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Monday, May 20, 2013

First Impression : L'Occitane Products

Hey y'all!

First of all i'd like to give a shout out to the blog reader that recognized and approached me this evening at Grand City's Etude House *grin*, i never thought this day would actually ever come, being recognized by a stranger because of this blog haha, i am very (pleasantly) surprised :). To the girl who was nice (and brave) enough to say hi (even though she had a hard time remembering our blog's name, i guess Pink and Undecided is quite a mouthful *LOL*), sorry if i was a bit dazed and blur, you caught me totally off guard and taken aback haha. Do say hi again if you ever see me again (or anyone else who recognize me hahaha, i feel suddenly famous LOLOLOL), i promise i won't be as dazed as before hahaha.

Alright! Now, as you know i received a sample sachets set of L'Occitane products from the first Beauty Treats (being a total hoarder that i am, i've not used any other products that i received from all three boxes except the L'Occitane products *LOL*), as they came in sachet forms, i would not be able to write a proper review on them, but i decided to write my first impressions on them at one go.

Let's start with my favorite :
Precious Eye Balm

 Of course, i didn't receive the tube above (i wish!) but this tiny sachet *LOL* :
I've never tried eye balms before, only tried eye gels and eye creams previously. While i love how refreshing and light eye gels are, most of them seems to sting my skin a little bit, i probably have a more sensitive skin around my eyes? I've tried a few brands of eye gels and almost all of them caused a little bit of a burning sensation (except Etude House's Moistfull Collagen, which set fast becoming my favorite skin care items!) while i find eye creams to bee to rich (maybe i'm not that old yet that i needed super rich eye creams yet? Ahem... *LOL*) and could cause millia seeds to form under my eyes.

So i was quite interested in trying out this eye balm, and it didn't disappoint at all (at least for the first few tries!). Being a balm, it's thicker than eye gels and not as thick as eye creams, somewhere in between lah haha.
It's very soft and mild, it didn't cause any burning or stinging sensation but it did caused a slightly warm sensation around your eyes! Oh it might also cause a little bit of itchiness (very mild though), but i believe that's because the eye balm's working on un-wrinkling your skin! LOL! It was absorbed super fast into my skin (probably because my eye area's really dry and thirsty...). I didn't expect it to have a visible effect right away, but it actually did!

The only part of my face that (for me) shows that i am not a teenager anymore *LOL* is my under eye area. Actually if i'm not wearing any make up you'd not see anything except my dark circle haha, but since my dark circle is very bad i have to put on under eye concealer, and if i do that then you'll see fine lines under my eyes, the concealer would quickly set into the deeper fine lines on my right eye (strangely it only happens on the right eye and not the left one!), like.. super fast! Less than 3 seconds i guess! To prevent the concealer to set into the cracks, i have to quickly set them with loose powder, which made my under eye look super dry and papery zzzz.

From the first application i noticed right away that my skin became less papery, suppler, firmer and soft to the touch! It's a miracle! LOL. No, i'm serious, it's THAT good! I was so dazzled by its effect that i religiously put it on every morning and evening (whereas usually i'd only put on eye gel/cream at night). This tiny sachet actually lasts me for about 12 applications, believe it or not!

That's the positive sides, the negative side? I don't think this eye balm's very good to wear under make up. I tried once and it left a dry, cakey residue that cannot be blended away under my concealer and powder (so now i put on Etude's before my make up. It's so good too, i'm going to review it soon).

In total, i love this product! Eye treatment is one of the few stuffs i don't mind splurging on every once in a while if it's very good, so would i buy the full size of this item based on the sachet sample? Yes! Eye treatments tends to be very expensive anyway, and this one seems to be working really well for me, maybe a full jar would really make a huge difference! I'd consider buying it after i manage to finish all the eye treatments i've been accumulating lately!
Shea Butter Ultra Rich Body Cream
 

As expected from a good body cream, it's (much) richer than a body lotion. The consistency of this body cream is thick but surprisingly spread very easily on my skin. It seems to be absorbed really quickly to the naked eyes, but not to the touch. It doesn't leave an obvious sheen (like The Body Shop's body butter for an instance) but it does leave a greasy feeling (that i hate) and because i like to lie on the bed (or sit on the floor) right after putting on any body care, the greasiness was transferred to the bed sheet *LOL* and leave my skin bare. I had two times usage out of this sachet sample.
I have a normal skin and i cannot stand greasiness, so i kinda knew i wouldn't like this body cream too much. Body lotion would always be my choice, i guess. I prefer body cares that really absorbed fast (into the skin, and not only invincible to your eyes) and yet leave a moisturized feeling on my skin. I don't know if it's because the body cream needed more time to completely penetrate my skin, therefore it wasn't fully doing its job when i already accidentally rubbed it into my bed sheet, but it wasn't particularly moisturizing, not more than any other body lotions/creams anyway.

As far as the fragrance goes, it has a nice, subtle organic smell. It was pleasant and subtle enough for me, i don't think most people would find anything offensive when it comes to the smell :).

I find this product to be so-so, nothing too special. And i don't think i would be able to justify its price tag, i could find a lot of other products that works better (for MY skin) with much friendlier price tag (especially because L'Occitane's very pricey in Asia. It was a LOT cheaper in Europe. I got my mother in law a L'Occitane hand cream that at least half the price in Indonesia!) so i wouldn't be considering on purchasing this item in full size.
Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner
I just tried these duo this afteroon! LOL. It's for normal and fine hair so i wasn't so sure it's gonna work well on me (my hair type is oily, but it is very fine), but i was pleasantly surprised!
The shampoo was very very watery, when i left the sachet opened laying down, the shampoo spilled out of the sachet very quickly. I usually don't like clear, watery shampoo types because they'd cause my hair to be sticky and hard to wash, it would also tangled up my long hair. I prefer creamier, thicker types of shampoo. This shampoo did caused my hair to be a bit sticky feeling and i wasn't very impressed. Plus it also didn't lather up much (you should know by now that i'm fond of my lather and bubbles...) so i wasn't exactly impressed with it at first.
Just like the shampoo, i was also not impressed at the first glance of the conditioner. It was very watery and thin, whereas i prefer thicker and creamier conditioner (yeah, i'm just repeating what i've been saying about the shampoo *LOL* sorry*). Plus the amount of conditioner in the sachet was really little, i only had enough for my hair ends since  my hair's so long! It disappeared right away into my hair, which shocked me a little bit. I've only used conditioners that was so thick, they'd still be able to be felt to the touch when i washed them off.

I judged too quickly on them though, because i started changing my mind while washing the conditioner off *LOL*. The tiny amount of conditioner really left my hair soft and easy to wash out *unlike how it first was with the shampoo*, totally detangles my hair too! But i was like, okay it's better than i thought it'd be, but nothing special. I was able to comb my hair easily, but then again my regular drug store conditioner also have the same effect.

Until i blow dried my hair *LOL*. I was surprised at how light and airy my hair was, it was really soft and bouncy, and it really did volumized my super flat and limp hair! I was so surprised! In the end i have a slight feeling like i've been having a professional blow dry at a dry salon, unlike how i feel after my daily blow dry at all!

I'm guessing you need to use both items simultaneously to be able to get this effect though. In my theory, the clear shampoo with the sticky after effect was the one that causes the hair to be super volumized and airy, while the conditioner works to detangle and eliminate stickiness. Just my opinion though hahaha.

I do love how they made my hair a lot more volumized and airy than usual, but it also has not so good effect,s my hair's so airy and light that the baby hairs (you know, new hairs that are growing on your head, the super short ones) stood out horribly! the airiness also somehow made my hair ends to look drier than usual. You'll see what i mean in the signing out picture i will leave you with below :p. Oh, it also made my hair root to be too volumized *LOL, i know, i'm fussy*. I don't like it when my roots are too volumized, i think they looked like camels humps *sighs*. 

So, i have a very mixed feeling about the last two products, there are effects that i love and at the same time other effects that i wasn't too happy about. Oh, i almost forget to mention, i also didn't enjoy the way they smell either, kinda reminds me of eucalyptus *LOL*. We use eucalyptus oils on mosquito and bug bites so, i don't enjoy smelling them on my hair products *LOL*. Oh, of course i only got one time usage out of these two samples.

I honestly don't think i'd be purchasing them though, i cannot imagine spending a fortune on shampoo and conditioner! As long as my drug store shampoo and conditioner still works perfectly then i think i'd be sticking to them for now. They kept my hair healthy and nice all this while (especially after i start taking more care of my hair, with hair masks and vitamins) so, don't see any use of abandoning them yet :p. 

So, that's my first impression on L'Occitane products. So far i quite enjoy trying them out, if you want to be able to try out (samples of) such stuffs (so you can see if you like it enough to purchase the full sized products) you can sign up to Beauty Treats, and if you do please don't forget to use my referral, just click the link below :
 
 
Thank you very much!
 
That's all for now, hope you're not too blue that it's almost Monday already!
#Pink
 








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