Favorite products of the month: February 2014

Hey hey! Welcome back to my blog and today I would like to share my top products of the month. Since I was on holiday for half October and half November, this will combine my fav from both months :)

I've been loving my L'Oreal Triple Active Fresh moisturizer for combination skin. If you haven't read my review on it, please click here to give it a read. It's a gel-cream formula that will moisturize the face. Since the weather has been cold since October in Belgium my skin couldn't go through the days with a light gel formula. It clearly needed something heavier. I even dare to say that I like to compare this to the Biotherm AquaSource gel for combination skin. L'Oreal, you surprised me with this one! Very good!

L'Oreal Triple Active Fresh gel cream

Another face product I've been loving is the Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil for combination or oily skin. This is an oil that you put on your face to treat the oils on your face. Yes, you got it right. Use oil to fight oils. This has worked against my blemishes and I have to say that this keeps my oils at bay. I always wanted to try out a Clarins product and when I saw this was on sale I was excited to try it out, not knowing whether it was a good product or not. I did some quick research on the spot before buying it and it turned out for the best for me.

Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil

I've been on the look out for a gently cleanser. I've done a lot of research and the products of which people say it doesn't dry out the skin, it does with me. Until I came across this Kiehl's cleanser. It's a gel formula and foams up as soon as it comes into contact with water. This actually does cleanse my face without stripping the oils of the face. I can actually walk another 5 minutes around without having that feeling that my skin is getting tight. I got this goodie in my Deauty box, and I'll planning on purchasing this as soon as I'm finished with this sample.

*Kiehl's*

I can't have a favorite-product-of-the-month-post without including any lip balm. This month the crown goes to Maybelline Baby Lips (the American version). I've been liking all 3 I bought: Hydrate (blue), Intensive care (yellow) and Cherry Me (orange). Hydrate is on my desk to apply during the day, Intensive care is on my night stand to apply before going to bed and Cherry Me is in my purse to rock that subtle red color on my lips. They're affordable, cute, hydrating and have a lovely scent to them. Baby Lips, I welcome you in my heart :)

Maybelline Baby Lips

Well, I guess this is it y'all. Go ahead and share some of your favorite goodies with me in the comment bar below. Until next time! :)

Review Clarins' highlighting pen

Highlighter, a make up item that a lot of newbies tend to skip.

I was never a fan of highlighter. I always thought of it as something that would make me oilier than I already am. No need for more oils.

Until I did some more research on it. See it as a tool that could pop out the features you love as opposed to bronzer to contour which you can use to suck in the features you want to hide.

I don't do a lot of highlighting, but if I do I like to use it on my under eye region.  I like to draw a triangle and that can brighten the face instantly.
Other places you can use the highlighting pen for are:

• center of the forehead (because light naturally hits you there)
• above the eyebrow (gives the illusion of lifting up the eyebrow)
• brow bone (same reason as above)
• inner tear dot (to make you look more awake)
• under eye bags (the highlighting can cover up the darkness under the eye)
• cheekbones (this makes your cheekbones stand out)
• nose bridge (to make your nose bridge stand out higher which gives the effect of having a slimmer nose)
• cupid's bow (especially when you're wearing a bold lip, this can make all eyes go to the lips)

Maybe some of you know by now that I'm a true newbie when it comes to highlighting. I didn't use any of those highlighter for my inner eye corner, my under eye area or and other areas on the face that can use some of that magical light.

When I knew NOTHING about make up I went along with this friend of mine who bought the YSL Touche éclat. Little did I know it was a highlighter. Yes, I was such a woos I bought the things she bought, because I thought 'well, if she likes it, I'm sure I'll like it too!'. And oh, did I mention that I bought her shade instead of a shade that would suit me? Dumb dumb dumb :)

After doing some research on make up and its techniques, I asked the sales woman to find me a shade that would match me. I have to admit, I still didn't use it immediately, I was scared by putting extra product I wouldn't really need.

Basically the touche éclat is a highlighting pen on which there has been a lot of buzz around. When I bought this, I had no idea it was a HG for many beauties out there. But now I'm into beauty stuff, I realize this pen has got a lot of hype around.

I had the YSL touche éclat in shade no 1 and was too pink for my yellow undertone.
Since Belgian shopping policy sucks (you can't return anything which is already opened), I kept it in my beauty collection for years, just because it's pretty to look at :p But just a few months before I started my blog, I threw it away, so unfortunately I can't show you mine. But I'm sure a lot of you know how the YSL Touche éclat looks like. They're known for their sleek gold packaging and their logo in black with a subtle hint of red.

To set another highlighting pen across the famous YSL, I bought one which is less known and has the same purpose. 


Clarins Instant Light Brush On Perfector

This highlighter is also a twist up pen and look gorgeous as well in your beauty collection.
I have this in the shade 02. I'm not sure whether this suits me the best, but 02 works fine for me. 

As the shade from the YSL is too pink for me, I prefer the Clarins one. The formula are both good. In spite of the wrong shade I still prefer Clarins. It's more affordable, it gives the same results and looks just as pretty as the high end one.

A lot of people use this as a concealer, but honestly... this obviously won't work as good as a real concealer. The touche éclat is a highlighting pen, not a concealer, let's just make that clear.



Clarins is a little  bit cheaper than the YSL one, so I'll stick to Clarins should I want to use a highlighting pen in the future. What would you choose?

Review Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil

High end brands, they make you feel like a million dollars and they cause your wallet to want to jump out of your purse whenever you walk into a beauty shop.

I tend to use mostly drugstore items, but I have to confess... There are times I become a woos and I splurge.
Last summer I was walking through the beauty alley and I saw that some of the products of Clarins were on sale. Yes, I justified it because it was on sale.

I got myself the Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil.
It's a yellow oil that you put on your face to treat your skin. This is towards those with oily or combination skin. You may be thinking: Lily, I already have enough oils on my face going on and now you're saying to slather on some more oil? Really?!?

Yes. I'm telling you to treat your oily faces with oil. as crazy as it may sound, this actually works.

This product is made from 100% of pure plant extracts. All natural for those who are wondering :p

Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil

After cleansing my face I put 2 drops in my hands, rub it and press it into my skin. If you massage it well, this will sink into your skin. Just give it some time for the oil to do its work.

I do have to mention the rather medicinal scent to the product. For those who don't like heavily fragrances, this may not be your cup of tea. When massages into the skin you can still smell a subtle hint of the medicine.

I have been using this for a couple of months now, and I have noticed less blemishes and less oily skin.

Since you only need a few drops of this, I'm sure this bottle will last me quite a while.
I spent 24€ on this bottle, with discount. Normally I won't spend that much money on something I've never tried before, but ... once in a while won't hurt, right?

Let me know if you've tried this as well. What do you think about this oil fighter?

Colors of the Rainbow TAG

Hi everyone! I've seen this tag going around like a fruit fly smelling sweets :) So I decided to do this as well.

If you don't know what this tag is about, you should basically name a product you like according to the colors of the rainbow. In exception the last 'color' which is a multicolored item you can pick. Without further ado, let's jump right into this tag:

Red

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip top coat

For all those polish junkies out there, this shouldn't come as a surprise: Sally Hansen Insta Dri.

This top coat is hands down one of the best top coats I've ever used.
I like how this covers the mistake you've made with your polish. One coat of this and you'll have a flawless mani! Plus, this baby dries in just a few seconds.








                                                                                        Orange

Bourjois Color Boost: 03 Orange Punch

I would have to mention my Bourjois' crayon in Orange Punch. It's a fat stick that's a tinted lipbalm. It's smooth, gives a subtle color pigmentation and it's from the drugstore. It doesn't give a true orange tint to the lips, it's more of a coral color that leans to the orange side. This is probably one of my best buys of summer '13.






Yellow

Clarins Lotus Face treatment Oil

I haven't shared much about this product, but that's because I'm still trying this out before sharing my thoughts on it with you. This Clarins' oil is for treating the face to get it less oily. Sounds weird? If you'd like me to do a review on it, let me know in the comment bar below.





 




                                                                                                            Green

Macadamia Healing Oil Spray

I've purchased this healing oil about a year ago, but I've only been using this product consecutively for about a month.

I spritz this oil when my hair is damp. This makes it more easy for me to comb through. When my hair's dry I notice my hair's shinier and less dry.

It might be a detail to some of you, but I like it how this oil comes in a spray.







Blue

Clarisonic Mia

I kept thinking what product I could use for my something blue. Looked around my room, checked out of make up collection and then suddenly my little light bulb went on: my Clarisonic Mia is blue!

See it as a electronic toothbrush, only bigger and for the face, haha!

You can use this with your cleanser of choice and go over your face with the brush. It will get the impurities out leaving your face squeaky clean.






                                                                                                            Indigo

Britney Spears: Midnight Fantasy

I was hesitant to put this as my indigo item, because I only use this for special events during the winter.

Since I suck at describing scents, I looked it up:
In the top notes there are exotic framboise, black cherry and plum. Floral midnotes followed by warm vanilla base notes.
It's a quite heavy sweet fragrance, so be aware. But if you like the scent of blueberries and vanilla, this will be right up your alley :) 






Violet

MAC Girl Trouble

This is a silver based lilac with a metal finish.

If you look closely you'll see glitter in the bottle, but rest assured that the glitter is so densely packed that you won't even notice it on your nails when applied.

As most polishes with fine glitter, it isn't easy to take it off. But honestly, the color's so pretty that it's worth fussing about.

                                                                                                            Pink

Fairy Drops Platinum waterproof mascara

Fairy Drops! Fairy Drops! Fairy Drops! If I haven't stressed it enough on my blog, I LOVE this mascara!

This mascara has fibres which will elongate your lashes, and the thick wand has a curve to it too make your lashes curl better when applying mascara. If you want to check this baby out, click this link to get you some.








Multicolor

Batiste dry shampoo

Over the last years dry shampoo has become a staple in my beauty collection. I have very oily roots and dry ends, so I try to avoid washing my hair as least as possible. The last couple of weeks I've been experimenting by washing maximum 1 to 2 times a week and use dry shampoo for those greasy hair days.

Most cans of Batiste have more than just one color, so I decided to put this as my multicolored item.








Try to pick out one product for every color of the rainbow. So... *tick* You're it! Do this tag and share your answers 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!