First impression and review of Herbal life herbal tea concentrate raspberry

Herbalife is company that sells nutrition, weight management and skin-care products. They’re popular for their nutrition shakes that used correctly, are supposed to help you lose weight. Although I’m a skeptic and don’t buy into these sorts of claims so easily, a good friend of mine convinced me into giving these products a try. Now I know I don’t need to lose weight, but my goal is to give my metabolism and body a boost of energy. I’ve been working full time this summer and assumed I would have more time to work out since I am not in school this month. Wrong. After working almost 8 hour shifts I simply want to come home and eat junk food or sleep. In my defense, retail is no joke. Sometimes it’s just hectic and I find myself running around everywhere trying to help customers. I didn’t want to take diet pills for an energy boost because I didn’t want to put any foreign chemicals and substances into my body. I’m 21 years old with no children; I should have more energy, right? The first time I tried the tea I took it like a “shot”. My friend told me that this was the best and painless way to take it since I was not a fan of tea. She picked up a shot glass, filled it with room temperature water, and added half a tablespoon of the concentrated Herbalife tea. The taste was fine, a little bitter, but tolerable. About 20 minutes later, I had more energy at work. I didn’t experience a “crash”, but I think the energy just waived off naturally towards the night. I liked it but I didn’t think much of it because to be honest, I didn’t think that 1.8 oz of concentrated tea was worth $25.00. Nevertheless, I see how happy she has become with the Herbalife nutrition plan and lifestyle and thought I would purchase the 1.8 oz of the concentrated tea. Today, I decided to put it inside my homemade fruit smoothie! I would love to try the shakes which are supposed to be like healthy meal replacements, but they are a little on the pricey side and I’m going back to school which means, “hello 100 dollar text books!” I did however opt for a more price friendly alternative, Slim Fast. I know Slim Fast works if you use it correctly and follow the meal plan thoroughly. It worked for me when I was younger and I just began incorporating it into my daily life about 2 days ago.

The tea claims that it does the following things:

• Jump-starts thermogenic (metabolic) activity
• Boosts the feeling of energy
• Provides antioxidant support
• Instant and low-calorie

I was sold at antioxidant support. Antioxidants are so important and essential because they help protect your body from free radical damage and the aging process. The three main antioxidant vitamins are beta-carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin E. You can find these vitamins in fruits and vegetables, especially those with purple, blue, red, orange, and yellow shades. Let’s look at some of the ingredients of the Herbalife tea. Picture credit: Herbalife official website.

Maltodextrin is an artificial sugar that has a mild, sweet taste. Like many other artificial sweetners, Maltodextrin also has some purported risks associated with its use.

Safflower seed oil is used for preventing heart disease and stroke. Some people use it for inducing sweating and as a laxative, and stimulant.

Cardamom is an herb. The seeds are used to make medicine. Cardamom is used for digestion problems including heartburn, intestinal spasms, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), intestinal gas, constipation, liver and gallbladder complaints, and loss of appetite.

Malva Sylvestris extract. Extract from the blue mallow flower, it may have some anti-inflammatory and soothing properties for the skin, as well as some potential antioxidant benefits.

Black tea is used for improving mental alertness as well as learning, memory and information processing skills. 

Sources: Livestrong.com and Webmd.com

I can't tell you if this will be the right product for you, but you can join me  my journey to see my final veridict. I would love to take this product to a physician or a pharmacist because they could analyze the use of these ingredients together and help you determine wether or not this is right for you. You can also check out some more customer reviews from Amazon on the Herbalife raspberry tea here.

I know Cranberry juice cocktail is not the same as 100% Cranberry juice, but I realized that too late!

I mixed the fruit with the cranberry juice first. I don't measure how much juice I put inside, I just add a long splash as you can see in the photo below. After it's all mixed, I added half a tablespoon of the concentrated tea and mixed it again.

It contains carmine

I was excited to do a review of Essence's all in one bronzer and hilighter,  until I turned the package around and read that it contains carmine. Here is the information I gathered of  what carmine is from Ewg.org.
About CARMINE: Carmine is a red pigment/dye derived from insects native to South America and Mexico that live as parasites on cactus plants. Used as a colorant in food, cosmetics and textiles. Has been associated with severe allergic reactions. This ingredient is listed in the PETA's Caring Consumer guide as a substance of animal origin.
So basically, this contains parasite and bug juice. Will I still be wearing it? Or will I throw it away? Here's the thing, I am aware that this ingredient is probably found in the rest of my cosmetic and personal care products, so throwing one away out of the many others that I might own is pretty useless. I'm not saying that I am happily going to apply a product on my face that contains this ingredient. However, if we take a look at the rest of our items we would find toxins, carcinogens,  and other bad chemicals. I went through a phase were this freaked me out and I wanted to do nothing but shop at Trader Joe's and switch to natural based beauty and personal care products. That lasted a short 3 months because living natural and organic is actually more costly. I didn't and I still don't understand why this is possible. You would assume that purchasing products with 1-5 ingredients is cheaper than purchasing others with more than 12. I could go on and on about this topic but in the mean time I would highly suggest to anyone that is an avid a consumer like myself to read " No More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products--and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics" by Siobhan O’Connor and Alexandra Spunt. It's a great guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics and it gives you a detailed look inside the cosmetic industry and how it is operated and influences the FDA. It's a very interesting and in my opinion, life changing and eye opening book.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Please feel free to comment.

Elf Disney Snow White Limited Edition line

Elf makes the most amazing limited edition Disney inspired palettes! Last year they featured “The Villains” and this year they have featured the princesses. I reviewed the Ariel beauty book palette back in June and now I will be reviewing and testing out the Snow White beauty book. All the shadows on this palette aren’t matte but the colors are suitable enough for the daytime. There isn’t a lot of fall out which is definitely a plus! When these products come out they are usually available at Walgreens, but you have to go as soon as the collection is released because Walgreens only receives about three of each product. You might still be able to get some of Elf’s limited edition Disney products on Drugstore.com. Here is the link to these products.

Get the look:

I used elf’s primer

“Keep Singing” on the entire crease to warm up the crease and as a transition color

“I’m Wishing” on the brow bone as a highlight

“Yodel” on the first half of the crease

“My Prince” on the middle of the crease

“One Song” on the outer corner of the eye

For foundation I used Revlon’s Color stay whipped foundation and Revlon’s color burst lacquer balm in 125 Flirtatious.

Face and outfit of the day

Hello loves! It’s Friday and it’s finally my day off. I pulled out the Urban Decay Naked palette and took my sweet time doing my makeup. I’m really excited to share the look that I created. Details and pictures of my makeup and outfit below.

Makeup

Face: Rimmel London stay matte foundation in shade 103

Mac mineralize skinfinish in soft and gentle

Maybelline master hi-light in coral 30

Eyes: L’oreal voluminous mascara in black

L’oreal infailablle eyeliner in black

Nyx Jumbo pencil in milk

Urban Decay Naked palette colors sin, buck, half-baked, and creep.

Sin on brow bone, buck on crease as transition color, half-baked on entire eyelid, and creep on outer eye corner.

Lips: Hard Candy lipstick in 198

Urban Decay Naked palette and Hard Candy lipstick in shade 198 that I used for this look.

What I’m wearing,

Top and high waist jeans are from Papaya and brown sandals are from Ross.

Watch is from EBay and hoop earrings are from Forever 21.

 

Thank you for reading. I would really love to get to know you! Subscribe to my blog or follow me on instagram: Instagram.com/missvanessag

Revlon highlighting palettes

I found these little gems when I was digging through my makeup drawer and thought I would do a quick review with swatches. The Revlon highlighting palettes have both matte and shimmery colors, as you will see in the pictures below. They cost about $9.99-$11.99. The palette has simple packaging and doesn’t come with a brush or a mirror. There are only three available so far and the colors are in 10 Peach Glow, 20 Rose Glow, and 30 Bronze Glow. My favorite palette is 20 Rose Glow because the colors are so complimentary to a variety of skin tones. The pigmentation on these amazing and you can use them alone or together for highlighting or alone as eye shadows! 

Picture time. From left to right, 10 Peach Glow, 20 Rose Glow, and 30 Bronze Glow.

New Maybelline The Nudes and The Smokes eyeshadow palettes

Maybelline came out with three eye shadow palettes recently. The “nudes”, “smokes”, and the “vibrants”. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find the vibrants for sale anywhere, but to be honest, after my experience with the nudes and smokes palettes it doesn’t bother me anymore. The packaging is chic and the palettes are pretty lightweight. I have used both palettes a few times and although the colors are perfect, the color payoff isn’t that good. I enjoy doing swatches of eye shadows but it wasn’t so fun with these palettes because I struggled to get the colors to show up on my hand. Applying eye shadow on your eyes is different than applying eye shadow on your arm, but for me my experience with these two palettes was the same. I suggest using a white base on your eyelids to improve the shadows intensity. I also found that applying these while your brush is a little bit damp could also increase the colors intensity. Although I had to pack on the color consistently to get some decent color, I did like that there was little no almost any fallout. Overall I would say that these eye shadows are okay for the price ($10). I didn't enjoy them as much as I thought I would. Maybelline has some great eye shadow products which is why I am surprised. I feel like I almost hit the pan just by trying to swatch them!

The Smokes

The Smokes

Above the smokes and below the nudes.

The Nudes

This is a simple look I did using the smokes palette with three colors. The picture was taken outdoors in natural light. You be the judge. Leave your thoughts below!

Review of new L'oreal Anti-Fatigue and Anti-Redness BB Creams

Hello, I just wanted to take a moment to thank anyone who has subscribed to my blog! I know it’s very new but I hope that it keeps growing, even with my hectic work and school schedule. I have ambivalent feelings of working in retail. Sometimes I have my good days and sometimes I don’t. It can be overwhelming but it’s also rewarding. Working in the skin/cosmetic section has allowed me to interact with a multitude of men and women. I am far away from a dermatologist but I do know a thing or two about skin and makeup. Hopefully blogging becomes another channel through which I can somehow help you.  Moving on to the review.

L’oreal BB cream in shade Light: I have used the “regular” L’oreal BB cream in shade light for about 7 months and am still not absolutely sure whether I love it or not. Here’s the thing, it does even out your skin tone and moisturizes your face but it doesn’t offer any actual coverage. It is labeled as a BB cream and not a primer, which is why my expectations were not fully met. If you have oily skin this might not be to your liking. If you do not shake the product before applying, it can come out of the tube as greasy. There is no way I can wear this on its own because it turns my face orange once its blended out. This might be a hit or a miss for you. If your’e looking for a BB cream skip it.

L’oreal Anti-Fatigue BB cream: This goes on orange and once its blended it remains orange. Again, the name is deceiving because you can’t use this on its own. I applied it over my face as a primer under my foundation to see if the foundation would cancel out the orange tones on my face, but was disappointed to see that my foundation looked like it had oxidized. I’m assuming the orange tones in this product are to cancel out any veins or darkness from under eye circles, so it might work well for small problem areas, but as a bb cream no way. I wouldn’t recommend this at all. The worst thing is that I had to go straight to work with this product on my face and although I tried to cancel out the orange with my foundation, I still had visible orange/pink tones. Throughout the end of the day I was very oily and my foundation looked oxidized. If you’re wondering I used my Revlon Colorstay foundation on top of this and that foundation gives exceptional coverage and keeps me relatively oil free.

L’oreal Anti-Redness BB cream: I’m not sure if I am a good candidate for this product since I don’t have a lot of redness on my face, unless I have the occasional breakout. I only used this on certain spots that were slightly red, as opposed to using it on my entire face. I didn’t want to risk looking like a gobbling lol. Once its blended as you can see on the swatches below, it looks yellow/beige. I actually like this product because I have warm undertones and this evens my complexion out quite nicely. I don’t think it will be my next Holy Grail product but I think it does what its supposed to do. Again like the other L’oreal BB creams I reviewed, I don’t think of it as a bb cream because it doesn’t offer any coverage, rather all it does is color corrects your skin. I don’t think any of these bb creams do anything to diminish the appearance of pores or lines, so I wouldn’t recommend this as a primer because there are so many other options out there.

All are swatched from left to right in Light, Anti-Fatigue, and Anti-Redness