Review: Crabtree and Evelyn Citron Honey and Coriander Body Scrub

ABOUT THE PRODUCT & BRAND
Crabtree & Evelyn was founded in 1972. The first part of the name comes from the Crabapple Tree, which is used in many health and beauty applications, and the second part from 17th-century naturalist John Evelyn. The Citron Honey and Coriander Body Scrub is part of a range of body products with a spicy lemon scent. It contains peach kernel, pumpkin, jojoba, and soybean oils, extracts of citrus, coriander, fig and apricot, and honey. Beads made of sunflower wax provide the exfoliating component. The product is free of artificial colour, phthalates, parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate. Crabtree & Evelyn products are NOT tested on animals.
Source: Brand Homepage..

THE PRODUCT & ME
I bought the Citron Honey and Coriander Body Scrub from a local gift shop that was closing down. I can't remember exactly what I paid for it, but it was about half price. The RRP on the brand website is $30.00. Crabtree & Evelyn products are also available at brand stores and on their website.

PACKAGING
The Scrub came in a cardboard box, which made it seem more special. The design of the box and tube itself has a whimsical, old-fashioned feel with an illustration of a lemon. The tube stands upside down on its lid - I always prefer packaging like this, because the product naturally travels to the bottom and you can squeeze more out.

Straight from the tube.
APPEARANCE & PERFORMANCE
The Scrub is white in colour and has a very thick, creamy texture. I really loved the smell. It's a subtle creamy lemon with just a hint of spice. The smell lasts on my skin for hours, but it's not overpowering. The exfoliating beads are a little hard and people with sensitive skin might find them a bit scratchy, but I thought it was fine. The amount of beads compared to scrub is quite a lot, so there is an effective exfoliating result. My skin felt much smoother afterwards.
I tried this scrub both on dry skin and wet skin with different effects. On dry skin the scrub clings to the skin and there's a harsher scrubbing effect. On wet skin, the scrub disperses and the scrubbing effect is much gentler. I preferred using the scrub on dry skin personally, but you may prefer using it on wet skin if you have sensitive skin.

The exfoliating scrub. CONCLUSION

Pros:                             Cons:
delicious smell                  a little expensive
made skin feel very smooth       not widely available
pretty packaging

WOULD I GET AGAIN? Yes. Crabtree & Evelyn is a brand I wouldn't really have considered purchasing before, but I'm adding them to my list of "for a treat" brands now!

Review: W7 Trends Lipstick in Fuchsia

I'm a beginner at reviewing makeup products, and I don't wear lipstick very often, so I apologise if I left out any useful details. I've also never taken such a close-up photo of my lips before, and I had a bit of a freak-out session when I saw the pictures: do I really have that much upper-lip hair? Do I really have that many freckles on my lips??! I hesitated posting this for a couple of weeks because of it. But then I realised: nobody's perfect! So why not?? It also made me realise how little I actually look at my own face when I'm putting on my makeup in the morning. Food for thought. But in the meantime, here's my review:

THE PRODUCT & ME
W7 Trends is a bargain brand from the U.K. It recently appeared on shelves at Chemist Warehouse. The Lipstick comes in 20 shades that I could see in the display. My secret dream is to have a trashy pink lipstick, so when I saw the Fuchsia shade, I made a totally frivolous purchase. It cost $4.99.

PACKAGING
The Lipstick comes in a silver tube with a clear rounded lid. For a bargain bin cosmetic, this looks quite sleek and glamorous. The tube is quite short, so it would fit well in a makeup bag. It feels very light, however the lid snaps on firmly, so the lipstick would be well protected in your bag. The tip of the lipstick is stamped with the W7 logo, which I think is a cute, quirky touch.

Above: bare lips; below: with W7 Fuchsia Lipstick.
APPEARANCE & PERFORMANCE
As you can see, the Fuchsia Lipstick is very highly pigmented. The shade is a bright hot pink with just a hint of orange. It goes on shiny, but then dries to a semi-matte. My lips dried out a little, so anyone with dry lips might want to use a lip balm before applying. The texture isn't very creamy, but it isn't very hard either: I would say it's in-between. It has a light powdery smell which I found pleasant.
I checked the lipstick again after eating dinner, and it was mostly gone. There was only a slight pink stain remaining, and none of the semi-shine it originally had. So the W7 Lipstick is not the best when it comes to staying power.

Pros:                             Cons:
cheap.                            very little staying power.
highly pigmented.                 slightly drying.
nice-looking packaging.                         

WOULD I GET AGAIN? Yes, if I wanted to experiment with new shades of lipsticks without spending a lot of money.

Mini Review: Pola Kalahari Moisture Lotion

THE PRODUCT: Pola Kalahari Moisture Lotion comes from Japan. It contains makataan (watermelon). I received this sample sachet as a gift.

PROPERTIES & PERFORMANCE: The lotion is clear and very runny - it ran straight out as soon as I tore the sachet open. Some of it spilled on my camera! №❢ (Don't worry, it's OK.) I had to rub it in quickly before it went everywhere. That's why I don't have a 'before-blending' shot. Here it is half-blended into my arm:

The Kalahari Lotion is a very light gel; it absorbs very quickly and isn't greasy at all. It smells very faintly of fruity watermelon. It's a yummy smell, but it doesn't really linger. My arm felt noticeably soft afterwards.


GET AGAIN?: Yes! As long as the full size came in packaging that protected it from spilling.

Japanese Goodies!

I know it's not exactly craft-related, but I'm extremely excited to present to you today -

the extremely generous bundle of birthday gifts that my dear best friends S & B brought me back from Japan! I was just about beside myself by the time I finished opening every individually-wrapped gift. Even now, the next day, every time I think about them, I do a little leprechaun dance! Here they are:

This is what I received:
♥ Kitty cat tote bag
♥ Harajuku Girls magazine
♥ kawaii socks, 3 pairs
♥ bento box; food picks
♥ beauty products sample pack
♥ handmade stoneware chopsticks rest
♥ Minnie Mouse tophat hairclip
♥ wall-hanging cloth
♥ Fujichan notepads set
♥ washi oil blotting papers
♥ silicone drink bottle lid covers

Thank you S & B, you're amazing!!

DIY Hair Detangler Spray

Earlier in the week, I finished up my Davroe Tame Lemongrass Detangler Spray that I received in my February LustHaveIt Beauty Box. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the product worked, but at RRP $21.50 for the full-size 315ml bottle, unfortunately I can't afford to be using it all the time. It got me to thinking though, surely all it needs is something that will make your hair slippery? When I found out how easy it was to make your own at home, I was especially determined to give it a go myself.

The main tutorial I used was Let's Make It Up's YouTube video (no longer available). (I have a short attention span so I chose the shortest vid, but it turned out to be a good one.) The other tutorials around the intertubes were generally in agreement - all you really need is hair conditioner and water.
That's it!

Let's Make It Up added an argan oil serum as well, but seeing as I only use the detangler right before I wash my hair, I think it would be a waste for me. So here are my ingredients:

☀ an Avon 2-in-1 shampoo which I found in the back of the cupboard, which I'll probably never use to actually wash my hair
☀ warm water
☀ petitgrain essential oil to give it a nice oriental scent
☀ the old Davroe bottle to mix/store it in.

So, I just put about 1/2 teaspoon of shampoo in the bottle, 2 drops of essential oil and filled it almost to the top with warm water. Then I screwed the spray top back on and shook well.

I tried to take a picture of the finished product, but it just looked like slightly cloudy water:

I'm sure you get the gist anyway. Now, to test it out! On the left is my hair, after using a sea salt spray on it (the De Lorenzo spray I got in my LustHaveIt box yesterday), going to a party and then sleeping on it all night. Tangled and horrid! On the right is my hair after using the detangling spray and brushing it out.

Above: before. Below: after detangling spray and brushing.
Quite a difference! The spray makes brushing my hair much easier and less painful. I would say that it works just as well as the purchased brand. The only problem is - I used 1/4 of the whole bottle in just one application! (It's only a 50ml bottle.) I think I'll use a larger one next time I make this!

Packaging: n/a
Price: 5/5
Effectiveness: 4.5/5
Overall rating: 5/5

MAKE AGAIN?: Definitely!

My New Blog!

Yes, I've started a 3rd blog. Because I don't already spend enough time on the internet. Ahem.

My new blog is called dedicated to beauty products. It's called ShyCat Beauty.

There will be reviews, opinions and just general goings-on. I will also be doing some make-it-yourself beauty projects, and I'll post links to those here, because I think they count as crafty projects. In fact, I've done one already, for a DIY Hair De-Tangler Spray. I hope you'll have a look.

3 Days of Craft: The Wrap-up

So perhaps you've been wondering what I did over Easter? During the highly anticipated 3 Days of Craft that I was so excited about? Actually, I spent the majority of my time on the computer, reading blogs and such. But I did manage to do a few things, and get a few things closer to done.

Firstly, the closer-to-done things. I worked on the scarves, both baby and adult.

Baby Sunlight Scarf.
The baby scarf is half-way done now. I'm using the same technique as I did with the Harry Potter scarf. I really love the tube effect with no visible joins. Unfortunately though, that means knitting half of each row at a time, so it's pretty slow going. I guess I forgot about that when I decided to make the new scarf the same way!

Chequerboard scarf, "front".
The adult scarf is pretty slow going, too. Firstly, I made a base of simple filet crochet. That part was easy. Now I'm up to the hard part. I'm crocheting a second filet grid, but attaching it to the first one as I go along. I've never seen anything made like this before, so I basically have to make it up as I go along. I don't think I could even describe how it's done. Every time I put it down, the next time I take it up again, I have to figure out what I did before! So it's very slow going.

Chequerboard scarf, "back".
Then for some bizarre reason, Husband and I decided to break out the Crystal Mining Kits that we'd had in the back of the cupboard for a couple of years. Inside the plaster brick are 8 crystals. You use the provided plastic hammer and scraping tool to excavate them. It's quite fun. I've excavated 2 so far. But again, it's a very slow process. The brochure even warns that you need to have patience, just like a 'real geologist'!

But the best thing I did - the thing I actually finished - was I tried out my Fuse Beads kit for the first time! I bought it a few weeks ago, but didn't have time to try it until now. Fuse beads are little plastic beads that you can arrange to make a pattern or a picture on a peg board. Then you iron them so they melt slightly and fuse together. There are a few different brands of beads out there. Mine are the Hama Beads brand. Here's an example of some fuse bead projects from the intertubes.

As you can imagine, this kind of format lends itself really well to things like pixel art - characters from old computer games, anime, pop art, etc. There's a lot of geekery in the genre! Having said that, I've also seen some gorgeous examples based on Navajo and European folk art. Here's a link to Tumblr with lots more examples (there are giant Totoros!).

There are a couple of advantages to the properties of fuse beads:

They're made of plastic, which means that -
They're washable and relatively durable. You can use them to make coasters, for example. (Though, seeing as they melt and fuse with the heat of an iron, I wouldn't use them to make a trivet or anything like that.)

It also means that -
you can easily glue them together or glue things to them.
You can make several sheets and glue them together to make a 3-dimensional box or basket. Or even a figurine. They'll stand up straight if you make a little stand for them or lean them up against something. You can glue decoden to them, such as bows, cabochons, googly eyes, etc.

Also -
They have little holes in them, so it's insanely easy to attach split rings or other findings and make them into jewellery - necklaces, rings, earrings, phone charms, bag charms, etc. Also, instead of fusing them together, you can use Native American weaving techniques to string them together into a flat or 3D piece.

Anyway, here are my and Husband's first projects!

Hama bead projects.
Here we see: a coaster that I made using the circular peg board, a star shape that I'll probably make into a hair clip, and a smily face that Husband made. Later he turned it into a fridge magnet.
We've made a couple more things since, but I'll post them later.

To wrap up:
well, this 3 Days of Craft was more like 2 days on computer and 1 day of craft but - hey - I did what I wanted to do and I have no regrets! At least my Startitis has abated a bit. As the saying goes, it's much easier to start than to finish. (Well, if no-one has said that, someone should have!)