More Hair Product Wars & Sneak Peek: In2it Light Reflecting Liquid Eyeliner in Caribbean

Okay so today I went to MBK and hunted for Palty but I could only see one box of Juicy Peach left among the dodgy-looking shops. Then I looked again at the Beauteen in both Watsons outlets. I decided that if I was ever going to use Beauteen instead of Palty to darken my hair, I'd use Caramel Chocolate instead of Natural Brown because they're about the same colour and I don't want to look completely dull. What really decided me against buying Beauteen was the fact that it clearly states that it cotains Hydrogen Peroxide. Some websites claim that Palty does not, but I can't know that because all the writing on the boxes is in Japanese.

If I can be bothered, I'll go to Platinum and see if I have better luck finding Bitter Cappuccino or Ganache Tart this time.

While I was at Watsons, I also had a good look at the potential replacement shampoos and conditioners that I might buy after Asience and Elseve Royal Jelly are gone. Asience remains the only product on the shelf that contains Camellia/Tsubaki (if you don't count the old versions of Herbal Essences, which I'm sick of). Elseve is more expensive. But there was something else: Herbal Essences now has a new shampoo, conditioner and treatment trio called Long-Term Relationship -- it's a formula for long hair! I sniffed it; it's nice. It's got raspberry and satin, apparently. It's supposed to strengthen your hair against split ends. I might be interested, but next I might be more interested in protecting the colour of my hair, in which case I'd better get the Elseve for colour-treated hair. However, Asience conditioner is cheaper. Or maybe I'll throw caution to the winds and just get those huge bottles of Shiseido Golden Repair??

Nah, when I'm abroad, I won't be able to get Asience, so I may as well use it while I'm here. However, some places sell Elseve shampoo for 99 baht and you get 250ml as opposed to 138 baht for Asience's 220ml. I still want to try the Asience shampoo though! ... All right, all right, I'll try the Asience shampoo and leave the Elseve until I get overseas :D

Phew.

I also finally gave in to curiosity and bought In2it's Light Reflecting Liquid Eyeliner in Caribbean RL 03 -- a pearly deep sea blue-green that looks darker or lighter depending on the angle of the light. I've read good things about In2it eye makeup so I'm confident this will be a winner. It should be better than its cousin, the Navy eyeliner, anyway. That's so dry I'm giving up on it.

Speaking of dry, I think my MM Lash Enamel Glamour Neo is finally drying up :-( It definitely feels more congealed than it used to and I can see more clumps. It's still good, though, but it won't stay good for long if it's drying up. I'm using it past its advised shelf life anyway.

Can't wait to try this eyeliner out.

Oh today (Tuesday) I wore the Sheene Oil Free on my cleansed, toned and moisturised face. It's a pretty good match for my skin colour, not too light at all, but not too dark either.

I can't wait to dye my hair! When I tie it up I can really see the black roots on the underside and the back where I didn't put enough cream! And the difference between the red-brown roots and the lighter orangey-red of most of my hair is much more noticeable now than when I first dyed it.

I just remembered something. I have to look for the new MM Summer 2009 collection. I want to get that solid perfume if it's nice. I didn't look at the MM stand at MBK today because the BAs were in the way, waiting for victims to come along. Brrr.

If I ever really need a light nude lip gloss, I'm gonna get one of MM's beige ones.

OMFG I just remembered at Watsons today I saw Palgantong's Zebra Eyes Mascara or whatever it's called in a paper tube at the counter! Must search!

Where art thou, Bitter Cappuccino & Ganache Tart?

So last night -- well, actually, Saturday night -- I emailed the Rabbo people and asked when Palty in Bitter Cappuccino and Ganache Tart would be available. On Sunday, they replied, saying that the colours would be available "by the end of the month" -- I'm not sure if that means this month, April, or next month, May.

It's annoying that I can't find pictures of those who have actually used Ganache Tart -- or even the rough guides at the back of the box that tell you approximately what colours your hair should turn out. At least I've seen a couple of the Bitter Cappuccino results and swatches -- even held a real box and looked at the back of it. (Should have bought it then, dammit! Grr!)

I'm so desperate I'm even considering trying Beauteen!

I seem to have used up a little over half of my Asience conditioner now. I wonder if I should switch brands when it runs out. But Elseve is more expensive (although I think there is also more of it, which should justify the price) and Shiseido Golden Repair comes in a really huge bottle.

The Elseve royal jelly shampoo seems to be running out a bit fast as I wash my hair approximately every two days and need to shampoo twice each time. I seem to have used up a quarter of the bottle now, or almost. Wondering if I should switch to Asience shampoo next. Asience is pretty good but I'm getting sick of it -- the sight of it and the smell of it. I get bored easily.

Miscellaneous Makeupdates

It's official. I think my hair colour, recently revitalised by Palty in Orange Biscuit, has started to lose its ravishing redness. Only a little, though. A very tiny bit. The red is more visible at this time of night in the bathroom light for some reason. I remember I managed to deliberately tone down the rampaging red after the first couple of vigorous washes.

I dyed my hair on the 31st of March. It'll have been exactly three weeks since then tomorrow. So the colour has lasted pretty well. I hope it doesn't go really dull or ugly before I have to colour it again. And I can see almost a centimetre of dark roots coming through.

I'm pretty much decided on getting Palty in Bitter Cappuccino (two boxes this time!) for the graduation season. Today I searched the Boots and Watsons at Siam Square and MBK but couldn't find a DIY hair colouring equipment kit (I don't fancy using the lame nozzle that L'Oreal Creme Gloss has -- I'm much more confident with Palty's comb applicator) so I think I'll have to abandon the L'Oreal Creme Gloss idea. I'm just really hooked on Palty, I'm not confident trying anything else. I really hope Bitter Cappuccino turns out dark enough for graduation so that I don't have to go over it with Beauteen in Natural Brown or Natural Black.

I think my L'Oreal Elseve royal jelly shampoo and Asience conditioner have worked together to make my hair softer than it was just after I last coloured it. I wash it once every two days usually. The shampoo is in a 250ml bottle so it might just last me until I have to go abroad. If not, I'll try Asience shampoo when the Elseve runs out. Today the sun and heat dried my hair out, I think, and I'm starting to scratch my scalp, so I'll wash my hair tonight.

I made a mistake today. I gave in to my curiosity and bought Maybelline Moisture Extreme lip colour in Iced Peach Tea. Due to a lack of any light nude colours that would suit me, I had to get this one, the orangest one in the selection (which is a bad one -- mostly pinks and dark colours). And it turned out too bright orange on me. Ick. I'll have to try and sneak my unwanted lipsticks and powders into Mum's makeup bag without alarming her with the vast amount of such items.

And it does not smell like watermelons as foreign reviewers say. In fact, I can't pick up any smell at all. Or maybe that's just cos I'm still a little sick.

I don't want to risk disappointment with another lipstick but I already spotted one: L'Oreal Star Secrets in Guava Crystals. It's a lovely pale shade of coral that I think should suit me well. I hope I'm right because 350 baht is a little expensive for me, and the lippie doesn't even come with special properties, as far as I know.

The other night I decided to crack open the Nivea Q10 Lip Effect instead of using the old Body Shop lip balm for a change, cos I felt my lips were in desperate need of it. The formula is thick and a pearly white colour and smells faintly, I think, of grapes. As it's so thick, it's not as easy to spread as regular lip balm, but not too hard either. My lips feel instantly pampered, moisturised. It might be my imagination, but after a couple of nights of use, the deepening lines in my lips seem to be less severe. That may have something to do with my sleeping pattern, which I've been trying to get back to normal (whatever that is -- I don't remember going to bed before eleven since ... in fact, I don't even remember when I started going to bed late and what time I used to go to bed before that!) and with my lack of vitamin C -- I haven't been drinking vitamin C -rich fruit juice for a while now and I've just started again.

About the Maybelline Water Shine 3D Collagen -- yes, number 244 is closer to my natural lip colour while number 204 is a bit brighter, a bit more garish. So I'd really like to get some nude lip colours next time. I've been reminded by these lip colours that any colour close to pink seems to accentuate the yellowness of teeth -- even though I always use whitening toothpaste!

Saw some new Axe today -- their limited edition summer scent. Very fruity and lovely, from the test whiff I took. I want it.

Blogging away the time ...

So last night I washed my hair with the last of the Sunsilk and started using the Elseve with royal jelly extract. I conditioned with Asience as usual and went to bed with a towel on my pillow. My hair is noticeably softer, but that may be the effect of sleeping on a towel, and maybe because I didn't use Mum's leave-on crap (which seemed to actually make my hair feel drier and fluffier :s).

Funny thing is, my hair seems to be a little less shockingly bright red. On camera-phone with flash it looks the same, though. Maybe it's just the gloomy rainy-day light. But if the colour is indeed less vibrant, it must be my unusually frequent washing.

I've been reading some pointers from Kirari @ Jeban. She did this kind of famous review of sixteen hair colours she's had in the past couple of years and people keep asking her stuff as if she's a hair colour guru, which I think she sort of is. She says she heard from some hairdresser that it's good to change your shampoo every three months or so, which is a good thing because I'm always changing shampoos :-) I think next I'll try Asience shampoo or the Elseve colour care one. More leaning towards the Asience as it's got Camellia/Tsubaki extract, which is good for damaged hair. I'm more interested in making my hair soft and nourished than keeping the colour vibrant.

More tips from Kirari: Palty is indeed better than Beauteen. Its cream is thicker and its colour is more consistent. So I hope to get Palty in Bitter Cappuccino for graduation. Hopefully Rabbo @ Platinum has enough boxes of that, or I'll have to get them more expensive (+10 baht) at MBK. If worst comes to worst, I'll have to get Beauteen in Natural Brown instead. I'm afraid to try Natural Black because I hate the artificial-looking blackness of black dye. I just hope Palty in Bitter Cappuccino is dark enough for graduation -- but not so dark that I look totally ordinary and boring.

Still no sign of the new Etude collection on the Rabbo website. And when will Mistine Debutant hit Boots??? Grrr ...

P.S. Yesterday at Watsons I saw this cheap (about 70 baht) pack of 30 cleansing wipes. Very interested.

Palty DIY Part One etc.

Another point I forgot to add about In2it Oil Control & Oil Free 2-way foundation powder. When I touch my face with it on, a bit of sheer powder comes off on my fingers. This does not happen with Fasio, which feels completely matte -- almost like I have on a rubber mask, if that doesn't sound too weird. In2it also comes off a lot when I remove excess oil, as I think Mistine Diamond does. I think the Diamond is a lighter colour when it comes off though. In2it, like some other foundation powders I've tried (I don't remember which ones), tends to look thick and old after you apply it a second time on top of the first and your face has become oily. So from now on, after applying foundation powders, it's powders only for retouching!

Today I dyed my hair with Palty all by myself! A first for me! I ended up using a bit too much of the cream on the top and front part of my hair because I thought I'd have enough -- the cashier told me so (though in retrospect she probably thought I was only going to use it for my roots). So I didn't leave enough cream for the rest of my hair although I tried to put a lot of cream on the more obscure parts. The roots at the top, then, were completely covered in cream and turned out a light shade of brown that blends in with the rest of the hair -- which has turned a more vibrant shade of the colour I already had. The more obscure bits turned slightly lighter maybe but the underside of the roots on the back of my head are especially noticeably dark.

All in all, not bad for a first-time DIYer. Now I know that I should get two boxes next time for hair of this length (just past shoulders). That way I'll be sure to have enough cream to completely saturate all of my hair, which I think is the trick to get an even colour throughout with Palty.

I know from experience, and confirmation by other people's webboard and blog posts, that the roots of your hair will change colour faster than the rest of your hair -- that's why instructions on DIY hair colours say you have to leave the roots alone first, which is exactly what hairdressers do (yet my roots always turn out lighter anyway -- maybe because they have to leave the cream in my hair for longer than they expected, as my hair is very thick -- every hairdresser remarks upon this, every one). With Palty this time, however, I knew that my priority was my roots, so I simply covered the roots at the same time as the rest of my hair. That turned out well in the case of the top/front part of my hair, and I think it would have turned out fine for the rest too if I'd had enough cream for it.

After reading the forums, I now know why the tips of my hair never turn out quite as light as the middle or near the roots of my hair. It's because my hair used to be dyed a darker colour. Perhaps with more cream I would have fixed this, but maybe we'll know next time. (I did try and put my tips into the bottle to get at the last residue of cream in there, however.)

Next time I might try mixing the colours in a bowl instead of in a bottle so that the cream is easier to reach. A brush would also be easier to use than a squeeze tube and comb applicator.

I'm impressed with the results of my first ever completely DIY hair colour (I've had mostly salon dyed hair and before that I got Mum or someone else to do my hair) but apart from the fact that it covered up most of my noticeable roots and intensified my existing colour -- and I was right about my choice of colour while the cashier was wrong -- I find myself kind of wishing I'd got a different colour. I mean, the red is awesome and brings out the playfulness in me, but I think it's almost time for a change.

Damn. I just found some English instructions online and it says you have to use conditioner too before rinsing and then using the included leave-on treatment.

Anyway for graduation I'll have to dye it a dark colour. I'm kind of interested in trying more Palty in Bitter Cappuccino, but I'm not sure what kind of results I'll get with my red hair. I'll have to check the swatches next time I'm near a shop that sells Palty.

The swatches on the Beauteen website don't appeal to me, and besides, Palty's supposed to be more accurate with their swatches and the actual colour you get. (Beauteen's instructions also says you should shampoo twice, but I thought shampooing just once produced enough foam -- or maybe that's just because of the colour cream?)

When I first washed Palty from my hair, my hair felt dry, just like it felt last night when I washed my hair with the remains of my Sunsilk damage care shampoo without conditioning. (When I woke up, however, my hair felt soft as if I'd conditioned with Asience. Weird.) But as soon as I put shampoo in it, it immediately felt super soft!

So maybe now I haven't washed all the chemicals out of my hair because I only shampooed once.

The colour will change once I shampoo more, inevitably. Some have said that the colour gets even brighter, golder. Interesting.

I think my hair now feels a tiny bit stiffer than it did before dying with Palty, but that could just be because of the chemical residue.

I might wash it soon, when I do the washing. Doing my washing is always a good time to condition my hair. It's also an excuse to use up the Sunsilk as I'm eager to try out the new L'Oreal Elseve with Royal Jelly. It's supposed to be a new deep conditioning formula. I really had a hard time finally buying this as the other formulas were tempting as well. A veteran hair coloring lady on Jeban recommended using shampoo for dyed hair, like the red Elseve. If Royal Jelly doesn't do it for me I might switch to the red. But I'm pretty happy with the Asience conditioner. So indecisive ...

I'm really looking forward to a nice deep dark chocolate hair colour so I hope the Palty does it for me!

Anyway, about makeup ...

Today I wore Lash Enamel Glamour Neo. Still slightly clumpy. I'm pretty sure it's partly its brush (forgive the pun) with Fasio and partly its shelf life. The second brushing helped things. Still, I think the whole problem could be avoided with the help of Lash Bone.

Speaking of which, my renewed red hair colour gives me an excuse to use the golden brown Lash Gorgeous Wing more! *cringes at the thought of fibres in my eye*

Oh -- about the Revlon lip gloss I mentioned earlier -- I read some reviews and found that it doesn't have that see-through look of normal lip glosses. So I felt a bit discouraged. I want a gloss that is see-through but not too shiny or too glittery.

Today I tried a Maybelline lipstick tester -- one of their Water Shine lipsticks, I think. The cream texture collected in the lines of my lips. I'm really craving that Bloom lip collagen!

Today I also tried putting the coral orange Body Shop gloss on with the Liplife gloss on top. This time, the Liplife glided on much more easily! And the two colours blended gave a lovely pale peach colour, almost nude, very nice on me with my current curiosity about peach tones!

Confessions of a Fasio Ho

Okay so today I gave in to temptation and bought a Fasio pack consisting of their eyebrow mascara in Golden Brown, their Hyper-Stay mascara in black (Shock Free Curl Volume) and a little makeup bag in gold, brown and orange tartan.

I tried the eyebrow mascara over my existing eyebrow mascara of the same brand (but in Brown, which I felt made my brows too dark). It looks okay. Maybe the Brown and the Golden Brown can even be used together to achieve the right shade.

I tried the Curl Volume mascara on over what I'm already wearing -- Majolica Majorca Lash Bone with golden brown Lash Gorgeous Wing over the top. The Fasio made my lashes very black, all right, but I don't think their chunky brush does the job that MM's comb does. Or maybe the Fasio will work better on its own. I'll try it tomorrow. As for Fasio's reputation for being hard to wash off, I'll report on that when I do wash it off! Which brings me to another point -- today I bought the L'Oreal De-Maq -- the oily Elixir one which claims to be good at washing off the hard-to-wash-off. I will not be trying it yet though as my Ziiit Milk is not finished yet, although it is close to.

Today was the first time I washed my hair since I dyed it, making it almost exactly a week of not washing my newly-dyed hair. I used what was left of my Herbal Essences conditioner and then put the Asience conditioner on top of it. My poor hair feels dry :( I think I need cream-based shampoos and conditioners and maybe even leave-ons but I have plenty of shampoo and conditioner left waiting to be used.

Oh, plus the Fasio mascara, like the MM Lash Enamel Glamour Neo, can accidentally stain your eyelids and be hard to remove. If this mascara really doesn't work, I'll have to give it to Mum. Poor Mum lol.

Fasio also have a mascara that promises to separate lashes to make them fan out beautifully. It's about 400 baht though -- around the same price as the package I bought today. You can get that kind of mascara with a little glitter mascara that comes with a comb brush for like 450 baht or something, but I resisted that temptation.

P.S. The Fasio mascara is only 6 ml while MM are 7.5 (Lash Bone & Lash Enamel Glamour Neo) and 7 ml (Lash Gorgeous Wing). At least it'll run out sooner! ^^"

P.P.S. Maybe next time I buy mascara, I'll focus on length rather than volume. Volume can actually be quite "shocking."

Mistine Number One Platinum & Maybelline Clear Smooth Minerals Healthy Natural Powder Foundation

So I gave in and bought Mistine Number One Platinum in S1 the other day. The first time I used it, I didn't like it. The packaging is fine but the puff is really lacklustre. At least the puff for Mistine's BB loose powder looks good. However, yesterday I tried it again on bare and unprepared skin and was quite satisfied. It offered good coverage without feeling thick or heavy. At the end of the day, however, I felt like it was just a bit too light for my skin tone. I'm not sure if buying S2 next time is a good idea though. Buying foundation powder darker than your skin, I think, is worse than buying lighter.

Today I went to Watsons to buy some Asience conditioner but they didn't have any. Instead I was surprised to see Maybelline's new mineral foundation on sale. I gave in (again) and bought some in Natural Ochre (W02). Haven't tried it yet. Might tomorrow.

What am I gonna do with all this powder? lol.

Oh, today I'm wearing just the Etude Dream On after moisturising. Nice and light coverage, good match with my skin tone. It just offers no shine control.