REVIEW: Dirty Works Glow Girl! Buttery Salt Scrub & Supreme Cream Body Butter

If you follow my empties posts at all you'll know I'm a fan of exfoliating scrubs and body butters - if you didn't well you do know now! Of course when I was offered the opportunity to review Dirty Works' Glow Girl! Buttery Salt Scrub, partnered with their Supreme Cream Body Butter I jumped onto it as my first taste of this UK brand now available in Australia. 

Glow Girl! Buttery Salt Scrub (300ml tub)

Ingredients list:
Aqua, Pumice, Glycerin, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glyceril Stearate, Parfum, Isopropyl Myristate, Sodium Polyacrylate, Prunus Persica (Peach) Kernal Shell, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate, Xanthan Gum, Maris Sal (Sea Salt), 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1, 3-Diol, Hexyl Cinnnamal, Limonene. 

My impressions:
Dutifully following the instructions on the tub I scooped out a handful of the scrub, promptly losing some of it onto the shower floor! My first piece of advice is to be just a little bit careful with scooping out this scrub because it is a little runnier than some.  In my enthusiasm, and being overly generous (greedy?) I learned that the hard way.  You can get an idea of the consistency in the picture below on my fingertip:

Consistency aside I've enjoyed using the scrub so far. The exfoliation is done with a combination of Pumice, Sea Salt and ground Peach Kernels - I was expecting the salt to sting my eczema-afflicted hands when I rubbed my skin with it but I had no problems at all.  Because of the non-dissolving exfoliants included the scrub can be applied on quite wet skin and it will still do the job of exfoliating for as long as you care to gently rub it onto your skin - the grains are the right size to exfoliate without any scratching or reddening.  Of course because the grains don't dissolve you should follow the advice on the side of the jar to make sure to rinse the shower (or bath) thoroughly afterwards to avoid any gritty feeling under your feet.

After rinsing off and patting dry my skin definitely felt smoother, was lightly moisturised without any filminess at all and lightly scented.  As a matter of fact the shower and bathroom had a distinctly 'beachy' salty scent afterward too which I absolutely loved.  Just the antidote to any cold weather blues!

Because of the slightly runny consistency (my one criticism), and me being prone to grabbing big handfuls of this stuff to scrub down my arms and legs in the shower I have a feeling I will power through my Buttery Salt Scrub fairly quickly but at $9.95 I think it's an affordable indulgence.  Most importantly it does the job it's supposed to by gently and effectively exfoliating the skin - and I love the summery beachy scent.


Supreme Cream Body Butter (300ml tub)

Ingredients list:
Aqua, Glycerine Soja (Soybean) Oil, Glyceryl Stearate, Glycerin, Cetearyl Alcohol, Isopropyl Myristate, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Parfum, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Phenoxyethanol, Xanthan Gum, Disodium EDTA, Cymbopogon Schoenanthus (Lemongrass) Extract, Coffea Arabica (Coffee) Seed Extract, Hexyl Cinnamal, Limonene, Linalool, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Citronellol, Eugenol, Geraniol, Citral.

 My impressions:
As you can see in the above pictures Supreme Cream Body Butter is as rich and thick in consistency as you'd expect.  It contains Soybean Oil, Shea Butter and Cocoa Seed Butter as key moisturising ingredients and I found only a small amount - say twice of that shown above on my fingertip - was easily enough to moisturise my arms, paying special attention to my elbows.  This body butter has enough slip that it literally glided onto my skin like - well - butter, absorbing very quickly and easily into my skin.  Best of all my skin felt soft and silky with no greasiness or tackiness, making it easy to get dressed immediately afterward - I've gotta love a body butter like that for when I'm in a morning rush!

Supreme Cream Body Butter has the same subtly beachy scent as Glow Girl! Buttery Salt Scrub so it partners perfectly with it.  Because I only need a small amount I can see this tub will last me a long time and is a great quality budget buy at $9.95.  I can definitely see myself throwing this into my supermarket trolley in future. 

The Dirty Works range is available at Coles stores nationally.

(Both products were provided for my consideration.  All comments and opinions are my own.)

Sally Hansen Sugar Coat: Bubble Plum

I remember when I thought smooth and glossy was the only way to go with polish but I have really embraced textured polish in a big way these days.  Sally Hansen got in on the act a few months ago with their (unfortunately) all too limited edition range of Sugar Coat polishes.  When they originally released I passed them over, only buying 2 shades when they'd already started to disappear from stands.  I'm actually kicking myself now for hesitating because my first impressions as posted here are really positive. 

Bubble Plum is a matte pink-purple (or purple-pink) which obviously brings bubble gum to mind but I also think it's a good candidate for a variation on Pantone's colour of the year Radiant Orchid.   Two coats applied really easily and precisely, and dried down quickly to reveal the textured finish.  Because there's no sparkle or glitter it looks like a crazy coloured concrete render job on my nails but I really fell in love with it. I was expecting removal to be challenging but it was extremely easy, and much the same as a more conventional polish.

I'd really love to see this finish in dark autumnal shades like burgundy, navy blue or a regal purple too.


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Until next time!

YSL Spring Collection 2014 picks

So my first makeup purchase of 2014 was driven by a rapidly building obsession for orange lipstick.  My second, and third - both featured here - were driven by a longer held obsession, acquired from the moment I first eyed YSL's Spring 2014 collection at the start of the year.  I have a well shared weakness for pretty things and the YSL Flower Crush collection seduced me instantly with its combination of floral embossed gilt packaging, pretty spring colours and the promise of...

 

 "Whorls of petals. A rush of roses and peonies.

A whirlwind of a thousand flowers envelops the Saint Laurent woman in a soft, feverishly sensual cloud. Flower crush..."

 

I gritted my teeth, saved my money and held out for the Australian release, ready to literally swoop on that counter. As it happens I didn't do the swooping but my partner in YouTube crime did - thank you Ling for performing my personal shopper duties yet again!  I was initially deciding between the 5 colour eye palette, Pivoine Crush or the Rosy Blush and in the end decided on both.  Call me indecisive but I think I was very decisive when I made that choice.

Pivoine Crush Ombrés 5 Lumières Eye Palette

 

 

 

The YSL website describes this palette as:
 "A collector eye palette with 5 vibrant eye shadow shades inspired by the perfect spring flower storm..."

 

Indeed the palette design itself has a highly collectable appeal. The bowerbird in me attracted to pretty shiny things was powerless to resist it based on that alone! The bright colours within are a bit of a departure from my usual choices of purples and taupes and in the palette they actually look a little too bright for comfort - I don't want to look theatrical (or as though I have an eye inflammation!) but swatching quickly put any concerns to rest.  The mostly warm shades are all surprisingly soft, even when applied over primer.  Some of the shades have a subtle sparkle but there's nothing over the top in the selection.  If you're after a very bright or shimmery look then this may disappoint but for someone like me who likes to dabble in colour in a subtle everyday way it's going to be perfect and I look forward to experimenting: 

 

 

 

 

Rosy Blush Duo Collector Face Palette

 

 

YSL refers to this beauty as:

"...a creamy powder that sculpts and illuminates the complexion. A collector face creamy powder palette that displays a graphic motif to unveil 2 marble pink shades that swirl and unravel an arty rose petal motif."

 

The blush is a duo of non-shimmery soft pastel pink blush swirled with a golden pink highlight shade in a ridiculously pretty, rather organic looking design in the pan.  YSL recommends the matte pink shade be used for sculpting the cheeks, then applying the golden highlight on the cheekbones however I've been swirling both shades together for a subtle pink glow on my cheeks - maybe because I'm fair skinned I find this works beautifully for a daytime look and I just love it because I get a healthy pink glow without anything too obvious.  Yes, there is a bit of sparkle but not too otherworldly for me so I am 100% in love with this!

 

  I can see that if you have medium to darker skin this won't do much for you as a blush, although it could probably still work as a highlight.  I've also read it can be layered over other blush to add a subtle glow.

 

Swirled and swatched on my arm:

 

These pretty things were both very much an indulgence for me but I don't regret them at all - like I said I'm a sucker for pretty and these are undeniably pretty and, importantly, wearable too. If you like pink then this might just be your thing. Both of these items are limited edition so you need to be quick to snap them up!

 

Until next time.



Revlon Parfumerie: Wintermint

Now for another variation in the wonderful world of nail polish.  We've seen pastels, neons, metallics, multichromes, holos, glitter, matte, and many more different textures so let's progress onto sensory stimulation of a different kind. Moving on from sight and touch let's get onto smell...

 

Scented polish isn't a new thing and Revlon themselves have done this before but this time around they've made it more enticing and fresh with the new perfume style bottles and wide range of shades in their Parfumerie range.  I wasn't really taken in by the scent gimmick in itself but some of the colours appealed to me so during a recent sale I pounced on a few bottles to try. 

Wintermint caught my eye first because it reminds me so much of Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream and not owning the Lippmann original I was keen to try this drugstore version.  The silvery blue-green polish needs two coats for opaque coverage and along with larger pieces of blue glitter it's filled with fine glitter so it dries down to a very gritty finish.  Once dry the gentle candy mint scent develops and I did enjoy it - I was surprised to still catch occasional subtle wafts of the scent over a few days actually! I didn't apply top coat and without it this polish did take a few hours to completely harden on my nails.

 

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Let's hope they don't invent flavoured nail polish next! It wouldn't exactly help nail biters now would it!!!

 

Have you tried any of the Parfumerie polishes?

St Patricks Day mani: L'Oreal - Wasabi Mint & Sally Hansen - Scale Up

Happy St Patricks Day! 

 

It's the day when everything has an excuse to be green - including nails...and beer!

 

I didn't have time to be too creative this year so went for a simple accented mani.  I opted for two coats of L'Oreal Wasabi Mint over all of my nails for the vibrant creamy green base and finished off with two coats of Sally Hansen's green flakie polish Scale Up on my ring and pinky fingers.  Both polishes are newish in my collection and both performed well - Wasabi Mint could have easily been a one-coater and Scale Up with its green, gold and blue sparkle was just the right flakie for the job.  Because it's late and I want to get this post up before we end St Patty's here in Melbourne I'll stop right here!

 

All photos taken in indirect daylight

 

 

 

Until next time!

 



Chanel Rouge Allure Luminous Intense Lip Color - 96 Excentrique (AKA fulfilling my orange lipstick obsession)

Well...after 8 makeup empties I'm finally posting my first beauty diet reward buy of the year and OMG did this develop into one hell of an obsession leading up to the purchase!

I know I have an obsessive personality at times and when I get a fixation there's no way of getting around it - it just builds and builds and builds!  Much like a chocolate craving where I try eating my way around it but inevitably I will cave - Aargh!!! Yes as per usual it started innocently enough with an evening in the other world of Pinterest when I pored over all the orange-lipsticked  muses and realised that, perhaps, maybe, I didn't have a true orange lipstick? Orange-red, yes indeed I do have that, but true orange? This progressed - logically in my mind - on to what were the perfect true orange lipsticks which led me to Chanel Excentrique...

True to form it's the last thing to catch my eye that I must have first! And here it is...

 

Because of the unfortunate natural lighting situation in my bedroom Excentrique does look more orange-red in these pictures but, oh my, it is most definitely ORANGE in real life!  For reference Chanel describes it as "Intense Apricot" which should give you the idea. 

I don't know if you want me to go on about the packaging (and this is not a new line) so I'll keep it to the point:  obviously the lipstick casing is in keeping with the signature minimalist Chanel look of sleek shiny black and the yellow gold bullet smoothly slides out with the press of a finger, which is something of a novelty for me. 

The formula is quite intensely pigmented and wears very comfortably with a semi-matte finish on my lips. I can only imagine how perfect a true red in this formula would look, although one tube will do me for now while I'm on my beauty diet. Chanel says this lipstick formula contains "... concentrated, ultra-thin pigments...offers radically intense, long-wearing colour with full coverage and a satin finish. Leaves lips supple and protected with lasting comfort."  While I agree I'll stand by my opinion on Tom Ford and Bite Beauty lipsticks as having superior moisturising properties for my lips because of their creamier formulations. However as far as semi-matte lipsticks go Rouge Allure has to be one of the most comfortable I've tried and I'm not unhappy I made the leap - even if it was driven by my obsession with the colour!  Wear time is good as you'd expect and I got through about 4 hours and my midmorning coffee before I had to freshen up the colour.  Pricewise this sits between Bite Beauty and Tom Ford at $50AUD.

 Swatched on the back of my hand

And on my lips. I love how orange brightens up my whole face.

What's your latest colour obsession?

Natio: Rosy Glow

Now for one of the prettiest pinks I've worn in a while...

Rosy Glow is from Natio's Little Treasures collection and I truly love the unabashed prettiness of this strawberry ice cream shade of pink.  I know this is a spring colour but really, when does pretty ever go out of style? Don't answer that and burst my bubble okay? Anyway who doesn't like something that reminds them of strawberry ice cream? Two coats was all it took to obtain a perfectly opaque finish.

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Until next time!