Preserving beauty

♫ Theocracy – Altar to the Unknown God

Although I rarely blog about cosmetics, I thought I could do so now since I've been somehow quite happy with some new products I've tried recently. It may be that they're not any better than some others, or that their actual results are such of my imagination, but anyway...

From left to right:
1. Neutrogena: Visibly clear pink grapefruit oil-free moisturiser
Since I suffer from acne, I try to rely on special products when it comes to cleansing and moisturizing my (facial) skin. Recently, I tried a new product, and I kinda liked it! Some oil-free moisturizers seem not to be enough to fight both acne and the winter which makes the surface of my skin get dry, and well, my skin does still get very dry (and oily) too, but at least this one feels nice, is creamy with a mild grapefruit scent, and well... It's probably better than some others. Yet moisturizing my skin type is a pain in the a...
However, I also bought a cleansing gel of the same product family, and I don't like it at all. It's also the worst product at removing make-up which I've encountered for a while.

2. Cutrin: Bio+ Energen serum
This product is actually targeted for those women who suffer from hair loss – however, I bought it because it was also recommended for those who are trying to grow hair. I think my hair loss is normal, but I'm really trying to make it grow, grow, grow..! Thus, I'm applying this to my scalp after I've washed my hair. I don't know for sure yet whether it'll really boost my hair growth, but it gives a really nice refreshing sensation to the scalp!

3. Virgin coconut oil
Straight off the shelf of your local grocery store! So yeah, it's basically... food. I've never been playing with groceries as beauty products before, but I read so many good user experiences with coconut oil that I just wanted to try it. People use it for various things: some moisturize their skin with it, some remove their make-up with it, others use it for hair treatment, and some even use it as a deodorant. Personally, I've noticed that it's quite good at removing eye make-up – better than many commercial products I've used. The main purpose for it, however, is to treat my hair. I apply some to my hair an hour or two before I'm going to shower, wear it like a hair treatment mask and then wash it away. And it makes hair feel nice and soft. I even read that it's good at deep-cleansing hair, and I might even have to say that it seems to be true. :0 And some people leave it in their hair when they go to sleep and wash it away in the morning. I haven't tried that yet, but well, why not some day.

4. Freeman: Facial clay mask mint & lemon
It's been a while since I've been regularly using facial masks, and I wanted to try something potentially good for my difficult skin type. I cannot say any product could save me from my acne (my problem cannot really be solved on the outside), but at least it feels good and refreshing. This product line has so many different options that I may want to try another one too, they probably have something for every skin type. And these are not even expensive.

Painting it brown

♫ Dreamtale – The Awakening

A while ago I rummaged through my wardrobe, picking out clothes I hadn't worn lately and probably wouldn't in the future either. It hadn't actually been so long since the last time I had done the same, so I didn't find so many unnecessary pieces this time.

While some clothes ended up in the "get rid of these NOW" pile immediately, there were some pieces with different flaws which I still wanted to save one way or another. This ex-black-and-white striped shirt was one of them. As much as I would like to wear white, or black-and-white, I'm not good at keeping white as white as it should. It's a bit embarrassing to admit this because I've had to study housekeeping and such (cleaning, laundry and that kind of stuff too, on a professional level) so much in the past that washing clothes should be a piece of cake to me. :x This shirt, for example, had turned yellowish in a very dirty way merely by staying in my closet, unused for a few years.

Thus, I decided to try to dye it – a procedure I had already used to save a b'n'w striped T-shirt some years ago. I tried to turn it red and black, but it turned out pink instead. The hue wasn't too bad – at that time, when I was more into pink. This time I really had trouble deciding on the color though! I haven't felt comfortable wearing red or pink lately to contrast my mostly black wardrobe (I've even worn my pink eyeshadow quite a little lately! But it's not the problem, only such clothes are) and I didn't want to try those colors on the shirt. I'm not much into wearing orange, yellow, green or purple, even though I like every color in some context. Then I thought of blue, ocean blue. I turned the city upside down hunting for such textile dye. Eventually I found some, but the selection in the store was quite wide and I began to reconsider. I thought of all things which have inspired me lately, and dressing up in neutral tones, or muted tones, has been the thing. I thought of pirates and steampunk and such, and then picked up terracotta brown instead.

I didn't use all the dye because it would have been enough to dye 600g of fabric and the shirt only weighed 200g, and I was afraid of the result being too unpredictable. But I'm not even sure what I really wanted of it. This is how it turned out:

I figured I would try to redye it gray if I didn't like the outcome, but I'm not sure yet. I'm not disappointed, I have to wear it a bit to see if it was a good choice or not. What do you think, is the terracotta brown hue ugly or maybe nice and warm?