Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Lately I've been looking through some of those old jewellery boxes and decided to turn some of the earrings, necklaces and loose pearls into new ones. :) Here are the results...

My favourite necklace

*tweet tweet*

These somehow remind me of the Inca

The Italian Gypsy Earrings

The Medieval Ones

Auroras earrings

Out of pearls taken from a necklace

Too bad I couldn't find another one with such a mask

My favourite brooch, even though I'll probabley never wear it ;P

Selfmade Chinese and Modern Art Jewellery

I used the pearls from my favourite chinese bracelet (which sadly broke)

Modern Art

You can't really see it in this picture, but the big white-looking pearls on the left are supposed to be a blue/green/yellow mix

Beautiful Curls by Alaffia

I tried the Beautiful Curls Curl Activating Shea Butter Shampoo, the BC Shea Butter Deep Conditioner, the Shea Butter Curling Cream, the Shea Butter & Coconut Hydrating Curl Oil, the Shea Butter Curl Activating Leave-In Conditioner (all for culry to kinky hair) and the BC Shea Butter Curl Defining Gel for wavy to curly hair.

My rating of the products is based on the following aspects:

1) Ingredients
2) Price
3) Smell
4) Use
5) Animal friendly or not
6) How my hair felt afterwards


1) Ingredients~ Comfrey Extract, Arnica Extract, Saponified Shea Butter and Virgin Coconut Oil, Decyl Polyglucose, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Magnesium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Coconut Oil, Raspberry Fruit Extract, Ylang Ylang Flower Extract. 

 Ingredients~ Comfrey Extract, Arnica Extract, Aloe Vera Gel, Agave Extract, Shea Butter, Virgin Coconut Oil, Potassium Sorbate, Magnesium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Citric Acid, Emulsifying Wax, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Pathenol, Essential Oil Blend

 Ingredients~ Comfrey Extract, Arnica Extract, Aloe Vera Gel, Agave Extract, Shea Butter, Virgin Coconut Oil, Potassium Sorbate, Magnesium Sulfate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Citric Acid, Emulsifying Wax, Pathenol, Xanthan Gum, Essential Oil Blend.

  Ingredients~ West African Sesame Oil, Shea Leaf, Infused Sunflower Oil , Shea Butter, Virgin Coconut Oil , Baobab Oil, Lavender Essential Oil, Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

Ingredients~ Comfrey Extract, Arnica Extract, Certified Fair Trade Shea Butter, Virgin Coconut Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Emulsifying Wax, Panthenol, Potassium Sorbate, Magnesium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Coconut Oil, Raspberry Fruit Extract, Ylang Ylang Flower Extract and Citric Acid

Ingredients~ Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) Extract (aqueous), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) Extract (aqueous), Aloe Vera Gel (Aloe barbadensis), Agave (Agave azul) Extract, Certified Fair Trade Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Panthenol, Coconut Oil (and) Apricot Fruit Extract (and) Ylang Ylang Flower Extract , Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid

(all ingredients taken from http://bliss4curls.eu/index.php?lang=DEU&page=SN_Home)

2) first price is where I bought the product, second one is the official website

15,95€ / 12,00$   14,95€ / 16,00$   14,95€ / 14,00$   12,00€ / 8,99$   15,95€ / 12,00$  14,95€ / 14,00$ 

(I bought the products here: http://bliss4curls.eu/index.php?lang=DEU&page=SN_Home
 this is the link for the official website: http://www.beautifulcurls.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=10&idcategory=3)

3) Ok, so here I can say that generally every product from the Beautiful Curls line smells (in my opinion!) like chewing-gum (the sweet and candy-like smell a normal chewing-gum has...maybe you know what I mean ;)  )

4) It didn't foam up a lot (maybe a tiny bit), but it didn't spread easily so I had to use a lot to 
massage it all over my scalp...

Nope, this conditioner is definitly not something to use on thick hair! The product literally fell of my hands into the water... It is really really cloggy! 

Actually I only had a sample of that one, so it wasn't enough for my entire hair. Nevertheless
I would say that it is ok, even though there are better ones.

The oil is really good: easily spreadable, nice smell (not that heavy chewing-gum smell, only a little bit). But you should try to use only a small amount of it for your hair can easily look greasy!

Even though the benefit it did for my hair wasn't that great I would say it is a good product to use. (Remember it's always better to use something [that isn't the best, but still sufficient] than nothing!) 

The gel was (amongst some few others) the best product I tried out of this line! The only thing annoying is the heavy smell (which sticks to your hair for some hours after applying it)...

--> These are my personal opinions! You can't be 100% sure if you haven't tried them yourself, so if you still have doubts: Go ahead and try 'em!

5) The signs on the packaging are "Allocated to Alaffia Community Projects. 10% of Sales" "Fair For Life. Social and fairtrade certified by IMO".
And yes, they're animal friendly as it says on the back "no animal testing"!! :))

6) This is the daunting part of the whole review... at first my hair felt good and I thought " yep, that's a great product to use!", but after a few more rounds of washing and applying and rinsing out things started to build up...and I mean the product! Everytime I scratched my scalp I found 
residues of the products under my fingernails!! For me this is a serious no-go! I just don't feel 
clean and the roots of my hair are lying flat without any volume just like if I would wear a really tight hat...Not great...
Anyway the Leave-In Conditioner and the gel are not as bad as the shampoo or the deep conditioner. I would you to try those on your own, but for the others I would say you should overthink if you buy 'em or better save the money.

In the end it's always up to yourself isnt'it?! ;))

Me, My Skin And I

Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a great Halloween ^^ #trickortreat

Anyway it's getting colder over here and my skin needs all the protection it can get!!
So I set out my little journey for the "perfect cream" for my hypersensible skin (not as easy as I thought...)

I started with a normal "everyday" cream in the morning: the "Physiogel Creme"

You can't purchase it on the official website of the company (http://www.physiogel.de/), but
every pharmacy offers it or is at least able to order it for you.
The price I paid was 9,25€ (that's cheaper than buying it on the internet, 'cause of the delivery charges).

Ingredients:  Aqua, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glycerin, Pentylene Glycol, Cocos Nucifera, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Butyrospermum Parkii, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Squalane, Sodium Carbomer, Xanthan Gum, Carbomer, Ceramide 3

For me it works perfectly!  My skin had no irritations or spots. It also works great as a hand cream in the winter-time! So it's like 2 in 1 :P

For my eye-area I had to look for something different, cause as some of you may know:
This area is up to 10 times thinner than other areas of our skin!! So it really needs attention and a special treatment or cream!

I've chosen a very natural one: the "Weleda Wildrosen Augenpflege"

Ingredients:  Water (Aqua), Prunus Persica (Peach) Kernel Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Alcohol, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Hydrolyzed Beeswax, Rosa Moschata Seed Oil, Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil Unsaponifiables, Sedum Purpureum Extract, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Euphrasia Officinalis Extract, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Beeswax.

This cream is specially created for the eye-area and claims to be almost 100% natural.
It's really good, because normally my eyes became red and swollen after using several different creams.
But not after this one: I use it now for almost two months and it's still the best I've tried (so far)!

I really recommend this one to everybody with hypersensible skin and eyes! The only negative point is the price: 16,00€ is far too expensive for me! But as somebody searching for such a cream desperatly I'm willing to pay the price...


I always try to get a sample, before buying the product. So I wrote to the company and they sent me
a sample of the "Avene Tolerance Extreme Creme".
This cream is created for hypersensible skin or people with certain diseases needing special care.

The sample tells you to throw away the cream after three days, because it was packed sterile.
You can also use it for your sensible eye-area, without getting an alergic reaction and afterwards running around with red, swollen eyes three days.

My skin liked it very much and if you don't want to use it on your eye-area, it is combinable with the "Weleda Wildrosen Augenpflege"! A big plus for me! ^^

Ingredients:  Aqua, Glycerin, Paraffinum Liquidum, Squalane, Carthamus Tinctorius, Cyclomethicone, Glyceryl Stearate, Carbomer, SodiumHydroxide, Titanium Dioxide

Alien

I have to admit I'm addicted to "Alien" by Thierry Mugler....<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

It smells so absolutely amazing and seductive :)
(plus it reminds me of something, but I won't tell you here ;P)

And all those who are in his circle lately received a sample of his newest invention: "Alien Essence Absolue"
And it's supposed to be even better than the original one #whoopwhoop

Personally I think that it's not as good as "Alien" itself, but depends on the taste of the consumer here!
Even though "Alien" is only an "Eau De Toilette".

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddlllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyy

The new fragrance by Kenzo


The new "Eau De Parfum" by Kenzo called "Madly" smells absolutely amazing and the ingredients
are very special (at least one of them ;P).

Heliotrope flower

 

Ingredients: Rose, Heliotrope Flower, Vanilla, Cedar
--> Ingredients according to the inside of the packing!! (real ingredients see further down)


Some will like it others won't!

Real Ingredients

Inside of the sample

Institut Karité Paris

I received some samples from "Institut Karité Paris" lately.
One is called "Crème Corps Nuritive" and the other "Baume À Lèvres", sounds good right?

The samples

I looked the price of the original products up on their website (www.institutkariteparis.com), but I
only found the "Crème Corps Nutritive".

The sample is 1 fl.oz. whereas the "real" product is 4 l.oz. and costs 36,00 €.

I personally don't like the smell, because it doesn't really smell "fresh"... it's more like a heavier scent.
It can be allocated easily and leaves your hands hydrated and soft.
The packing says that the creme includes 25% of Shea Butter and promises to moisturize, nourish, protect
and rejuvenate your hands. (--> on backside is a note: moisturizes only the outer layers of the epidermis)
They refuse animal testing which is definitly a plus!

Ingredients: Aqua(Water),Ethylhexyl Stearate,Glyceryl Stearate,Dimethicone,Petrolatum,Glycerin,Propylene Glycol,Potassium Cetyl Phosphate,Cetearyl Alcohol,Prunus Amigdalus Dulcis(Sweet Almond) Oil,Butyrospermum Parkii(Shea) Butter,Cetearyl Glucoside,Glyceryl Stearate Se,Xanthan Gum,Parfum(Fragrance),Pheoxyethanol,Carbomer,Triethanolamine,Methylparaben,Disodium Edta,Propylparaben,Tocopherol,Butylparaben,Ethylparaben,Isobutylparaben,Benzoic Acid,Dehydroacetic Acid,Polyaminopropyl Biguanide,Alpha Isomethyl Ionone,Butylphenyl Methylpropional,Cinnamyl alcohol,Citronellol,Geraniol,Hexyl Cinnamal,Hydroxycitronellal,Linalool

--> Ingredients couldn't be found on the official website!

Note: I found the creme sample as a product on their website later. The price is 19,00€.

The lipstick smells a little bit strange and the taste is not as great as it is when using other lipsticks...
The packing says 0.13 oz. and 6% Shea Butter. It promises the same things like the creme.

"Particularly rich in Shea Butter, this restorative Lip Balm softens, nourishes and moisturizes* cracked or damaged lips."

*outer layers of the epidermis

It does not say anything about animal testing on the packing.

Ingredients: Ricinus Communis Seed Oil,Gydrogenated Coconut Oil,Octyldodecanol,Cera Alba,Ozokerite,Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil, Cetyl Palmitate,Butyrospermum Parkii Butter,Hydrogenated Castor Oil,Triticum Vulgare Germ Oil,titanium Dioxide,Methincone,Oryzanol,Tocopheryl Acetate,Mica,Alumina,Bisabolol.