Favorite products of the month: September 2013

Another end of a month means another listing of my favorite products of the month!
Maybe you've noticed that I haven't been doing these king of post every month, that's because I usually use the same products for quite some while.

The products that do make it to the 'favorite products of the month-post' are or awesome products I use on a regularly basis or I've discovered them recently and I just want to share them with you.

Anyway, enough chit chat for now, let's jump right into it :)

My face has been very bad to me the last couple of weeks. I've been using my Benzac which contains 5% benzoylperoxide to treat the blemishes, I've been using my Clarisonic more often and I've rediscovered a scrub to get rid of the dead skin cells. You've probably heard of this scrub before, it's the St. Ives Fresh Skin Apricot scrub. This scrub is the Allure readers' choice award winner and yes, it is quite good actually. It comes out as a pinkish white cream with orange beeds in it to exfoliate the skin. As the name gives it away it has a pleasant apricot scent which isn't too overwhelming. After using this scrub my skin feels very soft. A good alternative to my Nivea Visage Pure Effect Peel Soft which is more a mattifying scrub than it is an exfoliating scrub.

For facial make up products, the waterproof Jealousness gel eyeliner has been taking care of my smoky eye looks. These eyepencils go on very smoothly, no tucking, no going over the same place more than one time to darken it up, good pigmentation, ... By far, one of my favorite eye pencils! I got this pencil from an online Asian beauty shop, if you want to try it out as well, click here :)

Jealousness: waterproof gel eyeliner: black

I've been digging the Bourjois cream blushes. They're a cream to powder blush and the old spices color Sweet Cherry is a wonderful color for my complexion.

Although summer is coming to an end, the oils on my face haven't decided to call it a day. They've been excited to come out since summer has started. To solve this problem, mattifying papers have been my best friend. I've been using several ones, because I keep a certain brand in my purse and some in my make up bag. Catrice, Sasa, Clean and Clear, ... they all get the job done, so I don't really care what brand they're from.

I have been loving lip stuff lately, well actually always, but I've discovered some great lip goodies the last couple of months. Not just the regular lipbalms, but the tinted versions.
One of Korres' best selling products is the lip butter. These are little pots with a scented and tinted lip balm in it, but dang...they're good!

Korres lip butter: Pomegranate

I've done a blog post on the Bourjois Color Boost glossy lipsticks before. If you'd like to give it a read, click here. They have a good pigmentation, are quite cheap and they're cute looking. If you haven't seen them before, they're basically like a big fat crayon to color in your lips.

Bourjois Color Boost glossy finish lipsticks

These have been my fav's of the month. I'm still trying out a bunch of new products, time will tell whether they will make it to my next favorite products of the month! Until then, see you soon!

Review Avène mattifying fluid

Hi beautiful :)

Today I'll be reviewing a moisturiser from the brand Avène. If you haven't heard from this brand before, their products are based on the spring water. This makes sure that the soothing, anti-inflammatory and calming qualities from the water remains in the Avène products. It is mainly for those with sensitive skin who can't really cope with the overkill of chemical ingredients most brands add.

If you have heard from Avène, you're probably very known with the Thermal Spring Water Spray. This is one of their best selling products.

I'll be talking about the Mattifying Fluid, a face moisturiser that will hydrate and mattify your face, so it claims. This product is for people with normal to combination skin, and you all know I have more than enough oils on my face!

When I applied this for the very first time, I was happy with the results. It wasn't too matte and gave it a dewy finish. Unfortunately, this dewy finish became a lot more dewier than I wanted to. My face became quite oily after 3 to 4 hours.

I'm not sure whether my skin still needs to adapt to this products, but I have to admit I'm not very pleased with this moisturiser. I'll give this product another chance to proove me wrong, but so far... I ain't a happy blogger :(

To be continued...

NOTW: Rose Moiré

I finally got my hands on this polish. I've been eying this one for weeks and after stalking several shops I can finally say that I'm a proud owner of Chanel's Rose Moiré :)
 

Chanel - 593 Rose Moiré

This polish is from Chanel's newest collection. It's a greyish pink polish with a pearly finish.

I decided to leave my nails abit longer for this look, because I wasn't sure whether my stubby short nails would look good with this varnish color.

I have to admit that it's a quite streaky when applying, but a topcoat can cover some of that messy application.

Normally I do 2 coats, but I'm putting this polish to the test by putting only 1 coat. We'll see how long this will lasts on the nails...





Yes, Chanel is quite expensive polish, but I do have to say that I don't have anything in my collection like this. I have quite the pearly polishes, but this particular greyish pink color put the 'u' in unique. 

I'm not a huge fan of Chanel, the brush isn't all that great, but some of the colors are very easy for the eye. Until I see another stunning color, I probably won't be buying any other Chanels anymore...for now :p

Beauty meets food: Gonna boil myself a tea bag

Since I have Chinese roots, I was bound to drink tea each and every day when I was little. I have to admit that growing up, my tea liking had diminished, but that doesn't take away how healthy and yummy tea is. 

Next to that, you can also use a tea bag for beauty purposes. Keep on reading if you're wondering what a tea bag can do for you :)

• Face
• Skin: I like to use different face cleansing methods: scrub, foam cleanser, Clarisonic, ... To make sure my face doesn't get used to a certain way of cleansing, I like to have an occasional face steam. I like to boil some water in a large bowl and add some tea bags. I like to use mint tea (for the fragrance) or green tea (for its antioxidant properties). Put a towel over your head and bend over the bowl. The towel should act as a wall so the steam can't escape. The steam will open your pores and hydrate the skin. As soon as the steam is gone, take a handkerchief and dip it in the tea and rub it over your face. Your skin will feel silky smooth and clean.
• Eyes: Cool tea bags can be used to de-puff your swollen eyes. Press the teabag slightly on the eye for about 15 minutes. The tea's acid will de-puff the eyes and reduce the puffiness in the eye area.
• Body: In case you forgot to wear SPF when you were out in the sun and you got yourself a sunburn, a tea bag (green tea especially) can sooth the burn which takes the ache away.

As I already mentioned, a tea bag is used to drink tea. (Well d'uh?) Drinking tea is very healthy for the body. It's commonly known that tea contains antioxidants which is a great source for antioxidant nutrition.
To sum up just a few advantages from drinking tea are:

• it can reduce the risk of heart attack
• it might protect against a lot of cancers
• it might provide UV protection
• it can improve bone mineral density and strength
• it hydrates the body

Next to these 5, it has a lot more positive effects to the body than you think. The only thing I can say is that tea is VERY good for you. Just make sure you have actual tea such as green or black tea. Herbal tea is not a real tea!

This was my last blog post on the series beauty meets food. I hope you liked this serie and I surely hope you've learned something from it and tried it. See y'all soon!

Beauty meets food: I don't eat no ham 'n eggs

 
To egg or not to egg?
By eating eggs, you'll get some vitamin B, proteins and a whole lot of nutrients in your body. The feeling of being full will withhold you from gravitating towards snacks. Let's see what other things an egg can do for your body.

• Brain: Egg yolk contains vitamin B and choline. Choline is important for neurotransmitter function, cell membranes, liver function and lipid metabolism. Pregnant women, this one's for you: choline's supposedly to be good for you too because it stimulates the development of the baby's brain.
  If that wasn't enough good news, egg yolk helps to produce the happy hormones such as serotonin and dopamine. 
• Face:For those with hyper pigmentation here's a face mask you can easily make. Take some lemon juice and egg white, mix it up and apply to your face. The lemon juice will whiten the areas where you need it and the egg white will tighten those pores. Wash it off with cold water after letting it sit for about 15 minutes, et voilà, hello fresh face!
• Body: Haven't you noticed that a lot of sport athletes prefer eating eggs after a work out? That's because they need to take in their proteins. Egg whites can be absorbed entirely by the body.  
• Hair: Since you have some egg yolk left over from your face mask, use this to condition your hair. Egg yolk contains proteins to fight against hair loss, moisturizes and strengthens the hair.

How do you like your eggs? In your mouth or for beauty purposes? :)

Beauty meets food: Oh honey, honey, sugar sugar

Honey, just a delicious sweetener, or is that much more?


Let's go over some of the home remedies you can make with some honey:

• Hair: Have you been out a lot during the summer? Is your damaged from the UV rays, chlorine and the humidity? Well, let's pop out a honey mask to bring some shine and to take care of those split ends you have. Mix 1 cup of water with 2 table spoons of apple vinegar, 5 drops of rosemary oil and 1 tea spoon of that delicious honey. Leave it in for about 10 minutes, rinse it off and welcome back shiny hair!
• Face:
• Lips: Who doesn't dislike dry, chapped lips? Take some olive oil, brown sugar and a bit of honey, mix it up and scrub away! Your lips will be ready to be kissed like it has never been kissed before :)
• Scrub: Personally I like scrubs with bigger beeds in them, it makes me feel like my skin is actually being cleaned. But some of you prefer scrubs with the tiniest beeds. Instead of going out to the store and buying one, why not make one yourself? At least you're sure of what you're putting on your skin, right? Take your lip scrub, add some lemon juice and apply it to your face. This will get rid of the dead skin cells and it will leave your skin as smooth as a baby's bottom.
• Breakouts: Honey is antibacterial which will take on the impurities in your skin. Redness will reduce when honey is applied to sooth the inflammation.
• Body: 
• Throat: If you mix some pure honey with water (and maybe a tad of lemon juice), this can soothe a sore throat.
• Bath: Did you know that legend has it that Cleopatra loved taking milk&honey baths? Milk contains AHA (Alpha Hydroxy Acid) which can make the skin more firm and smooth. Honey contains enzymes will make the skin softer. Who needs fancy bath bombs if you can take a bath in Cleopatra style?
• Wax: Sometimes you just don't have the time to go to the beauty salon and get something waxed. You can make your own wax by mixing water, honey and brown sugar (lemon juice can be added if desired). Cook the sugar and water until it's caramelized, add the honey (and lemon juice) until it has reached it's boiling point. Set it aside and let it cool off before using it on your body.
• Scarves: Scarves, you're stuck with them for the rest of your life once they have appeared. Put on some raw honey, cover it with a bandage. Remove it the day afterwards and clean the skin.
• Sunburn: Although you should always wear sunblock before going out the door, a sunburn can always occur. Apply some honey to the sunburns to alleviate the pain.
• Moisturize: Add honey to some shea butter and you have just created your own moisturizer.

As to my first question... It's so much more than just a sweetener :)

Beauty meets food: Oh my hair smells like chocolate

tyyu!è § ,wsftyké:àç!èyktkazeee v cpmoi

Oh, I'm sorry, I was just wiping the rest of the chocolate away that fell on my keyboard.
For real, who doesn't likes to eat chocolate from time to time. Ladies? Don't you hide now, I need you to back me up on this one.

But hey, for all you chocolate lovers out there, did you know that eating chocolate is actually healthy! YAY! I'm not saying that you can finally justify eating tons of chocolate, but it has got some benefits that I think you should know. Let's jump right into it, shall we?

• Hair
• Dull: Let's start off with a dark chocolate hair mask? Sounds good? All you need is honey, yoghurt and dark, unsweetened chocolate. Wrap it up with a plastic foil so the mix can do its job. Rinse it off with cold water after letting it sit in for about an hour and hello shiny hair!
• Length: Dark chocolate contains iron, calcium and 10 kinds of vitamins and minerals. By eating a tiny amount of dark chocolate on a daily basis (yes, every day!), you'll get much healthier and stronger hair!
• Skin
• UV-protection: Have you ever heard of flavonoids? They're like antioxidants that can protect your skin from sunburns, redness and other signs of damage caused by UV. Did you know that you can actually recover and moisturize your skin with dark chocolate after it has been exposed to the sun?
• Anti-ageing: Cocoa in chocolate can reduce the stress hormones, which means that collagen won't go anywhere, and that means less wrinkles.
• Dry skin: Remember that dark chocolate contains iron, calcium and 10 kinds of vitamins and minerals? Well, these make sure that your skin is being nurtured as well which will give it that dewy look you always try to create with your foundation and highlighter.
• Body
  
  • Heart: Guess what helps to protect blood vessels from rupture, enhance the activity of vitamin C, prevent inflammation of the body? Yes! Flavonoids! These can actually lower your blood pressure and reduce your cholesterol by up to 10%. 
  • Mind: Did you know that dark chocolate can actually serve as a feel good treat? It can give you that mental boost whenever you're in need of it. It stimulates the production of endorphins, which are chemicals in the pleasure section of the brain. Next to endorphins, we also have serotonin which acts as an anti-depressant. No wonder we gravitate towards chocolate when we're feeling a bit down...

Whenever it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Well, in this case, it's actually false. Chocolate is good for you, especially dark chocolate. Can I get a whoot whoot!! *cricket noise*

Anyway... Do you know any other chocolate secret that you use in your beauty regimen?Go ahead and share with me, because I'll be more than excited to try it out!

Beauty meets food: She wore lemon

Lemons.
Pro, they can be refreshing in your beverage.

Con, they make you make funny faces.
Pro, it can take the fishy smell out of a fish.
Con, they are just way too sour.
Pro, it can be your bbf (yes, bbf), your best beauty friend.

Let me tell you about the benefits a lemon can have for your beauty regimen. And let's face it, who doesn't have a lemon laying around in their kitchen? If you're really one of those exceptions, I'm sure the supermarket isn't too far away from you.

Lemons have calcium, vitamin C, magnesium, kalium and minerals, which are healthy for your hair, skin, teeth and nails. If you're thinking "wow, good stuff those lemons", you're wrong. Bare in mind that lemon juice cannot, again canNOT, have too long skin contact. Please do pay attention to the warnings in the explanations.

This being said, let's get this sour party started!

• Hair
• Dull: Nowadays there are plenty of people who like to color their hair. If they go lighter, the hairdressers use chemical bleach on your hair. Instead of using something chemical why not use lemon juicy? If you add a bit of lemon juice to your conditioner, brush it out, go sit in the sun for a few hours and wash it out afterwards. Warning: Sitting in the sun for too long won't do good to your hair. If you want to have your hair lighter, repeat this process until satisfied. It may take longer and you may not be putting anything chemical on your hair, lemon juice can dry out your hair.
• Dandruff: Do you have a dry scalp? Do people keep asking you whether it's snowing outside? Do you happen to have coco oil, honey and lemon juice near you? Well, then let's start making your own hair mask! Mix the 3 ingredients, let it work into your scalp for about 10 minutes and rinse off with a lot of water.
• Teeth: Who doesn't want whiter teeth? You can easily make your own teeth whitening home remedy by adding baking soda to lemon juice. This will bubble when mixed and can be applied to your teeth with a cotton swab. Warning: Let it sit for about a minute, depending on how sensitive your teeth are. Afterwards make sure to brush your teeth because otherwise the lemon juice will erode your teeth.
• Skin
• Breakouts: Lemons are antibacterial, period. This can be used as a natural method to fight against those breakouts. Just rub some lemon juice over your face, let it work in for about 5 to 10 minutes and wash it all off with water. Warning: Do I need to say to be careful to not get the lemon juice into your eyes? If so, rinse it off with plenty of water.
• Hyperpigmentation: Unless your skin is perfect and don't have dark spots or scarves from former breakouts, you can skip this part. The sour of a lemon juice can lighten the dark spots on the face.
• Oily skin types: Those with oily skin types, I got your back folks! Lemon juice can be used to soak up the oils on your face. Warning: Don't overdo this because if your skin thinks it's too dry it will produce some more oils, and we do not want more oils on our slippery faces!
• Body
• Armpits: Did you know you can lighten your dark armpits with some lemon juice? You can cut the lemon so that you still have something comfortable to hold, put some sugar on top of it and rub it into your armpits. The sugar will exfoliate to remove the dead skin cells and the lemon juice will make the darkened armpits lighter. Warning: don't do this after you've shaved. your skin's already quite sensitive and eventual razor cuts and lemon juice don't really go together.
• Nails: If you didn't know, yes I'm a nail junkie. If my NOTW's aren't good enough of a proof, I'm a nail polish hoarder who likes to try out all colors of all brands. This had made my nails quite brittle and yellow. To strengthen them and get their original color back, just apply a mix of some olive oil and lemon juice.

Do you have any home remedies you'd like to share using lemon juice? Or let me know whether you have tried out one of these remedies. Don't be shy and keep me posted in the comment bar below.

Announcement beauty meets food series

Hi everyone,

This blog post will be rather short.

I would like to announce that I'll be posting a short series of articles this week about home remedies with ingredients you can easily find at home. These posts should help you in how to improve your beauty regimen.

I was inspired by reading recipes in magazines and thought of how some of the key ingredients cannot only be used to feed the body but also to take care of the body from the outside.

People have published a lot of articles on these ingredients before, but these has been given the true Mistletea-stamp to it (aka: these might work better on some of you than others. There are remedies I've mentioned that I haven't tried, but I've heard or read a lot of experiments and information from friends, magazines, beauty salons, etc. I did try the majority of the remedies and they did work on me)

Should you be interested, keep those eyes peeled for some beauty-meets-food information :)


P.S.: Should you recognize any of the songs in the upcoming post titles, go ahead and tell me in the blog post's comment bar below!

NOTW: That's Berry Darling

Yes yes yes, I have another NOTW ready for you readers!

Let me introduce to you a gorgeous polish:

OPI: That's Berry Darling

I don't own a lot of OPI's, but this is one of my favorite polishes from the brand. It has a creamy texture and is opaque with 2 coats. The polish is a dark pink, almost pinkish red.

I'm a huge fan of natural and pastel colors, but every now and then I love to slap me on a sexy color. This is a great transition to a red, of you're not confident enough to wear a bright red.

A great color that has convinced me to step over to the colorful world of OPI :)

Review Essence Glow tinted lip balms

Hi there!

Yes, you can expect another review on some tinted lip balms. And yes, I really am a lip junkie. I bought myself 2 tinted lip balms by the drugstore brand Essence.

When I swatched these, I was quite surprised by the pigmentation. If you know me, you know I like natural looks and even though I choose pigmented lip balms I still prefer them to be quite natural looking and no too overpowering.

Let's have a look at them:

Essence Glow tinted lip balms

The packaging is simple, but I like the simplicity of it. They're small, so very convenient to throw on your purse and the twist lip balm is great for hygienic reasons. The color of the packaging show what color it is, which is good for those lazy people like me :)

The first thing that I noticed when I opened it was the scent. It has a sweet candy scent to it, which doesn't bother me because I have a sweet tooth (not that I'll be eating it, but at least I don't mind it).

As you can see I own 2 shades:

Essence Glow tinted lip balm: 01 Light Up!

Essence Glow tinted lip balm: 02 Glam Up!

They're both more hydrating than I thought they would be and the color pigmentation is greater than I expected. The creamy texture to it makes is easy to glide on the lips.

As for longevity, they last about 3 to 4 hours. It will come off when you drank or ate something. So don't expect any magic to happen.

Here below you'll find some swatches to check out the color:

left: 01 Light Up! - right: 02 Glam Up!

Light Up! is a red tinted lip balm, although you shouldn't expect a deep red from it. remember they're lip balms and apply sheer on the lips.

Glam Up! is a coral lip balm which is a very subtle pretty color on the lips. It gives you the natural look.



If you look closely you'll notice a subtle difference, but from a distant Light Up! looks almost the same as Glam Up!





Whenever buying drugstore products, I try to withhold my excitement until I get to swatch them. I have to say that some of the drugstore brands really have stepped up their game.

I've always seen Catrice and Essence together. Both brands have significantly grown packaging and quality wise. Although you only pay a few euros as a matter of speaking, some products are actually very good. It's quite obvious if you look at the price ranging: you just can't expect the best of the best from a drugstore brand.
I think Catrice and Essence are great brands for those who just got into make up and are looking for very affordable make up items.

I can only say: experiment, experiment, experiment. There are times when I even think that some drugstore brands can beat higher end products. Don't judge a book by its cover. You may be finding your HG in the drugstore section :)

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! :)

NOTW: 20

Let's face it, I'm a wuss when it comes to trying out bright colors. It took me quite a while before I dared to wear bright pink and red polish. I'm still a huge fan of natural colors such as nude or light pinks, but I'm slowly stepping out of my box of polishes :)

This NOTW will be something different than what you're used to see me wearing:

HEMA 20

To tell you the truth, I was a bit uncomfortable wearing this color. It just wasn't really me.

Aside from that, I've already talked about these HEMA polishes. Long story short, they're good. They apply smooth, one coat is often enough with bright or deep colors, they're cheap and they're tiny (because be honest, who here has actually finished a nail polish bottle?)

This orange color is no exception to the HEMA polishes, but the color's just not really my cup of tea. Good stuff nonetheless :)

Review Clarisonic Mia

If you've been reading my blog since the very beginning, you probably know I purchased a Clarisonic Mia a while back. After reading all that buzz on Youtube and other beauty blogs I decided to get pamper myself and treat my skin better. Here's my blog post on when I bought it longer than a year ago. I promised to do a review on it after using it, but first let me tell you a little bit about the brush it self.

Clarisonic Mia

Basically the Clarisonic Mia is like a huge electronic toothbrush, but for the face :)

It comes with a charger, an international plug, a cleanser and a brush head.

I like how simple the brush is since there's only 1 button on it: the switch on button, that's all. No fussing about when to press which button.
 
Pro: you can use this in your shower since this is waterproof.





Whenever I used this, I wet my face, put some of my cleanser on the brush and click the only button there is. The Clarisonic has a one minute timer as soon as you push the button.
Move the brush gently in small circular motion. Here's my routine:

1. wet my face with some warm water (this will open up the pores)
2. wet the Clarisonic brush
3. put cleanser on brush
4. go over my face
1. left cheek: count to 10
2. nose: count to 10
3. right cheek: count to 10
4. forehead: count to 10
5. nose: count to 10
6. chin: count to 10 
5. massage the product into the face for another 5 seconds
6. wash it off
7. go over the face with some cold water (cold water will close the pores)
8. wash my Clarisonic
9. dry my face a little bit with a towel (although a paper towel would be better)
10. put on moisturiser (if your skin is still a little bit damp, this will suck in the moisture better than if your skin would be totally dry)

Clarisonic claims that using this tool will remove the impurities, leaving the skin softer, smoother and beautiful:

• Cleanses 6 times better than with your hands in just 60 seconds
• Works with skin, not against it, to gently massage away impurities trapped within pores
• Prepares skin for better absorption of creams, serums and moisturizers
• Gentle enough to use twice a day

I don't use the Clarisonic to cleanse my face. I usually take off all make up with a make up remover, and then I go over with the Clarisonic to exfoliate my skin.

You can also get brush heads for acne, delicate, normal skin or the body brushes.
I got the brush head for sensitive skin, because I was scared that using this tool would cause my skin to go red or worse. I have to say that my skin does feel softer after using this.

I only use this once or twice a week, but I've been contemplating on using this more often now I've seen that my skin has gotten used to it.

As for the cleansers, I tend to switch my cleansers quite often. I've used Purity by Philosophy, Acne foam by Bioré or the Biotherm cleanser. No matter what cleanser I used, the Clarisonic hasn't let me down once.

You might be scared by the reviews saying that they've broken out a lot before it got better. Do know that this is completely normal. This tool gets all the impurities out of your skin (=worsening of the skin) and then it'll get better because all the goop is out.
I have to admit that I did not experience this. My skin immediately reacted very well to the Clarisonic and my skin has become more smooth.

I've gone through months without using the Mia and my skin has gotten worse. It's clear that my skin is loving the Clarisonic :)

This has definitely become a staple in my beauty routine. I truly understand why those beauty bloggers have been raving about this all this time. Makes me wonder whether I should get the PMD or not? What do you think?

NOTW: Fruit Drink #3

Yes, another NOTW is coming your way! :)

This week I went for my well trusty coral polish, surprise surprise. And although this is a Korean brand, my friend got me this polish when she went to California.

Skin Food Fruit Drink #3

Another coral polish to add to my collection, but I guess you can never have too much corals. Very pretty nonetheless.
The Skin Food polishes apply very smooth. You can get away with just one coat, but I went for 2 anyway, just to make sure :)

Since my friend got me this polish, I have no idea how much this costs. Should I get the opportunity to buy Skin Food's polishes, I'm sure I'll be snatching a few of them.

Review Maybelline baby lips

YES! I finally got my hands on the Maybelline baby lips!
These have been raved about in the beauty community (mostly the States) for years, and when I went to Hong Kong last year I saw that they had released an Asian version of them. I snatched about 6 with me (because I'm crazy like that) and yes, they were goooooood!

But still, as soon as I heard the American versions were coming to Belgium, I kept my eyes peeled as they've never been peeled before, haha!

You might be thinking, jeesh chill out, they're just lip balms. That's true, only...they're not :D

Most lipbalms contain shea butter, oils to soften the lips. Some of them even contain SPF. The Baby Lips have all that, except they have something that most lipbalms don't have: centella asiatica extracts. This extract is taken from herbs which will help your chapped lips heal in no time!

Above that, they have a variety of 5 different lip balms (they have 6 in the States, but for some reason the 6th lip balm wasn't good enough for Belgium :p):

• Hydrate (blue): lemon and basil scent
• Freshen (green): mint scent
• Repair (yellow): cherry and almond scent
• Cherry Me (orange): cherry scent
• Pink Punch (pink): passion fruit scent

Side note: Hydrate, Freshen and Repair are translucent. Cherry Me is red tinted and Pink Punch is ... what do you think? Why yes! Pink tinted!

Maybelline Baby Lips: Hydrate, Repair, Cherry Me

On the packaging it claims to do the following for the lips:

• hydrate
• give it a better look
• protect
• soften

These will keep your lips hydrated up to 8 hours, are light as a feather on the lips, protect it from sun rays (thank you spf 20), have a pleasant scent to it and are cheap as hell.
I paid 3,99€ for each one, but I've read that they can be cheaper, depending where you get them. 

Soooo... Next time you're in the drugstore, get one, try it out for yourself and let me know what you think of the wonderful world of Baby Lips :)