Falling in love with Kevyn Aucoin and Hourglass

I often buy so much make up that I end up losing count of what I have bought forgetting the beloved package in my car, or in my bag somewhere.  Same happened for two products that i have been on my shopping list for quite some time- the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette , and the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer.
I have read hundreds of blogs and watched hundreds of Youtube videos on these products and decided that they simple must move in with me.
Now, maybe they deserve an individual blog post each- but I'll just spare you the trouble and join the reviews for both of them together.
First thing's first : the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette. I have a fairly light skin - and after only swatching it once i love love loved this product.  It has three colours in it. the Dim Light, the Incandescent Light and the Radiant Light. On my skin, which is on the fair side , the Radiant Light worked as a bronzer - blusher. I can only get away with using it on my cheeks - and in all honestly I see no use of that when I could use a normal blush or a highlighter. I have higher hopes for it come the summer season . (If I decide to tan that is ). My favourite of the palette is the Dim Light. It gives a very soft glow to the skin , almost as if a candle is lighting your face. For me, this works perfectly, as I tend to reach for my Hourglass before dinners. I still have very mixed feelings about the Incandescent Light. I have used it on numerous occasions, and I stick to the purpose of setting my foundation.

The texture applies very easily, and it does not look caky on any other base products that you may have. The only concern that I have with this pallet is that when you are applying it with a brush, the product flies away quite a bit all over the palette. Maybe it is the wrong blusher brush i am using , or maybe its me developing OCD - but i can say this factor annoyed me quite a bit.
aThe other product is the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer .  I put of buying this product for a couple of months, because Anna from Viviannadoesmakeup reviewed it and she said it was very difficult to apply and that she didn't like the product. But that review could only hold me for so long - and then i went and bought it .

I do agree with Anna, the product is quite difficult to blend  - but I choose to ignore that factor, and instead concentrate on how little of a product you need to use in order to cover the whole face. Literally I dabbed my brush in the pot twice, and it was enough for my whole face and neck!! The product has quite a strong coverage , so it is very important to find the right match for  your skin. I use the colour SX 05 which to you makes no sense because you don't know my skin colour. ( i am fighting the urge to type a hahahah in that sentence ) So my verdict is that if you have the time this is an amazing product, but it is not going to work if you have only five minutes to spare before you dash of the door. Another idea that popped into my head is using this product as a concealer . I shall try that tonight and keep you posted on how i get along....



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NaturaBisse Vitamin C for skin

We all know that serums are very important. Thanks to the wonders of marketing most of us (me included) tend to believe that serums are in fact much more important than the mousturizers we use. I have had a love and hate relationship with serums over the past few years. I used to think they were very heavy and for mature sking, but now they have become a very important part of my skin's life.

Lately I have been using a serum by NaturaBisse every morning. It is their C+C Vitamin Complex (Concentrate Serum with Vitamin c 6% ) I didn't quite like this product when I first bought it as it made my skin tingly - which I hate because I have an allergic skin. I also felt like everytime I use this product my sunscreen wouldn't blend to my skin propoerly. So hid it somewhere and completely forgot about it. 

I decided to give it another try last month, when I came accross an article which stated that Vitamin C is very important for skin - especially for those people who hang around in smoky environments too much. The article affected me so much that I ran back and slathered the NaturaBisse on my skin - and voila, it was love at second sight. 

It goes on to my skin quite easily and it no longer causes that tingly sensation. The only negative thing about this cream is that it smells quite citrusy which is quite norml given that it is packed with Vitamin C. It gives my skin a fresh glow, and pshycologically I feel like  it protects my skin from smoke and environmental pollution. (is that too silly? ) 

I come to think that maybe the reason why I didnt like it was because my skin was going through an oily patch in the summer - and I live in a country that is always 30+ C in summer.. 

Conclusion - i love Naturabisse 

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My Evening Skincare Routine - with loads of SK-II

I took a random picture of  my skincare products yesterday and decided it would make a nice instagram post and a nice topic for a blog entry .
I tend to stick to the same routine for a month at most - and then before I know it I'll get bored of one or more of the products and go purchase something else and use that instead (This should explain my beauty cabinet beiing so overfilled with products)

I use about 3 different cleansers at the moment (that's my next blog entry right there) but I tend to favour Emma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa Cleansing Balm at the moment .I apply it to my face, massaga for as long as my patience allows, and then clean it off with a muslin cloth.  Once I am done with that I go ahead and start using products that I purhased in the flury of my Japanese skincare obsession.

First comes the SK-II Facial Treatment Clear Lotion - which is basically a toner with a fancy name. I try to wait as long as I can between each step so that the product has a chance to penetrate into my skin. This is especially the case after the next step which is my second Toner/Lotion of the routine - SK-II Facial Treatment Essence. This product is largely talked about in the beauty community, and I have been testing it on and off for the past 3 months. Initially I used to put a bit of product in my palm  and apply it all over my face ( just like a man applies after-shave :) ) but I find that a bit annoying now, so I just apply it like a usual toner.  The main ingredient of this product is pitera which is apparently the reason as to why Japanese sake brewers' hands never get old.

Im still not happy with the products I use for the next step. If I had to pick one product, I would go for the La Mer Eye Balm Intense, I do a few dabs under and over my eye, and try to ignore the fact that it makes my under eyes quite shiny. This is a problem I have with all eye creams that I have tried so far, which is why I am still on he look for the next amazing OMG IM IN LOVE  eye cream

I know it is getting a bit monotone now but I also use the SK-II products for the last 2 steps of my routine. Firstly I applly  my SK-II Stempower Essence, trying to go all the way down to my deccoletage followed by the SK-II Stempower as a mouisturizer which i have already mentioned in an earlier post.

It sounds like a lot  of products, but the whole process deoesnt take more than 5-6 minutes,  and believe me when I say it is not long before you start looking forward to this part of evening when you will have a chance to unwind and give a fresh new start to your skin...

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The Day Your Skin Decides To Get Old

There is that one day in everybody's life when they discover that odd  wrinkle on their face and get absolutely mortified. For me, that day was yesterday. I discovered 4 wrinkles. On my forehead. Bad.

I don't know why but on some reason went really close to the mirror yesterday , and there they were - narrow but long lines that were cutting through my forehead everywhere. Immediately, I imagined myself as a thirty-something year old with deep wrinkles. I had to do something, I had to be quick. I reached to my beauty cabinet. 

I decided that using a  chemical peel was bound to get rid of those thin lines. So I slathered on Paula's Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant on my face. (I usually quite like this product, and I am totally obsessed with the 4% BHA foam treatment)

After a quick calculation I figured the next best thing I could do was to heavily mouistirize. I reached out for the Josie Maran Pure Argan Oil Light and massaged my skin for about 5 minutes. (I do like this oil for heavy treatments, but unfortunately I cannot use it too often as it doesn't absorb to my skin for about 20 minutes, and makes me look extremely oily) And last, but not the least I finished off with the SK-II Essential Power Cream , which is supposed to be one of the best anti-age creams out there. 

In the morning, I couldn't quite see those wrinkles in day light but I knew they were still there. Maybe I couldn't get rid of them overnight, but I sure did do my skin a favour, and made myself feel G-O-O-D...

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The C Word (coconut oil)

As i start typing this i already know that i am going to end up talking about home made skincare. So  let's just get to the point and do just that. In my opinion homemade skincare just wouldn't be the same if it wasnt for coconut oil. Really, if i was to pick only one item that i would have to use untill the end of time it would be coconut oil. There are a gazillion things you could do with it, be that cooking or even toothcare. But who is going to bother with all that. I like to keep things simple.

 I use the oil as a hair mask, as a make up remover and as as a nail/cuticle treatment religiously. I usually tend to mix a little bit of vitamin e , and some castor oil  with a large chunk of coconut oil and apply it to my hair starting from the ends. When i am done i try and massage my roots for as long as my patience allows. I wrap plastic around my hair and then wear a towel as a turban. I walk around at home like that , i clean my closet and watch an episode or 2 of Friends - and then i wash it all off. Et Voila. Ir feels like i have just fed my hair.

To remove my eye make, I just put a dime sized amount of coconut oil onto a cotton pad and remove the make up as i would with any other conventional make up remover. It takes a little longer than a Lancome bi-facil . but at least i know my eyes are appreciating what i am doing for them. The same goes for a cuticle treatment. I do exactly what i would do with your avarage Sally Hansen cuticle oil, Apparently the nails get dry and this is one of the reasons why they brake - which is something i wish i knew years ago. Point is - coconut oil helps.

Last but not the least, if i am doing a treatment with coconut oil, i usually decide to go ahead and massage my whole face with it.... But since thats a completely different topic i shall make a seperate post about it...

A few pointers about the oil itself

I use the Trader Joe's brand but any good brand will pretty much do the same thing. Make sure that you get a cold pressed oil.  This means that no outside heat source was used when pressing out the oil - which means less loss of is nutrients.

It is normal that the oil will melt when the weather gets a little warmer.











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Glamglow - Supermood

Ever since I was little my mother always told me that I shouldnot use mud masks or peeling masks as my skin was very sensitive and quite dry. I listened to her for the first twenty-something years of my life. And than the Glamglow happened.

I got hooked on this mask in the most bizarre manner. I was getting a facial at the Bliss Spa,  you know the drill - just lying ther in the perfectly dark room, while the facialist lady had a conversation with me in Spanish. At one point i just gave in, and let her do her thing and answered everything  she asked with a nod and a "si". 2 hours later I looked at the mirror and rather liked what I saw. She lead me to the shop and placed all the items she used in front of me and said "you buy?" And there it was, in the midst of all the Bliss products, the glamglow...
I wasn't happy at all. I paid in a rush to ran back to my room and started rinsing my face with cold water thinking that it was only minutes before my skin broke into a crazy rash. Never happened. Couple of hours later, I was still checking my face in my compact mirror every 3 minutes, and my skin was still glowing.  Next morning i popped down to the spa before breakfast and purchased the Glamglow mask, while the counter lady was looking at me in dismay.
 Since then, i have used the mask about 7-8 times, and have loved the result every single time. It makes my skin feel like a baby's bum every single time. Needless to say, after this incident i have bought about 15 mud masks, and 5 peel - off masks ; and my skin still hasn't shown an allergic reaction.

I say get out of your comfort zone, and try a product you never have. You never know, maybe your skin will fall in love with the product at first sight....


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Favourite Sunscreen

Since this is my first blog entry ever, I decided i shoud go ahead and start with my favourite thing of all time. And when i say favourite i mean I obsess over it . Sunscreen. I think if I could, I would eat sunscreen - that's how I feel about it most of the time.

Sunscreen is something that you should put on your face every single day, regardless of the season, or the weather outside. Most of you will agree with me when i say that the wrong sunscreen can turn into a nightmare , with all the white patches, and the peeling products and so on.
I have tried dozens of creams in the past few months - and i still have a few more hidden in my drawers which i havent dared to unbox yet.

So far, no other sunscreen comes close to the Obagi Medical Broad Spectrum SPF 50 in matte. I think i might have repurchased this 3 times - which for me is unbelievable. Althou I dont have an oily skin per se, most sunscreens makes my skin shine brighter than fake diamonds (not in a good way) They make my skin very slippery and icky in general.  Obagi tackles all of these problems and sits on my skin making it look porcelain.

Another sunscreeen that i am testing out, is the Eve Lom Daily Protection Sunscreen SPF 50. It has only been a couple of applicdations and I have to say - so far so good. No difficulty blending and no oily skin. I gues i have to wait and see how my skin reacts to it...

That was a lot of blabber about my favourite topic, but soon there will be even more blabber about worst sunscreens i have tried .


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