Monday, January 9, 2012

Product Review: Lush’s Crème Anglaise and The Mask of Magnaminty

I'm soooooo sore from the gym. Miss M is sleeping over tonight, and berating me for not posting on my blog for 5 WHOLE DAYS.

I'm sorry for not posting, my loves.  Life is still pretty depressing for poor, single me, but things are looking up. 

I got asked on a date whilst working up a sweat at the gym today!  -insert applause here-  I’m totally gonna go, but I don’t think I want to exclusively date again for a loooong while, because I’m just not emotionally ready yet. (.__.);

Enough about my life, and onwards to what you’ve been waiting for:  the review! (^o^)/




First, a bit about the company for those who have absolutely NO IDEA what Lush is.

According to their website, the actual company started in 1977, and underwent name and ownership changes until it actually became Lush in 1995. 

They also have this cute little section on the website where it describes the company’s ‘beliefs’.  It is really refreshing, and straightforward in theory. 

They use fresh fruits and veggies, don’t test on animals, put their faces on their products, believe in massages and want to fill the world with perfume.  Perfume.  It’s all there, I kid you not. 

So lemme tell you how I discovered it in the first place... 

Mmkay.  I’d never heard of the company before, so when I stumbled across it in the Garden State Mall, I was d-e-l-i-g-h-t-e-d.  Simply gleeful.  Walking into Lush was like walking into Bath and Body Works on crack.

My nostrils were greeted with a fragrant, earthy smell as I walked into the shop.  T'was nice.

I was greeted by a blonde, enthusiastic guy (we’ll call him ‘W’) and promptly ushered to a table where wheel of what looked like cheese were stacked.  W gleefully explained to me that the ‘cheese wheels’ were actually soaps, and that I was free to smell all of them if I wished.

Oh, I wished. 

There were blocks of soap that were purple, pink, green, even honeycomb colored (which turned out to be my favorite one, heheh).  

I smelled them all

They had soaps, and powdered soaps, and soaps that were jiggly like jello… they had soaps for DAYS.

They had such a wide variety of body products, all with whimsical little signs next to them, displaying their names.  

I felt like Alice in Wonderland, because they were all so curious, and I felt like they were missing the ‘eat me’ tag. 

After making my selections (and receiving an AMAZING hand massage), I went to the register to pay and noticed little black pots in a tiny fridge behind the counter.   

When I asked the register girl what they were, she kindly informed me that they were freshly made face masks, and asked if I would like a sample.

Um, YES please?  

Overall, my in-store experience was phenomenal and I was so happy, I went back a couple of months later and bought some more stuff. 

Which brings us to review number one.





Crème Anglaise is described on the site as a “luxurious English cream”.

“Creme Anglaise is made with some of the finest ingredients available. We've used toning sweet orange oil and moisturizing natural butters blended into an almond infusion. An infusion of saffron, the world's most expensive spice, gives it the authentically golden colour of real Creme Anglaise.”

Well described, Lush, but does this $45 body cream live up to it’s description?

It’s an ivory color, thin and lotiony in texture.  You get 7.9 ounces in the jar. 


Ingredients:  Sweet Almond Infusion (Prunus dulcis), Saffron Infusion (Crocus sativus), Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (Cocos nucifera), Fair Trade Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao), Fair Trade Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Glycerine, Stearic Acid, Almond Oil (Prunus dulcis), Vanilla Absolute (Vanilla planifolia), Myrrh Resinoid (Commiphora myrrha), Sweet Orange Oil (Citrus sinensis), Triethanolamine, Perfume, Cetearyl Alcohol, Benzyl Salicylate, Coumarin, *Eugenol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Methylparaben, Propylparaben  *occurs naturally in essential oils


Pros
  •  Well, the texture certainly is luxurious.  It feels like light, whipped silk going on your skin. 
  • The fact that it contains saffron, an ingredient rarer than gold in certain parts of the world is pretty cool.  And it’s second on the ingredient list.  So it’s not an overhyped claim.  It’s really in there.
  • Does a decent job moisturizing.  My hands and body are definitely softer putting this on.


Cons:
  • The scent.  It smells like a vanilla and baby powder crossbreed.  Oh Lush, why do you make things that smell either really strange, or ridiculously amazing?  If only everything you made smelled like ‘It’s raining men’.  Le sigh.
  •  It doesn’t moisturize me for long.  For almost fifty bucks, I want something that at least gets rid of the dreaded scaly winter leg.  It doesn’t.
  •  You have to wait for it to sink in.  I know you have some heavy-duty oils and butters in there (yeah you, cocoa butter) again, waiting forever for the lotion to sink in sucks.
  •  Did I mention I really dislike the scent? 


Conclusion:  

Well, there it is, my loves.  

You just have to decide for yourself whether the decent moisturization, awesome ingredients, and the grandmother-inspired scent is worth its $45 price tag. 

However, just based on smell alone, I unfortunately won’t be repurchasing this.  Sorry, but I’ve smelled some of their other stuff, which to me, is what I’d rather smell like. 


* * *


Moving right along to the other product review. 



The Mask of Magnaminty is one of the only facemasks lush creates that doesn’t require refrigeration. 

According to the site, the mask is described as a:


Seriously minty body mask.  Mask of Magnaminty was worked on for years before it was settled on. Our inventors have been almost obsessive in their quest to invent the ultimate facemask. The formulation had to be just right in MoM to ensure that it was intense, but not harsh.” 


It contains ground aduki beans, bentonite gel and china clay. The aduki beans apparently exfoliate your skin, while the clay and gel pull dirt of out your pores.  This stunning combination of ingredients is supposed to leave you with brighter skin and feeling super refreshed. 

It retails for 23 bucks, and you get a whopping 11.1 oz of product. 

The texture of the mask is quite odd. The best way to describe it is lumpy, I guess.  You really have to work it over your skin to get it on evenly, and it seems to works best on damp skin.  The aduki beans also make the texture even lumpier. 


Ingredients:  Bentonite Gel, Kaolin, Honey (Mel), Talc, Ground Aduki Beans (Phaseolus), Glycerine, Evening Primrose Seeds (Oenothera biennis), Peppermint Oil (Mentha piperita), African Marigold Oil (Tagetes erecta), Vanilla Absolute (Vanilla planifolia), Limonene, Perfume, Chlorophyll, Methylparaben.  

Pros
  • The scent.  It’s refreshing, cool, and truly smells like mint.  Like… spearmint sort of.  I like it.
  • The effect.  My skin feels nice and clean when I rinse it off.  The aduki beans, although annoying in application, definitely do their job exfoliating when you’re washing this mask off.  Just make sure you wash off in circular motions. 
  •  It’s really refreshing.  It tingles oh-so-nicely while it’s on your skin.  It’s a really nice pick me up, especially if you were to store it in the fridge on a hot day, and apply it as a cooling mask. 
  • It lasts a while.  Like 3-4 months.  You don’t have to worry about refrigerating it, although it would probably keep longer.  
  •  It’s annoying, but fun to apply.  It's always an adventure, getting this on your face.  You have even more fun when you’re doing it with your friends.


Cons:
  •        The texture is a bit odd.  You really have to work it to get it to sort of stick to your face.
  •        The price is a bit steep for a face mask.



Conclusion:  

Overall, this facemask is definitely a good one.  I would repurchase this because I like the way it makes my skin feel, and it’s got great ingredients.

If you can't afford the $22 price tag, then an excellent cheaper alternative would be Queen Helen’s Mint Julep Mask, which has excellent reviews all over the net, is available at pretty much every drug/beauty store, and is muuuuch cheaper than the MoM.  

Just google it.  I have both maks, and they’re great.

However, if you want a luxurious mask with all-natural ingredients, and an authentic spearmint scent, then by all means get your butt over to Lush and GET this bad boy.

Did I also mention that if you return 5 of the black pots they sell their stuff in, you can get a free fresh face mask?

Yeah, I love Lush. 


Peace, love and luxuriousness,

~Chas


edit:  please ignore the weird highlight on the post.  blogger is freaking out and I'm trying to figure out how to fix it. (T_T)



Tuesday, January 3, 2012

NOTD: Every Cloud has a Silver lining... right?


Good afternoon lovelies!

Today for your viewing pleasure I have a simply stunning combination of sparkly silver foil goodness.  The base/underwear polish is Celeb City, and I decided to layer the Essie Shine of the Times topcoat over it for extra pizzazz. 

Both silvers seemed to work together quite nicely.  Please, enjoy!
























As you can see below, Celeb City on it's own is a silver foil which I thought was pretty standard, until further inspection revealed tiny glittering silver sparkles.  Although you can notice them from far away, they’re a nice treat when you inspect your nails up close. 































I used:
  •  
  • ·      1 coat of Orly Bonder Base
  • ·      3 coats of Sally Hansen Extreme Wear – ‘Celeb City’
  • ·      2 coats of Essie Luxe Effects – ‘Shine of the Times’
  • ·      1 coat of Seche Vite




I feel like this would be a cute yet simple New Year’s Eve mani for those looking for something that will be flashy, but match with most outfits. 

Also, the macro on my camera will be fixed soon.  I don't know what's wrong with it, but that and the flash function are being sillyfaces.  So my pictures aren't as sharp as I'd like them.  :/

On a different note for those of you who are concerned, it’s been three days after my big breakup.  Other than posting to my blog, I’ve been doing nothing but moping around.  (TT_TT)

I’m ashamed to say I haven’t left my bed except for necessities, and I’ve just been on the computer stumbling around. I’ve just been sleeping all day and on the computer all night. 

It’s so depressing, especially since I SHOULD get out of bed and get some exercise and sunlight, but I just can’t find the motivation to get up.  I feel like I made the right decision in the end, but I also feel nostalgic every 5 seconds, and miss him terribly.  

It sucks.

Ah, well, I may be a gross wreck, but at least I have cute nails right?  Doing my nails keeps cheering me up.  Maybe I'll shoot a long awaited makeup video or something... 

Hopefully your Tuesday is going better than mine is... hahaha.  Anyone have fun plans for the day?  I'll live vicariously through you.  (;___;)  



Peace, love and loafing around,

~Chas

Monday, January 2, 2012

Post breakup mani: Essie's Mod Square


HAPPY 2012 EVERYBODY!  Can you believe 2011 is over just like that?  

I don't know about you guys, but unfortunately my 2012 started off on a sour note.  

I broke up with my boyfriend of two years last night, and missed the ball drop.  It was horrible, and I'm still a bit shaken up that it actually happened.  

But a new year means a new start, and I'm determined to not wallow in sadness this year and make better decisions... (⌒_⌒;)

So I decided to make myself feel better with a fresh pink manicure!

Being newly single sucks, but what better way to cheer yourself up than self-indulgence, right?  That and a whole lotta post-new year's cake.  

Here's Mod Square for ya:

















It isn't as blue-based as the last two pics make it seem, I swear.  

And sorry for the bits of polish on my cuticles.  Undetectable in real life, these suckers always show up everywhere when I blow up the pictures on my computer.  Boo. :/


Mod Sqaure applied in three streaky coats, but the color is so so so worth it.  Everytime I get sad about being single, I can look down at my nails and be comforted by the cute shade of pink.  Reminds me of bubblegum.  Or Fluttershy's hair, for my bronies out there. ;)  





For my nails I used:

  • 3 coats Essie - 'Mod Square'
  • 1 coat Sally Hansen - Hard as Nails HARD AS WRAPS Acrylic Gel + Nylon
  • 1 coat Seche Vite
For my hands, I used:  

  • Lush's Creme Anglaise (Which I promise a review on soon!) 
  • Burt's Bee's Lemon Butter Cuticle creme

I then added retro polka dots for fun!!  



















Since my camera is almost fully fixed, I'll be posting more often.  Sorry again about the delays between posts.  My good girlfriend (we'll call her Miss 'M' for now) hounded me that it's a new year, and my camera is functional again meaning new posts.  And giveaways.  Because everyone loves free stuff.  

So there'll be more of that, I promise.

Did anyone do anything fun for New Year's this year?  And any good post-breakup advice from breakup vets?  This was my first, and longest relationship.   

Peace, love and New Years Greetings, my loves!

~Chas