i can’t believe i’m saying this…

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From 2009-09-01, batiste

Before [i let my bangs get oily just for you guys! haha]

From 2009-09-01, batiste

From 2009-09-01, batiste

How to use:

SHAKE CAN BEFORE USE AND IN BETWEEN SPRAYS. Hold can approximately 30 cm from hair and spray lightly, giving even coverage. Use fingertips to massage through hair and leave for a few moments. Brush product out, preferably using a natural bristle brush.

After

I took these with the function on my camera ISO 3200, it just makes the pic look like it was taken from a webcam! Does anyone know what it’s used for? Anyway here are my “webcam pics” haha

From 2009-09-01, batiste

From 2009-09-01, batiste

From 2009-09-01, batiste

This product is great for touching up your roots when after your hair was styled/blown out, so that you can keep the style for another day and still be fresh. I think hair is healthier when you don’t over wash it anyway, I mostly just wash my bangs on a daily basis. The scent smells powdery and a bit like pineapple I think? Cuz it’s supposed to be tropical! The best part about it is the spray helps to add volume to your hair!

I just learned in one of my classes that hospitals will sometimes use dry shampoo while giving patients a bed bath. Cool!

I cut my hair, and I dyed it using Henna

From henna

I have no neck!

From henna

It was really hard for me to capture the true color on camera, I think my hair is the shade in between the picture above and the picture below

From henna

It’s like, burgandy, and I started off with medium brown with a WHOLE BUNCHA roots growing out. The roots don’t really dye, because henna can only make your hair darker, not lighter. BUT the roots do have a red tint to them that you could see up close or in the light.

So, allow me to elaborate on why I chose henna as opposed to regular hair dye and what I learned in the process. I became interested in henna because Lush sells their own henna hair dye [they call it hair caca, haha i'm serious] and was planning on dyeing my hair anyway to get rid of the roots, but I’m always iffy about dyeing my hair with commercial dye because of house damaging it is and I already put my hair through a lot. So I was intrigued by this Henna, because they say that it’s natural and it leaves your hair in better condition than before you dyed it. Well, a lot of hair dyes claim that it will condition your hair as it colors, but I guess I was more apt to believe in the Henna because it doesn’t require ammonia and because I browsed through the Lush forums and saw before and after pictures of people who used Henna, and their “after”s really did look healthier than the “before”s so it’s like the proof is in the pudding.

How it works is, the Henna comes from a plant and its ground up and crushed for you to make a paste with. The paste then leaves a red stain in your hair or sometimes brown or almost black if other things are added to the henna. After doing my research I was really excited about getting the party started and henna-ing myself! But I didn’t want to buy mine from Lush because theirs is 20 bucks, and yeah you get more than one use out of it, but I didn’t want to make that big of an investment at first. So I look around online, and find cheaper options, but the problem with that is I would have to wait for it to ship, and I’m wayyy too impatient to wait for shipping. So I was thinking what if I went to an Indian grocery, like how I did when I went to get my coconut oil. Because I’m sure it would be inexpensive there since henna is such a common thing in India, and I would be able to get my hands on it right away. So, I decided on making another trip to the Indian store.

*Oh this is off topic, but I figured out yet another reason I might want to look around an Indian grocery…I was talking to my Indian coworker and she said that the only makeup she would use is kajal, which is like eyeliner to us, but it is in a bullet form [imagine a pointy lipstick]. And kajal is supposed to be a healthy alternative to eyeliner too! So, I might go try to find kajal next…

Before I hit up the Indian store, I remember reading something online about a dangerous ingredient in some Henna mixes, but I didn’t quite remember the name of the ingredient until later on….when I bought some Henna and realized mine had that in it! The ingredient is called PPD, apparently it is a common ingredient in almost ALL hair dyes because it is cheap and it makes hair dyes darker. So if you wanted a dark henna dye, make sure it uses indigo instead of PPD. The websites I read had stories of shady mendhi [the henna tattoo designs] artists that would use straight PPD and say that they can give you a “black henna tattoo” and that people would have very bad reactions to the PPD. Here are the sources that I found that warn against it

http://www.hennapage.com/henna/ppd/index.html

http://www.hennaforhair.com/ppd/index.html

To make a long story short, I used the henna that I bought that has PPD in it. PPD was the last ingredient on the list, and I figured since it’s in hair dye anyway and I never had a reaction, I should be ok. I did a strand and allergy test the day before I dyed my hair too. Now, just cuz I took a risk and used that particular hair dye doesn’t mean I would recommend it to anyone else. I guess the only reason I decided to use that dye was because I bought two packs; one was a red dye and one said dark brown. When I did a strand test with the dark brown henna, I didn’t notice a change at all, so it seemed like if I dyed my whole head with the brown henna I might as well have done nothing.

I really like how my hair turned out. I read that with each henna session, the color intensifies and I would like my hair to be a deeper red, I think that would be fun and a nice change of pace from the brown that I’ve had for over a year now. And I’m now a believer that henna is conditioning to the hair because my hair turned out soo soft! I know after dyeing normally, I can feel the damage that was done and my hair didn’t feel good after commercial dyes. I really really like this henna stuff, I’m glad I tried it, I almost wish that my hair was naturally brown so I could continue to have such vibrant results with the henna, haha but I guess I gotta be happy with what God gave me…and then tweak it

Products Used:

Rimmel Lasting Finish 16 hr foundation in Soft Beige
Urban Decay Primer Potion
NYX Jumbo eyeshadow pencil in Slate
Eyeshadow sample of Sparkling Aqua [It's a Testing 123 Mineral eyeshadow that didn't make it to the final website]
Isadora eyeshadow
Jane mineral gel liner

From minna071009

First apply eyeshadow primer. Apply NYX Slate as a base. I use it to intensify the color, but I don’t use a lot because eyeshadow pencils tend to crease on me

From minna071009

Apply T123 Sparkling Aqua. Keep applying until you reach Desired coverage

From minna071009

I used the Isadora shadow to blend my brow and lid color, but I didn’t use much cuz after I applied it I noticed it has a bit of green to it. I used the Jordana Opal for the brow bone. It’s a good color for highlighting since it’s matte, but it has a tiny bit of blue duochrome to it so this shadow isn’t really versatile for any look.

From minna071009

The lighting is weird in this picture

From minna071009

My boyfriend didn’t like my shirt!

From minna071009

From minna071009

***Congratulations to STARGIRL HEUSER for winning the Revlon Runway
Collection giveaway!***

I’ll be e-mailing you for your contact information!

Thanks everyone who entered…well, all seven of you. But isn’t it more fun with less people?! Cuz your chances are that much higher haha

Here is my latest Crest Whitestrips progress!

From crest

This is the progress I first documented

From crest

The comparison is pretty inaccurate [actually pretty horribly inaccurate] considering it’s obvious that the lighting is different in each picture. I noticed a significant lightening of my teeth and I am a little more than halfway through with the box. The next update will be better cuz I figured out how to take pictures in my room without everything being tinged yellow

From nailsNlashes

Here I’m using their lashes in Lush [ooh LUSH! haha] I have it on my right eye for comparison. I wish I was born with these lashes, they’re gorgeous!

From nailsNlashes

From nailsNlashes

The intensifying lashes are really long, I guess that’s why they call it “Fantasy Lengths”. When I used the lashes I cut a small part off and just used it on the ends of my lashline. When I read the back of the box, it said that it comes with a lash applicator and I was wondering where that was because my box was open and I didn’t see a lash applicator, and then I found it! It’s tucked into the instructions and looks like this…

From nailsNlashes

Also, the Intensifying lashes are have a self-adhesive. It’s a sticky strip, and they give you another set of replacement strips to continued use

From nailsNlashes

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!

It’s my first ever giveaway! The winner will receive 4 boxes of the Revlon artificial nails. Each box contains a cute nail buffer too. There are 3 boxes for finger nails and 1 box for toenails, and the toenail box is “2 kits in 1 box” so you get 48 instead of the usual 24 nails!

From nailsNlashes

From nailsNlashes

To enter, add a comment introducing yourself and tell me how you found my little blog! I’d like to see who reads this stuff, so all you lurkers come out and play! I will choose a winner at midnight Tuesday July 14th so you have a whole week to enter! The winner will be chosen through random.org, one entry per person!

At least that’s my theory for why people go GAGA over this stuff! And now I’m one of them! This is my haul, I only got two things cuz man….it’s expensive haha

From lush1

I got the Aquamarina cleanser and Mange Too massage bar!

I’ll describe the massage bar first. It’s a bar of solid cocoa butter, that melts from body warmth so you could use the bar directly on the body to massage or let it melt in your hands and then apply to body. I got it because I wanted something super moisturizing to use on my legs, so that when I bare my legs in the summer they can shine in the sun hahah. I picked this one especially because it smells like white chocolate…well I guess all their massage bars smell like white chocolate since they are made out of cocoa butter, but the other ones had other flavors mixed in too. And I can smell something else in the Mange bar and I couldn’t really place my finger on what it was, but I read later that it’s supposed to have peppermint in it so I guess that’s what it is. It smells so so good! I got my mom to try it out too and she liked it i dunno if I would trust it though as a moisturizer on its own [like on dry skin], but it should help lock in moisture after a shower or if you layer it over lotion. Oh yeah and the Mange bar seems like a better deal for the price cuz they are all around $7-$9 and the Mange was $9.75 for 3.5 ounces and some bars are like the same price, but much smaller.

Now onto the Aquamarina…

From lush1

So being a Lush noob, I didn’t realize this wasn’t a soap when I bought it and when I went to use it I expected soap, but it’s really more like clay. On the Lush forums they describe these roll types of cleansers as “squidgy” haha. It doesn’t lather whatsoever, and you kinda just rub the stuff across your face and it leaves behind a white film and the film is kinda hard to rinse off! Like..actually really hard to rinse off. Not everyone has this experience though so maybe if I exfoliate beforehand then it can’t stick to my face, so I’m gonna try that out next. A lot of people will describe the scent of Aquamarina as fishy, and I guess I can see how they would think that, but mine doesn’t smell fishy to me, but more like it came from the ocean, probably due to the seaweed. The clay part smells like old lady floral, but I don’t hate it! I think I’m getting used to these weird, natural, LUSH scents. It’s really addicting!

I recently came to the conclusion that I have sensitive skin, after thinking my whole life that my skin wasn’t sensitive. But then I started thinking why is my skin always red or pinkish? And then I thought maybe my skin is sensitive or even has a mild form of rosacea. That’s why I picked out Aquamarina because it’s supposed to be soothing to sensitive skin and reduce redness because of the calamine in it. So far I think it has helped with my redness. A con though is I can see how it could be drying since one of the main ingredients is kaolin clay, and the first time I used it I really had a problem rinsing and my skin ended up feeling tight later. I want to try Dark Angels next! The sales associate recommended it to me, but they sold out at the store I went to.

LePooke did a video about how if you order LUSH from the UK it’s cheaper cuz they price their stuff a LOT cheaper over there for some reason. Maybe over there it’s really normal to buy lush like, “oh it’s just LUSH” haha I dunno!

So there you have it, my new obsession. Please help me so I don’t buy up the whole store!

From Rimmel

I got my hands on some Rimmel Lasting Finish Mineral Enriched Foundation and I’m kinda torn about whether or not I like this foundation. Compared to the Revlon Colorstay, it does not apply as smoothly. The Rimmel foundation was blotchy looking and accentuated dry spots. In the picture below I have CS on most of my face and Rimmel on my forehead. It also looks really dark in the tube, but once applied it is lighter. I think the shade I got might still be a tad light for me, but the other choices I had at Walgreens at the time seemed to be a worse match than what I chose so I figured I could balance out the lightness with bronzer. As for staying power, I think it holds up pretty well. I admit I only tried it out twice, but both those times were for a party situation when I needed my makeup to be reliable and it didn’t disappoint me. I actually think that the Lasting Finish looks better after it settles with your skin. So even though the review may sound terrible, I don’t think this is a bad foundation, but if i was really seriously buying a foundation I would stick with the Colorstay and if it was like an emergency situation I would pick up the Rimmel.

I did this look a couple weeks ago to go to a party and I made the liner pretty dramatic for a more funky look. On my lips I don’t remember exactly what I used but I know I used my Wet n Wild hot pink lipstick plus a gloss.

From fotd061209

From fotd061209

From fotd061209

From fotd061209

*PIC HEAVY* well, at least for me it’s pic heavy…haha

$19.00 from TKBTrading.com

You get:

From TBK

Gloves, Spatulas, plastic baggies

From TBK

Eyeshadow brush

From TBK

Dust mask [i got the kitty one, YESSS!]

From TBK

8 jars, lids, sifters [top view]

From TBK

[side view]

From TBK

Matte texture Base

From TBK

Pop Mica colors

From TBK

To reach the 19.50 minimum, I also ordered a sample of titanium dioxide, which is a matte white

From TBK

This is the difference in color between the matte texture base [L] vs. the titanium dioxide[R]. The titanium dioxide is more opaque

From TBK

I want to order other matte colors too so that I can have a wider range of finishes for my eyeshadows and to give them more depth. If you go under the crafts section of the site and click on “This That”, you can add the Freebie Sampler to your cart. It is the stuff that they allow you to have 1 each for free, for example mini tweezers, a small travel brush…etc.

From TBK