Brand: CVS

Col­or­ways: White

Retail Price: $19.99 + tax in applic­a­ble areas

Uses: Exfo­li­ater, cleaner

Over­all Score: 3/5

 

A cou­ple of weeks ago, I decided to stop using a towel for a sad excuse for exfo­li­a­tion and pur­chase a generic brand facial brush from my work. This prod­uct was com­pared to the Olay brand facial brush; com­pared to the Clar­isonic. The price between the three was expo­nen­tial.  Which made it a decent buy if you’re not inter­ested in drop­ping $30.00-$200.00 for the Olay or Clar­isonic units.

This unit only comes in white. It has two speeds and two direc­tions for max­i­mum exfo­li­a­tion. It’s pretty gen­tle, and you can really see the skin and buildup com­ing off when you rinse the brush. As I used it, I found less and less buildup com­ing off on the brush. Though if I lapsed, it was right back to pulling off lots. I tend to have lots of build up to begin with due to hav­ing large pores on my nose and near my cheeks so if I lapse, it’s like start­ing all over again. I did notice some skin tight­en­ing after using it. It was like my skin was able to breathe prop­erly and because of the blood stim­u­la­tion, it was bet­ter oxy­genated. It alle­vi­ated some dark­ness under my eyes because it also worked like a mas­sage for my face.

The one thing I didn’t really notice was any min­i­miza­tion of my pores. I used a daily cleaner from Clearisol to help reduce oil build on my face (it helps some but I’ve got mixed skin). They clear up really nicely, but I prob­a­bly should use a pore closer right after to help with clogging.

The unit is bat­tery pow­ered. Tak­ing two AA bat­ter­ies to power it. If you use it a lot, this will make up its cost in bat­ter­ies alone. If you’ve pur­chased recharge­able bat­ter­ies, then this prod­uct will actu­ally need min­i­mal charges and will give you more bang for your buck.

The unit is mostly water­proof and the bat­tery cover has two cov­ers for safety! (DO not SUBMERSE IN WATER.) The brush heads are small, but nice and soft with enough stiff­ness to get the job done. They say you have to replace them as soon as they start to indent or wear; I haven’t noticed any indent­ing but I’m also not grind­ing the thing into my face either. 

Over­all, it’s good for a cheapie. I don’t expect the motor to last long in it because bat­tery motors tend to wear quickly with exchange­able power sources. It does a decent job of remov­ing makeup and day to day grime but, it may be worth the cost to invest into one that has an AC cord. The one thing I do like a lot though is that your replace­ment brushes are super cheap. I do rec­om­mend it for a broke fash­ion­ista who wants to keep her skin look­ing like porcelain.

Fea­tured out­fit of the day! (Meant to post this a bit ear­lier but I was caught up doing work.) This fea­tures Saint Mephisto, and some items I scooped together using Polyvore. It’s a sim­ple coord with more of a focus on the tinier details of the dress com­ing out in the accents and accessories!

 

Brand: Replica of Alice and the Pirates

Print Name: Saint Mephisto’s Cathedral

Col­or­ways: Black, Iris, Ivory, Pink

Retail Price: Esti­mated $250-$350USD (Non-inclusive)

Rar­ity: (Of the orig­i­nal) Moderately Rare

Repli­ca­tor: Oo Jia

Price of Replica: $104.50 USD (inclu­sive of shipping)

Over­all Score: 4.5/5

 

The pur­chase of this dress was shortly after Oo Jia fea­tured her Iris col­or­way of Saint Mephisto. I didn’t par­tic­u­larly like it since it seemed a bit “muddy”, if you will. The color seemed off from the pho­tos, so I set­tled for the black as it looked pretty close in terms of print qual­ity to the brand. It was pur­chased April 6th, and I received it May 1st.

The print fea­tures actu­ally, minor details that are designed to make you look all over. It’s dec­o­rated with lit­tle white crosses in the pat­tern and the bor­der print fea­tures reli­gious scripts, crosses and a few (of course) cathe­drals out­lined by roses. It’s very visu­ally appeal­ing and I have already received many com­ments on it.

The dress is actu­ally quite beau­ti­ful for a replica. The details are beau­ti­ful, but there are a cou­ple of things that set this off from the orig­i­nal, which we will get to in a bit. It came out of pack­age with just a head bow this time. I was expect­ing socks again, but I also didn’t ask for them like I did with Mid­sum­mer Night. So that was prob­a­bly my fault.

Beau­ti­ful, clear print. The fab­ric, again, not tex­tured as AATP uses, but that’s one of the details that lets you know this is a replica.

No lace on the hem. The orig­i­nal uses a beau­ti­ful, almost hand-tatted look­ing lace lace that’s very soft to the touch. Oo Jia used gros­grain rib­bon in place of the lace. It’s a nice touch but it takes away a lit­tle bit of the flare of the bot­tom. I’m going to see about find­ing some black chif­fon trim­ming to put around the bot­tom just to give it a lit­tle some­thing extra.

Beau­ti­ful stitch work. It’s a lot cleaner than Mid­sum­mer night’s dream. There were some crooked seams on the inside of Mid­sum­mer, but these are pretty straight and very well put together.

Oo Jia used beau­ti­ful venet­ian lace being used in the bust details. It’s not quite like the lace on the orig­i­nal but this lace is quite the eye-catcher. Very soft to the touch and just beau­ti­ful. I kind of wish she had hemmed it with this lace but venet­ian laces cost a bit more. I remem­ber pay­ing $13.50 a yard on some gor­geous venet­ian lace I found at a fab­ric shop. Spen­sive, but damn does it look good on a gar­ment. 

The dress is a dream fit. Last time, the bust was a bit tight, but for some rea­son, this dress fits quite a bit bet­ter.  I ordered with the same mea­sure­ments. Maybe it was a fluke, but it’s ok. I’m not both­ered by it so much.

Eh, I thew the hair and make up together on a quick whim. It doesn’t really suit the look as well as I would like, but it would really suit hime-lolita or maybe gyaru.