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Madefromearth product review

Saturday, April 9, 2011 Category : 2

3 weeks ago I made a blog post about face cream.  I suffer from rosacea, which is is pretty much skin inflammation.  My face is so sensitive that it flairs up when it is too cold, when it is too hot, and when the face cream/ cleansers I use have too many chemicals and preservatives in it.  My dermatologist recommended 2 brands for my skin: Spectro Hydracare and Complex 15.  Unfortunately, both brands test on animals.  I really want to use a facecream/ cleanser that does not test on animals....so...what popped up in my search for cruelty free face cream was the brand Madefromearth

Madefromearth is an organic skin care company that does not use any harmful chemicals and preservatives in manufacturing their product.s  Madefromearth is FDA Registered and USDA Organic Certified.   They manufacture their products under Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), this is huge! I work for a company that also complies with FDA and cGMP regulations so I know exactly how much detail and effort is put in to follow these regulations.  

Stergios, the director of marketing for Madefromearth kindly provided me with the following samples to review.


I have been using the products for a week and a half and I think that that enough time has passed for me to do a review.  I will of course continue to use the products and update my review.

1. Lip balm: The vanilla smells like real vanilla beans and citrus one smells like the citrus drink "5 alive"...just image lemons + oranges squeezed together!! I found the lipbalms a bit waxy and hard at first but after using it a bit the lip balm softened and applied like butter. Maybe my room was initially too cold? 



2.  The Rosehip + Hibiscus Facial Serum.  This stuff is awesome.  I use it as a moisturizer at night. It dries super fast so I can apply it to my face right before I go to sleep and it won't stick to my pillow or bed sheets.



You rub the serum in and that's it, it absorbs that fast!

3. The Green Tea Toxin Cleanser.  This cleanser was a check mark for me because it didn't make my skin burn.  Yes, my skin is so sensitive that most cleansers make my skin burn...even the one I regularly use: Cetaphil.  This cleanser did not make my face burn...so yay!!


I decided to try to use the cleanser as a make up remover and it worked perfectly.  Here is a picture of a cotton pad + eyeliner residue.


Disclaimer - The products were sent to me for review by http://www.madefromearth.com/ with no payment. My opinion is an honest one

Avon Urban Grey + Bornpretty store review

Tuesday, December 7, 2010 Category : , , , , 13

I had bought the color vintage grey from Avon a few months ago but had never tried it  so I thought that today would be the day....Well the polish FAILS!!! Either it would not dry or it took forever to dry!
Also, it applied somewhat goopy.  ARGH! I own quite a few Avon polishes and this is the only bad one i've encountered...so. ..don't buy Vintage grey!

Here's what it looks like right now: will go into detail about this mani at the end of the post =)



 2 coats

The grey looked bland so I did some nail art on them.  I used the the 2 way nail art nail polish liners provided to me for review from the born pretty store

 
The polishes are boxed in a separate box from your other products

 These are the jelly/ cream colors. -->the sky blue leaked a bit but it didn't smear onto the other polishes
dark blue, orange, dark red, green, dark green, blue, black, yellow, raspberry red, red, yellowish orange

 Glitters: orange, blue, silver, gold, pink, purple

 Metallics/ frosts: orange, fuchsia, green, copper, pink, grey, purple

These polishes are double ended. 

1.You get a super fine metal tip. When you squeeze the bottle, polish comes out, the weird metal needle looking thing that is attached to every bottle fits into the metal tip to dislodges any polish that has hardened so that polish will always flow out of the metal tip
2. You have a thin paintbrush end. I have it compared to a 0.7mm lead pencil to show you how fine the paintbrush end is.

This is the design I came up with: 

 The thin stripes came from the metal tip of the 2 way nail art brush and the thick stripes came from the paintbrush end.


Then I used the 12 Color 3D Steel Ball Nail Art Glitter Decoration in purple (was received from  bornprettystore.com) to add more ommph to my nails..maybe too much ommph.

  Maybe I should have done them all in the same direction... or maybe I didn't need the steel balls at all..eh. =)



Disclaimer - The products were sent to me for review with no payment. My opinion is an honest one.
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What is super fun is that Jessica, the owner of bornprettystore.com has given me my own coupon code : SWNAIL, 10% off till 03/31/2011

But! If you use my code SWNAIL, on top of the 10% you also get a free keychain flashlight!


yay!

Rainbow Dots!!!

Sunday, November 28, 2010 Category : , , , , , , , , , , , , , 19

I have a fun french manicure for you guys today!
  1. I freehanded the french tips with a pastel color (could also use nail art stripers to get the line)
  2. I went over the pastel color with a darker related color
  3. I used a dotting nail tool to draw on the dots.


    These are the polishes I used:

     Left to Right:
    WnW Lemon drops, Cotton Candy Delight, Bubble Yum Gum, OPI Rumple's Wiggin, WnW Grape Crush, Avon Vintage Blue, SH Pacific Blue, Avon Jade, OPI Jade is the new black
    **Pale yellow was made by adding lemon drops with white since I don't have a pastel yellow

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    The dotting tool was provided by http://www.bornprettystore.com/ and it is perfect for nail art.
    I have this kit .  I used to use tooth picks to do the dotting but the dotting tool makes it easier to draw even sized dots.  If you don't have a dotting tool the toothpick still works =)
    I think the great thing about this kit is that the different dotting tools all come with different sizes so it allows you to vary your dot sizes easily compared to a toothpick.  The yellow dotting tool has a pointy tip so it can be used to pick up beads and rhinestones =)

    Disclaimer - The dotting tool was sent to me for review with no payment. My opinion is an honest one.
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    So....OPI is having a 100 000 facebook fan giveaway, they will give 100 fans 6 retired polishes if OPI reaches 100 000 facebook likes by Dec 31. Awesome right?  Not for people residing outside of USA.  Like Me =(  The 6 retired OPI polishes that OPI are  giving away are Kinky In Helsinki, Smokin' in Havana, and Parlez-Vous OPI, HooDoo VooDoo, Cheyenne Pepper, and Sahara Sapphire.


    Well..guess what? I'm going to give OPI HooDoo VooDoo Away!! ..okay that's only 1/6 but at least everyone, anywhere, can have a chance to win it, it will be part of my 300 follower giveaway!  I'm still collecting my giveaway stuff but I'm working on trying to get some more rare harder to find items, so keep your eyes open!

    ***Edit: here it is, an original Winter Resort Collection 1995 HooDoo VooDoo!  Even the labeling is different!

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    side note: how was everyone's black Friday? did you guys go shopping ? there isn't a huge black Friday shopping event here in Canada but I still ended up buying quite a few things..like motocycle boots, 2 coats, 2 pairs of jeans, nail polish. =)  I'll post pictures of what I bought up later

    I hope everyone has a great day!

    Zebra stipes and pears

    Monday, November 22, 2010 Category : , , , , , , 14

    Jessica from Bornprettystore.com sent me some wonderful nail art items to review so I decided to use a few of the items together to create my manicure today.

    I used:

     3 Sizes Nail Art Pearl Rhinestone Decoration + Wheel 
    I loved these!  It adds a little extra oomph to the manicure. I also love having 3 different sizes to choose from, when I get these from a craft store I have to buy different sizes individually and it gets pricey and annoying.

    5x 2way DOTTING Pen Marbleizing Tool Nail Art Dot Paint
    I used the tool that is rounded on one end and has a pointy tip on the other end

    12 Color 3D Steel Ball Nail Art Glitter Decoration
    I was very disappointed  with the steel balls because the colors were mixed up.   I would not recommend purchasing these, instead, purchase the individual packaged steel balls.

    1800 NAIL ART RHINESTONES Wheel Glue Glitter UV Gel.
    The rhinestones I used were not sent to me for review. I bought them from ebay but Born pretty sells a similar rhinestone wheel

    24 COLORS 2 WAY SHINE NAIL ART Nail POLISH Liner Brush

    On to the Manicure:
     

    •   I applied China Glaze 2NITE diagonally on my tips
    •  Konaded zebra stripes using image plate M57 with Wet'nWild Black creme

    I had a problem with not all the zebra print transferring so I used the black 2 way nail art brush to draw in some of the lines ( I will do another review for the 2 way nail art pens)
    • Cleaned up the nail stamping with a paint brush and pure acetone
    •   Used the 2 way nail art pen in silver glitter diagonally
    On top of the glitter line, I stuck on blue rhinestones, pearls, and silver steel balls using the dotting tool

    •  And then of course top coat to make it all shiney =)
    • you can see that a pink steel ball was placed onto my index finger, this is due to the steel balls all mixing up during the shipment. =(  It's hard to separate the colors now
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    I live in Canada and it took 1 week for the shipment from Hong Kong to arrive. This is incredible, usually it takes 2+ weeks for anything shipped outside of North America. I was very impressed with the shipment. Everything was packaged tightly and with bubble wrap.

    I am very pleased with http://www.bornprettystore.com. In the future I would love to get the 18 Colors Acrylic System Nail Art Powder Liquid Mold set.  I hope they get more molds =)


    Disclaimer - The products were sent to me for review with no payment. My opinion is an honest one.

    Another Viva La nails review and some thoughts about life

    Tuesday, November 16, 2010 Category : , , , , , , , 6

    Hi Darlings!

    Today is going to be a very long post so sit down and grab some popcorn =)..or nuts..or whatever you like to munch on..I like gummy bears.


    I’m going to start out with something light:

    Nail review on viva la nails rhinestone stickers 

    I stuck them on with tweezers and then applied a top coat.  I went to sleep and when I woke up I found that about 3 of the tiny jewels had come off.  There is also color bleeding. The red glitter in the previous post bled and now the stickers are bleeding.Well, only one of the stickers bled, the pink sticker on the index finger/ pointer finger




    Disclaimer - The product was sent to me for review with no payment. My opinion is an honest one

    Second item of business:

    I was talking to a friend of mine and he said this:  “The way I think of it is: Your life and mine is insignificant. The entire human race is just half a blink in the eye of the universe. Why not make the most out of it as yourself, as an individual. F*ck the world - make your life your own.”

    After thinking about what he said, I pulled out my list…you know, the list we all have, literally or mentally of all the things we wanted to do and of all the places we wanted to go. 

    Here’s a bit of my list:
    1. Go dog sledding
    2.  Learn to snowboard
    3. See the Taj Mahal
    4. Gain courage to hold a reptile: snake, lizard, turtle
    5. Gain courage to hold a spider
    6. See the Northern lights
    7. Go Bungee jumping
    8. Go to Russia
    9. See a volcano: extinct/ dormant/ alive
    10. See narwhals
    11. Eat a molecular gastronomy meal
    12. etc..

    Although I have had this list for many years, I have only completed 2 out of the 100s of things listed. I am going to slowly work on chipping away at this list. Sure it will take money and time, but to make my life my own I want to do things I want or at least work towards doing things I want to do. 

    So this is what I’ve done:

    Bungee Jumping on Whistler Mountain:

    Crocodile named Lucy


    I know a lot of bloggers are having a lot of difficulties in their life and well, after talking to my friend I realized we only have the one chance to make it the life we want, so why don’t we?-->Money and time.  I think that as long as we have a goal in life/ have a desire to do something and we work towards it, we make our life much more worthwhile when we actually do reach one of our goals.


    Third item of business:

    A small favor request:

    My sister entered a contest on Cathay Pacific Canada's facebook page and I would love it if you could vote for her entry.  The only catch is that the contest requires you to have a facebook account.  It is the Art of dessert contest, what happens is you make a dessert that if chosen will be served on International Cathay Pacific flights.

    Her dessert is under Amy Choh, B.C.: Coconut Panna Cotta with Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Sauce and Banana Chips

    Here’s a picture of it:

    It’s pretty much coconut pudding + dark chocolate hazelnut sauce + a side of banana chips.  I had a taste of it just now and the Coconut Panna Cotta is Awesome! (I’m not just saying this because she’s my sister, it really is awesome)

     
    If you guys have the time it would be great if you could vote for her. 
    Voting instructions:
    1. Just follow the link http://www.facebook.com/cathaypacificCA
    2. Click on the "Like" button page to like the Cathay Pacific Canada page
    3. Click on the“Art of Dessert” Tab
    3. The contestants should be listed a little below
    4. Scroll for “Amy Choh,B.C: Coconut Panna Cotta with Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Sauce and Banana Chips” and click “Like” to vote   <---currently I believe she's on page 10

    I’m going to tweet it too and if you guys could help spread the word I would really appreciate it. A few clicks is all it takes to make my sister very happy =) 

    Konad M73 + Review for viva la nails

    Wednesday, November 10, 2010 Category : , , , , , , 19

    Hi Everyone!

    I've decided to give my nails a break from nail polish so they are naked...well as naked as they will ever be....meaning I have a french tip manicure.
    I need something on the tips of my nails to protect from chipping; thus, a french manicure. 

    I used:
    Sally Hansen Pacific Blue: for the tips
    Sally Hansen white out: konaded with M73
     Super Glitter Dust - Red from Viva la nails
    Seche Vite top coat

    ***I only have top coat on the tips of my nails, everything else is naked.

    • Freehand the pacific blue tips
    • stamp tips with konad plate M73
    • use brush and dip into acetone to clean up  smile line.  
    • Place glitter on smile line
    • apply top coat

    So...the red glitter was provided for review by viva la nails. It was very generous of them but I wasn't very happy with the red glitter at all.  The red glitter BLEEDS!!!!  You can see this on my pinky. After sticking on the glitter I covered the tips of my nails with clear nail polish...well the red glitter started bleeding and smearing..ahh!!!!

    This indicated that you cannot cover the red glitter with top coat unless you want silver glitter and smeared red
    This also indicated that the red glitter will not do well with frankening because it will turn your frankens red and the glitter will be silver.

    I guess the only use of the glitter is for acrylic nails.

    Disclaimer - The red glitter rhinestone was sent to me for review with no payment. My opinion is an honest one.


    Side note:
    1. I plan to have a giveaway soon...almost 300 readers! yay! 
    Are people okay with used nail polish being part of the giveaway? I'm thinking of tossing in some htf that I don't use anymore

    2.  Is anyone interested in OPI Escadorable Coral, Orange you from New York, Apricatcha Cheating? I believe that I may be able to obtain them for a reasonable price (less than $10 with shipping and all that) and I've been looking for them so if anyone else is interested let me know


    @Thifa : why don't you have a nail blog? Think about having one okay? I do love your recipe cooking blog though =)


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    I found this image on http://twitter.com/opinails 






    I like teenage dream but I was hoping it was a pink holo + glitter..but I will probably purchase it.
    I don't want to get into the mad as a hatter problem where I am currently looking for it everywhere and I can't find it anywhere and wish I had purchased it when it first came out. argh!!

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