Fragrances -Neil Morris - Intimate Lily
Isolinde 10/19/2010 5:12:00 PM
This is the scent that interested me in Neil Morris. A lovely MUAer sent me a large sample of it, and after wearing it for a week straight, I realized that I was in love. As a note of Neil Morris' customer service, it is amazing. It's worth buying from him just to experience it. As previously described, in simple terms, it's a lily scent with a soft musk. I don't get vanilla, but it is one of the listed notes. (My missing the vanilla is a good thing, though, since I don't usually like it in my scents.) The notes listed on the wesite are: Aldehydes, Water Lily, Casablanca Lily, Lily of the Valley, Sandalwood, Vanilla, White Musk. To my nose, it's ultra-feminine, not too sweet, and timelessly beautiful. There is an initial burst of aldehydes, but they seem to blend into the scent quickly; still there, but no longer in focus. Once the Aldehydes have calmed, the warm sexy base of sandalwood and musk drifts through your awareness. The lily is there all along, but it's not overpowering as it is in so many lily scents. It's an integral part of the scent, not a giant floral note to which the rest of the scent has to play backup singer. This is the scent that I would have spritzed on my letters, had I been Brigid O'Shaughnessy in the Maltese Falcon. It's a beautiful innocent-seeming lily scent, but it is not just for the nice girls.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Neil Morris - Midnight Moon
Isolinde 10/19/2010 12:16:00 AM
Like the previous reviewer, I got soap from this one. The difference is that after a ten minute opening of eau de ivory, it turned into something much softer than that. The sort of clean feeling remains, but it's got an undertone of light flowers, and the base notes of myrrh and sandalwood really come forward as time passes. I don't know if I'll buy a full bottle, but I'm sure I'll use up what I have.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Annick Goutal - Eau de Ciel
Isolinde 10/15/2010 2:54:00 AM
Like all AG scents, this doesn't last as long a I wish it did. Unlike others, it lasts more than a minute or two. (in the neighborhood of 6 hours, on me) This is what AG scents shoud be, in my opinion: it lasts long enough to be worth applying, and is strong enough to bother with. If they were all like this, I'd be in trouble, since I'd need enough money to buy them. As it is, Eau de Ciel is the first I've bought. The name basically says it all for me. It smells like the air right after a spring rain in a humid climate. The notes blend together well enough that I can only smell them when I'm deliberately searching for them.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Annick Goutal - Le Chevrefeuille
Isolinde 10/15/2010 2:46:00 AM
For myself, honeysuckle is a beautiful childhood memory. I grew up in Virginia, where we had local honeysuckle bushes, and one of my most vivid and pleasant memories is of the scent of honeysuckle in the air on warm summer evenings. Anyone who doesn't know what honeysuckle smells like should either smell it in person, or smell the first 5 seconds of Le Chevrefeuille. Unfortunately, that's all there is to the scent. If it lasted longer than a minute, I would say that it's the truest honeysuckle scent I've ever smelled. But for 5 seconds, who cares what it smells like? It makes me sad that the best honeysuckle scent I've found can't be bothered to last a little while, but I guess I'll keep looking for something that reminds me of my childhood... *sigh*
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Annick Goutal - Petite Cherie
Isolinde 10/15/2010 2:39:00 AM
I got this as a large sample, and wore less than a dozen times - just to be up front about my amount of experience with it. If you love fruit, you'll probably get along well with it. For me, it was just WAY too sweet. It was like wearing a piece of pear candy, and like most sweet scents, gave me the urge to shower. It's surprisingly strong, gives a decent amount of sillage, and lasts longer than the average AG scent. It lasted 6-8 hours, for me. All things considered, if you like light-ish sweet scents, give it a shot. If not.... why are you looking at reviews for a fruity perfume? Hey, wait, why am I here? (oh yeah, I got the sample in a package deal. Eau de Ciel is amazing, for anyone who wants a non-nausea inducing rain scent!) To address the spoilage issues: As yet, my sample seems to smell the same as when I got it a year ago. Will try to remember to update if it goes bad. For what it is, it's lovely.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments -Bioelements - Quick Refiner
Isolinde 9/10/2009 12:49:00 PM
As of now, this is my AHA product.
It has a lot of alcohol in it, which stings a tiny bit and doesn't thrill me as an ingredient, but it's the first AHA I've found that actually seems to work for me. It leaves my skin smooth and soft, and seems to help a bit with my monthly breakouts.
I love the glass bottle/pump packaging, and the amount of product you get for the money is considerable. I think the bottle is going to last 4 months even with 3-4x weekly use.
It's not ideal, but it's good. Until I find something better, I'll keep buying it.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Mascara -Maybelline - XXL volume+length microfiber mascara
Isolinde 7/15/2009 10:07:00 PM
Very, very meh.
It isn't the worst mascara I've ever tried, that honor still goes to good old pink&green. This product isn't nearly that bad, but it's nothing I'll ever consider repurchasing. It's a lot of work for a mascara that makes my lashes looks just a little better than they do already. It also has a tendency to clump up if you go for an extra coat to add some drama.
Yeah, very meh.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Bulgari - OMNIA Crystalline edt
Isolinde 6/3/2009 4:55:00 PM
I bought the travel size of this one just as an add-on, to get free shipping. I figured that even if I hated it, it had only cost me @ 10$. So when I sprayed it in the air and sniffed, I was relieved at having spent so little, because my instinct told me 'meh'.
So a few days later, when I was reading a comment from someone on the makeup board about how this was one of the scents she always got comments on from men, it piqued my curiousity. I actually sprayed it on my wrist before work, with a mental note to ask my DH what he thought later. By the end of the day, though, I didn't much care what he thought (he does like it, btw). The drydown is positively heavenly. It has so much more depth and character on the skin than it does just upon spraying.... Lesson learned here; I'll never make that mistake again.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lotions/ Creams -Bath and Body Works - True Blue Spa Look Ma, New Hands Renewing Hand Lotion
Isolinde 5/20/2009 4:27:00 PM
Oh, glad this was on the front page. I've been meaning to review it for a while. It's my go-to hand moisturizer. Most nights, I use two pumps of it, and then wear gloves over it to bed. Even in the middle of winter, this makes my hands super soft and smooth.
Short of drastic measures like AHAs, I think this is the best bang I've found for my buck in a moisturizer that wasn't intended to be food. (Almond oil is still the best thing in the universe, just harder to wear to bed!)
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -Fyrinnae - Lip Lustre - All
Isolinde 5/11/2009 9:29:00 PM
In my most recent Fyrinnae order, I tacked a few of these on, just to see how they worked for me.
From what I've seen so far, they're by far superior to most of the lip products I've used. They're not sticky like traditional gloss, not drying like lipstick, and they last on me for quite a while, even through drinking bottles of water. I do find the scents quite articial, but I haven't found them annoying at all. Best of all, though, they're incredibly reasonably priced, and it takes very little of the product to get the effect I'm looking for.
I have only one request from the guys at Fyrinnae: please, oh please give us more warm shades. The pink/purple thing is lovely, but I can't wear them. More golds, peaches, oranges, bronzes, and reds would be just awesome.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eyeliner -Fyrinnae - Inks Liquid Eyeliner in Charismatic Cream
Isolinde 5/11/2009 6:38:00 PM
I'm one of those people who has a very hard time wearing any kind of liner on my waterline. Even the most non-offensive items seem to irriate my eyes, and liquid liners are usually the worst offenders. I find that my eyes start to water and itch, and before half an hour has passed, I've wiped the liner off completely.
Fyrinnae Inks, on the other hand, so not irritate my eyes at all, even on the waterline. What's more, they stay put on my waterline all day. And when I say all day, I mean after working for 12 hours, it looks almost the same as right after application. This specific color is perfect for anyone who has red rims they want to cover up, but doesn't want the bizarre alien effect of white liner. This is more subtle than pure white, and stays on as long as you need it to.
Eyeliner doesn't get much better than this.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Loose Powders -Coastal Scents - Silica Spheres Powder
Isolinde 5/3/2009 4:41:00 PM
I took one lipppie off because I've found it to be very drying. Other than that, it's exactly what I was looking for in a finishing powder. It's not heavy, very matte, and gives me that sort of 'soft focus' effect that makes quite a few skin issues seem less obvious. I have to use extra moisturizer when I'm using it, but that's really not such a huge price to pay to keep the dry flakies at bay. Definitely a repurchase, especially once I can find an HG moisturizer...
One last thing: less than a week after I started using this powder, I had a major breakout, the likes of which I've had only once or twice in my life. I was rather worried that it had been caused by this powder, but with continued use, I've not had continued breakouts. I'm quite glad I didn't just jump to conlusions and give up on it.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Versace - BRIGHT CRYSTAL
Isolinde 5/3/2009 4:08:00 PM
Reading these reviews makes me think that the EDP sample I got (from Sephora) was somehow defective. It wasn't a bad scent, but it was incredibly watered down. I could hardly smell anything at all; just a tiny bit of sweet, clean scent; barely noticable, certainly not as strong as any fragrance I've ever bought or used before. It's not that it wore off quickly, it's that it never existed. DH smelled it as well, and agreed that there was basically no scent.
If the sample I recieved is an indication of what the product is like, it's not even remotely worth the cost of the product.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Gels/Soaps -C.O. Bigelow - Lemon Hand Wash
Isolinde 4/29/2009 5:39:00 PM
Great stuff. I don't usually spring for expensive hand soap, but this stuff is super moisturizing, even when I'm having to wash my hands multiple times an hour. No cheaper alternative does that. The scent is also lovely, a very real lemon scent, nothing synthetic or irritating about it.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments (Eye) -Burt's Bees - Radiance Eye Cream with Royal Jelly
Isolinde 4/29/2009 4:22:00 PM
This is the first Burt's Bees product I've found that I don't actively dislike, which is sad, because I really want to like the brand. I love that they make natural products, but that said, I don't think that a brand is superior based on intentions. Their products have to follow through.
This eye cream moisturizes reasonably effectively, which is what I bought it for, so I'm giving it 3 lippies. It doesn't give me milia, or any other immediate ill effects, so no major negatives. Beyond that, there's nothing great to say. It's a little sticky, and if I apply too much, it leaves a weird shimmery residue. It does not help with lines, dark circles, or puffiness as it claims to.
I guess it's on with the hunt for a great eye cream for me. *sigh*
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No