.
Zoya Loredana on ALL of the nails and then Wet n’ Wild Shield (231) over the ring finger nail for a metallic shine and contrast.
This is the first time I’ve really left the matte gray on for awhile and I wanted to note that because I can’t put a top coat on this, it REALLY doesn’t last nearly as long as the glossy colors.
Has anyone used any matte top coats like Essie’s “Matte About You”? What do you think about them? Does your nail polish last as long without chipping with it on?
While still fun, I’m less excited about it this month.
Two words: dimethicone and fragrance.
Almost everything I got has dimethicone in it which makes me break out. Now you might be thinking “you don’t put hair product on your face” but trust me, anytime I put it on my hair, my hair touches my face and I again break out. I’m just over trying anything with dimethicone because even expensive products with this ingredient break me out. I keep watching hair tutorials with gorgeous silky hair and inevitably they use some serum with, yup, dimethicone (usually Frizz Ease.) The painful kind of zits, not just the ugly kind. I really wanted to try the Laura Geller bronzing primer too. 🙁 But I’ll pass.
As for fragrance … really do I need to cover this one? Allergies, toxins, overpowering scent. At least the Ahava hand cream was overpowering even in the tube.
The one item I’m looking forward to trying is the “Sunday Riley Modern Skincare Juno Transformative Lipid Serum.” Amazing ingredient list. Tried a little on my hand and it’s clearly good stuff but a little … hippie smelling. And natural products don’t need to smell … hippie. I really have no better word for it. No not patchouli hippie, it’s just not exactly bad but it’s not exactly good smelling either. I don’t want them to add fragrance, no way, but I’ll be spraying my homemade lavender spray on my face to see if that helps.
Serum INGREDIENTS: Acai seed oil, Argan oil, Black Cumin seed oil, Blackberry seed oil, Blueberry seed oil, Broccoli seed oil, Carrot seed oil, Chardonnay Grape seed oil, Cranberry seed oil, Marula oil, Meadowfoam seed oil, Pomegranate seed oil, Red Raspberry seed oil.
At $125 a pop (30 ml) I probably won’t be buying this puppy unless it also fixes me coffee in the morning but the 5ml sample might last awhile. Hey never say never. If I can suddenly get less redness, more even skintone and not need foundation I’d consider it.
It’s still exciting to get something fun to sort through and that serum sample alone is worth the price of the box. I guess I just wish this were a more natural selection of products that I could really dive into more.
Full disclosure: The folks over at Anastasia sent me a lipgloss to try and review. I still believe in giving an honest review even if a product was given to me so here goes.
Anastasia of Beverly Hills
HydraFull Lip Gloss
Paraben Free | Hypoallergenic | Dermatologist Tested
http://anastasia.net/
Price: $21.00
The color is a little brighter than pictured here – it’s hard to get a pic with the metallic lettering. “Sorbet” really looks like a raspberry sorbet in the tube.
First the good:
Applied to my hand I thought “how in the world is this ever going to look good on me, my skin doesn’t do pinks well… man this looks bright for me and I’m not going to be able to wear this out of the house.” Lets say I was a little worried.
But on my lips it gave them a nice pop that I thought “ok, maybe not everyday but it looks good.” Enough shine, a little color.
To me it looked a little more pink than in my photo below but not as bright as the photo above. I applied lightly and then rubbed my lips together to even it out which brings me to my next comment. (Photo was taken in the car with true daylight.)
I know that some people like or prefer what I’m going to call the “spackel applicator.” You know, the wand with the little plastic tip instead of the fuzzy one. I personally prefer the fuzzy tip applicators and hate trying to use the spackel type. I’m not holding the applicator against it though especially after what I did next.
I decided to experiment… yup I took it apart.
A trip to Sally Beauty and I had spent about $4 on some wands with the fuzzy tips. First try I tried to twist one out but that didn’t work because they’re glued in so I tried cracking the acrylic with a pair of pliers. That worked. The spackel tip in the Anastasia gloss pulled with a little tug and I popped in the new fuzzy tip.
So lets talk about how this lipgloss wears. If you’ve ever worn Mac’s Lipglass or Zuzu Luxe / Gabriel Cosmetics lipgloss I would say the Anastasia Hydragloss feels about the same as these and wears about the same amount of time. This means compared to drugstore brands it’s that little bit extra sticky and stays on a bit longer. It’s still a lipgloss though and doesn’t stay around forever so you’re going to want to throw it in your purse and reapply a couple of times during the day. Also like the Zuzu Luxe it has a nice moisturizing affect.
Now for the bad:
I had high hopes when I looked over the ingredient list because at a glance it looked pretty good. But I popped the list into the Cosmetics Database to get a better idea (it wasn’t a product they already had listed.) Lower is healthier.
Retail Price:
Just to be fair I’m going to break it down to price per fluid ounce here.
** I know that some of the difference is the thickness of the walls on the tube for Anastasia but if you look at them side by side I can’t see how Anastasia would have less than the Mac LipGlass or Zuzu Luxe. IF Anastasia’s Hydragloss is .17oz like the Mac Lipglass then it’s $123.51/oz which still makes it the most expensive of the bunch but it’s a LOT closer to what I expected.
BOTTOM LINE:
Would I buy it? Probably not because there are healthier options. Even if Anastasia’s lipgloss were cheaper I would still pick Zuzu Luxe and Gabriel Cosmetics lipgloss because healthier is MY priority. I no longer buy Mac Lipglass either.
Is it a high quality lipgloss? Yes, I do think it’s good and I do think that it’s a bit better than the Mac Lipglass because it’s more moisturizing than the Mac.
This is my first BirchBox and it’s also the first anniversary of the company.
In my box:
Here’s a list of all the products they sent out: http://www.birchbox.com/shop/september-box
2 products I got do not have their ingredients listed on the website:
- ColorScience Pro Sunforgettable SPF 30
This didn’t have the ingredients listed so I had to email the company. It took extra effort to find their contact info but they were super fast to respond.
Active Ingredients: Micronized Titanium Dioxide (12%), Micronized Zinc Oxide (12%) Inactive Ingredients: Mica, Dimethicone/Vinyldimethicone Crosspolymer, Corallina Officinalis, Calcium Silicate May Contain: Iron Oxides, Titanium Dioxide, Dimethicone.
This ingredient list is actually pretty good and healthy. However I have noticed I break out more when I use anything with a “cone” in the name so Dimethicone is out for me personally. I’ll be using this in part of a bigger giveaway soon.- Salvatore Ferragamo Parfums Attimo L’eau FloraleIngredients: Alcohol Denat. (sd alcohol 39-C), Aqua (Water), Parfum (fragrance), Benzyl salicylate, Butylphenyl methylpropional, butyl methoxydibibenzoylmethan, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, limonene, hydroxycitronellal, ethylhexyl, linalool, isoeugenol, geraniol, citral benzyl alcohol, cinnamyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate.
I think I typed all of that correctly. Here’s what I got from the cosmetics database for this (click to enlarge):
Which makes me wish they had sent me the natural perfume that’s on the site (LIV GRN C2C) instead of the Ferragamo. I listed that I was interested in natural products so I’m really unsure how this trumped the natural perfume for my box.And a couple of additional comments:
- The Julique Rose Hand Cream feels wonderful … but rose usually makes me sneeze. Since I’ve worked a lot on my allergies it just now makes my nose curl (if that’s possible.) If you love rose this is something you should really try though.
- And then the Jouer Lip Treatment has three kinds of Parabens: ISOPROPYLPARABEN, ISOBUTYLPARABEN, BUTYLPARABEN
Le sigh.
So what am I left with? Well I sprayed the Ferragamo once despite the ingredients so I did try it. Wasn’t impressed at all. I did in fact try the Julique just because it’s been so long since I tried anything with rose in it that I was no longer sure if I wouldn’t be able to tolerate it. If it weren’t for the scent it would be awesome.Which leaves me with having tried and not liked two items, and there are two items I won’t be trying and then there are the nails. Probably not healthy but it’s a one off and I’m going to try them.
And OMG – the Incoco is three free! Does Incoco Contain Any Formaldehyde, DBP (Dibutyl Phthalate) Or Toluene? No, Incoco nail polish appliques are three-free!Ok now I want their: French manicure in champagne, and the french tips as well as Patterns in: “Suit Up”, “Crème de la Crème”, or “Ballerina Princess.” Let’s see how long this stuff lasts on my nails since I type a lot. I may be buying some more!
Will I get another BirchBox? Yup. It’s fun. And it’s worth the $10 to get to try a few things even if I’m not happy with the whole shabang. If however they start sending no natural items and natural items are listed regularly for that months box I’ll probably cancel because natural trumps everything else for me.
Oh great – I think the perfume is making my cat crazy – time to go wash that off before he attacks my arm.
* * *
Quickly playing with the zebra incoco with zoya loredana and the birchbox bracelet (click to enlarge)
Does anyone know of a healthier alternative (without talc) to Guerlain Météorites Powder For The Face? I really want to try something similar to this. Multi-color, illuminating, flaw correcting colors… ideas? Leave them in the comments below!
http://www.everydayminerals.com/store/face-natural-reflections-summer-bronze.html
I got this to compare to Everyday Minerals “Raw Sugar” since they don’t carry that anymore and it’s my staple bronzer. Often bronzers will look either too pink or too yellow or too muddy on me (no matter how light I try and apply them.) The Summer Bronze is “ok” … I’m not amazed and in love but it’s better than nothing and it does NOT look too yellow or too pink.
In fact it will probably work pretty well for the summer because it has a hint of pink to it and I’m spending more time outside so I may need a little more contrast.
I took a lot of photos so you can see it in different lights as well as compared to the Everyday Minerals medium beige foundation (in pics above.)
“Natural Reflections Summer Bronze” on LEFT and “Raw Sugar” on the RIGHT side of my hand. Pics inside and in direct light. The Summer Bronze does not have any shimmer which some people will probably like.
Everyday Minerals is becoming this horrible love hate relationship for me, I find something I love so much it becomes an staple item I use daily and bam, they stop carrying it. First the pressed powder, then the bronzer.
Right now this bronzer is only $4.50 for the full size so I expect this to go out of stock like anything else I like.
And a quick note on the foundation, I previously posted EM’s response about no longer having the pressed powder (though they “say” they’re planning on bringing it back, I just don’t think that’s likely anymore.) I bought both matte and semi-matte powders to try. I can’t use either individually, I really do have to mix them to get the right coverage and color for me which is really frustrating.
EM used to sell mixing containers … I need that because I don’t have any empty sifters and it’s a pain to open two different screw top containers each morning for one simple task. I really like their close-able sifter covers.
Anyone have any spare empty EM containers they want to ship to me? Otherwise I guess I could dump them both out into a bowl in the kitchen and then refill the existing containers … I guess that’s what I’ll actually end up doing.
![[link to screencapture]](https://clothingcult.com/clothingimages/Anastasia-HydraFull-Gloss-Skin-Deep-Cosmetics-Database-Environmental-Working-Group.png){kind=link}
![[link to screencapture]](https://clothingcult.com/clothingimages/Zuzu-Cosmetics-ZuZu-Luxe-Lip-Gloss-Skin-Deep-Cosmetics-Database-Environmental-Working-Group.png){kind=link}
![[link to screencapture]](https://clothingcult.com/clothingimages/Mac-LipGlass-Skin-Deep-Cosmetics-Database-Environmental-Working-Group.png){kind=link}