Sponsored review: Misikko Hana Titanium flat iron.

I was recently contacted by John from Misikko to do a review of their Hana Titanium flat iron. Misikko stocks a large range of professional grade hair straighteners, hair dryers, curling irons as well as hair and skin care products. CHI, BaByliss Pro, GHD, Hot Tools and Hana Salon are just some of well known brands sold at Misikko.
Onwards to my flat iron!
I received the Hana Titanium Ionic 1.5" Flat Iron which boasts adjustable temperatures of up to 450F (that's 232C for us non American folk), pure titanium plates for maximum heat retention, tourmaline integrated ceramic heaters and a rather fabulous 2 year warranty.

Each flat iron comes nestled in each own tin case which contains a rubber mat, a sample sized bottle of Hana Shine Shield and about 20 different pouches - 19 of which I am unsure of its intended use xD.

A closer look at the plates:

 The Hana Titanium flat iron's power switch and temperature dial:

Now to some experimentation!

My apologies for the unfocused photos, my tripod was in the boot of the boy's car so I had to take these photos with my wobbly hands -___-"
Anyway, as you can see from the photos, my hair has a slight wave to it and has lots of little frizzy bits.
After a pass with the magic wand:

 Tada! I thought I'd take on the additional challenge of creating some curls using the flat iron.

 I then lightly dampened the curls and used the flat iron to straighten out the previously curled hair to test out the flat iron's power against curly hair.

Back view after everything was straightened out.
Final verdict:
I am very impressed!! At $174.99, this is easiest the most expensive piece of hair styling equipment I've ever owned or tried out. Being cheap, all my previous flat irons have been $30 jobs from the pharmacy, and I can see a world of difference between those irons and the Hana Titanium. Those cheap irons would take forever to heat up, would snag in my hair and pull off bits of my hair every time I used it, the plates would not fit together properly and it would take at least 15-20mins to straighten out my hair as I'd have to go over each section again and again.
The Hana Titanium literally glides through my hair with no snagging or pulling. My hair is thick and coarse, but it is easily straightened out within a few minutes. Heat up is lightning fast. I also like the fact that it has a manual dial instead of a digital control as I feel it prevents accidentally switching off the iron or changing the temperature.
I looked up all the hoo ha on ceramic plates, and it apparently allows for faster heat up and thus protects your hair from heat damage. Tourmaline releases large quantities of negative ions which means your hair straightens out faster and retains shine and manageability. This flat iron has the best of both with its tourmaline integrated ceramic plates. As you can see in both the photos and the video, my hair is shiny and silky after straightening so those plates must be doing their job.
The only thing I don't think the Hana Titanium iron is up to is curling. The plates are simply too wide to comfortably curl hair with. That's not to say it's impossible, just that its rather difficult.

I did a quick video review! Please forgive my blabbering and awful editing. I simply couldn't pass up all the cheesy extra effects.

P.S. why do videos inevitably use your most awkward moment as your video's thumbnail?

I've missed you all...

A short video to make up for my lack of presence around this here blog:

As you can see, I clearly have no idea what I'm doing.

Sephora x Hello Kitty swatches.

We interrupt my regular procrastination to bring you swatches of the recently release (released today in fact if you're Canadian) Sephora x Hello Kitty collection.
Please take into consideration these photos were taken with my beloved Blackberry in artificial light. I tried my best to photograph everything clearly though and even used my macro feature!!
Sorry no swatches of the Charmmy eyeshadow sticks as my Sephora did not seem to have them in yet! Also absent were the blinged out products and the liquid liner.
The collection is available at the Pacific Centre Sephora in Downtown Vancouver. It sits on a tiny display near the mall entrance.
p.s. I received a lot of stank eye for taking these photos.
p.p.s. Now that I think about it, I probably received the above due to the fact that I was hogging the display.
p.p.p.s. I'm sorry if I was in your way.

 Nail polishes:

 Swatches of the nail polishes in order of display:

Apple cheeks:

 Swatches of Apple cheeks in order of display. There was also a highlighter which I neglected to swatch.

 Charmmy pencil swatches:

 Say Hello palette:

 Say Hello palette swatches. I swatched the glosses underneath the shadows. They do not show up. At. All.

 Big Fun palette:

 Big Fun palette swatches. As with the Say Hello palette, the lipglosses for the Big Fun palette is so sheer it is invisible.

Big Smile gloss:

 Big Smile gloss swatches:

 Sweet Gloss part 1:

 Sweet Gloss part 1 swatches:

 Sweet Gloss part 2:

 Sweet Gloss part 2 swatches:

Apple Balm swatches:

 

 Handheld Mirror and brush set:

 Eyeshadow palettes, compact mirror, Charmmy Pencil with Apple Balm and Apple Cheeks in background:

 Perfumes and Body Splash:

Some thoughts on the collection:

The nail polishes are absolutely adorable, if you get nothing else from the collection at least get a bottle of the nail polish. I skipped on a lot of the colours because I feel they're easily duped by others in my collection (Purple Sprinkles remind me a lot of China Glaze's Electric Lilac) and at $13 a pop before tax, they're outside of my nail polish price comfort zone. The bottles ARE quite small but maybe the width of the bottle makes up for it. Besides it's not like I'd ever finish a bottle of nail polish.

The Apple Cheeks might more aptly be called cheek tints. Almost ALL of them are sheer with the most pigmented of them being Charmmy and Blushing and Peachy being the most sheer. Their finishes seem to vary, Cherry Blossom has a very glossy, gel like texture and on the face would probably appear very dewy (oily people beware!) while Charmmy was almost a matte.

The Charmmy pencils were very pigmented and creamy but did smudge quite easily.

The Big Smile glosses are very...gloopy, there's no other word to describe them. The formula is extremely thick and I wonder if it'll spread evenly on the lips. However, they are quite pigmented, at least they were on my hand.

The Sweet gloss is more like a tinted lipbalm. None of them really imparted much colour but do feel quite moisturising.

Of the eyeshadow palettes, I would say Say Hello is the more pigmented out of the two. It does run a tad chalky though as the colours are matte. Big Fun has more of a shimmery finish and is less pigmented. I HATE how sheer the glosses are, but rest assured those of you who dislike powder and gloss in the same container, the two products are separated quite securely and there's not much chance of mixing.

The Apple balm has a lovely texture and appears rather pigmented, I'd imagine it to give lips a very juicy look. However, I hate that it's got a very finicky screw on lid - I can imagine getting extremely irritated closing it after use.

The perfumes were a huge disappointment for me, I don't really know how to describe it, it is kinda fruity and dries down to a floral finish. It is rather subtle and after 2 hours I can barely smell it on myself anymore. Absolutely not worth the $72 unless you really REALLY want it just for the bottle.

The Body Splash just smelled so strongly of alcohol when I opened it that I immediately closed it so nothing to comment there.

Surprisingly the hand-held mirror is rather sturdy and if I was 10 years younger I'd totally want it. Heck I want it now.

I also HATE how overpriced the collection is compared to American prices. Just because we're Canadian it doesn't mean we're THAT nice.

My Recommendations:

The nail polishes; Big Smile gloss in Watermelon; Say Hello palette; Apple Cheeks in Blushing and Charmmy and that damn mirror!!