Weekly Favorites #10

(via Lush)

So, I decided to visit my local Lush store before going home for Christmas, because I needed to replenish my supply of non-liquid toiletries for air travel. I wanted to get as many of my toiletries in some solid, powder, or otherwise non-liquid form as possible just to cut down on how tightly I have to stuff that quart-sized Ziploc bag.

One of the things I decided to venture into was solid lotion bars, and I smelled all of the ones in the Lush store and decided that the Strawberry Feels Forever massage bar was my favorite. How could it not be - it's a lovely shade of pink, and it's strawberry-shaped!

I like to use it right after a shower, when my skin is still warm and a bit damp, because that makes the bar melt better. If I'm just trying to use it any old time of day, it takes quite a bit of holding the bar and rubbing it to get any significant amount to melt off. Maybe I just have really cold hands.

The bar has lasted me quite a good while now with regular use (about every other day is sufficient to keep my skin hydrated). It does an excellent job as a moisturizer, and I absolutely love the smell. I'm terrible at describing scents, but it smells to me something like strawberries and cream ice cream, or milkshake, or something involving strawberries and a bit of milk. I've noticed that it does leave a bit of a shimmer on my skin, but there's no obvious pink tint, if you're the type to worry about that.

Something to note is that this massage bar doesn't actually fit in any of the tins they sell. Goodness knows the lovely salesgirl tried, but nope, it's just a bit too big. Luckily I have a large collection of random boxes so I had something I could store it in. Otherwise, packaging and storing it, especially for traveling, might have gotten messy.

I'm really pleased with my venture into solid lotion, and I'll definitely be trying out various other massage bars from Lush in the future!

~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

I hope you have a delightful week, and if you live anywhere with weather like Chicago, stay warm!

New Hair Color! (Palty Sakura Creamy)

So for ACEN, I've been working on a cosplay of Hachi from NANA to match my friend who is cosplaying Nana!  Rather than scrambling to find the perfect wig last minute, I decided Hachi had normal enough hair for me to actually use my own hair.  However, in the manga and specifically the artbook (which is the outfit I'm doing), she has brown-red hair, so... HAIR DYE!!

Basically, I used cosplay as an excuse to do something I've been kind of wanting to do but also too scared to just dive into.  I got 2 boxes of Palty Sakura Creamy from Mitsuwa, and finally dyed my hair on Sunday ^_^

I'll just say... there's actually a not-insignificant amount of bleach in their formulation... it stung, and my hair lightened significantly (granted, I left it in for an entire hour, not the 20~30 minutes they recommend).  Anyways, I rather like the result ^_^  Less of the dark pinky-red pictured on the box than I might've preferred, but still nice overall.  And apparently under certain lighting, it looks very red XD

Pictures!!

Before and After:

And here's what all the dye and stuff looked like before I put it on my head:

Yaay!!  I think the fact that I left it in so long is what made it lighter and more orange (since my hair tends to bleach orange).  ^_^

It did change the texture of my hair pretty significantly, although it's only noticeable when wet.  So, I notice it when I'm washing my hair, but otherwise it actually feels about the same.  I did however take care to not wash my hair for 3 days before dyeing, and since then I have not washed my hair using shampoo (not even immediately after dyeing).  I've been using just water and the deep conditioner treatment from Burt's Bees.

I've incidentally discovered that you really can "wash" your hair using only conditioner!!! I think I'm going to try this for awhile, although I'll probably switch to something less expensive than Burt's Bees after I finish this tube.

In any case... hair adventure success!!

Ai-chan With Pink Hair?!

I've tossed around the idea of dyeing my hair for the past couple of months now, with one possibility being the Champagne Pink color from the Freshlight Blythe series.  However, I'm still too chicken to really take the plunge, plus I might actually want my hair to still be black if I do end up doing my Mio cosplay for ACEN.

That said, my favorite female J-pop idol apparently just had pink tip gradations put into her hair ^o^  This makes me consider the pink again... ^o^

Pic from her blog!

*ponder ponder*  I think something like the gradation she has would definitely be less daunting than going for ALL PINK, but I think I'd have to change the rest of my hair color anyways so it's not OMG BLACK followed by OMG PINK...