frozen spring

cruelty free & sustainable living

First impressions | estelle & thild

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Three weeks ago I picked up a few products from estelle & thild, a Swedish brand based in Stockholm. I’ve read some good reviews about their products and since I was running low on my toner and cleansing gel, I decided to give their products a go. Along with these two, I grabbed their tinted moisturizer, too (I got it instead of a new liquid foundation, and since I don’t like liquid foundations either way, this product seemed like a better option). As I mentioned at the beginning, I got these products three weeks ago which means I’ve used them for some time now, and here are my first impressions.

BIOCLEANSE Fragrance Free Cleansing Gel (150 ml / 189 SEK / €20 / 20 USD) – estelle & thild has two cleansing gels, and I chose this one because it’s fragrance free (I got really sensitive for the past few months and I try to buy products that have mild scent or, if possible, no scent at all). This product has a funny jelly formula and I have to be careful when I’m squeezing it out, because it is a bit watery/thinner, and I have to be careful not to end up with too much product. This gel isn’t just for washing the face, but it also removes make up. I have been satisfied with both options, even though I don’t use many layers of make up / mascara / eye shadows so I don’t know how it works with heavier make up. However, it does remove my daily make up which consists of tinted moisturizer, mascara, blush and brows.  All in all, I do like how it works, I feel like my skin is really clean after each use, but I’m not sure if I would recommend it to someone with really dry skin. I do have the feeling like my skin does feel a bit drier after I use it, but I do have a good skin care regime so that doesn’t really bother me since I apply my products right after I washed my face.

Ingredients: aqua, aloe barbadensis leaf juice*, glycerin, cocamidopropyl betaine, xanthan gum, gluconolactone, sambucus nigra flower extract*, glyceryl caprylate, sodium gluconate, citric acid, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate.* Ingredient from Organic Farming

BIOCLEANSE Multi Action Facial Toner (150 ml / 189 SEK / €20 / 20 USD) –  before getting this product, I was using another toner from Paula’s Choice, but I decided not to re-purchase it since I wasn’t really impressed. I mean, it was okay, but nothing special. I just figured I could get something a bit cheaper, with the same effect. For now, it seems like I found a good product – I feel like my skin likes it, it feels hydrated and refreshed after each use, and it works well with the rest of my skin care regime. All in all, haven’t noticed any negative changes. Another reason, why I got it is that it has an alcohol-free. However, it isn’t fragrance free so that might not be a good option if you’re after fragrance free skin care. It has a mild plant-based scent which disappears soon after application.

Ingredients: Aqua, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice*, Glycerin, Sambucus Nigra Flower Extract*, Gluconolactone, Polyglyceryl-4 Caprate, Parfum, Limonene, Sodium Gluconate, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate

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BIOHYDRATE All In One Tinted Moisturizer Light (50 ml / 299 SEK / €31 / 33 USD) –  instead of buying a new foundation or a CC cream, I decided to go with this tinted moisturizer, but I do think I will be getting a foundation as well or something with SPF since this product doesn’t contain any SPF. The lack of SPF is the only thing I don’t like about this product and that might be a deal breaker for many (especially today when we all know how important SPF is). But, if I put that aside and if I had to describe this product in one sentence, I would probably describe it as ‘my skin but better’. I really love how it looks on my skin, how light it feels and how easy it is to work with. This is how estelle & thild describes it: “The custom all-in-one formula provides natural coverage, hydrates the skin and infuses it with radiance.” I completely agree. However, if you look for something that has SPF and offers medium coverage, you might want to look elsewhere since this product is really light in coverage. It looks completely natural and it does give this lovely healthy shine to the skin. Additionally, even though it says it’s for all skin types, I wouldn’t recommend it to someone with oily skin. It’s not fragrance free, but its scent is really mild. It comes in two shades: light and medium. My shade is light.

Ingredients: aqua, titanium dioxide, aloe barbadensis leaf juice*, rosa damascena flower water*, glycerin**, prunus armeniaca kernel oil*, coco-caprylate/caprate, simmondsia chinensis seed oil*, butyrospermum parkii butter*, glyceryl stearate citrate, lecithin*, gluconolactone, sodium hyaluronate, glyceryl caprylate, tocopherol, cetearyl olivate, sclerotium gum, xanthan gum, sorbitan olivate, parfum, limonene, linalool, sodium gluconate, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, sorbic acid, CI 77491,CI 77492, CI 77499.

Suitable for vegans? Yes, all three products are vegan
Where to buy? estelle & thild or naturisimo (both ship worldwide); if you’re in Sweden then you can get their product at Åhléns, KICKS, etc.

Vesna ♥

Lush Cup O’ Coffee Exfoliating Mask Review

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A while back, when I was trying to kill some time while I was waiting for a friend, I visited Lush and this mask caught my eye. The reason it caught my attention was because it contains coffee and smells like coffee, and since I love everything coffee, I couldn’t resist purchasing it. Additionally, it can be used on the face and body, but I use it only on my face since it is a bit pricey. Before I review it, just to mention that I have combination skin with T-zone and I love exfoliation (well, my skin does for sure).

Cup O’ Coffee comes in a recycled plastic container (and, in case you didn’t know, you can collect five of these and take them back to Lush and exchange them for a new fresh face mask). It has a screw-on lid, but for some reason this product does leak a bit despite that. It’s quite thick, but it can be applied with both brush and fingers. Lately I’ve been using a brush to apply it since it’s less messy that way. It does have a warming effect in the beginning and I like to leave it for at least 15 minutes on my skin. To take it off, I use mild water and I gently massage my skin so that ground coffee, which this mask contains, can exfoliate my skin while I’m taking it off. Ground coffee is a bit rough so I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone with sensitive skin, and I’d definitely recommend to be extra careful when you’re removing the product from your face. You don’t want to cause any irritation. This product leaves my skin feeling super soft and smooth on touch, and I’d even say that my skin does look really clean. I would even say that my skin feels a bit firmer and tighter, too.

However, as mentioned above, I would not recommend this product to someone who has sensitive skin, as well as to someone who has dry skin because it might leave your skin dry. That’s why I use it only once a week and I always apply my skin care products after I take it off. :) All in all, I do like it in general and I will be getting a new one as soon as I go through the one I have.

The only flaw this product has is the price. It’s quite expensive considering it can be used all over the body, but as I said in the beginning, I’m using it only on my face and that way, I save some money. I guess it wouldn’t last long if I’d use it all over, maybe 3 times, but since I use it only on my face, I can use it at least 10 times, which seems okay to me and worth the money in that case.

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Cup O’ Coffee on my skin

Ingredients: Organic Agave Syrup Kaolin Glycerine Coffee Infusion Talc Ground Coffee Bentone gel Perfume Vetivert Oil Vanilla Absolute Roasted Cocoa Extract Coriander Oil Caffeine Powder *Coumarin *Limonene *Linalool 
Suitable for vegans? Yes
Where to buy? Lush stores & online
Price? 99 SEK for 150 g / 195 SEK for 325 g

Have you tried Cup O’ Coffee? Or maybe any other face mask from Lush that you’d like to recommend?

Vesna ♥

New In | July

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Another month, another new in post! Even though, to be precise, these products are part of my June haul since I purchased these products in June (sale game here in Sweden is really serious, especially after their biggest holiday – Midsummer!). Anyway, I chose to publish them in July since I did get them at the end of the previous month and, hopefully, I won’t be buying anything in July so I can consider this as my July haul. ;)

Let me start with my new gadget – Foreo LUNA mini 2! I was really looking forward to it and I hope it will be worth the price and the hype! My experience with purchasing from their website wasn’t the best one, but their customer service is really excellent and we solved my issue very quickly!

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I was debating with myself whether I’ll go to The Body Shop or if I’ll just skip it altogether, but I ended up checking out what’s on sale and I ended up getting these four shower gels! For some reason, I had only one showering product (the one from Ritual’s Sakura collection) so it wasn’t a bad decision to get these since I had some extra discount so I got these four for the price of one (the regular price)! That was a good deal, I must say! :) I got Papaya, Raspberry, Blueberry and Passion fruit shower gels.

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My next product is from Rituals – another Sakura product in my collection! This collection is SO amazing that I keep collecting products from it! I will let you know what I think of this collection next week, just until I test my products a tiny bit longer. :)

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I’m not really attracted to Lumene products usually, but I ended up getting three products – Bright Touch Refreshing Cleanser (which I use with my LUNA mini 2), Soft Touch Hydrating Cleanser (I planned to use this one with my LUNA mini 2, but figured too late that I picked the wrong type of product since this one is applied to dry skin and not wet, which is what I was looking for so I went back for the refreshing cleanser and I’ll give this one to my friend), Vitamin C Day Cream (I really did need a new day cream so I decided to try this one since a friend of mine tried the one with the SPF in it and said it was a good one; I didn’t get the one with the SPF since I have a separate cream for that – mine SPF crema is from John Masters Organic).

Anyway, I’ve been using these products shortly, but I will give you an update on how they worked out for me. So far, so good. :)

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Nail polishes ♥

After a long, long time of checking which shades to get, I finally got some Zoya nail polishes and, to be honest, I got them just because they were on sale. :D Their regular price is really high and this is the first time I caught them on sale and I’m really glad for that! Their regular price is 150 SEK (around 17$) and right now many shades are on sale for (only) 50 SEK (6$).If you’re in Sweden (or some other Nordic countries, I think they ship only to this area), you can get them HERE. Shipping for 4 nail polishes was 39 SEK and they arrived two days after I placed my order.

Shades I got are (clockwise): Racquel, Demi (not what I expected, I thought this was a cream shade?), Sam and Miley (on my nails right now! gorgeous!).

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And, like Zoya nail polishes weren’t enough, Åhlens had some Ciate shades on sale, they were 50% off and I ended with three shades (l-r): fool for tulle, white heat, burlesque. I think I’m done with buying nail polishes for a few months! :D

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What did you get recently? Is something from my latest haul on your wish list, maybe? :)

Vesna ♥

Naturisimo ♥

Ten days ago I wrote a post where I mentioned a few products I was eager to try and just a few days after I published my post, I placed an order with naturisimo where I ordered desired skin care products. ♥ I was quite shocked this morning when I received my package, only 5 days (weekend included) after it was sent! Just wow! Naturisimo definitely exceeded my expectations!

Anyway, this is what I got:

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This is how the package looks on the inside when you open it – nicely protected!

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Another thing that’s really important is that naturisimo has free delivery worldwide, which is awesome! This is an UK website which means no additional costs for those living in the EU. :)

Currently they have 10% off on everything with code BANK10 (ends midnight GMT, Tuesday May 3rd).

Have you any experience with online shopping from Naturisimo? :)

Vesna ♥