Products I've used up August '13

Welcome back my dear blog readers,

As you've read the title you know what to expect from this blog post. Today I'll be talking about my empties. Let's kick this into high gear, aight?

Koji Dolly Wink mascara

Lately I've been experimenting with mascara's and trying to figure out which mascara will do my lashes good. The Koji Dolly Wink volume mascara sure has done my lashes good :)

It's a simple black mascara that doesn't smudge, gives volume, gives me the natural look and has a cute packaging.

Vichy Normaderm

I've talked about this before. I mostly use this whenever I have a breakout. I have to admit that this worked very good in the beginning when I started off using this, but lately it just hasn't really done much. I'm not sure whether it's because it dried out a little bit. I already purchased another one. If that doesn't do the job anymore, I definitely won't be repurchasing it anymore.

Eucerin sun fluid SPF 50

Every summer my face becomes one big freckle, haha! I've become more aware of my skin condition this year and I started wearing SPF...finally! I saw this sample laying at my dermatologist's office and decided to give it a try. The word 'mattifying' got me over the fence. Don't you have the problem as well that a lot of SPF's leave a rather greasy feeling on your face? I'm not saying this one doesn't, but it's just not as bad as others. You may think the SPF 50 is rather high, but I prefer a high SPF for my face just to make sure no freckle gets through. Admitting that I haven't seen one new freckly appearing on my face, yay for SPF!



 

Signal White Now

I've been using this tooth paste for a few months now, and I must be hallucinating, but it's like my teeth are a little bit whiter than before. I'll be switching to another tooth paste, so I'll wait and see whether it was the tooth paste or not.
I liked the blue gel combined with the white. If you didn't know, if you have a blue sheen on your teeth it'll give the appearance of them being whiter.

Those were my empties of the month. I've been experimenting with a lot of products lately. I'm guessing this year my empties will be accumulating, so keep an eye for it if you like these kind of posts! :)



I've been using tons of goodies the last couple of months, so keep your eyed peeled for more empties posts! :)

Hits & misses Jan-Jun 2013

Well hello there everyone and welcome back to my blog.

Today I'd like to share my hits & misses of the former month. I recall putting up a favorites of the month post last year for June 2012. I can't believe it's already been a year since I posted my favorites. Talked about consistency...woopsie!

Anyway, last month there were products I liked, but there were products I didn't like as well, so I decided to put a blog post on my hits&misses.

Let's cut the chit chat and jump right into it, shall we?

Hits

This month my lips have been dry as ever! It even dried out to the point that my corners started to crack which hurt like heck whenever I tried to open my mouth. I decided to put some Nivea lip butter on the lips so my lips could suck up all the moisture. It's not completely healed yet, but I'm getting there... As the name doesn't gives it away already, the formula is like butter, it's very creamy lip balm. Plus, it tastes so good, haha!

 

Nivea lip butter - vanilla & macadamia

Recently I caved in and bought some Embyolisse products. I'm still on the fence about the lait-crème on which I'll do a review soon, but I have been liking the hydra-mat emulsion.
It's a gel for normal and mixed skin which leaves the skin soft and matte.
It supposedly to leave the skin matte because it contains a natural derivative of corn starch which will absorb excess sebum and will reduce the shininess on your face. The apricot oil will tone and boost the skin and it contains the antioxidant vitamin E as well.

I've been liking it so far, although it doesn't keep my face matte ALL day long. I'm one happy chappy for this product keeping me matte for half the day!

Embyrolisse hydra-mat émulsion

If you've read my last year's favorites, you know by now I've been using the Clarisonic for almost a year now, and yes, I'm still a huge fan of this tool. It takes the dead skin cells off for me to look fab, hahaha! And I still like to combine my Clarisonic with my Bioré Acne gentle care oil control facial foam.

I've been treating my skin with love, but no product can keep those hormonal breakouts away. Here's when the Vichy Normaderm comes in, on which I've already done a review.
This baby dries out the imperfection so you can swing by life zit free, hahaha!

Vichy NormaDerm

Next to skin care products I do have a make up item to mention as well. I don't often think a product is wow-this-knocks-my-socks-off-like-nothing! But, I'd like to take the time to praise the one who made the Jealousness waterproof gel eyeliner (my review on it can be found here). This is the only eyeliner that will stay put on my waterline. As soon as you've put this into your waterline, it will not budge or whatsoever.

You probably know by now I have very oily eyelids and this causes for any eye product to give me panda eyes as the day goes by. Luckily this Jealousness eyepencil does NOT go anywhere unless you've want differently :)

I got mine in BK (black), but there are 6 other shades as well. And don't worry, one swipe of this eyepencil and you'll have a very pigmented waterline already.

Frankly, this is by far the best eyeliner I've ever used. For those who would like to give this baby a try, check out this website to get a hold of this eyeliner (Disclaimer: I'm not being sponsored for doing this blog post. All opinions are my own.)

Jealousness waterproof gel eyeliner - BK (black)

As I'm going from the top down, let's talk about nails :)
I've been ob-sessed with pastel colours recently. I still like to wear bold colours, but for some reason I always go back to my pastels.

Recently I've been rocking Diorlisse by Dior like crazy. It's a beautiful pastel pink colour which looks classy and put together, and will match with pretty much every outfit you wear.

And if I'm feeling like going crazy, I'll go pastel purple with Essie's Go Ginza! ;) It's a gorgeous lila that give your nails that hint of colour but still doens't look overdone.

As for my last hit of the month, let me just take a minute (and spray on some more, haha!). I'm talking about the Victor&Rolf's perfume called Flowerbomb.

Victor&Rolf - Flowerbomb

I accidentally picked up this bottle, smelled, sprayed and fell in love.

I never heard about this perfume before when I reached for this perfume bottle. As soon as I sprayed it, a magic of scents spread all over me and made me fall head over heels with this perfume.

As I suck at describing scents I looked it up and apparently it contains the following:
Notes: Sambac Jasmine, Centifolia Rose, Cattleya Orchid, Ballerina Freesia, Patchouli.
Style: Oriental. Gourmand. Floral.

It starts off quite sweet and dries down to a sweet, slightly vanillic dessert of amber and patchouli. The name Flowerbomb is suite misleading, as I don't smell a strong flower scent. Be assured that you don't have to like flowers to likes this perfume. If you're a lover of slightly sweet perfumes, this will be right up your alley.

Since every up has its down:

• quite expensive
• unfortunately the scent doesn't last very long on you

Nevertheless, this won't stop me from loving this perfume. Flowerbomb is the BOMB!

 

Misses

I have some dark spots on my face and when I saw these products I was too weak to pass it off. They're Garnier products which will treat dark spots, yeah right...

Garnier Dark Spot Corrector Daily Illuminating Moisturizer - Garnier Anti-Dark Spot Renovator Night

I'm not going to say that I expected immediate results, but these products just didn't do ANYTHING for my skin. The left one left my skin quite oily and the right product was just some gel I put on my skin before going to sleep. No no no, I won't be using these anymore.


Let's stick to the face and talk about another moisturizer. Yes, I did experiment quite a bit with moisturizers. I like to bring up the Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel on which I've already done a review.

I've heard so many people raving about this product. People who have combination to oily skin. I know by now that most gels work better for oily skins, but this was a bit too harsh for my skin.

Whenever putting this on, it moisturized my cheek area, but it dried out my chin area after 5 minutes. This forced me to put another layer of this gel or to put another moisturizer on the drier sides of the face.

I'm aware that some people use 2 different moisturizers for their face, but I like to use just one.

Besides, this gel had a rather chemically smell to it when applying. Luckily this disappears after the gel has soaked into your skin.

I'm not a fan of this Clinique product and has actually left me quite disappointed.

Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel

A few years ago I used the pore strips from Bioré. Apparently they changed their packaging, but I like to stick to products I know that work (normally...). I've been using the nose strips a few times and I'm not sure whether my little box is a bad one, but it just ... sucks! The date says it hasn't expired yet, so I'm hoping that mine is just a fault box.

Every time I use this, the white serum keeps sticking to my nose and when pulling the strip from my nose, the strip doesn't come off as one. The sticky side stays on my nose causing me to wash it off instead of tearing it off. It just didn't work at all. I can't do anything to help the product to come off more easily, because the strip is just too weak to be torn off.

A very big disappointment after being ecstatic for years about this product.

Bioré Pore pack

Last but not least, let's talk make up!
Who doesn't know CoverGirl? They're known for their Lashblasts and their red lipstick that Taylor raves so much about (for money, but still).

When I saw this eyeliner, I just had to pick it up, because who knows this is another great CG product. Well, it's not.

CoverGirl Perfect Point Plus eye pencil - 205 charcoal

I hoped this would be a dupe for my Benefit BADgal liner waterproof eye pencil, but unfortunately this smudged after wearing it for 2 minutes! No lie: I put it on my waterline, put the eye pencil in my bag, checked my phone for messages, looked into the mirror and saw a panda looking right back at me!

Luckily Taylor Swift isn't promoting this eye pencil, unless she's a panda look lover :)


These were my hits and misses for the first half of this year. What are your favorite products and what products do you really dislike and wouldn't recommend to anyone?

Review Vichy Normaderm

Raise your hand if sudden breakouts decide to pop out on occasions you want to look picture perfect? *tries to reach for the roof with my hand*

You know how it goes, you try to do everything before hand to look good for a special occasion: you've washed your hair, you've shaved, you know what make up look you're going for, you know what outfit to wear and right when you're ready to go to bed to get your 8 hours of sleep (uhum!) you look into the mirror and you see that a little friend on your face has decided to join you tomorrow, yay!

Then it's time to take out the big guns and kill your little friend, mwoehahaha!

I'm talking about Vichy Normaderm concentrate.

It's an active anti-imperfection concentrate to put on sudden localized pimples.

It's a green creme that contains salicylic acid that will dry out the breakout within 24 hours.

Preferably to put on before going to bed to let it sink in and take out that blemish before you getting up.

For those who are wondering, it does says it's hypoallergenic, so for those who have sensitive skin or whose skin is likely to have allergic reactions to products, this Normaderm is gentle enough to put on the skin.

You might have heard about the tooth paste trick: it's supposedly to dry out the zits. Please know that this can't be good for your skin. Tooth paste contains fluoride and for those withe sensitive skin: this can cause the zits to spread out even more!
And apparently, non-fluoridated toothpaste can irritate the skin as well. It might inflame the skin if it contains peppermint oil.

Be careful before putting a certain product on your skin by reading the ingredients. And should you want to try a certain product, apply it somewhere that you can cover up easily if it does cause irritation.
Please do realize that a certain product that works for your friend doesn't necessarily mean that it'll work for you too. If you're not sure what will work for you after doing tons of research, go see a dermatologist. (S)He will be gladly to advise you a product which is suited perfectly for your skin.

Good luck with your skin adventure!

Review Vichy Aqualia Thermal

Hi beautifoes! :)

I'll be doing a short review on a moisturizer today. I've been using this moisturizer for the past couple of months and since the summer's just a few weeks ahead of us, I thought it would be appropriate to review this baby.

I'd like a few minutes of your time to tell you something about the following moisturizer:

Vichy Aqualia Thermal moisturizer

It says that this is for those with sensitive skin among us. It will hydrate your skin for about 48 hours and it's paraben-free. I've chosen this because it's for normal to combination skin.

Does this measure up to what it claims?

Yes, it moisturizes my skin. Whether it lasts for 48 hours, is quite difficult to say since I do wash my skin every morning and evening... I guess I'll never be able to properly review the 48 hours hydration.
I have to admit that it does feel quite light, I don't feel anything heavy laying on top of my skin and your skin does sucks up all the moisturizer it can :) Next to that, it doesn't leave any grease on my skin, which is always nice since I have a super oily skin.

A good thing about this is that you don't need a lot to moisturize your face. Always good to have your money's worth, since the tube contains 40ml. 

Overall, I do prefer something which leaves my skin matte, so as I do like using this and I will use this all up, I will not be repurchasing this goodie.

Maybe this is good for those who are looking for a typical moisturizer without any specials needs?