Welcome to The Pink Orchid Blog! This blog is an extension of my YouTube Channel. Here you can find background information on my posted videos. Also there are some articles you can read that I have written in the past before I started to focus mainly on my Dutch Beautyblog and on vlogging in English over at YouTube.

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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Review: Carmen Hot Roller Set

This time I made a video-review of the Carmen C4220 Softsetter Glossy Curls. I never had a hot roller set before but when I purchased the book Vintage Hairstyling by Lauren Rennells it was clear to me I would have to buy one else I wouldn't be able to make half of the hairstyles in the book. Carmen has a very good name, so when I had to choose between a Babyliss or a Carmen one, it was a very simple choice. I bought this set for E.50,-. Here is the video-review and I added some photos of all the parts of the set below it:


Carmen Softsetter Glossy Curls
- Model: C4220
- Voltage: 230 V
- 6 Jumbo, 8 Medium and 6 Little Rollers Covered in Velvet.
- ON/READY Indication Light - FAST HEAT - Rollers Ready for Use Fast.
- Butterfly clips and normal clips.

  







Haul: Professional Hair Products Haul


 
I've got some showing off to do! Last Saturday I had the opportunity to visit my favorite hairsupplies-store 'Looking Good'. I don't often get that chance so I've hoared up like crazy and here is the result. Glad that my mom doesn't read my blog because I think she would be shocked at how much I spend. :P


Mezzo Hair Pro-Equipement
Clips Croco Black
12 Pieces for 2,95

 Schwarzkopf Professional
Bonacure Hairtherapy
Moisture Kick Spray Conditioner
200 ml for 11,90

 Schwarzkopf Professional
Bonacure Hairtherapy
Repair Rescue Treatment
200 ml for 15,40

 Schwarzkopf Professional
Osis +
Dust It Mattifying Powder-Texture
10g for 11,15

 Solida
Bun-Hairnets, dark
2 Pieces for 0,90


 Blend-rite
Black Bobby Pins 65mm
250g. for €13,20


 Sibel
Hair Elastics 15mm
500 Pieces for €5,75

 Biosilk
Silk Therapy
Cure (one of the uses is as a Heat Protection Serum)
50ml for €15,40

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Review: Zoeva Cream Eyeliners

Finally it’s here! My review on the Zoeva Cream Eyeliners. I gave 3 different colors a try: Black Lace, Velvet Flame & Jardin. And in this article I’m gonna tell you how that worked out for me.
But first I want to apologize, everything I needed was just sitting and sitting on my laptop and I don’t know why it took me so long to get this post finished. But I'll make it up with you, because here is my superlong-there's seems to come no end to it- extensive review! (If you're not really a reader, you could also watch the pictures and judge for yourself)

I will be including a new 'reviewing' approach for  this review, called 'Their Word Against Mine'. Which means I'll take information from the Zoeva website and compare it with my own observations.

The Outside
What's in it is what really counts, but I still want to show you the packaging of this product.


Colors


Black Lace
As Found on Zoeva.de
As Photographed by Me




















Zoeva:
Black as the night, a must for purists. Deep, matte black with a hint of blue.

Me:
No way this is matte black. First of all: deep matte black + a hint of blue = not possible. Matte means no glitter or shimmer, this has blue glitter. And deep means really, really black and not black-blueish. So I'm sorry but you should have called it Black & Blue, which I think would actually be quite a cool name and I bet it would sell just as good. But this, this is just confusing and a tiny bit misleading imo.

When you first look at it, you would think that a hint of blue is a very mild way to put it. I'll tell you that I honestly thought they had send me the wrong eyeliner, it looks very blue instead of black in its pot. But I'll admit it was not that blue when I swatched it and applied it to my eyelids, it is more a grey-ish black to me. But then again (I'm really being a bitch right now :p) if you add blue to it, it should be apparent on the eyelid else it has no use right? I can hardly see any of the blue glitter when I put it on my eyelid. Now you might say that that's a good thing and that it is indeed a matte black.  But when I applied it it looked more  like a greyish black to me than a deep black and that can either be the color itself or it is the thin coverage, I'm not quite sure.

Verdict:
When you say deep matte black and a must for purists I expect deep black and nothing else, it shouldn't even have a 'hint' of blue in it or look greyish. I've really got to say this, but what's so hard about making a real black eyeliner? There is hardly a way of going wrong, since black is black and nothing else, there is no such thing as a dark black or a light black for that matter.  So I'm sorry Zoeva, but I'm going back to my real 'Pure Black' gelliner by Coastal Scents, which is cheaper btw, even though it's dried out, it deserves the title black way more than your deep matte black with a hint of blue.

Scroll down (quite far) to see a picture of me wearing the black eyeliner, you can see it's more greyish.

Velvet Flame


Zoeva
Me
















Don't worry I'm not gonna be as cruel on this particular color as the black one. But I am being brutally honest, I'm not afraid to say what I think. I could praise this into heaven, but if it ain't true than what use has this review? You might as well just believe everything the Zoeva website says and buy it.

Zoeva: 
An elegant shade, like a dark sandstone. Chestnut Brown with a hint of shimmer.

Me:
Perfect name! I really must say that. When I think of a brownish shade called Velvet Flame, this would be it. It is a very warm brown, as chestnut brown should be, which is a little more evident on the photo I took of it.  Nonetheless I have not found that the redness in it dominates, so it could be very well used for an elegant look. But I'd rather use it so that it does pop out, so I would not choose the easy way fast and use this with browns. I'm actually quite curious to see how this works with a darker green look. And also one other thing: what I wouldn't give to have this color as a eyeshadow, I would love to combine it with black.

Verdict:
Leaves nothing to be desired. Exactly what I expected when I read the info on the site and saw the picture. Oh btw, the colors do look quite alike on the picture, but mine is a little lighter  because I had to use flash due to the dreary weather.

Jardin





















Zoeva:
Like an emerald between moss. Leaf green with a light shimmer.

Me:
Uh-oh, here we go again. Haha no just kidding it's not so bad. I'm not quite sure what to think of emerald between moss, I don't immediately visualize a certain colour. But maybe that's just me. I do know that when I see emerald I envision something shimmery or sparkly and that is indeed the case here. Then the leaf green part, I would personally call this dark sea-green. But hey, I see pink when others see brown so maybe I'm just a bit screwed up :P. But it is green, let's just adhere to that.
I find this to be a gorgeous colour and looking at it is almost enough for me. Almost, because that would be a waste of money and of product to just let it sit there being pretty in my make-up collection. But I'm afraid it will be sitting there for long periods at a time because I simply don't know what to do with this color. I still haven't found the right color(s) to match it with, which is a shame. It's also a bit darker than I thought at first, so I don't think I'll use it on my lower eyelid again in the future (I did that when I tried to make a look, that completely failed btw, with these eye-liners. But I'm sure I'll find the right place to put it and the right colors to match it with one day. 

Verdict
Name could be better, but we understand it's a not so typical shade of green. So I'm letting Zoeva off the hook easy here. The color is extra-ordinary beautiful, but also extra-ordinary impossible, though I'm certain that one day I'll make a look that absolutely needs this green.

Swatches

There's one little important thing I have to say about these colors, in a pot, on your hand and on your eyes can be 3 very different things. 

I put it on quite thick and didn't go over it a second time, so it's not the same effect you would have when you apply it precisely on your eyelid.
 
Applying, wearing and getting it off

Now I'm gonna talk about the Zoeva cream eyeliners in general, so what I say here counts for all three colors  that I own.

Again, this is what Zoeva says about it:

Long-lasting effect - dramatically intense and vibrant colors
This smooth and easy-to-apply cream liner is perfect for creating a precise finish with excellent true color coverage that will stay in place all day. The pro-formula is long wearing, water-resistent and available in six luscious shades for plenty of options

And this is my view on it:

Applying

Easy-to-apply Zoeva says, well I'll tell you: I'm good, no I'm great with eyeliner, give me any kind, either a pencil, liquid, gel whatever, either an angled brush, a pencil brush, a flat liner brush or no brush at all I can make any line I want from straight to cat-eye to cleopatra look and it's slightly to not-at-all messy. But this is really the first eyeliner ever to give me trouble.

When I first put my angled brush in this eyeliner I almost went completely through the eyeliner, it's just that soft and thin! And at first I thought that was gonna be great, I was expecting the effect of a liquid eyeliner but with the control of a gelliner. Well I was wrong, terrible wrong. It is so soft that you have no control at all, you just glide over the lid and it ends up all wobbly when I do it. No biggy though, I'll just go in again to fix it. You'd think! When I go in again I take all the previous applied eyeliner with me (it's like you're putting it back on your brush again). And I knew what the problem caused immediatly, because it simply doesn't dry fast. And considering I don't want to wait too long before, no I don't even want to wait at all, to go back in again, this is not a big succes.

Also another effect of it not drying too fast is that when I blink the eyeliner ends up above my crease as well. So imagine this: you have to wait for it to dry before you can go in again, but you have to do it without blinking. Umh.. Now there is a way around it and that is tilting your head backwards, but the problem then is that I can't apply my eyeliner as well.
Also another thing is the coverage, I might have let it slip in the colours section of this post, but the coverage is quite light, even though the colors themselves are dark and I think it's because the eye-liner is so soft that it's also very thin, you smear it out real good, not much seems to stick to your eyelid in one swoop. You'd have to let it dry and apply over it again to get it thicker.

Way too wobbly for me
Looks better here, but I'm really a perfectionist when it comes to eye-liner
Wearing

When it's on it stays on. So I guess long-wearing is completely true. But if it smears in the beginning when it's not completely dry yet, you're gonna have a major problem getting it right. And that brings me to the next part:


Taking it off

If you thought the drying was the problem, then wait till it's dried. Because like I just said, it ain't moving. It really is waterproof, I've got to hand it to Zoeva, but it's also cleansing-milkproof and soapproof, also tears-proof (I often find that when eyeliners don't move with water, they often do with tears. I know this not because I cry that much, but because I have sensitive eyes, so my eyes get watery real fast.)
Now, it's not everything proof. I don't have any eye-make-up-remover, simply because I never use it. So I used what I normally use to take of eye-make-up: olive oil, and it works wonders as usual.

Still I have to mention I can't get all of the eyeliner off, because some places are just very hard to reach. Normally I get that last part of when I cleanse my face with cleansing-gel or -milk, but it's not doing the trick with this eyeliner.

Okay, I have a little confession to make: I'm not a fan of waterproof eye-liners, because they're hard to get off and I use eye-primer anyway and that keeps on the eye-liner just as well but is still easily washed of with cleansing products.


Another small (tiny, I promise) thing

Zoeva says vibrant and dramatically intense. I'm torn about this, I keep thinking well the colors are dark, but is it intense? And is the problem the thin coverage or is it just the color?
But anyway, it's a shame it doesn't dry fast enough (at least for me), because you just take a lot of product with you if you sweep over it with your brush a second time.

And then one thing I haven't mentioned at all yet: I wouldn't use this for creating a smokey-eye, I never recommend cream/gelliners for that, but with this one making a smokey eye is not a possibility at all. BTW I find making a smokey-eye works best with very soft kohl pencils like the 24/7 Glide-on Pencils by Urban Decay, but cheap drugstore ones work just as great for that purpose. 

Final Verdict
Since I've used so many words I'm just gonna use numbers now:

2.5 out of 5 for the Black, 3 for the others.

Okay a fast summary then (I can't help myself): Nice colours, except for the black, the other colours are very original and extra-ordinary(which some people will like, some won't) . Long-lasting & waterproof. Too soft, too thin, too little control and dries too slow, which are the main reasons they're not scoring so high in my book. For me the most important thing when it comes to eye-liner is the appliance part: if I can't get a neat line with it, it just doesn't work for me.

The Look


So I tried to make a look with these 3 colors, but I must tell you it didn't not turn out to be as I wanted it to. The control is practically non-existing, so I didn't get it where I wanted it and I didn't get it to pop out, but that was my own fault. No fixing is possible, because once it's dry there's very little you can do. So, conclusion: failure. Also the green eye-shadow I chose turned out to look very different on my eyelid than it did in my palette haha so I guess that's not the fault of the eye-liners either.
I will try again, because I'm not a quitter. The brown is definitely my favorite of these 3 though. Green really was the problem with this look when it came to matching colors. 

Green turned out to be much darker than the brown, was not expecting that
Doesn't look that bad here

This is me btw :p Normally I'm not that discoloured or that pale, my stupid camera is to blame for this

Up Close & Personal; Diary-entry 4: No Way I'm Going NAKED

Hoity-toity stuff
Butt Massage. Now what are you thinking when I say that? Well, believe me we we're all thinking the same thing. Nobody looked forward to having to lie there half naked or massaging someone else’s butt.
The fear began early that morning. Rumors flew through the classroom, people whispering to each other: ‘Is it true we’re going do a butt massage today?’ –‘Yes, I’ve heard that too, I SO don’t want to do that.’ Rumors continued through the theory lesson and both our breaks. By the time we had our ‘big break’  there was complete hysteria at the table. Someone even claimed that she had been having nightmares of it for two weeks. Of course we could laugh at that, but we still everyone felt the painful sarcasm in that laugh. Person after person dropped out sentences like that. And me too, because NO WAY I’M GOING NAKED!! And who the hell would even think to schedule a butt massage at the Beauty Therapist?  I just could not imagine anyone saying  ‘ I’m gonna have a relaxing butt massage this day!’ or ‘I have had such a great butt massage!’ Unimaginable that someone would want to pay for such a horror, or even worse ‘like’ it!

Now normally I’m not so prudish but this went even a little bit too far for me. Being naked is one thing but then having a stranger (well not complete stranger this time but still) rub your (yes I’m just gonna say this bluntly) ass  is just a little too far out of my comfort zone. But you know I could get over all of  that if it really adds something to my education. Waxing ain’t really my thing either, but I didn’t fret that much about it even though I’d let my fellow students push my buttons just a bit. But this just doesn’t feel like it adds something, even better I wouldn’t be surprised if doing this in June (when I have to perform a massage during an exam) is the last time I’ll ever do that massage in my entire life. Unfortunately it’s really mandatory, so I had very little choice.

The Massage

I finally had myself all mentally prepared. I was toughened up and ready to go. Told myself to stop whining: no it's not comfortable and no I don't see the point of it, but I'm gonna do this whether I like it or not. And guess what?.. ‘Today we’re going to school in the back massage’. Well others were relieved, I was completely annoyed, I’d rather just have it over with. I honestly believe our teachers like to torment us sometimes. I had to go through all that hoity-toity stuff of the entire morning for nothing! Now I’d have to go through that all again next week.

So we did the back massage, which was quite fun. Back massages are great to get aha but also not to bad to perform.  But in the end I ended up with more back pain instead of gotten rid of it. Reason? The treatment-chair can’t lie completely flat, so your back is actually in a small angle and believe me having to lie like that for 2 hours ain’t that pleasant. But sometimes I can be a whiner, because you get a free back massage, who wouldn’t want that?.

The usual stuff.. blah, blah.. public transportation..blah, blah, blah.. Oh wait, no actually not!

AND this time I had a nice experience with public transportation! First I didn’t have to pay, the bus chauffeur turned on the public transportation card port (geez what a word!) too late and I entered without checking in. And then when it finally worked a few minutes later he never bothered to tell me to check in. So free-ride! Next bus I didn’t have the same luck. But going back was great: no public transportation at all. Jeeh! I’m now riding along with a fellow student who was so nice to offer. I still have to take a bus after that to get home, but it’s only one and not two and so much closer to home.  And I was able to take the cheap bus, since my practice-partner and I are switching turns on taking all the supplies with us, so no trolley this time either! Lucky me, right? I’m proud to present I spend a total of 3 bucks on public transportation instead of the 14 I spend normally.

~

Monday, March 28, 2011

The Brush Guard

One Year Later: Old versus New

Ever since Michelle Phan used them in one of her videos ‘The Brush Guard’ shot to fame. And even I, yes I admit, after watching her video became enthusiastic about this product. I bought the brush guards one year again and have loved them from the very beginning. They keep my brushes perfectly in shape, no more annoying hairs sticking out of the brushes. Also no more fear of dissolving glue when you dry your brushes because you can dry your brushes upside down.

But a few weeks ago I noticed that the Brush Guards didn’t look so great any more, they had become quite dirty (and I couldn’t get them clean) and they had also lost most of their flexibility.  Even though the package said that fraying of the guards wouldn’t not affect their effectiveness I personally found they didn’t do their job of holding the brushes in shape quite as well as they used to do. No problem, because they’re not at all so expensive. I bought myself 4 new sets: 2 eyeliner packs, 1 foundation and 1 blush pack. And when I unpacked them I was quite amazed at how big the difference is between those and the older ones. And the difference is very evident even on the photos. 

The packs I purchased:



Old versus New:

Foundation

Blush

Eyeliner
Upper = old, lower = new
The difference is very visible here
~

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Up Close & Personal; Diary-entry 3: No School

I should have known it was coming. It happens to me almost every time. Whenever I have a holiday I get ill. And when it’s my birthday, I’m either ill or will be next day. And now I had spring break AND it was my 20th birthday. So guess what? I was ill... It started with my throat, in the evening it felt like there was something sharp stuck in my throat and the next day I completely lost my voice. The result: had to cancel singing lessons. Now, I could live with that as long as I get my dose of ‘tonsiotreen’ every hour. That was one day before my b-day. I had planned to go shopping on my birthday and a little thing as a throat infection wouldn’t stop me. 

So next day I went shopping in Utrecht, all by myself because, well just because I can. Shopping didn’t go so well, first I discovered that prices were twice as high as they were the last time. And that while I was shopping for spring clothes, aren’t they supposed to be cheaper than winter clothes? I guess not. I fell in love with a beautiful blazer I spotted at the H&M, but it was too expensive. After visiting numerous shops without finding anything that could please me, I decided to give up and just go back to my good old friend ‘Wonderwoman by Coolcat'. I could swear I was going crazy because I just couldn’t find the store and I was 100% it had been there.  There’s also a normal 'Coolcat' store in Utrecht so I went there to ask, apparently the store had closed because it didn’t make enough profit. I totally had it be then and was ready to just go home. 
 
So I went up the stairs up to ‘Hoog Cathrijne’ which I have to go through in order to get to the station. And there I saw a store I had visited some times before but didn’t think too much of. Yet I thought I could give it a try, because they aren’t so expensive and they had discount on pants. Left the story 45 minutes later with 2 pantalons, 1 hotpants and a dress. For just a little over 100 Euros, that’s not too bad. Though I did have a little negative experience while I was in the store, they had 10 Euros discount if you bought 2 pair of pants, whatever pants you wanted. So I had 2 pants: 1 pantalon and 1 hotpants, and suddenly I had to pay more than I expected. They said the discount didn’t count for hotpants, well I’m sorry but aren’t hotpants pants? Anyway still left that store with a bunch of stuff so it still made my day though. 

By then I was out of money so I took the bus home and in the bus home it was a nightmare. I suddenly felt terrible. Huge headache and it felt like my face was stuffed with cotton. Yep, I caught an enormous cold. I didn’t have one like that in a long time. Had to cancel lots of things, but still had to work, I had no choice but boy did I feel awful.

It’s now getting better luckily, I have my voice back and no more enormous headache. I had planned to go to school, but yesterday I felt pretty bad again and since we only had theory and not practice I decided it was better to stay home and sicken out. Next week is gonna be a though schoolday because we’re gonna do butt and backmassage, so I’d rather skip one theory lesson so that I will feel up to the practice lesson again next week. So I called my fellow student Esther that morning, she must be one of the nicest persons ever. She was not only so kind to tell our teacher I wouldn’t be coming, no she also offered to send me a copy of her notes and I didn’t even have to ask! Some of my fellow students are just the best! They’ve been so sweet to me, it’s more than I could have ever hoped for when I started with the study Beauty Therapy. I promise next week you will get a story about my schoolday instead of a story about shopping and being ill haha.   

~