Sample summary

So as I have accumulated a few samples through the last few months, I decided to post a short sample summary.

Brush soap and facial cream

Serums

Sigma - Sigmagic - Liquid brush clenser (7,5 ml): I got this sample as a bonus with my Sigma brushes. Hope it is as good as my beauty blender liquid soap, which I use currently to wash my brushes.

Tatcha - The water cream (1 ml): A very light moisturizer, I got a 2 and a half use out of this sample. Did I like it? Yes, love it? Maybe not - maybe too small of a tester to get one hooked on it.

L'occitane - Imortelle reset, overnight reset oil in serum (5 ml): This I got as a gift in store, it was a part of a promotional campaign, where you would get this sample, and it would reset your skin in 7 days. I have not tested it yet, as it would be a perfect serum to take with me on a short holiday.

Kiehl's - Midnight recovery concentrate (4 ml): This I got with one of my Sephora orders, as a 100 point perk. And as this is a product I have heard a lot about, I was very curious to try it. That being said, I have not tried it yet, probably the same reason why I have not tried the L'occitane serum, it is small and convenient for travel. 

What about you, have you gotten any interesting testers recently? 

Or are you  reluctant to use these mini-sizes for travel, like me?

Final USA + CAN haul 2018

In my last few stops in the States and Canada I grabbed a few items

The ultimate haul

Nurse Jamie - Uplift massaging beauty roller - 69 USD: As I saw Tati on Youtube highly recommending this item I decided to treat myself with buying it - decided to get it in black, as I prefer that color instead of the original purple. Intended use for myself, is to diminish my slowly emerging double-chin.

Mac - Eye kohl in Teddy - 22,05 CAD: As this has been on my wish-list for a few years, I decided to grab it in Toronto duty free. 

Laneige - Lip sleeping mask - 20 USD: A makeup artist acquaintance of mine highly recommended this lip mask, so ofc I had to pick it up and give it a try as my lips tend to be super dry in the winter.

Sephora Collection - Waterproof eye makeup remover (125 ml) - 15 USD: A friend of mine who is just as much or even more into makeup than I am, recommended this product, and stated it works just as good as the Lancome bi-facil eye makeup remover, at a fraction of the cost I decided to pick it up and give it a try.

Tom Ford - Bronzer brush 05 - 115 USD: This brush had so many good reviews online and on youtube, I really wanted to buy it. Originally I had planned to buy it next year, but as I heard from Michelle Wang on Youtube that Tom Ford is planning to change it's brushes into synthetic hair I decided to grab it this year as I prefer natural hair bristles over synthetic ones. And omg is this brush a dream. It is the softest face brush I own. I would love to own more of his brushes but the price tag is way to expensive, so I will just treasure this one. 

Victorias Secret - Love eau de parfum roller ball (15 ml) - 22 11 CAD (offer): Another fragrance was the last thing I need in my already too big of a perfume collection. But as it was on 50% off I decided to grab it - and in a roller ball version.

Pixi by Petra - Glow-y gossamer duo in Subtle sunrise ( - 16 USD: As I only own one highlighter, which is a cream-stick highlighter I wanted to try a powder one. I was trying to decide between a mini Bobbi Brown highlighter in pink light and this one by Pixi. After much contemplation and testing and swatching I opted for the Pixi one, as I found the Bobby Brown one a tad too glittery.

Real techniques - Blush brush - 8.99 USD: For some reason it was really important for me to grab this brush, but now when I have it, I have no idea why it was so important to get it.

So now I have managed to purchase two more items of my 18 item limit (which is my updated limit - original limit was 12 items of color cosmetics). Those two items being Mac Teddy eye kohl and Pixi by Petra highlighter, which brings my total to 17 items in 2018. Only one left - and if I can do without that is even better. 

USA + CAN Haul

So in the last few stops I have had in N-America I picked a few things up

USA + CAN Haul

John Frieda - Brilliant brunette multi tone revealing moisturizing shampoo (750 ml): This shampoo I have used from time to time, I really like the brand, but it tends to be way too expensive in Iceland. So when I saw this at 9.99 CAD in Marshalls, it jumped into my hand and to the register.

Vichy - Aqualia thermal hydrating serum (30 ml): this I picked up in a Shoppers Drugmart in Toronto, in spite of me planning to go "stock free" as my friends motto is. Not to have a big stock of backups waiting to be used, rather buy when you are out, or couple of days/a week of running out. I wish to go more towards that direction, but given the price difference of French pharmacy skincare products between Canada and the States, I decided to pick this serum up as a backup for the one I am using now from Lumene.

La Roche-Posay - Micellar water: the lovely shop assistant at Shoppers Drugmart, who suggested the Vichy serum for my skintype, kindly gave this to me as a bonus with that purchase. An absolute perfect travel size.

Shea Moisture - African Black soap, acne prone face and body bar: I am not acne prone, but love this soap for my skin, and it seems to keep my perioral dermatitis at bay. And as long as it works, I am reluctant to try anything else, and when I saw this small bar, I thought it would be a perfect replacement, when I run out of the last pieces of the rest of my original bar - which now live in a small soapbox in my suitcase.

Sonia Kashuk - precision concealer makeup brush: This I picked up in Target (see here) intended for use with my Soap and glory - kick ass concealer, which has two concealer colors, one more of a yellow tone which works perfectly on the face, blended in with your finger. But the pinky/salmon tone of the concealer I have never been able to get to work under my eyes to color correct dark circles. It always ended up to thick, dry and impossible to blend in under my eye. I really hoped that this brush would work with that concealer, long story short; it did not help it at all, still too dry and difficult to blend out under the eye. Maybe I should even return the brush, as I do not really have any other use for it?

Empties May - August 2018

So here come the empties for the summer of 2018

Empties summer 2018

Bath and body works - Farmstand apple hand cream (59 ml): An above average hand cream, I might repurchase.

Wet and wild - nailpolish in the color 442A (14 ml): As I loved this color, and it was hard to replace, I am still glad this is finished and one bottle less in my pile of nail polish - maybe I will pan another one in 2019.

Dove - Repair therapy, Color radiance hair mask (200 ml): talked about this one in my last beauty goals update (see here). 

Herbal essences - hydralicious reconditioning shampoo (300 ml): One of my favorite shampoo's and it has been ever since my hair was super dehydrated from bleaching it a few years ago. Have been trying to find it in Target in the USA without success.

La Roche-Posay - Toleriane ultra face cream (40 ml): Loved this face cream for the summer, ultra light and did not irritate my skin at all. The only downside is how difficult it is to get the last drop of product out of the packaging, as I attacked it with a knife to break into it.

Victoria's secret - Unwrap me, beauty rush, whipped cream and winter pear, body dial-a-shimmer lotion (200 ml): finally this bottle is finished, and omg what an effort it took, had to depot it into other jars to use it up while on holiday, and at home. Even though I am ecstatic that it is finished, I will miss the shimmer in it a bit though.

BIO Effect - EGF serum (3 ml): it is a super moisturizing serum which I use underneath my day cream, a bit on the sticky side though.

Helena Rubinstein - All mascaras complete eye makeup remover (125 ml): I did not find this makeup remover to work as well as my Estee Lauder bi-facil eye makeup reomover. Maybe it works good on regular mascaras, but on water proof and stubborn ones it does not work as well as bi-facil.
Erborian - BB cream au ginseng (sample): Love this bb cream, would love to repurchase, but am not sure on the SPF ingredients in it. A lovely light but a bit orangy formula, but it works fine now as I have worked up a bit of a tan over the summer. Reminds me a bit of my favorite Garnier miracle cream.
It Cosmetics - Your skin but better CC+ cream with SPF 50+ (fair) (sample): I am on the fence with this product after using the sample up, it is very pigmented, but still light on the skin. But it might be a little bit too pigmented for my liking, as I like a very sheer foundation on my skin most of the time. Might repurchase in the future though.
Inglot - Beautyfier tinted cream, shade 101 (sample): I loved the texture of this light "foundation" or bb-cream. But not sure it was working with my perioral dermatitis. I found some irritation in my skin on occasion. So not a winner, sadly, as I really wanted it to be. Full info here.
The body shop - Pink grapefruit hand cream (30 ml): a light and pleasant smelling hand cream, but after I started working as cabin crew, my hands have become severely dehydrated, and this was not moisturizing enough for my dehydrated hands. Before that job, I could though not see any fault with it.
Tatcha - The water cream (1 ml) (sample): See description in this post.
Mádara - City CC -hyluronic anti-pollution cc cream SPF 15: I am not sure if this was aggravating my perioral dermatitis breakout, as I was using this in conjunction with my Ready set gorgeous foundation from Cover Girl. Will report back when I try to find out which one is the culprit.
Neutrogena - Light sesame formula body lotion: This has been living in my gym bag for years, along with a few other hotel body lotions, so now this summer I decided it was about time to use some of these samples up and get rid of them. So this is the first of them, was it good, no, I would say below average body lotion.

So now three more items of my Beauty goals for 2018 are used up, leaving me five items which I have yet to reach my goal on; Dove - intense repair overnight cream (120 ml), Bourjois Paris - Happy light luminous serum primer (15 ml), Estée Lauder - Double wear, stay in place powder makeup SPF10 (16 g) - color 2N2 Fresco 01, Lancome le crayon kohl noir (0,7 g) and my Clinique - Blush in Fig (1,8 g). So five items left when there are 4 months remaining of this year. Not an optimum situation, as I had hoped I would have finished more items by this point of the year. But realistically I am sure I can finish the Dove hair cream, the Lancome eye kohl pencil and perhaps the Bourjois primer. But as the year has progressed I am not sure I will be able to finish the Estée Lauder powder foundation or the Clinique blush as there is so much remaining of those products, as could be seen in my six month update for the Beauty goals for 2018.

On a sample roll

I guess you could say I am on a sample roll at the moment, as I have been taking advantage of the fact that you can get a free sample of almost any item they offer at Sephora. Which is perfect for my sensitive skin which does not seem to tolerate any given product. So it is perfect to be able to test it before purchasing.

Sephora samples

 Samples and a blush

Beauty on the fly bag  - picture borrowed from Sephora.com

Sephora mask and Skyn Iceland eye mask

I would highly recommend to anyone to get a sample of the product you want to try out in Sephora, as one of these little pots lasts for several applications, so you can get a real feel for the product. And these were the three products I was keen to try:

It cosmetics - Your skin but better CC+ cream with SPF 50+ (fair);  This one at first try I really thought would not suit my perioral dermatitis-prone skin. As I got a few bums around my mouth after the fist application, but the trick with this one is to apply a thin layer. The first try I applied way to thick of a layer as I did't know the pigmentation would be so great. This I love to apply with a beauty blender, and it is quite likely that I would like to buy this in the future, as it has a high SPF factor, given that I probably do not apply it thickly enough to get the full effect of the 50+ SPF, but it might get to a 25 or 30 with how I apply the product. Full info here.

BareMinerals - Complexion rescue tinted moisturizer (opal); I used to LOVE the Garnier miracle cream, which was a light tinted face cream with SPF 20. I think that this might be something light and similar to that one, or I could use it as a base for other foundations which do not contain SPF. Full info here. 

Drunk Elephant - Umbra tinte physical daily defense broad spectrum sunscreen SPF 30; this I thought could be a perfect first step, including SPF, before applying a foundation which does not include an SPF, which I have in my arsenal. I also have a foundation which has only an SPF 15 so this could be the perfect base. Full info here. Have yet not tried it.

Benefit - Hervana blush (7 gr); I was missing a light pink blush in "my collection" and had really wanted to try one of the Benefit box powders, so I stumbled upon this particular blush in the Benefit store in Boston, where I had my brows done as well. I would have preferred to buy it in Sephora, and get points for my purchase, but as Sephora does not carry this color anymore, I opted to buy it in a Benefit store. And I love the color, a perfect everyday color, which is the type of a color I tend to get the most use out of. 

Madara - Anti polution CC cream SPF 15 (light beige and medium beige) (2 x 2ml); I can't even remember where I heard about this product for the first time. But I was lucky enough to grab a sample in a store in Reykjavik, and got both shades as me and the sales associate could not figure out which color would suit me better. But I figured that this might suit the same purpose as the Drunk Elephant umbra tinte spf sunscreen, to be used underneath a foundation which does not contain any spf. Full info here.

Sephora - Beauty on the fly bag; I grabbed this one in Sephora as I needed a small bag under my liquid products I keep in my cabin bag on the regular (a micellar water and toner). So I opted for this bag.

Sephora - Ultra moisturizing and brightening Rose face mask: I got this as a sample with my purchase when I got the Sephora Beauty on the fly bag. A pretty good deal here to get a mask worth 6 USD with a beauty bag for 4.95 USD. Full info here. 

Skyn Iceland - Hydro cool firming eye gels with hexapeptide technology (3,2 gr - one pair); One of my co-workers swears by this, so much he gave all of the members of our crew a pair of these. It is supposed to firm and de-puff in 10 minutes, and it is recommended to use this treatment once a week. Full info here. 

Have you tried out any of these?

Beauty goals for 2018 - Six month update

As it is about six months into my year long project to pan or finish my ten items for the year 2018 (original post here), so I figured it would be about time to give an update into how the project is going so far.

I have reached my goal for four of the items from the project pan

I have finished two of the items which are as follows:

The body shop - Vitamin C skin boost (30 ml): I managed to finish this product up, it was a kind of a serum/primer - will probably not repurchase as I did not like the consistency of the cream - as it had a bit of a silicone feeling to it - but I prefer more creamy or liquid products.
Dove - Repair therapy, Color radiance hair mask (200 ml): managed to use this one up, but it only had about 3-4 applications left.

Empties - orignial photo from December 2017.

The other two items I have reached my goal on are these two:

Wet and wild - nailpolish in the color 442A (14 ml): this has finally reached the point that it's almost impossible to use, it is super thick and takes FOREVER to dry - but I really love the color and as it turns out it has been hard to replace.
Maybelline - depotted eyeshadow in a champagne shimmery color: my goal on this product was to hit pan, and was a roll-over product from 2017. And in fact I managed to hit pan early January!

Over night hair mask - nail polish - primer

Eye kohl - eye shadow - blush - foundadtion

The progress on other products:

Dove - intense repair overnight cream (120 ml): I have used a little less than half of what was left of the overnight hair mask, I for sure have to use it more consistently for the remainder of the year.
Bourjois Paris - Happy light luminous serum primer (15 ml): Sadly I did not mark this product in the start of the year, but it is clear I have used very little of it. So I will for sure have to use it more consistently for the next six months.
Lancome le crayon kohl noir (0,7 g): At the start of this year this measured 3,5 cm and now it measures 3 cm long. So in six months I have managed to use up 0,5 cm of it.
Clinique - Blush in Fig (1,8 g): I have for sure expanded the pan on this blush since the beginning of the project. But I am not using it right now, as I am giving it a bit of a break over the summer, so I can use some of my other blushes.
Estée Lauder - Double wear, stay in place powder makeup SPF 10 (16 g) - color 2N2 Fresco 01: I can see a small "wear" in this one, at the beginning of the year only a quarter of the pan rings was showing, but now the entire ring is showing. But according to this progress, I might think it is impossible for me to use this item up in this year. But all progress is good, and I will keep using it, it is one of my favorite foundations, and better yet, it does not seem to aggravate my perioral dermatitis.

And then there is one item missing in the photos, as the pump broke on my body lotion:

Victoria's secret - Unwrap me, beauty rush, whipped cream and winter pear, body dial-a-shimmer lotion (200 ml): as the pump broke on this one, I managed to crank it open and depot it, I reckon I have finished half of it - which is quite convenient as then I will for sure manage to finish it before the end of the year.

Have you had any progress on your goals for 2018?

USA haul continues

So here are come a few more items I picked up in the last few stop-overs in the States

Sigma brushes and nail polishes

Strengthening nail polish, hand creams and a makeup remover

Face mask

Sigma - Eye shading E55: This is exactly what I was looking for when I bought the Elf eye shadow brush, which turned out to be very different from the one I had previously from Elf. But the Sigma brush is beautiful, picks up eye shadow beautifully and deposits it on they eye perfectly.

Sigma - Blending E25: I was also on the hunt for a blending brush, as I wanted to have the most essential brushes in my makeup bag ready to go, and another set in my bathroom where I always do my makeup. And this brush was do disappointment either, blends product beautifully in the crease.

Sally Hansen Color therapy - 200 Powder room (14,7 ml): I was looking for a dupe for the Wet and Wild polish in 442A, that I decided to finish up this year and is a part of my beauty goals for 2018. This is a bit lighter than the Wet and Wild but pretty close.

Essie - Tea and crumpets (13,5 ml): I got this one first thinking it was a dupe for my Wet and Wild in 442A, but this is more pink than the Wet and Wild one, which is more of a peach nude.

Nailtiques - Formula 2 (7 ml) (12,99 $ + tax @CVS): One of the senior stewardesses on one of my flights recommended this polish for peeling nails, and said this was the only thing that worked for her nails which had the same peeling problem. And as The opi nail envy does not seem to be doing any miracles on my nails I decided to pick this one up and give it a try.

Kiko - intensive hand cream (60 ml): I thought I was running out of hand creams at home so I decided to pick this one up as it has a pleasant and a nice scent and seemed very soothing on my hands when I tried it out in store.

Lancome - Bi-Facil double action eye makeup remover (200 ml) (40 $ + tax @Sephora): I am running out of a good eye makeup remover, and as Lancome Bi-Facil has never failed me before I decided to pick it up in Sephora.

Nature Republic - Lime hand cream (30 ml) (8,90 $ + tax for 2 @Nature Republic): I ran into this cute little store in NYC where they were selling these Korean cosmetics, and body products. And did the hand creams just suck me in as there were scented with very different scents from the average hand cream.

Nature Republic - Avacado hand cream (30 ml): as there was an offer 2 for 8,9 $ this was the second one I chose.

Nature Republic - Real nature hydrogel mask with aloe vera (22 g): There were several different masks to choose from, but I decided to pick this one up as many of the cabin crew tend to burn in Boston, and as that is my next stop I decided to pick this one up, just in case.


So now less than one month after my latest "haul" I have managed to buy three more items from my quota for the year of 2018, three more nail polishes. So now I have gotten up to 15 out of 18 of the quota for 2018. But given that nail-polish is something I have to wear for work, it is not the absolute worst spending of my quota.