June 2017 - Page 2 of 5 - Reviews and Other Stuff

Month: June 2017

Samples of The Week: Kerastase, Tatcha, Aveda, Philosophy, Sisley Paris, Acqua Di Parma & Chanel

June 23, 2017 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

It’s Friday again guys and here are some products that you may want to hunt over the weekend. A lot of these samples are really interesting and some of them are the products I’ve been eyeing for quite a while now, but I wasn’t exactly sure if they’re worth it. Thank God for samples, now I know more or less which product I may want to test.

Kerastase Nutritive Bain Magistral (80 ml: $20.50, 250 ml: $41) – A Glamour-awarded shampoo for dry to severely dry hair. It’s meant to make the hair smooth, supple and shiny. Also, it promises to remove impurities and nourish the hair from within. I find this shampoo to be very moisturizing but if your hair is on the fine/straight side, and you don’t wash your hair the next day, well, this might weigh it down. It’s really great if you tend to have dry hair or even dry scalp because this shampoo will make it look shiny and healthy. I also love that the scent is non-irritating and it smells like iris and sunflower seed.

Tatcha The Water Cream (1.7 oz $68) – I’m so excited to try this newly-released gel cream from Tatcha since I love Tatcha beauty and skincare products. They have such innovative and interesting products that will really spark your interest. They also make their packaging look sophisticated and pretty like this moisturizer, which is SO good. It feels really light but it moisturizes very well. The moment I applied this, I felt like all the stress, pain, arthritis, and even the evil spirits went away, lol. This feels cool on the face and the light floral scent is just divine.

Sisley Paris Black Rose Cream Mask (2.1 oz $162) – Been dying to try this mask since this is basically a 5-star cult-favorite in France and in the US. Lots of people are raving about it even if it has a steep price. Even Emma Stone’s makeup artist used this on her when she attended and won the Oscar for Best Actress. I managed to score a sample at my local Nordstrom Sisley Paris counter and immediately tried it upon arriving home. I have mixed feelings about this mask. It doesn’t seem like a mask to me, instead, it’s more like a moisturizer since it’s really creamy. It’s meant to be used on the skin for 2-3 times a week, leaving it on for 10-15 minutes, wiping off excess product thereafter. In my experience, it’s true that my skin did absorb this quickly and there’s not even any excess. It’s really hard to treat this as a mask, but it’s easy to see this as a moisturizer instead, even though Sisley Paris has recently introduced the moisturizer version of this, seen HERE. So I used this as a moisturizer and left this on my skin overnight. My skin indeed looked luminous and well-hydrated, but I feel like any good moisturizer could do that. Even La Mer could do that, and compared to La Mer’s scent, this Sisley Paris Black Rose Mask has a strong rose stem/cucumber scent. A little too much for me. I don’t know, but I feel like it’s kind of hard to be so impressed by this, especially upon seeing how small the regular size is with respect to its price. I do feel like this cream mask is good for traveling or when your face had gone through extremes temperatures and harsh elements because this is really very hydrating.

Chanel Hydra Beauty Micro Creme (1.7 oz $98) – Here’s a gel cream that feels great and smells great. It so lightweight that it feels like slightly thickened water and it hydrates the skin like no other. It kept my face hydrated overnight and even the whole day. I also love the Camellia scent which is fresh and very irresistible. This would have been perfect, but the only caveat is the price.

Kerastase Resistance Bain Force Architecte (80 ml: $20.50, 250 ml: $41, 500 ml: $60) – A reconstructing and repairing shampoo for brittle and damaged hair. This hair care product is meant to rebuild every strand starting from the roots, and it’s supposed to prevent the hair from breakage and split ends. This shampoo lathers very well and it smells like citronella with a bit of tamarind. I love it.

Aveda Hand Relief Moisturizing Creme (1.4 oz: $9.50, 4.2 oz: $24) – This hand cream truly delivers what it’s meant to be, an intense therapy cream for those with seriously dry hands. This really made my hands look like human hands and not Neanderthal’s, lol. The only thing that sort of bothers me is the strong sweet citrus/grapefruit scent. Other than that, this is a great handcream.

Acqua Di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Mirto Di Panarea Eau de Toilette Spray (2.5 oz: $105, 5 oz: $160) – This scent smells really great at first, like a fresh burst of lemon and bergamot with the smell of the ocean, but it dries into something slightly musky for me and I could sense the faint traces of basil. I definitely think that this is more masculine even though it’s meant to be unisex. I like it though because it reminds me of the sea even if it doesn’t last long.

Philosophy Purity Made Simple, 3-in-1 Cleanser for Face & Eyes a.k.a Philosophy Eye Cleansing Gel & Makeup Remover (7.5 oz $23) – This is a mild gel cleanser for the eyes and face. It doesn’t irritate and it feels very gentle. I don’t think this completely removes all my makeup, but this seems good as a daily cleanser because this won’t dry your skin, although I feel like I have to wash my face twice with this whenever my skin feels too oily.

What do you think of these? Is there anything here that sparks your interest?

Have a wonderful weekend everyone,

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The Handmaid’s Tale (Audio) Book & TV Series Review

June 21, 2017 / OTHER STUFF / 0 comments

“Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum”

In what could be one of the most shocking and unforgettable books I’ve ever read, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is classic but at the same time, it’s also timely. It has one of the most terrifying and one of the saddest stories I’ve ever read and it makes you imagine what would happen if the plot in the book would actually come true? This book is a story of women’s struggles in a theocratic military dictatorship called The Republic of Gilead. Written in the first person, we see the mindset of a woman narrating and calling herself Offred, but that is not her real name. She’s just named after her Commander Fred, where she lives with and his wife Serena Joy. She’s some kind of their temporary property, thus calling her “Of Fred”. Offred has a role to fulfill, she’s what their society would call, a Handmaid. Handmaids are women of childbearing age, fertile and had committed gender and social crimes according to Gilead’s law. They’re dressed in almost all red with white-winged hats and they’re assigned to a commander and his wife’s household to bear them a child. That’s because the population of the Republic of Gilead is dwindling and they badly need new births.

Offred is constantly having flashbacks of her world “before” and her world “now”. You see, she once lived a normal life, something close to what we have now, and she once had a family and friends. Life is definitely difficult for her new reality, but it’s not just her. The same is true with all the women around her. In the Republic of Gilead, women are classified as wives, aunts, Marthas, handmaids, econowives, etc. Unfortunately, they all don’t seem to get along and that their government is seriously watching their back. It’s a bleak bleak world, one that you’d never want to happen to yourself or even to your enemy. Offred’s ordeal of giving her commander and his wife a child is something that will shock you, will make you contemplate, and will make you sad. The world of Offred is never easy, but hers is a story of survival and hope even in the faintest way possible.

A lot of people sort of equate the book with feminism, however, I think there is actually a very subtle hint of feminism in it, and the main character Offred didn’t seem to be the type to show it much. What she is in the book is a survivalist and she’s shown endurance despite the world she’s in. Her prevailing attitude is what probably made her a feminist of some sort. She’s indeed an interesting character because she shows obedience and submissiveness on the outside while she’s feisty inside. She remained observant of her new environment without being compromised, and while she didn’t show much defiance in the book, she definitely did in the TV series. Yes, this is the book that finally made me sign up to Hulu and let me tell you, I didn’t regret it. I wasn’t really into Hulu before because I already have Netflix, but hey Hulu’s great, and The Handmaid’s Tale by Hulu is even greater. The series is almost true to the book with a few add-ons and Elisabeth Moss fits the bill as Offred. There are more themes of feminism in the series, and the whole plot seems more shocking and scary. The cinematography is great and the acting is perfect. Serena Joy (Commander Fred’s wife) is being portrayed by Yvonne Strahovski which seems quite a bit young for the role, but she did a phenomenal job. Overall, I love the series a lot even though at times it’s kind of hard to watch. The story is never for the faint of heart, I tell you.

The audiobook is also great to listen to. it’s narrated by Homeland’s Claire Danes and she sounds very convincing in her narrations, bringing to life Offred’s struggle and personality. Another best part of the book is towards the end where you start to understand the real story behind Gilead and what might have happened to Offred. Hmmm, a cliffhanger eh? The Handmaid’s Tale is a speculative dystopian novel that was once controversial but has been awarded multiple times. The book will make you think and wonder “What would happen if one day you lose your basic right as a woman or even as a human being?” What would you do? Would you conform? Or would you not let the bastards grind you down?

The Handmaid’s Tale Book by Margaret Atwood is available in Amazon.com

The Audiobook is available in Audible.com

While the TV series is available in Hulu.com

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treStiQue Mini Contour Travel Set Review

June 20, 2017 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

What’s Up Friends! I fell in love with Trèstique’s beauty products the moment I tried their Maldives Luminescent Highlighter that came with last month’s Sephora Play! I thought it has a nice smooth shimmer that naturally illuminates the curves of your face. Well, since then, I wanted to try other Trèstique products and I stumble into their Mini Contour Travel Set (0.04 oz $28), which has a blush, a bronzer and the same highlighter that I love in it, but in minis which are great for traveling.

I noticed that most Trèstique products are aimed towards being practical. They’re pretty much easy to use, energy-saving and almost eliminates the need for a brush. Lord knows it can be quite draining to create the perfect makeup du jour, you know. Most of their products are pen style or have dual ends wherein the other end has a brush or smudger attached to it. I love that. Don’t we all?

Back to the Trèstique Mini Contour Travel Set, each stick is about 3.5 inches long but there’s only about 0.5 inches of product in it. So there’s not a lot, but it’s good enough especially if you only use it for traveling. Also, for its price, it’s hard to complain. The formula of these mini sticks are not really creamy, I think they’re somewhat chalky and sort of dry, but they glide on the skin well enough. They aren’t very pigmented either, but they’re very buildable, so a couple more strokes on the face will do the job. They also don’t have any fragrance and they didn’t irritate my skin.

Brazilian Bronze (Bronzer) – A matte bronzer that appears to be light brown upon first swipe, but it can be layered to create a deeper tone, adding more depth to the face. Personally, I find that I have to put 3-4 deep strokes on my face to create that natural-looking contour.

Bora Bora Coral (Blush) – A coral-pink blush that also seems really light at first application, yet it’s buildable and it blends quite well. The nice thing is there’s no shimmer on this blush, so it creates a natural flush on the cheeks, which is nice, even though it requires a few more swipes.

Maldives Luminescent (Highlighter) – As what I’ve said in my previous Sephora Play! review (found HERE), this is a well-done pearly highlighter that gives a discreet soft shimmer on the face. It’s great for everyday use and it blends smoothly. It’s also very long-lasting and since it has a sheer coverage, I love that it doesn’t overwhelm the face with too much glitter.

This is indeed a great trio set for traveling, and it even comes in a mini round bag which is a great add-on. I just wish that these sticks were slightly more pigmented and that there’s enough product on each of them. Other than that, the Mini Contour Travel Set by Trèstique is practical to use, easy to blend, affordable and time-saving. You might as well have one for your next sojourn.

The Trèstique Mini Contour Travel Set is currently available at Sephora.

Have a great day makeup lovers,

Follow on Instagram: @reviewsandotherstuff