Empties: summer 2012. Part 2

Now when the summer is really-really over and done with in Northern hemisphere and autumn has arrived, it's high time to do part with my summer empties. Here's the second part I promised a while ago (see the first part here). BTW, I've been suffering from the first true cold of this autumn for the whole weekend: slurping down some spicy chicken soup, while trying to stay warm and covered :(

OK, down to business, let's get this one done, so I could concentrate on better news next week.

• Purexin Garlic shampoo. We brought this from Turkey last spring. My hubby used up the most of it, but I did get a few tries. My frequent readers must know my love for kitchen-related beauty stuff by now :) It was a fairly decent shampoo (no actual garlic smell whatsoever!), but obscenely expensive and no need to mention, hard almost impossible to buy in Estonia. Since I have no special memories of it, no repurchase. (I used a lot of 'no'-s in these last sentences. Umm... the point remains the same, but I must contain myself, otherwise my reviews are going to be a lot like something you can read from certain books beginning with the word  'Fifty'). 
• Tigi Love Peace & The Planer Eco Awesome Shampoo and Conditioner. Whoa! These have been my greatest love in hair cleaning & conditioning since I laid my eyes on them. They totally deserve a review of their own! I've purchased these again in bigger sizes already and they are being loved by our whole family. Let's just say these are pure goodness in bottles. Don't remember the excact prices, but if you are familiar with Tigi range, then you'll know they're not the cheapest ones around, but not the most priciest either. 

• Avon  Senses Waterfall Shower Gel. I loved this too! Avon Senses is a nice range of shower gels, you've probably seen some of them here before. I love them for their smell, but must mention they're rather thin & watery, therefore go fast. I loved Waterfall for it's turquoise colour and great unisex smell of fresh waters. Paid 3.90 euros for it and shall probably repurchase. 
• Lancome Aroma Tonic Body Lotion. Another great love of mine!  I loved-loved-loved the scent of it! I've been saving it a while, using only a little at a time. To my knowledge, it's discontinued by now, so no hope for a repurchase. It's gone and dearly missed by me. If i could repurchase, I would.

• Australian Gold Intimidation solarium cream. Yep, I do visit tanning booth's from time to time, because a person needs a break from endless rains from time to time. I loved the cooling effect of this cream. The tube was huge, took a while to use up, but it was all good. 
• Sally Hansen Airbrush Sun self tanner. I got this as a GWP and totally hated it! The smell was obnoxious and application very patchy. And don't even get me started on the orangey skin tone and damage to the ozone layers it left behind! 
• Lush Cupcake Fresh Face mask. Not my first one of these, see review here.
• Lumene Arctic Aqua 24h Balancing Moisturiser. I was on the fence with this. I mean, I totally love Lumene and I like light face moisturisers, but this one was a brat. It completely sunk in to my skin, but after a few hours my face turned really oily & shiny, especially if I used some foundation on top. I liked it's slightly marine smell, but I can't give top grades on moisturising... I think there are better ones out there (this is my politically correct comment if I don't want to say that I'm outright disappointed with something). 

• Ambray Nail Polish Remover and Avon Individual Blue Ladies Scent. These are the beauty school drop outs this time. The nail polish remover didn't remove much, so it was gone in a jiffy, but Individual Blue was totally another matter. In spite of being a popular ladies scent, I hated it, so I mostly used it to scare off my evil cat from biting my shins at nighttime and to freshen the toilet. Glad they're both gone! 

After staying on the empties project for about 9 months now, I noticed today some more unexpected free space in my bathroom cabinet. Yay! On that happy note, over and out.

Yours Truly,

Tolmu Rull

For my lovely Estonian ladies:

Järjekordne osa tühjade potsikute projektist. Heas mõttes on kõige märkimisväärsemad on Tigi Eco Awesome shampoon ja palsam, millest ehk kunagi jõuan põhjalikumalt kirjutada, ja Lancome kehakreem, mida ma väga armastasin, kuid paraku sai seegi lõpuks otsa. Nüüd lähen voodisse oma nohust nina nuuskama ja loodan, et selle sügise esimene külmetushaigus jääb ka viimaseks. Loota ju ikka võib, eks?

Siiralt teie,

Tolmu Rull

Empties: winter 2012

Although I have not been very consistant with posting my empties project, I have still dutyfully collected them in the past month. By now, a big paper bag is almost full and annoyingly getting on my way all the time. So expect to see a lot more of empties soon :)

These empties were used up by me sometime during the winter months and although the bottles and tubes and their contents is long gone, the pictures are still waiting to be posted.

While it's not exactly "winter" here any more, the summer has completely failed to install this year. So why not to review some winter-y products?

Let's get a more detailed view of what I've used up.

• Make up remover wipes by ByPhasse and Alverde – both are cheap face wipes (around 2 euros or so) that worked fine. Still, no re-buy probably.

• The Body Shop Basil Purifying Mask – Ooh, this was a HG mask! I have already told you, how much I adore when vegetables and herbs are used in cosmetics. Basil is one of my favourite herbs and this mask smelt divine for me! It was that type of mask that doesn't go hard on your face and rather had a cooling & refreshing effect on the skin than deeply purifying one. I'd buy again in a heartbeat, but TBS doesn't offer this mask any more.

• Puhas Loodus (Pure Nature) deeply purifying scrub with microbeads & apple extract – Although the products of Puhas Loodus are far from being pure and ecological, I liked it. It was a good, cheap ( I think around 4-5 euros) & effective face scrub with very fine beads and a subtle apple scent. I'll probably buy again sometime.  

•  Avon Anew Pure O2 Oxygenating Youth Complex – Yuk! This day cream was way too greasy and did nothing for my skin. I struggled hard to use it up! 

• Lumene Matt Touch cleanser & toner – While Lumene is one of my favourite cosmetics companies, these Matt Touch products were not the best I have tried from them. Mainly because they didn't mattify my skin much and the toner contained alcohol. I know they have reformulated the product and I hope new version is much better. A repurchase? Maybe.

• Lactacyd Femina Intimate Wash – A girl's gotta have at least one product for every region of her body, right? :P One of the best intimate washes around. 'Nuff said.

• Alverde Naturkosmetik Herbal toothpaste -- It was an emergency buy from Germany. I didn't like it's taste too much, so I'm happy our ways have parted. Don't care it was vegan and everything.

• L'Oreal Paris Shine & Gloss duo -- I don't know why it was called shine & gloss duo, while it was simply a lipliner & lipstick duo in a pencil form :S Still, it was a nice nude hue for my skintone and I was quite sad when it came to it's end. A good nude lipliner is harder to find than you'd think. The double ended pencil packaging sucked, because a lot went to waste with sharpening and I had to throw quite a lot of product away because it became impossible to sharpen in the end. 

• Dove Summer Glow Moisturiser -- This self-tanning moisturiser has been praised by many beauty bloggers and I'm no exception. Normal to dark skin version gave a very nice brownish hue to my light skin and I liked the initial shimmer effect too. This was not my first bottle and I have already bought the same product again.

• Dove Colour Care shampoo – Just an ordinary drugstore shampoo, nothing much to say.

Weirdly, this time around I managed to use up a lot of products I'd actually buy again for several reasons. Not bad, I think.

Yours Truly,
Tolmu Rull

For my lovely Estonian ladies:


Tühjad potsikud ja tuubid eelmisest talvest. Loomulikult on see ärakasutatud kraam säilinud ainult piltide ja mälestuste näol, aga kui juba suvi sel aastal tulemata jäänud on, siis miks mitte talvist kraami meenutada, eks? Ülaltoodud kraamist soovitaksin eelkõige Puhta Looduse õunaga koorimiskreemi, Dove isepruunistajat ja Lactacydi intiimpesugeeli. The Body Shopi basiilikumaski ostaksin ka kohe uuesti, kuid minu suureks kurvastuseks seda enam ei valmistata ega müüda :(


Siiralt teie,
Tolmu Rull

Food for your skin. Lush fresh face masks review

I find it very hard to walk by a Lush shop without going in and getting at least a peek of the sweet-smelling products. Their fresh face masks were on my radar for a long time already, but it took a while to get round trying them.

Finally, in May I managed to take part in one of Lush's fresh face mask making workshops in their Tallinn shop. We were given the ready measured ingredients and in an hour we had learned how to make a fresh face mask and Angels On Bare Skin facial cleanser (separate post to come!). Then the freshly made products were divided into little black Lush containers and we could take these home for free! Besides that, the kind Lush people gave us some generous samples of other fresh masks, scrubs, creams, etc. So my acquaintance with the Lush fresh face masks began.

What are the fresh face masks? According to Lush, these face masks are made weekly in Lush kitchens, using fresh fruit, veggies, deep cleansing clays, nutrient rich herbs and effective essential oils. They are said to be “food” for the skin. The masks are kept completely preservative-free, that's why you need to store them in the fridge. The concept reminds me of those natural homemade beauty treatments our grandmothers used to pamper themselves with – cucumber slices for the eyes, oatmeal mix for the face, egg yolk for the hair and so on. Only the fresh masks use more expensive and not so common ingredients than our grannies used to :)

They are used as usual face masks: applied on clean skin avoiding the eyes, left on for approximately ten minutes and washed off with water.

The mask we got to make at the workshop was Catastrophe Cosmetic, their most popular fresh face mask. It is said to be calming, freshening, softening and deep cleansing. It contains calamine powder (zinc oxide in another words), talc, fresh blueberries, glycerine and several essential oils. (If you want to find out the exact ingredients and what they are good for, check the links.) Making it was very simple: the blueberries were crushed and then all the ingredients were mixed together well, forming a thick paste.

Catastrophe Cosmetics is not the average harsh purifying mask. The mask feels very soft and smooth on the skin, probably because of the calamine and talc. When it dries on your skin, it begans to crumble off somewhat. The result is exactly like promised – skin feels refreshed, toned and soft afterwards. I'm not sure it helps to heal the pimples as zinc oxide should, but I guess it does. The mask has a faint fresh smell, nothing overpowering.

Overall it is a good product, if you want something versatile and not too drying. I was a bit bothered about big blueberry chunks in it that kept falling off the face, I think the berries should be pureed better or something, but that is this mask's only fault.

Cupcake is a real treat for choco lovers. The deep brown chocolatey-smelling mask contains rhassoul mud, linseed infusion, real cocoa powder and cocoa butter, fresh mint and several essential oils. It deep cleanses the skin, absorbs impurirties and gently scrubs the skin. 

Cupcake was created especially for teenagers, but suits all others too. This is so far one of my favourites for the great smell and purifying but not moisture-stripping action. Funny, but it's deep brown colour does not look off-putting or indecent to me. Maybe because it reminds me of cookie batter, not sewage :)

Ayesha is my other favourite, nothing short of HG status. This is meant for perking up somewhat more mature skins, no age limit though. It is especially good if you want to look your best for a party or some kind of other important event. It makes your skin look brighter and smoother, tightens, refreshes and gives your skin this extra glow and smooth appearance. It really works! I even feel if I use Ayesha before doing my face it makes makeup application easier and smoother.

Ayesha contains fuller's earth (a kind of clay), honey, elderflower, fresh asparagus (one of my favourite veggies!), fresh kiwies and a lot of other things. It looks and smells like some kind of dirt, but it really does miracles to your skin. Recommended!

I have tried Love Lettuce and Cosmetic Warrior masks from Lush too. I can't show you the pictures, as I only had a sample of each and will buy neither in full size. Love Lettuce didn't really have any effects on me. It felt a little bit too grainy, but not well exfoliating at the same time. Weird.

Cosmetic Warrior was outright offputting, I would say the worst of the bunch! It hated it's weird garlick-y smell and hu-uuuge chunks of garlic in the mask that kept falling off my cheeks. I would even say it irritated my skin a bit and would not recommend this to anyone (or maybe only in the case if you need to keep the vampires away :)).

The masks cost eur 7.50 for 75 g. Mask pots last about ten applications for me, even if applied generously. They all are suitable for vegans and not tested on animals (of course!) There are four other fresh masks in Lush range, I'm going to try them as soon as the others run out.

If you want to try these masks or the cleanser without committing to buy, ask the Lush people for a sample. They give out generous samples willingly!

Yours Truly,

Tolmu Rull

For my lovely Estonian beauties:

Olen tahtnud juba ammu Lushi värskeid, säilitusaineteta näomaske proovida. Kevadel osalesin Tallinna Lushi poes maskitegemise töötoas ja avaneski võimalus värskete maskide maailmaga tutvuda (vihje: kui Lush uuesti selliseid töötubasid korraldama peaks, minge! On põnev ja saab palju infot ning tasuta näidiseid).

Värsketest maskidest soovitan eelkõige puhastavat-koorivat Cupcake'i maski, mis on šokolõhnaline ja mõeldud teismeliste ning noorte nahale. Vanusepiiri õnneks pole :) Teine suur lemmik on Ayesha, mis on pinguldava-toniseeriva toimega ja mõeldud jume värskendamiseks enne pidu või ka lihtsalt niisama. Lushi kõige popim mask, värskendav ja puhastav Catastrophe Cosmetics pole ka paha.

Cosmetic Warrior'ist ja Love Lettuce'st hoiaksin pigem eemale. Ei täheldanud mingit mõju ja Warriori lõhn ja suured pudenevad küüslaugutükid näol on lihtsalt jälgid. Sädelevaid vampiiripoisse pole lootustki võluda kui sellist maski kasutad :P

Lushi poest läbi astudes ärge häbenege maskinäidiseid küsida. Oht uusi lemmikuid leida on suur! Vahepeal olid värsked maskid Eestist otsas, aga nüüd jälle olemas.

Kahjuks sulges Lush alates 1. novembrist oma Tartu poe, aga selle-eest saab värskeid näomaske talvekuudel Lush.ee-st ka neti teel tellida. Tavaliselt neid netist tellida ei saa, sest hoiutingimused pole tagatud ning maskid võivad rikneda – värskeid maske tuleb nimelt säilitada külmikus. 

Siiralt Teie,

Tolmu Rull