Verbena Custom Blends

Verbena Custom Blends

Tiring of my trusty old Calgon Hawaian Ginger body mist, I went off in search of something new. What better place to search than Etsy?
I came upon Verbena Custom Blends. I'm not sure what drew me to these products, maybe it's the fact that everything is made fresh and from scratch. Everything looks absolutely droolworthy!

I had a really hard time picking which lotion and spray I wanted, especially with things like the Pink Sugar Coconut and Chocolate Drizzle cupcake soap and the Creamy coconut and frosted lime cupcake sugar scrub clouding my vision.

Finally, I chose the Pink sugared strawberry marshmellow cream body cream and the Pink sugared strawberry marshmellow Perfume

I eagerly awaited my purchase for the next week, and at long last, I opened my mailbox and there it was! After only a week!

I tore open the packaging and found my order also came with lots of delicious samples! A few lotions and a sugar scrub!
My body cream smells soooooo delicious! It really does smell just like strawberries and marshmellows! It is thick and very moisturizing, perfect for my chronically dry skin. The scent is so long lasting that it smells exactly as good as it did when I put it on several hours ago! The perfume smells just as good. Everything is fantastic, and almost makes me want to eat it.

I LOVE this store, I will definately be ordering from it again! I have nothing but good things to say about it!

Dove Visibly Smooth Deoderant

I saw a commercial for this Dove deodorant about six months ago. It promises to help decrease underarm hair after repeated use.
Sounded great to me! I made sure to grab some the next time I was at the store. I've been using it for months, now, every night before bed (as directed by the label). I still haven't noticed any difference in my armpit hair growth. It IS very good for applying after I shave my bikini area. Seems to cut down on razor burn and ingrown hairs.

It's very disappointing, but I am going to have to give this deodorant a thumbs down in the hair reduction department.

1/5/10: Update
Still using this deoderant, and it sure didn't eliminate any hair growth. It does really help with ingrown hairs, though, if applied immediately after shaving!

Olive Oil

I have been using Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead of shaving cream on my legs and underarms, lately.

It's working like a charm. You only need a teeny tiny bit, and it helps to rinse the razor out very well every few strokes (or it gets kind of gummy from the oil). I shaved every day for a week, and my legs were completely soft and smooth every single day. Usually, shaving every day causes bumps and irritation, but I had none of that, and no problem eliminating stubble!

I have let the hair grow for a few days, and it seems softer and more sparse, also. I may be crazy, but I really think the EVOO is making a difference!

I probably wouldn't recommend this if you are prone to breakouts or anything, and certainly using oil on the face seems like a bad idea, but so far it seems to be working for my legs.

Smooth Away

In my long quest for efficient hair removal products, I found myself making a spur of the moment purchase of Smooth Away while at Sally's. A friend of mine told me that it worked for her, so I figured why the hell not?

Well, it's pretty much really fine sandpaper in a fancy package.
The directions told me to gently rub the hair away in small circles. The first thing I noticed was that it was rubbing off my tan, exposing pale spots on my leg. Ok, so it's good at exfoliating at least. (Even though now I had to apply more self tanner after this)

The hair was just NOT disappearing. I tried and tried and it was not removing any hair. I tried it on my boyfriend, though, and it did remove some of his really long leg hair. It left stubble behind.

So, all in all, totally not worth it. Apparently, you have to have hair like an ape or man in order for it to remove anything and it still leaves stubble. It's still easier to shave.

Two thumbs down.

Remington Emi Hairdryer

I saw a review for this crazy looking hairdryer online, and thought I might give it a try. I went on down to target, and to my delight, it was on clearance for $20.00.

I eagerly tore the package open and read the directions. It seems you are supposed to put your wet hair into the weird attachment in little one inch sections, and let it whirl your hair around until it is dry.

Ok, I went and washed my hair, and put a tad bit of smoothing serum in it. I have very curly hair, and crossed my fingers that this thing would make it look pretty without straightening.

Well, after doing my entire head with this thing, which took just as long as my normal $10 conair, I looked like I had dreads all over my head. The directions say you are supposed to finger comb through the mess and you will have perfect waves.

Easier said than done, though, since my naturally curly hair was a knotted mess. It took forever to untangle, and when I was done it looked terrible. My hair looks awful airdried, but it would have looked better than this dryer made it look.

I tried to use the other attachment the next day, a diffuser for straight looks. It took AGES to dry, and wasnt any less frizzy than using my old dryer.

Sadly, this thing did not work at all for me. How dissapointing.

Latisse

I had first posted a review about Revitalash, a few months ago. It didn't work, so I went in search of something that would.
Having read glowing reviews about Latisse online, and looking around on their website...

www.latisse.com

...I went to my plastic surgeon and asked for some. It came out to about $130 bucks.
I got home and opened the package, the contents of which are pictured above. My surgeon told me that I should cut each applicator in half, but everything I read online suggests that you should just trash the applicators altogether, since they waste too much product and are very scratchy. I just took the applicator from my old revitalash and washed it off to use with the Latisse.

I've been using it now for about a month, and I can definately already see a huge difference in my eyelashes. I didn't take a before picture, but my eyelashes were disgracefully short. They have grown a bit in length, and seem to stay curled amazingly well. They are stronger, also, and falling out less.

I will be updating as I continue to use this product, but so far I am very satisfied. I would keep buying it just based on the results after this one month, and am looking forward to the change in the coming months.

Sally Hansen's Spray on Shower off hair remover

I bought this stuff after hearing my sister rave about it. She said it worked really well for her, and her legs stayed smooth for awhile.
It's about $9 a bottle, and I found mine at Walgreens. I went ahead and bought the extra strength formula, since I am plagued with super thick hair.

I got it home and decided that I didn't want to be the guinea pig. My boyfriend willingly let me spray some onto his pubic hair to try it out. It came out of the bottle pretty evenly, and didn't smell too terrible at first. You are supposed to let it sit on the area for 3 minutes, then check and see if it is doing anything.
It wasn't.

We left it on a little longer. The label advises that you not leave it on longer than 10 minutes, so he washed it off after maybe 6 minutes. The smell was getting worse as time went on, but still not as bad as Nair.
In the end, some of his long hair came out, but it was sort of patchy, and didn't work very well.

I tried it myself on my legs a few weeks later, and left it on for the full 10 minutes. I didn't have any burning or anything, no discomfort at all. When I washed it off, none of my stubble was gone. It smelled pretty bad, and was a waste of time.

I would not recommed this stuff. It's way too expensive, and it would take longer than just shaving, anyhow. It didn't seem to work all that well, and now I am stuck with half a bottle of the stuff.

Exotic dancer clothing websites

Snaz 75
http://www.snaz75.com

AWESOME! Was able to use a coupon code, and they upgraded me to free overnight shipping. I've never had such great customer service. I have ordered from them lots of times, and always have excellant service, good prices, and fast shipping.


Red Door Store
http://thereddoorstore.com/

When I last ordered from them, probably a year ago, they had great prices, and free overnight shipping. Now, their prices are higher than Snaz, and I don't think they do free shipping anymore. About the same selection as Snaz has.

Pin up girl clothing
http://www.pinupgirlclothing.com/

Terrible customer service. I waited for TWO MONTHS for my shoes to ship, and they never responded to any of my emails. Their phone line didn't even work. When they finally got to me, the shoes were the wrong size! I even gave thema second chance a few years later, and the same shit happened with the dress I ordered. It was ugly in person, and cheaply made, and took forever to ship.


Ami ClubWear
http://www.amiclubwear.com/

Pretty much the same experience as pin up girl, except the boots were the right size. They are kind of cheap looking in person, but I guess you get what you pay for. I did have to wait a month for them to get shipped to me, and nobody would reply to my emails. There are a LOT of negitive reviews on the internet about them, even a facebook group devoted to it.

Now, I did order after this from their EBAY store, which recently has been empty. Mixed feedback, but I recieved my boots in a more timely fashion, and they were good boots. If they ever add more to their ebay store, I recommend going that route, because at least you can file a paypal dispute if you never get your items.

It's really a shame, because they have such cute clothes, but I just can't bring myself to go through the pain of ordering from them again.

My Diva's Closet
http://www.mydivascloset.com/

Ordered fishnets from them on two seperate occasions. Very fast shipping, reasonable prices. No complaints at all.

Coquetry Clubwear
http://coquetryclubwear.com/

I had ordered from her ebay listings a few years ago, and was very disapointed with the bikini tops and thongs that I got.
I ordered a skirt set and a hoodie dress from her, got them today, and was very disapointed with them.
The skirt set was on sale for under ten bucks, so I didn't really care about that. The dress was 45 bucks, though, and is made of awful scratchy fabric. It's a cute design, but the stitches (zigzag) dont look very sturdy at all. I will not be ordering from her again.

Sugar Doll Bikinis
http://www.mysugardoll.etsy.com/

I have ordered several things from this shop, and I love them! Not only are they adorable, but they are also well made. I loooove her clothes and she ships extremely fast. I got things within two days of ordering.


LA Drama Queen

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5570771/

I ordered a really cute romper from this store. I requested a lining to be put in the otherwise see-through top, and told her I would pay extra. She not only put the lining in, but didn't charge me any extra. It's well made and adorable.
Unfortunately, I had paid $60 for this romper, and then found the exact same romper on ODgirl.com for $20.
I was concerned that somebody copied her design, so I sent her an email and apparently she sells designs to a company that works with ODgirl.com.

I'm pretty sure that is against the etsy rules. I am not terribly upset about it, but I do feel kind of cheated. So, moral of the story, search elsewhere first before buying directly from her on etsy, I guess.

StripperClothesOnline

http://www.stripperclothesonline.com/

I bought the Blue Gingham bikini from this site, and I LOVE it! The detail is amazing, and the bikini is perfectly constructed. Every seam and stitch is done just right, and you can tell that she spent a long time on the garment. It fits me perfectly, even though I am an A cup (unlike the model in the photo), and is absolutely ADORABLE! At $58, it seemed slightly pricey, but as soon as I saw it, I knew it was well worth the money. Something like that should be more than that, even.
I will def. be ordering from her again!

Revitalash

With high hopes, I purchased revitalash on ebay on 1/12/09 for $70.
I had read really good reviews of the old formula, and was hoping that the new formula could live up to it's standards.

I have been using it since then, and I am very dissapointed with it. My eyelashes are not even the slightest bit longer. They do look less clumpy with mascara on, but that is hardly worth the money.

Apparently, they isolated the ingredient in a rx eye drop typically used for glacoma patients, which had a side effect of making thick, long, luxurious eyelashes. Well, apprently the producers of revitalash didn't get proper legal clearance to use said rx, and due to patent laws, as well as the fact the the makers of the eye drop (Allergen) saw they were sitting on a goldmine, revitalash was forced to reformulate.
(source EDN)

You can still get that eye drop, which has been reformulated by Allergen into Latisse. I'm pretty sure you need to get it from a plastic surgeon or something, but there is a doctor finder on their website.

The stuff is crazy expensive, about $120 a month, but from almost every review I have read is incredible.

Hopefully, I will have a review of Latisse in a month or so!