Paris - Sights - Part 1

As I've mentioned in a previous post the Paris adventures were separated into taking in sights and unrestrained food sampling with the friends, and romantic with my honey sightseeing and canoodling.

Going through these photos made me want to go back. Desperately! 

My hood for the week. Street view from our hotel room. I think our hotel was the only one on this street. The rest of the buildings are residential and with shops on the ground floor, so I'd wake up and go to sleep with the residents and got slightly familiar with some of the shop owners, who were friendly.

We could see the search light from the Eiffel Tower from our room. You could probably see it from anywhere in Paris. See how lit up the road is... I felt secure walking back to the hotel at any time of the night because of it.

Au Vieux Paris

How complete is this photo with the nosy neighbour?

Notre Dame Cathedral

Jardin De Luxembourg / Luxembourg Gardens

Prettiness in the Jardin de Luxembourg.

Fontaine de Medicis

View from the Montparnasse Tower. Said to show off the best views of Paris and is not as busy as the Eiffel Tower. It was cloudy, hence the graininess of the photo.

We spent the first evening enjoying sundowners on the hill of the Sacre Coeur Basilica. Seems to be the thing to do on a Friday evening. It got much, much busier after this photo was taken. Unfortunately, the photos I have of the actual cathedral have us in them, so no posting on this blog.

Post fail

I am all sorts of pissed off right now. A post I spent the last 3+ days composing just disappeared. It took me a week to decide on the pictures I wanted to include from an album of 1026. And then... poof! Gone!

The Paris Sights posts will be up over the weekend, with despairingly less text and an edited, edited and re-edited album. *Sigh*

I'm going to find some chocolate cake to bury myself in... Or buy a new lipstick that I don't need, to cheer myself up with...

Product Empty - Toni & Guy Shampoo and Mask

After years of struggling with finding the right products for curly hair, I was on the edge of giving in to what the universe was telling me and settling for a life of Brazilian blow-outs and ghd-ing. That was until I tried Toni & Guy shampoo and hair mask. It restored my faith in curly hair products.

I bought the SHAMPOO FOR DAMAGED HAIR and the NOURISH RECONSTRUCTION MASK. It's not exactly for curly hair, but formulations for dry and damaged hair tend to work best.

Shampoo: 

Shampoo R99 for 250ml @ Clicks

The Claim - "This shampoo revitalises, helps repair damage and enhances shine."

My experience - I can't comment too much on shine because I didn't notice that much of a difference. I immediately noticed that my hair felt lighter though, not as heavy when it was wet and that gave me the impression that it was thoroughly cleansed (after 2 wash cycles, as per my norm). What impressed me most was that my curls seemed to have bounced back like never before and for that reason it scores a 10! But would all that be in vain if the mask just pulled it all down again...?

Reconstruction mask:

Reconstruction Mask R129 for 200ml @ Clicks

The Claim - "This mask provides intense nourishment to enhance softness and shine."

My experience - Ohhellyeah! Yes. Yes. And meh. Again, I can't say anything about the shine, because that's not priority when I was trying to restore the curl to my hair. Shine can be faked. The intense nourishment comes with no added heaviness so the curls kept their bounce and the softness was definitely evident because all I wanted to do was touch my hair, which is a big no-no with curly hair because with every touch comes added volume, not always a good thing. I use the mask like I generally use conditioners and masks as conditioners, as a leave-in. Even as a leave-in it doesn't feel heavy at all yet nourished.






Extras:

Packaging 

Packaging doesn't interest me unless it erks me or is mindblowingly innovative. The shampoo bottle didn't strike me as exciting until I took these photos and gave it some thought.

To open...

First time opening, you need to put some effort into it...

... to break the seal,

aaaannnnndddd...

... it's open! Ta-daaaa. Opening is on the other side.

To close...

Just press down.

Once the seal is broken, it's much easier to open and close.

Very convenient for using in the shower.

And because the top is flat and the bottle is symmetrical you can safely pop it upside down to get the very last little bit out of the bottle.

I have already repurchased this shampoo and mask as part of a buy-3-pay-for-2 promotion at Clicks and I bought the leave-in conditioner which is lighter and doesn't really hold the curl as well as the mask does. 

I don't recall seeing the formula for dry hair but maybe I wasn't looking properly. I'm intrigued to try that range too. There aren't (m)any products out there for curly hair so I have to make do with what I can get my hands on and generally products for dry or damaged hair seems to work well on the curl. I find that most of the time the products specifically for curly hair, especially finishing products are so, so heavy or make my hair crunchy, which is why I'm really impressed with the Toni & Guy range.

If you have any recommendations for everyday curly hair products, please let me know in the comments below. I'm not keen to deviate from facial basics, but I am willing to experiment with hair basics.

Hope you're having an awesome day!

E

THE BEST Kylie Jenner Lip Tutorial on YouTube

This "Kylie Jenner Lip" tutorial by one of my favourite bloggers, Chantelle Bester is by far the best I've seen and sums up very precisely what I think of this look.

Follow her on YouTube, her blog, Twitter and Instagram.

What do you think of this look?

My Paris 2014 - Part 2 - Walking and Seeing - Street Names

The French are all about balance. Anything in moderation. We were successful in the art of eating our way through Paris, but we had to tip the scales the other way by walking it all off. And walk we did. Averaging 15km per day our feet took a beating and Miss Kleva over here didn't pack walking shoes. Well, at least not shoes that would see that much walking in a day, every day! 

I knew that I wouldn't remember where we went and what we saw so I felt rather genius thinking I'd take photos of the street names that can be found on every street corner building or lamp post. I can now GoogleEarth these street names and it will remind me of what we saw where and I can reference photos taken to that place. Kleva, ne!

These are only some of the street names, in no particular order and none of the pictures have been edited.

Other than giving the tourist a sense of security because you'd easily be able to triangulate your position on a street map, they're pretty to look at. Posting these pictures and jogging my memory to that week in Paris is making me feel very nostalgic and longing to go back. There are so many other places to make memories and I think it would be a waste to spend any more time in Paris. I got so see so much and saturated myself in the experience so that I would long to go back, but I think I may just have left a piece of me over there. 

Next Paris post will be some of the must-see spots in the City of Light.

rubybox September 2014

I was really late in posting my review of the August rubybox. Like the-day-before-the-new-box-arrived-late! I lose track of time like that all the time. Isn't a stay-at-home-mom's life supposed to be less stressful? Long, languid breakfasts that turn to brunches that turn to lunches before the kids need to be picked up... Spa days... Chilling in sweatpants on the couch in the sun with a book? No?

Haha! Ja, right!!!

Yesterday morning the hubzster left home early because he was going to site about an hour's drive away, so there was no morning overlap. (Morning overlap = I take the kids to school > he opens up for the maid > he leaves for work > I get home.) I get a call while I'm still at school from a courier company to say their driver just left my place because there was no-one at home to take delivery of a package. It wasn't even 8am yet! Turns out the courier company is a few roads away from us and I was first on the list. Fortunately he was still in the area and could come back just in time to find my maid at home so I still got my surprise box. And I proceeded to have a 4-hour long breakfast with some friends.

Methinks we need to employ a package receiver! I often miss deliveries when the maid's not there and I'm out running errands. It's frustrating.

But wait, that's not what this is about!

My first thought when I picked the package up as that it was heavy! September was billed to be rubybox's 3rd birthday and boxes would be filled with full-sized products and a collector's bracelet.

The promise.

Pretty fuchsia slip cover.

I'm not familiar with the format of the boxes, whether they come with lids loose, hinged or slip covers because this is only my 3rd box. The first two came with loose lids and as handy as they are, they're functioning as holders underneath the open boxes used to store little bits of stuff in my wardrobe. Safe to say I won't be missing the loose lid.

Cover slips off to reveal...

But wait, where's the collector's bracelet?

Oh, what do we have here?

What exactly is this?

This, dear friends, is the free collector's "bracelet". A string and a washer with a stamp on it. Oh rubybox, you shouldn't have. No really, you shouldn't have. I wasn't expecting a Pandora, and this wasn't necessary.

The rest of the box made up for the disappointment of the whatchamacallit.

R119.95 at rubybox

The brush comes with a brush guard that is handy for when you're carting it in your bag and to retain its shape but won't work to shape while drying as it's a plastic sheath that doesn't have holes for ventilation. 

Not bad quality for a R119.95 brush.

The bristles are soft because it's not cross cut and is loosely packed for soft blending and although I haven't used it much yet, I can't comment too much on how well it performs. It's sized perfectly for blush application. I tried it with a brick red Inglot blush which is intensely pigmented and I liked that it gave a sheer application. I think this brush would be perfect for those highly pigmented blushes although I don't know how it will apply blushes that are not as richly pigmented. It would be perfect for bronzing because you need a light hand with application, if you don't mind the size.

Notice the fine tips of the brisles. It makes for a very soft feel.

I think rubybox is genius in pairing products, like adding this brush cleaner with a brush. 

Brush cleaner

This is the perfect size for travel. The nozzle spritzes out a fine, consistent mist and a little goes a long way. I use this brush cleaner on denser brushes and it takes more than the recommended 3 sprays to clean the brush, but it's way better than me leaving a dirty brush that's just been run over a face cloth or tissue without any cleaner. I wash my brushes once a week anyway and with using the brush cleaner I find that the deep cleaning isn't as laborious anymore. It also makes traveling with fewer brushes possible because you can use one brush for a variety of applications. I don't have anything to compare this cleanser to and getting this one has allowed me to think about trying other cleansers too. For now, I'd repurchase this one.

 

I've used Dove Invisible Dry roll-on in the past and I don't have anything bad to say about it. Is it invisible? I think so. Is it invisible on 100 colours? I haven't tested it myself. This one has been tested on 100 colours and is proven to be invisible on all 100 colours. Well done. It claims, like most other antip-perspirant deodorants to work for 48 hours. This I can refute. You won't smell too offensive after 48 hours, but after 24 hours you'll definitely want to take soap and hot water to your pits. I'd buy it if I was in a pinch, but I'm back to old faithful Mitchum Gel for now. These things are nice to have extra stock of because deodorant is something you NEVER want to be caught without.

R29.95 at rubybox

I like this hand cream. It's a car hand cream. Only the best hand creams live in the car. (This is maybe not a good idea in our summers.) I keep fast absorbing hand creams in all our cars because you don't want to have greasy hands when you're driving. And when I'm driving is sometimes the only time that I really look at my hands. This one is light in texture, fast absorbing and has a pleasant light coconutty scent that doesn't linger. If you don't like coconut scents, still give this a try because it fades after 5 minutes. Your hands feel not only moisturised but protected as well. It's locally manufactured and at R29.95 I think is a brilliant buy. It would make an excellent gift pack gift for teachers (which is what I'm putting together at the moment).

And that, I think, is it. Except for the bracelet that really shouldn't have happened, I think the box would've been just perfect with the full-sized products as a birthday bonus.

Confession time: I started this post in September with the best intention of posting it "on time". Life kinda took a turn and now that I'm getting into posting again I thought it would be unjust to delete the draft and make as if it never happened. I'd like to still give my honest thoughts on some of the products I've been using these past months even though I wasn't posting. I have a lot to keep me busy in the next few weeks.

Catch you on the flip side...

E