First Aid Beauty: Ultra Repair Cream

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know by now that I have a combination to oily skin. But when I went to NYC, my skin dried out like nothing else. My l'Oréal gel moisturiser did not help at all, so I had to find a solution which hydrated my skin without making it burst out into oils.

I found the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream at Sephora. I've heard about it onlline and it has gotten a lot of good reviews, so I thought I'd give a fair chance. If I didn't like it for my face, I could still use it for my body.

First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream

As soon as I opened it, I was surprised it looked like a thick cream. Yes, it would give back the moisture I need, but will it make me look shiny as well? Luckily it didn't. It's probably due to the cold weather I had there.

Back in Belgium, where it's not warm but not as cold in NYC as well, I tried this out on my skin.

I must say, this cream does absorbs fairly quick and well. I'm quite pleased with this product as I will be able to use a cream. Me! A cream! :)

It's fragrance free, free of parabens and it's safe for those with sensitive skin.

I bought a travel size as well in case I would like it. Turns out I kind of love it! I'm also bought the cleanser, which received good reviews as well. I'm excited to give that one a try and I'll keep you all posted on it!

Review L'Oréal Triple Active Fresh gel cream

Well hello y'all!

In this blog post I'll be talking about a moisturizer, yes another moisturizer. I've been experimenting with all different kinds of moisturizers and although they all work and still don't fulfill all of my wishes, I haven't found my HG yet.

When I saw this lying on the shelf I didn't have too high hopes for it. The thing that caught my eye was that this is a gel.
As soon as I opened it, I immediately thought of Biotherm's Aqua Source which is a light gel like texture. Whenever I applied it to my face it actually felt like putting Aqua Source's brother on my face: it's a little bit heavier than Biotherm's moisturizer. Aqua Soure is a very light gel cream, which is fresh and gets absorbed into the skin like water. This is a tad thicker, feels fresh on the skin as well and absorbs easily too but not as quick as the Biotherm one.

L'Oréal Triple Active Fresh super hydrating gel cream

I've included this moisturizer in my beauty regime. I cleanse my skin and put some of this on before I go to bed. It hydrates my skin without being too greasy.

The only thing that put me off was when I was reading the ingredients. This contains parabens. These are chemicals being put in cosmetics to preserve them. I try to use as less silicons and parabens as much as possible. Although this feels great on my skin and I'll be finishing this product, I won't be repurchasing this.

Review Catrice camouflage cream

Hi there dear visitor :)

Today I'll be reviewing a drugstore concealer for you. It's by the brand Catrice and it looks a little like this:

Catrice concealer: 020 Light Beige

This concealer is very creamy with high coverage. I've been on the hunt for a good high coverage concealer but I just couldn't splurge the money on a high end product. The only thing that I don't really like is that you have to dip your finger in it, which makes it unhygienic. I had the same problem with my one and only high end concealer by Shu Uemura, where it came in a little plastic pot. In spite of that I loved that Shu concealer, it was one of the best concealer I've ever tried. It was probably due to the yellow undertone it had.



Catrice swatch

Well, guess what undertone this Catrice concealer has? Yup, yellow! Slight yelllow, that is, but still! It's not easy for Asians to find a right concealer in the Western drugstores.

The packaging is actually quite sleek looking. It's a little black container, of which you have to screw the top part off. It's simple, but nice.

You get about 3g in each jar, and it's not a lot, but I did pay about 2€, so I can't complain on that department.

As for the longevity, it stays on my face for pretty much the entire day. It didn't come off until you rub it off and the creaminess makes sure those dry patches disappear. Oh yeah!


Long story short, this little jar has got some magic inside I tell you! :)

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 Bourjois cream blush

I think Bourjois is doing great: they've recently released beautiful make up items that really stand out to me: the So Lacque Glossy Nail Lacquer Shades came out in a gorgeous range of pastel colors, the Color Boost glossy finish lipsticks are great quality and came in 4 different colors and recently I found the cream blushes that happen to be awesome :)

These cream blushes are actually cream to powder blushes. This means that they're cream in the little pot, but once applied they come off as a powder. It's very soft to the touch when it's applied. These blushes contain poppy, apricot and mango butter extracts. These extracts will make your sking more glowy and softer.

Bourjois cream blush: 04 Sweet Cherry

They're all very natural colors and would suit those with a lighter complexion better.

The Cream blushes collection has 4 different colors:

1. Nude Velvet: the lightest matte color in the collection. 
2. Healthy Glow: A darker version of the first one. A warm peachy color with subtle glitter.
3. Rose Tender: A pink color with subtle glitter.
4. Sweet Cherry: The darker version of 3, an old spice matte color.

I have a light medium skintone and I own Sweet Cherry. The other colors were too light for my complexion, but the 4th blush is a perfect match for me. Loving this!

Tips&tricks:

• Apply cream blushes with a stippling brush. Fingers are a good make up tool as well. Just make sure your fingers are clean before dipping in the blush.
• Apply cream blush on the naked face. Make sure to put cream blush before powder. Remember: fluid on fluid and powder on powder.
• To make the color stand out more, apply several times or apply a powder blush of the same color on top of it.

Have fun beauties! :)

Butter 'em up please!

Nivea lip butters

Hi everyone!


Recently Nivea launched a few lip butters (I'm sure you've heard of them by now, but I still wanted to give a little review on them). I've heard that these have become a HG for some people out there, so as a huge lip balm freak, I  just had to give these babies a go.


There are 4 different scents:
the original, vanilla & macademia, caramel cream and raspberry rosé.


I got 2 of the lip butters, namely the vanilla & macademia and the raspberry rosé. (2 tins on the right)

Pro's:

• contains shea butter and almond oil, which makes it easy to glide on the lips
• lovely scent
• 4 different kinds to choose from
• although it's a tin, the cap is easy to take off

Cons:

• tin, which makes it quite unhygienic. You have to dip in with your finger to apply the lip balm.
• leaves milky cast which needs to be blend out
• absorbs just a little bit (it's mostly sitting there to protect the lips) 

Maybe these would be even a better success if they would come out in a stick form, since a lot of those beauties are quite fond of their hygiene :p

I must say, I've limited to using these at night because of 1. the milky cast and 2. I like the buttery consistency, but since it doesn't absorbs very easily I rather let them sit on my lips overnight to make them soft to start the day. (and yes, I do' apply other lip balms during day)

As you can see, these have their pro's&cons.
I like them, but I don't absolutely love them

Is this my HG? No.
Would I repurchase them? No.

Overall, they're ok, but not THE best lip balms I've tried :)

BB VS CC

You've probably already heard of BB cream, or also known as blemish balm cream. It's something between a tinted moisturizer and a foundation. Some well known asian BB creams are:
            

But I've recently heard there'll be new creams coming up: CC creams!
CC creams stands for color control creams. What that means? An improved BB cream! I haven't got the chance to try it out yet, but I'm not sure I want to to be quite honest... Some examples of the CC creams are:
                                 


The CC creams have everything a BB cream has, only it's more moisturizing, gives more sun protection and has a lighter texture. Biggest advantage of CC creams? They have an oil-free formula which sounds quite appealing to that greasy face of mine :)

 I'm sure looking forward to trying it! Are you?