Polishes -Wet 'n' Wild - Megalast Nail Color
shinejunkiemonkee 3/3/2012 10:09:00 AM
Just got this in Wet Cement. I'd been morbidly curious about greige polish for years now. Part of me thinks it's chic; the rest of me thinks it's fugly. I saw this lilac-y greige for $1.99 and decided to try it. Still not sure if I like the color, but the formula is nice. I needed two coats to get a streak-free finish. One would be better, but okay. It dries fast. The bottle is nice. The brush is good--it's clearly modeled on the one for Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. I can't yet speak for its lasting power. Unless it turns out to be really awful, I think I'll be picking up more of these. I hope they come out with more shades. Edit: When I got out in the sun, I saw that two coats wasn't as opaque as I thought. A third coat made it perfect. A little annoying, but oh well. A day and a half in, the polish is wearing well. There's a bit of wear at the tips (completely normal for me as I'm hard on my nails), but no chips.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Polishes -Sally Hansen - Complete Salon Manicure - Shell We Dance
shinejunkiemonkee 1/23/2012 9:36:00 PM
I cannot as yet comment on the wear of this polish, having just bought it today, but I am delighted with the color. My beloved Bourjois Rose Lounge has become goopy and unusable, notwithstanding the addition of copious amounts of nail polish thinner. I need a new bottle, but I can't easily get Bourjois products at the moment. And so I went in search of a dupe. This, my friends, is it. It's a gorgeous sheer pale pink that makes your nails look super shiny and healthy. No idea how well this will last, but it looks beautiful on. It's a little bit pricy for a drugstore polish, but it's a decently sized bottle. Also, the packaging is quite pretty. Or I think so anyway.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -Philosophy - Vanilla Birthday Cake Flavored Lip Shine
shinejunkiemonkee 12/2/2011 12:45:00 PM
This is a great lipgloss. I got it as part of the philosophy birthday girl set (which comes with the matching shower gel in an absolutely adorable cardboard canister). As almost everyone before me has said, this smells like yummy vanilla cake batter. Vanilla is one of my all-time favorite scents for lip products, so this is right up my alley. But what I really love about this is the way it looks on my lips. It is incredibly shiny without being overly sticky. In the tube, it looks glittery, but the glitter is so, so fine that it makes my lips look extra shiny instead of glittery. All in all, this is a great product and one I would consider repurchasing when I run out.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Gels/Soaps -Philosophy - Vanilla Birthday Cake 3-in-1
shinejunkiemonkee 12/2/2011 12:37:00 PM
I got a small bottle of this as part of the philosophy birthday girl set (which comes with a matching lip shine in the cutest packaging you ever saw). I have to say, it's a really nice treat. It smells delish, like, well, vanilla birthday cake. To be specific, it smells like a yummy vanilla layer cake with lots of vanilla buttercream frosting. This stuff has a delightful texture--very creamy and moisturizing. I don't know if I would buy this again because shower gel goes fast chez moi, which means I tend to go with cheapie products, but I would love to receive it again as a gift and I would certainly consider giving it as a gift.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Shampoo -Batiste - Dry Shampoo
shinejunkiemonkee 11/10/2011 6:13:00 PM
This is my favorite range of dry shampoos. I've tried three types: Proud & True Brit, XXL Volume, and Nude. I loved them all. Proud & True Brit is, as I understand it, the same as the original Batiste dry shampoo except for the scent. It smells kind of perfumey but isn't too strong. It definitely makes my dark brown hair gray, but that's nothing some rubbing and a good brushing with a natural bristle brush can't fix. This stuff degreases, freshens, and lightly volumizes my hair with minimum fuss. Also, one can lasted me over two months--and I was using it probably three times a week. (I've bought other brands of dry shampoo that lasted two uses. Heck, I've bought cans of dry shampoo I haven't gotten any uses out of at all because the nozzles were faulty.) XXL Volume is a combination dry shampoo/volumizing hairspray. Dry shampoo is always going to volumize your hair a bit simply because it gets rid of the grease that makes your hair go lank. But this stuff volumizes your hair like whoa. It's serious stuff. The only downside is that it makes your hair feel a bit like cotton candy. Nude is the fragrance-free, non-aerosol option. It's a white powder that comes in a plastic squeeze bottle with a fine-tip nozzle. You can either dispense some directly onto your roots or into your palm and apply with your fingers. (The latter method seems to work better for me.) It performs a lot like the Proud & True Brit version. All in all, I love Batiste dry shampoo. They perform well and are very reasonably priced (between £2.99 and £3.99 each). I wish this were more widely available, in all its many varieties, outside the UK because it's a great product.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Polishes -Boots - No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour
shinejunkiemonkee 8/26/2011 3:55:00 PM
In my opinion, No7 products are in general nice basic products but too expensive for a store brand. This nail polish is to exception. No way would I pay full price (7 GBP) for this product. I will, however, use a 5 GBP voucher on one, which is just what I did. For 2 GBP, this is a very nice nail polish indeed. The shade I chose is "So Simple," a peachy beige. It's the color of the original silly putty or the Crayola crayon which used to be called (very politically incorrectly) "Flesh" but is now called "Peach." On me, it is a good nude, what Lisa Eldridge might call "foundation for nails." It makes my fingers look longer and more elegant. I know a lot of people have questioned the "Stay Perfect" name and claims of this product, but I've been wearing this for three days now (with no base or top coat!), and there's not a chip in sight. This is pretty much unheard of with me as I am hard on my nails AND have terrible nails anyway. A minor point but one I'll mention anyway is that the bottle is pretty. One drawback is that I had to put on three coats in order to get a fully opaque, streak-free finish. I'm lazy, so two coats is already pushing it with me. Three is insane. This also took FOREVER to dry so although my tips are chip-free for the moment, there are little indentations on the surface of my nails from touching things before they were completely dry. If you're more careful than I am, or use a quick dry topcoat, I imagine this will be less of a problem for you. A second drawback is that the brush on my brand new bottle was slightly twisted up when I got it, requiring me to get my fingers covered in paint as I tried to un-twist and un-splay them. Ultimately, I had to pull out a couple of the hairs. With that said, the brush is pretty decent--nice and big. I would repurchase this shade or purchase another shade in the range--but probably only with a voucher. Edit: I did, indeed, end up purchasing this nail polish (with a voucher) in another shade. That shade is Temptress, a beautiful blackened red. With one coat, this is a deep (but streaky) berry, With two coats, it's a (fairly streak-free) blood red. With three coats, it's the color of ripe blackberries (and opaque). I adore this shade. With that said, I have noticed that these nail polishes start thickening up very quickly. I will probably have to invest in some polish thinner soon in order to revive them.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Foundations -Garnier - BB Cream Miracle Skin Perfector Daily All-In-One
shinejunkiemonkee 8/18/2011 2:37:00 PM
So I bought into the hype and got this. And you know what? I'm liking it. I'm not sure if it's a true B.B. cream, having never tried a real one from Asia, but I think it's a very good tinted moisturizer. This comes in two shades, Light and Medium. I tried the testers and determined that my (NC20 or 25) complexion is in between shades. I think I could have made either shade work because they're rather sheer, but I went with Light in the end because it seemed more truly neutral--the Medium is a little orange while the Light looks like a clear, clean beige to me. There's definitely no gray to either shade, which, I understand, sets it apart from Asian B.B. creams. The finish is nice--surprisingly matte on me. I mean, it's not matte matte, but it's certainly not shiny! I was a little worried about that because some of the swatches I'd seen on beauty blogs looked extremely dewy, even glittery. (I love a dewy look, but my skin produces enough "dew" of its own these days.) The coverage isn't the greatest. If you've got bad skin (and I do!), you shouldn't expect this to cover everything. With that said, it does, indeed, blur imperfections, which is one of its marketing claims. My acne scars are definitely less noticeable with this on. As for generalized redness, this helps with that also. It doesn't completely eliminate it, but it does tone it down. I feel like it covers enough of what I want to cover that I can leave the house with this and no concealer over top. But then again, I rarely take the time to cover all of my acne scars because life's too short (and I'm lazy). YMMV, of course. The lasting power on this seems okay for a tinted moisturizer-like product. Tinted moisturizers tend to melt off my face (it's the aforementioned dew my skin produces). This seems to stay put fairly well. A strike against this, for me, is the fragrance. This is highly fragranced, and I generally prefer that my face products be unscented. With that said, this does smell good--it smells just like this Garnier shampoo I used to use when I lived in France (not Fructis--I think it was the Ultra Doux Shampooing a l'huile d'olive et citron). But man, is it strong. I put some on an hour and a half ago and I can still smell it. I paid around 9.99 GBP at Boots for this, not a bad price for 50ml of a good tinted moisturizer. The packaging, a squeeze tube, is fine. As has been said on some beauty blogs, it does look like a tube of hand cream, but whatever: it gets the job done and it's hygienic. All in all, I would probably buy this again.
19 out of 19 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Toners -Boots - Traditional Skincare Range Glycerin and Rose Water
shinejunkiemonkee 8/8/2011 1:25:00 PM
This is a very nice, gentle toner that smells lovely. It works well to remove the residue left by the very poor cold cream in this line. At less than 3 quid, it's quite inexpensive. The old-fashioned packaging is cute as well.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Cleansers -Boots - Traditional Skin Care Cold Cream
shinejunkiemonkee 8/8/2011 1:21:00 PM
This stuff is useless! Maybe it's the soft water where I'm staying, but I've been having a hard time finding a cleanser in the UK that can stand up to makeup. I don't usually go for tissue off cleansers but have had good makeup removal results with Pond's Cold Cream and Clarins Cleansing Milk with Gentian, so when I saw this I thought I'd give it a go, especially at the low, low price of less than 3 quid. Well, it does nothing except make my face and hands greasy. I'd probably have to reapply five or six times to get all my makeup off--and I don't even wear a lot of face stuff! The only pluses are the smell, the price, and the lovely, old-fashioned packaging. Edit: I am upping my rating significantly because I did, in the end, find a good use for this. It works great as a moisture mask, applied to perfectly clean skin, tissued off after a bit, and followed with the Boots Traditional Skin Care Glycerin and Rosewater Toner. In summation, this sucks as a cleanser. You'll never get all your makeup off using this. But on already clean skin, it works a treat as a soothing and moisturizing mask.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lipstick -Boots - 17 Mirror Shine On (all shades)
shinejunkiemonkee 8/7/2011 4:30:00 PM
This is a great sheer lipstick. I have it in "Belle," a mauvey pink color. I know "Bee Hive" is the must have shade from this line, but "Belle" is worth a look if you prefer rosy lips to nude ones. On me, this is a MLBB shade. It doesn't add much color or even all that much shine. It just makes my lips look moist, pretty and polished. It also feels nice and is easy to reapply without a mirror. Be warned that these lipsticks are VERY soft and melty. The packaging is a little juvenile but then this is the 17 line we're talking about.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Blush -Tarte - Amazonian Clay Long-Wear Blush in Natural Beauty
shinejunkiemonkee 5/22/2011 7:00:00 PM
I requested this sight unseen, save for online swatches, as a birthday gift and, let me tell you, I was NOT disappointed. It is a beautiful matte watermelon pink, just what I was hoping for. Seriously, it almost took my breath away. I apply this with my MAC 188 brush, and it goes on so smoothly and blends wonderfully well. A little goes a very long way. It's also very long lasting. When I took it off today, it still looked fairly fresh--this, after around ten hours of wear. This is my new favorite blush, both in terms of formulation and color. I hope to try other shades in the Amazonian Clay Long-Wear Blush range (Flush, I got my eye on you!) and maybe even the Natural Beauty Cheek Stain.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lipstick -Unlisted Brand - Rival de Loop Rival de Loop Glööckler Lipstick (LE)
shinejunkiemonkee 2/17/2011 12:06:00 PM
Rival de Loop is a dirt-cheap German brand of skincare and cosmetics, which I believe is exclusive to Rossmann drugstores. I've tried some RdL skincare products before and they were okay, but for some reason I was never drawn to their cosmetics--until I chanced upon the limited edition Glööckler collection, that is. The collection, which was created in collaboration with the flamboyant designer and TV personality Harald Glööckler (supposedly the inspiration behind Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno), consists of a mascara, a liquid eyeliner, three nail polishes, two lipsticks, and two lipglosses. The packaging is cute-ish--squared off tubes and bottles with Glööckler's name and signature crown logo, but what's inside is what really matters, right? So far, I have purchased both one of the nailpolishes, one of the lipsticks, and both lipglosses. I will probably go back for one of the other nailpolishes and the other lipstick. The lipstick I got is 02 Apricot. I purchased it because I'd been so impressed with the lipglosses from the line. I wish I could say the lipstick lived up to the glosses, but it doesn't. It's beautiful in the tube, a nudey peach with shimmer, but it looks really dull on my lips. The color reminds me of Mac Glaze Lipstick in Dream, another disappointment. Maybe I just can't pull off these colors. Maybe it's that I need more color on my lips. I don't know. What I do know is that the texture on this is hard and deadly dry. The tester felt creamier somehow. Strange. Anyway, I definitely need to use a balm under and a gloss over this to make it look halfway decent. With that said, I will be going back for the other lipstick in this line, 01 Velvet Rose. I read on some German beauty blogs that it's got a better texture. The color's pretty, too. On my hand, it looked like my Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge in Pink Raspberry. The only reason I didn't get it when I got Apricot is that there was only one left at the location I happened to be at and it looked like someone had tested it (this despite the presence of a clearly marked tester, argh). These lipsticks are very inexpensive: 2,49 EUR, I believe. I got Apricot even cheaper because RdL cosmetics were 25% off the day I bought it (hence why I'm not too upset that it didn't work out so well).
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -Unlisted Brand - Rival de Loop Glööckler Lipgloss (LE)
shinejunkiemonkee 2/17/2011 11:48:00 AM
Rival de Loop is a dirt-cheap German brand of skincare and cosmetics, which I believe is exclusive to Rossmann drugstores. I've tried some RdL skincare products before and they were okay, but for some reason I was never drawn to their cosmetics--until I chanced upon the limited edition Glööckler collection, that is. The collection, which was created in collaboration with the flamboyant designer and TV personality Harald Glööckler (supposedly the inspiration behind Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno), consists of a mascara, a liquid eyeliner, three nail polishes, two lipsticks, and two lip glosses. The packaging is cute-ish--squared off tubes and bottles with Glööckler's name and signature crown logo, but what's inside is what really matters, right? So far, I have purchased both one of the nail polishes, one of the lipsticks, and both lip glosses. I will probably go back for one of the other nail polishes and the other lipstick. The lip glosses, i.e., what this review is supposed to be about, are fabulous. They come in 01 pink and 02 rosa. Pink is a pale, milky beigy pink with fine microglitter, which to my eye looks pink and white. It goes on sheer, much less milky than it looks in the tube, and is extremely shiny; the glitter is subtle. Rosa is a sheer, clear hot pink with hot pink microglitter. It definitely gives a hot pink cast and high shine to the lips. The glitter, again, is subtle. I bought Rosa first and loved it so much that I went back for Pink. The quality on these is outstanding. The texture is smooth. I detect no grit from the glitter and the gloss itself has just enough stickiness to stay put fairly well without feeling uncomfortable. (Still, if you have long hair, beware of wearing it down while wearing this gloss on a windy day.) I seriously love these so much that I'm thinking of going back for more before the sell out. And at 2,49 EUR I can afford to. Indeed, when I bought Pink, all RdL cosmetics were 25% so I got it for even less. So if you're in Germany, check out the RdL display. I know I'll definitely be giving their regular line a try in the future. Edit: One last thing, the applicator on this is fantastic. It's an unusually shaped, flexible doefoot. The result is a very precise application.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Conditioner -Pantene - Nature Fusion Moisture Balance
shinejunkiemonkee 1/29/2011 7:35:00 PM
Unfortunately, this conditioner isn't rich enough to take away the straw-like feeling its matching shampoo gives to my hair. My hair remains a b**** to untangle. I don't think this stuff is completely to blame. My current city has the worst hard water I've ever experienced; before coming here, I have never had such terrible problems with my hair. I won't repurchase, at least not as long as I live in a place with bad hard water. If the water is good where you live, though, this might be worth a shot as it's cheap and smells great.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Shampoo -Pantene - Nature Fusion Moisture Balance
shinejunkiemonkee 1/29/2011 7:24:00 PM
This shampoo makes my hair feel like matted straw. I think a big part of it is that the water in my current city is hard and horrible because I've only found a couple of shampoos that don't make my hair feel like that here, both of them creamy (this is a clear shampoo). It's a shame because it smells great and is very affordable, but I shan't repurchase.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No