Random Sunday Beauty Haul

I just recently planned a trip to Landmark with my special boy friend. Okay noticed how the words are separated. Haha :)

You know I am into Watsons because it's so accessible but there's just a lot of cool finds in Landmark! I also dropped by HBC, Hortaleza and Saizen to grab a few items. I haven't gone out much since the end of school semester and a change in daily routine felt good. We spent most our time walking between shelves, I so love shopping! Check out my recent haul below which includes almost everything I have in my shopping list.

Quick review/ first impressions for the products I bought:

1. Tresemme Smooth and Shine Conditioner -Runny conditioner compared to Creamsilk. Smells nice. I bought this to partner my shampoo.
2. Tresemme Smooth and Shine Shampoo -A repurchase. I love how it tames my frizzy hair. Smells nice too just like it's conditioner counterpart.
3. Hortaleza Professional Hair Coloring Cream -This is in 10.0: Bleaching cream! Impulse buy, I'm yet to use this and I really don't know when. -.-'')
4. Mondes Low-Ammonia Hair Coloring Cream -11/N Super Platinum Natural Blonde. Don't freak out, it usually results to brown. This is another impulse buy, but I have used it already. Ekk~ hair disaster. Please watch out for my full review.
5. Hortaleza Professional Oxidizing Lotion -Both of the HBC and Hortaleza shops I've been into has no stock of 12% oxidizing lotion. I don't know if it was normal? Or was it intended to make people buy the 9% oxidizing lotions? Just my wild thoughts. Haha :)
6. Monea C.P.R. Hair Revitalizing Spray -Smells nice but I hate the spray bottle because it leaks when it's not in upright position. I'm yet to test it as well.
7. Daiso Natural Nose Pack -I love the new packaging they were thoughtful enough to add english instructions. My sister loves this, she was too excited and used the pack twice in a row.
8. Collagen Soap -It was fascinating to see a bluish black collagen soap because what I use is transparent.
9. Travel size Powder Jar -I need a small jar for my Palgantong powder since I can't always bring the whole thing wherever I go since it's big.
10. Human Heart Nature Sunflower Oil -Another repurchase! I love this oil.
11. Eyeliner Brush -For tight lining and winged liners.
12. Konjac Cleansing Sponge -A raved sponge by eonnie of Askmewhats if I'm not mistaken. I was looking for a good facial scrub so I decided to get one. This is the smallest size I've seen in Landmark, and the cheapest too.
13. Hortaleza Professional Henna Wax Hair Treatment -(not in the picture) smells like minty herbal. If there is such word, hahaha :) Tried it because the saleslady said that this is the variant for chemically-treated hair. My hair feels a lot softer after a single wash, I'm impressed.

 A beauty haul means more reviews! Hope to take away my shyness to post an FOTD. I'm trying my best to learn but I'd be honest, I am still not good in using make-up. See you in my next post!

Playing with Hair Chalks!

Becoming blonde is still one of my wildest dreams ever since I have loved Kpop. I am still saving up some courage to do that, maybe right after graduation? keke~

Colorful heads is all the rage now, bright colors of pink and blue which looks really lovely. Sadly this fun colors only shows up on light colored hair, in SNSD's Sunny's part: blonde.

Besides hair dyes, there are hair sprays for temporary hair color. I have not tried any colored hair sprays yet but it sure does show up on black hair based on what I've seen. Some of the brands my friends used were from HBC and Watsons.

I just discovered this lately, a temporary color with a fascinating usage process: hair chalks. A hair chalk, from it's name itself is basically a colored chalk intended for hair coloring. The texture is like soft color pastels (the ones used for school projects!) I have seen other girls in youtube use the color pastels from bookstores so I guess it's fine to use the same too. However the ones sold in multiply and facebook are obviously bigger in size so I guess it is cheaper.

What amazes me is the fact that hair chalks, just like hair sprays is working on dark colored hair! On my situation, my hair is black. Another thing to love is the fact that the color is temporary, which means you don't have to always show off rainbow hair when not needed, especially on the streets of Metro Manila *wink*.

Here is what you'll need:

• Water 
• Gloves
• Spray bottle with water
• Soft Pastels or Hair Chalk (do not choose oil type pastels because it will be sticky)
• Hair Iron
• Wear dark colored shirt or of the same shade -the hair chalk you'll be using can transfer to your shirt.

1. Choose the part of your hair you would like to color. This can be the ends of your hair or different hair sections.
2. Spray water to the hair, do this part by part to avoid instances of drying the hair even before you can color them with hair chalk.
3. Take a hair chalk (one color at a time starting with the lightest hair chalk color of your choice) then ran it down to the section of your hair. *TIP: If you have a hard time in coloring your hair evenly try to twist your hair back and forth)
4. Comb the chalked hair before it dries. Some chalk might also come-off when you comb and your hair will look messy and dry but don't freak out, it's normal.
5. Use hair iron to style your newly chalked hair. They say this is a process to seal in the color -not true for me, but your hair will look more polished this way.
6. Use hair spray to make the color last longer then flaunt your newly chalked hair, enjoy! :)

 PROS

• Temporary way to add fun colors to hair.
• Cheap but effective hair color on black or dark-colored hair -Awesome!
• Process of coloring takes short period of time once you get the hang of it.

CONS

• Messy, chalk can fly anywhere once fully dried and color can transfer on shirts.
• Drying on hair so make sure to use conditioner afterwards.
• Not recommended as full head hair color, tried it once on my sister and she said it was not comfortable, use hair sprays instead.

Where to buy?
Online Shops in Facebook, Multiply and Ebay, you can also try colored pastels from bookstores.

Definitely worth the try. It's fun to sport rainbow color hair sometimes

*To be updated with actual photos of hair chalking process* :))

My Name is Chien has moved!

I don't know how many of you have noticed but I finally bid wordpress goodbye. I just moved to Blogger after continuous hacking attempts I can't fight any longer. I have been with my hosting and wordpress for 2 years but problems have just arose weeks ago and there is nothing I can do. I feel more comfortable now that I am in blogger. I've never thought that security issues will be the reason of my move, I have never seen it coming.

I feel bad for letting my readers see constant 404 errors and I guess more of that soon, since permalinks of blogger and wordpress is different. My blog has been kicked out of the top search results which is kinda sad. I just hope sooner or later after hard work my blog can still recover.

I am still in the process of recovering posts, re-uploading images (yes they were left behind in my hosting account), checking all broken links and setting up all codes needed. Even my favicon is not showing, errr... I might need to wait for full propagation. I pray that everything will be fine.

Okay so to brighten up the mood, here is my current music obsession: LED APPLE: Time is Up. My bias is Kyumin who kinda looks like Tao of EXO. Next in line is Hanbyul who is hands down too cute when he danced to Expectation! Hahaha. I just love love love this song, it's upbeat and even their guitarists can dance!

 Great thing there is K-pop to lessen my worries and stress. Lol. I won't lose hope! There is always a tomorrow. AJA! <3

EDIT: Kyaa finally found a way to redirect my old link to my new blog! No more 404 error! *happy*

Review: Dickinson’s Original Witch Hazel Pore Perfecting Toner

How’s your summer girls? Are you loving it? Well as for me I want to get busy thus I’m currently making my list of ‘must-do’ this vacation. *wink*

My blog has been so prone to hackers lately so if you still get the Attack page’ then that is a boohoo for me. I submitted a request for a review of my website, hopefully it’s already clean now, I did my best to delete the hacker files and restore my site! I was so hopeless when I can’t log-in my dashboard. My only tool is Google and the results it gives, even my hosting can’t help me. :(

I might try to post a quick how to next time on steps I did to recover my blog. I am sad on how foolish people can be. They hack websites just for the mere fun of it. I hope there are not much of broken links as I just reinstalled wordpress again.

Anyway so since my blog is back online (although other pips can’t access it yet due to the warning page) I will post a review of my old favorite: Dickinson’s Original Witch Hazel Pore Perfecting Toner.

Noticed how I added the heart in above photo? Haha… I’m just playing around with our photo editor here. XD

Ingredients: (since it was not fully visible in the shot)
All Natural Witch Hazel, containing natural grain alcohol 14% and Witch Hazel Extract

I am fond of using whitening soaps, unfortunately my face became dry after prolong usage. I can’t use alcohol toners as because it will also contribute to dryness (yes I’m talking about you Eskinol!) So I needed an alternative, something gentle that will keep my skin clean and moisturized. Let me clear that I have enlarged pores, but it’s not really my main concern when I was looking for a new toner. After a long day my usual routine of taking off my make-up:

1. About 5-10 minutes facial massage of Pure Beauty Perfect Cleansing Liquid to remove all traces of make-up.
2. Wash off the oil and dirt with Moisturizing Collagen Soap.
   
3. With a cotton ball moistened with Dickinson’s Witch Hazel Toner I am sure that my face is squeaky clean.

Did Dickinson’s Original Witch Hazel Pore Perfecting Toner stayed true to it’s promise?

• Refines pores -With continuous use it might work but do not expect drastic changes. I have enlarged pores so I can see whether a product does tighten pores or not. Hmm… is that a good thing? Lol. At least I’ll know if something is not working, haha.

* ” Witch Hazel is high in tannins. Tannins are found in any natural astringent because of their ability to tighten, dry and harden tissues.”
So as per my research, i can also be used for insect bites, chicken pox etc because it can soothe itchiness. Click here to learn 15 ways of using Witch Hazel.

• Removes and controls oil -Yes it does remove oiliness and keeps my skin’s moisture. Which is a good thing. I notice that I don’t need to frequently use blotting paper anymore.
  

• Soothes Irritation -When I first used Dickinson’s Witch Hazel toner my skin is irritated due to dryness. It indeed helped reduced itchiness. I also used Physiogel cream along with this toner.

Where to buy?

Healthy Options for P79/ 2 oz. bottle, very affordable. It’s their travel size,which is cute compared to it’s original size which is a really big bottle.

PROS

• Cheap!
• Effectively cleans despite being non-drying.
• Refreshes my skin. So perfect for summer!
• Accessible product, any SM malls with Healthy Options.

CONS

• Sometimes I don’t like the smell. though it really depends on my mood. LOL.. The scent of this toner is like chesnuts.

Will I repurchase?

Yes, this is an HG material. I still look forward into trying out Hada Lobo but for now Dickinson’s Witch Hazel toner is enough. I am more than loving this product, I might get the astringent version of this too, Soooo excited!

Review: Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque

Before anything else I want to say sorry to those who have seen the 'hacked' message of Op-Israel. Err...this has been the 3rd time that my blog was hacked and getting it back online is such a big pain.

I just researched and did what I can do. In the positive side I am learning, but not enough reason to get more hacks in the future! I wonder what I can do to secure my website?

Okay so I'll stop blabbering now. Today I'll review my personal favorite- Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque!

I already emptied my tube of Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque even before I publish this, so imagine how long did it take for me to give a review? XD

This tube is big and it took me months to finish, I do not even apply this daily (...and don't! because it can dry out your skin!) The tube is perfect in dispensing the product, just the right amount every time. I apply this mask after a long tiring day, this mask simply makes me feel relaxed, the scent is like Double Mint chewing gum or toothpaste, so refreshing. I think it can even be your perfect summer buddy. I also use this as a spot treatment for pimples. I usually have occasional breakouts when my period is getting near or whenever I feel a bit lazy to remove my make-up (I know this is a big sin! OMY. Don't do this!)

Make sure that you wash your face before using the product. Spread it heavily and evenly to your face (or your neck too if you prefer) make sure that there is enough clay on every part of your face. You will feel that you are ready to wash off the mask when it's already dry. I always sneeze when I have this on because I can inhale it's powder form. LOL. My skin looks fresh and feels clean after washing the mask off. Sometimes I needed to double wash to fully remove every trace of mask on my face.

Okay so above is the ingredients of Queen Helene. Others are scared about methylparaben so I searched and found out that there is nothing to worry about:

"Advocates of organic and natural foods and cosmetics have expressed concerns over the use of parabens in consumer products for years, but there is little evidence to warrant it. While it is true that methylparaben is readily absorbed through the skin as well as in the intestinal tract, it is converted back into para-hydroxybenzoic acid and quickly excreted through urine. In fact, the only negative side effects that have been documented are contact dermatitis and skin sensitivity, both occurring with rare frequency and only in reaction to very high concentrations of test material." -Read more here

Did Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque stayed true to it's promise?

Helps dry up acne pimples
YES! Like what I've said I use this as spot treatment and it does help in minimizing my pimples after about 2-3 applications. I use this hand in hand with my bleaching cream which is also a drying agent for acne. Works like magic.

Rinse away blackheads
Yes and No. It does significantly lessen the appearance of blackheads but it's still there.

Shrink enlarged pores
Yes and No. I have enlarged pores as for your reference. I do notice that my pores seems less noticeable after washing out the product but after a while it gets back to normal.

Where to buy?
Healthy Options for about Php329 per 226.8g/ 8 oz. tube.

PROS:

• Cheap because there is so much product inside the tube!
• Works like magic especially in being a spot treatment for pimples.
• Refreshing and perfect for summer!

CONS:

• Nothing! :D

Will I repurchase?

Yes! I don't expect this mask to work on pores nor blackheads. For me, the product works the way that it should. I love, love, love this mask. This is the cheapest clay mask I've used so far and I have no complains or whatsoever.

When I first bought this mask I was so excited that I asked everybody at home (my family! XD) to try out the product too. To end this post, here is my pretty mom who says BOO! Teehee~ :))