Gels/Soaps -Dove - Pink-rosa
thespacecowgirl 8/15/2012 10:36:00 PM
All my Walmart had in stock was this and the Nectarine & White Ginger, which I don't care for, so I grabbed the pink. This was the soap my family used when I was a very small girl, so it brings back pleasant memories of long, sudsy baths. It is indeed a more rose-smelling version of the classic Dove scent, but not too strong, powdery, or otherwise "grandmotherly." I don't usually go for rose, actually, but I feel entitled due to being a June birthday. Unfortunately, this seems to have something in it that breaks me out - not sure if it's the perfume or the dye or just a fluctuation in my skin, but I'll be ditching the remaining 3 bars if my skin doesn't calm down by the end of bar #1.
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Polishes -Unlisted Brand - Hot Topic Nail Polish
thespacecowgirl 8/13/2012 2:48:00 PM
I own 3 of these - a fluorescent pink, a neon purple, and an orange-scented orange with true gold shimmer. I would be totally unsurprised to discover that these are manufactured by the same company that makes Sinful Colors polishes, as they have the same annoying 5-6-coat opacity and crumbly texture when dry, which is especially frustrating on toes. That's why they're not worth paying ~US$4 for: frankly, they're cheap nail polish sold at a higher price because it's Hot Topic. If you're OK with that kind of quality, check the Sinfuls first - they're frequently BOGO @ Walgreens for US$1.99. In fact, the neon purple is actually of lower quality than Sinful's bottle-similar Dream On - it dries a plum shade unless I use a white polish beneath, whereas Dream On is a neon on bare nails. Sinful polishes also dry in a reasonable time period, whereas I've had Hot Topic polishes still feel tacky on my nails after 30 minutes. The Hot Topic bottles look cute, but the brushes pick up way too much polish, and it's difficult not to gunk up the bottlenecks...and when it starts to get gunky, the brush easily detaches from the cap when I go to open the bottle. The formula is thick and gloopy despite being so sheer, and I have to thin them practically every time I use them, including between coats. These are the only polishes in my stash I actually have to perform maintenance on.
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Conditioner -Suave - Professionals Rosemary Mint Conditioner
thespacecowgirl 7/23/2012 6:55:00 AM
I'm very picky about the scent of my conditioner, and lately (hot Texas summer) the perfume-y scent of my usual Suave Sleek has gotten to be too much for me. I use the Rosemary + Mint shampoo as a clarifying shampoo, so I thought I'd try the conditioner. I have very thick hair, so it takes a little finagling to get it to work for me. What I do is make sure my hair is absolutely soaking wet, then apply a generous amount of conditioner. This makes the thin conditioner easier to work through my hair. Then I leave just a little residue when I rinse it out. It gives a lovely cool tingling feeling, without any menthol on the ingredients list. The end result is well-moisturized, easy-to-detangle hair that nevertheless has plenty of volume and doesn't look greasy when dried. The herbal mint scent isn't exactly the same as the shampoo---it seems just a little perfume-y---but it's much better than anything else I've used lately.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Treatments -Carmex - vanilla click stick
thespacecowgirl 7/5/2012 10:25:00 PM
MMMMM. Oh, sorry, you were probably expecting a coherent review. Well, the vanilla part smells like French vanilla ice cream, and covers up the icky camphor/menthol/phenol part a lot, but there's still enough of the medicated ingredients to make it sort of vanilla-minty, which is a beloved flavor combination. Carmex isn't the most moisturizing, and in fact can be a bit itchy and drying if overused, but it does a fine job of keeping my lips numb until they have a chance to heal naturally. The texture is pretty much perfect - smooth enough to sink in, waxy enough to hang around long enough to do some good, and all this for around US$1 @ Walmart. I think I may just use this and the lime flavor for a while.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Conditioner -Garnier - Fructis Body Boost
thespacecowgirl 7/2/2012 11:29:00 AM
I usually use a smoothing conditioner (my hair is thick and has plenty of volume regardless), but those are heavy, so I occasionally like to give it a break with a clarifying shampoo (Suave Rosemary + Mint) and this. I find that all Garnier products eventually lead to a waxy buildup if used frequently, so I don't, but it's fine for occasional use. Obviously it isn't as smoothing as conditioners intended for that purpose, but it's sufficient. Also, I really love the juicy green apple smell (vs. Suave Sleek, which seems to fluctuate between cherry/coconut, orchid, and generic salon haircare perfume-iness) and the super convenient upside down squeeze tube packaging.
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Other -Unlisted Brand - Listerine Mouth Wash - Cool Mint
thespacecowgirl 7/1/2012 7:49:00 AM
Not particularly burn-y for me, but I'm a chilehead, so not much is. My mouth doesn't feel completely clean without this step. The Equate knockoff is just as good, though, and obviously cheaper.
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Fragrances -Victoria's Secret - Love Spell
thespacecowgirl 6/29/2012 12:23:00 PM
A heartbreaker for me. The scent in the bottle is absolutely, divinely delicious: wonderfully tart fruit punch. On my skin, unfortunately, it's very sweet, almost overripe peach. As a "proper" Southern girl, I don't object to peach, but I don't like very sweet scents of any kind. Despite this, I really have a thing for this scent - the body butter was probably the first beauty product I've ever finished, and I'm always contemplating popping into VS for a bottle of the mist even though I know I'll smell like gummi peach rings. I'm also a huge sucker for the candy colors and gold accents of the Fantasies line. With all that out of the way, I understand why many people have unpleasant scent associations with something worn by half the population of teenage girls in North America. That's a traumatic time for a lot of people, with many painful social situations and unkind peers; I'm pretty sure that in a few years people will be writing similar vitriolic reviews about BBW Japanese Cherry Blossom. However, it's important to remember that a perfume is merely an accessory, something to enhance your enjoyment of yourself and perhaps to please other people in the process. You wear the scent; it does not wear you. Wearing Love Spell doesn't make someone a slut or a stripper any more than wearing Shalimar makes her a Mughal empress or your grandmother or whatever your association with that fragrance is. It's true that Love Spell seems to be everywhere, but this isn't a reason to give it poor reviews, either. The truth is that every single being is unique regardless of what perfume they wear, how they style their hair, what books they read; only a terribly insecure person really maligns something for being common, and does so out of desperation to believe that she's truly unique for avoiding it. In any case, I really need to find a way to work more Love Spell into my existence - maybe I'll start using it as a linen spray. It'd also be awesome if sister company BBW started selling Love Spell Wallflowers...hint hint.
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lipstick -Maybelline - Wet Shine lipstick in Sun Streak
thespacecowgirl 6/29/2012 10:20:00 AM
This is probably the single most flattering l/s I've ever owned - it was picked out by my dad's ex-GF (blonde GGG), whose coloring was radically different from mine (brunette PPP), with nothing in common except relatively warm tones. She didn't like it on her and gave it to me. I have dark pink pigmented lips; though it goes on fairly sheer, the slightly warm, slightly shimmery caramel nude is just right to give me a sunny "bronzed" look. I swear I almost look ready for summer (rather than someone who just flew in from the South Pole) when I wear it. The only thing I don't like is the lack of scent or flavor, although that's certainly better than something chemical/otherwise nasty.
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Lip Treatments -Carmex - Lime Twist Stick SPF 15
thespacecowgirl 6/29/2012 5:54:00 AM
I have a deep, enduring love of most anything lime. Lime sherbet, mojitos, extra lime in my guacamole, club soda with lime, the lime lollipops in the candy dish at the bank that none of the other kids wanted...you get the idea So when I was looking for a spare lip balm and saw that Carmex is now making a lime flavor, I jump on it. As you'd expect, this balm does have the very strong, signature Carmex camphor/menthol/phenol odor. However, the lime sherbet-y scent actually does a pretty good job of masking the medicinal ingredients. As a balm, Carmex in general is a mixed bag. The texture is nearly perfect - waxy enough to stay on the lips, but smooth enough to sink in. It does numb the lips (which is pleasant if they're super chapped) and feels wonderfully cooling in hot weather, but using Carmex too much tends to dry out my lips and make me itchy around the lipline. This has been relegated to my nightstand, which means it'll rarely be used, but I do find myself sneaking applications of it from time to time anyway.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Gels/Soaps -Bath and Body Works - Anti-Bacterial PocketBac Deep Cleansing Hand Gel
thespacecowgirl 6/28/2012 2:44:00 AM
I very rarely use hand sanitizer - it tends to dry out my hands, mangle my cuticles, and remove the topcoat from my polish. Also, nothing is a substitute for a good handwashing. However, there are times when hand sanitizer is better than nothing, so I do keep one in my purse (Grape Glam, long d/c'd) and one in my backpack (Fresh Market Apple). The price is pretty much right @ US$1.50 each - my only regret is that I can't justify buying any of the cute seasonal scents or taking advantage of the sales, since I would accumulate a shipping container-sized stash of Pocketbacs in no time flat. I like to stick to fruity/foody or quasi-foody/fruity scents to avoid weirdness when eating with my hands later, but the scents are light enough that you shouldn't slay most people even if you're using Japanese Cherry Blossom (unless you're on the subway or something, in which case you shouldn't use scented products in such close quarters regardless).
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Fragrances -Etat Libre D'Orange - Putain des Palaces
thespacecowgirl 6/18/2012 7:43:00 PM
In my entire time writing beauty product reviews, I've avoided ageism because I really believe that anything someone loves has an inherent beauty which transcends superficial stuff like age. That said, sometimes the jokes really do write themselves. In this case, "Nathalie Feisthauer must have a pretty low opinion of her grandmother." Sorry. Anyway, it's pure violet with a hint of something animalic towards the very end, with the whole snafu lasting about an hour.
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Fragrances -Etat Libre D'Orange - Secretions Magnifiques
thespacecowgirl 6/16/2012 9:20:00 AM
Like many others, I was intrigued by the horrified first responses to this fragrance. Though I wanted to try it for that sort of entertainment value alone, I usually dislike the sharp astringency of so-called "marine" fragrances, so I was just as wary of that as I was the gag reflex triggering et. al. For me, however, this is a really nice scent with very bad PR. In the vial, it's a strong, salty/true oceanic, slightly metallic men's cologne scent. It's quite synthetic smelling yet seductive, in the manner of Gucci Rush (my all-time-favorite fragrance). The oceanic scent bears nothing in common with the nasty, sharp, fake "marine" fragrances flooding the market - it really smells like clean sea air. As the scent dries down, it loses the metallic note and becomes warmer and less masculine; for a while it seems to be truly a unisex scent. There are occasional hints of (clean) sterile gauze on superficial whiff, but inhaling the scent more deeply brings out the full warm ocean scent, which reminds me of swimming in the ocean and then letting my hair dry in the sun. The final drydown several hours later seems more masculine, though not unfitting for a woman comfortable with a little gender bending; it's only now that I can smell a faint hint of semen. To be crude, this is how I'd imagine smelling after having pornographic sex with a clean (and rich) man. I'm a very sexual person, so I adore it. I'm interested to try layering it with some other scents, so for that reason I really hope it smells as pleasant to other people as it does to me - my grandmother (usual scent BBW Moonlight Path) found it inoffensive, so I have hope. The fragrance stays very close to my skin, but the lasting power is pretty nuts - I can still smell it after most of 2 days! EDIT: I have fallen completely in love with this fragrance. It smells so warm and sexy and clean yet naughty on me at the same time. I think this could be my signature scent if I could afford a bottle.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Other -Crest - 3D White Vivid Radiant Mint toothpaste
thespacecowgirl 6/15/2012 2:06:00 PM
I've been using this for about 2 weeks, and I do feel that it's whitened my teeth, which are significantly yellowed due to chronic antibiotics and neglect as a kid, quite a bit - they're not a Photoshopped-bright-white, of course, but they definitely look less yellow than they did before. I have noticed some new sensitivity to hot foods and beverages, but it's not even really painful. The flavor is a generic minty with a lot of mineral to it, but it's irrelevant considering the whitening effect I'm getting. I'm pleased that it isn't giving me sore spots on my tongue when used before bed, as other whitening toothpastes have done in the past. This was on sale 2 for the price of 1 at CVS with a starting price even cheaper than more basic toothpastes, so it was a steal too!
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Polishes -Unlisted Brand - Born Pretty Store Glitter Color Polish - #10
thespacecowgirl 6/10/2012 11:29:00 PM
This polish is a true gold microglitter, closer to the color of the cap than what you see in the bottle (darn you, perpetually crappy lighting). One of the main issues I have with glitter polishes is that, even in the case of HE brands, they're almost always too sheer. This is understandable, as many women probably like to layer a diffuse coat of glitter over other polishes to add a little bling; however, I generally go for full-on glitter-encrusted goodness. Hence, I was expecting this polish to be sheer and was really surprised when it turned out to be almost totally opaque in one full-brush coat. It looks especially amazing over a matching gold metallic polish (I recommend Deborah Lippmann Nefertiti), but could also be thinned and used as a glitter topcoat/for accent nails. The only issue is that, as you can see, this is a mini bottle - despite the opacity, US$3.51 for a mini (0.2 oz vs. a more typical 0.5 oz) is a little steep. Even at the same price per ounce, I'd rather pay $8 for a 0.5-oz bottle. Regardless, this is an excellent choice for people who want complete glitter satisfaction without piling on 8 coats. (I'm looking at YOU, Sinful Queen of Beauty...)
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Polishes -Unlisted Brand - Studio M Nail Lacquer in Frenzy
thespacecowgirl 6/8/2012 5:44:00 PM
I received this as a gift from a friend in another state when I mentioned lemming a polish that looks like one of Scrangie's pics of Illamasqua Jo'Mina. This is a lot darker, but holy crap is it gorgeous! I am not a big fan of purple other than in e/s, but this might very well be my favorite polish of all. It's a deep, vivid periwinkle-toned purple creme (completely devoid of glitter or shimmer); it looks similar to Color Club Pucci-licious, but the pics I've seen of that don't show the same saturation of the color. I would describe Frenzy as a super-glowy jewel tone, or a deep neon. It looks great with either gold or silver accents. It applies nice and evenly and is opaque in 2 coats; my only criticism is that the bottle doesn't contain a mixing ball.
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