Review: Laline Face

Laline is an Israeli bath and body company that I have a serious weakness for. They make all kinds of creams, scrubs, bath bombs, oils, and so on and so forth, and they smell really good. I have a hard time going past one of their stores without going in.

Recently they added a line of facial products, which are based on chamomile and cucumber, and of course smell wonderful. I couldn't resist buying a few of them to try out. Also, this may be some of the best photography (of cosmetics stuff) I've ever done!

(Note: These products were bought with my own money at my own discretion, and I was not asked or paid to make this post. I'm doing this because I feel like it)

I bought four products, from left to right: "Hot mama" thermal face mask, "Face it" foaming facial cleanser, "After hours" overnight moisturizer, and "Serum Supreme" facial serum.

 Since this is pretty photo heavy, the reviews themselves go under a cut.

Swatched: Life 351

I rarely swatch Life polishes on my blog. They're the drugstore brand for Superpharm, and they are made by the same manufacturer as Ga-de, which means most of their polishes are dupes of Ga-de. Amusingly, Life came out with the exact same collection of liquid sands that Ga-de did, only two months later. I usually don't buy Life, since if I can get the exact same polish but in a nicer bottle, with a name, and with 13ml in it rather than 10ml, I do that.

Still, sometimes I come across the odd Life polish that doesn't have a Ga-de equivelant, and 351 is one of those.

Life 351 is a forest green shimmer, with a faint gold shimmer scattered throughout. It's almost unnoticeable, and it mostly serves to give the polish a lit-from-within quality that I always love. It's opaque in three coats, and although the shimmer is very dense there are hardly any visible brush strokes at all. I imagine more careful application would eliminate them altogether.

Hair talk: Henna

I have had long hair for most of my life. I briefly cut it short in high school to donate, but by the time I graduated it was nearly back to it's original length. I've always kept it somewhere between waist length and tailbone length- I don't think it actually gets much longer than that on me.

A bit over two years ago, I started dyeing my hair regularly with Henna. I do it roughly every six weeks- really for the roots, but most of the time I go ahead and do all of my hair each time. I've actually been meaning to document my henna routine for several months, but I kept forgetting on henna day, or remembering when I had already done part of the process. This time I remembered!

Some general notes about henna:

• Henna is extremely healthy for your hair and your scalp. It is entirely natural and non-toxic, meaning if some gets into your mouth you don't have to worry. It is also totally safe to leave on for however long you want. It may be possible that some are allergic to henna (although I've never heard of that) but other than that it is fine.
• Henna is not a typical hair dye, in that it does not change your hair to a specific color. It adds a red tint to whatever your hair color already is, meaning if you have naturally dark hair you will see very little difference. Your hair will light up beautifully in the sun though, since it shows up best in sunlight.
• Henna has a very distinct earthy smell, like freshly turned dirt in a garden. Some people dislike this smell and find it to be a downside, but personally I really love it. Either way, the scent lingers in your hair even after several washes, (usually about a week in my experience). 
• Henna has been used as a hair dye for hundreds of years in many parts of the world, although it originated in the Middle East (I'm pretty sure.) A number of cultures also use henna to draw semi-permanent designs on their skin in various sacred ceremonies, although you need to use a higher quality of henna for that than for hair. In India this is called Mehndi. Yemenite and Morrocan Jewish women often have Henna ceremonies shortly before their weddings. I've been to a fair few of them as my classmates started getting married, they're beautiful events.

Here are my ingredients:

• Henna (middle): In Israel and probably most of the Middle East and India, you can buy this most anywhere that sells spices by weight. I usually use ~120 grams. I have waist length wavy hair, not very thin but not very thick either.
• Cinnamon and Ground Cloves (left): These don't really do much to the color or nutrition, but they add a nice autumn-y smell to the mixture, and if you don't like the smell of Henna, they go a long way towards making it bearable. The cloves have some tannins that are supposed to be good for hair, but I don't think I use enough for that effect.
• Chamomile Tea: I actually cut the tea bag open and pour the loose contents right into the mixture. Chamomile has a very mild lightening effect, which helps the red to show up better against my medium-dark hair. It's also a very soothing for the scalp and supposedly reduces dandruff. Also it smells wonderful, adding complexity to the scent.
• Lemon Juice: This one is a must. The lemon juice helps release the dyes from the henna and seals them into the hair. There are science-y reasons for this, but I'm only science-y enough to mostly understand them, not really explain them. Lemon juice also has lightening properties. I usually use a roughly 1:1 combination of lemon juice and water in mine, but beware: lemon juice is also very drying. If your hair tends towards being dry and brittle, I would suggest using a lower proportion of lemon juice.

The rest of this post is less wordy but fairly picture-heavy, so I'm putting it under a cut.

NOTD: Purim!

I only have one photo today, but I think it captures the essence pretty well:

Colors used:
Dalia 1 (my perfect one-coater white)
Chic- Eternity (blue)
Chic- Must Have (red)
Loka- 10 (green)
Ga-de- Mellow Yellow

This was a really easy look, I followed this 15 second tutorial by @sprinklenails on instagram. I didn't really do much in the way of celebrating, since I had work. So I did nails and wore a silly t-shirt :) Hope your holiday was fun, if you celebrated!

Ga-de Bold Blues: The stragglers

After putting up my first Bold Blues posts (here and here), I discovered two more polishes that are definitely part of the collection, and one that might be, based on the numbers and the color scheme. So here they are!

As with the rest of the creams in this collection, these were all opaque in two easy coats, and dried to a lovely glossy finish.

אחרי שני הפוסטים על קולקציית Bold Blues, גיליתי עוד שני לקים שהם בטוח מאותו קולקציה, ועוד אחד שאולי גם יכול להיות לפי המספרים והצבעים. הנה הם!

כמו הקרמים הקודמים, שלושתם אטומים לאחר שתי שכבות דקות, ומאוד מבריקים אפילו בלי טופקוט.

Blue Angel (490)

Blue angel is a fairly standard sky blue cream, not much to say about it. Not the most unique color, although it is a click darker than most sky blues that I've seen. Still, it's quite pretty, and a good staple.

Blue angel הוא פחות או יותר תכלת סטנדרטי, אין לי ממש מה להגיד עליו. לא כ"כ מיוחד אבל צבע יפה בכל אופן. אולי טיפונת יותר כהה מרוב הלקים בגוון הזה.

Majorelle Blue (495)

Once again, Majorelle blue is not exactly a revolutionary color, although it is extremely vivid and photogenic. It doesn't quite qualify as cobalt blue, since it's a bit dusty and leans ever so slightly purple. Despite the dustiness, this is a very bright and cheerful color.

שוב לא הצבע הכי ייחודי בעולם, אבל מאוד פוטוגני ומאוד מחמיא. לא לגמרי כחול, יש לו מעט סגול ומעט אפור גם. יש לזה תחושה מאוד חייובית, מישומה.

Azure Blue (482)

I'm not sure this is actually part of the Bold Blues collection, it might have been around before but it's new to me. This was a pain to photograph- I talked about it in an earlier post. And the sad thing is, I was the most excited about this one- it's unique as far as I can tell. The color on my nails is not accurate, but the color of the bottle in the photos very nearly is, so you can get the idea. It's a very pale, very gentle periwinkle- this one should have been "Blue Angel". It's not even azure! Blue Angel is azure! Ah Ga-de... some of your names are very good, but you messed up with these. You didn't mess up with creating these colors though, and that's what matters, really.

אני לא יודעת אם זה באמת נחשב בקולקציה, אבל אם זה לא קשור לפחות אני לא ראיתי אותו לפניכן. היה סיוט לצלם- דיברתי על זה בפוסט קודם. והכי חבל עליו כי משלושתם ממנו הכי התלהבתי. עד כמה שאני יודעת הוא לגמרי ייחודי. איך שהוא נראה בתמונה שלי ממש לא כמו המציאות, אבל הבקבוק דווקה יצא כמעת מדויק. חבל שלזה דווקה לא קראו "blue angel" בי השם הזה הרבה יותר מתאים לו. הוא אפילו לא azure!! גייד פישלו מבחינה הזאת. אבל הם לא פישלו מבחינת הלקים עצמם, וזה הכי חשוב!

Logo! Part 2!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled beauty blogging for the following announcement:

I AM REALLY REALLY EXCITED RIGHT NOW

BECAUSE I HAVE A PROPER FEDORAHARP LOGO

LOOK AT MY LOGOOOOOOOOOO

This adorable thing was commissioned from my talented friend Emilie, you should check out her art blog. I don't know what magic powers she has but she managed to take a pencil sketch I made four years ago and turned it into a bona fide professional looking logo.

I don't really know how to end this, I just wanted to share my hyperness and excitement with you.

Your regularly scheduled beauty blogging will now resume.

NOTD: The Impossible Dotticure

Every now and then I will encounter a nail polish color which for no particular reason freaks my camera out. No matter what kind of lighting or angle or camera settings I use, the color simply will not photograph correctly. Today I have one for you.

מידי פעם אני אתקל בצבע לק שמישומה מטריד את המצלמה שלי. לא משנה איזה תאורה או זווית או הגדרות אני מנסה. הצבע פשוט לא מסכים להצטלם. היום יש לי בשבילכן אחד כזה

This is how it looks on camera:

Nice simple sky blue, right? NOPE! It's actually a very delicate periwinkle. The closest I got to an accurate shot was a random blurry picture I took on the bus:

מדובר בתכלת פשוט, לא? ממש לא!!! יש ללק הזה דווקא גוון שנוטה לכיוון סגלגל עדין. יש לי תמונה אחת שצילםתי באוטובוס שלפחות מתקרב לצבע האמיתי:

Even this one isn't entirely perfect, but it's close enough. That having been said, I still managed to do a pretty cute dotticure over it, so here are some proper (if somewhat color-innacurate) shots of it:

אפילו המונה הצאת לא מושלמת, אבל היא מספיק קרובה. בכלאופן, המניקיור עצמו יצא ממש חמוד אז הנה כמה תמונות (לא ממש מדיקות בצבע אבל) להציג אותו:

Colors used:
Ga-de - Azure Blue (base color)
Ga-de - Blue Angel (light dots)
Ga-de - Majorelle Blue (medium dots)
Ga-de - Sapphire Blue (dark dots)