Greasy roots, dry ends.
Shampooing every day sucks.
What’s the solution????
Common sense would answer: dry shampoo.
I’ve only tried three, and I don’t know, I think I don’t know how to do it right. Continue reading
HAIKU
Haiku Review: Green Angel Sunrise Body Smoother
High maintenance, me:
On hols*, but missing my STUFF.
Would love a good scrub.**
Oh, the perspective one gains when life throws out a challenge. I admit that I am spoiled, and even as hard as this beauty reviewing can be {yes, it can be}, I enjoy it thoroughly, but I also take things for granted, and have high expectations. And I also can get kind of… bitchy about things. Continue reading
Haiku Review: Lush Exclusives
Many tiny scents!
An option for every sitch.
Staying power: low.
Okay, let me just get this out of the way: I am too susceptible to packaging design, and must express my deep loathing for the display font that Lush use. Oh, how I hate that class of scripty-brushy font!
But oh! how I love Gorilla Perfume Miniatures – EXCLUSIVES, a cleverly designed little box ‘o’ fragrance. The brown cardboard is sturdy and I wouldn’t hesitate tossing it into my handbag. Which I would have to do because the scents don’t really last all that long. This is a bother, but not a ginormous botheration, because you can bring it along because the box is so sturdy you can just toss it into your bag… see how that works? It is a little bit of genius.
Each of the eight scents have a genius touch as well. I don’t like all of them, which is normal, but the ones that I do like, I like unconditionally and unreservedly.
These are:
*1000 Kisses, which is sounds sweet because the name is sweet, but it actually has weight.
*B Scent, which goes perfectly with that sexy, sexy Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner I love.
*Cocktail, which: need I say more? Also: ylang ylang which = sexy.
*The Smell of Weather Turning, which OMG, smells exactly like a rain-washed forest. I adore this.
So, 50% ‘like’ for me, that’s pretty good. And it’s really not that big a drag to carry them around and to keep applying one’s scent of choice — something about dabbing on fragrance is unutterably sexy.
Lots of sexy in this post — Lush are on to something!
€24/£19.95/$24.95
Haiku Review: Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Recovery Mask
This tube of goodness
Is better travelled than most,
But should be retired.
I was getting a Dermalogica facial once, and a lovely lady at Papillon in Ranelagh said that whenever she travelled transatlantically, she used the Multivitamin Power Recovery Mask as a skin hydrator. Just apply upon take off, and then take it off upon arrival. The lightness and transparency of the mask meant that you would maybe look a little shiny, but you wouldn’t like you would be capable of scaring small nephews.
That sounded like a good idea to me: I didn’t really find it very effective as a mask, but thought that using in this fashion might be beneficial. The main thing I didn’t like about it was its quick absorption; I like that in a serum, but not in a mask. I figured that slathering this on, especially on the journey back to Ireland from NYC, would shield my skin from the worst effects of floating around in recycled air for hours.
This plan mostly worked when we didn’t have to display our cosmetics for the delectation of airport employees. Even when we began to take part in the product parade, the 75mls made it as regards the restrictions, but it took up too much space in my plastic baggy. Especially when they got strict about the size of the baggy, and I couldn’t use my go-to quart-sized Ziploc freezer bag.
Despite not having it to hand, I still packed it on every single trip I have taken over the last many years, even though it l
anguished in the hold. This doesn’t make a ton of sense, but once I had decided it had a use as a travel companion, it was going to go with me everywhere.
I wish I could sign it up for frequent flier miles, we could probably go round the world for free by now.
It’s been to Paris countless times. It came on honeymoon; it came with me to residential school at Bath University when I was studying psychology with the OU, mid-divorce; it is here with me now, and I’ve actually been using it as it is intended to be used since I did such a poor job packing adequate skin care.
I am still not entirely sold on it as a mask. As I have said, I prefer my masks to actually be mask-y, but if your skin is super sensitive, then this might be worth a go. Oh, and here’s the fancy-pants new packaging. Gosh, it is awfully modern-looking and sleek, isn’t it? I can’t see tossing my auld soldier, even if he is past his sell-by date. He’s still got some go in him yet.
€39/£33/$46
Haiku Review: Head & Shoulders Itchy Scalp Care
Oh, where to begin!
Let’s start with today’s shampoo —
Chosen with intent.
I think I used the H&S brand once in my life, before now. I had a touch of dandruff during adolescence, quelle horreur, and reached for the brand that said it was going to make it stop. It did, and I never thought of using it again.
Now, if I had to use a shamp/cond duo to deal with such an issue, I would most assuredly reach for the Head & Shoulders. I am also fairly certain that one’s choices have increased exponentially in the intervening years. I counted eleven different versions on the brand’s interactive web site.
I was given a sample of the Itchy Scalp Care flavour, and eh, I wasn’t really that pushed to give it a go. But give it one I did, because as I said earlier, this is my job.
Well. I assume my scalp is healthy because it doesn’t flake, and not to say that I am now given to bouts of scalp fear, but I will say that this pair, with its infusion of eucalyptus, is an enjoyably invigorating cleansing experience. It’s the shampoo that really comes across with the tingle, and if my scalp wasn’t squeaky clean before, it sure was now.
Ah: chosen with intent. The thing is, this gives me excellent second day hair, and as I am getting highlights today, I didn’t want to wash the barnet, but neither did I want to have dull hair. H&S and sorts this out completely, and I will walk into the salon with my head, complete with its itch-less scalp, held high.
€/£/$ prices vary, so I’m afraid you’ll have to google it yourself.
Haiku Review: To Clarify
Yup: thirteen shampoos.
How many heads do I have?
Oh, right, only one.
The thing is, what kind of hair day do you want it to be?
Do you want it to be a shiny, salon kind of day?
Or do you know that you need to have good second day hair?
Or you are going out that night, and not only desire shiny salon hair, but with a difference?
What if you are just washing your hair because it needs it, and it really doesn’t matter what how it comes out?
^I don’t even know what that means, that one directly above. Just throwing the possibility out there.
I suppose the easiest answer to the question, ‘Sue, why in the world do you have thirteen shampoos and accompanying conditioners on the go?’
Well, it’s my job. I’m doing this for you.
I don’t even know where to start.
Haiku Review: The Archives
Sharing ’round the wealth
Or shameless trolling for hits?
Re-blogging yourself.
Ah, well, so what? Here is a lnk to capsule reviews of a variety of body creams, butters and lotions. I believe that the HHHH’s are meant to be the stars I had given them in the newspaper.
Anyway! Off to review the back catalogue. Who knows what treasures it contains?!?
Haiku Review: Madame Glamour
Oh, Madame Glamour!
As cheap as chips, and fragrant —
You fade all too soon.
Lidl, who do so much for us already — the ‘American Style’ peanut butter is a guilty pleasure, and they do a delicious bottle of prosecco for, like, no price at’all — have given us a bargain fragrance that does not smell cheap.
Smelling cheap… well, it’s best to be avoided, isn’t it? Oh, God, the scents I used to wear in my misguided youth! I like to think that Coco by Chanel came along just at the right time to save me from all those drugstore brands {chemist! the power of nostalgia! I forget my new words!} that came on strong and faded away in the blink of an eye, or rather, the twitch of a nostril.
Lidl’s brand is called Suddenly: Madame Glamour. I take the colon to be implicit, because otherwise this has two names. Anyway, UK-based Lidl enthusiasts have been merrily spritzing away with this, to the tune of £2.90-ish, since May, and the perfume arrived on Irish stores just in time for Christmas. It’s been making a splash, both over there, and here:
Two independent consumer panel blind tests carried out in the UK by the Perfumer’s Guild on the Lidl Suddenly Madame Glamour perfume against the hugely popular designer branded perfume revealed incredible results – 50 women in the first test voted overwhelmingly for the Lidl Suddenly perfume with 89% saying they would prefer to wear it over the designer brand.
And, 90% of the 100 women who blind tested the perfumes in the second round said they also preferred the Lidl perfume. A blind test was also carried out on Newstalk’s Tom Dunne Show on Friday 2nd of December with the Lidl fragrance beating Chanel again live on air.
I love the design of the bottle: it’s delicate and feminine, and perfectly handbag-sized. The thing is, you will have to have it to hand, because otherwise, you’ll find that in a short time, you will be fragrance-free. Which is not the point of wearing fragrance.
Okay, seriously, at €3.49, you can buy enough of these to rig up some sort of perpetual spritzing machine, but is even that low a price a waste of dosh? I wouldn’t go that far, because the scent, which apparently contain ‘citrus and floral notes, incorporating bergamot and jasmine’* is really refreshing, and… optimistic. Yeah, it is really quite youthful, yet confident, and I love that about Madame Glamour. I suppose if there was a body cream of the same scent, that layering might help with the staying power… just an idea…
*I would like to learn more about how fragrance works. Is there a course I can take???
Haiku Review: Nuxe Contour des Yeux Prodigiuex
Eye creams are rubbish,
Thought I, until I tried this.
Lids firm on contact. Continue reading
Haiku Review: An Introduction
Oh, crap, this is hard:
Reviewing products, in verse.
Whose idea was this???
I think we learned to write Haiku in the fourth grade? Maybe fifth? It seems to be enjoying a renaissance of sorts, and since my brain doesn’t ‘do’ numbers, a delightful alternative to sudoku. Soduko? Wha’?
So I started to go over my list of things I want to review, or re-review as the case may be, in haiku — and I decided to write about how hard it is to do, instead.
But when it works, I bet it is going to be awesome!
I highly recommend this, based on the super awesome excerpts I’ve read, and this, if you don’t even know what the hell haiku is. Fans of American football will enjoy these
Bright & Beautyfull! 