Favorite products of the month: July 2013

So, how did we already pass half summer? Time literally flies by!
But you know what the end of a month means, right? Yup, another listing of my favorite products of the passed month! :)

The month July hasn't been very nice to my skin at all. I had breakouts and I needed treatment, not just for the face, but for the entire body. It's been a while since my body was in such a bad condition...

Let's work from the top down and start with facial products:
Lately the oils in my skin have been going out like crazy. I know during summer my skin has the tendency to go all nuts, but I've been on the look out for good mattifying products to keep my oils at bay.
The Bioderma and the Shu Uemura Pureness mattifying moisturizer have been good to my skin, because they're very light moisturizers but they've been keeping my skin fairly matte.

Left:Bioderma Sébium moisturising mattifying fluid
Right: Shiseido Pureness mattifying moisturiser

Besides that, pimples had several parties on my face. Costume parties. As in, they were everywhere and in all forms. Whenever I'm need of a good zit killer, I take out the big guns: my Benzac Gel. This hydrogel contains 5% of benzoylperoxide. If you haven't heard of this chemical, it mainly dries out the zit causing it for it to DIE, mwoehahaha! Honestly, it's THE bomb diggity to get rid of any breakouts.

Benzac Gel

This passed month I had to go to the dentist, and I had to sit there for about 2 hours with my mouth open. This caused the sides of my mouth crack, and believe you me... it hurts like hell afterwards! I've done some research and I found out that Sudocrem appears to be a very good treatment for healing cracks. After walking around with those cracks for weeks, it healed after applying Sudocrem for just 1 day! Holy moly guacemole, right?
It's known to be a do-it-all for several things, such as soothing a baby's nappy rash, treat dry, cracked feet, get rid of red spots from acne, ... A big plus? It's hypoallergenic, so this will be fighting against those annoying allergic reactions!

Sudocrem

This month I've discovered my epilator and my tweezers again, because you know how we girls be, huh? :) I like to get rid of any excess hair that bothers me, and I have my Tweezerman to thank for. I used to use cheap tweezers and I must admit, nothing beats a Tweezerman. They're so sharp that they can get every hair out, yet they're not as sharp they can cut you. Great stuff!

Tweezerman

If you haven't read the recent last blog posts yet, I've been going on and on about how important SPF is. Recently I've discovered a sunscreen that can keep my face matte, and it has a high SPF factor. It's the Eucerin SPF 50. I'm not going into it too deep anymore, if you would like some more information on it, go ahead and give this one a read.

Eucerin sun fluid SPF 50

As for make up, since this is still a beauty blog, I have 2 drugstore eyeliners, and they're both from the brand Essence.
On the top you'll see the waterproof eye pencil that claims to be: waterproof, partyproof, lifeproof, lasts up to 16 hours and it's sharpenable. It's supposed to stay on NO MATTER WHAT. I must say that this does stay for quite some time.
The second eye pencil is a longlasting one. It's a supersoft eye pencil which is good for precise application.
They're both very good drugstore eye liners that's definitely worth the money! They're cheap (I only paid 1€ for each pencil), they're long lasting, they have a good pigmentation, they're easily accessible (drugstore). Worth giving a shot!

Top: Essence stays no matter what waterproof eye pencil: 01 midnight black
Down: Essence Longlasting eye pencil: 01 black fever

During the summer sales, I often have a peek through the sales boxes and this year I found a YSL cream blush. It's pretty pinkish color that will leave your skin dewy. You don't need too much of this: one or two swipes and hello healthy glow! I'm really glad I found this because I've been on the hunt for a good cream blush and I think I found my blush of the summer.

Yves Saint Laurent cream blush no6

As for lips, I have discovered Bourjois' Color Boost Peach on the Beach. It's a coral lipstick in a crayon form. A great color to wear for those who have been wearing lip balm forever and just started to wear lipstick :) A review of this goodie will be coming up soon!

Bourjois Color Boost: 04 Peach on the Beach

I like bright nail polish colors during the summer, especially for my toes! I've been rocking NYX's hot pink for the entire month of July. It's a fun color that will make your feet look more tanned than they're already are, 2 in 1, yeah baby!

NYX - Dance in Havana

Last but not least, I've been using an oil spray to tame those fly aways down and to make my hair more shiny. I spritz this oil in my damp hair and this makes my hair softer and gives it some shine which my hair has been lacking of. I'm not a fan of the scent, although a lot of those beauty bloggers love the Macadamia scent, but I'll keep on using this because it does the job.

Macadamia - Healing Oil Spray

These were my favorite goodies of the month. Mind sharing yours with me?

Discover beauty

Hello everyone!

I'm sure you've all heard of Birchbox, the Little black Bag, the Ipsy Glam Bag, ... As a beauty freak I've read/saw tons and tons of reviews on these beauty boxes. These are subscriptions to a certain site where you pay a fix (and low!) amount of money and every month you'll get a box filled with beauty goodies in it. GREAT idea! Only downside? It's only for those beauties who live across the world! :(

Then, one day, I started reading the newspaper and saw a little add on the new Belgian beauty box, called Deauty.

Deauty stands for Discover Beauty. I didn't want to post anything about it before trying it out. In the meantime I've received 2 Deauty boxes, and I must admit...I'm pretty impressed by the goodies! Deauty mainly cooperates with brands such as Biotherm, Clarins, Essie, Kiehl's, Shu Uemura, ...)

Just make sure you create your own beauty profile (what type of skin, type of hair, ...) and you'll get your monthly box with approximately 4 to 6 beauty products. Sometimes I even received full size products, so I do think it's worth the money for trying out new goodies.

Here below you'll find the pictures of the boxes I received. Now, since I've already used most of my products, I had to use the pictures from their website www.deauty.be.

They've put ALL available products on these pictures. This means I didn't receive all these products. Depending on your beauty profile, you won't be able to try out products which aren't meant for your skin or hair.


Deauty box October:

This is a picture from their website.

I received 6 out of 8 from this box:

• Biotherm serum (full size)
• Biotherm for combo skin
• Kiehl's lip balm
• L'Oréal mascara (full size)
• L'Oréal eye liner (full size)
• Shu Uemura hair oil

Deauty box November:

This is a picture from their website.

As for the November box I got 6 products:

• Kiehl's Ultra facial cleanser
• Kiehl's Ultra facial cream
• Paul Mitchell super skinny serum
• Nails polish corrector pen by Jean Marin (full size)
• L'Oréal Youth Code luminizer serum
• Clinique High Impact mascara

As for the quality, I must say they're pretty darn good :)
I'm sure I'll be continuing my subscription with them and maybe surprise a friend by gifting her Deauty boxes!

I'll try to review them as soon as I receive them, but I hope you understand I wanted to make sure they were good stuff before I post anything about it.

Until then, see you later Deauties!

Yves Saint Laurent base/top coat

As you all know I've been on the hunt for a proper top coat. I've always bought drugstore ones, and they haven't really been satisfying me. Last time I bought an Essie one, but unfortunately that has only cause trouble. My entire finger nail was coated with bubbles :(
So I had to continue my quest for a good top coat!






I was shopping recently for bargains and I accidentally bumped into a base/top coat by YSL. It was half price and thought: what the heck, I'll give it a try! And man oh man, I was glad I purchased this baby!

It does everything I expect a base coat to do, even more actually, it even acts as a topcoat as well, woohoo!








I must say, this is probably one of my best purchases this year! I'm even thinking of paying the full price for this when I'm done with this one!