Adorned Nails: KOH Our Song


Here it is again! It's the new limited edition collection by KOH and the first one for 2013. KOH Love Story is the name of the collection and I'm starting off with KOH Our Song.


Our Song is a crème polish and something between a cyan and a robin egg blue. The formula is thick and so creamy that one can almost get away with just one generous coat. Here, I've applied two medium coats.



This is the whole KOH Love Story collection at a glance. It's a set of somewhat softer shades, obviously to go with the lovey-dovey, mushy theme. Even the dark and the bright shades seem pretty toned down. It's such a contrast from the previous va-va-voom collection, KOH Show It.

These polishes were kindly provided by KOH Cosmetics.

L-R:
KOH Our Song
KOH Kiss Me
KOH First Date
KOH Love Forever
KOH Hold Me Tight
KOH Lean On Me

The KOH Love Story collection will be available in stores some time in January 2013. Price: €14.99 per 10ml bottle.


Next Love Story polish: KOH Lean On Me

Merry Christmas



Here's wishing all of you Christmas Peace. Enjoy the celebrations!

Fijne Kerstdagen!

Majolica Majorca: Lash King Mascara Review



When I saw this then newly-launched mascara in the store early this year, I just knew I had to get it. Yes, the packaging is terribly ornate and, dare I say, pretty, but that's what we've come to expect from a sugary brand like Majolica Majorca anyway.

It was really the name that got me. So promising! Lash King.....that's way up there with lash-related extremes like Colossal, Telescopic, Million, Magnascopic and Bionic. Let's have horse eye lashes!


Majolica Majorca's Lash King mascara did meet my expectations at first. Okay, my lashes did not turn out looking quite like those of a horse's but the mascara was longlasting, it lengthened my lashes a great deal, it provided good volume and it held the curl fine. I had fluttery eyelashes and the lashes felt natural, i.e. not stiff.

However, it seems to have lost steam a couple of months down the road. It's still longlasting with no smudging and it still does a great job of lengthening the lashes but, lately, it's been rather disappointing in the volume and curl department.

The formula is drier now and I suspect that has something to do with its subsequent poor performance.

I took these picture about two months after I started using Lash King. I've seen better but as you can see, it didn't do too badly in all departments - length, volume, curl.

L-R: Curled bare lashes (with some tightlining); with one coat of Lash King; with two two light coats of Lash King


Here are two more pictures taken six hours apart:


It's O-K but you'll see in the picture on the right that a few lashes have lost their curl.

By the way, I'm wearing the black version, BK999.

Ingredients


Here's what Majolica Majorca says about Lash King:


A product blurp full of superlatives! What it boils down to is that it's a liquid plus fibre mascara. I know there are other fibre mascaras out there but this is my first one. It's been an interesting experience, to say the least.

Lash King has little 'hairs' in the mascara liquid which Majolica Majorca says are 5mm long fibres. I played with a couple of these fibres with my fingers and they are almost like lint.


I like that these fibres do a great job of lengthening my lashes but I've also had unpleasant incidents with them.

They always say to work the mascara brush from the roots of your lashes and zigzag your way up to the lash ends. Well, you'd have to be careful with the Lash King. I somehow had fibre poking my eye. It may have been one strand or perhaps two strands clumped together but what happened was that half of that strand was nicely attached to the root of a lash and the other half was pointing down and jabbing and irritating my eye. It was a delicate job extracting that strand of fibre.

That happened twice and since then, I stopped putting the mascara brush right at the very roots of my lashes when I apply Lash King. I've heard of some ladies getting loose fibres in the eye too, so ladies, do be careful.


The applicator/brush is short and stubby (which I like). Majolica Majorca calls it the, ahem, Acrobat Catch Brush which delivers a generous dose of mascara liquid and clearly separates the lashes. It's a fancy name for a mascara brush that doesn't look too unusual to me. I have no complaints about the brush though. It works fine. Oh, one more thing: the mascara has a strong plasticky smell.

This is a waterproof mascara. It isn't too difficult to remove just as long as you use an oil-based eye makeup remover. You know the drill. Just dab, hold and repeat. Don't rub, tug and curse.


All in all, I'm not overjoyed with Lash King although at the beginning, I thought I would be waxing lyrical about it. Just the other day, I checked my lashes in the mirror in the evening and saw that my lashes had lost their curl. They were still long, thanks to the fibres, but they were stick-straight! This is a mascara to reach for if you just want length.

I will continue using Lash King nevertheless. I bought a back-up too when I bought the first one - so confident was I! [slaps self] After that, I'll go back to using Majolica Majorca's Lash Enamel Glamour Volume On Mascara. Yes, I've got back-ups of this one too.

Price: approx. €16 (6g)
Majolica Majorca products are easily available in the Far East. If you haven't got easy access, try Amazon or Amazon UK.


Majolica Majorca website

Weleda: Sea Buckthorn Replenishing Body Lotion Review



Weleda is a brand that I admire a lot. It's surprising that I've ever written only one post on it - the Weleda Pomegranate Regenerating Hand Cream.

There are many things about Weleda that I find endearing - its roots, its philosophy, its holistic approach to health and skincare, its use of Biodynamic Farming methods (which encompasses much more than just organic farming), its fair trade partnerships and of course, its truly wide range of natural products. This is one brand that I think communicates very well with its consumers, which in turn has certainly helped shape my view of the brand. Is that down to fantastic marketing communications or just plainly effective propaganda? For now, I'd settle for the former.

Weleda revamped its collection of body lotions some months back. They tweaked the formula here and there and made a radical change to the packaging.

The old Weleda Sea Buckthorn Body Lotion packaging looked like this:


The new one looks like this:


The Weleda body lotions come in four variants: Citrus, Wild Rose, Sea Buckthorn and Pomegranate. I bought the Sea Buckthorn one as I had already been using this variant in the old version.

Here's what Weleda says about it:

The creamy Sea Buckthorn Replenishing Body Lotion protects dry skin from moisture loss, activates your skin’s self-regulating functions and leaves you with lasting replenishment and renewed vitality.

This unique composition contains organic sea buckthorn’s natural vitamins, carotene and unsaturated fatty acids, which support your skin’s vital barrier functions. Combined with organic mallow extracts, shea butter and macadamia seed oil it helps dry skin regain its vitality and look smoother and softer.


Price: €13.75 for 200 ml

Ingredients
Water, Sesame Seed Oil, Alcohol, Shea Butter, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Glycerin, Sea Buckthorn Oil, Fragrance*, Macadamia Oil, Mallow Extract, Xanthan Gum, Tapioca Starch, Cetearyl Alcohol, Limonene*, Linalool*, Citronellol*, Benzyl Benzoate*, Benzyl Salicylate*, Geraniol*, Citral*, Farnesol*.
* from natural essential oils

The ingredients are 100% natural and 97% organic.

Shea butter, macadamia oil and mallow extract. The old version didn't have these. It also had a more runny consistency and I went through the bottle like lightning. The new version is a tad creamier, I find.


Speaking of bottles, it's obvious that Weleda has put a lot of thought into the new packaging. The body lotion now comes in a recyclable plastic bottle that actually houses a thin, flexible bag inside. Weleda calls it "bag-in-bottle" and that together with the vacuum dispensing pump means that the contents don't get exposed to air, which works out great for Weleda's artificial preservative-free product formulations. The pump has been working fine. It makes a squishy sound sometimes but there has been no clumping or clogging so far.

Even the shape of the bottle is comment-worthy. You might have noticed that it's asymmetrical. It seems to have been designed to reflect the squiggly lines of the Weleda logo. If you're wondering what the logo represents, you can read about it here.

I'll tell you one thing that hasn't changed - the scent. I adore the smell of this body lotion. The citrus melange of mandarin, orange and grapefruit oils is a great pick-me-up in the mornings!


The body lotion goes on nicely. I didn't find the old version 'potent' enough - it was perfect for summer but it just wasn't moisturising enough for winter. Anyway, I think there has been some improvement in the moisturising efficacy of the new version. As someone with extremely dry skin when the cold season strikes, I won't call it the super ultimate body moisturiser for in the dead of winter but it's certainly a better version of its predecessor. If your skin doesn't get as dry as mine, then I think this body lotion would work very well for you in any season.

If you've never seen sea buckthorn berries before, this is what they look like:


That's the cover of an old Weleda magazine. I've been a subscriber to their magazine for a couple of years and I've learnt a lot about Weleda, its practices and its relationships with farmers through its publications. Weleda websites are chockful of information too.

Interesting fact: The sea buckthorn that Weleda uses comes from a Biodynamic farm in Tuscany, Italy. Mr. Kurt Künzi has been working with and supplying Weleda with sea buckthorn for over ten years.


Please check my first post on Weleda to read more about its history.

Weleda website

Weleda products can be purchased from your local drugstores and also through websites like Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Win: MuLondon Organic Foaming Face Cleansers



I love these cleansers.

Now, here's your chance to win a full-size bottle of the MuLondon Organic Foaming Face Wash of your choice. There will be three winners. Details can be found on my Giveaway page.

Good luck!

Adorned Nails: KOH Cover Girl


We've arrived. It's the final one from the Show It collection and aaaiiii, it's ridiculously pretty.


Two coats. A coral/tomato red with glass flecks and a joy to apply. That's KOH Cover Girl for you. From afar, it looks orange due to the yellow mixed with red. Upclose, it looks like it's got fire in the belly.



And my heart is singing.


Previous Show It polish: KOH Shopping Queen

Adorned Nails: KOH Shopping Queen


Here's the Shopping Queen. It's bold and it's gold.


Simply said, KOH Shopping Queen is a clear jelly packed with golden glitters.

I'm taking a different approach with this one. In the photo above, it's three coats of Shopping Queen. In the following photos, you'll see Shopping Queen layered on a few polishes from the KOH Show It collection. I prefer to use it as a top coat. One generous layer would do.

With KOH It Girl
















Previous Show It polish: KOH Super Model
Next and final Show It polish: KOH Cover Girl

Adorned Nails: KOH Super Model


Let's continue with the Show It collection, shall we?


KOH Super Model reminds me of KOH Lucky Star from the Fantasy collection. They're both inobtrusive blues and have got the same kind of yellow/golden micro glitters. The only difference is that Lucky Star is a pale blue while Super Model is a aomewhat broodier medium slate blue. I've got three coats on here.


Previous Show It polish: KOH Groovy Dancer
Next Show It polish: KOH Shopping Queen

Adorned Nails: KOH Groovy Dancer



We've seen polishes like this before but I'm in love with this one anyway. Totally, completely, utterly.

A polish like this deserves a better name, one that packs a punch, but since its christening is already set in stone, we will dutifully call it KOH Groovy Dancer. You must know by now that it's from the new KOH Show It collection.


Groovy Dancer is a sexy, plush red shimmer polish that applied beautifully. You're looking at two effortless coats.

What I absolutely love about it is how it looks in sunshine. It seems to subtly glow from within, does it not?



Previous Show It polish: KOH It Girl
Next Show It polish: KOH Super Model

Adorned Nails: KOH It Girl



Here's the second polish from the latest limited edition KOH Show It collection.

KOH It Girl needed at least three coats. It's a lighthearted jelly with a frosty silver look. It does have a slight tint of blue and it's got small bits of pale yellow/golden glitters too. The golden glitters are subtle on the nails. You'll see them better in the bottle.


If anyone's wondering how KOH It Girl compares with the silver of KOH Miracles from the Fantasy collection, I would say that Miracles has a smoother metallic look and it leans more towards violet while It Girl is blue-tinged and has a "rougher" appearance due to its mini-sized yellow/golden glitters.


Previous Show It polish: KOH Movie Star
Next Show It polish: KOH Groovy Dancer

Adorned Nails: KOH Movie Star


They're here!

It's time for another KOH Limited Edition collection, one I believe is the final special collection by KOH for 2012.

This time around, the collection is called KOH Show It and I'm starting off with this uncomplicated metallic shimmer polish named KOH Movie Star.


Movie Star is basically a beigy gold, quite pale but glamorous enough. Two coats were sufficient for opacity.



Here's the KOH Show It collection at a glance:

These polishes were kindly provided by KOH Cosmetics.

L-R
KOH Groovy Dancer
KOH Movie Star
KOH It Girl
KOH Super Model
KOH Cover Girl
KOH Shopping Queen

There are some real gems in this collection, the kind that makes your heart sing. I'll be featuring these polishes in quick succession this week. The collection is expected to be out in Dutch parfumerie stores some time in November but I suspect it's available in the KOH Experience Shops in de Bijenkorf already. Price per 10ml bottle: €14.95.


Next KOH Show It polish: KOH It Girl

Adorned Nails: Saffron Magnetic Varnish 08



Here's the second Saffron magnetic polish (that I regret buying). You can see the first one, Saffron Magnetic Varnish 03, here.

Saffron Magnetic Varnish 08 is a green-tinged yellow polish with heavy, pretty shimmers. Chartreuse is probably a colour that one wouldn't easily take a liking to on nails but this is a shade that I didn't already have in my collection. I guess that justifies the purchase. Ummm, kinda.

Honestly, I still think it's a cheapo polish (poor quality bottle cap, a magnet that doesn't work and maaaan, it smells bad too) but with a bit too big of a price tag. It's €4.50 for 9ml and I say this in the context of my easy access to quality and super-affordable nail polishes from brands like Catrice and Essence.


Again, I used the magnet from Essence (I repeat: You can trash the Saffron magnet). I had less of a hard time getting the stripes with this polish than I did with 03 but that's only because I knew what to expect this time.




Topshop: Eyeshadow in Potion Review


Don't you just hate it when a product that you like is discontinued? Okay, it's not the end of the world but it sure is annoying.

There was the discontinuation of Fyrinnae's Lip Lustres back then but thank goodness, the folks at Fyrinnae brought them back after a long hiatus. Alleluia!


With this eyeshadow however, I think the chances of Topshop bringing it back are very slim. So, let me just bluntly spell it out. Potion is my one and only Topshop eyeshadow and it's been discontinued. Gee.

I thought I'd do a post on Potion anyway, just for posterity.


Topshop describes described Potion like this:

High-pigment, blendable, metallic finish eye shadow for intense colour. Smooth onto lids for even colour and coverage. Blend and contour for a variety of looks. Use alongside our matte colours.


I don't get the 'metallic' part. It's satin-ny, really. Potion is a curious dark brown cum plum cum burgundy. It's one of those colours that plays tricks on the eyes. It looks purplundy but look again and it's a broody brown. Applied, it does come out looking slightly more brown though. It's an intense-enough eyeshadow that is easy to work with and is great for smokey eyes.


It offers good coverage but of course, it's better to use an eyeshadow primer to bring out its best. The nicely pressed eyeshadow hardly crumbles in the pan. It's just good quality.

For this eye look, I used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Topshop Eyes - Potion
Catrice Made to Stay Long Lasting Eyeshadow - Lord of the Blings
GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner - Black Ink
Majolica Majorca Lash King Mascara - BK999


Oh yes, I must show you a close-up shot of Potion in sunshine. Look carefully and you may be able to see bits of shimmer which twinkle in different colours. They're pretty but subtle, so don't expect them to show up much on the eyes. Anyway, that's not why I like Potion. It's really the brown-that's-not-quite-brown that I like.

I paid £6.50 for this 2.4g pan. We haven't got Topshop shops here (it came with some pomp last year but then went away very quietly!), so it's all via its website. I see that Topshop now has a couple of smokey eye palettes called Smokey Eyes Quad. Perhaps, just perhaps, there is something similar to Potion amongst these eyeshadows.


Topshop website