March 2012 Favourites

I've been skipping foundation (my trusted Healthy Mix serum) this month and just applied some concealer and Mac's MFS where needed. My current concealer of choice is Stay All Day by Essence (an old review and swatches here). It's a really nice concealer, especially for the price. The coverage is nice, it even covers some smaller spots. I really like that it has a doe foot applicator, it just makes the application that much faster and simpler.

I then applied My Base illuminating make-up base which is a new product by Essence (I'll post swatches and a more detailed review in the next post). It gives a nice subtle glow to the cheeks without looking too shimmery.

I finished my skin with Mac's MSF natural, which I got after reading Summers rave here (She's such a great blogger and such a nice girl. She always manages to brighten my day with her sweet comments. I also ordered Skin79 BB cream almost 3 weeks ago because of her recommendation, but it still hasn't arrived. This shipping from Korea has been taking really long, I'm a getting bit worried :/). Initially, I didn't get along well with this powder. It was just so hard to work with, none of the brushes could pick up any product, I was just really disappointed. But now that I'm through the harder layer of product, it's finally working for me. I find that the best brush for applying it is the E.l.f. powder brush as it blends the product nicely into the skin.

I've already raved enough about Dermalogica's gentle cream exfoliant (review here). I've also been loving Mineral lipstick in the shade Runway Pink by E.l.f., which is one of my all-time favourite lip colours.

I exclusively wore only two nail polishes: Mint Candy Apple (a gorgeous pastel mint green colour) by Essie and my newest polish from a TE by Essence called 04 Bright Alert. Although, the latter looks really bright pink-coral in the bottle, the formula is actually quite sheer and needs at least three layers to get the full on brightness of colour. Thanks to Seche Vite, even three layers of nail polish are dry within minutes.  

Orofluido is again in my favourites. The scent is divine and it makes my hair look so polished and shiny. Plus this bottle is lasting me ages, because you really need only a little amount. I completely forgot to put my Alverde hair oil in the picture (review here). A truly fantastic product (mine is currently in Ljubljana, and I use Orofluido when I'm at home), I've been using it literally everyday when I'm in Ljubljana. Because it's quite light, it doesn't weigh down the hair. It just makes it look shiny and gives moisture to my dry ends. Plus it's silicone free, so an amazing product for the price.

I've been enjoying Katy Perry's Purr more and more. I wasn't much of a fan the first couple of weeks when I bought it. But now I love it, it just grew on me. A great spring scent and the bottle is so cute. Review can be found here. 

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A Product Rave: Dermalogica Gentle Cream Exfoliant

I first heard about this product in a video by Lisa Eldridge almost a year ago and it's been on my wishlist ever since. But the price of a full size product is really steep and I could never justify the purchase. However, in the past month my skin has been acting up and I was desperate for some ''magical'' product that would fix it. I finally decided to buy it, but I only purchased a travel size (22 ml), which I ordered on eBay from an UK based seller. I think I paid around 8€ together with shipping, which is still a lot especially for the amount you get, but boy is it worth it. 

I've used it a couple of times so far and I'm impressed. No other product had such fast results as this one. It contains 5% salicylic acid and 8% lactic acid which are great if you are suffering from acne breakouts. I had some active breakout on my forehead and around the nose (this is very unusual for me, I rarely get a spot, let alone break out) and this fixed 90% of them in only one use. Literately the next morning, when I woke up, most of it was just gone. The skin looks so much clearer and the pores look smaller. It leaves the skin seriously smooth, especially with the combination of my current skin care choices (I'll talk about them later). My skin is dry combination, my skin tends to get really dry especially in the winter months and I get dry patches especially on my forehead and on the top of the cheekbones. In summer it's normal with a slightly oilier T-zone, but nothing major. 

The product itself is a thicker, white mask with a slight chemical scent, which is ok, nothing special really. I apply it after my cleanser (I usually use some baby shower gel, currently it's SauBär 3in1 apricot one) on dry skin and leave it on for 10-15 minutes. I didn't experience any tingling, despite the high percentages of AHAs. It rinses off without any problems. Usually if I only use cleanser, my skin gets really tight and dry within minutes, but not after this. I then continue with my usually skin routine - Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair serum and Nuxe Multipurpose Dry Oil (I've been using it everyday from May last year, truly a brilliant product, review here). A couple times a week also I use the Clarins Liquid Bronze Self Tanning lotion.  

I will purchase the full size product, despite the price. You can get it on lookfantastic.com, fragrancedirect.com or try eBay for cheaper prices. Also, I believe Dermalogica is available at some beauty salons, but the prices are much higher.

List of ingredients:

Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Diatomaceous Earth, Butylene Glycol, Isodecyl Salicylate, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil, Ppg-2 Isoceteth-20 Acetate, Papain, Bromelain, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, Titanium Dioxide, Salicylic Acid (5%), Algin, Lactic Acid (8%), Sulfur, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Extracts Of: Centaurea Cyanus (Cornflower), Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Fruit, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Flower, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower, Silica, Ceteareth-20, Polysorbate 80, Tetrasodium Edta, Phenoxyethanol, Propylparaben, Methylparaben

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Yves Rocher Mini Fragrances

A while back I purchased my first Yves Rocher product (their Noix de Coco fragrance) online and I said that it's a nice fragrance, but I miss a bit more warmth and sweetness. Well, I had a chance to visit their shop in Kristalna Palača (BTC) and it's such a lovely little shop. They had everything so well organized and there was a lot of sample sized product version (I really like sample sizes, I don't mind paying for them). So I got three 20ml bottles of fragrances and a potted coconut lip balm, everything really reasonably priced (fragrances were 4-5€, I don't recall the price of the lip balm though).

Vanilla eau de toilette is the most strait-forward gourmand vanilla scent I had the chance of trying out. It really smells just like Dr.Oetker Vanilla flavoring or basically like cakes, cookies and stuff. It reminds me a lot of my beloved L'Occitane Vanilla fragrance which was discontinued years ago (I'm still pretty gutted about that). Mixed with Noix de Coco it comes pretty close to what I wanted, however, it is seriously strong so one to two sprays suffices (I mix about 4-5 sprays of Noix de Coco with 1 spray of Vanilla and it doesn't come out to strong). Even though I only got a 20ml version, it will last me quite a while, because it's so strong you only need a little of it. I find it's a great fragrance to mix with so many other scents, basically anywhere you want to add a bit of warmth and sweetness to. 

The other two didn't really impress me that much. Framboise/Raspberry eau de toilette smells exactly like raspberry syrup, just really sweet, fruity and sticky, however mixed with vanilla it's quite a nice combination. But it lacks staying power and the same goes to Peche Jaune/Yellow Peach eau de toillete. Honestly, the latter was the greatest disappointment for me, because I was expecting a nice sweet peach scent (I love the scent of peaches, one of the nicest I found is the Balea Young Traum Gescöpf deospray and shower gel and that was the scent I was expecting to get.). Unfortunately, it's not that sweet, but a more sharp fragrance. My first impression was that it resembles a man's fragrance. But strangely most other people liked this one the most. 

The last thing is the Coconut lip balm, which apart from the really lovely Raffaello type coconut scent is barely worth mentioning. The moisturizing properties are just so poor and the packaging, although pretty, is not the most functional. It's just that the opening is so small that even I have problems getting the product out and I have quite small fingers. But as I said the scent is nice.

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Some Gems from DM - A Mini Products Rave

Earlier this week I went to DM to pick up some essentials and while perusing the isles I stumbled across two absolute gems. Firstly, the Alverde hair oil which I saw for the first time and just reading the ingredients made me happy. It has argan, almond, soy and walnut oil, vitamin E and some other stuff, but basically a brilliant mix of oils without silicones. It is amazing. Seriously. For the price, which is about 3 €, you get a 50 ml of a brilliant product in a nice, functional packaging (a pump) and it's plastic so I'm not concerned it will break in case I drop it. It's actually quite light for an oil, so you don't end up with too greasy ends. This makes my hair look so nice, healthy and shiny, just as any other silicone based product would. I've been using it everyday since I bought it and it never made my hair look to greasy or gave me a feeling like there is too much product in my hair. The scent is fresh and very citrusy. It's not often that I'm so impressed by a product, but this one deserves all the praise. If you have very dry hair, I can't recommend this more. 

The second product is from the Dm's SauBär line which is their line of products for children. It's basically just a mini spray that smell of lavender, but omg is the scent just gorgeous. It's not an authentic lavender scent, I also get some camomile mixed in and I love it. I spray my pillows with it and just enjoy the calming aroma before I fall asleep. I can't remember the price, but it was cheap (it's a 100 ml bottle).

Thanks for reading!