Review: Lush Roots Scalp Cream - a minty scalp treatment

(Purchased product)

I have a ton of hair but it tends to fall flat. I don't really like using hair products on my roots since they often irritate my scalp. I was pretty interested to try this product which claims to add body to fine hair.

This product is called "Genjitsu Tohi" (現実頭皮) in Japan.  This is a funny pun - the characters mean "Real Scalp", and it is also a homonym for "現実逃避" ("Running away from reality").

What it does: (from the Lush UK website)
A stimulating treatment for people with thin or fine hair. Fine hair needs careful looking after – and this treatment is packed full of ingredients to revitalise from root to tip. Starting with three kinds of mint to stimulate the scalp and hair follicles, olive oil to give condition and strength, honey to soften and soothe and nettle absolute for shine. We’ve topped this off with a delicate perfume containing sweet orange oil, neroli and grapefruit oil all known to be cheerful and uplifting. Together these are the foundations to build great hair.

How to use:
Apply the product to the scalp when the hair is dry, then leave it on for 20-30 minutes before shampooing it out.  The Lush website suggests using 1/4 of the pot for short hair and 1/2 of the pot for longer hair.  I used much less than that.

Price: 9.95 GBP/225g, $19.95/8.4oz, 1880JPY/225g.  This is in Lush's big black pots. I really wish Lush would come out with small sizes of all of their products. It is hard to drop $20 for a product you have never tried!

Pros:

• This product leaves a minty feel on your scalp and is quite refreshing
• This product left my hair feeling very soft and clean

Cons:

• This product is a really thick cream. It was really hard to apply it on to my scalp.  I like to dampen my hair before applying this product, which helps make the application smoother.
• This product is relatively expensive, so I only used it on my scalp.  

Would I repurchase? Maybe.  At the UK price of 10GBP, I think this is a great product for the price. At the Japan/US price, it seems a little expensive for what it does.

I purchased this product in a haul from the Lush UK website. I strongly suggest that if you want to try out a bunch of Lush products, especially their products in black tubs, order them off of the Lush UK website. When I was in a Lush store in the US, the sales associate even told me that it is much cheaper to buy these products from the Lush UK website!

Hope you enjoyed my review!

xoxo, K

Weekly Reads #110: May 19, 2013

What were your favorite posts this week? 

• Angelina Jolie shares her story, via Temptalia. Empowering!
• Silicones in hair care, via Pink Sith. This is the most detailed explanation I have seen so far. Japanese shampoos are known for having high amounts of silicone in them.
• How I shop for clothes online, via Wardrobe Oxygen. Most stores in Japan (both online and not) do not allow you to return items, so I only buy things online if I am sure of what I want.
• Google penalizing sponsored links? and how to work around it, via Beautyholics Anonymous. Good news for beauty bloggers.
• Song of Healing (from Zelda) played on wine glasses, via Youtube. Amazing!!

Connect with me! I love chatting and connecting with people, and sharing interesting stuff around the web!

• Follow @cosmeddicted on Twitter & Instagram
• Like Cosmeddicted on Facebook
• Follow Cosmeddicted on Pinterest

You can also subscribe to Cosmeddicted through the feed, email, or Bloglovin!

xoxo, K

Review: Rohto Shirocha Sengan Facial Cleanser - makes fabulous lather

(Purchased product)

Although I used to religiously purchase facial cleansers, I stopped buying them while I was in China. However, this product caught my eye the last time I was in Japan.

This is a review of the Rohto Shirocha Sengan facial cleanser (白茶洗顔). "Shirocha" is Japanese for white tea. "Sengan" means "to wash your face". This product is available in a tube, as a solid soap, and as a mousse. The mousse form is in a can, similar to a bottle of hair mousse. Rohto is a major Japanese brand,  mostly famous in the beauty blogger community for eye drops.

This product is supposed to brighten your complexion by increasing cell turnover. The commercials also talk a lot about how much this product foams up, creating mounds of creamy lather.

(The picture makes the tube look almost white, but it is actually light green)

What it does: (from Rohto's website)
We created a product with creamy lather to gently surround your skin. It is easy to make thick, creamy lather with this product. The firm lather will wash off old skin cells and dirt, without leaving skin feeling tight. Although this product is thick and creamy when washing, it will rinse clean.

Where to purchase: This product is widely available at Japanese drugstores.

Price: Retails for 525 JPY (around $5)

Scent: This product smells faintly of green tea

Pros:

• I LOVE LOVE LOVE how easy it is to create lather with this product. As usual, I use a face wash net to make the lather quickly and easily.
• The lather is really thick and creamy! It felt like I was washing my face with whipped cream.
• Because this product makes lather easily, I can use very little product each time. I probably use less than half the amount I use with other facial cleansers
• I love that I can rinse this product off of my face easily, and it does not leave a film or residue on my face

Cons:

• Despite the claims, this does leave my skin feeling slightly tight. This can be counteracted by moisturizing quickly.

Would I repurchase? Yes, I liked how much lather I could create!

The Rohto website shows that you can do a "mousse facial mask" with the mousse version of this product. I'm not clear on why I couldn't do the same with this product. But be careful - leaving cleanser on your skin, or massaging with it, will increase the cleansing properties. It could make your skin dry out. This is different from the bubble face mask I reviewed before, since that product was not a cleanser.

Hope you enjoyed this review!

xoxo, K

Weekly Reads #109: May 12, 2013

When I was younger, my relationship with my parents was not that good. My parents were extremely strict with me growing up (I had an 8 o'clock curfew in high school). I preferred to keep things to myself rather than talk with my parents, because I knew that they would not be supportive of me.

Moving out improved things. I started appreciating all the things that my parents did for me, like sending me a box of winter clothes, essential kitchen utensils and food when I moved into a new apartment.  My parents stopped judging things that I did, and just listened to me when I was stressed about work.

And I started sending gifts to them, not because I had to, but because I genuinely wanted to.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, and thank you for everything that you do that we don't appreciate just yet.

On to my Weekly Reads!

What were your favorite posts this week? 

• Tai-meshi (mixed rice with sea bream), via cookingwithdog (Youtube). I love this dish soooo much.
• Scallion pancakes, via Christine's Recipes. I ate a lot of these when I was in China.
• Inglot virtual makeover app.  I tried it and it was worth a few laughs! Obviously this doesn't work as well as they say it does.

Connect with me! I love chatting and connecting with people, and sharing interesting stuff around the web!

• Follow @cosmeddicted on Twitter & Instagram
• Like Cosmeddicted on Facebook
• Follow Cosmeddicted on Pinterest

You can also subscribe to Cosmeddicted through the feed, email, or Bloglovin!

xoxo, K

Review: Bourjois Bio Detox Organic Foundation - a "natural" foundation

(gifted product)

I've posted Weekly Reads in the past about whether a product that labels itself as "natural" is really worth it. I am personally not a big fan of it, as I believe the word is a little overhyped.  The Bourjois Bio Detox Organic Foundation was my chance to see how a "natural" foundation worked.

I have this product in the color 53 Beige Clair / Light Beige. It is a little too dark for my NC20-25 skin, but the next color lighter (52 Vanilla) looks to be too pink for me.

Apologies for the beaten up bottle.  I did not think to take a picture of this product until after I had been using it for nearly 6 months!

What it does: (from the bottle)
Fresh & Even complexion. Detoxified skin.  Ecocert organic cosmetic.  Contains Chlorophyll, brings oxygen & filters pollution.

Ecocert is an organization which certifies natural and organic cosmetics. According to the website, the Ecocert Organic Cosmetics label certifies that "a minimum of 95% of all plant-based ingredients in the formula and a minimum of 10% of all ingredients by weight must come from organic farming". This sounds nice, but I am not sure what good it does for my skin. Also, I was skeptical about the claim that it contains chlorophyll. How could chlorophyll help my skin?

Where to purchase: This product can be found in Boots, Superdrug, and other drugstores in the UK

Price:  Around 11 GBP (approximately $17 USD) for 30 ml/1fl oz on boots.com.  This may seem pricey compared to US drugstore prices. After browsing the Boots website to compare the prices with other drugstore brands, Rimmel seems to be significantly cheaper, and Revlon seems to be more expensive.

Packaging:
Heavy plastic bottle with cap and pump. The pump is not air tight, and the product clogged in the nozzle, although the blockage could be pumped out.  I liked the packaging, and will probably keep it to use with other foundations that do not come with a pump.

Pros:

• I liked the packaging
• This product did not break me out, and was easily removed at night.

Cons:

• This product was extremely hard to blend. Apparently, this product does not contain silicones, which is good for people who are allergic to them, but which makes the product harder to blend. I needed to apply a small bit at a time and work quickly to blend it.
• This product does not last long on my skin. 
• This product just didn't "work" well. When I tried it in cold weather, it wouldn't blend properly. When I tried it in hot weather, it just doesn't last on my skin.  

Would I repurchase? No. I would recommend this product only if you are allergic to silicone, or if you are really looking for a natural product.  Even in those cases, I am pretty sure that there are indy brands which are better.

Unfortunately, this product did not work for me.  I will probably still use this up.  If you are interested in trying out this product, I would strongly recommend using a buffing brush. A traditional foundation brush left streaks, and this product does not blend well enough with a stippling brush.

Hope you enjoyed this review!

xoxo, K

Weekly Reads #108: May 5, 2013

Wow, it's May already! Being in Jakarta makes it hard to feel the changing of the seasons since it is usually very warm and humid.  The only sign that I can see is that the days are getting shorter compared to when I first moved here in November.  Apparently the weather in Japan has been weird as well, with day temperatures more than 10 degrees below what they usually would be for this time of year.

On to my Weekly Reads!

What were your favorite posts this week?

• Beauty regrets, via Beautyholics Anonymous. What are yours?
• Blogging 101, via Wardrobe Oxygen. Yes, simplify your template.
• ELF is launching a flagship store in New York, via Musings of a Muse. I'm not a massive fan of ELF, but I will be stopping there on my next trip to NY.
• Decorating tricks to brighten up your rented room, via Buzzfeed. I should do some of these when I go back to Japan.
• Shrimp with snow peas, via Simply Recipes. I am not sure what this method of cooking is called in Chinese (stir fry with stock, compared to a colored sauce), but I love it.  Surprising that I don't know what it is called since I lived in China for 2 years!
• Grilled chicken pesto wraps, via Emily Bites. I was EXTREMELY excited to see this.

Connect with me! I love chatting and connecting with people, and sharing interesting stuff around the web!

• Follow @cosmeddicted on Twitter & Instagram
• Like Cosmeddicted on Facebook
• Follow Cosmeddicted on Pinterest

You can also subscribe to Cosmeddicted through the feed, email, or Bloglovin!

xoxo, K

Up and Down #33: May, 2013

No sooner than I get an apartment, I have to move back to Japan.

Someone at work asked me whether this was a personal decision, or a business decision. It was 100% a business decision by the company that I work for. I really enjoy living and working in Indonesia, even though I don't like leaving home at 5:30 AM every morning, or getting stuck in traffic jams for 2 hours whenever I want to go somewhere.

But... oh well, I guess. I realize that since I moved to Jakarta, my blog has been suffering a little. I don't have time to travel much, while I previously did a mini travel series for some cities in Japan (link to blog posts for Kobe, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka... a list is in the tags section of my blog). I also stopped cooking as much, when previously I did one cooking post per week. Hopefully, I can start posting more once I'm back in Japan.

On to my Ups and Downs!

Ups:

Lush Dirty Shower Gel

This is the last of the Lush products that I bought in Japan.  A review is coming up!

Bioderma cleanser (link goes to review)

I gave this a "maybe" in my review, but I'm growing to like it a lot. It removes my current mascara (it didn't remove the mascara I wore in my original review), and it is really easy when I come home tired. 

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye (link goes to review)

I am seriously considering purchasing a full size of this eye cream! I love that it absorbs quickly and does not leave my skin sticky.

Downs:

Moving AGAIN so soon

I'm bummed that I will be missing Eid ul-Fitr (the festival at the end of Ramadan) by a few days, a HUGE cultural part of Indonesia. I'm bummed that I will be missing the best season for mangoes, one of my favorite fruits. I'm tired of having to pack up and move so frequently - this will make the third time in 12 months.

How was your month of April?

xoxo, K