X-mas gift haul 2019

Of the Christmas presents this year, a few were beauty related...

X-mas haul 2019

Dr. Organic Manuka honey gift set: My nephew and his partner gave me this lovely gift set for x-mas 

     Dr. Organic - Manuka Honey - hand & nail cream (125 ml): This is an amazing hand lotion, me and my mom tired it over christmas, and omg it moisturizes, goes quickly into the skin and leaves the skin super moisturized so you can even feel the difference the day after you apply it. And the bottle is big and generous and will last for some time for sure.

     Dr. Organic - Manuka Honey - Skin lotion (200 ml): Super excited to try this one, if it even half as good as the hand cream I am in for a treat.

     Dr. Organic - Manuka Honey - Rescue cream (50 ml): I have tried this face cream before with excellent results. I decided to give it a try back in 2017 - and I did love it, as it worked really well for my sensitive skin, prone to perioral dermatitis.

Feel Iceland - Amino marine collagen - Pure Icelandic collagen food suppliment (300 g): Collagen seems to be the new buzz word in the beauty community, at least in Iceland. There has been some discussion about both food suppliments and facial creams. And as my sister knew I was curious about this stuff, so she gave me one for x-mas to try!

All in all, I got great gifts for Christmas this year, all of them very useful and handy.

Hope you had a good holiday season and a happy new year!

October-December haul 2019

Me on a low buy for 2019....?
Well it did not quite turn out like that!!

Sensai - Bronsing gel -BG 62 amber bronze (50 ml): I had heard so many girls raving about this product, especially at work, so when it was on offer I decided to grab one and give it a try.

Becca - The glow starts here: I grabbed this trio in Ulta, using a 20% discount code, as they were all half size products, and all I have been wanting to try. It contains:

     Becca - Backlight priming filter (15 ml)

     Becca - First light priming filter (15 ml)

     Becca - Under eye brightening corrector (2,3 g)

L'oreal - Magic root cover up - Medium brown (57 g): I grabbed this bottle as my sister can not stop raiving about this product, and how good it is at covering up grey roots.

Charlotte Tilbury - Matte revolution luminous modern-matte long-lasting lipstick - Very Victoria (3,5 g): Seriously is this the longest product name ever? But I have for sure went totally overboard in lipstick purchases in the year of 2019. But I have spent some serious time in Sephora and Nordstrom over the last year, swatching different CT lipsticks, and I figured out a few months back this would be the color I wanted. I had planned to buy it sometime in 2020, but caved in when I spent Christmas in Washington. So I bought it as a gift for myself!

The Ordinary - 100% Cold-pressed virgin marula oil (30 ml): I bought this oil as a replacement for the Avon Maroccoan argan hair oil I am finishing up as a part of my project pan 2019. And this can be both used on skin and in hair. And am I quite curious about marula oil.

Lush - Sugar plum fairy lipscrub (25 g): When I was walking around the streets of Amsterdam, in the cold November weather my lips were peeling out of control. Knowing Lush had a lip scrub in their stores I jumped in and grabbed a scrub, and it managed to heal my lips in the course of a day.

Rudolph Care by Andrea Rudolph - Acai facial mist -Purifying and firming facial toner (30 ml): This I picked up in the CPH duty free, thinking it was a moisturizing facial spray, perfect to carry in my purse for work. But toner comes in just as handy while travelling in a small bottle.

Victoria Beckham Beauty - Lid lustre - Mink (5 g): I was way to curious about the Victoria Beckham beauty brand, so I just had to order one product from her line to give it a try. And I did wear it for the first time to a Tarkan concert in Amsterdam in November. It is a very crumbly eyeshadow - but I have to give it a better try with an eyeshadow primer. Perhaps at new years eve!

Fenty beauty by Rhianna - gloss bomb universal lip luminizer - fenty glow (9 ml): Again the girls at work's recommendations get me in the mood to try out new products. So I picked this item up, as a mater of a fact, two, one for me and one for my friend who I met in Amsterdam for the Tarkan concert. I chose this color, as it seemed to be the most universally flattering one for every day.

Sunday Riley

     Good genes lactic acid treatment (5 ml tester): I got this and the other Sunday Riley sample as a point perk at Sephora. The Sunday Riley products were always so hyped up on Youtube so I jusst had to give it a try, plus I had not seen any interesting point perks in store for ages.

     Sunday Riley - A+ high dose retinoid serum (5 ml tester)

Maybelline - Instant age rewind eraser - multi use concealer (6 ml): I had managed not to pick this up in store as a back up for the entire year of 2019 - so in December I finally gave in and grabbed it as a back up. Do I need a concealer in the near future? No I already have two opened wand concealers, plus the new Becca one.

Did you do any good last minute purchases in 2019?

Beauty goals for 2019 - Results

My beauty goals for 2019 went so so, so to say!

I managed to finish four of the ten products I set out to finish in 2019, so a success of 40%. Which is a bit of a less progress from 2018 and 2017. But progress is progress, and now I have managed to use a few products up and thus declutter my collection of a few items.

The empties  of my Beauty goals for 2019

Managed to finish one item from this picture

What I managed to finish up:

Lumene - Bright now vitamin C eye cream (15 ml): Finally I managed to finish this eye cream, sadly the new eye-cream I have contains a whopping 30 ml of product. But compared to how many years it took me to finish 15 ml, I would prefer eye-creams to come in 10 ml bottles.

L'Occitane en provence - Verveine body lotion (250 ml): So glad I managed to finish one of my body lotions, many to go

Avon - Moroccan argan oil (30 ml): This is the second bottle of this hair oil I manage to finish up, and it works wonders for the ends of my hair, to say the least. I was so afraid I would miss this product so much I decided to grab the Ordinary, 100% marula oil for my hair.

Inglot - Bright amber - solid perfume (2,3 g): This was one of the first products I managed to finish up. Did I like the scent; yes, the solid perfume application; no.

The remaining products from 2019 - which I did not hit my goal on

Left outstanding, unfinished products, or the products I did not manage to finish are the following:

Bourjois Paris - Happy light luminous serum primer (15 ml): I can not believe I did not manage to finish this primer, as I have used it religiously for the last five months of the year, given the fact that I do not use makeup everyday. I would guess though it would only take me about five uses to finish it up.

Cover Girl - Ready set gorgeous - 115 (30 ml): After owning this product for years, believing the bottle was of a non see-through type, it turned out to be see-through! And now I can see there is just a tiny little bit remaining of the product. Starting the year at 2/3 remaining of the product, I am super glad it is as good as finished!.

Cover Girl - Ready set gorgeous foundation - December 2019

Origins - Drink up 10 minute mask to quench skin's thirst (100 ml): I am starting to think in this empties, the rule of five that remains, as I can guess that about five uses are remaining. Maybe ten.. but maybe I should really implement a Mask Monday this year, and really get this product done for good.

Express - Love Express eau de parfum (10 ml): I have never taken such a long time to finish this small amount of a perfum. At the beginning of the year 2019, I had a little bit less than a full bottle left, and I think I can estimate that I have finish about half of the perfum up, of what remained in the beginning of the year.

Maybelline - Color tattoo 24hr - gel cream eyeshadow - 35 on and on bronze: This is the second time this product is featured in one of my "Beauty goals" projects, as it was a part of my "Beauty goals for 2017" - that year my goal was to hit pan. Then this year, 2019, the goal was to hit side pan, which had to be modified as when I started to use the product, it was too stiff, so it had to be stirred up, which totally revived the product. But from the 4 month update, some visual progress can be seen. But if I can say that I reached my original goal to hit side-pan, I am not sure of.

Maybelline - Color tattoo 24hr - December 2019

Bourjois Paris - Somekey eyes trio - 09 Lady vert de gris (4,5 g): My original goal for this product was to hit pan on the only eyeshadow that was in this small palette without a pan. I seem to have made some progress though from the four month update on the shadow from April untill now. 

Bourjois Paris - 09 Lady vert de gris - December 2019

Other goals of 2019 were the following:

1. Not to buy any colored nail-polishes (nail strengheners and top coats not included in the definition of "colored nail-polish"). = I bought one nail topcoat from Essie (with a colored nail polish in a duo pack) = Small fail
2. No impulse buys, or buys just because there is a sale or discount = I did buy a Clarins eyeshadow brush on 40% discount (but I had been thinking of buying a brush like that before). Also I bought Inglot duraline, and a pink Inglot eyeshadow, as the store was closing in Iceland. Plus the fact I did buy a totally unnecessary lipstick and concealer on Christmas eve = Big fail
3. Max 1 perfume purchase = Did not purchase one perfum the entire year of 2019 = Success
4. No buy January and No buy March - maybe other months to be scheduled later on = Kept a No buy January and a No buy March - did not schedule other no buy months though! = Success
5. Max 2 eye-shadow palette purchases = Bought one eyeshadow palette, and was gifted one = Success
6. Max 2 brush purchases = Bought three = Small fail

Did you do a project pan - or set any goals for 2019 - how did you do?

July-September haul

It seems to have become a standard for me to do an update on my beauty product purchases in about every three months. This being no exception, so here come the items I have purchased abroad and domestically in the last three months:

Face powder, mist, blush. strobe cream, eyeshadow, gloss and a lip brush

Nail polish, cleanser and foot scrub

Boots No. 7 - Lift & luminate triple action translucent finishing powder - Light/Medium (10 g): After I saw Jessica Braun sing praises for this finishing powder, I just could not resist buying it in Target on one of my visits to that store. Did I need it? No. Do I need it in the next 4 months? Probably not...

Mac - Strobe cream - pinklight (50 ml): I had heard so many good things about this product, I was really curious to try. so far I really do like it, it gives the skin a subtle glow and also works good if I mix it with my foundation. But to my surprise I found out later that you can purchase a smaller version of this product. If I had known that I would for sure have bought the smaller, over the whopping 50 ml bottle.

Sephora Collection - Pro lip brush #85: This purchase was probably the most sensible one out of this haul, as it is perfect to use to finish up lipsticks that are almost done.

Caudalie - Beauty elixir (30 ml): I have been curious to try this facial mist, as many of the beauty bloggers rave about it. And as I managed to lower my "stock" of face mists, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to grab this 30 ml one to try. 

L'oreal skin awakening blush - 01 peach addict (9 g): I am just a sukker for blushes and offers, even though I had decided that one of my beauty goals for 2019 would be not to make a purchase just because there is an offer. Failed once again.

Tromborg eyeshadow - Winter leaf (2,5 g): I really love the Tromborg eyeshadow I already owned, so I really wanted to add another one into my collection. And I picked a really basic usable color, brown, a bit on the darker side.

Clarins - Natural lip perfector - 06 (12 ml): This has long been a very popular gloss in Iceland, and I had never tried it so one day in the duty free I decided to give it a try.

Essie gel couture duo - Fairy tailor and top coat (13,5 ml): I previously had set the goal for myself in 2019 not to buy any colored nail polishes, but I had heard such good things about the top coat, and this duo was on a good deal, so I caved in and bought it.

Matas Natur - 2 in 1 Cleansing milk, e-vitamin and aloe (200 ml): When I was in Copenhagen this summer for one day, I went back to my old "stomping-grounds" in the Danish capital. Rented a bike and biked around all my favorite places, school and old neighbourhood, with a few stops in my favorite stores; Matas included. And they have really renovated the stores, and they look amazing! There I came across their Matas Natur line, which is formulated without all the bad ingredients you can find in cosmetics. And from that line this cleansing milk appealed the most to me - so it came home with me.

Footlogix - Exfoliating seaweed scrub (250 ml): Me and my mom went to a spa in Montréal this summer, and both of us really liked this product the beautician used on us. So we both ended up buying a bottle.

So 10 new items in the last three months? Seriously, as much as I have set myself a goal to finish in 2019? Now something really has to change!

April-June haul

A part of my beauty goals for 2019 was no-buy January and no-buy March, which was very successful. And in February I managed only to buy 3 items.

Well from there things have been quite down hill... and here comes my haul for April, May and June:

An accumulated haul - replacements, backups etc.

I purchased two palettes

Two brushes and Inglot duraline

Vichy - Aqualia thermal hydrating serum (30 ml): As I am over half way done with my previous botle, I decided to pick up a backup, as I have really fallen in love with this product. Even though I was planning to go "stock free", but I guess I have to accept the fact that is really not my style at all.

Vichy - Aqualia thermal rehydrating cream light (50 ml): As I am getting so well along with the serum from this range I decided to grab the moisturizing cream also to use in the nearest future.

The body shop - Aloe calming toner (250 ml): as the Lumene toner did not work for me I decided to buy something tried and true, that does not irritate my perioral dermatitis so I went with this toner from The body shop.

Cutex care - Non acetone nail polish remover with coconut oil (200 ml): After I started working as cabin crew, my nails have become very soft, and tend to peeling. I have tried a few types of nail-strengthening nail-polishes, nothing showing any remarkable results. So now I decided to try a non-acetone nail polish remover, and I bumped into this one in Canada with coconut oil, so I decided to give it a try.

TanOrganic - self tan oil (100 ml): I have not tried any self-tanners for the body before, but I had gotten a tester for this oil last year, and as a matter of a fact I did like it. So I decided to jump on the o so popular self-tan train, and give this a try. Have I used it so far? No not really.

Drunk Elephant - Protini polypeptide cream (15 ml): This I got as a part of the Sephora birthday gift for 2019. I have tried it a few times and it works great for sunburned, dry and flaky skin.

The body shop - Vitamin E overnight serum-in-oil (28 ml): As the Inika rosehip oil turned out to be quite irritating for skin, again I decided to purchase something tried and true, and was this serum in oil the one I chose. I had already finished up a bottle of this product with good results for my perioral dermatitis, so I went with that again. 

Nuxe - Honey lip balm (15 g): As I decluttered the Laneige overnight lip balm, I decided to go for something more organic and sensitive skin friendly, and as a friend of mine has raved about this product I decided to give it a try.

Drunk Elephant - Beste No. 9 jelly cleanser (30 ml): This I also got as a part of the Sephora birthday gift for 2019 and am I quite excited to give it a try.

Inglot - Eyeshadow in 164 (3,3 g): As Inglot in Iceland was closing and hosting a 40% discount on everything I decided to go on a lookout for a dupe for my favorite pink eyeshadow. My favorite is from Boots, this is not a 100% dupe, but comes quite close, the one from Boots is a bit brighter and was I choosing between color 164 and J301 the pink satin color from the JLo line. But that was a bit too peachy compared to the one from Boots. It didn't take me long after I got the color home, I got a big buyers remorse. In retrospect I fell into the pit of discount offers, which was one of my goals not to fall into. Well you live and you learn.

Clinique - Chubby stick, shadow tint for eyes in 04 ample amber (3 g): This shadow I had been eyeing for over a year, or ever since Meg says raved about it in her duty free haul. It is a beautiful golden/copper color, and can be sheered out to a beautiful sheen of a color. Still I am a bit overwhelmed of the cream eye shadow products I have in my collection, which now adds up to three pencils and two pots, one of which is a part of my beauty goals for 2019. 

Becca - Becca X Khloé Kardashian & Malika Haqq Bronze, blush and glow palette - Made with love by Khloé (12 g): It for sure was not a planned purchase to buy this Becca palette, but when I saw it was on a 40% discount in Sephore, I just could not resist, and even managed to tempt my friend into buying one. But hey when a Becca face palette with 4 shades retails for 26.40 USD it is just too good of a deal to pass up, especially when you do not own any Becca products. It contains a highlighter, two blushes and a bronzer and so far it performs beautifully, not too pigmented at all.

Tarte - Maneater eye shadow palette vol 2 (9 g): This had been on my wish list for a few months. But I had not tired any Tarte eyeshadows, or any Tarte product before I purchased this palette. But with the manageable size and everyday colors, it can be the perfect everyday palette. It has a faint sweet chocolate scent to it, and have I used this as my main eye shadow palette for the month of June. It might be a bit drying on my eyelids, as after a few day wear I started to get flaky skin in my crease, but I am now trying to use an eye shadow primer first and then the shadows, so I will see if that is not working better, than applying it straight to my eyelids. 

Zoeva - 100 Luxe face finish: I had heard so many good reviews about this brush online, and as it is a mix of natural and synthetic bristles I decided to buy it. As I tend to prefer natural bristle brushes for powder products. And I intend to use it for my hourglass powder trio.

Zoeva - 230 Luxe pencil (rose golden): I opted to grab this brush also, at the same time from Beauty Bay with the other Zoeva brush, as the 100 brush didn't fulfill the minimum for a free shipping, so I actually broke one of the rules for my Beauty goals for 2019 - which included only buying two brushes this year.

Inglot - Duraline (9 ml): This I also bought as Inglot is closing in Iceland, and had all of their products on 40% off, but I have heard so many good things about this product, as it can revive dried up liquid eyeliners and creams. So I snatched one up to have on hand.

So am I planning a no-buy month coming July? No but am for sure going to keep my purchases in check, maybe, max buy 1 item. Will keep you posted.

Discontinued products due to perioral dermatitis

The last time I posted a summary of items I have stopped using due to perioral dermatitis was in April 2016. So I guess I have been quite lucky regarding to the products I have been using since then, as they have not seemed to aggravate my perioral dermatitis to the point it has caused a flare up. Well until now that is.

But now there are three products that seem to have caused a flare up with my perioral dermatitis 

The tree discontinued products

Laneige - lip sleeping mask (20 g): This I bought last year in the US at a whopping price of 20 USD. Sadly it seems to irritate my perioral dermatitis, BUT of the three products I am decluttering it does irritate my POD (perioral dermatitis) the least. But this I gave to a friend, hoping she will have better luck with it than I did.

Lumene - Soft touch hydrating toner, for dry to normal skin (200 ml): This is as a matter of a fact one of my favorite brands, so the fact that this toner did not work for me, almost broke my heart. But this product in conjunction with the next one, seemed to cause quite an irritation with my POD. My skin around my mouth became red and irritated, borderline "inflamed". But a nature-homeopathic "doctor" I saw thinks the chemical Peg-10 is the main culprit as she claims all the Peg chemicals wreck havoc with the skin barrier. If that is true or not, I have no idea, but the Peg-10 chemical in this product was one of the first five ingredients, so that gives the idea that there is a lot of Peg-10 in the toner. So I will for sure try to stay away from Peg ingredients in the near future.

Inika truly organic - Pure rosehip oil (15 ml): This also aggravated my skin, which is quite surprising, as it is a pure organic rosehip oil, which is supposed to be really good for perioral dermatitis. So the fact it did not work for me is quite annoying as well as it was a birthday gift from my parents. 

Has anything not worked for you lately? 

Delayed February birthday haul

So as I planned for the year 2019, January would be a no-buy month, and then in February I could purchase some items as it would be my birthday month.

So here comes a very delayed birthday haul!

Birthday haul in February

Clarins - eye contour brush (réf. 470131): I grabbed this on a 40% discount in Hagkaup, one of the biggest beauty retailers in Iceland. But I had actually been looking for a small eyeshadow brush to smudge eyeshadow under the lower lash line. And this fit the bill perfectly, and works very nicely. Too bad it is probably discontinued, and hence on a discount.

Inglot - soft precision lip liner in 63: I was looking for a darker every day lip liner than the ones I have in my collection, and would go well together with my lipsticks. And as this is one of the most popular lip liners in Inglot in Iceland, I decided to buy it for myself as a birthday treat.

Inglot eyeshadow in 461: This eyeshadow had been on my to buy list from Inglot for a very long time, as it is one of those perfect crease colors. It is a medium light brown, with a hint of shimmer in it, plus LisaLisaD1 recomended it.

What have you bought recently?