New Beauty Spring 2013 Test Tube Reviews!

I really feel like my title says it all, although I guess it could be confusing to... well no one. These are my reviews for my Spring 2013 NewBeauty Test Tube. Overall, I was more impressed with everything then I was when I first opened the container, so I guess it all worked out for the best.
Here's a recap photo!

Suki Exfoliate Foaming Cleanser

I tried to get a picture of this on my hand to show the texture, but my mom actually pointed out how... um... dirty I looked so I this will have to do! It's a little more mixed now because I got water in it.

Because I'm a freak about using my claisonic every day, and you're not supposed to use exfoliating products with that, I used this cleanser on my arms and legs. Owing to the fact that we are in a never ending winter here in Minnesota, much like a Game Of Thrones episode (I feel I should be on the look out for white walkers at this point because quite obviously we live north of the wall), I could pretty much always use a little exfoliation on my arms and legs to help my moisturizer soak in. I found it to be super thick and slightly dry, I was put off by that a little, it was like scooping up a dry handful of large crystal sugar and rubbing that on my arms. I also got no foaming acting from this, I rubbed it together in my hands until they started to hurt, and I didn't get any lather at all.  It didn't matter though, it's a perfectly fine exfoliator, it did it's job and my skin feels soft and fresh. It didn't transfer any lemon scent at all, and I was pretty disappointed with that, considering that I love lemon scented everything.  All in all it's a perfectly fine exfoliating scrub. The size of the jar in the photo is 1 oz and a full size is 4 oz for $32. Do I think it's worth the money, my thought is that you can get another perfectly fine exfoliating scrub for much less money in probably a larger bottle/jar. I personally wouldn't buy this, not because it's awful but because it wasn't extraordinary enough for me to want to spend that much on it. The scent was fantastic but it's performance was the same as any other scrub.

Clear Total care nourishing shampoo and nourishing daily conditioner

I only have a picture of the conditioner, I'm not sure where the shampoo went.

 

My mom tried this for me, She used it for about 4 days before she had to give up. My mom has medium thick, curly, shoulder length, untreated, non colored hair. She said it gave her hair a greasy/heavy feeling and weighed down her curls. In all fairness though, her hair never looked greasy, but it was much less curly then it normally is. On the plus side, it smells wonderful and clean and it didn't linger very long in my mother's hair.

Paula Dorf Baby eyes enhancer.

Here is my sample next to a full size Urban Decay liner which is 1.2 g, a full size Paula Dorf liner is 1.1g, so it'd be a little smaller then the UD pencil.

I used this as a highlighter on the inner corners of my eyes and under my eyebrows, I tried using it as a highlight above my lip, but the color was too dark for my skin tone and it looked like a strange shadow on my upper lip. Not a look I'm going for in my every day life, shadowy upper lip....  I actually wish I could find a concealer in this color because I feel it would be perfect for under my eyes. I also used this as a primer on my lids. I didn't find anything super amazing about this liner right away. I'm certain you could find the same shade, creaminess, and blendability in a less expensive liner. However, after using this for several days I noticed how soft the areas around my eyes were that I was using it on. This is a lovely neutral shade, I feel it would be perfect for a variety of light to medium skin tones. It would be pretty light for darker skin tones, but it does work very nicely as a primer. Despite it being a pencil it's exceptionally creamy and super blendable.  "Ultra nourishing" is a correct description word for this, it softened and brightened the skin around my eyes pretty quickly. I would gladly pay $20 for a full size of this liner, I only wish it came in other colors as well!

Phyto Phytodfrisant hair relaxing balm

I tried to get a photo of the texture of this as well, but it looked just as icky as the scrub did.

I finally got up the nerve to use this on my color treated hair. I shampooed and conditioned as usual, but instead of using my normal leave in conditioner and shine oil, I used this. My first impression is that it's more of a shampoo in thickness and color. I thought it would be a cream to be honest. So the fact that this was so thin was surprising, it was actually pretty hard to distribute this in my hair. It kept running all over my hands and it just glopped onto the first area that I touched. Eventually I got there though.. I was completely grossed out at the feeling it left behind, almost like I put glue in my hair. It was clumping up, sort of sticky, and felt super rough. I thought I had made a horrible mistake. I gave it a couple blasts with the hair dryer and ended up with exactly what my hair looks like when I blow dry it. I also used this and then let my hair air dry, there was pretty much no difference between using this product and not using this product and letting my hair air dry. It was only slightly less curly when I used the balm. I was so disappointed. Although I'm not sure what I was expecting, it's not a miracle worker after all. But when it says relaxing balm, non chemical straightener, on the bottle I guess I would expect a little nicer results. I mean I could get this by just blow drying my hair. There's nothing special in that result. On the plus side, my hair is super soft and doesn't feel like it's full of glue once it's dry, so that rocks.  I might actually continue to use this just because of the soft results afterwards. And bonus, I needed minimal product to make my hair look lovely after using this. Not it's intended usage, but why let it go to waste huh?

Just an fyi before I proceed with photos of this experiment... I am horrible, like HORRIBLE, at taking pictures of myself. And I have pretty long hair, so combine these two difficulties into one problem and you have these fantastically magical self photos....


It kind of looks like I'm attempting to photograph my sink... It's a lovely sink really. Well, you can see my hair and the sort of straightness/still pretty frizzy though... This is after I blasted it with the blow dryer. I'm not sure what I'm looking at, I think I was so focused on not getting the flash to catch my glasses, you know, cause god forbid I take them off... Or turn the flash off...  



I'm not even explaining this one...
This is using the product and letting it air dry. This is pretty much what my hair looks like normally when it air dries without this product.

June Jacobs Papaya purifying enzyme masque

I used this in the shower after washing my face, mostly because I am lazy and didn't want to have to wash my face again after getting out, and the mask was sitting right there in a basket next to my tub. Anyway, it smelled divine, again like apricot and papaya had the most amazing smelling baby in the history of life. It was super creamy, not very thick but not thin either, it's about the consistency of a body cream. It was easy to smear on my face and didn't appear to drip off, even when I reached for my conditioner and got a face full of water. I actually had to rub to wash this off, which is a lovely quality for a facial mask. It's also really nice that this is only supposed to stay on for 3 to 5 minutes as opposed to 20 to 30 minutes I see with a lot of others. My face felt super moisturized and soft, pretty much all day after using this. The sample size I received is 1.6 oz and a full size is 3.7 oz, I feel this is worth the $62 it retails for if you are into facial masks. I'm not big into them, mostly because I'm lazy (see above) but also because I feel like my skin is just fine with my regular skin care routine. I would actually consider buying this, I'm curious about any long term results this might produce, such as improving all over skin tone, how it works on fine lines, or improving the look of pores. I know it doesn't claim any of these, but it does claim to produce an all over radiance and it's supposed to be antioxidant rich which has to improve something right? The only thing that makes me sad about this is that you are only supposed to use it like once a week. Lame. Too much of a good thing though I guess.

 Forever Young face wraps

I'm totally wearing this right at this very moment as I'm typing. You're supposed to lay back, I guess so it doesn't drip down your neck like mine is, but it's cool cause I've got a paper towel. I may be lazy but I can't just lay on the couch and let a face mask soak into my face. If I'm going to lay down, I'm going to either A. take a nap or B. go to my bed and go to sleep.
This smells like my mom's bath and body works sweet pea scented lotion. It's not entirely unpleasant but I'm certainly not a fan of that scent. I ended up putting it in warm (ok scalding hot because I don't do warm, it's hot or cold only when I'm using the faucet, it's just how I roll) water and let it soak for about 5 minutes. The mask was warm when I opened it but cooled off so quickly that before I even had it unfolded and slapped on my face it was cold. Like stone cold. So it was kind of pointless to put it in warm water. Thanks for that suggestion face wrap. I bet it would be awesome after it's in the fridge and it's warm out. But, as I've stated before, here in the Midwest we are in a state of never ending winter and more cold just doesn't sound like a super awesome idea. My first issue with this was that the eye holes are strange, they are really close together and aren't wide enough so it overhangs on the outer corners of my eyes and my lashes brush it every time I blink. It's annoying. Also the whole bottom half is kind of large, the nose flap hangs over in front of my nostrils, the upper lip part is positioned on my actual lip and not the area where I would grow a mustache if I could do such awesomeness, and the mouth part hangs down to the middle of my chin. It's like I'm supposed to have a long face with super close set, small eyes. I'm not sure about this. But whatever, I totally get that this is made for a "one size fits all" face and there is no such thing. I got it all positioned and after about 5 minutes this started to itch super bad. I stuck it out and it was horrible for about a minute and it went away. So stick it out people! My skin feels a little softer after using this, not smoother and it doesn't look any different, but slightly softer. Overall, I'd be willing to buy this in a different scent/formula. I saw they had some coconut ones on the website and also some foot wraps and junk that I'm interested in.   But not this one, I didn't like the scent and it didn't really do anything for my skin.

This happened. Deal.

Luxurious Volume Fine to full blow out spray by John Frieda.

I'm not using this. The opportunity to have a really awful lion's mane hair day hasn't presented itself, and I'm kind of afraid to use it. It's not happening. I'm sorry.



I'll leave you now with this adorable photo of my dog.

Keep your fingers crossed that spring happens here in the Midwest soon!

Ps we had this major snow storm last night. Yeah, look at the date people... The awesome snow storm of April 18th.

*New Beauty Test Tube is a sample box that I purchased with my own money, everything in this review is my own and true opinion of the product, I do not get paid to write glowing reviews.*

And as usual, if you are interested in getting your very own test tube you can click HERE