Cleansers -Unlisted Brand - Raw Honey
gunjee 1/4/2013 8:54:00 AM
I don't use raw honey as a cleanser. I don't use any cleanser unless I'm wearing makeup, and that's only if it's waterproof makeup like mascara. Every night I use a hot wet washcloth to steam and clear out my pores, and then just a drop or two of the raw honey rubbed onto my still damp face. I rub for a good 2 or 3 minutes until it is completely absorbed. I used to have oil plugs come out like with OCM, which I stopped doing when I ran out of jojoba oil, but not anymore. It has given my face a glow I've never had before and decreased the need to wear makeup at all. Mornings, I will use a washcloth in the shower and apply the honey when I get out. It dries a little sticky, but then I apply sunscreen and all stickiness is gone. I recently made a separate bottle to use at night to deal with the stickiness factor. I took 2 tablespoons of raw honey and put them in an empty clean opaque glass serum pump bottle. I then added 10 drops each of essential oils in jojoba good for skin and shook the bottle. The ones I used are the ones I have--rose, sandalwood, neroli, and frankinsence--all in jojoba so they are pre-diluted. Anyway, now no stickiness and the mixture smells divine and is doing wonders for my skin. Now I use all my retinol and AHA creams on my feet at night and on my keratosis pillaris upper arms. I wish I could use this mixture on my body too, but it would have to be right when stepping out of the shower, and then I would worry about getting honey or oil that hasn't absorbed on my clothes, so I don't do that.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lotions/ Creams -Victoria's Secret - Pure Seduction
gunjee 3/17/2011 3:52:00 PM
I love the smell. I have the spritzer, the hand & body cream, and I have the lotion. I think it smells very fruity and sweet and I love to layer it on. Since I have dry skin, I will use the cream and not the lotion for my body and hands. The lotion is just not moisturizing enough for me. I do have a use for it though. I make a leave-in conditioner spritzer for my hair with it! I fill my spritzer bottle 1/4 full with this, 1/4 full with influx 33 leave-in which is very watery, and then fill the rest of the way with water and give it a good shake. This is my detangling leave-in conditioner and when I use this, my hair looks and smells great!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Conditioner -Unlisted Brand - The Egg Bomb
gunjee 2/16/2011 1:29:00 PM
I do this once every week, but my recipe is slightly different and I don't shampoo it out. I use 3 egg yolks, a few squirts of the GVP Conditioning balm and 6 drops of rosemary essential oil. I mix these together thoroughly and it is just enough mixture to put in my armpit length very thick curly hair from scalp to ends. I apply and leave on for 2 hours under a shower cap and a heating pad. I fill up the tub with hot water (a tub bath is not a tub bath unless the water is hot, and I've never had the egg yolk cook in the water) and mermaid soak it swaying my hair around gently in the water for about 10 minutes. That's it! I squeeze my hair until it's not dripping wet, and wide-toothed comb all tangles out. It feels thicker, but not the least bit greasy and detangling is not a problem. I might have some bits of white egg stuff left (or maybe it's bits of conditioning balm, idk) from not separating the eggs very well, but they easily comb out. I airdry my hair after squeezing it with a towel to get as much moisture out as I am able, and have very little frizz. If you tried this with olive oil and honey and it came out greasy, you could try doing it my way. I personally don't use honey because it contains peroxide which can cause haircolor to fade quicker, but if you want to use honey, you can heat up the honey first to destroy the peroxide effect. I just like my way better.
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Mascara -Maybelline - Volum' Express One by One
gunjee 1/6/2011 11:40:00 AM
I was shopping for a mascara as I had left my "My Biggest Lashes" at our other house (perhaps on purpose so I would need to get a new mascara!). I was in Walgreens yesterday waiting for a prescription to be ready and went up and down the makeup aisles. This was on an end cap display as something new from Maybelline. Maybelline eye makeup was buy one get one 50% off. I had actually wanted to try the new Revlon mascara that makes your eyelashes grow and that was also buy one get one 50% off, but there was nothing else I wanted from Revlon, so I went for this. I thought about the other thing to get from Maybelline and considered the Falsies mascara, but I worried that it would clump, so I played it safe and got an eyeshadow single in Turquoise Jewel, an eyeshadow I lost on a cruise more than 2 years ago that I missed. Okay, first me. I have long lashes and plenty of them that already look good and could use some thickening but I'm fine with just enhancement as long as there is no clumping. This mascara did not clump and did separate my lashes well and enhance them. I bought the non-waterproof version and tried it on in the parking lot and it worked great. The formula is just the right consistency to give me naturally defined eyelashes. They are not stiff or spidery and the blackest black really is a very very black black. I look really good. So why the overall rating of 3 and no I won't buy again? It smells awful! The smell of this is just so chemically that I thought for sure I got one that had gone bad. I took it back to Walgreens and showed it to the customer service lady and she said she has the same mascara and this is how it smells. She said all other volumizing mascaras from Maybelline smell like this. So, I will use this as it does work well. But the smell is something I don't think I could live with as it doesn't go away for a very long time after applying. I think about 45 minutes.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Clothes -Victoria's Secret - General Opinion
gunjee 12/13/2010 5:01:00 PM
I am a 32C, and finding that size in general department stores isn't possible so I have to settle for something that doesn't quite fit to save money. So, for special occasions, I have splurged on the $45 bras that make me look really good when I really want to look good. I have 5 or so. And even if you aren't going to buy a bra there, it's a good idea to get measured every 8 years or so, so you can at least know what your true size is, as it can change. And it is worth it to sign up for the VS credit card just to get the free really comfortable panties that look so good on you.
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Eyeliner -L'Oreal - HIP Kohl in Burgundy
gunjee 12/7/2010 9:43:00 PM
I originally bought this in gold 1 1/2 weeks ago. It worked fine and I had no problems with it, but it didn't do anything special for my eyes. Although I thought about getting more of these at CVS since I got an amazing 75% off on them, I talked myself out of it since I have so many eyeliners already. I didn't know the CVS sale was to go on indefinitely, and because I started really getting into doing my waterline with actual Indian kajal, my mind wandered back to being interested in these kohls. The one I have doesn't do anything special for my eyes, but wouldn't the darker colors work better for me? So I went to CVS and got black, teal, and burgundy. Teal I tried on my unmade-up face the day I got it in the restroom of the gym just to see how it would look. It was dark and defined. A very dark green. Today I tried the burgundy also on an unmade-up face as I was running out the door to take my son to karate. I like this one better than the teal and much better than the gold. This is not dark, but it does define my eyes. You almost can't tell I'm wearing makeup when I'm wearing this. I just look like i have naturally defined eyes. As far as fallout, I used the gold last week for 3 days straight and have managed not to have any problems as long as I tap my applicator into the container before pulling it out completely and rubbing off the excess on the sides of the container. There is plenty of product still on the stick to use, there's no reason to go overboard loading up stick. So this technique has worked fine with both teal and burgundy. I had a bit more of a smoldering look with the teal, but I kind of rushed putting the burgundy on. Just one swipe for each eye, closed my eyes for 5 or 6 seconds, and then was out the door, so maybe the smoldering look can be achieved with the burgundy as well, but I'm happy with the way it turned out.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eyeliner -Unlisted Brand - Jai Kajal
gunjee 12/4/2010 3:25:00 PM
I went to the Indian store to look for the Hashmi kajal stick I had read about here and couldn't find it. I asked the store clerk if he had kajal and he showed me this. It is a quarter sized round flat green plastic container of cake liner housed in a tiny square cardboard box with a picture of a woman holding a baby on it. You are supposed to apply it with your finger to the waterline and it has camphor in it to give your eyes a cooling feeling. I had used this in India when visiting as a kid. My grandmother had told me to use it and it would make my eyesight better. My eyesight didn't get better and so I gave up on it. I was a kid and I was going back home to the states, so that was that. So here I was looking at this thing and thinking, "Would this work?". It is intended to be used on the waterline and has a deep black color and is supposedly good for the eyes. It was $1 so I decided to try it. When I got home, I opened the little box and took out the little green disk. I unscrewed the lid off it and swiped it lightly with my flat eyeliner brush. It was too hard to use. Indian stores often have stuff in their cosmetic aisles that are old, so this might have been sitting for a while on the shelf. I decided to warm it for 5 seconds in the microwave. This worked to leave a glossy film on top which was swipable. I applied it to my lower waterline carefully and then tightlined my upper lashes. For anyone who has used a cream eyeliner before, this is not difficult and the result was a dark black smoldering eye, just what's in fashion right now in India. The camphor made my eyes water a little, and I just blotted with a tissue and that was it. The kajal does not run off much but you shouldn't overload your brush either. It takes patience to do this carefully, but the result is very pretty. Once it is on there and in there, the stuff stays all day. I am impressed with this inexpensive product. And if it really is good eye health, well all the better!
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eyeliner -L'Oreal - HIP Kohl-Gold
gunjee 11/23/2010 9:26:00 AM
I tried this last week when it was marked 75% off at CVS. I got this shade because it was highly rated and I have never used a gold eyeliner before. I bought it and tried it on in the parking lot. I gave the packaging a 2 because it wasn't sealed in plastic so anyone could have opened it before I got there. I rubbed the stick on the inside of the container to get all the excess powder off and lay it horizontal along my bottom waterline and swept it out just as I had read on MUA. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and opened them. For maybe a nanosecond, I felt like I had something in my eye, but then that feeling went away. I looked at my eyes and they looked fine, but not particularly defined. It was like I wasn't wearing anything at all! But if I looked closely, my bottom rims were gleaming gold. This is what was supposed to happen and it did, only I was expecting to look at myself and say Wow! So, I didn't run back into the store and get more in the other shades. Something I should have done...Afterall, they were $3.50 each! Anyway, I went home and applied a navy blue Rimmel automatic pencil liner on top and my eyes were defined and looking very nice with that golden glow coming from underneath. That night, I washed my face and the navy eyeliner came off fine, but the gold stayed. The next day, the gold was still there on my lower waterline and I realized how this stuff really lasts and maybe I should buy more. I have a lot of eyeliners already, so I finally talked myself out of getting more of these, but it didn't irritate my contacts at all. The latest style in India is to have dark well defined kohl lined eyes, so given the opportunity, I would buy more of these in black and brown and maybe burgundy.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments -Unlisted Brand - Surgi Cream Hair Removal Cream
gunjee 10/4/2010 8:07:00 AM
As a teenager, I used Nair for face to remove my upper lip hair, but it would sting and not work well. I still kept buying and using it though I had to repeat applications much more often, using it two days in a row to get every hair done. Then as a college student, I bought this instead, and found it to work really well! It still left my skin irritated after the 5 minutes I would put it on, but at least the hairs were all gone. I used this for about 10 years and recommended it to everyone I knew. The redness only lasted an hour, but the skin sensitivity would last for half a day so I couldn't wear makeup if I used it in the morning and I couldn't apply any night cream if I used it at night. This got on my nerves, and I thought there had to be a better product out there. I started sugar waxing and haven't found anything better than that. Yes, my skin is left red for an hour or so, but it doesn't sting afterwards and the wax doesn't smell bad the way this stuff did. I made my own sugar wax 6 months ago and have enough to last me the next 10 years so it is definitely cheaper than buying this stuff. Of course, it hurts to wax every week, but I can handle it. If you can't, I did stumble upon the Magic Shaving powder on clearance at Walgreens for 65 cents. I tried it and it didn't irritate my upper lip skin at all and worked perfectly! Because it's a powder, it is a little more complicated to use, but at least it doesn't make my skin sensitive.
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Hair Styling Tools -Goody - Spin Pin
gunjee 9/8/2010 11:58:00 AM
I have very thick curly shoulder-length hair. I have had hair down to my butt before and am thus an experienced bun-ner. When my hair was long, I could hold up a bun with just a stick and I found that amazing. With my hair at this length, though, I could not keep a bun up no matter how hard I tried with a stick. I didn't think these little hair screws would do it either, but they do! I bought them at Walmart in the "dark" variety, (Apparently they only have two: light and dark now) and in the parking lot I opened the package and took out the little screws to try out on my unruly mane. Like I said, I am an experienced bun-ner, so maybe it's not something a layperson is able to do so easily, but with just one screw in the top, I had a perfect bun! Not a messy bun, just a neat normal bun. I stabilized the bun more with the screw in the bottom, but it would have held fine with just the one. They do not hurt my scalp, they do not pull my hair, they work perfectly if you know how to bun with a stick. I don't think they should cost $6, and I'm sure that Claire's will come out with their own cheaper versions soon enough, but I feel great being able to get all my hair out of my face and have a neat sleek look. 3/18/11 I just bought the "mini" version of these pins. They are intended to be used for putting up half-up buns, but they can hold up a whole bun too. There are 3 mini pins in the same colors as the regular sized pins and so if the regular sized pins are too big and hitting your scalp, these may be better for you. Plus, there are THREE of them, so there's more anchoring your hair together.
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Polishes -Unlisted Brand - Pure Ice Nail Polish in Feeling Hot
gunjee 7/28/2010 8:54:00 AM
I have tons of drug store nail polishes and an 11-year-old daughter, so it's a new shade every week for her. This is too flashy to wear on my hands (not hers), but on my toes, it is just beautiful and glowy. It's like applying a shiny new penny that's been melted. I just couldn't stop staring at my toes this summer. It lasted for 2 weeks with a basecoat and topcoat without chipping and is a great polish to wear with a summer tan.
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Polishes -Wet 'n' Wild - Ice Blue Pearl
gunjee 3/23/2010 8:02:00 AM
Why aren't there more reviews of this one. I would like to see how others wear this as a layer on top of other colors. I like to wear 2 coats of this with Sparked on top on my toes. It makes me feel like a rock star! Worn alone, I like how subtle it is, yet so pretty. I'm a nail biter, so my nails are nothing to look at, but when I wear this, I feel like looking at them. And it makes me LESS likely to bite them!
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Gels/Soaps -Dove - Cool Moisture Beauty Bar
gunjee 2/4/2010 10:37:00 AM
The original Dove is the gentlest soap to use on my 6-year-old's dry skin, but I wanted something for us that works for our dry skin but smells nice too. This smells light and fresh but isn't too perfumey like some soaps. It doesn't dry out my skin, but cleans well. I hate that it gets mushy so quickly, but if I leave it on the outside wall of the tub, my dog eats it. Yes, my 2-year-old golden retriever eats things she shouldn't all the time...pencils, crayons, socks, sometimes woodchips that are meant as groundcover for our landscaping, and soap. She will also try to lick off the lotion I apply to my son after his bath and it is unscented! Applying coconut oil to my son after his bath is just asking for trouble...Anyway, I hate that Dove soaps get mushy in the shower. But I will continue to buy them because they are the best for my family, and this one smells nice and is unisex so even my husband with his sensitive skin and masculine ego can use it.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Misc Beauty Tools -Gillette - venus embrace
gunjee 1/21/2010 10:29:00 AM
I love this razor too. It has a moisturizing strip, but it isn't so moisturizing that it gets in the way of a good close shave. My daughter is 11 and cut herself really bad shaving with a disposable razor she found in the back of the cabinet even though she wasn't allowed to shave yet, and I decided it was time to buy her a razor that would not cut her. This is not the one I bought her. I bought her the Venus Spa Breeze because it is unbelievably moisturizing and a person can't cut themselves with it. So if you are inexperienced like my little girl, then that would be the razor for you. But I feel that heavy moisturizing strip on the Spa razor is a bit too much for normal people like me. People like me who started shaving with single blades, and then double blades, and then triple blades, can handle the Venus Embrace just fine. Also I used my husband's vibrating green Mp3 Gilette razor (with my Embrace blade of course) over the weekend when we were out of town and it was an amazingly close shave so I recommend using that as well. My husband has used the orangs Gilette fusion razor and doesn't like that or its blades half as much as this green one.
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Misc Beauty Tools -Unlisted Brand - Microfiber cloths
gunjee 1/12/2010 12:34:00 PM
I love how quickly this dries. I just use hot tap water and this towel to wash my face and all my makeup comes off. (I wear mineral makeup foundation, powder, and sometimes I will wear lipstick, but eyeshadow and liner and mascaras are not an everyday thing for me. Eye makeup does not all come off with this and I would need to use a cleanser in that case). I first use hot water and just steam my face with the wet hot washcloth. Then I steam again when it cools. And then I use the hot wet washcloth to wash my face, rubbing lightly but thoroughly. I follow with a homemade facial oil of jojoba oil and essential oils that are in Decleor Arromasense. Off the top of my head, they are ylang-ylang, bay, geranium, rosemary, and lavender. If it is evening, I may skip this and go straight to my night cream (right now it's alternating nights of Neutrogena deep wrinkle night cream and the Roc retinol correxion night cream on top of Ambi fade cream. Every morning I use my facial oil mixed with a few drops of homemade vitamin c serum. (See my review of my latest vitamin c concoction) My skin looks awesome. Some nights when I am putting the fade cream on after washing my face with just hot water and a microfiber cloth, plugs of dirt come out. I haven't had a pimple or blackhead since I started using these about a year ago.
3 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No