The Body Shop: Rainforest Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner

Remember those to from my earlier The Body Shop haul? I already reviewed the hair butter from the same line. And now it's time to review both the shampoo and the conditioner! I took my time to try them out for a while and see whether I like them or not. And finally whether I would repurchase them again.
Product File for Rainforest Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner:
- Works for: dry and damaged hair
- 250 ml
- Contains no silicones, sulphates, parabens or colorants.

Firstly, it's really great that TBS tries to make natural shampoos that don't contain harmful chemicals such as "silicones", "sulphates", "parabens" and "colorants". An important point to adress is that most hair shampoos that are natural, do not lather a lot - and that's a whole other topic that I will be adressing in an individual post because it might be a bit too long in here. Therefore: this shampoo does not lather a lot. Actually I have to put it on twice (wet the hand first)  before I get a somewhat decent lather. The same goes for the conditioner. 


At the start, I wrinkled my nose at the smell. Now, a lot of people might disagree and like it but I wasn't that convinced of the smell. But I tried to give the shampoo and conditioner a chance, so I kept trying them. After a while, I really started disliking the smell and I can't bring myself to use both the shampoo and the conditioner at the same time. I feel like the smell is in my hair wherever I go and I really don't want that. It's very overwhelming for me, especially because I'm sensitive to smells.
I know that perfumes can trigger allergic reactions in people, but I doubt that's the case if they TRIED to use natural smells? Like lemon or orange zets?...
Oh yes, I forgot to mention how it smelt like. It smells of tea. This is a smell that I recognize everywhere I go and I have disliked it since I was a kid. I remember the first time I smelt it was in an Elizabeth Arden Green Tea perfume.


I noticed how DRY my hair became once I used the shampoo. It did not feel clean AT ALL and became very VERY coarse. The conditioner didn't help. 

Shampoo Swatch

The consistency reminds me of honey, but much more runny than that. It has also the same color of honey.

Conditioner Swatch

It has the same consistency of every type of conditioner. It's a bit like mousse but thicker and less foamy and more like a cream. It's much harder to get any type of lather from the conditioner. The worst part? It's incredibly hard to get the conditioner out of the bottle...


I have 75% left of the shampoo in the bottle and I have used half the bottle of the conditoner. And I really have trouble using both of them because of how useless they are to my hair. I feel like they have made my hair condition worse and my hair only improves when I use something else. I'm equally glad that I bought the smaller pot of the hair butter from the same range because it smells just as awfull and is too greasy for my liking. Clearly I won't repurchase these products from this line again. 

The Body Shop: Rainforest Moisture Hair Butter

Remember my The Body Shop haul from some time ago? While, here is one of the products I've been experimenting with too see if they work well with me. For that reason, I didn't buy the 200ml but the 50ml. This is the The Body Shop Rainforest Moisture Hair Butter.


Product File:
- No Silicones
- No Colourants
- No Parabens
- Comes in 50ml or 200ml
- For dry and damaged hair

I actually enjoy using hair products that are stay-in because you can avoid so much hassle with these. My hair is usually normal and in a very good condition, but the top part of my scalp if for some strange reason extremely dry and damaged! I have tried everything and I can't seem to find out what to do with it anymore and are at a loss. My only current solution is to cut it when it grows long so that I can avoid the dry parts and wait for some healthy hair parts to grow out. I'm still waiting.
In the meantime I'm using this product.

I actually just recently found out that I've been using it all wrong. I was a bit confused as to why it kept my hair skiny in a greasy way (it didn't feel like it, it just looked greasy while not being so). But part of how it looked, it really smoothed out my hair and it made it feel amazing. As mentioned, I use it right after I wash my hair and I only put it on the dry parts of my hair. The website claims that:
"After shampooing, smooth 1-2 hazelnut-sized amounts onto palms and work through damp hair. Leave for at least five minutes. Massage with some warm water, then rinse thoroughly. For best results use after washing with Rainforest Moisture Shampoo."
Oh.... I even checked the product and I clearly got the unwritten message that it was a "leave-on". That to the side,  there is only one small complaint from me. I'm aware that this hair butter from this shampoo rain is supposed to be products that are not loaded with harmfull chemicals (a post about that later), but the smell is a bit unbearable for me after some time. I feel like I smell tea and something else that I do not like which I can't exactly explain. This is the part reason why I want to leave this hair care range and opt for something similar but from a different brand. 
All in all, I still do like the product. The smell is just not so right. I really feel like they could make it smell better by putting something in it. Why not put shea butter or jojoba oil in it? Having a right scent that isn't uncomfortable could make a big difference.

The Body Shop: Seaweed Mattifying Day Cream

Since my Vitamin E Moisturiser (the one I reviewed - from TBS) is finished, I got this one. Honestly, I felt that my dry area is so dry that a moisturiser for combination skin won't hydrate me enough. I thought that I should just try to buy a moisturiser for very dry/dry skin and avoid putting any of it on my T-zone that's oily. At the Elemis, it turned out to be a bad idea and it wasn't an ideal solution (check out the part of the bacteria). Therefore I decided to give it a shot (and they also did recommend me trying to try a product for combination skin and then just decide) with trying a moisturiser for combination skin.
So this time, I present The Body Shop Seaweed Mattifying Day Cream.

Product File:
- Contains 50ml / 49g
- Oil-free
- Gives a shine-free and matt look.
- Non-greasy
- For combination/oily skin
- Shine-control

 

It has a really special consistency (like a jellyfish) and ironically it reminds me of the sea. The colour, consistency and the smell. But the smell isn't the bad sea type of smell. It's actually incredibly refreshing.

I only need to take a small bit of the product with my finger and lather it into my hand before i swipe it all over my face. I noticed that it needs to be quickly or else it gets absorbed before you even get the chance to apply it on the face. Now that's special. If I ever feel like I still have a bit of dryness on certain parts of my dry skin areas I can just apply a little bit more and it will become hydrated and not feel tight at all. That only happened once to me, so I can actually say that this product works wonderfully on me. Even the shiny parts of my face do not shine anymore thanks to this moisturiser and I have no trouble on my nose area anymore.

I might try to get another facial analysis some time in a while to see if my skin condition has improved. But we'll see about that.

My final saying about this is that I'm giving it the full 10 out of 10 that it wholeheartedly deserves.

Sephora Mini haul

Okay. This might me a micro haul or something. Way smaller than a mini one. But anyway, I got these stuff yesterday and I thought about sharing them? Also for the record, the other reviews are coming soon. I might be reviewing two products later today in the few hours to come. Promise.


But here is what I got yesterday.

I'm just going to mention everything from left to right from the first row to the second. I got:

- L'OCCITANE Rose Hand Cream, 30ml

- L'OCCITANE Shea Butter Hand Cream, 30ml

- Benefit Hoola Bronzing Powder, 8.0g

- Benefit Lemon Aid, color correcting eyelid primer, 2.7g

- BIODERMA Photoderm MAX Cream SPF 100 sample

- The Body Shop Cocoa Butter Lipcare Stick

- L'OCCITANE Soothing Concentrated Mask sample (2pcs)

- L'OCCITANE Aromachology Soothing Conditioner sample (3pcs)

Let me just mention that L'OCCITANE are amazing french luxury products. I've always been using them religiously and they both work and make me extremely happy. Just sayin'

The Body Shop haul + St.Ives scrub

Here is my The Body Shop haul from yesterday. In case the picture is not clear enough, I got:

1. Rainforest Moisture Hair Butter, 100ml
2. Vitamin E Hydrating Toner, 250ml

3. Shea Butter Shower Cream, 250ml

4. Peppermint Smoothing Pumice Foot Scrub, 100ml

5. Rainforest Moisture Shampoo, 250ml
6. Rainforest Moisture Conditioner, 250ml
7. St. Ives Apricot Scrub for face and body, 300ml

I will each review these in their own post, and explain more about them and my experiences with them. Except for the St. Ives Apricot Scrub which I have used before, everything else is completely new to me.
Take care :)

TBS: Lily Cole Makeup

Remember my post about a new makeup launch that will be coming out towards the end of May/start of June? Well, by now it's out everywhere! Let's take a look.


The Body Shop Statement: "We are proud to launch a new, special-edition make-up range: cruelty free make-up. Celebrating out against animal testing ethos, out cruelty-free make-up range is so great that Lily (Cole) put her name to it."

Products that has been launched:

Lily Cole Cosmetic Bag - 10$  

Lily Cole Shimmer Cubes - 22$

Lily Cole Nail Buffer - 3$

Lily Cole Lip & Cheek Dome - 15$

Lily Cole Nail File - 3$

Lily Cole Liquid Eyeliner - 13.50$

I think this one comes in only a violet colour

Lily Cole Hi-Shine Lip Treatment - 5$

Lily Cole Compact Mirror - 8$

Lily Cole Pearl Radiance Primer - 22$

Lily Cole Puff On Radiance - 22$

Looks on Lily Cole produced using the products:

Support The Pledge Today:

The Body Shop encourages people all around the world to sign the cruelty-free international pledge. They are calling on governments to ban on animal testing for cosmetics in every country around the world. 

They have provided the following link to anyone who is interested. It IS a great cause actually. Click here * The link will open in a new window. 

The Body Shop: Skin Primer - Matte it

Alright. I actually think I am a bit upset because of this. When I went to The Body Shop the other day to get a primer, I asked the sales assistant to help me find it because I didn't know where they might've put them. She got me to things. A skin primer (the one I'm reviewing here) and for some reason a highlighter because she couldn't decide which was a PRIMER. Tsch. I'm a bit tired of all TBSs in my area, because all of them have rude people working and they don't even know what they are talking about. 
I once had in an argument with one of them, because she was being incredibly persistent about me having to buy a product for normal/oily complexion and I told her that I had dry skin! She wouldn't believing me stating that "I didn't have any trace of dryness" Excuse me for moisturising my skin. What I am upset about right now? The primer I got is not for dry skin and she didn't tell me that they had another one for dry skin. I found out through browsing their website. Just amazing service... I'm actually thinking about buying my products from another city right now, which sucks because it takes a long time to reach there and I just can't afford going there whenever I need something. But we'll see. Anyway - all that to the side. Let's move on to see it.

 

TBS Product Statement:

This primer for normal and oily skins creates a smooth base for foundation. It has been designed to deter shine and make make-up last longer.

Product File:

- For normal/oily skin
- Banishes shine
- Helps make-up stay in place
- Smoothes
- Comes in Skin Primer - Moisture it for dry skin

The product comes in a gel like formula and has a transparent colour. The packaging is actually really nice looking and sophisticated and feels like velvet, exactly the way the primer itself feels like when you put it on. It only needs to be blended and should be left alone when you feel that velvety/waxy feeling that most primers feel like. It's actually a really nice finish. It feels exactly like the YSL: Matt Touch Primer. But there is a huge difference between them, since the YSL have many benefits in it. The TBS Skin Primer smoothes finely but sadly dries my skin completely out. I had a bit of minor break out because of it. It might be a really good product for other people with oily skin. I tried to experiment with it, putting it under my concealer but that went really really wrong so don't try it. It was impossible to actually blend the creamy concealer and corrector at all and just made it look like a complete mess.

I also tried putting moisturiser before putting it on, and it seems like it trapped the moisturiser away from my skin. Just like how water and oil is when you try to blend them. You see the water and you see the oil droplets seperate from each other.

I give this primer 5 out of 10 - sadly. The 5 because it does it just what it needs to do (what I feel like it is doing anyway) and it misses the last 5 because it's a meh product for me. A person with oily skin might give it more.  

The Body Shop Vitamin E Deluxe Collection

I bought this set for two reasons. Firstly, I was on the hunt for a good moisturiser that could substitue my faithfull Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion. Mind you, people should actually be careful because there is a lotion for very dry, dry and combined skin. While the gel is for combined to oily skin. 

I've been using the former for more than two years now, but because of the dry, humid and very hot weather it doesn't do much for me anymore. BUT it's one the best out there, and I will probably go back to using it during the winter months. The reason I left it? I used to only have to apply it once a day, and now three times a day is not even enough for me. That's where the hunt began. Oh yeah, and the second reason for me acquring this line from The Body Shop is because this set was a pretty good deal. These products are quite the bestsellers from their ranges.

The set includes:

• 1 Vitamin E Gentle Facial Wash - 100ml
• 1 Vitamin E Moisture Cream - 50ml
• 1 Vitamin E Nourishing Night Cream - 50ml
• 1 Round Facial Brush with lid

Vitamin E Gentle Facial Wash

The facial wash has a really good formula and it has a really nice smell that isn't overwhelming at all. I forgot to take a picture of the actual wash to show how it looks like. The colour is exactly the same as the bottle. Only a small amount of the product is needed so this can hold for a long time. I am actually really satisfied with this facial wash and have ditched my old one my Vichy that completely dried my already dry skin out. I also use this to remove makeup but I have yet to try it on something that's waterproof.

Vitamin E Moisture Cream

This cream has been so good. I cannot emphasize on how much it saved my very very dry skin when my Clinique couldn't hold up with my skin. I used to put a lot of product in my hands and lather it on my face and when it was really really dry I even used to coats. With this Vitamin E moisturising cream I only need a very small amount, put it in my hands and then lather it on my face - and it will work it wonders. If I start putting more or even the same amount I used to with my old moisturiser I will end up with a shiny face! So be careful not to put too much. As they say, a bit is a lot. The consistency is very light and smells like the NIVEA cream!

Vitamin E Nourishing Night Cream

Actually, my skin is not mature and neither really need a night cream. But using it has also helped my skin in soo many ways. It's much thicker than the moisturising cream (when you open the cap, you can see the product has not moving from where it is, a bit like butter but lighter than that). The product when applied, stays on the face because it's supposed to work it's magic while you are sleeping (that's why I can feel it when I put it on. It's nowhere like a moisturiser that gets sucked by the skin). So I wash it right I wake up in the morning.

Inside the cap it says (both in English and French - the trademark way of The Body Shop):

"Made with PASS!ON Maximise the benefits of vitamin E by using our day and night creams as part of your daily skin care routine. Protect by day. Repair by night."

Facial Brush with lid

This brush is really soft. But it is not ideal for me because I have dry skin. This is perfect for people with oily skin types because it removes impurites and sebum very well. Since I have an oily T-zone, that is the area where I use it. I actually skip using it with the facial wash and use it instead as an exfoliating brush together with an exfoliating lotion. It still works well that way.

Usually, I am very skeptic around products that are for ALL skin types. Because I can't wrap my head around something that should moisturise dry skin and at the same time to control sebum for oily skin. BUT this kit works just fine. I have to say this is way better for me than my Clinique moisturiser and I'm very happy with this product. This is something I will defintely purchase again several times. Since this product have done nothing to disappoint me, I will give it 10 out of 10.

The Body Shop's Beauty with Heart.

Hand in hand with Lily Cole, The Body Shop is going to launch a new make up line that will be a limited edition. The Body Shops movement is targeted towards beauty using cruelty-free products that even appeal to vegetarians which is adherent to the company's strict policy against animal testing. The Body Shop is also advocating towards a positive change in the world by inspiring individuals all around the globe to use their potential to make a positive change.

The makeup line will consist of:
     Mini Hi-Shine Lip Treatments
     Shimmer Cubes in 4 colours
     Lip & Cheek Domes in Crazy For Coral and Pinch Me For Pink
     Pearl Radiance Primer
     Liquid Eyeliner in Violet
     A Mini Brush Set
     Puff On Radiance

I have been looking around for a primer and a highlighter with not a lot of shimmer in it. I am aware that The Body Shop sell a pretty good moisturising, vitamin E cream that also works as an illuminator. I have swatched it and I love how moisturising the product is. The sparkle in it is a tad bit too much for my taste, because when I tried to rub the area with the illuminator on with a tissue, I got the product off but not the glitter which kind of disappointed me. But the product was really good though and I wanted to give it a thought before I tried it. That is because I know that Guerlain sells a good highlighter. I've only heard the best about it, and I want to go and try it out as soon as possible. If the sparkle is less in it, I will buy it and review it, if not - I will just get the illuminator from The Body Shop. But now as you can see, they're going to launch he "Puff on Radiance" which looks very much similar to the Guerlain Météorites Perles which I have been thinking about. So now I just need to wait for the launch and try that one out too.

 

Guerlain - Météorites Perles - In Harmony 01

The Body Shop - Vitamin E Illuminating Moisture Cream

The make up line is scheduled to launch by either the end of May or the start of June 2012, depending on the location.
Looking Good, Feeling Good, Doing Good! - Beauty with Heart.