LUMENE HAUL

 First row, left to right: Vitamin C+ Day Cream SPF 15,  Cleansing Emulsion (for sensitive skin), Cleansing Foam (for normal skin) and those three green thingies at the end are Anti-Cellulite Serum, Body Scrub and Body Lotion from Birch and Honey collection.

Second row, left to right: Face Toner, Comforting Eye Cream, Total Comfort Mask, Sun and Care cream with SPF 30, Wild Rose and Lumene Natural Code lipstics and Mineral Makeup foundation 

Today it was a nice spring day here in Helsinki - yes, the snow had actually melted a month ago and trees are getting green. I decided to go on a short trip to Kauklahti, which is in Espoo and about 40 min train drive from the centre of Helsinki. The final destination of my trip was Lumene's factory shop.

Lumene is a Finnish beauty care manufacturer. Lately, they have improved the formulas of the products as they are trying to avoide, for example, parabens. A lot of their products are supposed to be  of at least 80% natural ingredients. Well, I do read the labels and the ingridients seem  to be good indeed. Lumene also does not test on animals. Finally, as Lumene is a Nordic brand, they clame to use actual Nordic ingreedients (smart marketing move for sure, but they actually use them). The products are not the cheapest around here at all, but with no DM and Müller chains present in Finland, I have decided to use Lumene. It is Finnish, it tends to be more and more natural - and it suits my skin.

Lumene's factory shop offers their regular products whit more or less regular shop prices. There are also some products with "mistakes" on their packages, which are slightly cheaper than the same products in "proper" packages. Anyway, the content is the same, and that is what matters. I also had some 25% discount to use - and so I got this big haul... of course much bigger than I had planned at first.

Actually, I do need most of the products. :D I ran out of them and I would need to buy them anyway -  so why not to buy a bit cheaper? Well, the Birch and Honey series was not on my list; I decided to try it. Of course I spent quite a lot at once and now I feel a bit bad; I guess it was my biggest beauty products purchase so far. However, with the 25% off and other cheaper products, I hope I did actually save some money, especially as I won't need to buy cosmetics for quite some time now.

Lipstick close-up left to right: Wild Rose Natural "Mauve Nude" and Natural Code "Juicy Plum"

WINTER AND SOME MORE PRESENTS

 The present and the snow, natural light

Helsinki has got the first portion of snow - and it looks like there will be more of it. The weather is also quite cold, much colder than it usually is in late November in this part of Finland. Today it was -3 degrees Celsius, and the forecast is promising even more cold yet to come...

However, I have to show another birthday present - or six of them, to be precise. My friends from Slovenia were so nice that they have sent me a package full of nail polish. And not just some nail polish - I was told these bottles would be special. So they are, in many ways. The colors, the brands - and last but not least, they have been sent to me all the way from Slovenia with a nice birthday card  from and by my friends. :) Oh, and that red cloth also came with the polish. A lot of colors to brighten up this winter darkness for sure. ;)

The present and the snow, flash

From left to right, back row: SpaRitual Drop Dead Gorgeous, Regal and Solitude

From left to right, front row: Zoya Harlow, Nubar Midnight Glory and Nfu Oh 131 

FASHIONED IN FINLAND GIVEAWAY

As you can see on the side-bar of Cinnamon Book, Parokeets are giving away some nice metallic and magnetic nail polishes. However, also Nea  from Finland has something nice to offer - just click here and enter the giveaway on Nea's great blog Fashioned in Finland. The prize includes Shu Uemura eyelash curlers, Sleek Storm palette, Sleek Good Girl palette and TKB mini samples. The products look very tempting... :P The giveaway ends on 3rd of December 2010 so there is some time to enter.

However and by the way, I feel so very sleepy today that I cannot produce a better or longer post than this... Finnish winter is getting stronger, especially considering its dark powers; there is no snow yet, just darkness is longer and longer... I eat D-vitamin and fish oil, but those things do not always help as I would like. Well, soon Christmas time will come anyway, and there will be lots of other light... and candles and sweets.

EDIT: The Parokeets giveaway ended on the 8th of November, I did not get anything - not surprised at all as I basically never win anything in raffles. :D

A LUSH LJUBLJANA

Whenever I am visiting Slovenia, I have to, of course, do some shopping. Usually, I pick up the shops/stuff I cannot get in Finland; however, in case of Lush I realized  I also have to buy their products in Ljubljana - or in Tallinn. I was actually quite surprised when I had find out that cosmetics of Lush is actually cheaper in Ljubljana (and in Tallinn) than in Helsinki. Whereas the prices in Ljubljana and Tallinn were the same, the difference between Helsinki is much cheaper - from 2€ for soaps up to 7€ for Dream Cream and even 10€ in case of some more expensive creams (which I don't buy, I have just noticed the difference).

The thing is that Lush is a big worldwide chain, and according to my experience with other big chains I would expect similar prices everywhere; at least H&M does not do any difference, and prices are the same either in Ljubljana or in Helsinki. The Body Shop is similar everywhere in Europe as well; also in Tallinn. The Lush example is interesting; however, I did not shop in any other Lush store to do a more exact comparison, just in Helsinki, Ljubljana and Tallinn.

Anyway, I have bought a few of my favorite products and spent quite a lot at once - well, I hope I have also managed to save some money as I have chosen a cheaper Lush-franchise. ;)

P.S.: For all of you that come to this page while searching for any info about Lush store in Ljubljana- you can find the shop in the old town, right next to the famous Robba fountain, the address is Ciril-Metodov trg 21. However, more info is here.