Beauty goals for 2018 - results

So as it has come to the end of the year, it is time for an update on my "Beauty goals for 2018" where I planned to finish ten selected items from my collection.

So out of the ten items I planned to finish or hit pan on, I was successful on seven of the items. 

Five products that I finished marked with X (original photo)

I did finish my Lancome kohl pencil

 

Two fails and reached my goal to hit pan on one (marked with /)

Did not finish this one but managed to use up about 1/3

So I reached my goals on seven of the ten items, and the items I reached my goals on were:

Dove - intense repair overnight cream (120 ml): used up 1/3 of the product that was left.

The body shop - Vitamin C skin boost (30 ml): estimated 6-10 ml used up.

Dove - Repair therapy, Color radiance hair mask (200 ml): used up the remaining 3-4 applications.

Wet and wild - nail polish in the color 442A (14 ml): when this got too thick and difficult to apply, I finally gave up on it, I had originally 4-6 ml left. And maybe I was able to use up about half of the remaining product.

Victoria's secret - Unwrap me, beauty rush, whipped cream and winter pear, body dial-a-shimmer lotion (200 ml): this item probably had about 100 ml left when I started the project. The pump on it broke early on, so I ended up depotting it and use it up from a different container.

Lancome le crayon kohl noir (0,7 g): it started the year 2018 as a 3,5 cm long pencil and was I able to use it until it became 2,5 cm long, at which point the kohl itself fell out of the pencil. And to use that 1 cm took me almost the entire year.

Maybelline - depotted eyeshadow in a champagne shimmery color: this item was a roll over product from 2017, and whas my goal to hit pan on the eyeshadow. Which I managed to do in early January. 

So the three remaining items I did not reach my goals on were:

Clinique - Blush in Fig (1,8 g): this is a depotted "gift with purchase" blush, and if I compare how the pan looked in the beginning of the year, I perhaps finished a little less than half of the blush I started the year with. OMG and this has been my primary blush of the year, and I probably finished less than 1 gram of it - BUT it is a very pigmented blush and I only need a tiny bit of it to give me a nice rouge on my cheeks. 

Estée Lauder - Double wear, stay in place powder makeup SPF 10 (16 g) - color 2N2 Fresco 01: I acknowledged the fact that it would be hard to use this foundation up in the year as the pan was and still is quite thick on the sides. And as can be seen this goal was far from reached. As a matter of a fact I kind of gave up in the middle of the year and abandoned this as my main foundation, and used Cover Girl - Ready set gorgeous, which I hauled in 2015. 

Bourjois Paris - Happy light luminous serum primer (15 ml): from the point I started the year until now, I have probably used up just over 1/3 of the product, so about 5-6 ml of product I have managed to use.

So all over I am pretty glad about my success, as there was more success than failure for sure. And super glad that I was finally able to use up the Lancome le crayon kohl noir, which I first put in a project pan for the year 2016 - so it "only" took three years to finish up. 

Did you do a project pan this year?

UK + GR haul

So it's time for the last haul of 2018, which is fairly small, as I only bought two items on my holiday in London and Thessaloniki. 

Last haul of 2018

Nuxe - Huile Prodigieuse, multi-purpose dry oil, face, body hair (100 ml): This I grabbed on my Easy Jet flight from London to Thessaloniki, my friend had highly recommended this to me, and it was on 20% off on the flight so it was a yes yes yes.

Collection - Lasting perfection ultimate wear concelaer- Fair 1 (6,5 ml): This I grabbed in Superdrug in London, but on my stops in London I have always been keeping my eyes open for this item, as the UK bloggers/vloggers speak so highly of this concealer. Originally I was not planning to get it, but color match me and pick it up at a later time, but as they had almost every color in stock I decided to grab it and keep it as a backup when one of my 2 current concealers run empty.

Have you bought some x-mas treats recently?

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?