Favorites of the month: May 2012

Oh May, May, where are thou May? We're already June and that means: monthly favorites...yaaay!

I discovered some things that will last for quite a while in my beauty/skin care routine! Some of you may know that I recently purchased a Clarisonic, I'm liking it so far, but since I haven't been using it for a long period of time, it'll probably pop up in my next fav's. Anyway, less chit chat, more make up!

I'll start off with the eye make up: recently I bought Urban Decay's Naked 2 palette. I finally splurged on a must have according to a lot of beauty guru's.

Urban Decay Naked 2 palette

I've written a review on this, so feel free to check this out :) It's a neutral cool eyeshadow palette which contains matte to shimmery shades...LOVE-LY!

Recently I've been experimenting more with make up, but it's been a pain in the but to take the make up off before going to bed. But thanks to the invention of make up wipes, it made the job much easier! I've been using the Yes to cucumbers make up wipes to take everything off my face. These soothing facial towelettes cleanses, removes make up and nourishes the skin...all in one swipe! They remove all of my make up (actually, the remove all of my concealer and setting powder since that's pretty much all I wear). It's so much easier than actually cleansing it with a proper make up remover cleanser. Yes, I am lazy, now you all know :)

Yes To Cucumbers facial towelettes

Let's stick to face, shall we?
I've been using the Nivea Pure effect scrub a couple of times a week. It's a very light scrub with micro beeds in it which makes it less harsh for the skin. Something that got me over the fence of getting this is the matte effect it gives after washing your face, and my face LOVES matte effects :)

Nivea Pure Effect peel soft mild scrub

I have a combination skin (oily on the T-zone and dry cheeks). The scrub is perfect for my oily T-zone but the dry cheeks do require a moisturizer, enter Nivea Pure effect Control Shine mattifying gel. I like using a gel during the warmer months of the year so it's less rich on the face. And you've probably figured out I like using this because it gives me a matte finish. It says on the bottle it doesn't contain any oils, but ocean minerals (but I'll leave that up to you whether that's true). I've been using this gel on a daily base and I thought it deserved its place in my monthly favs :)

Nivea Pure Effect control shine mattifying gel

 
Pretty happy nails for this month! My friend borrowed me her Play Day from Mac, and boy oh boy, did I fall in love with this nail polish! It's a gorgeous coral/salmon color which is bright but not neon-bright. It's the perfect color for summer if you ask me. Only downside to this is that this polish is a LE, booooooo! Unfortunately these were sold out in the first week they came out on the market. MAC, if you read this, please put this one in the permanent line? *puppy eyes*

Mac Play Day

And we're nearing the end of this article...boo!
But not to worry, I'll be posting again soon and before you know it, another month has passed and I'll be writing my FOTM for June! :)

Favorites of the month: April 2012

April 2012, 'till never!
I had a great month: first dance lesson in years, first Emeli Sandé's concert, started working again, birthday, got to see my great friends, ... overall, great month!

I don't have a lot to show for this month, because I've been using a lot of the same products from last month.

Let's start off with eyebrows. I've always used drugstore eyebrow pencil, but unfortunately they were always a bit too brown for me. I just never found one that was a bit grey/light black, until I found this eyebrow pencil from Lioele...yay! It's got a pencil on one side and a spooly on the other side. Lovely pencil!

Lioele Auto Eyebrow pencil

Then off to eyelashes! I've tried a lot of mascara's, and I now know for sure that European drugstore and high end mascara's (YSL, Maybelline, Bourjois, Yves Rocher, ...) don't do the job for me. Asian mascara's on the other hand actually do keep my keep my eyelashes curled, lengthens and gives volume to them. One of my HG mascara is definitely the Fairy Drops mascara.

Fairy Drops Scandal Queen

Next up is blush! I've been a huge blush freak lately and I own mostly drugstore blushes aside from my MAC blush. I've read a lot of good reviews on the Shu Uemura Glow On blushes, so I decided to spoil myself with one of these babies! I intended to get the Soft Coral one, but the sales guy recommended me this pink one. If you want some more information on this one, go ahead and check out my review :)

 

Shu Uemura blush pink 30

And I'll end this fav of the month with nail polish! I was always the girl who loved neutral colors and was afraid of using brighter colors...until 2012! I love wearing bright colors on my nail such as red, brighter pink, green, blue, purple, ... all the colors of the rainbow :D If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably know where I got these 2 Sasatinnie nail polishes from...yup, from Hong Kong! They have this huge drugstore called Sasa, and you can honestly find EVERYTHING there! It's been one of my must go's whenever I go to the other side of the world, haha!

Sasatinnie nail polish: left: P573 Rose - right: Q23

I must admit that it looks paler on the picture than in real life. It's this beautiful toned down hot pink...aah, just love it! But seriously, if anyone ever goes to Sasa...get these nail polishes. They need 2 coats, but they're cheap as hell and have an amazing color range!

Sasatinnie Rose

Anyways... that was it for this month! Hope you all enjoyed it and stay tuned for more beautilicious goodies! :)

Favorites of the month: March 2012

Tired of reading 'I can't believe the month flew by and it's already April'? Well too bad, because it did fly by and I am surprised it is already April! :D

I was quite excited to write this post because it'll be my first 'favorite products of the month'. I love watching/reading these posts of fellow beauty youtubers/bloggers. It proves how products can work out differently to people. It can be their HG or it can be the why-did-they-make-it kind of product.

Anyway, enough of the chit chat! Favorites, appear thyselves!

First of all we have a product I've already reviewed before, it's the Maybelline baby lips.

Maybelline Baby Lips: smoothing cherry

This lip balm doesn't only look cute, it hydrates your lips like hell and it smells SO good too! The HK Maybelline baby lips are different from the ones you can get in the States. In HK they're available in 4 flavors: cherry, berry, mint and orange. Now, each and every flavor has its own purpose. Cherry takes care of intense moisture and smoothing, berry makes sure your lips are protected, the mint one is medicated for repair and the orange baby lips makes your lips hydrated. These are all translucent and don't have a color pay off. And oh, have I mentioned that they all have an SPF of 20?

Since I have the typical Asian eye lashes (read: droopy, straight down looking, short eye lashes), I need a mascara to make my eyes appear more open.

Dolly Wink: volume mascara

If you haven't heard of the Dolly Wink line before, it's a Japanese brand and they've decided to collaborate with Japanese model Tsubasa Masuwaka. She's made the packaging so cute you can hardly resist to try out the products! And yes, the quality is darn good!

This mascara lengthens and gives volume to my lashes. The thing I like the most about this one is that it gives a boost to my lashes, yet it still looks natural.

Last favorite face product is blush!

Mac blush: Melba

After hearing so many good reviews on it I couldn't wait to try out this product after buying it. I'm really glad I listened to the beauties out there...I simply LOVE this blush! It's a peachy/apricot color and it warms up your complexion in an instant. This blush is very well pigmented and has a matte finish: one slight dab of the brush and it'll be more than enough!

Hair! Hair! Hair!

Lush shampoo: I Love Juicy

I'm sure many of you have already heard of Lush before, so I decided to walk into a Lush shop. First reaction: huuuuuuuuhhh, so many scents, don't know where to look, where to start,... I did some research on shampoo to wash my let's-fry-some-chips-on-that-hair with and tadaaaa: I Love Juicy turned out to be my hair's best friend!

I have tried A LOT of shampoo's to take care of my oily scalp and dry ends, but nothing has really wow-ed me. I used to wash my hair every other day. Now I wash my hair every other 2 days with the I Love Juicy. This shampoo has a very strong fruity scent. The fruity ingredients are pineapple, mango and kiwi and then there's sea salt for volume and seaweed extract to make your hair squeaky clean.

I mainly use this on the roots so it can get all the oils out of my hair and I TRY to condition the ends of my hair every time I wash my hair.

The only downside to this goodie is the price. But if it keeps doing its job, I won't mind paying that extra bit for a product that works wonders on me.

"You can tell a lot from a person's nails" - Ian McEwan

Catrice: Walk On Air

Unfortunately Catrice is only available in Europe. But what I like about Catrice in general is that they have pretty good products for the price you pay (which is peanuts!). I've discovered their nail collection a few years ago, and since then it's my favorite drugstore brand for nails. Their range of color is amazing AND they regularly have new nail polish collections which are LE. The nail polish you see above is called Walk On Air and it's from the Hidden World collection. It's a peachy color with purple shimmers...SO BEAUTIFUL! It's the perfect peachy/coral color for spring and summer and it's just one of those colors that makes you happy no matter what :)