Make that 13

Curse you, Memebox!

So I received a mail today: Memebox is making me and all other V.I.P.’s a pre-sale offer on a new princess series.

9 USD off on all 3.

Plus 5 USD off on an affiliate discount.

Plus free upgrade to express shipping.

Yea, I’m only human and they do have a talent for pushing my buttons.

I hope you all weren’t kidding, because it looks like you have a lot of Memebox-reviews coming.

Waiting patiently for October 7th now!

My Memebox order with the hair and body stuff arrived too.

One of the things I’ve been inspired by with the Korean skincare routine is to carry around a mister to give your skin a shot of moisture on the go. First I ordered one from Avène, but that one had a shockingly high pH of 7,5! Way out of the healthy pH range for skin.

I also wanted one that held a little more “goodies” than just misted water, so I figured the Memeshop would be a good place to look.

So I ordered the Finco Tripple mist to carry around with me.

That one was pretty crap though: Too heavy, left a bunch of residue and the spray came out extremely unevenly. Not “misting” at all. Fail.

After poking around on the Memeshop for a bit, I found that the Re:cipe spray essence water had some seriously good reviews. (Yellow bottle in the bottom right)

So I ordered that one.

I only tried it once but I really like it: It doesn’t have the heavy feeling or residue that the Finco-mist has. I think this one will go in my shoulder bag.

It’s not supposed to work as a on the go-mist, but I will use it as such.

On a whim, I ordered an exfoliator too. The description on the Memeshop has some good ingredients listed. It’s supposed to be sprayed on, massaged in and rinsed off. (Blue bottle on the right is LadyKin aqua exfoliator for the body)

I liked the tiny little Boutique Bebe Hair Salon Ampoule I received back in July, so I ordered some more. I figure I will just dump one into my deep treatments from time to time.

The Esthetic House CP-1 Ceramide Treatment Protein Repair System that I received in the same Superbox was seriously good too. Really heavy hitter on the conditioning effect.

Memebox doesn’t seem to carry it in the shop though, but they do have something called Hair Salon concentrate protein – clinic 1. (Snort, such engrish. “Concentrate protein”?)

It looks about the exact same with the silly, gimmicky syringe, the white cardboard minibox and the text.

So I figured I would give it a shot. 

The Zero Cosmetics Memebox

Webmistress Igor delivers: A review of the zero cosmetics Memebox.

When I first saw it on the site, I was pretty excited. But I changed my mind like the second after I ordered this thing. It sounded good: No nasty chemicals, no nasty questionable ingredients. Yep, could be good for my sensitive skin.

But on the other hand: Natural products are usually stuffed full of aloe vera. I can’t tolerate aloe vera. Also, I often find that “natural” products have a bunch of essential oils in them too and they aren’t necessarily kind to sensitive skin.

Well, it arrived and I wasn’t particularly impressed.

In the back

All Nature Organic Mask Sheets. 4 of these: Blueberry, broccoli, black bean and huttuynia cordata.
I was amused at the choices of vegetables. Blueberry is a “superfood”, I know. But broccoli and black bean? Yea, okay why not. The last one was new to me though, so I checked Wikipedia. In English, it is known as lizard tail, chameleon plant, heartleaf, fishwort, and bishop's weed. That’s a lot of names! But alright, why not. Some exotic plant thingie. No problem.

Middle, left to right

Innerface Shy Blossom Soothing Serum. Ugh. Aloe-effing-vera. Great. This one is going in the pile of things I need to sell, trade or give away.

Benton Snail Bee High Content Steam Cream. I tried this on my hands and it is super heavy, barely absorbs and leave a thick residue. I’m supposed to use this on my face, or…? Eh, I think not. A product this heavy would leave me irritated and itchy.

Papa Recipe Bombee Soap. Bar soap for the face. Eh… Maybe I’ll use it as a hand soap. Eventually.

Easydew Fresh Milk Sunblock SPF50. So far the product that made the most happy and it is only a sample size? Too bad. A sunblock with no nasties in it? Nice. I would want the full size.

Front

Product info sheet and

Nature's Friend SaeHanuel Eye and Nourishing Cream. Haven’t tried this one yet, but since I have the Iope eye cream that I love and even have one of still unopened, this will go to the bottom of my to try-list.

My personal Memebox ranking so far

1. Superbox #47 IOPE Box 2. I absolutely loved the Iope box. The skin products were wonderful and the air cushion the best foundation I’ve ever tried both in colour match and finish. I loved it so much I ordered a duplicate box.
2. Superbox #16 Hair care. I haven’t tried the baobab oil or the Glam up steam pack, but the rest have absolutely been spot on and awesome.
3. Memebox Special #10 Mask Edition 4. Even though not all the products were technically “masks”, I liked what I received.
4. Memebox Special #14 Zero Cosmetics. Yea, this one just didn’t impress me.

Memeboxes on my way

2014 K-Beauty Wrap-Up No.1

I have a weird anxious anticipation of this one. It could be so awesome and yet, it could be full of so much crap that I can’t use.

Memebox Special #12 Vitamin Care

This one is one of the few boxes that took so long to sell out that I could read an actual review of it. So I decided to order it based on the reviews I’ve seen online. It has a mix of inoffensive, useful and promising products.

Memebox Special #20 Superfood

This came as a package deal with the K-Beauty Wrap-Up and the Hair & Body 3 boxes. Not entirely sure what to expect of this. I guess it will contain some masks and stuff?

Memebox Special #21 Hair & Body 3

I’ve been so happy with the Korean facial and hair products I’ve tried so far, so I want more hair stuff and to try some products for the body.

Memebox Special #29 Scrub Box

I ordered this for one reason and one reason only: It contains a scalp scaling treatment. I effing loved that thing and I’ve been poking around the Meme-site looking for more ever since.

Memebox Special #31 Earth & Sea Cosmetics

Sounds like a good scrub and clean-mix.

Memebox Special #32 OMG 2

Sounds like fun! 

Memebox Special #34 Whole Grain 2

I had no interest in this one, but just about every single review I’ve read about the Whole Grain #1 has been completely and totally squeal-rave-love-amazeballs-“So when is the next one out??”-type of posts.

So, yea, I got curious and joined the hype.

Memebox Special #38 My Mask Box

I really do love the Korean sheet masks. More masks, please.

Superbox #53 My Honey Box

I like raw honey on my skin. Honey is awesome. So I wanted it.

*Counts*

Uh… 10 boxes. Whoops.

Memebox?

I just received the Zero Cosmetics memebox. I have another 8 (!) plus an order of hair and skin goodies on the way over the next 1½ months time.

Yea, oops. I have a new addiction.

However, Memebox doesn’t have a lot of hair stuff that I could be interested in, so it goes against the intended focus of my blog.

Their skin stuff is top notch though and my skin has really improved. Both my improved Korean skincare techniques and the products have really worked wonders.

Anyways. Since my new Memebox addiction seems to gather some interest, I wonder if I should post a little about the boxes I do receive anyways?

Opinions? 

Splurge or save

One of the things I like to advice people when it comes to long hair care is to save on products.

More expensive products don’t mean better effect on your hair.

Even the fanciest and most exotic extract of something-something-probably some Brazilian flower-something can’t make your hair healthier than “standard” ingredients.

Quite the opposite actually: More expensive products seem to come with more perfume or more colour. Things that doesn’t have any effect on your hair, but is supposed to make the consumer feel more pampered.

Things to spend serious money on, is usually limited to hair tools and toys. But even then you need to be critical: Just because something is expensive or labelled with “Hair friendly” does not mean it actually is hair friendly!

One thing that has surprised me is those little “baby” elastics I use for my braids. With those, you definitely need to spend some money.

Cheap ones snap or slide around and can’t get a good grip.

Like in my double braids from today where one slid around and the other one snapped, but remained around the ends since it was tangled in itself.

Meh.

I like the ones I get here: http://glitter.dk/

Their elastics are very sturdy and have a good grip without sticking to hair or themselves.

I admit one of the reasons I like this store is their magazines. They make a surprisingly hair-friendly magazine on hair inspiration. Instead of the usual stuff with backcombing, curling irons and hairspray, it is centred around “Use this gadget like this”.

Of course this is all to sell their gadgets, I know. But it still warms my cynical old heart to see people know how to make an updo without frying their hair.

Today’s hair

Dual braided Nautilus held with my owl Flexi pair. Feeling very summery like this!