Just Pure Minerals Vegan Lip Gloss Review

Lately I am so attracted to try out lip tints and glosses (but still not leaving balm buying spree behind!). While browsing through the long list of indie online shops at Etsy, I got stuck at Just Pure Minerals' Shop looking at their Vegan Lip Gloss Sample for sale only at $1 (now that's really cheap!). In the end I caved in and decided to try out their Vegan Lip Gloss.

There are six colours to chose from the Sample list which are:

- Precious: a perfectly clear shade
- Opal: a perfectly clear shade with Shimmer and Sparkle
- Nude: a soft, a Shimmering natural pinkish shade
- Brown Sugar: a shimmering shade of warm bronze.
- Pink Ginger: a shimmery pink shade
- Black Cherry: a deep, red hue.

The lip gloss shades - picture taken from Just Pure Minerals' shop at Etsy's website.

I picked the Nude shade because I like neutral colours. The Nude is a soft, a Shimmering natural pinkish shade of Lip Gloss with a light mint scent. Neutral shade + minty = good!

Just Pure Minerals' Vegan Lip Gloss are handcrafted in small batches with all natural ingredients offering the cleanest, safest, prettiest lip gloss for those who love lip gloss. The lip glosses is made with simple healthy formula of vegetable waxes, oils, and mineral pigments that goes on creamy and last. Just Pure minerals lipgloss moisturize your lips just like a lip balm, . Free from animal by products (carmine), artificial fragrances, petroleum by products, talc, pigments with nano particles, preservatives such as parabens and synthetic dyes (FD&C/D&C lakes) - always handcrafted, earth friendly and cruelty free. (description taken from Just Pure Minerals' shop at Etsy).

Ingredient List (taken from Just Pure Minerals' shop at Etsy.): ricinus communis (organic castor seed oil), simmondsia chinensis (organic jojoba seed oil), cocos nucifera (organic coconut) oil, copernicia cerifera (organic carnauba wax), mica (CI77019), iron oxide (CI77491), (CI77492), (CI77499), zinc oxide (CI77947), titanium dioxide (CI 77891), mint infusion.

Packaging: The lip gloss sample comes in a small plastic clam shell container that holds 3 gm of gloss.  The size of the container is slightly bigger than a 20 sen coin. The top cap of the container is printed with Just Pure Minerals' logo and the shade is printed at the bottom.

The Lip Gloss sample in a clam shell plastic container - top view.

Bottom view - Nude shade.

Texture: The lip gloss definitely has a very soft texture - a fact that I discovered upon opening the clam shell container because due to postage traveling, some gloss got stuck on the cap and when opened, it dripped at the neck of the container. Oh no! My precious lip gloss! I took a cotton swab and swiped all the gloss from the cap and transferred them back into the base. Yay, crisis averted!

A newly opened tub of vegan lip gloss. The gloss got drippy at the container's neck.

As I mentioned earlier, the texture of the gloss is very soft. It glides on very smoothly but not sticky like most lip glosses feel. However, it does leave an oily feeling on fingers so it is better to use a brush. There is a tingle of mint after application and it lasted for about half and hour. I love it! My lips felt soft and moisturized just like I had applied some lip balm on.

The lip gloss has some fine glitter in them but when applied on lips the glitter is not visible. It has a quirky menthol smell but does not bother me at all since it is not too obtrusive. The colour of the gloss looked very thick and pigmented in the container and when swiped on my hands but it appears a natural pinkish brown tint on my lips making me look like I am not wearing any pigmented lip gloss at all. It's definitely a MLBB shade.

Lip gloss swatch:

A blob of gloss on my hands.

A natural pinkish brown shade for the lips.

My verdict: I love this lip gloss! The fact that it has a weird menthol smell does not bother me at all because the long minty tingle and the balm effect it has really got me hooked. Plus, the cute little container could last a long time since I only need a little bit of gloss for each application. Now I am really interested to try out the other shades too. Would I repurchase: Yup, I definitely would.

You can check out Just Pure Minerals' Vegan Lip Gloss Samples at their Shop at Etsy's.
They are sold for $1 each and shipping cost is free in the US and $1 to anywhere else.
The full sized lip glosses cost $6 with more choices of shades to choose from.
I got mine with the help from Ryan (sgDrugstore) for RM11.21.

Elianto Sweet Kisses Lip Gloss Review

I am not a big gloss wearer because of the stickiness feeling they seem to leave on my lips. But, once in a blue moon, I do use glosses when the mood strikes me. So, on one fine day when I was shopping with my sister at Jusco Taman Maluri, we saw that Elianto was having a sale on their makeup products. I ended purchasing a tube of gloss and a tube of dual-ended lip tint (more on that later). FYI, I rarely step into Elianto's store because the salesgirls there tend to follow you around and readjusts the arrangements of any products that you touched. Really annoying! Grrr! Okay, enough of ramblings, let's get on to the review.

Packaging: The lip gloss comes in a standard translucent plastic squeeze tube with a screw on cap in red.  The nozzle is slanted for easy application. The tube weighs 10ml. The label on the tube is designed simplistically with lace patterns lined at the top and bottom of the tube. The ingredients is printed onto the plastic wrapping. The entire line of Sweet Kisses Lip Gloss is described as 'delicious, sweet lip gloss with a gorgeous shine''. The shade I chose is 01 Purple Rose.

 An unopened tube of lip gloss.

List of ingredients on the plastic wrapping.

The slanted tip for easy application.

Ingredients: Polybutene, Octyldodecanol, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Polyglyceryl-2 Triisostearate, Hexyl Laurate, Cyclomethicone, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Ceresin, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil, Simmondsa Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Hydrogenated Microcrystalline Wax, Cera Alba, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Butylparaben, Tocopheryl Acetate, Retinyl Palmitate, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Fragrance, May contain Mica, Titanium Dioxide, CI45410, CI 77007, CI 77492, CI 77499, CI 77491, CI 19140.

Texture: The gloss has a thin jelly-like texture, almost like thick oil and is a bit on the runny side. It glides on very smoothly, surprisingly not oily at all on the lips. It gives a nice glossy sheen on my lips and it does not feel sticky. On the lips, the colour turns out to be very sheer plum. It made my lips feel moisturized as well which is a plus point. It smelled of subtly sweet grapes, but it has a yucky taste though.

A small blob of lip gloss.

The blob of gloss evenly distributed.

My verdict: I am kind of on the fence about this one. It gives a nice sheer shade and is not sticky. Plus, it also hydrates my lips. For those gloss lovers out there who does not mind the taste might give this gloss a go, but for me, I don't think I would repurchase.

Price: You can get a tube of this gloss for RM9 at any Elianto's outlet.

Papa John's Pizza Restaurant Review

My husband and I went to Jusco Equine for grocery shopping a few weeks back and we stopped by Papa John's Pizza Restaurant which was newly opened there. 

The restaurant has a very cosy and comfortable atmosphere but the lighting is a bit low. The menu consist of typical pizza restaurant which has an array of pizza choices, pasta and some side dishes such as lasagna, chicken wings, garlic bread and soups. The service is quite fast and the waiters are friendly too.

We opted to try out a personal sized pizza with Zesty Chicken topping, Cheesesticks, a bowl of creamy mushroom soup and a glass of ice lemon tea. We didn't have to wait too long for our order to come.

Ice lemon tea.

The cheesesticks is actually a pizza bread (not in stick form) cooked with generous topping of cheese and garlic sauce. It came on a thin wooden round pizza platter with a bowl of tomato sauce for dipping and a couple of pickled chilli for zest. The cheesesticks is a bit salty (my guess is from the cheese), not too garlicky though because I  couldn't taste the garlic sauce. I prefer eating the bread on its own rather than dip it with the tomato sauce (which is actually the tomato topping base on pizzas).

The platter of cheesestick.

A slice of cheesestick.

The mushroom soup came in a big bowl. It has a thick and creamy texture. The creaminess and saltiness of the soup blends very well. There is a generous amount of mushroom bits in the soup. For someone who does not like mushroom, I enjoyed this bowl of creamy mushroom goodness very much indeed.

A big bowl of mushroom soup.

Lots of bits and pieces of mushroom in the soup.

The Zesty Chicken pizza also came served on a thin wooden platter. The bread crust crunchy on the outside but the dough is soft on the inside. the bread is not tough. The topping is a bit bland and tasteless because there was no tomato base for the topping. The topping is generous though so maybe a change of pizza topping choice would've made out dining experience of the pizza a little bit better.

The platter of Zesty Chicken pizza.

The pizza and breadsticks were served on flat wooden pizza platters with no coasters underneath them. I think it would have been better to have something underneath to elevate the pizza platters because they are definitely very flat on the table. All in all, the dining experience at Papa John's left us with mixed results which might be affected by the choice of menu we made that day. The service is good and friendly, the atmosphere is warm and cosy and the food is okay to my tastebud. Maybe we could come again and order something else next time. The soup is definitely a repeat.

For our first time dining at Papa John's, the bill amounted to RM31.05.