Products for March, April and May

There was a discount evening at Smaralind shopping mall earlier this year, as a ladies night, and a lot of stores offered awesome discounts, either on spesific types of products or on everything in the store. As I was running out of a few products I purchased these;

 

Body shop vitamin C facial scrub

Body shop nutricanics foaming facial wash

Doctor organics lip balm in pommengranate

The Vitamine C facial scrub is ok, not great and not awful, but sure there is a better facial scrub out there for me yet to try. Still have not tried the Nutricanics facial wash, as I have still not finished the old one, but that will happen in the next few days I think, so a rewiev soon. The Doctor organics lip balm, is not so good, too waxy for my taste, and not moisturising enough. 

So now a three month item-budget gone

Thank you for reading,

Ella

Greece inspired dress

This even makes you look like the Greek national flag,

I like it, it reminds me of Greece;

Top from Zara - 7.995 ISK

Thank you for reading/looking,

Ella

First purchases of 2013

The first two things I bought this year were both from Lumene:

- Sensitive touch gentle toner

- Arctic Aqua 2 in 1 skin perfecting moisture booster

Both of these items were bought in January, so we can say that my January and February item budget is thus gone!

The toner is really great, after I started using it I have not gotten a singe break out, so for just over 2 months that is really good!
The Arctic aqua 2 in 1, is less than expected, and is far off from my old Sothys Hydradvace, intensive hydrating serum. But I still am going to use it with the cream from the same line, so we will se how the two are going to work out toghether. The Arctic aqua 2 in 1 is a bit of a water/gel consistency, when my Sothys serum was more like a thin cream. I guess as that one was the first serum I ever used, all serums or skin boosters are going to be compared to that.

Thank you for reading,
Elin

Lumene Vitamin C+ BB cream

Last year I ordered this BB cream from Lumene on Suomikauppa.fi an online store that sells Finish products  and ships them world wide. What's so great about this store is that you can send them an e-mail if the product you are looking for is not available on their website, and that's exactly what I did in my case. They didn't have tht BB-cream available at first so I sent them a line, and in about 4 days, they sent me an e-mail that the cream was now available on their web-site! What an amazing service. So this is what it looks like:

Lumene Vitamin C+ BB cream

The clolor I ordered was 01 Light

Blended out

At first I thought the cream was a little bit too thick for my liking (especially compared to my Maybelline BB cream), and still it is a bit thick so I can't use my fingers to blend it out on my face- well I can, but it looks way too cakey. So I purchased a stipple brush from elf, and that works perfectly with the Lumene Vitamin C+ BB cream, as it applies thin enough not to look cakey or enhancing my few face lines. It does not offer a lot of colours, as it only comes in two shades, but this is perfect for me in winter, I'm somewhat fair, but not very fair. This has become my winter staple (even though I don't prefer to wear makeup every day). For me, with a bit oily skin I do need to use powder on top. 

Thank you for reading,

Ella

Empties 2012

These are not all of the empties of last year, but some of them.

Empties 2012

Orlane, Normalane astringent soothing lotion for mixed and oily skin.

- This toner was not good, didn't do anything for me, as using nothing at all.

Neutrogena, ageless essentials continous hydration face cream with 25 SPF.

- When I started to use this last summer it was ok, but now this winter it broke me out, so I have stopped using it (even though it's not emptly) not to be bought again or ever used again, new home; the trash.

- Victoria's secret, fragrant body splash in Love spell.
This I bought ages ago, and finally finished now. The smell is always as nice even though the purple colour went out of the water as I made the crucial mistake of storing the bottle in direct sunlight (in my batroom window).

Sothys Hydradvace, intensive hydrating serum.
- A great serum works really well with my Hydradvance moisturizing cream. The only downside: it contains parabens, and thus will not be bought again - even though I REALLY want to. Really good product.

Boots, Botanics skin brightening toner.
- The best toner I have ever used, really gentle on the skin and does brighten the skin. Will definetly buy again, too bad there is not a Boots store in Iceland.

The body shop, hi-shine lip treatment (gloss).
- They have changed the packaging at the body shop, this is a 13 ml tube (cut in half), now they have a 14 ml. My tube doesn't have a colour indication on the bottle, but I think it's closes to party pink in the line they have now. It was a little bit too glittery for my liking, as I could just feel a little bit of glitter particles on my lips. Plus the bottle is way too big and lasts forever. Which could be good for some, but I like to switch out my glosses more often, so smaller bottles for me please.

N.Y.C. liquid lipstick in 433A Christine.
- I don't think N.Y.C. makes this anymore, at least not in this packaging. A really nice orange colour and small enough sparkles so I don't feel them on my lips.

Have you tried any of these?

Ella

Last years purchases

Maybe I should start the year with a summarization about the beauty buys of 2012, well all the things I bought or were given to me last year!

So this is what the pile looks like:

The Pile

And this is what the pile includes (not in an alphabetical, preference or time of purchase order):

-Lumene vitamin c anti-puffiness roll-on eye serum
-Lumene vitamin c illuminating anti-age bb cream - 01 light
-Youngblood mineral rice setting powder
-Maybelline dream fresh bb cream - universal glow
-Maybelline eyestudio gel eyeliner - brown
-Maybelline eyestudio natural impact eyeshadow - 05 glamour browns
-Body shop vitamine e face mist
-Clinique chubby stick - 02 whole lotta honey
-Clinique lipstick - 13 flamenco
-Benefit watt's up
-Kiko eye shadow - shade 122
-Kiko angled blus brush - face 103
-Kanebo lip brush
-Collistar eye pencil - shade 4 - dark blue
-Garnier roll on anti-dark circles - 02 light
-Loréal eye designer (eyepencil) - 413 ebony
-Loréal color riche le smokey (eyepencil) -211 purple dream
-Makeup store microshadow - ghetto
-Estée Lauder blush - 20 sweet nectar
-Mac eyeshadow - contrast
-elf complexion brush
-elf blush brush
-elf stipple brush
-elf professional eye shadow brush
-elf professional eye crease brush
-elf mineral eye shadow primer - sheer
-Nip + fab eye fix - light
-Viva la juicy by juicy couture (missing in the picture)

I have actually not started using the last two of the purchases of the year - as I'm trying to finish a couple of my perfumes before I open this one, and the Nip + fab eye fix is a backup for my sensai/kanebo eye concealer.

So what is the most loved purchase of the year? My elf eye shadow brushes as I use them a lot, the maybelline and Makeup store eyeshadows I also get a lot of use out of. I also LOVE my Kiko angled blush brush, the Estée Lauder blush - it's such a beautiful colour and the Benefit what's up - it'g gorgeous on the face!

Disappointment of the all of the products? My Clinique chubby stick, as the colour pay-off is almost none.

Products that contain parabens; Maybelline eye shadow, Makeup store eye shadow, Kiko eye shadow and the Body shop vitamin e face mist. I'm not sure if the eye pencils contain parabens, but all the other products are paraben free (to the best of my knowledge) - and thus very to my liking!

Untill next time,

Ella

My first Lumene purchase

I was at the Vantaa airport in Helsinki last summer that I made my first Lumene purchase, well first aware purchase. I did buy a few years back a hydra luminous shimmering and moisturizing body lotion from Lumene, but that was before the company became paraben-free and I became aware of paraben-chemicals. 

Back to the point, I was wandering in the duty-free and looking at a Clinique all about eyes serum, but found it a bit on the pricy side, so looking for a cheeper dupe I found Lumene Vitamin C+ anti-puffiness roll-on eye serum in the huge Lumene collection at the Finn-air shop at Vantaa. And boy I was not disappointed, it's great! I really worked for my puffy eyes when I was still working night shifts. Now I don't need it as mutch, but use it when there is a some puffiness is going on, either in the morning, or before I go to bed, and I really can see a difference. The cream is itself a clear watery gel formula, and gives a bit of a tinlge in the eye area right after it is used. So this is what it lookes like;

Lumene Vitamin C+ anti-puffiness roll-on eye serum

The three roller ball

Great pluses are it's paraben-free and has three small balls in stead of a one big one, so I feel it's being more gentle on the sensitive eye-area. I totally have fallen in love with Lumene, the only problem it's difficult to find their products in Iceland.

A great buy,

Thank you for reading,
Ella