Supergoop Sunscreen Swipe -- This seems like a really great invention. A cloth wipe impregnated with sunscreen sounds so easy to use. Unfortunately, the cloth kind of dragged and pulled on my skin, and I didn't feel like I was covering my arms and legs thoroughly enough to get the full SPF 30 protection. I ended up applying some lotion sunscreen on top just to make sure I was covered.
Buy it? No.
Vita Liberate Luxury Tan -- This is a darkly tinted self-tanning lotion. I made the mistake of applying it without gloves or a mitt, and it stained my hands. It seemed kind of hard to blend, and it looked fairly uneven the next day. It also faded in blotches, and definitely didn't last 2-3 weeks as it claims. One good thing about it was the lack of self-tanner smell.
Buy it? No. I'll stick to the St. Tropez mousse.
Marula Cleansing Lotion -- I wanted to try this because of the claims about marula oil having more antioxidant activity than argan oil (which I use and love). This cleanser has a thin, lotion texture. I unfortunately didn't make a note of if it was scented or not, but it must not have been strongly so if I can't even remember if it was. This did not work for me. It was very uncomfortable on my skin and I started to feel a burning sensation, so I rinsed it off quickly even though I hadn't finished washing my face. I looked at the ingredient list AFTER I used it and discovered it has tons of irritating plant oils and extracts.
Buy it? No.
LORAC FACE selfTANtalizer -- Another self-tanner sample. This one was extremely tinted, and not just a brown tint. It looked almost metallic. Unfortunately, for as darkly tinted this was on application, it gave my skin almost no color after I washed off the indicator tint the next day. I still can't get over how shimmery the indicator color was.
Buy it? No.
Givenchy Phenomen'eyes Mascara -- This is probably the most interesting sample I've tried recently.
The packaging for the sample gave me fits. I could not figure out how to open it, so I finally jabbed some scissors into it, hoping I could pull out the little wand I knew was hiding in there. I didn't think the round orb would be the bit with the mascara on it, so I tried to pull it out from that end. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I ended up with mascara all over my hands. Once I got the wand out of the funky blister pack, I was able to use it (I hadn't crushed it completely). I actually really liked how my lashed looked with the mascara, and the spiked mace of an applicator was interesting and pretty easy to use. But, the sample pissed me off so much, that I decided I would never buy the mascara. Furthermore, it's $30 USD, which is reaching the limit of what I would pay for a mascara. Also, I was only able to get one use out of the sample, which had dried up completely by the next day, so I didn't get to really give the mascara a full trial.
Buy it? No.
I didn't have much success with these 5 samples, except for actually using them.
What's the best thing you've sampled lately?
