Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts

Friday, March 28, 2014

lightning striking agaaaaiin! Review flash

HAPPY FRIDAY!

 

inspired by the incredibly aesthetic and inspiring Jenny's blog,
here is a lightning round of mini beauty reviews!
i've tried a bajillion products in the past year and a half or so and was itching to talk about them somehow, but it didn't occur to me to put them in one post. a wave of relief is washing over me!!
 (づ。◕‿‿◕。)づ



Etude House Dear My Blooming Eyes #OR201 Coral
I love the girly/sparkly colors and princess motif, but unfortunately this fella showed up to my house somewhat broken -- the inner eye corner 'sparkle panel' broke apart and SPARKLEVISION-dusted all of the other panels. (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ From what I have been able to salvage, the colors are relatively subtle on their own after 1 application, so layering is key if you don't want more than a little bit of shimmer. Cute and great for 'everyday' makeup!

 Etude House Eraser Show Line Remover Stick
This 'roll-up' stick contains argan oil and aloe vera leaf extract
 and comes in a waxy, chapstick-like form that's good for spot removal if you're like me and screw up your eyeliner constantly (famous black spots on the bridge of the nose, etc.,) For best results sweep it on gently and then finish cleanup with a Q-tip. I've found it's easier to use it on small screw-ups that need a quick fix than overall eye make removal.
Etude House Eraser Show Mascara Cleaner
Yep, #2 in the Eraser Show series! The barrel is full of makeup remover, and the wand is just like a mascara wand that you can jiggle through your lashes to remove those pesky clumps so you don't have to rip out your lashes. I don't have to use this all the time but it's pretty efficient for disintegrating waterproof mascara. I worry a little about the hygiene aspect when returning the wand to the bottle, but I do try to keep it as clean as possible before replacing it.




Etude House Sweet Recipe Baby Choux Base #1 Mint Choux
I was eager to try this version, since they switched the packaging from gross germ pot to tube! I am super pale with pinky undertones and was hoping this base would downplay the inevitable winter redness a bit. Unfortunately, it's a bit too light to have much of an effect other than giving me a slightly ghostly sheen.


 Etude House Shini Star Clear Pact - #1 Peach
An OK, peachy pressed powder that's supposed to help with color correction. Doesn't wear for very long, though.









Etude House Tear Drop Liner #1 White Tear
Fine point, shimmery eyeliner for your inner corners for that brightening effect. A bit too shimmery for me, and peels off easily. I think I prefer a white matte pencil to this guy.


Etude House Lash Perm 3 step Volumecara (Brown)
Fun and gimmicky 3-step mascara -- you turn the dial to control the amount of product, coat 1, coat 2, coat 3! I haven't branched out into using brown mascara until recently but I've been enjoying this a lot, it's easy to apply, and definitely gives my eyelashes some oomph.
Holika Holika Aqua Petit jelly BB Cream 40ml #1 
IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE ??? No, seriously, the jelly-like consistency is a bit off-putting at first if you're used to pedestrian bb creams, but it's kind of neat at the same time. It's heavier and does have a glossy sheen, and unfortunately is not as matte as I usually prefer. You do have to be careful not to overapply because it will peel off your face in weird rolls if you do, and I've noticed it resists some products like concealers, etc.


Kiss My Face Peaches & Cream Moisturizer
This is too heavy for my face purposes -- I have sensitive/combination skin that doesn't like moisture products --  but it smells AMAZING and just super real best tastiest peachy. Not overpowering, but delicious. I like to grossly slather myself with it when I get out of the shower. Great if you want to smell somewhat edible! Watch out for bees??




Maybelline Illegal Length Fiber Extensions Mascara (Brown-Black)
Illegal Length... but not a misdemeanor, nor a felony. Advertises '4 mm of measurable extensions ... break every law of lengthening!' the mascara goop itself is kind of fibrous and clumpy looking, but the results are pretty meh in my experience. I have to apply another mascara over one coat and then curl to get the look I usually like. OK for separating lashes because of the fine brush, but other than that, eeeehhhh.


Max Factor 2000 Calorie Dramatic Look Mascara (Black)
Not as dramatic as I hoped, and tends to melt off with just a couple of stray laughter-tears (sad clown!) I guess my lashes need moar calories.


Mommy Makeup Brow Tint (Blonde)
Great, non-clumpy, natural brow tint, and I much prefer this to Etude House's overly orange-y version of similar substance, though I'm clearly not part of the target demographic??



NATURE REPUBLIC By Flower BB cream SPF35PA++ #1 bright BB
A smaller-size bb I got for travel purposes that goes on sheer but gradually mattifies. Very gentle with a soft fragrance, and good for cooler light skin tones.


Olay Wet Cleansing Towelette - Sensitive
The first pre-moistened face clothes that haven't broken me out like a mother, so cause for celebration!! Other supposedly similarly gentle products have all caused weird flare-ups on my face after continued use (Burt's Bees, Say Yes To) Non-scented and very gentle.

Skinfood Platinum Grape Cell Essential Bb Cream Spf45/pa+++ #1
I haven't been able to get ahold of my favorite mushroom bb, so I decided to try this from Skinfood instead. Good coverage, love the extra SPF, but the large cylindrical pump packaging makes it kind of difficult to travel with and the smell is a bit baby-powdery, which I don't like so much.


TONYMOLY Cats Wink Clear Pact - #1 Clear Skin
Cutest powder! Nice and mattifying.


TONYMOLY Latte Art Milk-Tea Morning Pack

This goes on under makeup, and you have to pat/smack it on your face. It supposedly helps 'wake up' skin, but I'm starting to wonder if it's the patting that's really facilitating that... the best part is that it's a great base primer for whatever you're going to put on top! Kind of grossly shiny if left to its own devices, so definitely meant to be a base base.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

sammydress.com order review, october 2011


I stumbled upon SammyDress, a Shenzhen-based wholesale clothing supplier, in a Google shopping search in October while looking for a certain style of cute OP for wintertime (and seeing if I couldn't bag one for cheaper than a shopping session at YesStyle.) According to the website, their stock includes "Wedding Dresses, Special Casual Dresses, Women’s Clothing, Cosplay Costumes, Intimate Lingerie, Cosplay Wigs and Spandex Zentai suits** etc."
In case you were wondering, THISis a zentai suit. Your arduous search for a shiny, full-body S&M mermaid suit is officially at an end.
 Along with the dress I found some other cute stuff, so I decided to try my luck with an order. Unfortunately, throughout the painful and lengthy order process, I was faced with some sketchy customer service/language barrier issues AND one of my items arrived reeking as if it had been sitting in a moldy warehouse since last season by the smell of it (and it probably was.) By the time it was all over I was too exasperated to lodge any complaints. It wasn't what I'd call a hellacious shopping experience, but to save myself the trouble I'll be keeping my distance from now on.

Product Name
Price
Qty
Subtotal
USD 6.36
1
USD 6.36
USD 8.57
1
USD 8.57
Color:Blue
USD 1.83
2
USD 3.66
USD 11.02
1
USD 11.02
Color:White
USD 7.92
1
USD 7.92
USD 8.13
1
USD 8.13
USD 2.51
1
USD 2.51
         Commodity price :USD 48.17


Packaging EMS plastic envelope
Total Cost Commodity price : 48.17 + Delivery costs: 39.00 + Insurance: 1.96 = USD 89.13
REFUND-POST TRANSACTION  - 33.45 = $55.68 USD TOTAL


Selection 3/5
There is a good amount of cute stuff to wade through, but the best things seem to sold out or sell quickly. The items are not frequently updated on whether or not they've sold out. The staff failed to communicate to me regarding the items that were sold out -- the items that were crossed out, above -- and asked me to choose new ones after they had taken my money! We were able to settle this after a long and drawn out chain of messages, where I asked for a refund and we finally agreed to put the extra money toward shipping costs.


Price 5/5
Wholesale prices. Nothing to complain about here!! Shipping is what you'd expect for EMS.


Quality 2/5
This is where it starts to get dicey. I had some issues with the products I got--

Holes in seams were annoying, but easily fixable with quick n' dirty hand-sewing magic. Plenty of loose strings. 

Large hole on the v-neck dress' side seam, right out of the box
& the neckline seam was unraveling.

The shoulder seams on the pleated dress were also coming apart.

The built-in slip on both dresses I bought seems way too short and awkward, in each case about a hand and a half's length shorter than the hem. This is probably nitpicky of me, but since both dresses are translucent you can easily see the discrepancy between the dress and slip hems, and I wasn't so happy about that. The lighting and photoshop magic in the stock photos doesn't reveal this, of course.





Note how in the above photo, just by being worn normally, the slip most obviously rode up, causing super sloppiness to ensue Aughhhhh!!!!! The dress is pretty much unwearable without another slip worn underneath.



I lucked out more with the pleated dress -- the slip is not entirely obvious, or at least doesn't take away from the overall look of the dress (it seems to be of heavier material, so it stays in place well) but shorts or bloomers still have to be worn underneath because of its translucence.


The item I was most looking forward to receiving, the strawberry sweater, was MOLDY, despite being individually packaged in plastic. I opened the wrapper and the pungent stench of moldy basement bowled me over. It had probably been sitting in a dank warehouse for months, if not years. For someone who is terribly allergic to mold, this was not an ideal scenario. I dropped it in the washing machine immediately and it took three washes to finally get the smell out, and one more still because after the third wash I tried it on and then broke out in some awesome hives before I had to drop it back into the washer again.

Overall, not shining examples of workmanship, but not too unexpected, either, considering the price. I was only truly upset about the mold issue, for all reasons stated above.


Ease of Shopping/Webshop organization 2/5
The shopping interface is not well organized.
As I said eariler, the crossed out items I listed above are items I bought and paid for before I was told they were out of stock, and then was told by the customer service rep to choose different items. There was no indication they were out of stock on the item pages -- they just don't seem to be updated often, and the staff don't seem to have a good grasp of the stock (it might come from elsewhere and be ordered or made on a case-by-case basis? I really have no idea.)


Shipping 3/5
Once the package was sent out it arrived quickly, but it took ages for it to be shipped in the first place. The items were plastic wrapped and hastily packaged, and I mentioned the issue with the sweater.


Customer Service 2/5
I was not blown away by the professionalism of the staff. There is an extremely slow response time and staff seem to not be able to communicate without the aid of translation software, which makes for some interesting lapses in communication (responses sometimes come across as brusque or rude due to language barriers/lack of nuance.)  The communication barriers are navigable, but the fact that it takes them so long to respond to any sort of inquiries is frustrating.

After having this experience, I wouldn't shop here again. The whole transaction was just a barrel of awkward, disappointing, inconvenience, and made me extremely wary of purchasing anything from shady wholesaler sites like this one. I do freaking love my strawberry sweater -- which is now free of moldiness -- and it's become a cold weather staple for me these days, so I at least came away with a happy souvenir for my troubles!!

Who doesn't wanna look like a giant strawberry?!