September Favourites (2012)

I'll start with skin and hair care first. About a week ago finally I received  my package that I ordered from eBay at the beginning of the month (from UK!) which contained Soap & Glory Flake Away body scrub. Boy that was a long wait, but it was worth it. The scrub smells amazing, very similar to Miss Dior Cherie and a bit like Coco Mademoseille. I'll post a more detailed review in an upcoming post.

I've just done a review of my Love Spell duo last week (here). It's one of my favourite scents and the body butter is really nice.

My favourite scent this month is Coco Mademoseille knock off/imitation fragrance from Refan. To me it smells like camomile tea with honey mixed with patchouli (if that makes sense). In short it's like a toned down version of Miss Dior Cherie (without the strong sweetness) .

Orofluido Sahara is my saviour when my hair gets really dry in between washes (so basically every day until I wash it again).

My skin got a bit bad since I ran out of Estee Lauder's Advance Night Repair serum, so I've been using Healthy Mix original foundation rather then serum because it has a bit more coverage.

I've been really into vampy nail polishes this month and in my stash I found an old TE nail polish by Essence called Rockabilly (50's Fever TE). It's a very dark cherry shade, in some lights it looks black. I just love wearing this shade on my nails, it's quite a difference after all the pastels I've been wearing all Summer. OPI Lincoln Park After Dark is similar but more purple.

After seeing this Pixiwoo video, this has become my favourite everyday look this month. A couple of years ago, I was obsessed with finding the perfect taupe shade for me (something like Mac's Copperplate) and I found it in a mineral brow powder by Everyday Minerals in the shade Silver Gray (edit: I completely forgot to write that I found a dupe for this shadow in our drugstores. It's a mat eyeshadow by Catrice and the shade is called 350 Starlight Espresso). For me that is the perfect combination of grey with a bit of brown and it's very pigmented. I use this shade all over the lid and then NYX black eyeshadow along my lash line(my everyday shade for just along the lash line for year now). I prefer using an eyeshadow to eyeliner because it looks more soft. I use Maybelline's Dream Touch blusher in Peach on the cheeks and a nude lipstick like Mac Myth, Natural Collection Rose Petal or E.l.f. mineral lipstick in Runway Pink. 

Some days I went with a lighter eye make up, I just lined my top lash line and a bit on the lower lash line (really close and smudged into the lash line, to give an illusion of an invisible liner) with Max Factor's Liquid Effect pencil in Brown Blaze and then wore either my favourite peachy pink shade Shiseido Glowing Matte lipstick in PK 224 or BeautyUK's lipstick in Passion (a gorgeous dark rose shade, also leaves a nice stain). Another shade I've been loving is Bourjois lip pencil in 20 Rouge Soyeux which is the perfect red. 

Thanks for reading!

Victoria's Secret Love Spell

I already talked about VS Love Spell body spray in my August favourites (post here) and how much I love the scent. I also mentioned how the scent doesn't last long and that I plan to get the body butter to layer the scent. I managed to find one reasonably priced (well, reasonable with shipping costs in mind) on ebay and I ordered it right away.

I know a lot reviewers from the US hate the scent because it's so common, but we don't have VS, so I'm one of the rare people who has it here (honestly I don't know anybody else). The scent is described as cherry blossom and peach. To me it smells very tropical, sweet but still fresh. I already compared it to the discontinued blue Bibita, but US based reviewers compare it to Hawaiian Punch. Also it's similar to Escada's Marine Groove.

The body spray doesn't last long, about an hour or so, but layered over the body butter it lasts longer, still not that long.

The body butter is excellent. The texture is one of the best I've tried, a proper body butter but without being so thick it'd be hard to apply. It's very moisturising and sinks in faster than for example Balea's BBs (I currently have the Mango one). The scent is the same as the body spray and quite strong - a feature I really like. The pot is quite big, it holds 185g of product (Balea's and TBS's hold 200 ml).

I really love both products, I would like to have more things from this line.

Thanks for reading!

Red

There is nothing more iconic than a red pout and while I love my Manhattan Soft Mat Lip Cream in 45H, I wanted a really bright matte red. I had my mind set on finding a drugstore shade similar to Mac's Ruby Woo and some internet research pointed me into direction of Bourjois lip pencils. The shade is called 20 Rouge Soyeux - a matte blue toned true red. Another red I purchased along the way is Essence's Stay with me lipgloss in 07 Kiss Kiss Kiss.

Bourjois pencils are not the softest pencils in the world, but the colour does stay put for hours. It survives eating and drinking with no problems and most importantly it doesn't transfer (that is of course if you don't put any lipgloss or lip balm on top). It leaves a matte finish, this unfortunately does mean it's quite dry and your lips have to be perfect or it will emphasize every dry patch.

Here is a swatch of the combination of pencil plus Lip Smacker Coca-Cola Cherry.

And here is my growing collection of Stay with me lipglosses by Essence. I'm not a fan of lipgloss, I almost never wear it, but these are my favourite because they are very pigmented, smell really nice like fruity and candy, aren't too sticky and of course they are cheap. Here is a link to previous swatches and review click. 07 Kiss Kiss Kiss is a nicely pigmented bright red. It a nice way of wearing red without being too much. 

Thanks for reading!

Chocolate Craving

Every now and then I get this craving for products with the same scent. A couple of months ago I couldn't get enough of coconut and a few weeks ago it was peach (I'll do posts about those products too), this time it's chocolate and cocoa. While I'm aware I'm probably completely bonkers, this never stopped me to get all crazy with searching the internet and drugstores to find what I'm looking for. So this is my current selection of products with chocolate and cocoa scent.

I guess the blame for my current obsession with chocolate scented product can be attributed to Balea's Bademomente Sinnesfroh bath salt in Kakao. I've already raved about it a couple of months ago and I actually bought four more packets since. It's a limited edition product available only in DM drugstores and it's really cheap, less then a €. In short it smells just like a cup of cocoa. I love the scent, though the salt itself is nothing special. If you like cocoa scented products give it a go.

Next is Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula lotion which I got online, because I believe it not sold around here. It's one of the most popular lotions with great reviews and it quite cheap, so I thought why not. It smells like chocolate cake, quite strong but I find the scent doesn't last that long on me. The formula is thick (exactly how I like it) and it sinks in fast, all in all a great lotion. The only gripe I have is the packaging, I can see it being quite hard to get the lotion out when nearing it's end. I bought it on feelunique.com.

My exploration of Müller bore fruit as I stumbled upon this little gem - Pajoma Pärfümöl Schokolade a scented oil for one of those oil diffuser thingies. It smells like melted chocolate for cooking. Well actually like a mix of chocolate and margarine (if you ever made cake frosting you'll know what I mean). It makes my rooms smell like a chocolate factory and there's only one word good enough to describe it - awesome! It was around 2 € in Müller.

Ziaja is a Polish brand sold in DM's and they a have a selection of coconut, orange and cocoa scented products. I bought the 500ml bottle of cocoa scented shower gel for around 4€. The scent is lovely, but the formula is a bit too thin for my liking. Still a nice product. 

And, of course there's more. I actually have a wishlist of products I still hope to get someday. TBS's Chocomania line is obviously at the top of the list, especially the beautifying oil and scrub. Essence will offer a collection of LE scented hand creams from October and I have my eye on the caramel hot chocolate. Balea also announced a new LE of shower gels and bodylotions, the almond-cherry one and more importantly figs-chocolate.  

Do you have any chocolate scented favourite products? As always thanks for reading my rambles!

Quick Review: Catrice Lashes to Kill Ultra Black Mascara

I'm back with another mascara review (I did a comparison of drugstore mascaras a couple of months back), this time it's Catrice's Lashes to Kill in ultra black formula. I generally prefer waterproof formulas, because they hold the curl better, but I always have a regular mascara in my make up stash. I bought Lashes to Kill on a recommendation and after reading some favourable reviews. Since it's one of the cheaper mascaras available here, I decided to give it a go.

If I use just one word to describe my response after using it for the first time is boring. Really nothing special. Sure, it lengthens and is quite dark (though not the blackest mascara I've owned), but it just made my lashes look "blah". I much prefer my other mascara I currently own the Colossal Volum' Express by Maybelline. I think the problem is that the formula is too runny. However, now that is about a month old and the formula is getting drier, the results are much better: Still it's far from the big, voluminous lashes I get from my Colossal plus I don't want to wait for more than a month for the mascara to really start working it's magic.

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I can't find any more suitable description of the brush than normal. It's just your average mascara wand with no special flashy design, though the name of the mascara does suggest almost miraculous lashes. I mean Lashes to Kill that's quite promising. If only it were so.

I got mine for about 4 € in Müller. It's an ok mascara if you're on a budget, but it is similar to Multi Action mascara by Essence which is about a € cheaper. I won't be repurchasing.

Thanks for reading!