Product Reviews

This category houses all the product reviews featured on My Women Stuff. All reviews are impartial and feature pros and cons to educate and assist you to make a decision on a product or service. Where products or services are provided by PR or the brand company, they will be indicated accordingly. No money has exchanged hands for product reviews and we value our integrity in keeping it that way.

Review: Skincare: Estee Lauder Cyber White Calming Foam Cleanser

Paris B 3 Comments

I dug this one out the other day from my stash. It has been a while since I’ve used anything from Estee Lauder, but this has been in my drawer for a while. Its the Estee Lauder Cyber White Calming Foam Cleanser from the Cyber White series.

The Cyber White series is Estee Lauder’s whitening line. On a personal note, I don’t believe in any cleanser purporting to be whitening because you wash it off, without letting it perform any whitening miracles on your skin. Be that as it may, this is a calming foam cleanser.

The cleanser comes in a 125ml tube but I find it can’t really stand on the cover, as the cover is too slim and small for the rest of the tube. A little squeeze is all you need for this cleanser foams up very quickly and there’s a lot of lather.

The lather is soft on the skin and cleans a treat. There is a fragrance that is rather strong. Estee Lauder’s skincare tends to be rather heavily fragranced which can be a turn-off. While I find that this cleanser leaves my face squeaky clean, and is rather drying, it isn’t half as bad as the other cleansers I’ve tried from this brand. If I don’t moisturise immediately, my skin feels tight which is uncomfortable. A friend likes it however, and doesn’t have the same problems I have so I guess it depends on your skin.

This cleanser retails for RM120 (US$34.14) which is terribly pricey. Any other cleanser would do the job just as well in my opinion.

Pros: Lathers and cleans well.

Cons: Expensive, Drying, Heavily fragranced

[rating:3/5]

 

The Natural Source – bit of a let down

Paris B 3 Comments

I reviewed some products from The Natural Source some time back on my old blog. At the time, I thought some of the products weren’t too bad. I didn’t actually buy into the “natural” hype, despite what their advertising claims, but I have to admit they did really hype it up.

Australia being a country that seems particular about the environment and natural stuff, I naturally thought that this line of products would have passed muster there. I liked the Tropical Sugar Cane Body Whip and I tested their hair products. Everything was fine and dandy initially.

But later, I found that the body whip, although it sank into my skin, didn’t leave it feeling moisturised. My dad who has cracked heels, tried this moisturiser and pronounced it a disaster, for it did nothing for his cracked heels. On the other hand, some cheap brand of body butter did the trick. That got me thinking.

The next thing was my hair. After using the shampoo and conditioner, my hair felt nice. Initially. As I went on, I felt that my hair was feeling drier and drier. I previously used Redken which did not dry out my hair, but my hair was now feeling like straw.

I had also tried the AHA antioxidant cream for the face which was given by a friend. It, unfortunately, did nothing for me. I’m only glad it didn’t break me out.

So, in conclusion, I think this brand has disappointed me overall. It feels nice initially, but after a while, it doesn’t anymore. And someone people who previously commented on my post said their products contain a lot of chemicals which totally undermines the “natural” element. I wouldn’t know, as I’m not familiar with the long words printed under “Ingredients”, but only because I’ve used it and found it didn’t work for me, I’m going to scrap it from my future shopping lists.

Sorry mate!

UPDATE: TNS has responded to this post on 11 May 2008. Read it here.

Review: Makeup: Make Up For Ever Full Cover Concealer

Paris B 6 Comments

I was introduced to this brand by a friend, and am fast finding lots of great things in them. Today, I’ll review their newest concealer, Full Cover.

This concealer is touted as an extreme camouflage concealer. What it means, I think is that its thick enough to cover even the most extreme of imperfections on the skin, and this includes tattoos! The official spiel offers this piece of wisdom:-

Full Cover
Full Cover is perfect for concealing the most extreme flaws, such as scars, severe skin damage, beauty spots, depigmentation or birthmarks. It can even hide tattoos. Waterproof and long-lasting, it holds even under extreme conditions thanks to its perfectly stable formula. It evens the skin tone and camouflages imperfections for a long period of time

I’ve been using this concealer in #4 for about 10 days now. #4 is the perfect colour for me. It melts into my natural skintone, and it doesn’t even look like I’m using any concealer at all. My skintone just looks even and smooth.

I use it mainly to cover the few freckles and pigmentation discolourations on my cheeks. Full Cover does a pretty decent job covering the worst of the discolourations. However, it doesn’t cover everything, as some discolourations still show through. I used to get a pretty decent cover even with L’oreal Touche Magique, which costs a third of the price.

However, one aspect in which Full Cover wins hands down, is how long it lasts. I put it on in the morning, and after dusting some loose powder over it, my blemishes are still covered up even at the end of the day! Now, thats something L’oreal Touch Magique cannot do. For a no makeup look, I can just dab some Full Cover on my blemishes, dust some loose powder all over my face, and walk out of the house, looking relatively blemish and makeup-free.

I cannot vouch for its waterproof qualities, but my friend has told me that she went swimming with it, and still looked perfect after that. Similarly, I cannot vouch for it covering tattoos, but I have no doubt it can.

The texture is creamy and it doesn’t go on cakey. It sinks into your skin and should be applied before foundation. The best part about this concealer is that if after applying loose powder you still feel like you need more camouflage, you can just dab it on AFTER powder. I tried it and it covers up better, and doesnt look cakey. Wonderful stuff!

Full Cover costs RM95 for a 15ml tube and is available at all Make Up For Ever counters (U Parkson 1 Utama and KLCC). Slightly pricey but you don’t use much. Its worth it!

Update: As at March 2008 the price of Full Cover is now RM100. Still worth it because I’ve only just bought my 2nd tube!

Pros: Covers up blemishes well, not cakey, long-lasting

Cons: Bit pricey

[rating:5/5]

Review: Makeup: L’oreal Touche Magique concealer pen

Paris B 12 Comments

Further Update: They brought it back in! It does look a little different now and applies a little differently too but it is still a very good budget illuminator/concealer pen. Here’s the re-review of the Touche Magique pen.

UPDATE: The L’oreal Touche Magique concealer pen is discontinued – BOO! But if you can still get it, this is my review after using it.

Touche Magique is a concealer pen by L’oreal made specially for concealing dark undereye circles. It has illuminating properties to brighten the under-eye area.

I test drove this after a night of drinks and not sleeping well. It gave me a smooth clear look, like as though I’d just woken up after 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep! Every girl should keep this gem in their makeup stash!!

There are only 2 shades available here – 03 and 04. If you are fair 03 will suit you fine. However, if you are very tanned/dark you might not be able to find a match in this line. I don’t know why but I can’t seem to find much stock at the L’oreal counters. Are they discontinuing this item? Or do they just not stock many of it?

The brush part can feel rather hard sometimes and if you aren’t careful it feels scratchy around your sensitive eye area. I usually clean the brush with some tissue paper after every use and I found that regular cleaning seems to make it feel softer.

Its rather expensive at RM39.90 each, but L’oreal goes on sale often here so wait till the discounts before you buy. Its worth every sen, trust me! I’ve tried a couple of concealers, but I still go back to this one.

[rating:5/5]