Vintage Cases

At the last Retro Markets, I spent my last $50 on 2 cool vintage cases.

A cream coloured vanity case

Comes with a removable upper tray

And a large vanity mirror of course!

Also picked up this awesome gold mesh case:
The lady I bought it from asked if I was going to my cigarettes in it. But I've put a lipgloss, a lipstick and an atomiser :-) Girly essentials

Stem Antioxidant Toning Infusion

Out of all the products from the Stem kit, I’ve only kept the toner.

Description:

A triple acting toner to promote a super clean face to increase moisturiser and serum effectiveness. Removes impurities and dead skin whilst infusing your skin with age fighting antioxidants. Enriched with fresh organics for optimum skin, health and life.

Ingredients:

Organic Aloe Barbadensis, Orange Flower Extract, Organic Chamomile Extract, Niacinamide Vit.B3, Pomegranate Extract, Kakadu Plum Extract, Green Tea Extract, Panthenol Pro-Vit. B5, Organic Olive Leaf Extract, Willowbark Exract, Hydroxy- methylglycinate (amino acid based preservative), Bauhinia Purpurea Bush Essence, Citric Acid.

As with the Miessence toner, this one came in a pump bottle. Maybe because I was used to the previous pump bottle that I didn’t find it a problem.

To tell you the truth, I’ve been using the toner as an under eye hydrating solution. It smells light and refreshing. First cut a cotton pad in half and soak it in some toning solution. Place under your eyes and relax. Feel nice and reduces the puffiness (I believe) of your eyes. Also by doing this it forces me to relax and sit down.

The New Year's Coming

I do resolutions every year and I think every year I fail... But I have been thinking about what I want to achieve next year and with living by myself it's a lot easier (I hope). I have been reading minimalist blogs and the unclutterness of it all appeals to me.

2010 will be no different. I am definately going to have resolutions. I read them from time to time and go- oh I forgot I had to (not) do that. They are something to work towards to. Next year I will strive to fulfil them. Especially the important ones. The most important one is: no buying new things especially clothes!! I will try to be strict. There will be exceptions, I have to iron out the details.

Have you thought about resolutions yet?

Merry Christmas!!

Hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas!!

My Christmas cards hanging up- one from Kris Kringle and one from Ceeb Wassermann.

And a bouquet of flowers that I picked which had a Christmas feel to it.

I don't normally celebrate Christmas but it is one of my fave holidays (after the Luna New Year of course!). This year I've decided to get into the spirit and try cook a Christmas lunch! :-) Heehee.

Sodashi Travel Pack

Just wanted to show you the products of the Sodashi Balancing travel pack.

L-R: Cleanser, toner, skin boost (mask), moisturiser, eye cream

Up the top: exfoliant

Reviews to definately come for these products

Clear Out!

A while ago, I posted on my looonnnggg list of skin care products that I was using at that time. I was also trialling some new skincare brands then I read FB's blog post on the products she used. And I decided- you know what- I am clearing my skin care products. NOW.

So my list of products are now chemical free and they are made here in WA or at least Australia- what I've always desired. Ok, here is the reduced list:

Cleansers

• Sodashi clay cleanser with lime
• Dr Hauschka's cleansing cream
• Homemade cleansing oil for removing makeup

Toner

• Miessence balancing toner

Moisturiser

• Sodashi face and neck moisturiser
• Invisible zinc sunscreen

Scrub

• Cleanser + jojoba beads

Sodashi was the final brand I decided to try after Miessence and Stem Organics. It's made in WA and is chemical free. The downside of that it is incredibly expensive!! My travel pack alone cost me $226.60!! It came with 6 items including a full sized eye cream which apparently was $145. My skin has responded quite well to the brand and there are no long chemical names in the ingredient list.

I do realise that Dr Hauschka is not an Australian brand or anything, but that cleansing cream is also natural. I thought I'd finish that tube off before buying the full sized Sodashi cleanser.

The full sized products will be expensive to purchase (when the travel ones run out) but hopefully now I will be using every last drop. So it saves me in the long run :-)

So there you have it! The reduced list of my skin care. I will try to review the products as well. Next tackle is my makeup case. The amount of chemicals in there are most likely sky high!

FB- thanks for your inspiration once again!

Mini Diana Photos

Finally got my first roll of film from my mini Diana to develop and a sad 6 photos came out! The ones that did came out are awesome tho! (Well I think they are)

Me and Mei on the Tram Restaurant in Melbourne

A view from our Melbourne hotel

Lampshade on the Tram Restaurant

Multiple exposure

Multiple exposure again

That's the trouble with film- you can never predict what you are going to get! Apparently there was something wrong with the winding of the film (?wound too tightly) so hopefully the next lot will be a lot better. The mini Diana is compact and small that you can just slip it into your handbag and get snapping!

Stem Gentle Cleansing Milk

I've decided to review the second cleanser much more earlier than expected. This one came in a travel pack with 4 products (all 15mL) at $29.95 with $7 postage. Much more value for money compared to the Miessence travel pack.

I am just reviewing the cleanser from the set. The others will hopefully come soon after.

Again- I had to purchase this travel set, it wasn't sent to me as a gift and this is what worked for me/didn't work for me and it is only my opinion on the product.

The cleanser comes in a 15mL glass bottle- very cute and super handy to travel with. Apparently it will last a 2 week trip. Also the dispenser pump is great. There is no fiddling around with it. Twist one way and it's open, twist the other way and it's closed.



The product is described as:
A non-greasy, pH balanced light milk. Removes daily grime and makeup.

Ingredients:
Organic Aloe Barbadensis Extract, Vegetable Glycerin, Purified Aqua, Coco Glucoside (vegetable), Vegetable Emulsifying Wax, Glycerol Monostearate, Organic Jojoba Oil, Vitamin E Tocopherol, Organic Horse Chestnut Extract, Guar Gum, Organic Echinacea Purpurea Extract, Kakadu Plum Extract, Pomegranate Extract, Organic Olive Leaf Extract, Tasmanian Kelp Extract, Organic Mandarin Essential Oil, Sodium Hydroxy- melthylglycinate (amino acid derived preservative), Tangerine Essential Oil, Organic Chamomile Essential Oil, Angelsword Bush Essence, Limonene (Occuring in Essential Oil), Citric Acid

Not too bad, although there are some questionable ingredients. Haha! I am quite picky with them. It says on the label that the ingredients are 80% certififed organic content.

This is the cleanser out of the bottle:



It's quite light with a slight off-white tinge. There is also a slight non-fake orange scent which is similar to the Miessence one.

The only gripe I had about this cleanser is that it made my skin tight after washing which is what I am trying to avoid!! Otherwise, it washes well and you don't have to use too much product.

I won't be purchasing this again as it is not what I'm looking for. I will be rinsing out the remaining cleanser and reusing the glass bottle tho! Love the mini size.

The photo above is the travel pack. You can purchase it directly from the Stem website here.

Cameras... For Xmas?? :-)

I read on Designer Choice: When you've come so far, sometimes the only place left to go is backwards.

I'd say it's true enough, especially with cameras. I mean which normal civillian uses 14MP sized photos that's been taken from a point and shoot camera? Then there is the charm of film. Never knowing what you've taken until it's been developed. But, sometimes it doesn't turn out as I have found several times.

I have been browsing Urban Outfitters (they have a huge range of cool gifts there BTW!) and found several interesting cameras.

Starting with...

Vivitar digital camera

8.1MP, looks retro but for those digital peeps who don't like/want to use film

US $199

Minox Mini Leica 5.0 digital camera

Also for those digital camera people. Small enough to take anywhere and do some secret shooting of say, a really bad outfit. I have a 10.2MP camera but I only ever shoot on about 5MP so this is plenty for me.

US $225

Oh this is my fave: a Lego Camera!

Very simple design, 3MP and you can even add your own Lego bricks to the top of the camera. Imagine pulling that camera from your bag!

US $68

Rob Ryan Fisheye Camera

I've already own 2 fisheye cameras (one is currently being used by my sister) but wish I had this one when I first bought mines! The artwork on the camera is too cute.

US $58

Finally:

Digital Harinezumi video camera with sound

This is on my wish list :-P I've previously owned a mini holga so I'm guessing this would be a similar size. It takes film-like pictures except it's a digital camera and even with the LCD at the back, you can't see what you're taking. I read somewhere that it is about 2MP.

US $180 (In Australia it's $300!!!)

Find Trish's Shop

Trish Hunter Finds has just opened up a shop with her thrifting finds. Let me tell you, she finds some pretty awesome stuff too. She's also running a Christmas competition where you can win a Love Vintage book (and some other stuff) which is incidentally on my birthday list :-)

FOUND!

I have found the brand of watches I was looking for in this post. It's Nooka and I stumbled on it while browsing through Urban Outfitters :-) Yay!

An example of a Nooka watch (taken from the website)

I don't think it was a LED/binary watch but it was a different watch which is what I am looking for.

Miessence Balancing Travel Pack

While on my holiday, I decided to use the Miessence Balancing travel set.

Please note: I had to purchase this set myself- it wasn't sent to me to try!

Included in this travel pack are a 30mL cleanser, 15mL skin conditioner (toner) and a 10mL moisturiser. This set cost me $41.35 plus postage and handling which was about $8-10 (I can't remember the exact amount). The website I bought it from is here.

For me, I was disappointed that it cost so much and came with so little. However, Miessence is a certified organic brand and by looking at the ingredients- they are pure and of natural origins.

L-R: Balancing cleanser, balancing skin conditioner, balancing moisturiser

Starting with the cleanser. The ingredients are (taken from the website):

certified organic aloe barbadensis (aloe vera) leaf juice, certified organic canaga odorata (ylang ylang) essential oil, yucca schidigera extract, olea europaea (olive) leaf extract, certified organic citrus dulcis (sweet orange) essential oil, certified organic calendula officinalis flower extract, certified organic matricaria recutita (chamomile) flower extract, certified organic althea officinalis (marshmallow) root extract, sclerotium rolfsii gum, aqua, certified organic helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, certified organic hypericum perforatum (st johns wort) flower extract, citrus aurantium amara (bitter orange) fruit extract

So as I mentioned before, the ingredients are very natural.

The instructions say to use one to two pumps of the cleanser to wash your face. I'm not sure if it is referring to the large pump bottles because one to two pumps of the travel sized bottle was almost enough to wash one cheek! The cleanser itself is a non-foaming, very light 'milky' solution with a scent of orange. I wouldn't call it a milk cleanser, more like a watery paste. Haha! I know that doesn't sound nice! The scent is not a fake orange smell which is great.

The cleanser

I wouldn't use this cleanser to solely remove makeup. The site does mention to perform a second cleanse if you are wearing makeup. However I would use an oil based cleanser to do that. For me, this cleanser didn't cut it. It's too watery and I had to use a lot of product to do a simple task.

The good points about this cleanser is that it's natural and didn't make my skin tight and dry. You can also buy the full sized bottle (150mL) for $50.65 which is cheaper than the REN cleanser.

A comparison

Next up is the skin conditioner. There is nothing much to say about toners in general so I won't go on for too long.

The ingredients for the skin conditioner are:

certified organic aloe barbadensis (aloe vera) leaf juice, certified organic calendula officinalis flower C02 extract , certified organic matricaria recutita (chamomile) flower extract, certified organic lavandula angustifolia (lavender) essential oil, certified organic althea officinalis (marshmallow) root extract, sclerotium rolfsii gum, certified organic olea europaea (olive) extract, aqua, certified organic hypericum perforatum (st johns wort) flower extract, citrus aurantium amara (bitter orange) fruit extract

This was a bit better than the cleanser. It came in a pump bottle which I thought was a bit strange. The toning liquid is quite easy to apply and you can do it with your fingers so there is no wasteage of the solution. It is a refreshing solution with a natural orange scent as well. I wouldn't mind buying this again.

Finally the moisturiser.

Ingredients:

certified organic aloe barbadensis (aloe vera) leaf juice, xanthan gum, certified organic calendula officinalis flower C02 extract , certified organic olea europaea (olive) juice extract, certified organic matricaria recutita (chamomile) flower extract, certified organic lavandula angustifolia (lavender) essential oil, certified organic simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed oil, non-gmo lecithin, certified organic althea officinalis (marshmallow) root extract, sclerotium rolfsii gum, certified organic olea europaea (olive) extract, aqua, certified organic rosa rubiginosa (rosehip) seed oil, certified organic rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, certified organic helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, certified organic butyrospermum parkii (shea) fruit butter, certified organic hypericum perforatum (st johns wort) flower extract, certified organic ethanol (sugar cane alcohol), citrus aurantium amara (bitter orange) fruit extract

The first thing I noticed about the moisturiser was the scent. It's like a sandalwood/lavender scent?? I disliked it so much that I stopped using it after a day on the Denham trip. So unfortunately I don't have much to report on the moisturiser.

Out of the three products, I would buy the skin conditioner (toner) when mines runs out. The rest I would pass. They aren't what I'm looking for. So far, the front runner for cleansers is still the REN one. I'm very close to repurchasing it again. Just 2 more natural cleansers to try and one is not looking so good :-)

FYI, I am trying to find a natural skin cleanser preferably made in Australia. I know there are heaps to choose from but I've decided to narrow it down to a few to try. However, if there is a natural cleanser that you absolutely luurrve- email me and I will be happy to look into it :-)

Back

Back from a mini break! Hopefully get some posting going. Been pretty slack lately :-) And yes I have been trying to catch up with all your wonderful posts