Memebox # 54 and # 70

Memebox special #54 Miracle masks

It feels like Memebox and I have two very different opinions on what a mask is. In the last mask-box I don’t think I received a lot of actual masks. Sleep packs aren’t masks in my opinion, they are a cream or gel or something, part of a moisturising routine, but not a mask.

The Purederm Cucumber Eye pads leaked and everything in my box was greasy. It looks like the pads are pretty dried out too. Ugh. I should probably contact costumer support about it.

Purederm Cucumber Eye 24 pads

What a neat idea. Instead of the cliché cucumber slice on your eyes, there’s this.

Ddung Vitamin wash-off pack

It’s a facial pack you have to wash off after 3-5 minutes. Why so short time? So not only does it require extra work by needing to be washed off, it also isn’t time enough to do something in?

LadyKin Vanpir Dark repairing water mask

$ 46 for this? It’s another sleeping pack. Not a mask.

Mise En Scene perfect repair treatment

Okay, seriously mixed feelings about this. I have loved every single hair product I got from Memebox, but how the [bleep] is this a mask?

I bought this box because I wanted facial masks. This is not a facial mask. The sleeping packs aren’t masks either, but this is even further from being a mask.

To Be Nang Snail nutrition hydro gel mask

Now we’re talking! A sheet mask, and one containing snail secretion filtrate. Awesome! Snail stuff packs some serious, serious moisture and nutrition. This makes me really happy.

To Be Nang 24 K snail nutrition hydro gel mask

It bugs me like crazy that this thing is a lot bigger than the other two packs! It’s obviously the same line, so why the size difference? Lol, odd things you get annoyed about…

From the back of the pack, it appears to be a half-mask? Either that or a two piece “full” mask.

It’s infused with both snail secretion filtrate and gold. How cool!

To Be Nang Snail anti-wrinkle face & neck mask

Cool: This is a 3 piece mask where it includes the neck too. Masks that includes the neck makes me really, really happy.

Verdict

The last 3 sheet masks with snail stuff really saved this box for me. Again, Memebox and I have very different opinions on what a mask is. The water mask and wash-off pack wasn’t a mask. And although I’m very happy with the hair treatment, it’s not a mask! I bought the mask box because I wanted masks.

They could have sent me a stack of cheap sheet masks and I would have been perfectly happy. Like, a stack of the Sally Box masks would have been perfect.

Memebox superbox #70 Thumbs up! Blogger’s picks

I read that there was a sort of poll on Facebook or something for people to vote for their best products. The name of the blog sounds promising, but hmm. Let’s see…

N.S.M ReBorn Tint in sorbet meting tint

Holy crap. This is like a solid block of colour on my lips. It’s seriously clown mouth-coloured too, so ick. Who would this colour be flattering on? The colour smears off on everything too. I ate my lunch with his on my lips and it rubbed off on my food, on the fork, everything and still magically managed to be the same solid block of colour left. Weird!

The colour is really unflattering and overwhelming for my pale colours as it is, but with the first cold of the season in full swing, it looks extra awful with my red nose.
I will give this to a friend of mine.

Thumbs down.

LadyKin Aqua exfoliator for body

Awesome! I bought this one some time ago and really liked it. It did some serious exfoliation in combination with my Clarisonic and I liked it. I would have bought one more after I used the last one up, but they didn’t have it in stock. It’s still on my wish list on Memebox, so this is a definite thumbs up for me.

Thumbs up!

Croquis Dual concealer

It’s a dual ended anti-wrinkle concealer and spot concealer. But it also says it can work as a regular concealer for dark eye circles and conceal redness. Uh?

I tried the lightest end as a normal concealer and it fits my skin tone. Then I tried the darkest end as a foundation-type covering and that was too dark for me. Maybe the dark end will work better in the summer where I have a bit of tan?

The product itself is in Korean so I have no way of knowing which end is supposed to be which, but I’m guessing the lightest one goes on under eye circles and the darker one covers spots?

Meh. Thumbs…. Up, but unenthusiastically.

Hair+ Velvet Nutri-injection

I received this before in a Memebox and just like back then, I’m really not sure if this is a leave in product or a rinse out. So I guess I will mix this small tube into some normal conditioner and do a deep conditioning. Also a thumbs up for me, although of course I would like a larger product than 12 ml! And again, how is this thing supposed to be $ 5? I know Memebox tends to inflate their prices, but damn.

Meh. Thumbs…. Up, but unenthusiastically.
  

Evas Cosmetics Vitamin cleansing dessert in 02 lemon

It’s a cleansing balm type product. It smells absolutely delicious!

Meh. I dislike balm-type products for cleansing. Maybe I should try to give it a shot anyways and use it as the first step in my cleansing routine?

Meh. Thumbs…. Up, but unenthusiastically.

23 Years old air-laynic mask

How is this thing supposedly $ 14? Holy crap. It’s a single use gel type cleansing mask that you have to “assemble” with the sheet mask yourself. $ 14?! Wow.

But what is up with the sheet you’re supposed to use? There are two and they’re oddly shaped. It says they’re supposed to go over the nose and cheeks, but they’re shaped so they will cover your mouth too. Eh? Am I supposed to cut them more into shape then? And ugh, the damn gimmicky syringe again.

Thumbs down.

Purebess Galactomyces 100%

It’s a product to use 1-2 drops off as the first step of your skincare after cleaning. So I guess it goes after toner, but before emulsion and all? Sounds like a fancy toner to me. It didn't smell like anything at all and I couldn't feel any difference from my normal toner, so, what?

Meh. Thumbs…. Up, but unenthusiastically.

Secret Key Color recipe the pink cream

It’s a pinkish gel-type cream with little bits in it. I do like gel type moisturisers. It's very light and nice. It even smells like I would think pink smells.

Meh. Thumbs…. Up, but unenthusiastically.

Total count

Thumbs up! 1 product

Meh. Thumbs…. Up, but unenthusiastically: 5 products

Thumbs down: 2 products

Final thoughts
I think I'm reaching a point of over-saturation of Memeboxes. None of them really excites me anymore. Take the Miracle Masks: My reaction should be "How cool! Snail and gold-masks? That should have been in an OMG box!" but instead I was more like "Yea, okay." and then stuffed the masks into my storage for sheet masks. A lot of my products now go into storage because I have more than plenty of products in use as it is. 
Maybe it's time for a Meme-break and use up some of my products?

And that’s how you do it!

It’s no secret I have sensitive skin. I spend more time on my skin than on my hair. (Especially when it comes to worrying about it)

Recently I tried the Neutral line for my face. It comes recommended by the allergy association in Denmark and Norway, and is approved by some eco labels and such.

It boasts of 0% perfume, 0% colourings and 0% parabens.

Unfortunately it didn’t work for my skin. I got itchy from the skin tonic and the cream was too heavy for my skin, which resulted in more picking.

Sigh.

This fits my rule that you can get everything “right” and your skin can still be irritated. Unfortunately.

Even though it didn’t work for me, I still wanted to show it.

This is how you do it, this is how you have a good product with total openness about the ingredients. No weird bullshit or exotic snail slime, just the bare necessities and a minimum number of ingredients:

• Face cream: 14 ingredients.Link
• Face wash: 11 ingredients.Link
• Skin tonic: 8 ingredients. Link

On the website the ingredients are not only listed, there is an explanation on what the different ingredients do in the product!

A thought on sebum

It seems to be commonly accepted knowledge in the longhair circuit that sebum comes in two different forms: A liquid oil and a harder wax, and that each individual scalp has its own ratio of those two.

But lately I’ve been wondering:

What if the two forms are really just one? I mean, oil or milk or any other liquid for the matter can be split in firm and liquid components if you filter it finely enough.

Maybe the form of sebum you see the most is depending on how porous and absorbing your hair is.

If your hair is very porous, maybe it will easily absorb the liquid components of the sebum and leave you with the waxy kind?

And if your hair doesn’t absorb well, maybe the liquid oil will seem more dominant because the waxy kind doesn’t show up until you “drain” the liquid from the sebum?

What do you all think?

WoodArtJewelry bone hair stick action shots

This is a good example of how much my hair colour depends on the light. 

From brown to blonde in just one tiny little step backwards.

I, pervert

I was sorting some old pictures and moving them from my laptop to my desktop. Among them was a picture I took back in may at Lundakarnevalen.

Back then I considered posting it, but decided against it because it felt so pathetic loser pervy lurker-ish that I had even taken it in the first place.

I have seen this woman around in Lund before and noticed her because of her classic+ length braid. Enviable thickness, all the way down especially since she has bangs too!

I blame the existence of this picture on that fact that I had quite a few ciders at the time I took it! 

My WoodArtJewelry bone hair stick arrived!

I thought this thing was hopelessly lost thanks to Etsy's dumb bug, but it arrived today! 

Cute packaging and it really felt like a gift.

Very smooth and pretty. I like the organic shape of it.

I wonder how much force the wood inlay can take when I insert it? I'm slightly worried it will snap if I try to twist it too much.

It has some dark shades on one side at the "fins" that was kind of hard to get on camera.

My hair is seriously dirty and messy (Was going to wash tonight) and I wan't prepared to have to take an action shot, but here goes. Ignore the messiness, please!

Macadamia Natural Oil Nourishing Leave In Cream

It’s been a very long time since I last used a hair product that I hated. I hated this one: It was so damn heavy it actually ended up tangling my hair as I braided it.

Usch.

I squeezed the leftovers into my trusty orange Sunsilk leave in conditioners. “Diluted”, it should work better. Would probably even be a good thing with the cold autumn wind.

About henna

Buchfreundin (love that username btw) commented:

Just to add: Your haircolor is so beautiful and very even! I really hope you write a bit more about it, like, does it fade, would you do it again, etc.

And sure, I’d love to!

For me, henna was something I had rattling around in my head for some years.

It would “fix” two of my hair-annoyances for me:

• I know it’s silly, but I have a real hate/love relationship with my natural hair colour. It’s not really blonde, not really brunette and not really red. Ideally I would love it to be both lighter (blonder) and redder, but that would require some bleach. That’s absolutely out of the question. So, I could get the “more red”.
• I’m closing up on 13 years since I shaved my head, so naturally I have some fade going on at the ends. Unless you dye the fade away, you will have fade. Again, completely natural, everyone has it, etc, but I still get annoyed by it. Some indigo would fix it damage free, but indigo needs henna (first) to be able to bond with hair.

But I had two things that kept me from it:

• That henna is permanent. Once you start henna, it requires upkeep. Getting out of a “normal” henna dose is painful and requires a ton of work.
• That is seems henna is such a “thing” for the super-longhairs. Call me weird, but it really rubbed me the wrong way that it seems everyone with super long hair eventually turns to henna.

Of course then I realised I could get out of most of the issues by using a super low henna dose (Including the high risk of staining).

The procedure itself turned out to be extremely annoying though: I thought I was good with the super long deep conditionings, but henna is a whole other game. I guess it’s both heavier than normal deep conditioners, and when it dries (The dripping. The horrible, horrible dripping!) I guess it will pull on the hairs and the “updo” under the cling wrap and warm hats.

But the dripping… Argh. I really need to figure something out with that one.

It has a noticeable red tint for the first 48 hours, then it fades into a tone that I can’t really tell apart from my natural tone. My hair has a tendency to fluctuate in colour depending on light, products used and how freshly washed it is, so it already shifts a lot in colour. I’ve been asking Hubby since he sees my hair in all conditions, but he can’t tell the difference either.

I hope with my low, low henna dose I won’t be so stuck with upkeep. As far as I can tell, I don’t have any roots showing in a different colour. That’s a very good thing!

So I’m thinking I will do my super low henna dose for the full length and then the indigo for some length of ends maybe every two months? Of course I might be eager to try it again soon… With such a low dose and no roots showing, I guess I can more or less do it whenever I feel like it.

I guess that’s another thing I have learned from having such long hair: You get a special kind of patience.

So I can’t tell any remarkable difference right away, but my hair seems to be pretty neutral. No sudden splits, no sudden tangles, no loss of glossiness.

Some times that’s the only response you get from your hair, and you should take that as a thumbs up.

My red didn’t go much redder, my fade didn’t get remarkable unfaded.

But a year and 6-12 treatments down the road and I probably will notice a difference from when I started.

Some times “Do No Harm” is a perfectly fine strategy instead of chasing an imaginary (Produced in a photo studio with a bunch of stylists and photo shopped!) kind of magic.

I like the non-commitment aspect of doing henna and indigo like this.

I get what I want with no commitment, and I get all the good stuff and none of the bad.

They say you can’t date henna, you have to marry it.

Well. I guess I just made henna my friend with benefits.

Memebox: Banila Co. and Citrus Care

Hmm. Memebox has a new design for the superboxes. I guess it shouldn’t bother me, but I dislike the random, big splotch of black in the middle of it.

“Delivering beauty everyday”

What.

Memebox Superbox #69: Banila Co.

First of all, I’m confused at this being called a superbox when it came in the smallest box. Am I wrong in thinking that the superbox should be the largest box?

How odd. Are the special boxes larger?

Banila Co. Clean it zero

100 ml + a free sample size 7 ml ($22)

This is a cream cleanser that came with a little paper describing how awesome it is. Bleah. I hate non-foamy cleaners, so this is going directly into my sell/trade/gift-pile.

Banila Co. Prime primer classic

30 ml ($22)

I’ve never actually owned a primer before, so this will go into my makeup drawer and will be tested pretty soon. Cool!

Banila Co. Claypatra facial scrub

120 ml ($15)

Silly punny name. None the less it sounds good; it contains mud from the Dead Sea.

Banila Co. Eye love gel liner natural black

5 g ($11)

I’m going to try this. Black won’t be a good colour for my pale colours, but none the less I can probably make it work if I put some effort into it.

Banila Co. Glam muse luster lipstick in LPK 569

3½ g ($14)

Seriously confused by the name of the colour. I got the darkest one; a sort of burgundy  tone with some pink in it (I think?) I never wear lipstick so this goes in my sell/trade/gift-pile.

Banila Co. Vanilla tint balm pink illusion

5 g ($5)

I’ve already expressed my dislike for lipbalms and tints that comes without applicators. What am I supposed to do? Carry a little brush with me as well? Or just dip a finger directly into the balm and wipe the excess off on my pants? Usch. Sell/trade/gift-pile.

Verdict

3 things that goes directly into the sell/trade/gift-pile.

2 things that made me go “Yay.

1 thing that made me go “Sure, why not?”

I guess overall this is a “Meh.” box for me.

Memebox Special # 51: Citrus care

This was the largest box. So, special-boxes are the largest? Or is it just random?

Unni Recipe vitamin recharger essence

55 ml ($18)

6 different vitamins, lemon extracts, orange extracts, grapefruit extracts and lime extracts. Not bad. I’m not using an essence for my night care at the moment, so I will add this one to the routine.

Tonymoly clean dew red grapefruit foam cleanser

180 ml ($4)

Is this a typo or is it a very cheap product? Huge tube that was even slightly folded in the top to fit in the box. It smells delicious: Like real grapefruit instead of artificial. I ill put this to use after I run out of the Milkypiggy charcoal cleanser.

The Yeon all day sun cream SPF 50 PA +++

50 ml ($17)

This contains a bunch of extracts, but I’m slightly worried about it containing aloe vera too. However, it also says it doesn’t have a whitening effect! This is good, because the Vitamin sun cream I otherwise liked and use, really leaves a white tint behind that washes all colour out of my face. I tried some on my hands and I haven’t had any reaction yet, so I guess it will go into my shoulder bag. It smells vaguely fresh and soapy.

Mizon refresh time grapefruit body wash

200 ml ($14)

Another product that smells awesome! I once bought a Palmolive bodywash that as supposed to wake you up in the mornings… Think it was called something along the lines of “morning tonic”? This could have been something like that too.

Vivito make-up starter intro

70 g ($35)

These are exfoliating little pads. I received something like this before and liked it. I’m guessing it’s the same principle: The pads have a rough, exfoliating texture but it also contains some essence or something that will be left on the skin afterwards.

Vivito painting sweet lip balm orange farm

12 g ($24)

24 $ for this stupid little lip balm? I kind of hope this is just another example of Memebox’es inflated prices. Sell/trade/gift-pile.

Verdict

5 good products

1 for the sell/trade/gift-pile

Very nice. I like “inoffensive products” like this one contained. This is a good box.

Etsy sucks!

So, my beautiful and awesome new hair stick is lost in the mail.

Effing Etsy!

After I placed the order, I had the thought that last I checked in on Etsy, it had this weird bug where it mixed my former Danish address up with my current Swedish.

So I checked, and sure enough: still bugged.

I managed to fix it and sent the store-owner an email telling her what had happened and asked that she would send it to my correct address.

Unfortunately she told me, her father who makes the sticks had sent the stick out without checking the email.

So now my awesome stick is lost in the Danish mail. I contacted them, but have no hope whatsoever that I can get my stick back. The Danish mail sucks ass and they don’t give a crap about customer service.

The store owner was nice enough to refund the stick and shipping cost, but I’m just upset at the loss of a stick.

Does anyone have any experience with the curly sticks in the store?

I like these two, but aren’t sure if a curly stick would work for me at all.