Fudge Smooth Shot Conditioner and Shampoo Review

I received a shampoo and a conditioner from the blog meet a few months back. I've been using both a lot so I can finally write a review!

Fudge in a fairly new series in Finland, but I remember it from way back, because they also do hair dyes in wild colours. I've used a few of those years ago, back them they had to be ordered from abroad.

The stylist at the meet chose these products for my hair and I think he got it right. They are very moisturizing and as the name says, make you hair smooth. The Smooth Shot shampoo and conditioner both say they have heat protecting agents and well as moisturizing, so they would help when using hot tools with your hair. I can't say I've noticed the effect, but then again I always use a spray-on heat protector when working with curling irons or flat irons.

Fudge Smooth Shot Conditioner and Fudge Smooth Shot Shampoo.

The Packaging

The bottles are white with black, orange and silver print. They are nice to handle and the caps open easily and can be opened with just one hand. The can be easily distinguished from each other by the different colour on the cap: the shampoo has an orange cap and the conditioner a dark grey one. The only thing I don't like is how the conditioner gets stuck under the cap and dries to a yellowish colour. It's only a visual thing, you can still squeeze the product out normally and it does't stink or anything like it, just looks a bit untidy.

The Product

Both shampoo and conditioner are creamy white. The shampoo is easy to spread on your scalp and foams well. The moisturizer is pretty basic, and I think my bleached hair now needs a stronger one, but for normal hair it works fine. In defence of the hair stylish I have to say that when he chose the products for me, I still had purple hair and it was not as damaged as now. Both of the products have a sweet vanilla smell that's pretty strong but doesn't stay in the hair.

The conditioner dries yellow under the cap.

Pros
+ Sleek and pretty packaging
+ Caps can be used with one hand
+ Product does what it promises
+ 300 ml of product per bottle lasts a long time
+ The smell doesn't stay on hair, you can use perfume afterwards

Cons
- The icky yellow dried conditioner
- Conditioner is a bit too weak for heavily bleached hair

MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer Review

I came across the MUA Luxe line that has a new product, the Velvet Lip Lacquer matte long lasting lipstick. I'd never ordered from MUA before, but wanted to give it a try, since I'm growing really fond of matter lip products, and long lasting ones are perfect for me. That and the fact that the shade Kooky was a plum purple, which I haven't seen before in any long lasting lipstick!

Reckless on the left, Kooky on the right.

The packaging is very pretty. The product comes in a frosted plastic tube with a frosted black cap printed with gold text. The tube seems sturdy and it doesn't look likely that there would be much product glueing the cap shut, like with some similar looking packages.

Doe foot applicator

The applicator is a slanted doe foot one. It's not bendy and has short soft bristles. It's allows very precise application, which is a must with this product.

Skin swatches, Kooky on the top, Reckless on bottom.

Both shades apply well and are opaque with one coat. When applied, the product first feels sticky, but once it dries to a matte finish, it sets and does not have any stickiness. Drying takes about thirty seconds, so you don't have to wait forever with your mouth open ;P

Kooky is a plum purple, quite warm and reddish. Some purples don't suit me, they make my skin look yellow, but Kooky is one that works. It's a quite dramatic shade and might be too dark for daily use, but it'll look great with heavier eye make-up for parties!

Reckless is a blue based red. It's a bright, cool shade that works great with my pale complexion. It's a pretty loud colour, but works for a classic red lip.

Reckless

Velvet Lip Lacquers are smudge and water proof, and can be removed with oil-based make-up remover (I use one with blue and clear liquid that's shaken before use, it's for water proof eye make-up. Mine is by Balea, but at least L'Oreal does one that's similar and easily available). The lip lacquers don't feather easily, but can if you eat something very greasy. They wear 5+ hours on my lips with drinking and eating, and even then they just need a little touch up in the middle of the lips.

The product feels a bit drying on the lips, but I'm not sure if it actually dries the lips out or just feels funny since normally your lips are not matte and dry on the surface. Cocoa butter based lip balm was a no-no on top, it took the lacquer right off. Stick to water based glosses if you want something on top!

Kooky

Pros
+ Does what it promises, is long lasting and matte.
+ Smudge proof.
+ Water proof.
+ Cheap. One tube costs about 3,5 euros plus shipping.
+ Nice selection of shades, especially Kooky is very unique.
+ Easy to remove.
+ Does not stain.
+ Good, precise applicator.

Cons
+ Feels drying.
+ Cannot be worn with regular lip balm.

I like this product! It's easy to use, lasts on the lips well and is hassle-free to remove. Also matte shades are very easy to use when drawing over the natural lips a bit, since there's no shine to betray the natural lip lines.

Merry Yule!

Happy holidays and a merry Yule to all my readers! I'm heading out to my parents' place soon. It's a bit sad that there's no snow this year, but I'm concentrating my efforts on eating a lot of delicious food and forgetting about the darkness ;P And the day is already starting to get longer, yay!

This is our Yule twig. I saved it from last year.

I love the lights, I put them on weeks ago to give light to the living room.

The pumpkins are actually leftovers from Samhain.

Glittery Look

Yesterday my other half and I spend the night with friends and good music. There was a Lumous event at Klubi, with three bands playing, my favourite was the last one, Las Kalmas. They play covers, and with a really good energy!

I forgot to take an outfit picture, but I finally got to wear my glitter PVC skirt from Lip Service. It apparently has a tendency to ride up when I dance, but oh well, I guess we'll get used to each other ;P

I did this fancy look based on a picture I saw in a magazine aeons ago. Instead of having a lighter colour on the lid and a darker one in the crease, I used two shades that are the same brightness, and put them in the same order on both of the lids. I used eyeshadows by Femme Fatale. The colours are Eternal Trance (the mossy green with matching sheen), The Nightmare (the purple with a green sheen) and Faerie Fire (on inner corners, a light lavender with a green sheen).

I also tried out a new lipstick, it's by Topshop and called Raven. It's a liquid lipstick that dries matte and stays on forever! I didn't budge with drinking, talking and smiling, and only faded when I ate super greasy chicken wings after the party at home ;D I'm going to try it out with some water based gloss the next time, some shimmer on it might look great!

There's a shitload of glitter in my hair, but it doesn't show well in the pictures. Glittery make-up, glittery hair and glittery skirt, this night was all about glitter!

Bolero - Artifice Clothing

Necklace - eBay

Corset top - Burleska

Outfit of the Day

Today's outfit! I was quickly going out to get some groceries, I didn't even have any make-up besides mascara on. But the rare moment of light must be utilized! Tomorrow the day will be one minute longer, happy solstice :)

Coat - H&M

Jeans - Bik Bok

Boots - Unif

Revealed Look

I ordered the Revealed palette from Coastal Scents on black friday and it arrived a few days ago. It's inspired by Urban Decay's Naked palettes. I wanted something that's easy to use for fast everyday neutral looks, and after a few tries the Revealed seems like an excellent choice! I don't have pictures of the other looks, I haven't been home during the hours when there's light, but today I finally was able to take pictures.

A fast smoky look with two colours, a light shimmery one in the inner corner and a medium shimmery brown on the lid and crease.

And full face. Just some BB-cream, light blush and tinted lip balm.

The Littlest Party

I had a tiny birthday party yesterday, it was fun! I only invited a few people to avoid the normal problem at parties when you don't have the time to talk to everyone you'd like. Now we just had tons of food and watched youtube videos in to the night ;P

This one is a bit over exposed, but you can almost see my ankh-earrings!

I bought the flower hair band from Glitter earlier this week.

I forgot to take pictures after I applied glitter to my hair! Now it's everywhere ;P

The eyeshadows are from Sugarpill Cold Chemistry palette, but
the flash washes them out pretty badly.

Nana wanted to participate, too ;D

Friends with Kitties

Here's a few pictures of me and the cats who all look like they don't like me ;D They are such darlings!

Nana is so not interested. She likes to be in high places and probably just set her eyes on the shoe shelf above the doorway.

Mörkö has so many better things to do right now.

Nivek does not care, even when I babble to him.

Möttönen just looks bored. With crazy ears.

Independence Day Look

On the Finnish independence day my other half and I headed to the office I work at. My colleagues came up with the idea to have a party there, because it was right next to the Tampere hall where the annual president's ball was held this year.

We had delicious things to eat and some genuine champagne. We didn't see the riots, which were pretty unusual this year, but we did see almost all of the mounted police in Finland. I believe there are six of them in the whole country and we saw five ;P

For the look I used Sugarpill Asteria in the crease (medium orange with golden sheen), Evil Shades Sweet Alice (baby pink, pastel) on the lid, then when I noticed the pink didn't really compliment the orange, I added Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions (peach with golden sheen) on top of the Sweet Alice. On my lips is a Manhattan Lips2Last long lasting lipstick in bright red.

Sugarpill Cold Chemistry Swatches + Asteria

I wrote a review of the palette earlier, but the light was too low to take decent swatch pictures. Here they are finally! As a special addition I also swatched Sugarpill Asteria, because I noticed I hadn't done that before. It's a lovely shade!

Soot & Starts

A sparkly black with silver glitter.

Diamond Eyes

Shimmer white. Can be applied on top of other shades for a shimmery washed out effect. Has no shift, just plain white with a sheen.

Elemental Chaos

The perfect medium purple! Velvety with a slight shimmer. More blue based than red, but definitely not blue, a true purple.

Subterranean

A dark mossy green with a gorgeous blue based sheen. Goes blue if Diamond Eyes is applied on top!

Asteria (not part of the Cold Chemistry palette)

Asteria is a limited edition eyeshadow by Sugarpill. Only 1000 pots of Asteria were made. I was very lucky when I got to split a pot with a lovely lady! Asteria is a peachy orange. It's warm, reddish and has lots of golden sparkle.

Christmas Party Look

Just a quick snap taken before I went to the company Christmas party. I curled my hair with a big curling wand for loose curls, put on pink contact lenses (that don't look very pink) and put on some eyeshadow from the Sugarpill Cold Chemistry palette.

More Photoshoot Meet Pics!

I got the pictures from the other photographer at the meet! These are taken by Maria. The sets were mainly the same so they might look familiar.

Me checking out a maneki neko ;P

Ocean Gypsy once again.

And another one!

Clean Scene by Murad Gaga for Glow Facial Scrub Review

This fun looking little thing was given to me to try out. It's called Gaga for Glow, a facial scrub by Clean Scene.

Isn't it cute?

Murad brand of dermatologist developed products. They are usually aimed for adults, but this one is for teenagers (so it must make me look younger, right?), that explains the package. The package tells me that the product is for 12-17 year-olds and should be used three times a week.

The Packaging

Clean Scene is packed in a white flat tube which easily stands on its cap. There's 75 ml of product. The tube is soft so it's easy to squeeze and the cap seems sturdy. I'm guessing choosing Gaga to a part of the name is not a coincidence!

The Product

The actual product looks pretty weird on first try. It's a white, shimmery stuff with small colourful balls that look like round cake sprinkles and match the colours of the package. It looks like liquid soap with the shimmer! When you lather it on your skin it doesn't foam, but the little balls break down if you massage it in long enough. The package doesn't say if I should massage it in or just let it sit, but I've been letting it sit since I can't see any mechanically scrubbing particles in the scrub. There's also salicylic acid in the ingredients list, so I believe this is a peel rather than a scrub. The sprinkles would lead you to believe you have to scrub with the product, but they are way too big to do anything and break down into soft mush.

On my skin this product doesn't have much effect, but then again I'm at least ten years older than the people the product is meant for, so my skin may be different. I have grown fond of the unique look the product has and might buy this for someone of the target group just because of the pretty package.

Sprinkles!

Pros
+ The package is very pretty!
+ Won't damage skin
+ Fancy looking product

Cons
- Does really exfoliate (at least on my older skin)
- Looks like liquid soap
- Instructions for use are unclear

Dear Santa...

This year I've had some trouble coming up with a wish list, my head was just empty! But I did remember a few things I lust after when I sat down and wrote this.

MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer
I'm liking the new Make Up Academy matte lip lacquers. I actually already ordered Kooky (the dark purple) and Reckless (the dark red), but the other shades look very nice too. These are dupes for Lime Crime Velvetines, but much cheaper and generally better available.

Image from Bloodmilk etsy shop.

Bloodmilk jewellery
Just because everything at the shop is so gorgeous! I especially like Drawing Down The Moon collection with the lovely moon stones, and Ritual because of the talons. One day I must own something by them.

Ever After High doll
I have a few Monster High dolls, but now the new line of Ever After dolls are out and they are so cute! I can't decide which on is prettiest, but Raven Queen is super goth! Just look at those shoes!

Deepmoss by Femme Fatale Cosmetics

Femme Fatale eyeshadows and nail polishes
I have a few Femme Fatale eyeshadows, and their duo chromes are just downright amazing! I'm sure I'd like their other shadows as well, and I've found myself drooling over their glittery nail polishes numerous times.

A kitten
I'll keep asking for one until I get it ;P Me and my other half have one specific kitten in mind right now, but it has to grow a bit older to show if it might be a good fit for our cat pack. I'm bad at waiting, but I'll manage ;D