frozen spring

cruelty free & sustainable living

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion Anti-Aging Review

A few months ago I had to give up on my long time eye shadow primer, Too Faced Shadow Insurance, because my eyelids started reacting weird every time I used it – they became extremely dry, flakey and it just stopped working as it used to. And just around that time I came across a post from Killer Colours where she talks about Urban Decay’s Primer Potion Anti-Aging so soon after I went to Åhléns (biggest department store in Sweden) to buy it.

I’ve been using it ever since and I have to say this product has been a serious game changer for me! It definitely helped me to get back to using eyeshadows more often (as in, a few times a week). Beside this primer making any eyeshadow looking more pigmented, I like how hydrating it feels on my eyelids and how eyeshadows don’t crease even after 10 hours or so. My eyelids, even though they can get dry, they do get oily throughout the day and Shadow Insurance just didn’t cut it any longer. But this primer is definitely holding everything in place as an eyeshadow primer should.

The only thing I don’t like about it is the packaging. I thing a tube that you can just squeeze would be a lot better and the doe foot applicator is just unnecessary. I guess I’ll have to cut the packaging because there is no way I can use every single bit of it with the applicator.

left: no primer; right: with primer

Details

Suitable for vegans/cruelty free? Yes and yes!
Where to buy? Pretty much everywhere! KICKS or Åhléns (Sweden); if you can’t buy UD in your country, then you can buy it via lookfantastic.com!
Price: 235 SEK / $25 / €22 (10 ml)

Vesna ♥

Favourites | Winter-Spring Edition 2018

Favourite products

Today I wanted to share some of my favourite products that I’ve used quite a lot in the past few weeks and/or months. I try to mix up products I’m using so that (most of) my products get a fairs share of use. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. However, this post does contain mostly products I haven’t mentioned before so I’m happy to share them with you! I won’t write a novel about each product, but I’ll try to describe them shortly and why I love them. :)

Depend Nail Polish Remover (for dry, split nails)* – for the longest time I’ve been using the same nail polish remover but I had to buy a new one because the one I was using isn’t available in Sweden. It was pure luck I came across this one a few weeks back since I don’t remember seeing it before (and I occassionally would look what Depend offers). Anyway, this is probably the best nail polish remover I’ve sed so far! I really feels hydrating and my nails are getting better (they certainly look better compared to before!). It says it doesn’t contain any oil but it feels oily when I use it? Not that I mind. The only negative thing would be the smell – it smells super weird, I always have my window or balcony open when I use it. Anyway, I would recommend it to anyone with dry nails!

Becca Backlight Priming Filter Face Primer* – this isn’t a typical face primer since the purpose of it is to give you natural radiance. It can be used on it’s own as well as under foundation but I always use it under my foundation. The reason I like this product is how natural it looks – the radiance it gives my skin looks completely natural and healthy. I love using it when I feel like I’m really tired since it does give my skin that extra boost and freshness. I definitely feel like I’m getting what I paid to get. I will give you a more detailed review as well as swatches in one of my future posts.

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Lush New Shampoo Bar – Review

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In all these years it never occurred me to try out a solid shampoo, but after switching to cruelty free products, I tried to find a shampoo that would suit my thin, silky and straight hair. On top of that, I really wanted to avoid using conditioners since I’m always running late and I don’t have time for that. After trying out various products which were fine, but I wasn’t that impressed, I decided to try shampoo bar(s) from Lush. It wasn’t an easy choice since Lush has quite a few shampoo bars to choose from, and they all smell deliciously (so delicious that it actually makes me wanna eat them!). So, after a few minutes of sniffing, I chose NEW. Why? Well, to be honest, I love everything cinnamon and, you probably guessed – this shampoo bar contains cinnamon. Bingo! Of course, the fact that it stimulates and soothes scalp was additional bonus.

This is how Lush describes NEW:

A solid bar with cinnamon, clove and peppermint to stimulate your scalp. Cinnamon leaf, bay and clove bud essential oils combine with peppermint to boost blood flow, stimulating the hair follicles. An infusion of nettle and peppermint helps to stimulate the scalp and promote healthy hair. Rosemary soothes, calms your scalp and adds a glorious shine to your hair. 

At first I was kinda sceptic (maybe because my first reaction was – white worms?! :D ), I’ll admit that, but I’ll also admit that I had no reason for that because this shampoo turned out to be much more than I expected it to be. I’ve been using it for three and a half months, and I still have a tiny bit left which will last me for another two weeks. That’s four months in total! I don’t know why, but I didn’t expect it to last that long. Keep in mind that I wash my hair really often – every second day so that’s a lot of washing. :) I don’t have anything negative to say about this product, but there are a few positive things:

  • this shampoo is gentle – my scalp isn’t feeling itchy or irritated (this happened a lot during the years and it varied a lot, but haven’t had any issues during these past few months)
  • less hair loss – turned out this shampoo definitely stimulates the scalp; my hair is usually all over the place, but it is getting better and that really surprised me, wasn’t expecting that :)
  • no more conditioner – my hair used to tangle a lot, especially since it got a bit longer (well, longer according to me), but now I don’t even use conditioner and my hair is just fine!
  • no static – this is even worst than tangling – going around while your hair has a life of its own, LOL! Well, not any more!
  • affordable – you can get it for 99 SEK / €10 and it contains 55 grams of product.

How To & Availability

Once my hair is wet I simply rub it between my hands or directly onto my hair. The result is always the same – squeaky clean hair.

Tips: After I’m done, I always use a small piece of a napkin to dry it and I leave it on the shelf until it’s completely dry. Once it’s dry I just have a napkin underneath. Lush does offer shampoo tins for storage, but I think it’s not necessary. Unless you’re travelling, but even then, you can use a paper bag or something like that.

This product is available in Lush stores and if you’re in Sweden you can get it HERE.

All in all, I’m more than thrilled with it! Needless to say I already have a new bar waiting to be used. ;)

Have you tried shampoo bars?

Vesna ♥

Mulberry On My Lips ♥

Here’s a funny thing: when I was a kid, my grandparents had this huge, old mulberry tree near their house and I loved to climb on it and pick mulberries (well, and eat them, obviously!). That’s actually my favourite fruit so when I saw that IsaDora launched a new collection which includes 10 lipsticks with matching lip liners (7 shades are totally new) and that one of them was called ‘mulberry’, I just knew it would be a great shade and that I had no choice but to purchase it! Fast forward a few days – here are my (lip)swatches and first impressions!

  • IsaDora Sculpting Lipliner Waterproof 66 Mulberry (0.3 g / 89 SEK / €9.30) is a matte red wine-ish shade with a slight brown undertone. It goes on easily but it is definitely drying and I would recommend exfoliation before applying it since it does emphasize any imperfection. Another thing is that it can’t be worn alone – way too dry for that (and I like drier lipsticks and lip liners, LOL).
  • IsaDora Lip Desire Sculpting Lipstick 66 Mulberry (3.3 g / 139 SEK / €14.50) is a darker creamy wine colour with purple undertone. Goes on easily and looks great with matching lip liner (though not really matching since these shades are slightly different, but that’s not really an issue once the products are applied). Once it’s applied on top of the lip liner, I definitely have no issues with dryness.

Here are my photos and swatches!

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natural daylight (shade)

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natural daylight (it looks a bit brownish, but it definitely has a more purple undertone on my lips; it is a bit hard to capture it)

Do you like mulberry (fruit / lip products)? :)

Vesna ♥

New In | August ♥

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Somehow I managed to collect quite a nice bunch of products in August and since it will (probably) take me forever to review them, I think it’s not a bad idea to post another new in post where you can see what I got! Most products were purchased in August, while some of them were purchased in the beginning of September, but I decided to post them together since, hopefully, I won’t be buying anything in September. We’ll see about that, though… :D Anyway, let me start!

Let me start with Nabla Cosmetics since I already posted that as soon as my order arrived, so click HERE to check all the details and swatches! Next up is Hylamide which I ordered from Lookfantastic.com when they had a 3 for 2 deal on Hylamide. I’ve never tried anything from this brand so I was pretty excited when I saw the deal and I ended up getting these products: SubQ Eyes, C25 Booster and  SubQ Anti-Age. I was primarily interested in C25 Booster and SubQ Anti-Age (erm, not really getting younger, LOL), but I don’t mind a free product! It’s been a week since I started using these and my first impression is good, but I will wait a few more weeks to give some extra details.

Before I ordered Hylamide, I decided to work up on my skin care routine and that’s how I ended up ordering my first Paula’s Choice products – Resist Anti-ageing Repairing Toner and Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid. I got a sample of Skin Balancing Antioxidant Serum With Retinol as well, and it’s a good thing I ordered just a sample and not full size product because I didn’t like the texture in the end – turns out I’m not really a fan of silicone-based products any more. I’ve been using the first two products for almost two weeks now and I really, really like them! Definitely a must have for my combination skin!
Lush is my go-to store ever since I decided to support only cruelty free products and last month I got two additional products – Helping Hands Hand Cream (my skin loves it, but it really has a funky smell which I barely tolerate; hopefully my hands appreciate it!) and Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter (I keep purchasing it over and over again!).

At the beginning of September I attended the vegan fair in Stockholm where I discovered two completely unknown brands! The first one is Zoya Goes Pretty – they make the most adorable shea butters! I picked two butters: shea butter & cacao and shea butter & rose oil. Both smell deliciously, but cacao is my favourite one! I could eat it, I’m not kidding! :D The second brand is puroBIO cosmetics, an Italian brand. They have a nice selection of natural and organic make-up products and even though I was interested in most of it, I got only one product – Compact Eyeshadow n 06 – Purple. I already swatched it so I will be posting it any day now!

As always, IsaDora managed to launch a gorgeous fall collection with beautiful nail polish shades, and one in particular got my attention – 540 Purple Paisley. Here can you see a swatch that shows how nice this shade is! Perfect for fall! And, last but not least, I got a new perfume for this fall – Clean Skin. Oh my, how mesmerised this perfume is! I purchased it almost instantly, no convincing was necessary, I just new it was perfect for me. It really smells like my skin, only better. ♥

I also got some fashion details, both brooches. That lovely bird you see is handmade by Marina Marinski and you can order it HERE. The other one, silver, is second hand and purchased at a vintage store in Stockholm (it was a gift from a friend).

Continue reading to see photos and close-ups.

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