TGIF: Sunshine!

Rap is not really my thing but this video by Rye-Rye has a nice sunny energy :-) Enjoy and have a nice weekend!

Beauty Tip: Brighten Up Dull Locks

I think yellow hue or brassiness is the beauty headache of almost every dyed blonde. Recently I came across this interesting beauty tip in Marie Clare which promises to help fix this problem. It sounds a bit extreme though… Would you do the following to your hair to make it brighter blonde??

Mix 1 cup baby shampoo with 2 tablespoons of baking soda, comb through hair, cover with a shower cap, sit in the sun for 10 minutes, then rinse.

What do you think?

Beauty Preview: Harvey Prince – Beauty Products With a Concept

I love beauty products with a concept. I do appreciate a product with a cool idea behind it! I also love multi-tasking products. Won’t you agree with me - multi-tasking is the style of life nowadays. Today living at the speed of light, we need products that help us to achieve several goals at a time! And Harvey Prince is the company that offers both: a cool concept and multi-tasking products. Harvey Prince develops perfumes and perfume based beauty products that not only make you smell nice but help you to appear younger and sexier. Their concept is to combine beauty with science and psychology. Isn't that amazing!? They definitely take beauty products to another level! That is why I was so excited to try out new products recently released by Harvey Prince and to share my impressions with you. So reviews on the following products are coming up very soon:

Flirty Dermastase Soap
Soap perfumed with the Flirty scent or as described at harveyprince.com a "moisturizing body bar"
Ageless Ultimate Anti Aging Bar Soap
"anti-aging body bar"

Eau Fling Perfume
Promises to help you to “evoke a sexual response in males”
Submariner Perfume
Perfume for men that expresses not only masculinity but also promises to help attract the opposite sex
Nightshift Perfume
Is composed of night flowers scents and promises to keep you sexy and energized through out a wild night out.

Eau Flirt Body Wash Liquid Loofah
Not only hydrates and washes but stimulates the senses with “intoxicating” and “love-evoking” scent

Beauty Shopping: Mani-Pedi Essentials

I usually go for a mani-pedi to a local beauty salon. However recently I have been wondering how much I would be able to save if I started doing at-home mani-pedi from time to time... So I decided I needed to get some essentials. I am not completely mani-pedi oblivious, of course. I do take care of my feet and hands and I do have certain tools like nail files, scissors, cuticle softener and callus remover file/razor, creams… even a foot mask and soak! But of course this is not enough. I need some more tools and products. So here is what I got:

* Cuticle and Nail Plier (manufactured in Germany, Dont know why but in this part of the world they think German mani-pedi tools are the best!)

* Cuticle Scissors by Solingen, Germany (I have a couple of those but very old and not so good)

* Exfoliating Cuticle Treatment by OPI (why did I buy it! I still have some cuticle cream by Mavala left
* Nail Polish Corrector

* China Glaze (Octa Gone Wild) Nail Polish (I got obsessed with purple this summer and am still attracted to the lavender-purple shade!)

Beauty Fact: Hairy Legs Are OK in Brazil

I was surprised to learn this (culturally shocking for many of us) fact on J.Simpson’s show “Price of Beauty”. It appears that in Brazil some women do not shave but bleach hair on their legs. They consider it sexy! After some surfing online I did find several discussions on this topic and apparently it is true and is mostly done by those very tanned beauties with beach bodies.

This interesting fact made me wonder once again: when did it all begin? When and why did the body hair become inappropriate? How did women end up shaving, depilating and eradicating hairs on their bodies? I’ll share what I’ll find out in my next “beauty fact” post.

Beauty Shopping: Clinique SPF 40 Face Cream and Garnier After Sun Ambre Solaire Spray

We are finally going on holiday!!! Yes I know everyone has already had their fix of swimming, lounging and cocktailing… aaand we just got around to finally treating ourselves to a nice relaxing holiday. What can I say? We travel off season… weather is still good, it’s not so crowded and prices are better…
Anyway, I am so excited to finally go to Greece! We are going to Crete to an all inclusive resort! How cool is that?
So, of course, I have been shopping for some stuff for the trip!

I am going to use sun protection creams I have since last year. One is by L’Oreal and the other, developed specially for kids, by Eucerin.(I think) What I don’t like is to put sun protection developed for the body on the face. Because usually it feels very oily. So I thought I should get something else for the face. Without any prior research, just based on the fact that Clinique’s SPF 40 face cream has no fragrance and is allergy and photoallergy tested , I bought this cream today.

I also wanted something soothing and hydrating for the skin for after the sun. So I bought Garnier Ambre Solaire After Sun with cactus extract.
...in Greece, Rhodes about 2 years ago... gonna pack this dress! ;-)

Beauty Review: Baggage Lost Puff Reducing Eye Gel

Promise:
“instantly targets the appearance of puffiness under the eye area”
Product Profile in Short:
invisible and lightweight gel that helps target and reduce the appearance of puffiness under the eye area. It “helps provide an overall youthful-looking appearance.”
Close-up on Active Ingredients:
Water (Aqua), Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond Seed Extract), Sodium Hyaluronate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Carbomere, Wheat Protein Extract, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Caffeine, Yeast Extract, Grape Seed Extract, Triethanolamine, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Ethylparaben, Butylparaben
This is one of the best ingredients lists I’ve ever seen. Yes, ok, there are parabens at the end but look at all these extracts at the beginning. Those are precious! All of them are very beneficial for the skin around the eye as they help to moisturize, protects against free radicals, drain excess water build up, stimulate collagen…

Experience:
Texture: light gel
Fragrance: free of perfume

The good news is that Baggage Lost Puff Reducing Eye Gel works. However it still does not completely solve the problem for me. Yes the eye area looks more lifted and less puffy after application but the puffiness does not completely disappear… I would say improvement is about 30-50%... I can also appreciate that Baggage Lost Puff Reducing Eye Gel fights eye puffiness on several levels. It physically lifts up eye bags because I can feel skin tightening when it dries up. It also provides drainage plus stimulation with caffeine and soothes with Sweet Almond Seed Extract and Aloe. It moisturizes and provides anti-aging plus anti-oxidant effects with Cucumber, Wheat Protein Extract, Grape Seed Extract.
There is one thing to watch out for. If you apply powder over the Baggage Lost gel, it tends to crumble. Not good, I agree... However I noticed that if you use cream under-eye-concealer over Baggage Lost, it works very well...

Price Tag:
$ 23

Bottom Line:
It’s definitely a high quality product. Very well thought through, great ingredient list. But I am not getting the effect I need. Be it the fault of the product or the age or whatever other reason… I don’t think Baggage Lost Puff Reducing Eye Gel will be on my regular skin care list but I would recommend to try it out if you just are starting to get the cursed eye puffiness problem. Because, trust me, there are not so many products out there to help you deal with it :-(

FTC Product Review Disclaimer: The author of this blog received a sample product for this review.

Beauty Shopping: Diorshow Iconic High Definition Mascara

Guess what I finally got??? I made up my mind and got Diorshow mascara! Yay!!! It took me looong... The problem was tooo big choice and since mascara is now my daily quick make-up essential, I had to make a good choice!
When I was looking for the best mascara out there I asked on twitter for advice. Several people said they really liked Diorshow Mascara. However, one person said she would sometimes get raccoon eyes from Diorshow but she anyway liked it most of all. I decided to try out a couple other brands before getting it. But since I am not so much out shopping these days and because I am always in a hurry, I just couldn’t really completely focus on making the right mascara decision. So once I dropped by a store together with my Mom and painted my eye lashes with 4 different mascaras. Which do you think she thought was the best? Diorshow! You are right!
So last week I went shopping determined to finally get it! And I even got a present with it – an adorable miniature eyeshadow palette with 5 shades for creating a classic “iconic” look!


Diorshow Iconic Look (Mascara + Mini 5-color-eyeshadow)
O90 Noir-Black High DefinitionLash Curler Mascara

My present!!!

Quick Fix: Toothpaste Helps to Get Rid of Orangey Palms!

I cam across this tip in Cosmo and thought you may like it as much as I did. You know how pals get all orange after you apply self-tanner. It appears whitening toothpaste can fix this problem! I would have never thought of this! It should contain peroxide and silica. The peroxide helps to lighten the tint and silica exfoliates the top layer of skin. Just put a small amount on your palms rub together a little and then wash it off! That’s smart!

Beauty Review: Dr Denese’s Advanced Firming Facial Pads

Dr Denese’s Advanced Firming Facial Pads are now one of my favorite skin care products! I'm very impressed with what this product does to my skin so read on to find out the details!

Promise:
"...delivers a profound firming effect over time. Each pad delivers the prefect dose of exfoliation, improves radiance, even out skin tone and clarity. It dramatically reduces the look of lines, wrinkles and it drastically shrinks the look of pores."

Product Profile in Short:
"...professional-grade glycolic peel delivers the perfect dose of daily exfoliation and firming effect. Each pad is infused with innovative ingredients such as peptides, high percentage glycolic acid and alpha lipoic acid to address lines and wrinkles, uneven skin tone, large pores, and lack of radiance to the skin."


Close-up on Active Ingredients:
Water (aqua), Glycolic Acid (+10%), Propylene Glycol, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Polysorbate 20, Hydrolyzed Rice Protein, Avena Sativa (Oat) Protein, Palmitoyl Oligopeptide, Tetrapeptide-7 Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Carbomer, Yeast Extract, Zea Mays, Ascorbic Acid, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopherol Acetate, Thioctic Acid, Triethanolamine, Diisopropyl Dimer Dilinoleate, Diiostearyl Dimer Dilinoleate, Orzanol, Ubiquinone, Sodium PCA, Trisodium EDTA, Potasium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Phenoxyethanol
The key ingredient of these pads is glycolic acid. What glycolic acid does is exfoliate stratum corneum (higher layer) of your skin and helps your skin to get rid of the dead old cells and expose the new live cells this way effectively helping to improve skin's appearance and texture. Glycolic acid is used by skin care professionals to help reduce wrinkles, acne scarring, hyperpigmentation etc. In addition to glycolic acid Advanced Firming Facial Pads
contain other peeling ingredients such as Ascorbic Acid and Retinyl Palmitate for example. Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) has strong anti-oxidant properties, it stimulates collagen synthesis and has also been proven to improve condition of photoaged skin and reverse some of the sun damage. Retinyl Palmitate is a form of Vitamin A. When absorbed into the skin it gets converted to retinol which, as most of us know, helps to renew and rejuvenate skin.
I also see several peptides on the ingredient list which boost collagen production as well.
There are some plants extracts among the ingredients. For example, Aloe leaf juice is an effective anti-oxidant and has strong anti-inflammatory properties.

Experience:
Texture: premoistened cotton pads, soft, really soaked in the product
Fragrance: i see no fragrance on the list but it definitely has some artificial fragrance added
I was very afraid to try this product. I have somewhat sensitive skin and I was sure I will just react badly and will be burning red.
According to the directions on the package, those with normal and oily skin can use Advanced firming pads daily. You should start slowly and build up the rubbing time to 30-60 seconds. Following recommendations provided, I rubbed a cotton moistened pad on my skin at night after cleansing my skin. The first time I was so worried I did it for several seconds and then in 10 seconds I was already washing my face scared that the stining was too strong... To my greatest surprise I did not get any irritation. So I continued using the Advanced Firming Pads every evening. In a couple days I built up some courage and did not wash my face afterwards. Results were very impressing and almost immediate! In a matter of days I would wake up to a fresher smoother complexion, looking better with every day! Actually immediately after application my skin felt so soft and smooth to touch it was amazing… I love this product. Skin exfoliation becomes a key to a fresh smooth complexion when you hit mid-twenties because your skin just doesnt renew itself so fast anymore... so all the dead cells just build up on its surface and it starts to look dull and tired and rough. Finding the right product to exfoliate your skin is crucial. It cannot be irritating and it has to be strong enough to be effective. Dr Denese’s Advanced Firming Facial Pads work miracles for me!

Price Tag:
$35 for a jar with 60 pads

Bottom Line:
It's a great product! I would make this product a regular in my routine. However maybe to keep on the safe side I would avoid using it in the summer and reserve it for autumn and spring.


FTC Product Review Disclaimer: The author of this blog received a sample product for this review.

Beauty Digest: Jessica Simpson’s Beauty Show on MTV

Have you seen Simpson’s beauty show on MTV and vh1? It's called The Price of Beauty . I love the idea! Together with her two friends CaCee Cobb, Jess' ex-assistant, and Ken Paves, hair stylist, she is traveling the globe and discovering what’s considered beautiful in different countries. At the same time Jess is learning about various beauty secrets and tricks and sharing her discoveries with viewers. I’ve always been curious about differences in beauty perceptions and beauty values between different cultures. In some places it’s hair or thin ankles that are key attractive features in a woman, in others being thin is beautiful in others the same virtue is considered a sign of sickness. It’s also interesting to find out what the roots of those differences are. And even more captivating is to learn about beauty secrets and measures women take around the world to achieve perfection and to fight skin aging. For example, I know that Japanese women believe in consuming collagen infused foods/drinks to help them fight aging, in Slavic cultures they have hundreds of herb and fruit based recepies to help achieve or retain skin beauty and youth. Unfortunately I don’t have time to watch each and every episode of Jessica’s wonderful show but a couple series I saw were lots of fun and very informative.

Beauty Preview: Dr. Denese Skin Care Products

This is what I love about beauty blogging… You get to discover amazing brands, products and lines that probably you would have never tried… I was contacted by Dr Denese promotional team and asked if I would like to test one of their products… I looked at the website and saw among many other interesting products the Baggage Lost Puff Reducing Eye Gel
You can imagine how curious I got… I mean, any brand that has a special product for under eye bags and eye puffiness is on my must-try list! I definitely think this problem is overlooked by skin care brands. There should be more special products developed to help deal with it.

Here is a bit of background on Dr Denese. Born in Hungary, Dr Denese started creating skin care products as early as 9 ears of age. She has been involved in skin care and anti-aging research all her life. Currently, having world class medical education and extensive experience, Dr Denese develops a variety of products for a wide range of skin care and skin aging issues. Dr Denese says what makes her products different from others is that she uses high concentrations of advanced active ingredients clinically proven to work.

Coming up are 3 reviews of the three products I’ve tried:

the Baggage Lost Puff Reducing Eye Gel

Advanced Firming Facial Pads


Wrinkle Rx - Deep Wrinkle Environmental Shield Serum

Beauty Radar: Poof! Fighting Eye Puffiness!

Here are a couple eye care products I came across recently that attracted my attention. They all target the problem of eye puffiness! I think they look very interesting and would like to try them out:

Kiehl’s Facial Fuel Eye De-Puffer - Contains caffeine and hibiscus and promises to revive tired eyes.

Clinique All About Eyes Serum comes in a tube with a roller ball. Promises to increase blood circulation and reduce puffiness.

The Baggage Lost Puff Reducing Eye Gel by Dr.Denese. It contains almond, aloe, grapeseed extracts as well as the de-puffing caffeine. I actually had a chance to test this one. I’ll post about it next.

Let me know if you have tried any of these and what you think!

Beauty Find: Reusable Revolution - Eco-Friendly Cosmetic Solutions

Recently we had relatives visiting with us for a week and that was not only fun but very educational! I learnt a lot about healthy vegetarian diet, meditation and what it really means to be eco-friendly… One of the new concepts I learnt is the "reusable" approach to things you use in your daily life. Not only can you apply it to your shopping bag but you can take one step further and start using reusable face cotton rounds and wiping tissues! Do you ever think how many of those makeup cotton rounds we use daily, weekly… monthly… I personally don’t even pay attention to how many I go through. But it appears there are reusable cotton rounds to remove makeup from your eyes and face available. They are made from high-quality ecological cotton and are soooo super-soft and smooth. Here, I got a link for you http://betterforgrownups.com/ However, am not sure about the shipping policy and if they are available in Europe…

Beauty Shopping: Dior All-In-One Artistry Palette 008 Smoky Design

Recently I have been drawn like a magnet to Dior makeup. Just about a month ago I invested into a limited edition gold eye shadow. And now I got a palette of 5 shadows. I have been eyeing this palette for a long long time. I wanted a good palette for doing a smoky gray-silver-black eye. What I was looking for is a combination of shades that would allow me to vary intensity of the smoky eye makeup. Dior All-In-One Artistry Palette 008 Smoky Design has 5 shades from white to dark (liner dark black).

Before making the final decision I made sure I consider all of my options and asked the sales assistant to put next to each other various smoky eye palettes to see which I like most. Between Chanel, Lancome, Estee Lauder and Dior, the latter came out the winner.

Promise a review soon!