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!

Best of 2012 TAG

Goodbye 2012 and hello 2013!

I've seen beauty guru's doing this tag and I thought: "Why not? Let's start this year's blog with a tag called 'Best of 2012'. 
And oh, I tag everyone to do this tag! If you do, don't be shy to share the link to your fav's of the year. Let's jump right into it, shall we? :)

My Favorite....

BEAUTY
1. Face product

Nivea Ideal Finish Mattifying powder: 04 sand

A drugstore mattifying powder. No matter how much you put on, this doesn't get cakey. I usually powder my face lightly after applying some concealer and leaves it mat for about 4 hours.








2. Cheek product

Benefit Coralista blush

I'm most of you have already heard of this blush, if not you already own this one!
I LOVE this blush!

It's a gorgeous corally color with some light shimmer to it. As soon as you apply some of it on your cheeks, it gives your face a certain glow (a nice glow, not the greasy looking glow!). And yes, you can build this color up to get some vavavoom on your cheeks!

This blush will suit a wide range of skin colors, so you can't go wrong with Benefit's Coralista!




 3. Eye product

Fairy Drops mascara

This mascara has become my holy grail. It gives volume, it lengthens and yet, it makes it look natural as the eye lashes are your own. I'm loving the waterproof version as well. A must have in my beauty kit!






4. Lip Product

Maybelline Baby Lips

As most of you already are familiar with Maybelline's Baby Lips, these Baby Lips came out in Asia. They're not exactly the same though.

The Asian ones aren't tinted lip balms, they just hydrate the lips like hell :)

Unfortunately I haven't got the chance to try out the US versions...








5. Skincare Product

Bioderma Sensibio H2O

This toner has gotten a lot of hype on the internet. It's a toner which I use to remove my make up with, or if I'm not wearing any make up, I'll still use this to freshen up my face. In spite of my combination skin, I 'm using the one for sensitive skin (which I have as well). I have just read a lot of good things about the red bottle (sensitive skin) compared to the green bottle (combination skin).







6. Nail Polish

Sasatinnie - Rose

I bought this polish when I was in Hong Kong. Unfortunately I can't seem to find this on the Sasa website. It was 'buy 1, get 1 50% off'.

It's a gorgeous corally, pink color that's great during spring and summer.

You know I LOVE my polishes, but if I can only choose one for the year 2012, it has to be Rose.








7. Hair product

Biosilk Silk Therapy

This hair serum should be applied on towel dried hair and makes your hair freakishly soft! :D I like the scent because it's non-chemical and not overpowering. A must try!






8. Body product/Perfume

Christian Dior perfume: Addict To Life

I'm very bad at describing fragrances, but this smells sooooo good! I had to cheat and look up some words to describe the scent: rose, floral, slightly woody, fruity, musky and sweet. I have definitely fallen in love with this perfume and am considering of buying another bottle (which I have never done :O)
Only downside? This is quite expensive...






FASHION
9. Clothing piece

H&M skinny jeans

Man, have I lived in this pants during 2012 :D
They're a skinny low waist jeans, but do stretch which makes it comfortable to wear this pair. Often when I wear skinny jeans, it can get quite uncomfortable because it's just too tight. Thanks to the 2% elastane, it makes it wonderful comfy! They do have some distressed details, which makes it more "edgy" ;)












10. Accessory

ASOS glasses ring

 



 I got my pair from an asian website, but apparently these can be found on ASOS as well. You can easily bend this ring bigger and let it fit appropriately to your finger. There's quite a wide range of colors you can choose from: red, black, blue, white, even gold!
A cute accessory, for almost no money, and which will give that umpf to your outfit!








11. Pair of shoes

New Look boots

I have a pair in camel color, but unfortunately (after wearing them a gazillion time), they're worn off. Thanks to a friend, who was still a college student at that time, I used her discount card...mwoehahaha! You can easily style these boots with pretty much anything: with skirts, dresses, skinny jeans, ... Loved these!



RANDOM
12. TV Show/Movie

Dexter

This is without a doubt Dexter. For those who don't know the show, it's about a loveable blood spatter analyst who works for the Miami police department. During his secret life his dark passenger (himself) kills criminals who got away by the legal system. A quite addictive show that knows how to keep the tension!








13. Book

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

For those who don't know me very well since I only talk about beauty stuff, I'm a huge sucker for books :)
I have always loved reading (except when it was obliged at school, haha!). But this year, I accidentally picked up the first book of 50 shades, and didn't know what to expect at all. After finishing the book and liking the story, I suddenly noticed a lot of hype around this book. My friends asked me whether I've heard of this book, seeing a lot of commercial in the book stores, ... Then I found out the 1st book I bought was part of a trilogy. I bought no2 and no3. By then this book became viral, all my friends kept talking about this book, people talking about this on television, ... It became HUGE! I loved the books. I read them in Dutch the first time, but I read the books a 2nd time in English, just to compare, because books are never translated exactly the same.
E.L.James, I'm sure you didn't know what was coming at ya girl!







14. Food

sushi

 I learned how to make sushi early 2012, and I've made sushi whenever I was in the mood for some raw fish :)









15. Beverage

SPA water

I had to taught myself to drink water, since I used to be a soda junkie.
I have to admit: I like drinking water and only drink soda whenever I need some sugar. I can't imagine going through a day without drinking any water. Only downside? I only drink SPA water (Belgian brand)... Water all the way!







16. Song

Emeli Sandé - Our Version of Events

The first time I heard Read All About It, I fell in love with Emeli's voice. I started to get into her and looked up some songs. Around the beginning of April, a friend of mine invited me to go to her concert. I didn't hesitate for one second, and man oh man, it was the greatest concert I have ever attended! I've already bought another concert ticket for 2013 and I'm soooo looking forward to it! :)








That's it beauties, wish you all a happy new year! May 2013 be even better than 2012! :)

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! :)