Estonian beauty trade show haul, part 1

That big colorful pile is the stuff I got from the beauty trade show Ilu Sõnum 2011 :)

You probably think I must be a really ugly person to need so much beauty products! I assure you, I just have enormous passion for them ... and I promise NOT to do any decent hauling in the near future (ha-ha!).

Besides, October is really good time to do beauty shopping in Estonia, as there are a lot of discounts and special offers available. Besides Ilu Sõnum there are Hullud Päevad (Crazy Days) in Stockmann, Osturalli (Shopping Race) in Kaubamaja, discounts in I.L.U shop and Ideaalkosmeetika and so on. And if all that is not enough for you, you can go to Helsinki to the Finnish beauty fair Kauneus & Terveys.

On to the products. As it is a big haul, I've divided it into two parts and speak about the nail polishes first. I haven't had a chance to try them all. These are my first impressions. I try to add the prices when I remember them, sorry for possible mistakes.

Spa Ritual nail polishes are usually very good, but expensive. Seeing them discounted made me treat myself to some. The colors are (L to R) Crystal Waters, Treasure, Dreams Becoming Reality and Emerald City. Two of them cost eur 8.90 each and another two eur 4 each. Usually they cost eur 11 or 12 per bottle. The samples were for free :)

More nail polish from OPI. The colors are (L to R) Out of This World, It's Not Rocket Science and Bailamos. The first two are from the Cosmic FX collection that was launched fall 2010. Now I have only Galaxy Girl missing from this collection. I got these three polishes for eur 13 (if you bought two, the third was free). Usually these cost around eur 10 each.

It's convenient I got myself a big bottle of Sec'n Dry quick dry top coat, as I just dropped my Seche and of course it broke to pieces. Don't remember the price.

On to China Glaze. Yep, these are China Glaze Crackle Glaze metallic shatters! I saw these metallic shatters at the trade show for the first time and decided to get me some, (L to R) Latticed Lilac, Oxidized Aqua and Tarnished Gold. I love-love-love crackle polish and have received lots of compliments for my crackle manicures. You can create a lot of gorgeous effects with these metallic shatters, but they're somewhat tricky to use. Eur 4.20 or 4.50 each, don't know the retail price.

The Essie shades were from the discount bin. I don't know what made me buy these, probably the fact that I absolutely adore bright pink nail polishes and lipsticks! The shades (L to R) are Infatuation, Orchid Oasis and Catwalk, all good pedicure shades. I think they were eur 2 or 3 each, the retail price is around eur 9.

And then the set in the background. Actually I was interested in the blue Sexy in The City shade that I have been admiring for a while, but the whole set cost eur 6 (!). So naturally I decided to buy the set. Usually you can get only one polish for eur 6 from BeautyPro, I don't know the retail price.

Some Ardell falsies have also crept to the picture. Eur 4 each. Haven't got to try them yet, but they're said to be the best ones, so I'm curious to try.

That's all for now. If you want to see some swatches, please ask. I'm going to do another post on hair care products and makeup bought from the trade show soon. Needless to say I'm ridiculously happy with my trade show haul and am looking for the next year!

Sincerely Yours,

Tolmu Rull

For my lovely Estonian beauties:  

Selline on minu ilumessi haul :) Päris suur, mis?

Oktoober on iluostude mõttes eriti kreisi aeg, sest lisaks ilumessile on Osturalli ja Hullud päevad, kus on alati palju kosmeetikat soodsamalt. Mujalgi on tohutult soodukaid ja eripakkumisi, põhimõtteliselt vist igas endast lugu pidavas kosmeetikapoes, niiet rahakotid värisege! Ja kui sellest ei piisa, siis kuu keskel toimub Helsingis soomlaste ilumess Kauneus & Terveys :P

See on üks päris suur haul ja kõiki tooteid pole veel jõudnud põhjalikult proovida, seepärast jagan peamiselt esmamuljeid. Selles postituses vaid küünelakid, aga tulekul on ka teine postitus ülejäänud ostudest. Kui meeles olid, panin ka hinnad juurde, et näeksite oma silmaga, et mess on iluostudeks hea koht.

Ma ei hakka kogu teksti uuesti eesti keeles kirjutama, vast saate nimedest ja hindadest ka inglisekeelses versioonis aru. Kui kellelegi jääb midagi segaseks, siis küsige kommentaarides!

Siiralt teie,

Tolmu Rull

Beauty trade show Ilu Sõnum 2011: a review

Kui hoolega vaatate, leiate pildilt ka China Glaze holograafilisi küünelakke... Pilt tehtud  Christelle Cosmetics'i boksis. Savima näib olema mingi China Glaze'i knockoff.

The last weekend there was a beauty trade show Ilu Sõnum 2011 held in Tallinn.

Going to the beauty fair is a yearly tradition for me. I think I have been doing this for more than 10 years already, maybe missing a yer or two. I'll be honest – I go mainly for beauty bargains and free samples. I have managed to find something good each year and wasn't entirely disappointed this year too. In fact, I did a huge haul, that I'll show you later.

There were more than 200 companies present, mostly from Estonia, but from Latvia, Lihtuania, Finland, Italy and Germany as well. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of professional and high end makeup products, but fortunately there were a lot of nail and hair products to choose from.

Üks punub, teine maiustab... Mess on karm koht.

All in all, I didn't enjoy this year's trade show much. I did my shopping and was out of there in an hour and a half.

I was wondering by myself about the beauty trade shows in Helsinki and Riga. Are they worth visiting? Are there a lot of bargains? Any other tips or suggestions?

Yours Truly,

Tolmu Rull

For my lovely Estonian ladies:

Siin siis minupoolne arvustus ilumessi kohta. Ilumessil käimine on mul igasügisene traditsioon, mis on kestnud juba päris pikka aega. Esimest korda sattusin ilumessile üle 10 aasta tagasi :) Messil huvitavad mind eelkõige sooduspakkumised ja tasuta näidised. Ütlen kohe ära, et viimastega oli tänavu suhteliselt kehvasti – ainukesteks tasuta näidisteks jäid mul messiväravas saadud müslipakk ja paar SpaRituali käteleotusvedeliku sämplit, mille sain ostuga kaasa. Ma saan aru, et näidiste jagamine on kulukas, aga kord aastas messil ikkagi ju võiks, sest seal liigub kõige iluhuvilisem publik. Enne masu jagasid mitmed firmad näidiseid ja isegi mullusel messil paistis näiteks Dermoshop sellega silma … Oh, well.

Aeroobikakuninganna valimine.

Messil pakutavatesse teenustesse ma tavaliselt süveneda ei viitsi ja võistlusi jälgida ka eriti mitte. Iluhoolduste tarbimiseks on messil minu arvates liiga vähe privaatsust,eelistan hubasemat õhkkonda.

Tavaliselt kiirustan ma messile kohe kui see reede hommikul avatakse. Mõnel aastal olen käinud kõigil kolmel päeval. Tasuta sissepääsu rõõmud :) Sel aastal jõudsin aga messile napid kolm tundi enne messi sulgemist pühapäeval. Rahvast oli palju sellele vaatamata, kuid osa kaupu, näiteks Tigi ökosarja šampoonid, kahjuks juba otsas ja müüjadki uimasevõitu.

Suurim pettumus oli, et meigitooteid oli ikka väga vähe ja minu jaoks üsna ebahuvitavatelt brändidelt. Meiki ja pintsleid oleksin tahtnud messil oluliselt rohkem näha, näiteks tundsin puudust leedukate Erdesa'st, mille pintsleid võib võrrelda Paris Berlin'i omadega, kuid hinna poolest on need palju odavamad. Erilisi meigisoodukaid peale Palladio ka silma ei hakanud. Näiteks kui TheBalm oleks teatud tooteid allahindlusega pakkunud, oleksin vägagi huviline olnud.

Juuksehooldusvahendeid ja küünelakke leidus selle eest rohkelt ja mõnusalt soodsa hinnaga Sellist juhust ei saanud ju kasutamata jätta ja nüüd on hea varu uusi jällegi olemas :)

Juuksehoolduse osas on minu lemmikud Tigi erinevad sarjad. Üks oluline põhjus messile minna on, et SalonPlus pakub neid messil 50 – 80% soodsamalt, tänavu vist juba kolmandat aastat järjest. Küll aga jälestan salonpluslaste üliagressiivset müügipoliitikat. Ma ei saa ju vaadatagi, mis tooted neil pakkumises on ja millise hinnaga, kui iga 20 sekundi tagant keegi mulle juurde kargab ja müügijuttu alustab. Brr... lisaks ostsin mullu ühe juuksuri soovitusel šampooni ja palsami, mis mulle ABSOLUUTSELT ei sobi. Ära tule soovitama, kui sa tooteid ei tunne, eks! Usun, et omal käel oleksin etema valiku teinud.

Teiste messiteemalisi postitusi vaadates on natuke kahju, et ma paremini ei tutvunud TradeHouse stendiga. Mis teha, kui SalonPlusis ostlemine nii võhmale võtab, et muude juuksetoodete jaoks enam silmi ei jää :( Minu kogemused TradeHouse pakutava Inebrya Ice Cream sarjaga on seni olnud head ja ma tahan sealt veel asju proovida.

Lõpetuseks üks naljaka sonksiga meesjuuksur.

Heade pakkumistega paistab messil alati silma BeautyPro, kust ma igal aastal midagi soetan. Peab ütlema, et BeautyPro teenindusega olen küll väga rahul – lahked ja sõbralikud tüdrukud, aga mitte liiga pealetükkivad.

Üldiselt ei erutanud tänavune mess mind eriti. Ei teagi, kas asi oli selles, et minu harjumus veebis šopata annab liigagi avara võimaluse kosmeetikat soetada või polnud mul lihtsalt messituju. Igal juhul pole ma juba aastaid ilumessil nii lühidalt viibinud. Poolteist tundi ja korras. Seepärast pole eriti ka pilte.

Nüüd sai küll pikk jutt :) Eks järgmine aasta jälle messile, siis on hea muljeid võrrelda. Kogu haulist, eriti Tigi Love Peace Planet sarja toodetest teen kindlasti eraldi postituse ka.

Siiralt Teie,

Tolmu Rull

Now I am one of the Naked girls too!

I liked Urban Decay's Naked palette the moment I saw the first pictures of it. I'm always on the lookout for some good neutral shadows, as I wear these the most.

But Urban Decay is not sold in Estonia and the only way to get it online was on eBay at a horrific price. I gave up the search, thinking that all that trouble is simply not worth it. It is only a bunch of neutral shadows after all. Besides, several other skin-themed palettes of neutrals started to appear quickly. I thought I might be as well off getting one of these instead of the Naked, but an itch remained. Somewhere deep inside I knew I wanted the Real Thing. The Holy Grail. The One to Rule Them All. The Naked.

A lot of time passed and some time in August Lookfantastic announced that the palettes are back in stock. The only difference being that the eyeliners of the original edition were replaced with a brush. I didn't grab the palette quickly enough and in a few days they were sold out again. Boo!

Fortunately shortly after HQHair got the palettes too and there was even a 15 % off discount going on when I discovered them from HQHair. When my palette arrived, my heart sank, because the box was damaged. Luckily my precious palette was intact inside, except a small dent on the plastic box.

I'm not unhappy about getting the brush edition of Naked. I figure I have a lot of liners and can always buy them separately, but could really use a good brush. Since it's a synthetic brush I plan to use it with cream eyeshadows, not Naked.

The colors in this palette are just as amazing, smooth and well-pigmented as a lot of beauty bloggers have already told you. So I'm quite pleased with my Naked and happy that I decided to get it!

I paid 34.25 euros for my Naked. The delivery is free worldwide at HQHair.

Yours Truly,
Tolmu Rull

For my lovely Estonian ladies:

Nüüd olen ka mina lõpuks ometi Urban Decay Naked lauvärvipaleti õnnelik omanik. Ootasin mis ma ootasin, jõudsin ära oodata, millal sain selle tellida ilma eBay šaakalitele lõivu maksmata. Ehkki vahepeal mõtlesin, et ma ei hakkagi seda paletti ostma, ei suutnud ma ikka vastu panna ja tellisin selle endale HQHair'ist. Tegu on siis paleti uuema väljaandega, kus silmapliiatsite asemel on sünteetilistest karvadest pintsel. Selle vastu pole mul midagi, sest pintsel on korraliku kvaliteediga ja ma usun, et sellega on väga mõnus kreemjaid lauvärve peale kanda. Primer Potioni ei ole veel proovinud, aga kindlasti katsetan ka seda kultustoodet huviga.

Kvaliteedilt on Nakedi värvid täpselt nii head, nagu igas teises ilublogis kuulutatakse. Kokkuvõttes on mul Nakedi soetamise üle hea meel ja see on igati oma hinda väärt.

Minu palett läks maksma 34.25, sest sain 15 % soodukat. Praegu näib, et Naked on veidi kallimaks läinud: paleti täishind on hetkel HQHair'is 43.98. Aga soodukaid on neil päris sageli, seega tasub silm peal hoida.


Siiralt Teie,
Tolmu Rull

Another (and much better!) brazilian bikini wax

I think this cat has just had a bad brazilian :) 

Long time, no see. I know, I owe you this review or a long time already, but due to unexpected circumstances I had to postpone both the wax and the review for some time. But here it is.

The cat's picture I stole from here.

For my second brazilian bikini wax I went to a salon called Kamibi. It is a somewhat funny African themed beauty salon in Tallinn. A piece of the interior looks like this:

This picture I stole from here.

This time I didn't prepare myself much, as I knew it's not so bad. I was mentally ready for some pain and discomfort though.

When I got to the salon, I was led to the procedure room accompanied by the waxer Kadri.

To be honest, the room looked a bit shabby and bare, with an artificial palm for hanging your overclothes and a big giraffe painting on the wall. The waxer locked the door and started to wash her hands and prepare the tools.

It felt somewhat uncomfortable to undress in front of the waxer, but what the hell. I was given no disposable thong either, I had to climb to the waxing table butt naked. While doing this, I noticed that the towel the table was covered with looked not so clean and new and there was no disposable paper cover on the table. Hmm.

I don't care much about the disposable thong, it doesn't give you any real coverage as the waxer has to pull and tug it away all the time anyway. It is more of a disturbance to the waxer's work than a protection to your modesty. But I feel I deserve a clean bed and a clean towel.

Kadri covered me with another towel, asked me to bend one leg to the side, sprayed some Cutasept and talcum powder on me and began. She used Sukar products.

Guess what? The whole thing was over in about 20 minutes. I couldn't believe it at first.

Kadri was really quick and skillful with the whole thing and while I felt some minor discomfort and a startling feeling when she was doing the most sensitive spots, I can't say I felt any real pain. She didn't ask me to pull my skin with my own hands either and did it all by herself, shifting the towel and occasionally asking me to change positions.

She was very thorough and achieved a really clean and nice result with barely any redness and swelling and no sticky feeling afterwards. It even made me grin, when she was eyeing my bikini design like an artist would look at the painting to make sure it was all perfect.

On the other hand, she was not wearing any rubber gloves during the procedure. That made me a little uncomfortable too, because there is a possibility of some nasty diseases spreading. I'm not completely sure spraying Cutasept to the hands and the client's privates helps. I think I shall ask about it next time.

It is really true what has been said many times about the bikini waxes: the first time is the worst and it gets only better every next time. And as I found out on my own, khm, skin, the experienced waxer is very important as well. Kadri said she has been in the body waxing business for 16 years and doing the brazilians for 10 years. That's some experience, right? She was really astonished to hear that my first bikini wax took 1,5 painful hours!

While I'm still on the fence about all the hygiene requirements being followed completely in Kamibi salon, I think it was still a good waxing experience. In fact, with the clean towels and gloves it would have been nearly perfect. I would not recommend Ingli Roos salon for bikini waxes any more  (see my previous review here), although the salon looked a bit fancier.

I think the morals of this story are: be very careful about choosing the beauty salon. I think it goes for the Estonian salon scene in general, not only for brazilians.

The brazilian at Kamibi costs 27 euros, I got it for half price, as I had a pre-paid voucher. If you think about the clean feeling, the comfort of being virtually hair free for weeks and the cost of good razors nowadays, even the full price it's not that expensive.

No pictures this time either :P If you wonder, what design did I get, it's called the Landing Strip (see here).

Sincerely Yours,

Tolmu Rull

For my lovely Estonian ladies:

Teist korda käisin brasiilia vahatamist tegemas salongis Kamibi. Seekordne kogemus oli eelmisest palju parem – kõik oli valmis ligikaudu 20 minutiga, valus polnud peaaegu üldse ja erilist punetust pärast protseduuri ka mitte. Seega supertöö Kadrilt, kes oma sõnutsi on tavalist vahatamist teinud kuusteist ja brasiilia soenguid juba kümme aastat!

Samas ei saa öelda, et kõik oleks olnud perfektne. Olen selle salongi suhtes kahtleval seisukohal, sest ruumike, kus protseduur läbi viidi, polnud just kõige hubasem, käterätik protseduurilaual polnud ka just kõige puhtam ja vahataja ei kandnud kummikindaid. Tunnistan, et ma päris täpselt ei pannud tähele, kas ta laotas selle rätiku lauale minu jaoks või see juba oli seal enne. Kahtlustan siiski viimast, sest pärast protseduuri silus ta räti taas sirgeks, mitte ei võtnud kohe ära ega visanud pesukorvi. Ma saan aru, et vautšerikampaania oli ja kliente on palju, aga ikkagi...

Minu jaoks on see paras mõttekoht, sest mingeid haigusi ilusalongist ma küll saada ei taha. Kuidas teie arvate, kas tasuks vaatamata neile kitsaskohtadele uuesti minna?

Ingli Roosi salongi ma vahatamiseks küll enam ei soovita, sealne kosmeetik oli Kadriga võrreldes tõeline kobakäpp. Teen täpsustuse ka oma eelmisesse arvustusse.

Brasiilia vahatamise hind on Kamibis 27 euri (suht sama, mis mujal salongides), mina sain vautšeriga poole odavamalt.

Siiralt Teie,

Tolmu Rull