It's come to my attention that many of my prior post images are missing from their source folders and have disappeared from the blog. I guess that's a good reason for a new challenge in January. I'm so sorry about this error and very sad that so many of my images are missing. I hope to recover what I can, but new posts to come will make up for the loss.
Monday, December 22, 2014
WillowStore Product Review
A few weeks ago I recieved a few sampler products from www.willowstore.ca for review. They included a handful of sample packets each of their Donkey Milk Body Lotion and Face Cream, a Donkey Milk & Olive Oil soap and an olive oil lip balm. The shop itself is based in Toronto, Ontario and is a newly budding Canadian business that I was very excited to hear about and was so happy to get to try out these products! They carry both the Donkey Milk and Olive Oil products online in their shop.
*I apologize in advance for the photos this time around, I didn't think to take them right away and it was late night when I finally did. Poor planning on my part. :( *
*I apologize in advance for the photos this time around, I didn't think to take them right away and it was late night when I finally did. Poor planning on my part. :( *
The Donkey Milk is provided by a traditional family farm in Belgium where the donkeys are hand milked three times per day! The products themselves are made up of 95% or higher organic ingredients and have some amazing qualities. The Donkey Milk provides several benefits to your skin including the potential to reduce sun damage and wrinkles (thanks to antioxidants, vitamins and minerals), as well as offering amazing moisture and continuing protection from dry skin. Donkey Milk is superior in nutrients for our skin to cows milk, but because the process is very labor intensive and the donkeys can only produce a fraction of what a cow can, it's very difficult to get our hands on these products.
The first product I tested out was the Handmade Olive Oil soap in which I chose the Donkey Milk & Silk variety. I found it was what I would consider to be unscented. It lathered well and left me feeling clean, however I found it left my skin feeling a bit tight in the body. I have this issue commonly with soaps, however, so please don't let this discourage you from trying it. Even extremely moisturizing soap varieties often leave my skin feeling tight. I did however find that for my combination skin on my face, this was a perfect choice and I have been using it to wash my face since then.
The bars retail on the website starting at $3 and vary by size.
The Donkey Milk Body Lotion was quite possibly my favorite product of the bunch. I used one packet after a shower for several days on my legs, arms, and some of my body and found it left my skin feeling soft and silky and relieved some of the dry itchiness of winter. It's definitely a scented product, it has a clean soapy perfumey sort of smell that I associate with higher end facial and body creams.
A 400ml bottle of Body Lotion retails for $34 on the website.
The Donkey Milk Care Cream (face cream) was a close second favorite for me. I used it as a night cream after reading some of my friends thoughts on the product as I expected it might be greasy and need some time to sink in. I put about half of a packet on before brushing my teeth and by the time my teeth were brushed, all of the cream had absorbed into my skin. I put on another layer on for good measure but it wasn't necessary as I learned through the next few days using it just once. My skin was super soft and my dry spots seriously reduced for the days that I've been using this cream. As soon as it's in my budget, I'll be buying this in a second. A jar will last a long time. I got 2-3 uses out of each of my 3ml sample packets, so I expect one jar would last 35-50 applications depending on how you use it.
A 50ml jar of Care Cream retails for $36.
And finally I recieved the Vanilla Olive Oil Lip Balm which was a soft scent of vanilla and had no real flavor. It was moisturizing and melted nicely in a similar fashion to the handmade lipbalms I usually use. It is not waxy like a traditional lipbalm and can take some getting used to, but I love them.
It retails for $4.75 on the website in Vanilla, Natural and Rose.
Willow is the only store in Ontario at the moment carrying these products and they are amazing! Some of the gift sets available on the website right now are amazing deals, if you're interested, I would run over and check it out! What better time than the holidays to treat yourself or a friend to some great gifts to de-stress and remember to love ourselves with!
I hope you enjoyed my review! Let me know if you plan on trying out these products!
The first product I tested out was the Handmade Olive Oil soap in which I chose the Donkey Milk & Silk variety. I found it was what I would consider to be unscented. It lathered well and left me feeling clean, however I found it left my skin feeling a bit tight in the body. I have this issue commonly with soaps, however, so please don't let this discourage you from trying it. Even extremely moisturizing soap varieties often leave my skin feeling tight. I did however find that for my combination skin on my face, this was a perfect choice and I have been using it to wash my face since then.
The Donkey Milk Body Lotion was quite possibly my favorite product of the bunch. I used one packet after a shower for several days on my legs, arms, and some of my body and found it left my skin feeling soft and silky and relieved some of the dry itchiness of winter. It's definitely a scented product, it has a clean soapy perfumey sort of smell that I associate with higher end facial and body creams.
The Donkey Milk Care Cream (face cream) was a close second favorite for me. I used it as a night cream after reading some of my friends thoughts on the product as I expected it might be greasy and need some time to sink in. I put about half of a packet on before brushing my teeth and by the time my teeth were brushed, all of the cream had absorbed into my skin. I put on another layer on for good measure but it wasn't necessary as I learned through the next few days using it just once. My skin was super soft and my dry spots seriously reduced for the days that I've been using this cream. As soon as it's in my budget, I'll be buying this in a second. A jar will last a long time. I got 2-3 uses out of each of my 3ml sample packets, so I expect one jar would last 35-50 applications depending on how you use it.
And finally I recieved the Vanilla Olive Oil Lip Balm which was a soft scent of vanilla and had no real flavor. It was moisturizing and melted nicely in a similar fashion to the handmade lipbalms I usually use. It is not waxy like a traditional lipbalm and can take some getting used to, but I love them.
Willow is the only store in Ontario at the moment carrying these products and they are amazing! Some of the gift sets available on the website right now are amazing deals, if you're interested, I would run over and check it out! What better time than the holidays to treat yourself or a friend to some great gifts to de-stress and remember to love ourselves with!
I hope you enjoyed my review! Let me know if you plan on trying out these products!
Friday, November 28, 2014
A Busy Few Days of Swatching!
While writing out full length posts for my blog has been a bit difficult for me lately, I have been keeping up with my nails. The last couple of days I've started working on swatching my polishes for my pinterest collection. I thought I would share them with you all here and remind you that if you like my swatches, you can find them regularly on my Instagram. Once I've completed the projects I owe for Christmas (crochet requests from my Etsy shop - details in the future) I will get back into my normal programming for blogging.
So without further adieu, some of my swatches this week.
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| Eat Sleep Polish - You Can't Sit With Us |
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| Eat Sleep Polish - Great Sexpectations |
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| Eat Sleep Polish - The Turtle and the Hare |
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| Aly's Dream Polish - Hottest Pink |
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
It has been a month.
You know one of those ones where life intervenes and everything you want to do is sidelined for the important and super un-fun stuff? Yeah, one of those.
I miss blogging. I miss writing. I miss having time to do my nails every day. But I have been working on some fun stuff.
A scarf for a friend, nicely tied in a bow here:
A few pairs of slippers, some fingerless gloves and several bathroom oragnizers have also been keeping me quite busy.
I know this isn't my usual nail related post, but here are a couple of mani's I have done recently to tide you over:
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| Carpe Noctem Cosmetics - South Haven Sunset |
I know I've shown this one before but it's just so gorgeous! I needed to wear it again. Look at that gold shimmer come through, it really does look like a sunset doesn't it?
I have high hopes that in the coming week I will be finishing up many of my near-complete projects which should open up some free time to get back to my nails and my blog. I hope you're all doing well, tell me in the comments how has the past month been going for you?
Sunday, October 26, 2014
What? October is almost over?
What a terrible host I've been for the October mani challenge. I'm -still- sick! I can't believe this nonsense, but regardless, sick or not, I'm going to upload all of my photos so far tonight and update by week. Back to regular programming after that, I'm done letting this cold win!
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Benefit 2014 Advent Calendar "Candy Coated Countdown"
Quick post, not back from my little break, but this one was an easy one.
I've noticed a lot of people talking about the Benefit 2014 Advent Calendar already. Last year's calendar was great and came with a price tag of $79. This year's advent calendar has a whopping $40 markup coming in at a massive $119. What's with the markup? Is it really worth it?
So here's what it looks like in the package, quite pretty, as usual for Benefit.
Now for the good stuff. The contents. Spoilers, my dears, if you don't want to know what's in there, don't read any further.
All of the products are sample sizes.
Day 1: Heart Paper Clips
Day 2: Ultra Plush Lipgloss "A-Lister"
Day 3: They're Real Mascara
Day 4: Stay Don't Stray (lt/med)
Day 5: It's Potent
Day 6: Porefessional
Day 7: Silver Hair Tie
Day 8: Holiday Post It Notes
Day 9: Ultra Plush Lipgloss "Dandelion"
Day 10: Stay Flawless
Day 11: Benetint
Day 12: Total Moisture
Day 13: Posietint
Day 14: Hair Tie w/ bow
Day 15: Ooh La Lift
Day 16: High Beam
Day 17: Holiday Notepad
Day 18: That Gal
Day 19: Pink Polkadot Hair Tie
Day 20: Ultra Plush Lipgloss "Fauxmance"
Day 21: Watt's Up?
Day 22: Bad Gal lash
Day 23: ChaChaTint
Day 24: Fake Up Concealer in 02 Medium
So what's different from last year? Not much, honestly. Here are the differences:
2013 contained the following products that 2014 does not:
Girl Meets Pearl
Hoola
Dandelion
Coralista
BadGal Liner in Black
Ultra Plush Lipgloss in Coralista
Ultraplush Lipgloss in Sugarbomb
2014 new products:
They're Real Mascara
Ultra Plush Lipgloss in Fauxmance
Stay Flawless
Watt's Up
Fake Up Concealer
You might notice that this advent calendar has actually lost products. In 2013's Advent Calender there were three days containing non Benefit products (a bracelet, a necklace and a barette). In the 2014 Advent Calendar we see six days without Benefit products (paperclips, post it notes, 3 hair ties, notepad).
Is it worth the price hike? Well, that's up to you, but I think I'll be investing in a David's Tea Advent Calender this year instead. Which holiday products are you excited for?
Quick Update
I'm so sorry I haven't been posting my daily swatches like I planned to, I have literally been sick since the first of October and still am not quite well. Hopefully I will be able to play catch up soon and get back to regular posting. In the meantime I have still be uploading daily mani's on my Instagram. I'll be back soon!
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