his face and I realized that his blackheads significantly decreased. I was really impressed and he was actually happy with the result!

I can't help but try it right at that very moment to know how it really feels to have this product landed on my own face. Just like my St. Ives, I feel the powerful grains enticing the unpleasant particles in my face to go with them. It is rough and at the same time a relief to my face. After washing them off my face, I felt I have a lighter face not because my cheeks shrank but because I felt those nasty elements had gone off!

The verdict:

St. Ives for me is a good product not to mention that it is relatively affordable and easy to find. You can get it in grocery stores. Effectivity-wise, I am convinced that this product does its duties well. This is definitely in my list of basic toiletries. :)

Product Review: Ellana Mineral Make Ups

Ellana mineral make-ups. I personally think the owner behind this product has a revolutionary mind. I love the idea that she comes head to head with foreign brands with three most distinct winner factors: affordability, quality, and very good customer service. These factors make up a promising business venture.

Let me get down to their products and services. Ellana offers a FREE sample for each individual who are interested to try out their products! You can get it from here.

Ellana encourages that their clients to go to their office so that they can take a look at your skin undertone. One make up tip that I learned from them is that in order to know the best foundation shade for us, one should look into our undertones.  There are warm, cool, and olive undertones. Each has a corresponding foundation shade.

I have warm undertone so my Ellana make up artist recommended the hazelnut latte. Matched with Ellana Foundation brush, the loose mineral foundation glides smoothly on my face. The effect was so natural looking and it was just very flawless. I love how it finishes in my face! The good thing about this one is that you can buy them for as little as 100 php! Yes, 100 php for a mineral make up - how cool is that? :)

Just like the other mineral make ups, I just find it less efficient in applying them because of the very reason that they are loose. The tiny powder forming on your clothes just makes it more time-consuming whenever you apply them. So I do use this if I have ample time to play around. But if I am so tight up, I use my VMV compact powder since I can easily apply it even if I am inside a car.

Dainty is a pale reddish brown frost

Inspiration is more of golden beige frost

Next stop are the multi-purpose mineral powder. Why multi-purpose? It is because you can use them as an eyeshadow, a blush, and can even be blended on your lip glosses! Now, this is much, much cooler! What I like about these two shades are basically the effect they give on your eyes and lips. I have used Dainty as a blush but I can't seem to picture out Inspiration as a blush. For me, it is a bit brighter to be used as such. Both give you a very natural look and just shimmers at the right amount. It is best to wear the shades during daytime.

Just like Liz, I also find it hard to get the right amount of lip gloss during my furst few tries with this tube. The worse feeling is when they gush out of the tube giving you a total mess. I learned then that rotating it twice at 360 degrees would give you the right amoun of gloss that you need. Lush lip gloss is now my lip's found friend. The minty feeling makes it distinctive of the other glosses. Lush is best combined with Dainty powder. The duo exudes a sexier lips even on a day time.

The verdict:

The same Ellana Make Up Brush Set, I highly recommend the products to the beauties who seek for an affordable yet very high quality products and gearing for a less harmful type of make up!

Product Review: Ellana Make Up Brushes

I never believed that one should invest on those make up brushes. I thought they are just a waste of money and once the make up product is good, it will definitely be good onto your face. My theory was proven wrong when I had the opportunity to go to Ellana Store at Quezon City. They had that so-called "make-over" thing and that was the time I experienced make-up brush that loves my face. And so without any thought, I grabbed a set of their make-up brushes along with my other purchases (to be reviewed on my next entry!).

These five sticks made up the brush set I got from Ellana. Boy, they are just so gorgeous! Priced at 850 php, it is already very reasonable to get these stuff. The unbelievably soft and gentle glide on your face makes it a run-away winner. And yes, these are not animal hairs (it's a gross revelation for me to know that some are animal hairs! nyay!). I am not an animal lover so it's just gross for me to know that there can be other brushes made of animal hairs!

First stop is the buffer brush which is specially used to apply your foundation. It is a dome-shaped brush making it easier to distribute the loose powder in your face and getting a flawless and well-polished finish. It is also easy to tap off excess powder so as not to make your face like a star in a ghost film. :D

The next brush is the "blush brush". I only knew that you need an angled brush in order to get a smooth and nicely tapped blush on your cheeks. This will definitely save you from a someone-punch-you-with-a-strawberry-jam blush-on look. Because of its seemingly diagonal shape, it distributes evenly the blush powder down to your cheek bone.

On the left is the eyeshadow brush and honestly, I am not sure if the one on the right is the eye contour or the concealer brush! Apologies, I was too excited to buy the set so I forgot to ask them what was it. :D Anyhow, the eyeshadow brush is serving its purpose too well. Because it is relatively small and the hairs are fine with a gradient effect making it easier to apply the eyeshadow thinly and without messing up with the eye liner and the crease area.

I am more convince that the other brush is the eye contour brush as I am using this to apply a different shade on my crease area. It is fuller and wider as compared to the eyeshadow brush understandably because we have wider crease area than the eye lid. I love how the crease shade combines smoothly with my eye lid shade. :)

One drawback of these two is that the hairs are not secured tightly on the handle which gives an irritating feeling everytime you glide them over on your eyes. Some hair strands would loosen out that you need to push them back from time to time. Worse, sometimes you have no choice but to take them out.

I have not much to say about the last member of the set as there is nothing special about it. It's the tool to actually tame your brows and I seldom grip this tool in my hand.

The verdict:
I am a renewed believer of the importance of make up brushes. Invest into it for a more meaningful and enjoyable experience with your make ups! Ellana make up brush set is a good buy except for the drawbacks I mentioned above. Personally, I should have not bought the last member as I find it rather useless, unless there is really a special purpose to it that I don't know. Pardon me for my ignorance. :D But in totality, this is a good buy for me!

For more Ellana brushes, check out their site.

Product Review: Watsons' GrapeBella Hand Cream

When my Crabtree & Evelyn hand cream tube was already severely wrinkled, I searched through the website to get another replacement. By another replacement means not necessarily another Crabtree & Evelyn as I am not luxurious enough as of the moment to spend a little less than a thousand bucks for a hand cream. Thanks by the way to my former boss and friend, RAF, who gave me C&E as a random present. But don't get me wrong, the product was the BEST hand cream I ever tried!

Paving my way through SM Megamall (as blogged yesterday, I was too lazy to dress up so I opted to go to SM. :D), I dropped by the department store to buy my usual toiletries. My eyes were then glued to these grape-dominated display - the Watsons' GrapeBella collection. It was an eye candy in a sense that you seem to literally feel the sweet taste of grapes when looking through the products!

Why Approved:

• The Price. Php 69.00 does not hurt a pinch in the pocket.
• Availability. Whenever there is Watsons or SM department store, there is this GrabeBella thing.
• Portability. Just as it is expected for a hand cream, this comes in a handy tube.

Why Doubt:

• Not-that-soft texture. I paractically use hand cream to soften my hands. But then, I did not get it from my new tube.
• No dominant grape smell. Much as I hate the uber grape flavor and smell.
• Not addictive. It is one of the signs when I know I like the product - I am addictive to it. This tube did not put me to addiction.