Aromaleigh Lip Product Discontinuation Haul

A couple of weeks ago Aromaleigh announced that they were discontinuing all their lip products and I just had to get myself more of their lip balm, which I love. I also grabbed some of their other lip products to try, before they're gone forever.

Keeping these balms in the fridge to elongate shelf life- Just The Balm Ma'am (plain and unscented), Cremesicle Delight (sweet orange oil blended with vanilla bourbon), Gingersnap (gingery sweet with hints of vanilla), and French Cocoa Bliss (delectable french cocoa- cool, it's brown!).

I just love how they feel so creamy, and are scented delicately, and how they soften my lips. Currently I'm using Pink Grapefruit Parfait, which smells like sweet creamy vanilla mixed with grapefruit. I also like Delicate Vanilla Bean. I sure will miss these when I finish them, but it'll be fun trying other balms too.

I'd only previously tried two of their other lip colors- a Botanical Lipstick in Crush, and Nourishing Color Creme in Candy Cane, which I got during the holidays. I was curious about the Gothic Lolita lippies as well as the Rocks! lippies, so I got two of each to try.

Left to right: Cakewalk, Wallflower, Headoverheels, Notorious, Gossamer, Rosebud.

Swatched in the same order. This one was taken with flash.

Still in the same order. Taken with no flash.

I swatched Candy Cane and Crush as well. That small brown spot is my mole, not the Candy Cane lippie which doesn't really show any touch of nude pink on me, just the pretty iridescence which you can see below.

The lip products are sheer, as you can see in the swatches, but the color can be built up with more swipes. I like them for everyday wear, and my favorite I think is Headoverheels. They're the type of lippies that I can apply in the dark, in a moving car (that's usually where I put my lip color on), and not end up looking like a clown.

Some of the products are still in stock, and I do wish I could get more. AL is on vacation 'til April 5th though.

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Oh my gosh, while I was typing this my mother and my sister texted me that they felt an earthquake, and had to be evacuated out of their office and school buildings! I was relieved to hear no one was hurt. No earthquake here in our area, thank goodness. I would've been terrified.

Leyende Place in the Sun Sunblock

Since Christmas, I've been using Leyende Place in the Sun Sunblock as my daily facial sunblock. It meets a lot of my sunblock requirements- lightweight, gentle, all-natural, affordable, easily available.

This has spf 30 and contains the following ingredients:

deionized aqua, infusion of rosemary and calendula (marigold), organic shea butter, organic sweet almond oil, virgin coconut oil, tinosorb, vit. E, vit. C, vit. B3, organic calendula & aloe extract, grapeseed extract.

My favorite thing about this product is that it doesn't break me out (not in the least), and does not cause any sort of my irritation on my ultra-sensitive skin. That's really what I'm most afraid of when trying out a new sunblock. This has a barely noticeable, mild floral scent, which is good, because I prefer my skincare products unscented.

Because it's very humid and hot here, I always look for a facial sunblock that isn't thick or sticky, otherwise I'd be sweating buckets. Place in the Sun does fit the bill, mostly, although sometimes, on exceptionally sweltering hot days, I find my skin still a bit damp a few minutes after application, but I easily remedy this by lightly patting my skin with a towel before putting on makeup.

Leyende is a local brand, so I can either go to a store to buy this, or order online and receive my order in a day or two. It costs P400 for a 50ml tube which lasts a relatively long time since the product spreads easily and I only need a dab each time. I've been using mine for about 3 months now and I still have a lot of product left.

I've been using Leyende's products for some time now and my favorite items of theirs are this and their Frozen Strawberry Yogurt Body Scrub (this smells goooood). I hope Leyende also comes out soon with sunblock meant for use on the whole body. :)

From my first visit to Etude House

So...everything at Etude House to me is like candy. It's either pink or some other bright color, it smells good, and it's just so cute. Etude House is a Korean brand which recently opened branches here in Manila though I'd never been until now 'cause the store was too far from our place. Just yesterday though a new branch opened nearby, so I went of course and got some things.



Left to right: sample of Precious Mineral BB Cream (gift with purchase), Plumping Lip Tint in red, Peach Water Gloss in Apricot, Auto Lipliner in a brown shade, Dr. Mascara Fixer for Natural Lash, Blackhead Off Finger Tip Silicon, and Good-bye Dark Circle Eye Patch.

I've only tried the Blackhead Off Finger Tip Silicon (the orange object on the right) and the Dr. Mascara Fixer so far. There are two of the Finger Tip Silicons, to be placed on each forefinger then rubbed on the nose, or any other areas with blackheads.


Its short, tiny bristles felt soft when I used it last night when I was washing my face, and afterward my bumpy nose felt smooth and soft. But when I woke up this morning it was dry and flaking. Did I rub too hard? Etude House has this small range of products specifically for getting rid of blackheads, I want to try those soon.

I want to test the Dr. Mascara Fixer for natural lash a couple of times more before I post a review. This can be used as both a mascara primer and topcoat. I saw two variants of this at the store by the way, one said 'for Perfect Lash', while the other said 'for Natural Lash'. I asked the sales assistant what the difference was, but she didn't know, so I just picked one. Anyway I found out later upon reading a beauty blog that Perfect Lash volumizes and curls lashes, while Natural Lash separates and lengthens. I dunno, why would I wanna separate my lashes? Kinda wish I'd gotten the other one. It seems to work well enough though!

They had a bunch more stuff I was intrigued by...and some not. There were fragrances that were packaged like dolls, which looked pretty, but none of the scents appealed to me at all. They had a bunch of body sprays too which all smelled pretty much the same and much like drugstore kids' colognes.


I'm definitely coming back though so I got myself a membership card, which will give me very small rebates in the future- 2% for every P100 purchase. Haha. Expect reviews on the other items soon.

Human Heart Nature Sunflower Beauty Oil - sorta review

I've been using this product on my undereyes consecutively for over a month now, applied once or twice every day. I have really dark undereye circles and have fine lines, and this was cheap, locally-made by a reputable company, and is all-natural, so why not try it?

Oh, I was expecting it to help a little bit with the dark circles, but I should've read the product description more thoroughly- it's for wrinkle prevention and a protectant, not for easing dark circles.



Here's my Human Heart Nature Sunflower Beauty Oil fresh from the fridge, where I keep most of my skincare products.

Radiant, soft skin touched by the sun! Sunflower seed oil is packed with vitamins A, D & E to fight wrinkles and naturally protect skin from infections and irritants. Best applied to the sensitive under-eye area.

I like how it's absorbed by the skin around my eyes easily, and how it constantly keeps that area moisturized. A tiny dab is enough to cover both eye areas, and after a few minutes, I no longer see the oil on the skin, so that area doesn't end up shiny or feeling sweaty or sticky when I go out after applying this.

I use this product on my neck too, and some reviewers on the Human Heart Nature website mention using a small amount on their hair as well. I do not detect any scent to the oil nor did I develop any skin irritations from it. I haven't tried applying this on my entire face (and don't plan to).

I didn't notice if I got any new wrinkles or not, but there was definitely no change, good or bad, in my dark circles or amount/condition of existing fine lines. I'm now using this alternately and sometimes combined with Grapeseed oil. It's nice if all you need is a moisturizer for the eye area. This is way cheap at P99.75 (less than $2) for 50ml. Available at the HHN website.

Two favorite blushes at the moment

I actually don't wear blush much these days, as it seems to be getting hotter and hotter here (30°C) and my face just gets flushed so easily, but when I do, which is usually when I feel more like dressing up, I find myself ignoring my other blushes for these two: Benefit Coralista and Fyrinnae Glow Blush in Enchant.



Benefit Coralista


Coralista is a warm coral pink with a slight sheen to it, and compared to the swatch below, on my cheeks it turns into a warmer shade after a while. It's very close to the actual color of my cheeks when they're naturally flushed. Very pretty and very nice for this weather.

Fyrinnae Enchant


Fyrinnae Glow blush in Enchant looks almost neon in the pot- a bright pink-orange color. Looks scarily bright, but once applied looks as Fyrinnae describes it, which is a soft peach with a bit of pink shimmer. A soft, light pink peach, quite subtle. The finish gives a flattering, glowy touch of color to my face. Perks up my mood!

Swatches:


Top- Fyrinnae Enchant (blended out a bit) , Bottom - Benefit Coralista. Taken under natural light.


In same order, photographed with flash.

Love them both and will most probably continue to wear them exclusively, though I am craving for more blushes from both brands. Despite the humidity, I find both blushes to be longlasting too.

Ask me anything

I've been seeing this on a number of blogs lately, and I thought it was pretty interesting, so I'm posting it here also. Added a tab on the sidebar as well. This lets you ask me anything you'd like, anonymously or not :D

Totally random

For the past few days (weeks?), all the spare time I had previously allotted for blogging or looking at beauty blogs, has been used up reading books. I do love to read and used to be a total bookworm, but I can count on one hand the number of books I got to read since I became a mom. Hehe. Well during our last visit to my in-laws, my two sisters-in-law, who are avid readers themselves, lent me the entire Sookie Stackhouse series! Yes, that'd be The Southern Vampire Mysteries.

I'm enjoying them immensely. I'm on book 7 now. I remember when I read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles when I was 13 or 14. Now that I have my own daughter that seems to me like too early an age to be reading that series...

My interest in makeup and skincare is waning at the moment, but I'm definitely still in the perfume phase. So I wanted to take the opportunity to enter Martha's perfume giveaway.

Her contest mechanics:

1. CONTEST STARTS NOW AND ENDS AT FEB.10, 2009

2. CONTEST IS ONLY OPEN TO PHILIPPINE- BASED BLOGGERS

3. BLOGGERS AND GIRLTALK BLOG READERS ARE WELCOME TO JOIN

4. WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN VIA RANDOM.ORG

5. SHIPPING AND HANDLING TO ANYWHERE IN THE PHILIPPINES IS FREE!

And here is the link to join. :)