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28 August 2014

Review: Moya Euphoric Milk Bath and Zinziba Hand Cream

I received these two products as part of my Bloggers Who Bless Christmas-in-July goodie bag. Even more gifts from BeautyWorx!



Moya Euphoric Milk Bath




The large (500 ml!) bottle is very pretty to keep in the bathroom, perched on the edge of the bath. The bath milk contains essential oils of grapefruit, Ylang Ylang, and Cape May.

The label says to pour a generous amount of bath milk into your bath. I did just that and although it doesn't foam, it makes the water milky and fills your bathroom with a lovely soft scent. The scent is difficult to describe, but if I had to think of something, I'd say it's a powdery citrus scent (probably the grapefruit). Both come through very softly, so nothing overpowering. The soak in the tub left my skin moisturised, but I still had to apply moisturiser afterwards. The scent lingered on my skin as well in the bathroom, hmmm!

Moya Zinziba Hand Cream



The hand cream is the perfect size for keeping in your handbag or on your bedside table. It contains Zinziba (a fragrant African medicinal plant), patchouli, and lavender essential oils

The scent is quite strong and herbal. At first I didn't like it, but it's growing on me! I like to apply this when I'm at home so that it doesn't interfere with other scents I'm wearing. It's very nourishing and sinks in easily without leaving your hands greasy. You can immediately carry on doing whatever you were doing beforehand.

The bath milk costs R140 (although I think it does, the product on the website looks different to mine) and the hand cream R80. You can buy it here from BeautyWorx.

Have you tried any Moya products before? Let me know in the comments section!

Until next time!

Hildegarde
xoxo

25 August 2014

Bourjois products to love

Bourjois is a French makeup brand that is available at certain Clicks stores. They produce high quality products at really reasonable prices. I have used a lot of their products and I have yet to come across one I didn't love. At a recent Bloggers Who Bless event I received two Bourjois products, namely the Rouge Edition Velvet in "Personne ne rouge!" (I already have the shade "Olé Flamingo!", read my review here) and the So Laque Glossy Nail Polish in "Taupe modèle".



The Rouge Edition Velvet's packaging is classy and modern and the doe foot applicator makes application a breeze. The formula is thick and creamy, but not sticky or gloopy. The cream dries quickly and is so comfortable that after a minute or three you don't even realise you have anything on your lips anymore! It lasts throughout the day, even with eating or drinking. Wiping your lips is a no-no, because some of the colour might transfer to the rest of your face, but the majority of the lipstick does not budge. A proper rub with makeup remover is needed to take this off at the end of the day.



The colour is called "Taupe modèle" and is light grey with a purple undertone. The formula is creamy and application was easy. Two coats left me with a beautiful (non-streaky) opaque finish. It did however not live up to its "10 day wear" claim, but that being said; I think my nails are polish repellent. I am constantly washing my hands and using my nails to pry things open, and nail polish never lasts, so I can't say that it's completely the nail polish's fault!

Which Bourjois products are your favourite? Tell me in the comments section!

Until next time!

Hildegarde
xoxo

21 August 2014

Review: Uriage Gentle Total Exfoliant

A brand that really intrigues me, but which I haven't really used (save for their amazing thermal water), is Uriage. At the BWB Christmas-in-July party I was fortunate enough to receive the Uriage Gentle Total Exfoliant.


It comes in a big blue and white tube and the product itself is a light blue gel containing tiny white beads. It's a very gentle scrub as you can use it on both your face and body. It's a bit too gentle for my body, but still a very nice product to use if you regularly exfoliate and you don't feel like scrubbing your skin off. I was hesitant to use it on my face, as I'm always scared of hurting my skin or breaking out. I have used it a few times, and although they recommend using it once or twice a week, I like stretching it out a bit more, just to be on the safe side. That being said, the scrub is very gentle, and even while massaging the product into your skin you never get the feeling that you're doing any harm. It doesn't sting or cause redness. I wet my skin lightly and then apply the scrub in slow circular movements. It doesn't foam but still leaves a nice thick lather. I then rinse it off with warm water (I obviously wash my face first and use this as a second step) and continue with toner, serum, and moisturiser. It leaves my skin clear and smooth and with no breakouts!

I have recently started using it more often on my face, and it really makes my skin much clearer. I think I will continue to use this as a facial exfoliater, and leave the body exfoliating for scrubbier products.

At R199.95 for 200ml you really get a lot of bang for your buck. You can buy it at Clicks and Dischem.

Have you ever used Uriage products? Let me know in the comments section, I'd love to try out more of their products.

Until next time!

Hildegarde
xoxo

18 August 2014

European Travel Journal: Germany

Welcome back to my European travel journal! Today I cover the third and final country of our trip: Germany.

Wednesday 16 July

We arrived in Berlin early the morning, and as we had to take a train again that evening, there was no hotel to check into. Luckily we could shower at the train station for 7 euros (a clean private bathroom and the towels are included!) and leave our bags in a storage locker for another 6 euros.

After buying some Metro tickets, we set off to explore Berlin. I was very excited to see Berlin as I've heard a lot of differing opinions. To me, Berlin is not a beautiful city, but so interesting. It's grey, flat, and rectangular. Analytic, clean, functional. The Reichstag had a two hour waiting time to go in (trust the Germans to give you waiting times for monuments in hours!), so we decided to see some other places on our list. We went to the Brandenburg Gate, but due to the previous night's party (it was the homecoming party for the reigning FIFA Soccer World Champs), we could only get photos from a distance.






We went to the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) and we could go right up to the top and see the whole city. I must say, it looks a lot less flat from up there!





We also went to Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous checkpoint between East and West Germany in the time of The Berlin Wall. We also saw parts of the wall that is left as a reminder and a monument.




The evening we headed back to the train station for our second overnight train in two days. This time we slept in normal train seats, except that the seats could recline more than normal aeroplane seats. I couldn't sleep and woke up tired and extremely cranky early the next morning.

Thursday 17 July

I was so happy to have a hotel to go to! When we got to the hotel we could leave our bags there and settle the bill so long, but check-in time was only at 15:00… We ended up eating breakfast there and utilizing the free wifi to plan our route. The hotel we stayed in is called Motel One München-City-Süd (Motel One is the franchise), and it is definitely not a motel! It's a big hotel which doesn't look like much from the outside (grey, rectangular, uninteresting), but the reception area and rooms are amazing. The decor is dark wood and vibrant turquoise. The reception area and breakfast area is open plan and really gives a sense of space and calm.

The room was small, but bigger than our rooms in both Madrid and Paris. The room was cool, quiet, and tranquil. I really wished we could have stayed there longer! The hotel staff were also very friendly and helpful, and the breakfast was delicious!



We walked around in Munich and went to the New Town Hall for the famous Rathaus-Glockenspiel. Every day at 12:00 and 17:00 (in summer), life-size "dolls" start moving and dancing to a tune. There are two levels and two different stories. The amazing thing is, it is "automatic" in the sense that there aren't people orchestrating it from behind the scenes: it starts playing according to the Town Hall's clock. You can go here for a YouTube video of the performance (the fun starts at 02:39).




We went to the Nymphenburg Palace before heading back to the hotel to take much needed showers. The bathroom had a rain shower, which is quite something when you haven't showered for 30 hours!



The evening we went out to Hofbräuhaus for beers and schweinshaxe (we wrongly call it "Eisbein" in South Africa). Hofbräuhaus is a place where everyone should go, even if just to say you went there. The atmosphere is amazing and I love the German Oompah band playing their traditional songs. The beer is pretty amazing (I went for the "small" 500ml as I couldn't even lift the 1 liter jug!), but I wasn't too fond of the food. The pork was a bit too crispy for my liking, and the weird potato ball that came with it (kartoffelknödel) didn't taste like anything. I normally don't eat sauerkraut, but they make the most amazing sauerkraut!

After that we walked around some more and ended up in a very relaxed, chilled out beer garden of sorts. After humongous beers, it was good to return to the hotel.


Friday 18 July

Friday was our last day in Germany, and also our last day in Europe. I had mixed emotions as I was starting to really get "over" it. I wanted to go home and stop packing, unpacking, repacking my gigantic backpack. But I also didn't want to leave the long warm days of Europe packed with history and with things I had not yet experienced. It only gets dark at 22:30, which is perfect for sightseeing and eating outside!

We went to one last church, the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady), and returned to the hotel for a shower before grabbing our bags and heading for, you guessed it, the train station. We took a three hour train trip to Frankfurt and then had about three hours to kill before our flight back home.


I found the duty free shopping disappointing, but I think the other boardings gates further away from passport control might have had the better stores…

At about 21:00 we took off from Frankfurt airport and landed on Saturday morning at 07:25 in Johannesburg. After a final Gautrain trip, we got home at about 09:30. We were both exhausted (once again I couldn't sleep the previous night), but happy to have had two glorious weeks in Europe, and happy to be home again.

That was it for my European travel journal. I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know in the comments section what your all-time favourite destination is.

Until next time!

Hildegarde
xoxo