Haiku Review: Perricone MD Cold Plasma

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Eek: it does feel cold
Plasma: that’s to do with blood…
Why’s it smell like fish?

Whenever I try a product for the first time, I always assume it’s a new thing entirely. Like, never been seen before on this earth. Tiny bit arrogant, I’ll admit, but since the existence of this site pretty much declares my obsession with beauty products, I can kinda see why I’d be so surprised to know that Perricone MD has been around since 1998. I’d never heard of them before!

Uh, maybe I didn’t know about them because their products are not exactly going to be found in the bargain bin. I recently got my paws on a serving of Cold Plasma, and as you’ll see from the prices below, this stuff ain’t cheap.

It is perhaps worth reiterating that it lasts longer than most products that come in a jar that holds 1 fluid ounce/30mls. It’s a truism, and I think I said it yesterday, too, but stuff that costs more lasts longer. Having said that, I quail at the thought of having to buy this for myself.

The thing is, though… it feels good on my face. You get a wee scoop with which to apply the prescribed amount; the coverage is is perfect, and it really does feel cold, every single time! The product is purported to be something of a miracle worker and is designed to tackle ‘wrinkles, enlarged pores, dryness, redness, discoloration, uneven skin tone, impurities, loss of firmness, loss of smoothness, and loss of radiance.’ Whew! if it cooked my dinner, I’d marry it.

When I use it, I have to chase it with moisturiser immediately. As the label recommends this anyway, I don’t see that it’s problem, or a flaw in the product. Despite earnest googling, I can’t find out why the stuff feels cold, or why it smells slightly fishy. The latter may be because it’s natural, and natural products smell a bit funky, because of the lack of chemical intervention. I’ve also used the brand’s No Foundation Foundation SPF 30, which is terrific, but also has a bit of a pong. {It is terrific because it is the sort of foundation that makes it look like you are not wearing any foundation at’all. I am inspired to go into depth on this at a later date.} Anyway, the unique fragrance takes some getting used to. I’m not sure about the plasma part either, something to do with the Universe and ionic suspension? Here’s a link to Vanity Fair that may help. My takeaway from that is the everyone’s cells will use the product to its best effect, which is super cool.

The philosophy behind the brand is a sensible one: you can’t improve the quality or your skin, or indeed your ageing process, by topical alone. Perricone’s got a whole system, including healthy eating, and supplements {hmm..} Honestly, self-care doesn’t make sense unless it is holistic. I’m personally interested in these ideas, and if you are too, can read all about the good doctor here, and on his blog, thedailyperricone.com.

Plus! If you like quizzes and flawless interface, go take the quiz here!

^See what I did there?

€150/£120/$150

Irish Pricing: An Eye Opener

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You learn a lot when you become a beauty journalist. You learn that sometimes, products that claim to be based on science actually are. You learn that people at parties treat you like a doctor, but the conversation is less about passing blood than it is about crow’s feet. And sadly, you learn that Rip-Off Ireland is alive and well when it comes to gouging into our wallets.

Oh, it’s subtle: three euro here, maybe five euro there. I do a lot of price checking, both here and for my column for the Evening Herald. Sometimes I don’t get prices, so I have to search for them. Most often, the prices are in sterling, and I have to run the number through my currency conversion widget. So I do.

Then, sometimes, I find the euro price after all, and lo and behold! The item that sold in London for £19.50, which I converted to roughly €23.50, is actually selling for €27.50 in Dublin.

Really, manufacturers? Or brand managers? Or shop keepers?

Who’s to blame?

I don’t think it’s fair. It’s the same feeling of being taken advantage of that we all get when we go over to the continent and pay so much less for food and drink. Sheesh. What’s to be done?

Well, the thing that spurred this vent is news from Blue Sky products, who distribute REN in Ireland, are going to ‘significantly reduce the RRP {of REN products} so that they directly correlate with the £/sterling price of each product.’ Here’s a good example of how that’s going to work:

To give you an example, all REN Cleansers (150ml) will now be priced at €20.00, previously €25.00. Moisturisers (50ml) will now be priced at €30.00, previously €38.00. The RRP in £Stg for these items are £17 and £25 respectively. You can see that these now directly correlate with our new euro RRPs.

Fair play to both Blue Sky and REN, and let’s hope we see more following this lead.

Sweet Sixteen: L’Occitane Almond Line

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WHAT IS THIS ABOUT, AGAIN? There’s a full explanation here; in short, I wanted to do a Personal Top Ten Beauty Products of All Time, but found the list sneaking up to Top Twenty; then it fell short at Eighteen, which is like, what is Eighteen, so I decided that Sweet Sixteen was the way to go.

It’s good to be queen.

Ahem. Here is number — hang on — lucky number Thirteen, ladies and ladies. Continue reading →

My World of Shampoo, Part III: John Freida Sheer Blonde

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{Speaking of shampoo!}

Here’s me, with freshly highlighted hair, and I am all out of this stuff <.

Sheer Blonde, by John Freida, was my go-to combo when my lights were fadin’ fast. It says it right there on the tube, Highlight Activating, and yes indeed, both the shampoo and conditioner totally activated my highlights. Thing is, I would like to have been able to use this on the enlivened lights, just to see how well they would look.

I’m betting they would be lightin’ up my head, in an off-the-charts fashion, because Sheer Blonde did an amazing job on my hair when it wasn’t at it lightest and brightest.

Bummer.

The other thing is, sometimes I find that these ‘specialised’ S&Cs don’t do such a great job making your hair look great. Like, your highlights might look highlighty-er, but the general texture and healthiness of you hair might suffer. In this case, I got a freshened look and a good hair day.

At the prices below, I’ve no excuse. Great hair, great value.

€6.19 for both/£5.49 for both/$6.49 (shampoo), $6.99 (conditioner)

Having Said All That About Dry Shampoos…

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… I gave this stuff a go. It works rather differently than a powder. While this may not, technically, be a dry shampoo, it does the same business: it lets you off the shampooing hook.

As it says on the tin, the Ojon™ Full Detox Rub-Out™ Dry Cleansing Spray has Ojon oil in it. I am a fan of the Ojon range, in particular the Restorative Hair Treatment, a little tub of goodness, of which more will be spoken at a later date.

Despite the interesting advice that one should dry shampoo one’s locks the night before the day you’re going to skip shampooing, I shook this up on the skip-a-day morning and gave my head a spritz. Hmmm. I was pretty impressed with the first first impression, and so really went at my roots and scalp. I have to say, if I was the type of person to walk around with bed head {I am so not} then just spraying and massaging it through my hair would result in bed-head extraordinaire.

As it was, I was pretty happy with the result, even once I brushed everything back into order. My hair combed down rather flatly, but it actually felt clean. I was having an unwashed pony tail day, but my hair looked sleek rather than hauled-back-and-greasy. In fact, it looked like a magazine pony tail, which is pretty magical.

The thing about Ojon™ oil in general is that it gets right down there into the shaft of the hair and protects it from the wear and tear of sitting around exposed on the top of your head, day after day. Plus, it helps prevent future damage — look, I went for a walk the other day, in the sunshine, and even as weak as the winter version of the sun is, I felt like my hair had gotten a bit blasted. Not quite as bleached as a week in Ibiza would have made it, but still. So anything that helps me keep things right and tight up there is going to go into my good books.

Just so you know: whilst the Ojon oil is sourced in a section of the Central American rainforest, it is done so responsibly, and the indigenous people who harvest the natural ingredients are paid an income. I wouldn’t countenance this is this wasn’t so.

All of the above is serving to make this my new thing. And for someone who loves shampoo as much as I do, that’s saying something.

£18/€20/$24

I Will Follow

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{Now that song is going to be in my head…}

Just a word to say THANKS to all the bloggers who are following this blog. I will follow you, as soon as I get an admin.

Ahhhhhahahahahaha!

No, seriously, need to set some time aside on the weekend to move through blog-o-verse. Be reading you soon!

Daphne Guinness for MAC

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Legging it to the post office to collect packages is like my avocation. I don’t even have to show my i.d. anymore, all the post dudes know me, and are curiously incurious as to what exactly I am always collecting.

Luckily, MAC sent a registered package, so it didn’t disappear over the hols when I wasn’t around to fetch it. Talk about happy face! Daphne Guinness for MAC is then newest collection by the famously funky brand, and the two bits I got look good.

I received Circa Plum, a self-described ‘frosty dirty mid-tone lavender’. I had to google MAC pigments because I seriously had no notion where to put this, on my face. It transpires that this is eyeshadow — I’ll get back to you on how this works out.

The Red Dwarf Pro Longwear Lipcreme needed no explanation. Here’s me in my un-sexy glasses {left my sexy ones on the plane, waah} sporting the colour, sans lipliner, and I am impressed with it, and with myself. I didn’t even use a brush, which I would normally think was completely necessary when dealing with a MAC lippy. The round, flat top of the stick is usually a divil to get right, but it seems to be okay here. As with all lipstick in the Lipcreme line, it feels soft and light, yet the colour looks deep and rich.

General consensus on the line seems to be that it’s not as wild as one would have expected from Ms Guinness, but I like what I see. I’m keen to get my hands on one of the brow pencils, as I am still all about me brows.

Both the pigments and the lipcremes are limited edition, and as this stuff tends to sell out fast, check out the line and snap up your faves. If it’s not too late…

Pigment: €24.50/£15.50/$20
Lipcreme: €20/£15.50/$17

Amazing Face: How Sweet!

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Emma Hardie is UK-based facialist and and skincare specialist, and those of us who haven’t got the dosh to fly over and get a session from the woman herself {and one of those would be me} can dig into this: her Amazing Face Professional Cleansing System is a fantastic treatment-in-a-box, and even though it comes across as complicated, it really isn’t. Continue reading →

I Feel Welcomed Home

/ MANY BRAVE FOOLS / 2 Comments

Delighted to have received new and improves body moisturisers from Dr. Hauschka Skin Care yesterday. There are five:

This photo is hilare, because I took it in the throes of jet lag, and you can see that I was spaced to the max. Like, I didn’t even notice that two of them were showing the French side of the box, and one is in German or whatever.

I am still in the throes of jet lag, and can’t be arsed to take the picture over.

I gave the Lavender and Sandelhout and go — that would be Deustch for Sandalwood — and it smells gorgeous. The sandalwood cuts the elderly lady vibe of the lavender, and the lavender cuts the masculine vibe of the sandalwood, and both cut the health-food-store vibe that all natural products have, which to me is a kind of oat-y smell?

I woke up this morning, still hungover from air travel, and my skin felt as soft, if not softer, than it had when I first applied the moisturiser.

I’ll be using these over the next few days and will provide updates. I’m keen on the Lemongrass, for sure.

€23.95/£22.95/$39.95