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?

NOTW Naked Pink

And I'm back with another NOTW!
This week I've been rocking Naked Pink, which is perfect for summer!

NYX - Naked Pink

Unfortunately the picture doesn't do the nail polish color justice. It's a real bright, in your face, kind of color. Since this does apply a little bit sheer, I did have to put on 3 coats for it to look like the color in the bottle. For the money I spent on this nail polish (which was practically nothing), I don't mind putting on several coats. Luckily my Sally Hansen's top coat makes the polish procedure a lot faster!

It's a very fun color to put on your nails and will look great with pretty much every outfit in the summer. A bright polish that truly screams SUMMER! :)

Blush away!

Hi everyone!

I don't know about you guys, but during fall and winter time I just love using my blushes!
Recently I bought myself a NYX blush, and I must say: this one's goooorgeous!

I try to do some research on a certain product before I go out and buy it. If there's about 1/3 negative reviews on it, I won't buy it.

I've probably read a ton of reviews and seen youtubers reviewing and raving about this blush over and over again.

And yes, I gave in.

Here's Pinched by NYX:

Great thing about this?
It's affordable and you get 5,2g in a little pot. Hold it! You're probably thinking: 5,2g (0,18 oz)? That's nothing! Believe you me that you only need the smallest amount of blush, because it's very pigmented :)

NYX: Pinched

 

This is a a rosy-corally blush with a pretty sheen to it.

My most used blushes are:

Melba, Pinched and Coralista :)

MAC: Melba - NYX: Pinched

MAC's Melba is a light pink orangy color, which is more of a summer blush for me. Tap it lightly with your brush and that'll be more than enough to put on the (hollow of the) cheeks.

NYX: Pinched - Benefit: Coralista

Benefit's Coralista is like an all year round blush. No matter what season it is, I think this blush looks good.

It's a very light blush that you can easily build up for a more heavily made up look. I prefer to use a light hand on this, so it looks more natural like you just ran out the door.

A side note: it's just one of those colors that would look great on every skin tone.

Here's a swatch of every blush mentioned above:

Benefit - NYX - MAC

From left to right:

Coralista by Benefit: a baby pink with microshimmers (good to know: I've had my Coralista for a few years now, and I haven't hit pan yet! Score!)

Pinched by NYX: a coral shimmery color

Melba by MAC: a mat pink/orange color

I have some other blushes put away in my beauty case, because I just keep on reaching for one of these blushes.

I always wanted to try out Deep Throat by NARS, because NARS is the queen in blushes :) But I've put myself up to the task to use an entire blush before I go out and splurge money on a NARS blush. Beam me up! 

Maybe I'll do a blog post on my entire blush collection :)

Would that be interesting?

And what is your favorite blush by the way?

Lippies

If there's one beauty thing I won't be able to live without, it would be lip balm.
Every single friend of mine knows I'm addicted to those lip sticks, and it's even better if they'd have a nice scent :)
Here's some of the lippies I bought or was gifted over the past few months:

Waterlip: Peppermint

First up are Lip Ices: I have them in Peppermint and Apple scent.
They last quite some time on the lips, are hydrating and the scent is lov-e-ly!

Lip Ice: Apple

Peppermint: The strong peppermint scent is quite strong, but very cooling on the lips.
They say mentholatum is used for severe chapped lips: smack some waterlip on and bye chapped dry skin!

Apple: This mentholatum lip ice has got an apple flavour (duh?!) and it contains SPF 15 to give some extra protection for the lips against harmful sunray.


Second up is a lip butter from Korres. I bought this because I head so many good reviews on it. I have it in the Pomegranate scent, and I ADORE this lip butter! It's hydrating, creamy yet not sticky.

Korres lip butter: Pomegranate

     

Besides the cute packaging, the lip butter's smoother than smooth. The tint is quite sheer, but smells sooooo good!
Definitely one of my favorites and planning on getting other scents :)






I received a Cherry Culture lip balm when I ordered at Cherry Culture, and I got this Watermelon lip treatment. It's an okay product. I probably won't be purchasing this on its own, but it's nice to have given this lip balm a try.

Cherry Culture lip balm: Watermelon

When I was in HK earlier this year I bought a Revlon lip butter in Creme Brulee. Unfortunately this color was far too light for my lips, so I decided to go for a darker color: Macaroon.

Revlon lip butter: Macaroon

It's like an old spiced rose color with gold sparkles in it.
I just love the creamy formula of these lip butters!

Swatch Revlon lip butter: Macaroon

After buying all these lip balms, I thought I'd be ready for the grown up version: lip sticks! Haha! I bought myself a coral lipstick by L'Oréal: the Caresse line. It's a bright coral color which is a freaking awesome color, but I just don't think it suits me. Back to lip balms I assume...

L'Oréal - 301 Dating Coral

As you can see here, you can choose how bold you want the color to be depending on how many times you go  over it.
     

Swatch L'Oréal: Dating Coral

In my Deauty box I got a Kiehl's lip balm...YAY!! I always wanted to try this, but I was just not able to spend that kind of money on one lip balm of which I wasn't quite sure whether I'd like it or not (thank you Deauty!). You probably guessed what I'm about to say: like like like! They're so hydrating and makes sure my chapped lips disappear like that! The thing is: I promised myself I'd use up all of my products before buying anything else. In spite of how much I like this, I noticed this does contain parabens (=chemicals used as preservatives in cosmetics). Will I be repurchasing this? Probably not, but can't help but loving this!

Kiehl's lip balm #1

Then my friend gifted me these 2 lip balms:

Yes, they're lip balms with cupcake and bacon flavour.
I must admit, my friend and I are both suckers for flavours, packaging and names, regardless of the quality :D

Are they the most hydrating lip balms? No.
Are they bad lip balms? No.
Will I purchase these myself? Probably not.

But I sure can scratch trying bacon lip balm off my to do list. Only in America folks! :)

Swatch NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss: Natural

After seeing so much hype on YT on this lip gloss, I
gave in and bought it. Unfortunately I was quite disappointed by these lip glosses. Yes, the color pay off was very good, but I dislike the sticky feeling of this gloss. A big miss for me...

NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss: Natural

My friend gave me a very cute lip balm:

Oh yeah, it's actually called moustache lip balm (just in case you wouldn't be able to recognize the shape of it, haha!)

Once a sucker, always a sucker for packaging? Yeah baby!

 Moustache lip balm: raspberry

These last couple of months I started getting obsessed with tinted lip balms...

First up is the:

NYC Applelicious glossy lip balm:
Big Apple Red

NYC Applelicous glossy lip balm in Big Apple Red.

They're like a glossy lip balm with a hint of color. The lip balm is actually quite interesting: it's got a apple shape lip balm in the inside which contains shea butter, jojoba oil and avocado oil and the outside has the color. For the price I paid (2,59€), these are the bomB (yes, with a capital letter b at the end!).

And my last purchase is ...

... the HEMA lip balm stick.

Which brand?

If you're not living in Belgium or the Netherlands, you probably won't know this one, but it's a Dutch (from Holland) drugstore with cheap cosmetics.

Swatch HEMA lip balm: reddish plum

It's a tinted and moisturising lip balm. Best thing about this is you never need to sharpen this since it's a twistable lip balm.

I bet this concept sounds familiar?

Yup, it's clearly based on the Chubby Sticks by Clinique. (Another dupe are the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Lip Stains)
Since these are quite cheap, I probably will be repurchasing these goodies!



So, these are the most recent lip products I added to my collection. I told you I'm addicted to lip stuff, right?
Anyways, if you have any recommendations on lippies, please let me know in the comment section down below 'cause I'd be more than happy to try them out! :)