2012 recap

I think it's really nice to look back on what you have accomplished during the year, just when it is about to end. This is why I'm doing some summaries of the year, on all my blogs, and this one, which is one of the ones I enjoy writing the most, out of all my blogs, is no exception. So without no further ado, here's a summary of what happened here at Beauty made fun during 2012:

First of all, I wrote 103 posts, most of them reviews, during the year. I know that's not a lot compared to serious beauty bloggers, but since blogging here is just a hobby for me, I think it's still a pretty good number, I have to say!

I found some really great products during the year, most notably all the different Soap and Glory and Bliss products I tried, but also some others. Here is a short collection of pics of some of my favorite products during the year:

As for the blog posts themselves, these were the 5 most read posts on this blog, during 2012:
A review of the Clear and Clean blackhead clearing mask
My "What's In My Shower?" post, which was a nice surprise. Who knew so many people would be interested in that?
A post about a big hair care product haul of mine
A review of the Soap and Glory Flake Away scrub
and
My review of the Bliss FatGirlSlim products I tried. (they were awesome, by the way!)

The most used keyword that brought people to this blog through search engines was Lancome L'Extreme, which I like, since it is actually my all time favorite mascara!
And most of you reading this blog are from the US, Russia and Israel, which was a nice surprise. A shout out to my French, Polish, German, British and Singaporean readers as well, it's really nice to see that I have readers from all over the world basically.

Thanks to everyone who read this blog during this year, I've had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope I will next year as well. May 2013 bring a lot of beautiful and amazing things for us all!

Sales shopped: Bliss Fabulips kit

So far, I have managed to resist the online sales for fashion pretty well. I need to do that, since I have a trip planned in February, during which I will shop a lot (I'm going to Scandinavia! And who can resist Scandinavian skin care, fashion or design, right? So will need a well stocked wallet during that trip for sure), and the fashion sales really didn't tempt me that much this year anyway, since they turned out to be pretty disappointing in a lot of online stores I like (yes, Net-a-Porter, I mean you guys!). But the sales at the online beauty stores... that's another story!

Because why not take the chance to buy stuff you probably will be buying soon anyway at full price, for heavily discounted prices, right? That's why I am not even pretending I can resist these online sales anymore. I will definitely have ordered quite a few things before the sales are over!

The first thing I started out with today was a Bliss Fabulips set, with 4 different lip care products. That really appealed to me because my lips get super dry during the winter, which is a bit of a shame, since my lips are actually one of my best features, so I really should be looking out for them better! And I'm hoping this kit can help me do just that, it has gotten some quite nice reviews after all, and I love Bliss products, as a regular reader of this blog might already know, so my hopes are high for these too!

(pic from Feelunique, where I bought the kit)

Review: Moroccanoil Conditioner review

As some of you may remember, I reviewed a Moroccanoil shampoo recently, and while I found that shampoo to have certain issues (read more about them here, if you are interested), I was more pleased with the conditioner from the same range.

This conditioner is supposed to hydrate dry hair, and is both sulphate and phosphate free, which is great, and it does just what it is supposed to do: hydrate the hair in a nice way. It has a nice, neutral smell, so it should appeal to those of you who prefer scent free products as well. I also like the bottle, it helps make sure you don't use too much of the stuff, which I usually do otherwise.
You also just need to use very little of the conditioner, in order to make your hair all silky and soft, so even if I thought that the conditioner was really expensive when I got it, I have changed my mind about it since, because one bottle of this will really last you a long, long time, which I love.

So while I stopped using the Moroccanoil shampoo, I am still using this conditioner, with another shampoo. And I would get this again, both because it works really nicely and because it lasts you for such a long time. It's nice not having to repurchase stuff like conditioner all the time after all.

So while the Moroccanoil shampoo really confused me, the conditioner was really nice!

Review: Soap & Glory Dr Spot spot fighting gel

I've had amazing results with Soap & Glory beauty products so far, so when I ordered their Dr Spot spot fighting gel, to have for those times you get a spot that you really need to get rid of fast (yep, it happens. And way more often that I would like, in my case), I hoped it would work, but I didn't really think it would. The reason for that mainly being that I have tried A LOT of similar products, and they have never worked like I wanted them to. Most of them do not effect the spot at all, and the ones that do, tend to dry out the skin completely, which means your skin still looks horrible afterwards, since you have one or two more dry patches on your face. And the worst spot fighters are of course those who don't effect the spot, but only dry your skin out, creating a new problem, without even fixing the first one!

So whenever I have tried products like this one, I have always, always been disappointed. And that goes for natural remedies like tea tree oil and similar too, I have tried those as well.

So my hopes were not that high when I noticed that I had indeed gotten a spot, and decided to try Dr Spot for the first time.

In order to understand how well I think this product worked, you should understand how I used it. I noticed I was getting a spot in the morning, and I did have Dr Spot in a drawer somewhere, but since I had no idea how the gel would work, I decided not to take any chances and try it before I had to go to work. So I just left the spot alone, and it got bigger and more annoying during the day. So right before going to bed, I decided to put some of the gel on, to see what would happen.
And in the morning, less than 6 hours later (I sleep way too little, I know!), the spot was almost completely gone! And believe me, that never happens to me with spots, even if I pop them (you shouldn't, I know, but I feel it helps make them go away faster) they're generally there for several days, even up to a week most of the time, so there is no way the spot/zit could have gone away by itself, it had to be the gel!

So I am incredibly impressed, but since I haven't had a spot since then (also a good thing, and could be because of the other Soap & Glory products I have been using, like the Scrub Your Nose in It scrub, my skin really has gotten much better in every way since I started using them), I can't know for sure if this is a one time thing, or something you can expect every time you use Dr Spot. So just in case it was indeed a one time thing, I might get back to reviewing it again in the future, if it should turn out that it doesn't always work.

But the first time I tried it, it was indeed nothing less of a skin miracle! So very highly recommended for now!

Shopped: Soap and Glory Original Pink Perfume

I'm kind of running out of perfumes at the moment, so I will be shopping for some new scents in the next few days. The first scent I decided to give a try was a Soap and Glory perfume, since I'm such a huge fan of the brand otherwise, so I wanted to see if their scents could be worth a try too.

Before making my purchase, I read some reviews on the Soap and Glory scents I had to choose from and the Original Pink perfume seemed to be the most liked one out of all the Soap and Glory scents, so it's the one I decided to start with.

Really looking forward to seeing if Soap and Glory's scents are as nice as their other products now!

(pic from Ebay)

Review: Chinese Jko Balancing Face Mask

I don't know about my readers, but I absolutely love trying some more exotic skin care and beauty brands when I have the chance, besides the regular, mass market Western ones. So when I was travelling in Asia a while ago, I took the opportunity to get myself some local Chinese beauty products, just to see what they were like. One of the products I got was this Jko Balancing Face Mask, and I thought I would share some of my opinions on it with you, even though I know most people reading this probably aren't going to China any time soon. But you never know, maybe some of you are, and maybe some of you have a chance to get some Chinese products in some other way. Because let me tell you, they are worth it! (this was not the only Chinese product I tried, I will try to write reviews about the other ones I had a chance to try later as well)

First of all, I should mention that buying products like this can be a bit risky, if you don't speak the language, but I actually asked the staff at the store that sold this mask to me how I should use it, and it wasn't very complicated, so I figured it would be ok. And it really was!

This mask is not a cream, like most face masks we are used to in the West. Instead, when you open the package (a very nice one, I might add!), you'll find a paper mask, shaped to fit your face and soaked in some moisture, which you then put on. I didn't manage to take a photo of the actual mask myself, but it looked very similar to this one that I saw over at Freakzappeal:

You don't need to lie down to use this mask, though, I actually walked around and did stuff while I was wearing it, and that worked fine too. You leave the mask on for 10 to 15 minutes, then take it off, and massage any liquid still left on your skin into your skin.

The mask, or the liquid in it, didn't have a particular scent, and my skin didn't tingle or anything like that while I was wearing it, and right after I took it off and massaged the remaining liquid into my skin, I didn't really feel a difference. But around 15 to 20 minutes later, I touched my skin again, and I must say it felt wonderful! Very smooth, very moisturized, and it looked really nice too. So I was very pleasantly surprised!

According to the sales girl I bought this from, one should use a mask like this 2 to 3 times a week. I only bought two of these masks, though, because although they were super cheap, I didn't know if they would work or not, and if I would like them or not, so I didn't see the point of buying too many of them. But now I am really sorry I didn't, because the result after using this mask just once was really impressing!

So I have to say that if I could repurchase this, I definitely would! I can just imagine that the long term results of using this must be amazing! (So needless to say, if anyone knows of a place where I can buy more of these online or something, please, please let me know!)

Review: Moroccan Oil Shampoo (Moisture Repair)

It's time for another hair care product review (if you've missed it, I've been reviewing other shampoos and conditioners here, here and here, for instance) and this time I thought I would share some thoughts about the Moroccan Oil shampoo I got a while ago. But before I do, let me just mention that I have never actually been using the original Moroccan Oil, which I know a lot of people really love, so I really cannot compare the shampoo to the original oil product in any way. Just so you are aware of that!

As for the shampoo, there are some things I really like about it: It smells nice, but not too strong (but due to not having used the oil, I can't say how similar the scent of the shampoo is to the scent of the oil), and I think it could be a good choice for people who have a problem with strong scents in shampoos. I am not one of those people, I actually like fun smells, even the ones that stay in the hair afterwards, but it was nice to have a more neutral smelling shampoo too. 

So scent-wise, I loved this shampoo! 

I also liked the bottle, it's easy to use, and a little goes a long way with this shampoo, which is very good too.  So the packaging is just perfect, if you ask me. 

The shampoo is also sulphate and phosphate free, which is great of course, and the shampoo also cleans really well.

I do have one complaint about this shampoo though, which is actually a pretty serious one. As I might have mentioned already, I have pretty dry hair, and the reason I'm trying out a lot of new hair care products is that I want to make my hair less dry basically. But this shampoo seems to dry out my hair. I can't be completely sure than the dryness is because of the shampoo, since I have only been using it for a few weeks, and during these weeks, the weather actually turned really harsh (which could dry out the hair, I guess?) and cold, so the recent dryness of my hair could be caused by that as well, but after having read some other Moroccan Oil shampoo reviews, it seems other people have experienced the same drying effect after having used this shampoo, so I'm suspecting that it could be the reason after all.

But just in case I'm wrong, and the reason for my hair suddenly getting so dry is the weather and not the shampoo, I'll stop using this shampoo for now, and get back to this issue when I have had a chance to try the shampoo for a bit longer, when the weather is a bit more normal.

But let me put it like this: If it turns out my hair turned this dry because of the shampoo, I definitely would not get this again, because that is a deal breaker for me (but it might not be if you actually want to have less oily hair or something), but if it turns out there was no connection to the shampoo, I would get this shampoo again, because everything else about it is great!

So sorry for not having a more clear cut conclusion about this shampoo this time, but that's how it is when you try new products and something gets in the way I guess.

Review: Anatomicals The Sleek Shall Inherit The Earth Conditioner

So one of the hair care products I've been trying out lately is the Anatomicals The Sleek Shall Inherit The Earth Conditioner. (I've also been using an Anatomicals shampoo with it, since I believe some products are intended to be used together, but I've already reviewed the shampoo, here, so I'm not going to review it again)

I'm generally a big fan of Anatomicals products, I think they are reasonably priced and do what they say they do, and this conditioner is kind of the same. It works, it's nice, but nothing more than that. It didn't make my hair supersleek or amazing looking, but it did do what most conditioners do for my hair, making it easier to de-tangle after a shower.
So this conditioner does lack a wow factor, but it's definitely not a bad product in any way, just very mediocre.

I'm not sure I would repurchase this, but then again, I didn't think I would get the shampoo twice either after trying it for the first time, so you never know!

Review: Tigi Bed Head Dumb Blonde conditioner

I reviewed the shampoo from the Tigi Bed Head Dumb Blonde set I got a while ago, the other day. And now it is time to share some thoughts on the conditioner from the same set, the Tigi Bed Head Dumb Blonde conditioner.

While I liked the shampoo from this set, I wasn't as pleased with the conditioner unfortunately. I mean, it works just as well as any conditioner, maybe a bit better even, and you need very little of it, which is great, but the smell does not appeal to me at all. At least the conditioner I got in the set smelled very different from the shampoo in the set, which smelled really nice, and I am just put off by the smell of this product, to be honest.

It also makes my hair feel a bit greasy afterwards, which usually never happens, since I have notoriously dry hair. So I can only imagine what your hair must feel like if you use this conditioner and have less dry hair to begin with!

So while I would like to get the Tigi Bed Head Dumb Blonde shampoo again, I must admit I would not re-purchase the conditioner.

I also got a leave in conditioner in the set, and that one actually seems better than the regular conditioner, but I haven't used it for long enough to be able to give a good verdict on it yet. So anyone interested in that leave in conditioner will have to wait a bit longer for a review regarding on it, I'm afraid...

Also on my wish list right now

I published a beauty wish list yesterday, but I can't believe I forgot one of the products I most want to try right now on it, the perfume that I'm most curious about!

I'm talking about the Moschino Pink Bouquet scent, a scent I had totally missed had been released until now, for some reason.

I am a huge, huge, huge fan of Moschino scents, I can honestly say I haven't tried one of their scents that I haven't liked, and I have tried most of them. (and own quite a lot of them too!) So whenever they release anything new, I must try it immediately!

So I think it is pretty safe to say I will be getting this perfume pretty soon!

(images from Fashion Avec Passion and Miss Fashion News)

Review: Tigi Bed Head Dumb Blonde shampoo

I mentioned in a recent post that I'm trying out a bunch of new hair products at the moment, since my hair has been more dry and problematic than usual lately. Now I'm ready to give my verdict on the first one of them: the Tigi Bed Head Dumb Blonde shampoo, which is intended for those with blonde colored or high lighted hair. I high light my hair, which I guess makes it even more dry than it would be otherwise, so I thought this shampoo could be a good fit for me.

I actually got a whole Tigi Bed Head Dumb Blonde set, with shampoo, conditioner and leave in conditioner, but I'll tell you more about the other two products in separate posts, since some of the products actually turned out to be better than others.

As for the shampoo, it smells wonderful, like a bunch of exotic fruits, which I personally like a lot. But this is not a good choice for anyone who prefers unscented shampoos in any way, since the scent also stays in your hair for quite a while. But I like that!

Another great thing about the Tigi Bed Head Dumb Blonde shampoo is that you need very little of it to wash your hair completely. I've never used a shampoo that seems to be so efficient! So I think a bottle will last for a really, really long time. (I am nowhere near using up mine yet)

My hair feels very clean after I wash it with this, but I can't say my hair got softer, less dry or better in any way after using this, which is basically what I am looking for right now. So this is not the perfect shampoo for me for that reason, but I really like it other than that.

I am not sure if I would repurchase this or not. I guess it depends on if I find that miracle product that transforms my hair in any good way or not. If I don't, I think I will!

On my wish list right now

I have so many products I want to try, and I constantly bookmark links to them, save them on Ebay and so on, because I don't want to be using too many different products at the same time (I think it makes it harder to know what actually works and what doesn't), and I want to use up what I have before I get more stuff (it's a matter of storage too, I guess. I love my home, but sadly, I don't have unlimited space for everything I want to get!).

Some of the things currently on my wish list are:

The Garnier Caffeine Eye Roll, because I know a lot of people who swear by this, but I've never been overly impressed by Garnier products, to be honest, so it would be interesting to see if this one could change my mind!

The Soap and Glory No Clogs Allowed Deep Pore Detox Mask, because I've heard amazing things about this too, and I am a massive Soap and Glory fan as you know, so yeah, I do believe the hype!

The Soap & Glory Lid Stuff  palette with the brown shades. Because I haven't had a chance to try any Soap and Glory make up items yet, only their skin care products, shampoos and stuff. So I am really curious to find out if the make up is good too!

The T Zone Oil Control Mattyfying Moisturiser from The Beauty Parlour. Because I really want to try this brand (I haven't had a chance to yet), first of all, and I do have oily skin, so it could be just what I need to keep my skin looking nice, yet feeling good and not too dry at the same time.

(all images are from Ebay, except the one of the Garnier Caffeine Eye Roll, which is from Luuux)

My first beauty box purchase: Beautylishious

I've been reading about beauty boxes for ages now, and I have always been kind of tempted to try one of these subscriptions. But a lot of the companies that offer monthly beauty boxes sadly do not ship to where I live, so my options were kind of limited. But now I've managed to find some beauty boxes that ship worldwide, so of course I should try some of them, just for the experience.

The first monthly beauty box I ordered was ironically not a box though, but a beauty bag, from Beautylishious. I should be getting it in January sometime and I am looking forward to it a lot. I need to form my own opinions on these monthly beauty boxes, because I am still not quite sure how I feel about them. On one hand, I do like trying new beauty products, of course, and the element of surprise with them appeals to me, but for the same price that you pay for these monthly beauty boxes, you could get at least one full priced beauty product that you choose yourself, and know that you like, so I am not sure they are worth it. Because what if you get a bunch of stuff that don't suit your coloring (talking make up here) or skin type?

But still, beauty samples are always fun, so the idea of having these sample beauty boxes is great if you ask me. I am just not sure if a beauty box monthly is for me.
This is why starting with Beautylishious was actually a good idea for me, you don't have to sign up for a subscription right away, but just order one box. And I guess if you like it, you order one - or several - more.

So let's see how the Beautylishious beauty box turns out. The brands listed on the website seem great at least (the list includes one of my absolute favorite brands: Soap and Glory, for instance!).
You have:
Murad
St. Ives
Crabtree & Evelyn
and The Body Shop, in it for instance.

And ordering a bag was simple as well.

I will be ordering some more beauty boxes further on, since I want to try to figure out what the best monthly beauty box available worldwide would be, so if you live outside the US/UK/Canada (the countries that seem to have the most monthly beauty boxes to choose from), stay tuned!

What's in my shower

I love reading other people's What's in my shower-posts, and since it's only fair to do to others what you wish they did to you, I thought I would finally take the time to write a What's in my shower-post of my own.

As you may figure out when looking at the photos below, I have a jacuzzi at home, which is very nice, but I actually use it way less than you might think. I have just always been a person who prefers quick showers over long baths, but it is nice to have to opportunity to unwind in a hot bubble bath after a long day if you want. This jacuzzi even has a lot of really cool effects, like massage stuff, lights and so on, so it's really wonderful if I do decide to relax in it a bit.

Here is an older picture of the jacuzzi, previously posted in my other blog, with some water (and way less products around it! I think I had just moved in when this photo was taken?) in it:

But let's see what's there now, shall we? (my apologies for the dirt between some of the tiles, by the way, it didn't occur to me that I might want to clean before taking photos of my bathroom, and now the photos have already been taken, so... call it a very genuine experience, I guess)

As you can see, I have products on both sides of the jacuzzi now, and I also keep a loofah glove and the Bliss FatGirl Slimulator (reviewed here) in one of the corners (the one you see at the bottom right in the first picture), even though I must say I am pretty lazy when it comes to actually using them.

On the left from this side, I keep shampoos, conditioners and hair masks, and I must admit I don't usually have a lot of them, I tend to have 2 different kinds that I alternate between normally, but like I mentioned in some previous posts, I am currently looking for some really good hair products, so I have more hair care products than I normally would in the shower at the moment.

If I'll go through them one by one, we have:

- A random vanilla scented liquid soap, that seems to have been misplaced (probably by my husband), and is now among the hair care stuff (embarrassing, but hey, I said I didn't prep my bathroom for these photos, right? Here's the proof!)
- Shampoo and conditioner from famous Israeli hair dresser Shuki Zikri's hair care line (I'm not very impressed by it, but I tend to favor shampoos and conditioners that are not tested on animals, and when I was shopping for shampoo and conditioner recently, this was the only non-animal tested brand available, so I kind of had to get it. If you'd like to try it, I see it's available over at Amazon and Rockland Cosmetics, for instance). These are the red bottles.
- Moroccan Oil shampoo and conditioner. I still haven't tried these, since I got them pretty recently.
- Tigi Bed Head Dumb Blonde shampoo and conditioner (I've started using these, love the shampoo so far, but not the conditioner as much)
and
- Anatomicals shampoo and conditioner (two of them, since I have very thick hair, I use way more conditioner than shampoo)

And the rest of the hair care products are:

- A hair mask from Israeli brand Wow Cosmetics, which is actually a brand I like for quite a few things. It's inexpensive and the products work well. I don't think this brand is available outside Israel though. But if you ever should visit, their products are indeed worth checking out!
- Moroccan Oil hair mask. Still haven't tried this, so I have no idea what it's like.
- An oil intense conditioner from Israeli brand Hawaii. This is a really basic brand, that you'll find for sale in supermarkets, pharmacies and such places in Israel, and while I am not a fan of most of their products, this conditioner is pretty nice, so I get it from time to time. Perfect for very dry hair!
I see Israeli products has some Hawaii shampoos and conditioners for sale, by the way, but they really aren't that special, so unless you have a weird obsession for exotic shampoos and conditioners, I wouldn't really recommend going through the trouble of getting them especially.
- Some small Fekkai Advance shampoo and conditioner bottles (reviewed here and here). I don't think I have much left of these, but since I liked them, I will use them up before throwing them away.

Now, let's move on to the other side, the right side, where I keep body scrubs, shower gels etc. This collection is usually much bigger than the collection of hair stuff on the other side, but I think I recently ran out of several products, so it's a bit emptier than it usually is. When it comes to scrubs, shower gels and soaps, I like a variety, you see. So usually I make sure to stock up here!

Let's go through the products one by one:

- I see have some Clean on Me body wash from Soap and Glory left. (reviewed here, I love this!)
- I also haven't run out of the Bliss Blood orange + white pepper sugar scrub (reviewed here). But that's mostly because I am not so fond of it, or excited about it, so I rarely use it. But on the other hand, it's an okay product, so I will definitely not throw it out either.
- I also have both my Laline Minnie Mouse body scrub (reviewed here) and shower gel (reviewed here), for exactly the same reason. I just like the products that much, so I haven't used them up, but I am planning to, so they're still hanging around in my bathroom.
- I am also on my third or fourth jar of FatGirl Scrub, my favorite body scrub of all time! So I make sure I always have a jar of this around.
- A Dove shower gel with a cucumber and green tea scent. Pretty nice!
- A foot scrub that actually works wonders when you want to keep your feet soft and nice between pedicures and a salt body scrub, from Wow Cosmetics (again).

- A Victoria's Secret Love Spell shower gel. Love Spell is my favorite Victoria's Secret scent, and I have the body mists and perfumes as well, so I use this shower gel when I know I will be using the Love Spell body mists or perfume afterwards.
- Johnson's baby oil. My beautician recommends using this after a bikini wax, so I do.

- The Peaches and Clean face wash from Soap and Glory (love this! Read why here). I use a lot of different face washes at the moment, but I keep most of them in a cupboard I have in the bathroom, so only one of them is placed on the side of the jacuzzi, for easy access when showering.
- A Chrome Azzaro soap. I think this is actually a soap I picked up while travelling, at a hotel (don't judge!) that had Azzaro toiletries. I think I have tried this soap already, but I don't remember what I thought of it. But some soap is always good to have, even though I prefer shower gels normally.