Philosophy Vanilla Birthday Cake Shower Gel 3 in 1

I should probably be more organised and take photos of products before I've used up 3/4 of them. In my defence though, I only thought about reviewing this the other day when I was having a shower and thinking about how smooth my elbows where feeling. Look, I'm an adult. It's not weird, okay?

My current routine

This one has been doing the rounds again - I believe The Belle Lumiere kicked it off earlier this week, but you can also nose around in the virtual bathroom cabinets of Dempeaux, Jade Musing and love vulcanella.

Face

01. Cleanser
Morning: Olay Gentle Foaming Face Wash
Evening: Clarins Cleansing Milk
02. Toner/lotion
Clarins Toning Lotion with Iris
03. Serum
Morning: Alpha-H Liquid Gold Poly-Oxidant
Evening: Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair
04. Moisturiser
Morning: Nivea Anti-Wrinkle Q10 Plus Day Care
Evening: Paula's Choice Resist Barrier Repair
05. Facial mask
Paula's Choice Carbon Mask, Payot Masque Clarifiant
06. Exfoliator
Palmer's Gentle Exfoliating Face Scrub
07. Make-up remover
L'Oreal Gentle Eye Makeup Remover, Garnier Skin Naturals 2 in 1 Waterproof Makeup Remover

Body

08. Shower gels/soaps
Philosophy Vanilla Cake Batter 3 in 1
09. Body lotions/creams
Perfumatory Vixen Body Cream
10. Hand cream
Clarins Age Control Hand Lotion
11. Lip balm or lip treatment
The Morbid The Merrier Caramel Apple Lip Balm, Ophelia's Apothecary Buttercream Frosting Lip Scrub
12. Perfume
Van Cleef & Arpels First, Van Cleef & Arpels Collection Extraordinaire Orchidee Vanille, Jean Paul Gaultier Classique, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle

Hair

13. Shampoo/conditioner
Frederic Fekkai Glossing Shampoo, Terax Crema
14. Mask or other treatments
Moroccan Oil

Make-up

15. Foundation
Chanel Mat Lumiere in Cendre, Revlon ColorStay in Sand Beige (or Beige Sand?)
16. Powder
Chanel Poudre Douce in Mimosa
17. Blush
Milani Luminous
18. Mascara
L'Oreal  Extra Volume Collagene Mascara
19. Lipstick/lipgloss
MAC Syrup, ELF Liquid Lipstick in Bark and Pink Lemonade
20. Eyeshadow
NARS Ondine, Urban Decay Toasted, Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow Flatter Me, NYX Shimmer
21. Eyeliner
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil Slate

Review: Perfumatory Whipped Shower and Shave Cream

I'm generally loathe to say bad things about a company, especially if I have only had one interaction with them - I just tend to move on and not deal with them again. For all I know it could be a one off and every other customer has received brilliant service, so I don't want to tar someone online with my one personal experience.

Having said that, my whole experience with Perfumatory has been a bit... slapdash. First of all - the length of time it took to get my order, which I mentioned in my previous post - was kind of ridiculous. I ordered the stuff on 18th September and received it on 7th October (I'm in South Australia, they're in Western Australia). When I hadn't received it by 1st October (pretty much two weeks after ordering), I emailed the store, only to discover it hadn't even been posted yet. The owner advised that she'd been caught up with school holidays, kids, etc. etc. I get that, I really do. But you know... you're running a business. Either run the business or shut down for the holidays. Come on, man. Waiting two weeks for an order to even be sent is pretty ridiculous. I'm not even going to go into the fact that I received CnS notices for three other people besides myself...

So anyway, I finally get my order and I'm pretty chuffed with it all - it smells (mostly) great, and I can't wait to try it out. This morning I thought I'd have a crack at the shower whip - which I'd ordered in the 2oz size, but the owner had upsized to 4oz. That was super nice of her... except she hadn't. She'd written on the invoice "upsized from 2oz to 4oz", and the jar was the same size as the 4oz salt scrub, but when I took it into the bathroom with me this morning I noticed the label said 2oz. Curious, I weighed it, and sure enough, it weighs a total of about 150g, while the Salt Scrub weighs about 200g (allowing for about 100g for the weight of the jar, that means the salt scrub is double the weight of the whip, and yet they are both supposedly 4oz). Now, what I ordered and paid for was 2oz, so if that's what I received, then fine, but why say it's upsized if it isn't?

Like I said, I don't want to colour people's opinions based on my one experience, so I'm not going to tell you not to bother with this company. I think they're worth checking out and judging for yourself. Just, you know, be aware...

Having said all that, here is my review of the product I tried today - Kiss Of The Vampire Whipped Shower and Shave Cream. 

I have seen whipped soap on various websites, and I've never really considered it because I'm pretty much a body wash kind of gal. However, I'm also a leg-shaving kind of gal, so it was actually the "shave cream" bit rather than the "whipped shower" bit that caught my attention here. Because of my inexperience, I had to actually Google to find how to use it - and Google wasn't much help, to be frank. Lots of info about how to make it, not so much about how to use it (this, by the way, is how I ended up reading the label and noticing the size in the first place). In the end I just dug my fingers in, smeared some on my pink spongy net washing thing (I'm going to refer to those from now as Spingies*) and it seemed to lather up well. For this product I had chosen the scent Kiss Of The Vampire, which I have to say, I just love.

Instantly entrancing, Kiss of the Vampire isn't quite gothic and mysterious, which is a little unexpected given its name. But, what it is, is a hypnotic Vanilla & Sugar potion that kisses the skin with a touch of sweetness. A bite of Bourbon Vanilla entwined with just a whisper of White Flowers, makes this sniff simply irresistible!

One of the good things about this company is that you can choose the strength of your scent. I went for MAX POWER on all of mine, as mentioned in the previous post, so this smelled really lush as I was using it. The scent doesn't really last once you rinse it off, but I find that's pretty much the same for most shower products, so that's not an issue for me. I just enjoy it in the moment. I would definitely have liked to have a body cream in the same scent to follow with, though.

I liked the feel of the whip, and as I said it did lather up well with only a little bit of product, but I'm not sure it's something I'd use that often. This has nothing to do with the company - it's just that I find it a bit awkward standing in the shower opening a jar and trying to get product on a Spingie without getting any water in the jar. I have a crap shower, it has to be said. Maybe if I had a giant spiffy one with lots of shelving and bits where the water doesn't hit I'd be more inclined to indulge myself with this sort of product.

As for the shaving aspect, I didn't find it any different to lathering up a good head of any old shower gel and using that to shave with, which is what I usually do.

Afterwards my skin felt soft and smooth, no doubt due to the cherry kernel and avocado oils it contains. I can't fault the quality of this product, only the lengths I had to go to to get my hands on it!

*Spingie is a captcha word that popped up when I posted a comment on Chloeblue's blog the other day. I liked it so much I felt I had to find a meaning for it so I could use it, and as I was typing up this review it suddenly occurred to me that it was the perfect word for those spongy net washing things.

Perfumatory haul.

I was all set to have a massive bitch about Perfumatory, because my order took FOREVER, and the only reason I ordered in the first place was because it was in Australia and I thought it would be exciting to get something more quickly than waiting on an overseas delivery. NOT TO BE - it took longer than most Etsy orders I've done.

However, the stuff arrived (FINALLY) yesterday, and it's freakin' gorgeous, so all is forgiven. I'll do proper reviews of all of this when I've tried everything out, but for now I just wanted to show it off. All scent descriptions are taken from the site.

  
Shower Scene

Creme Brulee This rich and decadent scent potion is the true caramelized version of the Creme Brulee dessert, with emphasis on the Vanilla Bean, and added accords of Cream and Caramelized Sugar. 

Delirium Yes, this is one of those scent potions that will drive you mad, because you won't be able to stop sniffing your arm once applied. Creamy Vanilla Custard Pudding & Salted Caramel Accords combine, but that's not it; this scent potion is made even more delirious with true Vanilla Bean oil and Orange Cream Accord. 

Body Cream

Vixen Bold and delightfully girly-all-grown-up. This vixen of a scent potion is rich and sultry, and a little gourmand. Blackberry, Orange Grove Accord, and Vanilla mingle and dance on a backdrop of glorious Tunisian Amber and rich Cocoa. Irresistible!

(Oh my god, this is AMAAAAAAAZING. The scent is like a rich, fruit and custard pudding. I can't put into words how much I love it. )


Night Time Body Cream

Death By Vanilla This is not your ordinary Vanilla, ..no sireee! Sweet, sweet, sweet in a Marilyn Monroe sort of way, indulgent to the max, and rich like butter, DBV is the Vanilla with a boozy, dark and sexy side. With notes of Rum, Brown Sugar, Myrrh, and Black Coconut it's bound to lure him in good!  

(Vanilla is pretty much my favourite smell, but surprisingly, this is one of the few scents I don't much like. I think it's my own fault though - you can request scent strength and of course I went for maximum, and it's just that bit toooo much. You know that line where vanilla crosses over into smelling vaguely like a vomited up caramel lolly. Yeah... I'm sure it would be much nicer if it were not so amped up.)

Whipped Shower and Shave Cream

Kiss Of The Vampire Instantly entrancing, Kiss of the Vampire isn't quite gothic and mysterious, which is a little unexpected given its name. But, what it is, is a hypnotic Vanilla & Sugar potion that kisses the skin with a touch of sweetness. A bite of Bourbon Vanilla entwined with just a whisper of White Flowers, makes this sniff simply irresistible!

(Om nom nom nom. Love this one, want one of everything in this scent for layer upon layer upon layer (old people will get that).) 


Salt Scrub
Chocolate Mud Cake Rich and smooth, this is a Chocolate Cake scent potion that's full bodied, nice and creamy, and oh so yummy. No bitter, artificial chocolate sniff here! ..White Mud Cake gets a sibling!  

(The chocolatiest chocolate that ever chocolated. Divine.)

Perfume

Baked Vanilla Cake A decadent, true-baked Vanilla Cake scent. Made with the 'real deal' Vanilla Extract, and 3 other Vanilla notes to make this Vanilla sniff pretty darn special!

(This smells pretty much like any other vanilla cake scent - very similar to the Philosophy body wash of the same scent.)


Black Orchid Sexy, sexy, sexy! A deep, modern take on Orchid. Top notes of Ginger, Black Pepper, and Ylang Ylang, leading to a spicy floral middle of Gardenia, Jasmine, Orchid, and Clove. Patchouli, Amber, Balsam, Vanilla, Musk, and Sandalwood provide a sweet, smooth, mysterious finish. 


Beautiful Stranger Sweet and alluring, this scent is for skin that wants to smell absolutely, positively delicious! A gourmand melange of Cotton Candy and Black Raspberry, deeply kissed by Magnolia Blossoms. Oh, la la! 

(A very sweet fragrance that is vaguely tropical - that would be the Magnolia. I haven't decided whether I like this or not yet. First I was all "Oooooh, that's so pretty!", then it smelled kind of fake and plasticky, then back to pretty. Strange.)


Amber Del Nepal Rich, yet slightly airy, with creamy-spicy notes. This beautiful Amber dries down to a deliciously sweet, Amber Vanilla. Warm and comforting, like a very expensive cashmere sweater that hugs and warms the body. 


Basmati This gourmand, unique fragrance is inspired by the aromatic smell of cooked, Basmati Rice. The term 'Basmati' comes from the Hindi word "basmat", which means "fragrant." Our rendition is a captivating mix of warm vanilla, light and fluffy Rice Accord, and soft Spices, ..with a sweet and nutty bottom note. Delicious!

(Not gonna lie, the only reason I bought this is because I wanted to know what the heck a Basmati perfume would smell like. Answer: not like rice.)

Hair Mask

Toasted Marshmallow Remember that sweet-toasty aroma of Marshmallows roasting over the camp fire, ..well this is it! Airy, sweet Marshmallow, lightly toasted and oh so velvet-y, powder-y sweet! 

(This was a request from Noodles. She is OBSESSED with her (admittedly lovely) hair - she's all about the hair products. In fact, I asked her to do a review of her favourites this weekend for this blog, so watch for that one. It doesn't smell as bad as I'd have expected Toasted Marshmallow to smell, and Noodles likes it a lot.)


Body Cream

Matin Calin Sweet, warm and milky good! The creamy note of Milk and the sweetness of Sugar and Toffee, this scent potion is all about ultimate comfort. It’s reminiscent of the scent of condensed milk that's all warm and lush. 


Sugar Scrub

Chocolate Clouds This scent potion takes you to the land of Chocolate and Cotton Candy, where clouds rain Vanilla drops and rivers flow of Marshmallow Fluff. Sweet! ..Scrumptious, ..and for any lover of chocolate sniffs that like 'em extra sweet! 

Things to know:
1. There is a limit on the number of samples you can buy. Considering this shop has eleventy billion different scents, this is very annoying. I could only get 6; I believe the maximum has been put up to 10. Limited samples annoys me greatly, I must say.
2. I got the little samples of Matin Carlin body cream and Chocolate Clouds sugar scrub free, and the owner upsized my Kiss Of The Vampire Whip from 2oz to 4oz, which I am very happy about because that scent is one of my favourites.
3. There are eleventy billion scents. Did I mention that?
4. I believe this company is MMU resurrected. If you know about that one, then you'll know how humungously popular it was.
5. You can choose the strength of the scent, which I think is a brilliant idea. Of course, I had it all turned up to MAX POWER, because I love that.

Review: Burt's Bees Peppermint & Rosemary Body Wash

I usually buy creamy body washes, because I am too lazy to moisturise my entire body and the cream washes do half the job for me. However, I received a bottle of Burt's Bees Fabulously Fresh Peppermint & Rosemary Body Wash from Beauty Heaven, so I've been using that for the last few weeks.

It's EXTREMELY minty - almost blindingly so at 6am. This is one of those body washes that would be called "bracing" or "invigorating" or "GOOD MORNING HOW ARE YOU TODAY PLEASE STOP CRYING". If you need something to help you wake up in the mornings, this is the product for you. You only need a small amount to get a good lot of lather going, so it lasts quite a while. And even though it's a wash rather than a cream, it's not drying at all. Despite the strength of the scent, it fades very quickly once you're out of the shower, so there's no issue with it clashing with perfume or anything. One thing to be aware of is that if you use too much it can sting a little around your - uh - lady parts. Like I said, it's quite bracing!

So, would I buy it? Probably not. It's a nice product, but I'm not a big fan of minty smells generally. If you are, however, I'd recommend it. 

Review: Haus Of Gloi (Etsy)

 I made a brief mention of my first Haus Of Gloi purchase in a post about Etsy purchases, but I feel they're worthy of their own post. I had never heard of them until someone in a youtube comment mentioned them, and now reviews and mentions of them are popping up on blogs everywhere. Isn't that always the way?

The first time I bought four samples of their perfume oils, and I talked about those a bit in the previous post. The very fruity Imp went to Noodle Arms, lover of All Things Grapefruit Scented, and she has it in her regular rotation. As I've said many times, I dislike fruit scents, but on her seem to work very well. Maybe they're just a little girl's thing and not meant for a grown woman of - uh - well, a grown woman anyway. Honey Tree is lovely but too similar to a few other perfumes I already have, and as much as I wanted to love Satyr, I just couldn't make it work on me. I think it would make a gorgeous room scent in an oil burner, but on my skin... no. My favourite of the four was the deliciously creamy Troika, and the reason for my second order was just to get a full bottle of that.

Since I was buying anyway, I picked up another couple of sample items - Vice perfume oil, and Twice Is Nice Sugar Creme scrub. This is a moisturising scrub, not a cleansing scrub, and my personal preference is for the cleansing variety (because I am lazy, and I like products that do two things). Having said that, this is a lovely product. I have actually been using it on my hands - it makes them softer and easier to absorb hand cream. The scent of Twice Is Nice is a sweet coconut cream, and doesn't last long on the skin (which for me is a good thing, because I don't like highly scented body products). I would not buy a full size of this product for two reasons - the international shipping is high due to the weight, and I wouldn't generally use it on anything other than my hands. However, I think I will definitely continue to buy sample sizes in various fragrances when I purchase other items, and add it to my regular handcare routine. 

As for the Vice perfume oil, all I can say is OM NOM NOM NOM. Chocolate and coffee, but not sweet - the coffee cuts through any sugariness you might get from the chocolate. This is just divine, and I think it would smell equally delicious on a man. I live for the day I have a man in my clutches who a) likes the smell of perfume, and b) would actually wear fragrance himself. Ah, I can dream. In the meantime, I just have to keep putting this on my wrists and sniffing myself.

That sounded a bit creepy, didn't it...

My 5 favourite bath and body products in 2009.

This list was a bit harder than the others, because although I buy a lot of bath and body products (well, shower - we don't have a bath), I tend to buy the same things over and over and have done for years. I don't really branch out much, so there's not a huge amount that I tried for the first time in 2009. However, I did manage to find a few new favourites.

5. Palmer's Dark Chocolate and Peppermint Lip Butter. I'm not a lip balm person, for the same reason I'm not really a lip gloss person. I don't like sticky things on my lips. However, I bought this on a whim at my local IGA one day because my lips were feeling a bit dry and also, I am the World's Most Highly Suggestible Impulse Buyer. It was less than $5, and I figured I'd just throw it in my handbag and - let's face it - probably hardly ever use it. As it turned out, I loved it, and now I have it within reach constantly.

4. Mrs Meyers Dryer Sheets. Okay, technically these are not a bath or body product, but I just had to get them in somewhere, because I love them so damn much. In Australia, you can get one brand of dryer sheets, and they suck. They don't work very well and they stink of really cheap fabric softener. The Mrs Meyers ones, on the other hand, have very little scent at all, and work a treat for getting the static out of your clothes. Unfortunately, it costs me (considerably) more in shipping than it does for the product itself, but I've come to terms with that. These are so good I will pay pretty much anything to get hold of them.

3. The Garden Bath Lemon Chiffon Cleansing Sugar Body Scrub. Generally speaking, a scrub is a scrub is a scrub to me, but I do prefer the soapy ones to the creamy or oily ones (again, it's that whole feeling sticky thing - I have a real issue with that). This is a soapy one, and it feels great on the skin, but my true reason for loving it so much is the smell. It's like sugary lemon custard, but without a hint of the egginess that is often present in custard. Like the filling of a vanilla slice. If it was lemon. Gorgeous.

2. Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Moisturising Hand Wash. I wash my hands A LOT. It probably stems from years of working in customer service and handling hundreds of dirty forms, pens, computers, and so on. I've become a bit of a germophobe over the last couple of decades. Consequently my hands are always trashed and dry. Then of course, with the whole not-liking-stickiness thing I have to force myself to use hand cream, even though I really dislike it. This hand wash helps a lot with not drying my hands out so much, and I have been able to reduce the amount of cream I have to slather on them since I began using it. Also, it smells like chocolate! Even Noodle Arms like this stuff - it's amazing seeing her wash her hands vountarily.

1. Terax Crema. I have always had very straight, very fine hair, but until a few years ago, I had quite a lot of it. My hair has thinned considerably in recent years (much to my alarm), and this has made it quite limp and unmanageable, and very much lacking in body. It had never occurred to me to use Terax Crema before - I'd always considered it a product for people with thick and/or curly hair - but I received a free sample with an online order from Adore Beauty and fell instantly in love with it. It's expensive, but I only need a small amount so it lasts a long time. It makes my hair soft and shiny, and even better, it's still soft and shiny the following day, so I don't have to wash it daily, and that makes it last even longer. This is possibly my favourite product of all for the year (maybe even all time) - I just love it to death.

Tomorrow - fragrances. I am struggling to narrow that list down to five, let me tell you.