Schwarzkopf Perfect Mousse Permanent Foam Colour 3-0 Dark brown 3.0 review/ swatch

I've been meaning to review this foam hair dye from Schwarzkopf for ages, I've used at least 5-6 bottles of this but just never remembered to take photos until now.

This has became my staple hair foam dye for this winter, firstly because of ease of access (sold in Priceline and supermarkets- though I find priceline has the most complete hair color options), secondly the price is great, Priceline often have these on sale for $10-11AUD each. (RRP is about 14-15AUD).

This shade is 3-0 Dark Brown. It looks like the most cool toned brown (with possibly slight green base for that 'ash brown' sort of look, but really subtle). Unfortunately most other shades in the Swarzkopf brown series are red based and warmer colors. This is about the darkest brown in all the available shades, the next shade is 1.0 black.

Usual contents below. 

The application is as usual. Put the content of the black bottle into the large white bottle. put nozzle on. Then squeeze pump to get the foams. Massage foam from roots then work to end of hair. Rinse, condition, then dry hair.

Also comes with a conditioner (which I thought was weak- after first two bottles, I end up never using these and stick with my usual Kerastase or any other brand hair masques).

Also comes with some cheap plastic gloves- they are gigantic and very difficult to use. On a few occasions when I remember, I actually buy those latex gloves from supermarket instead. 

Not much point in showing before color- I find this shade has excellent coverage and does not fade a lot. I mainly reapply each time to cover my few grey roots (I'd say I have maybe a few hundred grey hair, but it's not obvious yet- I'm just really picky about any grey roots).

Here's how it looks after about 2 weeks. 

Indoor light, this is as dark as it looks (I like it since it's a good color for winter, not too light, almost blackened brown so it's good for the office).

Under different lighting this is as light as it looks, a shiny dark brown.

Again here. with flash photography some strands look a bit more chestnut brown, but in reality I don't find it to be as warm and definitely does not fade to a brassy red or orange.

The shade also looks rather natural. I don't do highlights or any special techniques, but it's not flat looking or streaky.

I also want to add the grey coverage is excellent with this shade. It's probably due to the fact I often have to use two full bottles if I was doing my full head of hair. That's a major down point- there is simply insufficient content , you clearly need about 2 bottles for any hair length over the shoulder.  (Mine is just above armpit length). I have a lot of hair so it also means you need 2 bottles to ensure even foam coverage, otherwise 1 bottle may barely cover the roots, not even enough to work a bit to the ends to make it look natural.

I also leave this in for 30-40 minutes (I count the 30-40 minutes from the time AFTER I applied everything and massaged it in, so that excludes any application time. Though it only takes me 10-15 min to apply).

It also isn't too drying so my hair doesn't turn into straw afterwards. However would still strongly recommend using a hair masque regularly if you use foam hair dyes (just swap your conditioners with hair masques).

Overall:

Pros: - good grey hair coverage, relatively cheap, does not have strong odour, easy to apply.  Rinses out easily (instructions says rinse with water until water runs clear, then apply usual masque. i.e. do not shampoo. Also does not stain the skin very much. Very little fading. 

Cons-  too little product inside, compared to any other brand I have tried. The foam product is 35ml + 35ml mixed together so that's only 75ml.

Loreal sublime mousse only contains 39ml + 26ml so a total of 65ml- however the foams come out and feels like maybe 10-20% more than Schwarzkopf in terms of application areas.

- the gloves are rubbish- they are very loose and hard to use. Also very cheap and flimsy. Latex gloves are much easier to use (though I guess some people are allergic to latex).

Rating is still 4/5 since I just like this color. The fading is much better than a lot of other foam hair dyes and grey coverage is miles ahead of Liese and Prettia. Loreal sublime mousse has decent coverage too but I just didn't like any of the L'oreal colors.

Please note if you have anything other than naturally black hair or dark brown hair, this color may easily turn out way too dark for you, most foam hair colors really tend to go on darker than it looks.

L'Occitane Rose Petals Ultra Rich Body Cream (25% shea butter) review/ swatch

L'Occitane sometimes releases a whole bunch of new scents at once and they are often limited edition scents. Looks like this Rose Petals scent is still selling on the L'occitane website (however it is still labelled as limited edition). Retails for 22USD for 3.5oz, which is a really small size given most other body products typically start at 6 oz or more like 200g/200ml at least.

It's housed in a gorgeous tin:

It's sealed when opened:

You can see the cream sits inside a white plastic tub in the middle rather than the tin itself (which is a good thing as you won't have body cream getting that metal tin scent).

It's a wonderfully luscious body moisturiser- with 25% shea butter. I usually don't really specifically go for shea butter body moisturisers as they tend to be a bit thick and have that particular oil scent to it (and also leave a sticky residue on your sheets, like the Body Shop body butters at times!). 

However this one is just a spreadable, luscious consistency. It's not thin like a body lotion or emollient like a typical cream. Instead it has that semi melted body butter consistency that spreads and goes a long way easily. It has that wonderful feeling of just lightly coating your skin and nourishing it.

It leaves a slight white cast as you spread it out, but once massaged in it disappears.

It keeps my skin hydrated and not to mention the rose petals scent is divine- I think this is easily my favorite L'occitane body product lately. I prefer this over the rose neiges line as this one has a more 'real' rose petal scent. 

Hope they make it into a bigger size and better price though. If used daily this tin runs out before winter finishes here. 

RMK Nail Color EX CL-08 Pink Rose swatch and review

These are the new RMK nail color EX collections. I think CL-08 Pink Rose is a regular shade (but RMK does revamp its lines every few years so sometimes things just go out of stock).

In the bottle it looks like a typical muted pink rose (as the name suggests). It looks like a gel-creme, slightly jelly sort of consistency. There's no shimmer or glitters or iridescence. Looks semi opaque but not super creamy.

Here below with two coats on the nail. I actually used the Kanebo Coffret D'or topcoat- which turned out to be rather slow drying and made a few nails looked a bit dull because of sheet marks.

A few different lightings:

As you can see it's a very delicate, pretty soft pink rose. It applies true to the bottle, nice and glossy finish.  It's a really feminine shade and superb for office days. Consistency for this shade was marvelous too, with 1 coat it was more a jelly gloss and still quite pretty. Two coats gave full color coverage smoothly. 

Thumbs up to this shade, not super unique but very pretty and easy to wear and apply.

5/5.

Giorgio Armani eyes to kill silk eyeshadow #12 Moonlight swatch/ review

Here's the Armani Eyes to Kill Silk eyeshadow in shade #12, there's no color name printed on the box or container but according to the official website the corresponding shade name is "Moonlight".

I did not see swatches before getting it, but the rainbowy mixture got me curious since it looks like a pale silvery blue base with fine pink and green flecks of pigments through it.

Here- you can see the color looks rather complex in the jar.

As mentioned in my previous reviews, these eyeshadows have an interesting moist powder/ cream texture. It's very finely milled and intense pigmentation and is meant to be buildable in color.

Swatch, more densely on left and blended out on the right:

You can see how it's almost slightly lumpy on the finger tip.

Here you can see it being a bit uneven on the left, but it blends out easily.

Well at the end of the day- this is really a shiny silver shade. It's not flecks of silver but does blend out to a sheer silver shimmer. It's not a 'white' silver but more a mercury silver, and capable of being blended out to a really sheer layer which gives more a shimmery finish with translucency. Can be layered to a true mercury silver too.

It's a rather metallic shade which means it's not very forgiving on the eyes, sort of accentuates and creases and a bit too glaringly silver. However it sheers down as a nice eyeshadow base and adds a real sparkle to any eyeshadow you apply on top.

Overall rating 3/5. It looks more amazing in the pot than applied for sure.