silver

August 14, 2014

Birchbox August 2014 unboxing

Laura Geller Beauty Cool Lids Cream Eyeshadow so clearly this is the item I chose for myself as I mentioned in my last birchbox post. So as I mentioned previously it doesn’t have cones, it doesn’t have perfumes or parabens or other nasties. This is a really healthy product and I’m excited to try it. It’s a gorgeous neutral silver with just a hint of taupe. It should work well on a lot of skin tones. Not glittery but shimmery and looks like it will stay put and also act as a primer for other eyeshadows.

Harvey Prince Ageless Body Cream so even if this were healthier this is still not a product I’m interested in. Besides being synthetic, I think everything Harvey Prince smells just awful. That’s my personal opinion since I’ve had the perfume in a previous Birchboxes. Harvey Prince skinny chic made me gag on opening the box, Harvey Prince eau flirt yuck, Harvey Prince yogini made me sneeze when I opened the box. Birchbox should really just stop trying to send me this brand. I’m typically allergic to it on top of it being a synthetic fragrance. Nothing like a headache or sneezing on opening the box. This is only a 4 with the cosmetics database and most of that is because of the synthetic fragrance. So while I won’t be using it, if you like the scent and aren’t opposed to synthetic fragrance, then it’s not that bad.
ewg skindeep cosmetics database score 3 nügg Beauty Revitalizing Face Mask free of petrochemicals, parabens, sulfates, and synthetic fragrances or colors. It’s only a 3 with the skin deep cosmetics database. One of the ingredients concerns me just a hair since it’s a known allergen. I think I want to test this on my arm because of the benzyl alcohol. There’s only one of these pods so I’m hoping it won’t dry out between my test and getting to use the product if I’m not allergic to it!
Neil George Shampoo no cones, no parabens, fragrance is iffy. Based on how it’s listed it’s not clear if it contains synthetic fragrances on top of natural ingredients used as a fragrance or not. That and the benzyle alcohol are probabaly my main concerns with this shampoo. It ranks a 4 with the ewg skin deep cosmetics database if it uses a synthetic fragrance.
ewg skindeep cosmetics database score 4 Neil George Conditioner dimethicone rules this one out for me personally. Same concern on the fragrance as with the shampoo. It’s another 4 with the ewg skin deep cosmetics database.

Soooo…. It’s an ok box. Mostly I’m happy with the fact that I got to select one of my items this month so it ensured one item I could try. I DO like the element of surprise though too so letting me select one thing is the best of both worlds.

Still not signed up for Birchbox?

http://birchbox.com?raf=3l3e7
{ yes it’s an affiliate link, I get 50 points which equals $5 credit – share the love! }

July 22, 2014

August 2014 Birchbox sample choice –
how they stack up based on ingredients

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Makeup / Cosmetics, Subscription boxes

I was impressed last month when Birchbox gave us a choice of colors on the nail polishes we received. They decided to extend that this month and let us again have a choice on one of the sample items in our boxes but this time it’s bigger than just the color. This time they’re going to let us choose between four products.

So I thought I would go ahead and do the EWGEWG Environmental Working Group - an organization focused on research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment. skin deep cosmetics database reports for each of these products now in case anyone wanted factor how healthy they are into their decision making.

* * * * SPOILER ALERT * * * *

ModelCo Bronzer (full size retails for $22.00) Keeping in mind that they often send sample sizes, this one would still be the most expensive to try on your own. This IS free of cones, parabens, and fragrance and other nasties and it ranks a healthy 2 with the cosmetics database.

Laura Geller Beauty Cool Lids Cream Eyeshadow (full size retails for $19) color me impressed. This is another healthy item at 2 out of 2 ranking a 2 with the cosmetic database. This is a shimmery cream eyeshadow in “silver sands.”

theBalm® cosmetics Stainiac (full size retails for $17.00) this is one of those products that many many people fall in love with that I just wasn’t personally enamored with it. I’ve had this as a sample before and I just didn’t use it. It’s a dual purpose stain and I stick with bronzers for my cheeks so that might be part of it. But it’s a top seller so…

The link in the cosmetics database may be missing some of the ingredients or might be using an older ingredient list so I decided to do a custom report. It does contain fragrance and parabens and but it ranks somewhere between a 3 (using the report above) or a 5 based on the custom report I did using the ingredient list off of the nordstrom website. The ingredient list wasn’t available though birchbox’s website nor through theBalm site. I didn’t want to go dig out my sample because it may actually be old and might not have the current ingredients either… so it’s somewhere between a 3 and a 5.

Noir Long-Wear Eyeliner (full size retails for $15.00) I actually already own this. It’s a good black eyeliner pencil but I’ve found I’m the weird one who can apply a gel liner faster and better than most pencil liners so I prefer those most of the time. So although I don’t need a backup of this, I’ve kept this one around because it’s a good black pencil liner and it’s a super healthy 1 with the cosmetics database.

So I own the last two already. And the first two are a tie when it comes to the ingredient ratings… Surprisingly all of the options are good choices when it comes to the ingredients (theBalm’s stainiac is the only iffy one and it still isn’t horrendous.)
… Decisions decisions….
Which one do you think you’ll choose? 🙂

Still not signed up for Birchbox?

http://birchbox.com?raf=3l3e7
{ yes it’s an affiliate link, I get 50 points which equals $5 credit – share the love! }

* * * * UPDATE – even more choices! * * * *

Screen Shot 2014-07-24 at 1.17.38 PM

February 22, 2014

Ipsy Glambag unboxing February 2014

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Makeup / Cosmetics, Nail Polish, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

POP Beauty – Plump Pout Mini in Peony Petal – no cones, no parabens, no synthetic fragrances. Great so far. Health wise we’re actually good on this based on ingredients. Although they don’t rank as unhealthy though this does have petrolatum and mineral oil which are very unnatural. I’ve also started noticing that since I’ve switched away from using products with these ingredients, when I try something with them, they just feel … weird. The cosmetics database ranks this a 3 … BUT OMG! DOES IT SMELL BAD!!! I do not care what the report says because it smells like melted plastic!!! I don’t know what they’ve done wrong with this product but NO – I just will not be wearing this. Overwhelmingly bad smell and I talked to someone else about this – theirs smelled horrible too so it wasn’t just one bottle.

Zoya Nail Polish in Odette – ALWAYS a Zoya fan. Ipsy sent out two colors, Odette and Dot. I recently bought Brigitte and Normani from the “Naturel” collection. And with this month’s Ipsy I received Odette which is awesome and I’ll be doing a review of those shades here soon.

Mally Beauty – Evercolor Starlight Waterproof Eyeliner – no cones, none of the normal nasties. The only thing on the list that threw up a red flag was “aluminum powder.” Not sure that it was the same kind of aluminum used in say aluminum pans, I decided it was best to check the cosmetics database first for some feedback. The aluminum is a four and the overall product score is a 3 which honestly is still pretty good. Since I don’t expect to be wearing silver/gray daily I’m good with this.

First Aid Beauty – Skin Rescue Deep Cleanser with Red Clay – at first glance the ingredient list looks good. No cones and no other obvious nasties. Rates a 3 with the cosmetics database. So I think my only concern on this one will actually be how harsh it is on my skin BUT it looks like it has several good-for-your-skin oils like rosemary in there so I actually expect that this will be pretty good. The smell is decent and natural (no synthetic fragrance.)

Jesse’s Girl – 9 Pan Eye Shadow Compact – cones rule this one out for me. Plums and purples. one of the ingredients, propylparaben, rates a 10 and the overall score with the cosmetics database is a 5. I think I would steer clear of this one. They have some loose mica eyeshadows that are much healthier (but they are more on the shimmery glittery side.)

What other people got. Not in my bag but looks interesting, healthy and I might buy them:

Pacifica Hawaiian Ruby Guava Body Butter – LOVE this brand. I can use almost ALL of their products (a couple like the eyeshadow have cones in them) and the scents are all natural. Ruby Guava is one of their most popular scents for a reason. LOVE LOVE LOVE Pacifica. 20% off has me because I can easily spend money with this company.
PHYTO-C Velvet Gel
skyn ICELAND Fresh Start Mask with Ice Age Mud
NuMe Intense Renewal Mask

Sign up for Ipsy:

http://www.ipsy.com/?refer=u-h051sec1kqq5g8p
{affiliate link – I get 250 points which points equal products but it’s still a little unclear how many points to the dollar}

November 15, 2013

Ipsy glambag unboxing and reviews November 2013

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Hair, Makeup / Cosmetics, Nail Polish, Subscription boxes

em michelle phan – pillow plush cushiony lip balm in vanilla – the color is almost non-existent. No cones or parabens – yay! fragrance, boooo. If they had left out the frangrance this would likely have rated a lot better than a 4 with the EWG cosmetics database.

Be a Bombshell Lip Crayon in “hot damn” – this is a cherry red shade. No cones or fragrances, yay! Parabens though, booo. This ranks a 5 with the cosmetics database.

Nailtini Straight Up Color Nail Lacquer in Champagne – this is a coppery color in the bottle but does actually look more like “champagne” when applied. And as I’ve established before – Nailtini is three free so all good here!

Pixi Beauty Bronzer – cones … I can’t use this personally (cones break me out without fail) but otherwise this is super healthy. It’s a 2 with the cosmetics database. Yay for healthy! Bad that I can’t use it. :/

Starlooks Gem Eye Pencil in Topaz – this is a silver eyeliner. No cones or fragrance … but parabens. It is another 5 with the cosmetics database. Remember, lower is better! The report actually calls out carbon black as the worst ingredient. Petrolatum and aluminum powder were also concerns but ranked 4s as ingredients.

TRESemmé® TRES Two Extra Hold Hairspray Travel Size – no cones or parabens but fragrance. :/ This ranks a whopping 7 though!! HORRIBLE health-wise. There were also two other reports for this so they apparently have changed the ingredients several times – none are healthy. Report 1 & report 2.

Swatches:

So this month’s Ipsy glambag is a bit of a bust for me…

The best items for me in the November 2013 ipsy glambag are the nailtini nailpolish and … well that’s about it. I’ll try the two lip products because they don’t have cones but they are a little less healthy than I would like. I also wish I could try the pixi bronzer because it IS healthy BUT it has cones in it. Oh and I do like the bag!

wish I had received …
Cailyn Built-In Sponge Tip Mineral Eye Shadow in Champagne! No cones and it’s super healthy. It ranks a meer 1 with the cosmetics database!

September 25, 2013

Kohl’s clearance jewelry haul
& some DIY jewelry remixing

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Jewelry

You know how Kohl’s sends you those $10 off coupons sometimes? Well I’m sometimes a sucker for clearance costume jewelry.
Three necklaces and two pairs of earrings for about $16!!
But wait, there’s more!

The Dana Buchman earrings I turned into three sets of earrings. They were a bit over the top as it was with three gems and each with one gem is more wearable as daily wear.

The Lauren Conrad necklace lost the tennis charm and turned into a necklace and bracelet set using the spare charms from the Chaps earrings.

What I made out of them looks similar the Gojana Chloe small necklace which sells for $55 …

(But I like mine better.)

I left the gold and silver 3-tier necklaces as they were.

So what is that… 3 necklaces, 4 sets of earrings and 1 bracelet for $16?
Or $2 each piece! Now that is what I call budget shopping!

And yes, I have worn each of these several times already at the time of this post.
🙂

March 29, 2013

Michael Antonio “Jaxine-MET” Silver heel Review

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Shoes

Well I did in fact say in my previous post that I have bought the silver Michael Antonio “Jaxine-MET” for $19.99 from 6pm.com.

I think I made a mistake when I purchased these. :/

Starting at the point where I wasn’t even standing up in them and they were already really uncomfortable. And yes, I did also stand up in them. Same problem. They just really don’t fit my foot shape whatsoever. The strap at the toes pinch and just don’t seem to be a position that works well. It looks like maybe if you have longer toes this might not be the case. You can see in the pictures below just home much extra shoe there is beyond my toes. You don’t want toes hanging off the edge but this seems a little too much and my foot is following the other curves of the shoe.

I also don’t like that the gold (which can be seen on the website) is more of a rose gold / copper and wraps around the edge of the shoe. It distracts from the silver and makes them look a bit cheaper in person. If it had been on the footbed only of the Michael Antonio “Jaxine-MET” it would have been better. Then again, that doesn’t really matter as much as the fact that they hurt my feet. the gold really isn’t that bad … probably just me being picky now because the shoe isn’t going to work. :/

The heel of the shoe IS silver (from the photos on 6pm.com I thought there was a chance that the heel was white.) Just thought I should also mention that since it was something I was wondering about when I made my purchase.

And a reminder, if you buy from 6pm.com the shipping to you might be free (and great if you’re sure about the shoe) but you have to pay the return shipping (not great if the shoe doesn’t work out.) Debating at this moment if I spend the money and ship them back or take them to the consignment store and hope someone buys them. Probably pay the shipping and send them back… blah.

Update: It was going to cost me $9 in shipping at it’s cheapest so I’m going to take them to the consignment store. :/