Review: L'Occitane One Minute Hand Scrub

Another gem from my recent L'Occitane loot is definitely the One Minute Hand Scrub. I believe I have mentioned my notoriously dry hands in the winter here on the blog before, but this winter (well, it's actually still fall where I am but anyway) I decided to try something new, besides all the hand creams I consume, so I really wanted to try the L'Occitane One Minute Hand Scrub.

Now, while this product does not have one of those amazing scents L'Occitane is famous for (I was a bit disappointed about that as I love their scents), it is a really nice product, as it manages to both exfoliate and soften my hands at the same time.

I am not sure what exactly I was expecting of the One Minute Hand Scrub, as I am pretty used to being disappointed in hand products, but it certainly lived up to all my expectations and more!

So I will definitely keep using this one all through the winter and repurchase when I run out!

Review: L'Occitane Neroli & Orchidee Collection De Grasse Eau de Toilette

I also mentioned before that I bought a lot of L'Occitane products recently, so let's break up the Laline product reviews with a L'Occitane one, shall we?

Among the things I got was a scent, the L'Occitane Neroli & Orchidee Collection De Grasse Eau de Toilette, as I tried it out in the store and thought it smelled amazing.

And after having used this scent a couple of times, I still really like it, as it does not smell too perfumey, but is rather a very faint, yet charming scent, not overpowering or strong, but it does linger for quite long. The longevity is perhaps not the best, but keeping in mind that it is a Eau de Toilette and not a perfume, I think it is okay.

I will also say that it is a very summery scent, though, so I suspect I won't be using it too much during the winter, but I definitely look forward to next summer when I will be able to wear it on a day to day basis, and since the weather where I live is still pretty summery, I do believe I will try to use it a couple of times more before winter is here for real.

I would definitely purchase this scent again!

Review: Laline Cherry Blossom Body Scrub

So I mentioned recently that I had bought quite a lot of Laline products, and now it is time for the first Laline review.

I decided to give the Laline Cherry Blossom Body Scrub a try first, as I honestly needed a really good scrub (sorry if TMI!).

And this body scrub really does the job really well!
It is kind of a rough scrub, not the gentle kind, but I personally like that, but it might make this scrub less suitable for those with sensitive skin.

Everything I wanted off, came off easily, and my skin felt strangely moisturized, yet not sticky and gross afterwards, and that is pretty rare for me. I find it rather easy to find body scrubs that scrub well, but not as easy to find something that does not leave me with some weird residue. But the Laline Cherry Blossom Body Scrub does and doesn't!

So basically I was very pleased with this body scrub, especially since the Cherry Blossom scent was really pleasant too, so I will definitely be considering this scrub again when I need a new one!

Comin up on the blog: Several L'Occitane reviews

The day after I went for a shopping spree at Laline, I went a bit beserk at a L'Occitane store as well, so I am pleased to announce that I will be publishing several reviews of different L'Occitane products here on the blog in the upcoming days as well!

Stay tuned!

Coming up on the blog: Several Laline reviews

You see, I shopped quite a bit at Laline the other day and am in the midst of trying the products I got out at the moment. So I do believe I will have some opinions to share about these products very, very soon!

Review: Dior Purifying Cleansing Milk

The Dior Purifying Cleansing Milk was somewhat of an impulse buy on StrawberryNet (anyone else make those?), and I must say I love Dior products due to how pretty they look in your bathroom, this cleanser being no exception. However, this cleanser definitely has both pros and cons, in my opinion, so let me tell you about both.

Pros
- It did not break out my rather oily skin, which is something I can't take for granted with most cleansing milks, unfortunately, so I was very happy about that!
- The cleansing milk itself has a lovely, clean and basic texture and feel. Not greasy and annoying like some cheaper brands tend to.

Cons
- The bottle is just useless, it is really hard to get anything out and some pieces fell off when I first opened it. The bottle is so poorly made, however, that I am thinking that maybe the one I got was somehow defective, but as I do not know that for a fact, I will just say that the bottle is definitely not one of my favorite ones.
- This product does seem a tad overpriced for me. I know it's Dior and all, and you pay just as much for the name as for the product, but still...

Also worth noting
- This cleanser does not really have a specific scent, which may be a good thing, according to some, and a bad thing, according to some. With cleansers I personally do not have a preference regarding this, so just sayin'...

Would I buy the Dior Purifying Cleansing Milk again?
Hmmm... probably not. It's not a fantastic product, and there are some truly amazing similar products out there, after all, so I would probably stick to those...

Review: L'Occitane Lavande Liquid Soap

Around a month or so ago, I went on quite a L'Occitane binge, and one of the things I got on this binge was a L'Occitane Lavande Liquid Soap, that I ended up using as a hand soap in my guest bathroom.

And I must say, I absolutely love this soap! The scent is gorgeous and very lavender-y, so it is just what I wanted!

Since I have pretty sensitive hands, a fact I think I have mentioned here on the blog previously as well, I also appreciate the fact that this soap is very gentle and does not dry your hands out at all.

The texture also feels very rich and luxurious, so while this is "only" a hand soap, it is definitely one of the better ones I have ever tried and I will most definitely be buying it again!

So to summarize: Love, love, love! Basically.

Review: Lancome Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector

Time for another Lancome review again, and while I must say that it has been a lot of fun trying out all the Lancome products found in my recent Lancome batch, I have to admit that I only got a sample size of the Lancome Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector. So I have not been able to try this for a very long time, only around a week.

I am not too bummed out about this, though, because while Lancome say that the Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector is a serum that tackles a ton of different skin care concerns, from wrinkles to large pores, marks, redness and more, I think that such miracle products are generally less good than products that focus specifically one one issue, wrinkles or large pores, for example. A serum that is supposed to do so many things, rarely does all of them well, and in my opinion, this is true for the Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector as well.

This serum does, however, have a lovely scent, as well as a nice texture, making it nicer than many other serums, but I cannot say I see any difference in my skin after using this. Not in a good way, and thankfully, not in a bad way either.

But given the rather hefty price tag of this serum, I am not sure I would buy it full price, since there are better serums out there, that do give me results.

It was still nice to give this serum a try, but for now, I think I will mainly stick to Lancome's mascaras, rather than venture into more skin care trials from this brand. They do mascaras really well, but I am not sure skin care is something they really excel in. (You might remember that while their eye cream was okay, it as not much more than that)

Review: Teint Idole Ultra 24H Foundation

Time for another Lancome review, out of my recent Lancome stash. This time it's for a foundation, the Teint Idole Ultra 24H that the saleslady recommended, since they did not have my favorite Bourjois foundation.

Since I have tried many bad foundations over the years, I must admit my hopes for the Lancome Teint Idole Ultra 24H were not that high, even if this is a Lancome product.

But I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I found a color that fits me perfectly, and makes my skin look great, but very natural (important for someone like me, who doesn't want to look like she is wearing makeup, even though she is), and the foundation looks good for a really long time, too, which cannot be said for most foundations.

The bottle is chic and easy to use, and the foundation also has a nice scent, again, something you cannot expect from most foundations. You also do not need to use large amounts of this foundation, because a little really goes a long way, so while this might be a bit of a pricey foundation for some, I think it would still be worth it because of that. And that helps create a more natural look as well, of course.

The only complaint I have about this foundation is that the coverage is not great. If you have any serious blemishes or discolorations, this foundation might not be able to help you, but it does a great job at hiding any small flaws you may have.

Review: Lancome Genifique Yeux Youth Activating Eye Cream

Out of all the Lancome products I currently have in my house, mentioned in my previous post, the first one I started using was the eye cream, which is not that surprising, because I have been using a lot of eye cream this winter, like I already mentioned in another recent post, the one about the Decleor eye cream, so I was curious to see how Lancome's would measure up.

And the answer is: the Lancome Genifique Yeux Youth Activating Eye Cream is okay, but not amazing. Here's why:

First of all, I know a lot of people probably love creams in jars. But I don't. They just feel less hygienic to me than tubes, somehow.

The packaging is nice, although not super unique or anything.

The texture is nice and light, making the Genifique Yeux a pleasant cream to apply.

The cream moisturizes decently, making the area around my eyes look less dry, but it does not really battle wrinkles and lines very seriously. So if you really have stuff to get rid of, so to speak, and you are looking for an eye cream to help you do that, this eye cream might not be for you. If you just need a little bit of moisture, this cream will give you that, I think.

This is why  I would actually say that this eye cream suits young people best, because they probably just want to add some moisture, without really having much else to worry about. However, I do not think they are the target audience for the Lancome Genifique Yeux Youth Activating Eye Cream, at least not based on the name the cream was given, so I think it is probably a bit less useful than some other eye creams out there for the 30 + set.

The price was okay when I bought this eye cream though, because 1. it was on offer and 2. they gave me a second full sized one for free, so I cannot complain about that, but had I bought this eye cream for the price you usually pay for it, I might have had a small complaint about that as well...

Coming up on the blog: Lancome reviews

I recently went to the pharmacy to pick up some mascara, since I am running out of the mascara I have been using for a while now. Of course, I wanted to get a Lancome mascara, since I have found that those are the best ones (at least for me and my lashes) out of the ones I have tried, so I was delighted to see that not only was there a great offer for Lancome mascaras, but for several other Lancome products too.

While I have been a fan of Lancome mascaras for quite some time, I never really tried their other products, so this was a good opportunity for me to try some other Lancome products, such as one of their foundations, an eye cream and some other stuff. So there will be quite a few Lancome reviews coming up on the blog once I have managed to give these a try.

Review: Decleor Hydra-Floral Anti-Pollution Moisturizing Gel Cream for Eyes

The area around my eyes turns really dry and bad looking during the winter, when the weather is colder. The best way to battle this is of course to use some good eye cream. However, good eye cream is not always so easy to find, especially not if you actually prefer gels, like I do. I do think I have found a pretty good one lately though, the Decleor Hydra-Floral Anti-Pollution Moisturizing Gel Cream for Eyes.

That is, I thought I had found something new, until I took a look here at the blog, and saw that I had actually reviewed this exact eye cream here already (see that review here), but the packaging on this eye cream was so different that I did not actually realize it was the same one. The reason? I had bought a salon size, which apparently looks significantly different, compared to the regular size.

But even though the Decleor Hydra-Floral Anti-Pollution Moisturizing Gel Cream for Eyes was not exactly a new discovery in the end, it is still just as good as the first time I reviewed it, so I am still glad I have this eye gel cream to help me battle my dried up area around the eyes! Especially considering how light weight it is, so it sinks in really fast, making it appropriate for use during any time of the day I feel I need it!

La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Mains Review

Every winter, my hands get incredibly dry. So dry in fact, that they crack up and bleed. A lot.

(I was considering adding a "Before" picture to this post, but decided against it, since I do not want to subject my readers to the mess that is my hands, so you will just have to take my word for them having been in a really, really bad state!)

Because of this, I have tried a lot of hand creams over the years, and while some of them have been significantly better than others, none of them really cured the problem completely.

My local pharmacy started carrying the great French drugstore brand La Roche-Posay recently (yay!!), however, and since I had been incredibly happy with the only La Roche-Posay products I had tried up until now (read my reviews of those here, in order to see why I liked them so much), I picked up not only the Effaclar Foaming Cleanser I have been using for quite some time now to clean my face, but also a new product, their Cicaplast Mains hand cream. This hand cream appealed to me since it was said to fit damaged hands. And what are my hands if not damaged?

I did not have very high hopes for the hand cream, to be honest, as I had been using other hand creams for months in order to make them less dry, and nothing seemed to help. And the first time I put some Cicaplast Mains on, I was not too thrilled either. There was no cool scent, like some other hand creams have, instead this was a very neutral product, like all other La Roche-Posay products I have tried up until now.

I also immediately felt some stinging when I put the hand cream on, which was not all that nice (later I did remember, however, that I experienced the same kind of stinging with the La Roche-Posay Substiane eye cream, so maybe this is something that a lot of La Roche-Posay products do?). In fact, my hands turned quite red, and heated up, for some reason, so I honestly started worrying that I might have had an allergic reaction to the cream or something.

I also did feel that the cream was rather greasy, and did not absorb very fast, a pet peeve of mine with hand creams.

So I basically thought the Cicaplast Mains was a waste of money, and then went to sleep, having put the cream on right before bedtime.

So imagine my surprise in the morning when I noticed a significant improvement on my hands! Nothing else had worked, even if I had applied creams multiple times a day, but the Cicaplast Mains had made my hands look pretty good! So this cream must be doing something right!

This is why I decided to put it on the next evening as well, again, right before bedtime, since the cream does make your hands very greasy, like I mentioned, so I cannot put this on when I still have other things to do. And the next morning: my hands were completely "healed"! I could not believe it! No other hand cream has ever come close to this, making me completely flabbergasted regarding how the French do this. But who cares, as long as it works, right?

I do think, however, that this hand cream has some downsides (mainly the long time it takes for it to absorb and the greasiness), so I think I would mostly recommend it for those who have severe issues with dryness etc., not just your "average hand cream user". But if your hands get really, really dry like mine, this cream can surely be a true lifesaver!