Showing posts with label 3 in 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3 in 1. Show all posts

Saturday, 30 July 2011

Une Radiance Refresh Night & Day 3 in 1 Micellar Cleansing Water for Face and Eyes

Firstly, what an extremely long title this product has. I shall just refer to it as Radiance Refresh. I had never heard of the word "Micellar" before and thought perhaps this was a made up thing. It turns out however, it's not, it actually means something. Basically, what I understand from "Micellar" is that it is a solution consisting of a solvent and water, the solvent obviously being the thing that breaks down your make-up. This is a 3 in 1 product so if you are someone who doesn't like shortcuts and will habitually do the 3 part process of Cleansing, toning, moisturising, you may not like this. I cleanse, tone, and I moisturise, but cannot honestly say I do this every day, morning and night without fail. Sometimes I just like to spray a load of my toner (Lush's Tea Tree Water) onto a cotton ball and swipe all over my face, job done. It's not really though, and it doesn't get every trace of my eye make-up off because it is just too gentle.

I was a bit surprised that an organic product could cleanse so well and effectively break down my make-up. For the past couple of years, I've been really against using anything harsh and too chemically to take my make-up off, even if it does the job really well. I had to read through the ingredients because I felt a little like I had been conned by the actual organic content of this product, but sure enough 99.3% are of natural origin. There was a certain sting factor when I accidently got some in my eye which made me question what was in it, and this I think is perhaps the alcohol content even though it's very low down on the list. I suppose also, natural doesn't always mean its going to be very gentle, and since this is "Micellar" it is designed as a solvent to break down your make-up so it needs to be a little rough. I do love that tingly clean feeling it leaves on my face.

I didn't realise it at the time, but this is a product I really needed and had a gap for amongst the rest of my products (we always find a way to justify our purchases don't we?!). This is just the perfect product to pack if you're going away somewhere, no need to bother with decanting all your make-up removers, cleansers and toners into mini bottles, this does the job well enough and comes in a not too bulky 150ml bottle.

There is absolutely no moisturising properties to this product which is hardly a surprise because its purpose is cleansing. The "3 in 1" refers to: 1. Gently cleanses. 2. Purifies. 3. Tones. It also says that "skin is hydrated and instantly rid of impurities". Hydrated or not, I still feel the need to use a moisturiser after this.

At £8.99 for a 150ml bottle, this does seem a little pricey. However, I don't need to drench the cotton wool, a few drops really is all you need, so I see this bottle lasting a while. I think you need to be prepared to pay a little extra for a natural product as well because rarely do they come cheap. As a multi-use product, I think this happens to be good value for money. It is highly effective and I can't think of another single product that has made my face feel this clean without feeling like I have burnt myself a little bit!

Friday, 18 June 2010

Rimmel's latest mascara offering: 3 looks in 1...

Rimmel's latest mascara offering is the 3 looks mascara. My initial thoughts were ones of confusion, 3 looks in 1? How can that be? Even when I got the mascara home and examined it I was still a bit perplexed. It finally occured to me that when you twist the dial, the pressure at the top of the tube increases or decreases, thus allowing more or less mascara on to the wand, depending on your desired look. You probably are a bit smarter, and worked that out quicker than me. The pictures on the advert are so exaggerated it's not even funny, so I decided to conduct my own little test to show you what the different looks you can really create are. Turning the dial to number 1 is supposed to create 3 times more volume; number 2, 5 times more volume and number 3, 10 times more volume than your ordinary lashes. Ok... so below is a picture of the wand to give you an idea of the amount of mascara released on the wand on each dial, top left is number 1, and going clockwise, 2 and 3. Sorry they are not the same size exactly, but hopefully you can see the difference in the wand each time.And below are pictures of the mascara when applied with just one coat. When twisted to number 1, lashes are really separated well with just enough volume to enhance your lashes without it being glaringly obvious you're wearing mascara, a nice natural day time look.Number 2 for me is probably the best way to wear the mascara. More volume yet still enough separation so you don't get that nasty spider looking lash situation. The only problem with this was I felt like I couldn't achieve the right length with my lashes. They seem a little stumpier in this picture. I guess I could fix this with a dash of another mascara on the tips, something specifically for lengthening.Number 3 is below, different lighting in the shot, but you get the idea. My lashes were pretty lengthy after application but I'm not too keen on the volume side of things. You can see from the top picture of the mascara wand that when the dial is on number 3, there is a LOT of mascara on the wand, and that's the problem, the bristles on the wand can't really do their job because the wand is overloaded. So instead of separating it just kind of puts a huge chunk of mascara on your lashes which you're left to try and sort out. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn't use mascara a lot. I wear it everyday almost without fail, so I feel I'm a pro at applying it on myself by now! I could see myself getting in a mess with this if I wasn't so familiar with the whole process though. Looking at the picture I think it resembles the spider lashes I was talking about. My lashes are volumised but it's like I can count how many lashes I have which just isn't quite right.

My overall conclusion of the mascara: I like the idea of it more than the actual mascara. 3 looks in 1 seems too good to be true, and sadly yes it is. If you want to create 3 different looks you probably need 3 different mascaras. Personally I think it's better to have a mascara that is buildable. Examples of these are L'oreal Lash Architect, and Rimmel's Glam Eye Mascara. They really separate your lashes so you an build up the volume by applying a greater number of coats. I sort of think this mascara is trying to do too much. It works well on number 2 though, and that can be built up but then it renders the other dial numbers useless. So honestly, this is a bit of a gimmick which I clearly got suckered in to. Like I say, nice in theory, but it doesn't represent what Rimmel is about. I really rate Rimmel mascaras on the whole, I have quite a few reviews on here, but this just isn't one of their best. It's probably better for someone looking for a daytime mascara, using it on dials 1 and 2 depending on how dramatic you want your lashes, but I'd steer clear of number 3, it just doesn't deliver what it's meant to and their are plenty of better max volume mascaras out there.

Anyone tried this and had more success?

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