Sephora Favorites – Soko to Tokio

Beauty, Skincare By 03/01/2016 Tags: No Comments

I always find myself browsing the Sephora Favorites section at Sephora USA, I’m such a sucker for these sets! I always end up getting them.

Soko to Tokio is Sephora’s take on Asian Beauty and features 8 deluxe sized items from Korea to Japan. Kit includes:

  • Amore pacific Treatment enzyme peel (0.2 oz – full size $60): this exfoliator helps brighten and even skintone without chemical abrasives. Natural papaya enzymes work to eliminate dry, dull surface cells and toxins to reveal a soft and smooth complexion. It improves penetration of other treatment products due to removal of dead surface cells.
  • belif The true cream aqua bomb (0.34 fl oz – full size $38): Aqua Bomb is an ultra-lightweight, mineral oil-free gel-cream that instantly cools and refreshes skin while providing intensive hydration. This formula contains a blend of apothecary herbs, including antioxidant-rich lady’s mantle, which helps neutralize skin-damaging free radicals, improves skin elasticity, and minimizes the appearances of pores. This refreshing cream is formulated to ‘burst’ when applied, releasing a flood of weightless moisture onto skin, and then absorb completely for a healthy, smooth, supple appearance.
  • Boscia Exfoliating peel gel (1fl oz – full size $34): Get the benefits of a peel—without the harsh side effects. This peel gel acts as a physical peel to remove the outer layer of dead skin, as a chemical peel to penetrate deep into skin for in-depth exfoliation, and as a treatment to firm and brighten for a healthy complexion. It’s triple-activated to get the best results with outer exfoliation and chemical exfoliation deep within pores while a brightening treatment can penetrate deep into skin. It bonds together so you instantly feel outer layer of skin being fully exfoliated. After rinsing, it lets skin appear smoother, softer, and brighter-looking after a single use.
  • Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin cream (0.17 fl oz – full size $48): This lightweight cream with the power of microcapsule ceramides hydrates the skin barrier from within, preventing chronic water loss. Dry, rough skin instantly becomes plumped with all-day, time-release moisture. It enhances the skin’s natural strength and function for smoother, softer skin.
  • Dr. Jart+ Premium beauty balm spf 45 in medium/dark (0.17 fl oz – full size $39): A moisturizer, sunscreen, and treatment serum, this all-in-one product also includes advanced brightening properties. Ideal under makeup, its natural-looking coverage minimizes the appearance of imperfections and evens the skintone. Antioxidant bio-peptides and adenosine protect skin from harsh environmental factors while restoring firmness and elasticity. This lightweight formula features mineral sunscreens to provide broad spectrum sun protection from both UVA and UVB rays. Skin is left looking smooth, perfect, and natural.
  • Erborian Creme scrub beautifying exfoliating pearls (0.5 fl oz – full size $28): Gentle enough for daily use, Crème Scrub is a gentle exfoliator made with innovative micro-pearls that transform into mini cleansing “sponges” upon contact with water. The small pearls flatten under fingertips and gently roll over the surface of the skin—eliminating impurities and dead skin cells—for skin that looks more refined and luminous. It’s enriched with seven Korean herbs, which includes green tea, licorice, Japanese knotweed, skullcap, rosemary, chamomile, and centella Asiatica, a complex that is known to help skin feel soothed day after day.
  • SK-II Facial treatment essence (1 fl oz – full size $105): Facial Treatment Essence is enriched with more than 90 percent Pitera—the main ingredient used to enhance the skin’s renewal process—plus nourishing vitamins, amino acids, minerals, and organic acids to promote a healthy skin cell renewal cycle. With daily application, this essence moisturizes, improves texture and clarity, and contributes to a more beautiful, balanced, and glowing complexion.
  • Skin inc Pure deepsea hydrating mask (0.68 fl oz – full size $75): This innovative sleep-in or rinse off transparent gel mask moisturizes, clarifies, and brightens the complexion. This triple-treat mask contains nutrient-rich Okinawa deepsea water, soya bean extracts, and hyaluronic acid for an easy-to-use, luxurious daily treatment for your skin. Great for use while traveling or on the go, it seals in nutrients from other skincare products for maximum results.

I hope that this post is helpful for you! What do you think about Sephora Favorites SoKo to Tokyo?

Share:
ciate-silhouette

Silhouette – Ciaté

Beauty By 30/12/2015 Tags: , No Comments

Ciaté nailpolishes always hit my soft spot, the formulas are great and the colors are amazing. Today I want to share with you Silhouette, the shade I’ve been wearing nonstop this Christmas and the one I will weare on New Year’s Eve.

Silhouette is one of the prettiest vampy shades prettiest vampy shades. The color is quite dark, a very rich and warm dark burgundy red with sparkles of gold shimmer. It looks quite deep in the bottle, but it’s leaning towards red once on the nail. The color acts a bit like a chameleon, because it shifts between red and a bit purple, depending on the lighting.

It applies easily and lasts for 3-4 days without chipping. After that you do suffer from spots that go off.

Silhouette is also without any doubt a beautiful autumn and winter color for your nails.

Share:
2015-12-27 12.34.06

Lotus Youth Preserve Face Cream With Super 7 Complex – Fresh

Beauty By 28/12/2015 Tags: , No Comments

I received a small sample of this cream a long time ago as one of the 100 perk program of Sephora USA. As I had other moisturizers opened at that time, I ignored it until my recent trip to Paris. And oh my god!

With freezing temperatures around 0º, this moisturizer helped my skin to stay hidrated and soft during the whole trip! This is a nice, lightweight moisturizer, with a noticeable refreshing cucumber scent that goes away in a few minutes, which maybe some wouldn’t find appealing. A small amount spreads easily and absorbs quickly, perfect for using during the whole year, it should be especially good for the summer months when my skin tends to be a little oily in the T-zone.

In its composition it has lemon peel oil, which is known to be a strong skin irritant, but I haven’t had any problems in my sensitive skin. As for the anti-aging claim, I haven’t notice any changes regarding it.

Would I repurchase again? Yes, once I finish all the other moisturizers I have pilend in my bathroom’s cabinet.

Share:
sunday-riley-luna-oil-review

Luna sleeping oil – Sunday Riley

Beauty, Brands By 11/12/2015 Tags: , No Comments

The first time I knew about Sunday Riley’s new oil, Luna Sleeping oil, was in a post of the amazing Caroline Hirons. Since that moment, I’ve seen it pop up everywhere: social media accounts, blogs, youtube, magazines… causing great levels of excitement and adoration (it was sold out just minutes after being launched in Sephora USA).

I’m very skeptikal about all the supossedly amazing properties of all this type of producs that cost more than my phone bill (it is insanely expensive, £85.00 at CultBeauty and Space.NK, $105.00 at Sephora USA), the question here is, is it really worth all the hype?

According to Sunday Riley’s website, it is a “next generation retinoid oil that reduces pore size, improves appearance of damaged skin, and helps fight wrinkles”. In common language, a nighttime oil. It also says that there is a trans-retinoid ester in its composition, more stable compared to traditional retinoid ester, qhich means it should be more gentle and can be used by irritation prone skin like me. It has a nice blue color that the company attributes to the blue Tansy, a plant known for its antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties, it is used to soothe rashes and redness of the skin and helps to relax the mind and combat stress, but if we take a look at its composition, we will find two dyes (CI 61565 – Green 6 and CI 60725 -Violet 2) that are known to irritate the skin. Marketing?

That being said and after two months of use in my dry and dehidrated skin, it is time to share my experience. Do I like it? Yes, i love it! Have I noticed an improvement in my skin? Well, I have to say I don’t usually have pores or a lot of wrinkles or visible marks in my skin (except one little scar in my chin), so I haven’t noticed big changes, but I feel my skin more plump and hydrated, softer to the touch, and the little scar seems to be less noticeable.

Would I buy it again? The results are very good, and the fact that it doesn’t irritate my skin despite having retinol in its composition sums many points in its favour, but it is so expensive…   The results showed in my skin are very similar to those achieved when using the Kiehls Advanced Night Repair (much cheaper), so I seriously doubt I would buy it again. Maybe if in the future I want to treat myself.

Share:
20150920_200301

Dry shampoo duel: Gliss-Schwarzkopf vs Drybar

Hair By 20/09/2015 Tags: , , No Comments

That I am a fan of the dry shampoo is an understatement. I love it, I worship it, I can’t live without it. My hair is really oily in the roots, which means I need to wash it every other day, so using dry shampoos helps me to space the washses three or four days.

I usually buy the Batiste one, but I ran out of it and I found the Gliss Schwarzkopf at the supermarket. Later I found the Drybar Triple Sec 3-in-one in the depths of my bathroom cabinet, so I have been trying and testing them out for the last mont.

The Gliss Schwarzkopf dry shampoo is a good option when you have no time to wash your hair or you want to give it that extra “omph”. As it says in the bottle,  when you use it you will have “24 hours of anty-oil protection, more volume in your hair instantly and without any visible residues”. In my medium lenght and really straight hair, it makes wonders in the first and third departments. It does not leave any residue once you brush your hair and removes the excess oil. I find it is best to use it the night before, aply it just before going to bed and brush the hair in the morning. It gives my hair no extra volume, but my hair seems to be clean and shiny, so for me it is a great dry shampoo.

The Drybar Triple Sec 3-in-one is a  cruelty-free three-in-one volumizer, texturizer, and dry shampoo. For me this product didn’t work in any of the ways it is supposed to. I should have called it quits with this product after the initial spray left my hair looking like I was on the loosing side of a chalk battle (if there is such a thing?) in a second day hair. I couldn’t believe the intensity in which is sprayed out, and the residue it left behind, not only a white powder but a wet white powder. It seemed like I had sprayed water over my hair. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I waited the usual few minutes for it to dry, and lo-and-behold – still chalky. The scent is very pleasant (it’s arguably the only redeeming feature), but it was near impossible to fully fade it into my hair. It not only leaves a terrible residue in your hair, but once it dryed out it gave absolutely no volume at all, actually weighed my hair down making for me near to impossible to brush it through, leaving it looking like I hadn’t washed it in a month. No volume, not a good texture on the hair and it didn’t clean my hair in any way possible. This is a product I can not recommend and that I would not repurchase again.

Final conclusion: the Schwarzkopf dry shampoo is a really good purchase and I surely will buy it again soon. The Drybar one, it is not worth the money.

Share:
IMG_20150820_185928

Caviar Anti-Aging Replenishing Moisture shampoo and conditioner

Beauty By 20/08/2015 Tags: , , No Comments

While I was away travelling for work reasons, I had the oportunity to try out both of the Caviar Anti-Aging Replenishing Moisture shampoo and conditioner that I got as a part of the Sephora Favorites Ultimate Hair Essentials set. I have really fine hair and frizzi I need to wash it every other day, so when I was preparing my travel makeup bag I spotted them in my minis drawer (where I have all my “minis”, perfect size for travelling products) and thought I could try them out and see for myself if all the good reviews I had read about these products were true.

The first thing you notice when you open the shampoo is the amazing smell they have, very soothing and calming, that lingers in the hair all day long. They were good for 5-6 times leaving my hair feeling very soft and tamed, although the conditioner made it wheight a bit down. For products that have been formulated without parabens, sulfates or phthalates, the results are amazing.

Would I repurchase again? The shampoo for sure, but I don’t think I would repurchase the conditioner.

You can find them here

Share:
13MAKEOVER-articleLarge

Starting something new…

Uncategorized By 19/08/2015 No Comments

This blog starts as a way of me “coping” with the huge amount of  makeup I have and with my beauty obsession. As I am not a beauty or a skincare expert in any way (I am a software architect in my daily job), here you will find beauty tips and tricks that I have tried out and work for my skin type (dry), as well as lifestyle tips and things that I am interested in.

So, let the adventure begin!

 

Share: