Winter care favourites

Hi everyone!
Cold weather has been raging through town. I think winter is really coming now.
In order to be well prepared, I got some products to protect my skin. I want to share my favourite products in this post today.

I'll start off with skincare items. They are very important to me because I have very dry and sensitive skin. I've told you about my mango shower gel by The Body Shop before, but I haven't really talked to you about their body butter. The Body Shop's body butters are my favourite body butters in the whole entire world.

There are more scents in the assortment than you could ever imagine, which is great because lots of people - even people with different taste - can find something they like there. Even though I used to think the body butters were overpriced, I got a couple of them to see if my opinion would change. And it has.
There's actually quite a lot of product in the jar! It's so smooth and creamy, what a lovely texture! The scent lasts quite long. And it's cruelty free!

Alright, onto the next product which also happens to be by The Body Shop. I'm talking about their passionfruit scented lipbalm in a jar.
Again, very nice texture and a lovely scent. I often just apply a heavy layer before going to bed so that my lips have all the time to recover. I'm thinking of getting one for in my purse too!

Now it's time for my makeup favourites. A couple of years ago, while on a trip to Amsterdam, I convinced myself to try out L'Oréal's True Match foundation. If I'm honest, this was my first foundation and I couldn't have picked a better one. Now, several years later, after trying a few other foundations, I have returned to L'Oréal.
It just fits me, the colours are very close (if not true) to my skintone and the coverage is good as well, whichi s great because I do need more coverage in winter.
I'll write a more detailled review on it soon.

One of my favourite budget products is the catrice camouflage cream concealer. Like I said, I need more coverage in winter and this full coverage concealer gives me that. It's also nice to hide a red nose.

Just a few additional products that I love in winter are blush and bronzer. I don't do very fancy contouring or anything, I just like to add a little bit of extra colour to my face since I'm a porcelain skintoned kind of girl. The blush that I currently use is a bit brighter than it would be in summer because I get even more pale in winter. It's by The Balm.

That's it! My favourites for winter! What are your favourite products?

Catrice All Matt plus shine controle foundation review

A few weeks I decided I wanted to try a new foundation by Catrice called the "All matt plus" foundation, which should work against oily skin and shine. Of course, that sounded interesting to me and so I took it with me. Now what do I think of it?

I love the packaging of this foundation. Catrice has a lot of matt glass foundation packages and I don't know why but I always like the look of that! This foundation promises to be mattifying, longlasting and oil free.

I got the colour "Nude Beige", which is the second lightest colour. I decided not to go for the lightest 0because I'm already very pale and I'm tired of the "are you feeling sick?" questions.

As you can see the foundation covers quite well, I think it looks good! Luckely, it matches my skintone! 

Even though the foundation promises to be "super matt", I still think a bit of mattifying powder is in order. There is still a bit of shine. You could, if you wanted to, only use powder on your T-zone and use the shine as a natural "glow" on your cheekbones. I myself am not a big fan so I just like to use powder all over.

Aside from the "all matt shine control" that wasn't 100%, I have no other negative remarks. My skin has been reacting very well to this product and I enjoy using it. Another budget hit for Catrice, yay!

Thanks for reading!

A sneak peek inside my beauty closet: Skincare

Hi guys! Today I'm doing the first part of my "Sneak peek inside my beauty closet"! I'm starting with skincare. I don't have many skincare items, I don't like testing new skincare because I break out easily, but these are the products that have been working for me lately.
First, I have a hydrating day cream and anti-aging night cream, I use both of these on a daily basis. I think they work just fine.

Next I have an eye cream by Garnier. I just got these recently because I never used one before but since I do wear makeup every day (and since I don't want wrinkles at seventeen), I decided to try this. I appy it before putting on my makeup in the morning (along with my daycream) or sometimes I apply it at night.

The two other products that I have are a Kiehl's facial cleanser and facial cream. I don't use these very often, mostly once a week. Sometimes I use face masks too, but I don't have any in my stash right now.

That's it, my little skincare stash! I hope you enjoyed this post! I'll see you soon!
Thanks for reading!

2B bronzer review

Hello! How are you doing? Last week I went shopping and I got this 2B bronzer on sale. I don't have a lot of beauty products from 2B but I thought I could at least try and see if I liked it. I don't use bronzer very often, in fact, I haven't used it more than twice or more than three times in the past! Then why now? 

First of all, it wasn't a huge amount of money, really. Second of all, sales are a great place to build up your collection and buy everything you don't have yet. You never know when you'll need it!

Like I said, this "Terra Compact" bronzer is by 2B, which is a quite inexpensive brand. I think I once bought a nailpolish from this brand but I don't have it anymore now.
The packaging of this bronzer is quite simple. It's in a plastic pan with an orange bottom. A lot of their makeup products (like eyeshadow) are packed like this! I do think it looks a little bit cheap.

The bronzer has a little sun figure pressed into it. I think it's cute. It will fade after a while, but oh well. I always like it when a product has a cute print or design.

Swatch! I did get a few "crumbles" while swatching but they're minimal so it's okay. The colour looks quite light on my wrist because I've been tanning a little bit lately but my face is still pretty pale so it's more visible. Not too dark, not too light, just perfect!
Oh, and if you're wondering why I haven't mentioned the colour, it's because this bronzer doesn't have a name, pity! It's the lightest one of them all though.

Thanks for reading! Have a lovely day! Stay safe!

Face makeup for summer (back to basics)

Hello everyone! The weather has been really good lately. It's been so hot outside that I got sunburnt the first 15 minutes that I was outside! Of course such hot weather isn't nice when you wear makeup, because it all sweats off! Today I'm going to show you some items that I like to use during summer.

The first thing I prefer to wear in summer is BB cream or tinted moisturizer instead of foundation. I haven't got any tinted moisturizer at home right now so I use BB cream. I use my Catrice All Round BB cream. It also has SPF 30, which is always nice! I'd still recommend to use sunscreen as a base before you put on your makeup though. SPF 30 is nice but of course it can sweat of after a little while (or after going in the pool). Better safe than sorry, right?!

 

The Catrice BB cream does make your face look a little bit oily so using a powder is always good. I'm using the one by Essence. This one doesn't have a colour, which you don't need in summer, it just absorbs the oil. Even if you're not wearing BB cream this can come in handy - a good mattifying powder makes life easier during summer! You can also use oil absorbing papers but I don't have that yet.

 

If the weather allows it and your makeup doesn't sweat off of your face instantly, a shimmer powder can look pretty. When the sunlight hits your face, it reflects the glitters and it looks nice. This is the "Tropical Heat" shimmer powder by Essence.

 

During summer I also like to use a lip balm or lipgloss. For some reason, I almost never use lipgloss in winter or fall. I sometimes wear it in spring but most of the time I wear it in summer. I don't know why, I just like everything to be glossy and simple and cute during summer and more sophisticated, bold and classy during winter. Is that weird? This one is "Coral" by H&M and this is the lipgloss that I've been using most.

 

Do you have any products that you prefer to only use in summer? Or products that you bought just because it's summer?

Essence "Tropical Heat" shimmer powder review

Hello you guys! A little while ago I went beauty shopping. Surprisingly I only brought home four items. This was one of the items.

It's a shimmer powder/highlighter by Essence, called "Tropical Heat", and it's from the "Ticket to Paradise" collection.

The packaging is quite simple, as always. I do like the design of the shimmer powder, it does remind me of a tropical place, a Paradise, I think they did a very good job on that! You can recognize a couple of flowers and leaves from palm trees (at least that's what they look like to me). Wauw! I get so happy when I look at it (confessions of a beauty addict, haha!).

The shimmer powder is gold, which I think is very pretty. I prefer to wear warm colours like this, instead of cold colours like pink. I just think highlighter in summer is so much prettier if it has an orange/gold undertone to it.

This is what the shimmer powder looks like on my face. It wasn't as hard to photograph as I thought. As you can see, it's very subtile, yet pigmented very nicely.

I am very happy with this shimmer powder, I think it looks absolutely gorgeous and I've been using it every single day since I got it! So happy I could get my hands on this baby in time! I wish this wouldn't be a limited edition product, I feel like I would buy this every year, over and over again!

Thanks for reading!

Catrice Photo Finish foundation review

Hi! In my last haul I showed you some new beauty buys, including this foundation by Catrice.

Now, I have never in my life tried a Catrice foundation before. I got a BB cream before and that was the first face product I ever got from them - I liked the BB cream so I thought trying the foundation would be a good idea.

The foundation I got is called the Catrice Photo Finish foundation. As it says on the bottle, it's a liquid foundation and it will last 18 hours.

The bottle is quite simple. It's see through matt glass, which I like, I think it's cute.

The colour that I got is "010 Sand Beige", which is the lightest colour they had. What can I say, I'm a pale girl! They have three other colours, so ladies who have a nice tan can benefit from this product as well!

This is what the foundation looks like on my hand. I'm using a tiny drop but it's enough to cover half of my hand. As you can see, this foundation has a yellow undertone. That's because it's such a light colour. I also have this with my BB cream. Other, darker foundations and BB creams have a pink undertone.

This is what it looks like when you rub it open...
The texture of this foundation is very nice, it's creamy and easy to blend in. The foundation also covers really well!

And this is the end result... As you can see, the foundation blended in really well and it matches my skintone perfectly! 

I'm very content with the results of this foundation. I've tried about five different foundations in the few years that I started using makeup and this is one of the best ones I've tried.
I love it when a drugstore, cheap product turns out to be a great deal! Not much money, great quality. To die for!

Yves Rocher concealer review

Hello everyone! I've been collecting concealers lately and today I'm going to review my newest concealer by Yves Rocher. I got this concealer in 02 Medium, which was the second lightest colour.
So what do I think of it?

The tube is really small, which gave me problems instantly. I couldn't get the concealer out of the tube unless I cut of a little part. Not a very good first sign...

When I finally got the concealer out of the little tube, I noticed only a little bit comes out, which is easy for dosing. I always get too much concealer on my hand and end up waisting a lot of it, so this was a bonus.
But then the colour... As you guys know I'm quite pale and I thought a medium colour would do the trick but this looks orange you guys.

My hand is quite tan so it doesn't look this bad on my hand, but whenever I put it on my face, you can see orange dots, which is not the effect I was looking for.
My conclusion? The medium concealer from Yves Rocher wasn't one of my best buys and I won't repurchase it (I'm not even sure I'm going to empty it!)
Maybe the lightest colour is better but I'm going to wait to buy that one. 

Thanks for reading!

Essence all about matt fixing compact powder review

Hello you guys, today I'm reviewing one of my newest powders. I'm talking about my Essence matt fixing powder. I was doubting a little bit when I first saw it on a beauty blog but I got it and tested it anyway.

The packaging is quite simple. See through plastic with hot pink letters on it. To be honest, I don't care at all how the packaging of a powder looks. It is important with products like lipstick, eyeshadow or blush (sometimes), but it's not like I judge the look of my powder that much. Same here with this powder. Less is more!

I'm just going to say it: I love this powder. Just like me, a lot of people could be doubting about getting this powder because they're afraid it's going to make them look white(r). For me that's not a problem but the colour of the powder won't be a problem for anyone - it doesn't show up.

The fact that this powder is white is actually really good. A lot of people may think "I don't want to look like a ghost" but you don't see the white colour on your face.
It just abs orbs the oil from your face and my T-zone tends to get oily so this will help me to solve the oil problem - it's also handy if you just went for a run or if it's really hot outside and you're sweating a little bit.
 
Also, most of the other powders I have are skintoned, but when looking closely, you can always find stains or spots where there is more powder than somewhere else and I just don't like it if you can see the powder. At all. I don't want it to be seen at all, which is again why this powder is so nice.

 

So yes, I do really like this powder, I think it does a great job. It doesn't show up, yet it does absorb the oil, which is exactly what I want.
I just started using this one but if I ever run out of it, I'm already pretty sure I will repurchase!

Thanks for reading!

Catrice BB cream review!

Hello everyone! 

Last week, while I was shopping a bit, I decided to take this BB cream by Catrice with me. Catrice is a very known drugstore, budgetproof brand that has really good quality for the money you pay. I have a hard time finding a good BB cream because I'm quite pale and not all brands have very light shades but I need one for the summer so I thought I'd give this one a try. I got the shade "Rosy Beige", which is the second lightest colour. The reason I did this is because I will probably be using this BB cream a lot during summer, and I might get a bit more tan by then.

This is how the tube looks. I like the packaging and I also like how you can dose precisely.

The BB cream promises to be balancing, correcting, protecting, illuminating, covering and moisturizing. I'm not really the type to believe in all the marketing tricks but okay. Covering, correcting and balancing also all means thesame thing. Kind of.

 We'll see how it works!

So this is what the BB cream looks like when it comes out of the tube.

Whenever I put on BB cream, I don't put on moisturizer or anything. Well, Catrice promises that the BB cream is moisturizing so I shouldn't even bother to worry.

 

And this is what it looks like when I've rubbed it open on my hand. The colour isn't as dark as I expected it to be. The coverage is okay. I do feel like it's hard to apply sometimes. Some BB creams go on very smooth and others don't. This one takes a bit more time and a bit more work. Maybe I should try it with a beauty blender next time?

 

 Over all I'm pretty happy with the result. Of course I do still need concealer and the "6 in 1" thing wasn't intirely true, but it's not a bad product either. I think this'll be nice to wear in summer.

Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cleanser and Ultra Facial Cream

Hi guys!

I got these two new skincare products a little while ago and surprisingly I never really told you guys about it. It's the Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cleanser and Ultra Facial Cream.

I only have one other product from Kiehl's, which is their lipbalm, and if you have been checking on my blog, you'll know that I have written about it a lot! I love the lipbalm, so I expected good things from these two face products as well.

Personally I don't like testing face products as much as makeup because I have quite sensitive skin and I break out easily. Testing is always a risk. That's why I tested this when I had a week off from school so that my skin would have enough time to recover in case something went wrong.

The facial cleanser holds 30ml and the facial cream holds 7ml.

The packaging looks like always: white, basic and with information on it. Easy!

The Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cleanser is a cleanser that is for all skin types. There's a lot of information on the tube and directions can also be found on there (which is always nice). I'm not going to type everything because obviously I don't think a lot of people really  need to know that there's Advocado oil in it, but I will type how Kiehl's describes this cleanser. "Gentle Liquid Formula that Cleanses without Over-drying or Stripping Skin." I find the over-drying part and the skin stripping part very important, since I have rather dry skin myself and I want to keep it moisturized and healthy.

What I always find very important when testing skincare products is the smell - some products really just stink, there's no other way of putting it. These Kiehl's products do have a little bit of a smell but it's not disturbing. It doesn't have any colour. Also the facial cleanser isn't a scrub or anything, it just reminds me of a gel that works very gently and a little bit foaming on the skin. Very nice.

After applying the cleanser and rinsing it off well, I apply the facial creme. It's a white-ish.
The jar looks very little but actually you really don't need a lot for your whole face. The cream is soft and gentle and I find that it moisturizes without feeling sicky or annoying.
Just like the cleanser, it has a bit of a smell, but I would say I rather like it than hate it, so it's not really disturbing.

How to look healthy when you're sick

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great day today!
If you've read my Weely Diary, you'll know that it was my first day going back to school since a one week break. I am still sick, and that's why today I thought of doing a makeup look in which I "faked" to look healthy. I'm going to tell you what I do to prevent looking ill.
Oh, and I also want to thank those of you who left me a sweet 'get well soon' comment. I appreciate it.

 

So here is what I look like right now even though I'm not feeling well at all. I don't have a "before" picture, simply because I forgot to take it this morning.

 I know the lighting probably isn't the best but you can see that I made sure I had nice and pink cheeks, also I'm wearing a lipgloss by Catrice in this picture, it's called "Nymph's Glow" and it's a peach toned lipgloss. Honestly, I think it's the most beautiful colour in the world!

Okay so there are a few things that I change in my makeup routine, when I'm sick. Your foundation routine is still thesame but the only thing you have to pay attention to is the area around your nose. Don't put too much foundation or powder over there because you will blow your nose and if all the foundation and powder comes off, you have the risk of looking a bit weird.


Often when you're sick, your skin also looks a little bit more pale. So that's why, when you do your blush, you can add a little bit more if you want to.
I am very pale all the time (even if I'm not sick), so I love my blush, but now I even apply a teeny tiny bit more.

The next thing I do is to apply a highlighter. Normally I only wear it in summer when there's bright sunlight to reflect the highlighter, or I wear it to a party, but when I'm sick I also like to use it because it gives you a bit of a healthy glow - and that's exactly what you need when your skin isn't looking very well.
You could also mix a liquid highlighter with your daycreme before you apply foundation, it's all up to you, just get that glow.

The highlighter I'm wearing is from the Essence Fantasia collection.

The last thing I do is to make sure I'm not wearing lipstick. Since you want a healthy glow, you can go for a lipbalm that looks like a transparant lipgloss, or you can just go for a pink or peach toned lipgloss. Even though I love lipstick, I can't deny the fact that it's a no- go when you're sick.
Personally I really love the Kiehl's lipbalm, it has been one of my favourite lipbalms of all times!

 

Oh, I forgot to mention! I have a YSL lipstick that feels AND looks like a lipbalm. It's the Volupté Sheer Candy Glossy Balm. Of course you could use such lipsticks as well, because they're actually not lipsticks.

As for my eyes, I just went with my signature look, which is the winged eyeliner!

I hope you liked this post and I hope I helped other people who are sick!
In case you have somewhere important to go to, don't forget these tips!

Have a lovely evening!