Month: July 2012

Tanning Twenty Twelve: Karora Self Tan Mist

/ brightandbeautyfull / Leave a comment

I hate the self tan sprays, as I have mentioned before, mainly because they are not very precise. It’s like when you clean the mirror in the bath — which you will have to do if you use a spray tan! — and you squirt the Windex and it’s like SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT. It’s okay when it’s Windex and it’s a mirror; it’s not so okay when it’s yer bod and a container of stainy stuff that will get all over the place.

So I end up SPLAT SPLAT SPLATing the stuff directly onto the mitt, and so what’s the point, then? You’re not getting the ‘salon experience’ at home, are you? Feh.

So with my usual open mind, I wielded Irish brand Karora Self Tan Mist (€14.99) and pointed it at my mitt. And then something truly amazing happened! It was all sssssssssssssssssssssssh: a truly gentle and absolutely misty expulsion of product.

Huh! I pointed the canister at my arm and depressed the button. There it was again! Ssssssssssssssssssssssh, resulting in a perfect mist of self tan adhering to my skin.

I used the mitt anyway, to distribute it evenly — I hadn’t lost my mind entirely — and have to say that the spray thing is really convenient and gentle and thorough. Who knew!

In the usual run of my criteria, this is yet another self tan that doesn’t smell bad. This also dries instantly, which is probably the most important thing to me.

However: it shows colour only to a small degree on contact, so you’ll have to plan ahead with this one. I put some on going out, and it didn’t really make an impact until the next day. Normally, I wouldn’t be okay with this either {so impatient!} but because this dries so fast, I’d put this this on and then get between the sheets without thinking twice.

Finally, I am guessing that is terrific value, because the sssssssssssssssssssssh doesn’t waste product, and with the help of the mitt, it distributes really well. Excellent all round, and it should last for the best part of the ‘summer’.

***

http://www.karoracosmetics.com

Dr Lewinn’s Renunail Update: A Bit of Perspective

/ brightandbeautyfull / 2 Comments

I am in the middle of the third week of Dr Lewinn’s Renunail Nail Strengthener application. This is the fifth week of the whole process. I was only admiring my nails, my historically manky nails, earlier yesterday, thinking about how I was going to post another picture of their new and improved-ness.

They are not only whiter, and less ridge-y, but also stronger. I have been growing them without thinking twice. Until last night, when I removed my left riding glove and realised that my ring fingernail felt funny.

It had split all the way down the center.

Argh! Okay, so, in all the admiration yesterday, I had forgotten to apply the strengthener. Was that what happened? Or had I tempted the fates by letting the nail grow and grow? The riding gloves don’t help matters in any respect, so I am guessing that the confluence of elements — gloves tugging on too-long nail, too-long nail that had not been coated with supernatural strength — resulted in the split.

Dammit. Ah, well, time to file the nails down, and to keep strengthening.

Look, they are not even that long! I bet it is an aging thing…

Well, I am learning the limitations of the product as it conjuncts with the limitations of my own raw material. Still! The improvement is amazeballs.

Notes to Self

/ brightandbeautyfull / Leave a comment

> Undo all the plastic barriers and peel off all the foil-y bits on products before getting in the shower!
This seems like common sense — well, yeah, okay, it is common sense, and I seem to be sadly lacking in it. I have a bunch of stuff on the go at the moment, and I remember, too late, that manufacturers are protecting us from tampered-with stuff. Fumbling with trying to strip off the strip-y thing is annoying with wet hands; resorting to using my teeth more often that not results in said stuff  in my mouth. Yuck, on several levels.

>Testing out face masks requires lead time.
Ack! I always forget to do masks — and I love masks! I am not so good at sitting around doing nothing, though. Even reading the internet is problematic because of the reading glasses, and glasses on a masky face is also ‘yuck’.

>In the spirit of the first item, undo all the tops of things in tubs.
Because the unscrewing business is also fiddly with wet hands {TWSS} and also an amounto f water always gets in the tub, and I’m sure that the long-term effects of water-in-tubs-of-product is not good.

I had a couple more, and I can’t remember them… which bodes ill for this list.

HD Brows: Must to Maintain

/ brightandbeautyfull / Leave a comment

My eyebrows were in great shape, I thought. Sure, I had to jazz ’em up somewhat extra, with the auld eyebrow palette, but they looked fine, yeah?

No.

Before and after, obvs. Yes, the use-of-dye aspect of the HD Brows process helps loads, even if I do feel like Groucho Marx for the first two days, but the whole shaping technique, using waxing and threading and measuring, is simply non-pareil.

Between the tanning and the HD Brows, I need almost zero make up, which lowers the maintenance in other areas.

Look, I let them go so long that I resorted to the tweezers myself. I am so bad at tweezing, even when I’m only after yanking the really obvious wigglers. Plus, I feel the pain, and can only manage like two hairs and hour.

So much simpler to go to the professionals…

More info here at http://www.carterbeauty.ie; see here for the first go.