Year: 2014

Harry Potter Week: A Red for Every House

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Just a quick Harry Potter post today. I wasn’t going to put anything up because I’ve been trying (and clearly failing) to post less frequently. Anyway, it didn’t seem right to post so many non-Harry Potter things on my self-imposed Harry Potter Week, so I thought up a fun post! Harry Potter is known for Hogwarts and Hogwarts is known for its housing system. Basically, the school segregates you into “houses,” according to your basest of personalities and deep-seated traits. There are four houses and I’ve got four red lipsticks to match to them. Now, I’m not looking for trouble. Feel free to disagree with my designations. These are only four red lipsticks in the world of red lipsticks, and these selections are just based on my own opinion. Please feel free to chime in and declare a red lipstick your own pick for a Hogwarts house.

REVIEW: Bello-Vita Cell Optimizer S-Essence*

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The Korean skincare routine differs from our usual steps of cleanse-tone-moisturize, going up to as much as 10 steps per routine. It sounds crazy, but there is some logic behind all of it. Korean skincare systems are a bit intimidating to try for the first time because they’re so extensive, but I’ll save the meat of everything for a later post this week. For now, I’ll write a bit about the Bello-Vita Cell Optimizer S-Essence* which I got in my latest BNT box. This serum is “formulated with Biocell System Originated in Fermentation Science.” Because most of the information is in Hangul, it’s hard to decipher what this serum/essence is for. Going from my understanding of the many-stepped Korean skin care process, I’ve gathered that “essence” is usually a pre-moisturizer step, to prep the cleansed skin that’s stripped of moisture for the bigger molecules of heavier moisturizer. These usually come in a light, more liquid-y form that’s easily absorbed by the skin, and allow for easier absorption of the follow-up moisturizers.

Dermal Bee Venom Relaxing Cream*

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The Dermal Bee Venom Relaxing Cream* is a hypoallergenic soothing cream with royal jelly and bee venom. It also has plant extracts like portulaca and aloe that are both soothing, and it has hyaluronic acid for moisture. The Bee Venom Relaxing Cream is part of their special cream series, that includes pearl, snail, and syn-ake (a peptide similar to snake venom). The bee venom variant is supposed to be an alternative to botox, as it is supposed to make facial muscles firmer, and decreases the fine lines. It is also meant to be anti-wrinkle and to improve acne-prone skin. I am quite a big fan of the Dermal Sheet Masks (reviewed here), so I was excited to try this product. This helps “promote the natural healing process, enhances skin ability to recover, dissolves dying cells, triggers skin regeneration and repair.”

Harry Potter Week: Spellbound

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Okay, so for Harry Potter Week, I was thinking of things I could do instead of doing House- or Character-inspired looks, which I think tend to be more common when it comes to Harry Potter and beauty crossovers. I ended up thinking of making looks inspired by spells and charms! I picked 3 that have a distinct visual effect about them that are also widely used in in Rowling’s magical world, at least in Harry Potter’s timeline. Look 1: The Patronus Charm “This ancient and mysterious charm conjures a magical guardian, a projection of all your most positive feelings. The Patronus Charm is difficult, and many witches and wizards are unable to produce a full, corporeal Patronus, a guardian which generally takes the shape of the animal with whom they share the deepest affinity. You may suspect, but you will never truly know what form your Patronus will take until you succeed in conjuring it.”Miranda Goshawk

REVIEW: isoi Bulgarian Rose Pore Tightening Tonic Essence*

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The isoi Bulgarian Rose Pore Tightening Tonic Essence* “make[s] your pore skinny.” It’s a multi-functional toner and essence that reduces enlarged pores, controls sebum, and removes dead skin cells. It also restores radiance, hydrates, and helps increase skin elasticity. After cleansing the face, you wet a cotton pad with a generous amount of the tonic essence and rub all over the face. This is designed for oily skin (not me) so its full effect is a bit lost on me. However, I do like their direction as a company, promoting safe beauty. isoi uses natural ingredients, instead of the potentially harmful chemical ingredients found in most luxury cosmetics. Since it is a toner/essence, I find that it doesn’t “refresh” my skin quite as much as a usual toner would. There is a very, very slightly sticky feeling on the skin left after use, presumably to act as a moisturizer/essence. I think it might be best to follow this up with your normal moisturizer, as I found the feeling to be slightly unpleasant. The essence itself …

REVIEW: Migabee Honey Pureberry Oilsoap*

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One of the products I was most excited to have received was the Migabee Honey Pureberry Oilsoap.* It removes makeup, dirt, and oily ingredients, and can be used on the face, hair, and body. This product reminds me of castile soap like Dr. Bronner’s, which is used for several uses and is made of olive oil, because it is also multipurpose. Since most of the writing on the bottle and site itself is in Korean (or Hangul), I went to a lot of websites for more information that I could understand. This “oilsoap” has lauric acid as the second ingredient, which is found in coconut oil, laurel oil, and in palm kernel oil (not palm oil). I’ve been using organic honey as a light cleanser for the face in the morning, so I’m pleased I got this variant because I know that it works for my skin type. It also contains cranberry, blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry fruit extracts.

Made-Up History: The Unicorn in Captivity, ca. 1495-1505

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For Harry Potter week, I thought I’d do a Made-Up History of an actual work of art I glimpsed in The Half-Blood Prince. This is a tapestry called “The Unicorn in Captivity,” and is the seventh in a series called The Hunt of the Unicorn or Unicorn Tapestries. I’m not sure where I first found out about this work—probably in a documentary I saw about restoration—but it was a great Easter egg for me when I saw it in that Room of Requirement scene in HBP: The artist of this series of tapestries is unknown, though it is widely believed to have been commissioned by Anne of Brittany, who became Queen of France twice.