LANCÔME Teint Idole Ultra 24h Wear & Comfort SPF 15 Foundation
008 Beige Opale
I already said a lot about this foundation in my latest new in and I have a quick review highlighted on my Instagram profile. I recently bought several foundations because I ran out of a few bottles of my lightest shades and I gave away all of my too dark foundations (my collection shrunk by 9 in total). This was the first one that I bought after being very impressed by a tester I took in the shop. I got shade 008 Beige Opale which is one of the lightest shades in our drugstores, but it's not as pale as Essence #insta foundation 10 (swatches are in new in). It's a neutral to slightly pinky very fair shade and it fits me well. It's a satin-matte formula with a medium coverage and the reason why I'm impressed by it is how long it lasts and how well it wears. It doesn't emphasise texture, pores or lines nor does it make them worse with time. While it's more on the matte side, when I wear my Olay Regenerist spf 30 moisturiser under it, it has a nice natural healthy glow to it.
I haven't put this one down since I got it in late 2018. I've tested a couple other highlighters, which I liked a lot (Catrice and L.O.V. palettes), but this one beats all in my collection. The shimmer is very fine, so it doesn't look like glitter on the face, instead it looks more natural, well if natural meant you got super glowy cheeks, but I hope you get what I mean. I love the cream to powder texture and I always apply it with fingers. It's one of the stronger highlighters and it lasts well on my cheeks, though sometimes it ends all over it. There's only two Colourpop products I've been truly impressed so far, matte X Lippie Stixs and this.
I can say the same thing as for Flexiterian - I've been using these almost every day since I got them in April, with one pause when I was using Catrice's Blush Box Glow + Multicolour in 020 It's Wine O'Clock. These are the best blushes I've ever found. They are nicely pigmented, super smooth and especially the shade 50 has the most amazing glow. I have one more bright coral shade 60, but I wear these two the most.
CATRICE Dewy-ful Lips Conditioning Lip Butter
060 Don't Dream it, DEW it!
These are the most comfortable, balmy lip glosses with a good level of shine and a light-medium pigmentation. I've had the pale pink shade 010 for about a year now, which I never wore in public because it's a bit corpsy, so I've been planning to get a better shade since I got that one. 060 is the perfect every day wearable shade, a nice rosy colour that goes with everything.
CATRICE Demi Matt Lipstick
100 Nude Crush Everyday
I've said in New in post that these are the best lipsticks Catrice made so far, even though the staying power isn't amazing. The formula is so smooth, it just glides over dry patches, makes the texture of the lips look much nicer than it really is and has a nice semi-matte look to it. They are lightweight, not drying and don't feel like you have a lipstick on. I particularly like this shade because it's a neutral medium nude which is not easy to find. This is currently my go-to lip colour.
ARTDECO Anti Pollution Spray
I got this after trying the "spritzy" Catrice spray, which made me go through a ton of reviews where I found Morphe as one of the most praised ones. That one is an aerosol and as soon as I saw this Artdeco one in Műller, I just grabbed it. I tried to find some reviews while in the shop on my phone like I usually do, but there were none, so it was a risk taking this especially since it's not cheap. The mist is just amazing. It's so fine, it barely feels wet at all. I was concerned that I paid a lot of money for a refreshing spray, but it actually delivers when it comes to prolonging makeup and it helps make it less "makeup looking". When I'm applying my foundation and I feel it looks too obvious I just spray a bit of this and it fixes it. I also use it as the last step in my makeup routine and anytime during the day when my makeup starts looking not so fresh. Ingredients are nothing special and it's very expensive considering what's inside, but the mist just makes it worth it because this is dry so fast.
PANTENE Hair Biology Full & Vibrant Mask, De-Frizz & Illuminate Reconstructing Mask and PRO-V 3 Minute Miracle Intensive Repair Conditioner
All three of these are amazing like I'm already used to at Pantene. All work great for my very dry, coarse, many-times bleached & coloured hair. They leave it nourished and a bit softer, though I still need to apply leave-ins to finish my style and keep my hair from drying out fast. I'd say the Repair mask in a pot is the most nourishing one of all, but these three are very similar to Pro-V Repair conditioner, so I'll be buying what's cheapest per ml.
JOICO K-Pack Deep Penetrating Reconstructor and Intense Hydrator
These are magic for bleached hair. Period. It's been a couple of months since I last bleached my hair and it got to a point when my hair started to feel stiff, it wasn't responding to oil treatments as well, it got dry very fast after washing despite a lot of leave-ins and even an Olaplex treatment didn't do much, so I dug out these two out of my emergency stash. One use and my hair feels like it was never bleached. These two are just the most amazing products for making the hair feel renewed even if you abused it to oblivion. I prefer to use these two together, though both Reconstructor and Hydrator can be used on their own, but Reconstructor which is an intense protein treatment leaves the hair kind of hard to the touch which is true for protein treatments in general, so you have to use something moisturising after to give the hair back that pliability and Hydrator works best with this, though I could use another hydrating conditioner or mask. I've used Hydrator on its own for years before I coloured my hair and since it's one of the best treatments I've found for very dry hair.
UPDATES
CATRICE Primer and Fine Multitalent Fixing Spray
This would be up among the favourites of the month, but I don't give it a proper thumbs up because of the spray. This does the job it promises to do. It can be used before or after applying makeup (I tried it both ways) and it truly prolongs the staying power and keeps things in place. However, that damned spray just ruins it for me. While the mist can be fine if you press the atomiser just right, mostly I manage a spritzy mist that makes my face wet and I have to wait 5 minutes for it to fully dry. It's nice and affordable, though actually not the best deal for the amount you get.
THE BODY SHOP Tea Tree Anti-Imperfection Peel-off Mask
I promised you an update on this mask. I already posted a review on it on Instagram stories where I showed you a video how this peels off - it was not in one piece. Instructions say to mix all the powder at once which was a massive waste, as I could get 2-3 or maybe even more uses out of it. The remains in the pot solidify just as fast as on the face, so you can't use for more applications. It applied with no problems on the skin, I did quite a thick coat because I had so much. It took about 7 minutes to solidify, I left it on for 10 and then proceeded to try to get it off. The edges were hard to grab and despite a thick application, it came off in pieces and it was still sticking on the edges of the face where I had to scrape it off. Mostly it was very easy to pull off, it didn't even stick on the skin much apart from on the edges where I have hair. It didn't remove anything from my pores, but my skin did feel smoother to the touch after use. It didn't feel tight and didn't scream for a moisturiser, so it's not a drying mask despite being for oily skin. For some reason two days after use I got spots on my chin. I don't think this was the cause, but I would expect from such a mask to prevent breakouts from happening. Overall I wasn't terribly impressed by this one.
SUBRINA Colour Refresh Mask
Violet
So I coloured my hair purple-ish - well temporarily (I hope). You might know that I manage social media for Subrina and there was a message asking if we have any pictures of how these colour masks perform on the hair. Moroccanoil versions of colour mask recently launched on Click2Chic (whose social media I also manage) and I saw how well their presentation of shades was done, so since I only had my rubbish quick strand test pictures, I decided to "sacrifice" my hair and use one of these to do some decent pictures how they look. I'm still very concerned I ruined my toning work, but the colour is so washed out by now that I had so much orange showing anyway, so hiding it with a colourful shade sounded like a fun idea, especially since I've had dark hair for 10 years and you can do squat with it when it comes to experimenting with temporary colour. My hair isn't an ideal shade for presenting the colours because it's not the lightest and these would look fantastic on ice blonde hair (I really wish my hair were much lighter because yellow tones I could deal with). I tried this shade on a few strands before doing my whole head and it washed out nicely - hopefully this happens for the whole head of hair. I remember when L'Oreal's Colorista launched there was a lot of complaints that some of the shades don't wash out and turn green, particularly their violet shade, but this one is a lot more red based and it washed off to a pale pinkish colour on those strands. It's super simple to use, you just use it like a regular hair mask, but make sure you get it all over the hair in a thick enough coat. I should have use more purple than I did, I mixed it with a conditioner for a more pastel look, but I did a bit too weak of a mix for my colour, even though this violet purple on its own is super pigmented and you get the colour on the box if you use it on its own. With my mix where I used about a 1/5 of the bottle plus a ton of conditioner it didn't tint the darker parts best, well at least not purple, but it is very intense on the lightest hair, still I quite like ombre iced orange-purple mix, it makes me feel like a sugar fairy. I only left it on for 10-15 minutes, but I could have left it longer for a more intense result. These are coloured hair masks, so you can leave them on for as long as you want and they don't damage the hair, instead the actually nourish it. On its own these are not enough for my hair, so I used Pantene with it, but (I assume) this also means that those with oily hair can use these, since they might not be too heavy from them (mix it with the shade Clear). If this washes off nicely, I'll be trying other shades, maybe Magenta. I only used this on Monday, so I'll have to get back to you how quick it will wash off, I wash my hair once a week, since it's so dry.
I had the hardest time taking a picture of the colour I got. Pictures taken with my phone show the colour more intense, while my Olympus camera didn't show how well the colours blended and they are not as intense. Still I decided post Olympus pictures, but you can see the Huawei pictures here. The colour irl is somewhere in between.
I had the hardest time taking a picture of the colour I got. Pictures taken with my phone show the colour more intense, while my Olympus camera didn't show how well the colours blended and they are not as intense. Still I decided post Olympus pictures, but you can see the Huawei pictures here. The colour irl is somewhere in between.
A part of my purchases I made online in the past weeks. For once I've actually done some more high-end purchases after I've been mostly a drugstore girl for many years. You'll see the products in a new in post when I have the time to test all of them. Right now I haven't had the chance to play with them much yet, so it's probably going to take me a while to do all the posts and my beauty updates stories on Instagram, but keep your eyes peeled if you're interested in any of these. Missing on the picture is MAYBELLINE Fit Me Loose Finishing Powder.
I have a few things ordered that I'm still waiting on: ETUDE HOUSE Face Blur SPF33 PA++ , ETUDE HOUSE Proof 10 Eye Primer, LANEIGE Lip Sleeping Mask Berry and A'PIEU Pure Block Natural Daily Sun Cream SPF45 PA +++.
WISHLIST
FOUNDATIONS - I obviously won't be buying these any time soon, since I'm currently occupied with testing what I got recently, but I found some interesting foundations with very pale shades that interest me: REVOLUTION Conceal & Hydrate Foundation in F0.2, COLOURPOP No Filter Foundation Fair 05, THE ORDINARY Serum Foundation with SPF 15 1N and NYX Professional Makeup Total Control Drop Foundation Pale or Porcelain. I had the last one in my shopping bag on Feel Unique, but then I saw it's 13 bloody millilitres for 16 €, which is insane. Still their shade range looks great. They have other formulas, but I'm not sure which one would work for me best.
MAYBELLINE Fit Me Matte & Poreless Powder 090 Translucent - I gave up on getting the Set + Smooth Pressed Powder, since I'd have to get it on eBay with shipping, so I focused my attention to this one which is sold here. I adore Matte + Poreless foundation, it's my favourite formula and it makes sense I try the powder as well, especially since it's so praised online. I hear it blurs pores and that it mattifies, yet has a sort of a glowy finish. The foundation blurs pores to a degree on me, so I have high hopes for this. I just received Rimmel Stay Matte powder yesterday as a part of a PR package, which I know many love, so I'll be testing it in the next weeks.
PRIMER - currently I have one primer in my collection, which I'm not the biggest fan off, so I'd love to find something new and possibly amazing that I'll love to use because it will make a visible difference. I've been mostly focusing my research on primers that hide pores. I took a sample of REVLON PhotoReady Pore Reducing Primer which did a good job and it felt nice on the skin, so when there's a decent discount I might get it (my pictures of before/after Revlon primer here). I heard a lot of great things about RIMMEL Fix & Perfect Pro Face Primer (which I sadly discovered is not sold on the stands in Slovenia), NYX Angel Veil Skin Perfecting Primer is hailed as a dupe for Hourglass Mineral Veil Primer, I also heard their Pore Reducing Primer hides pores well. I've been checking out CATRICE Prime And Fine Poreless Blur Primer in our drugstores and I'm still on the fence about it. It looks ok, but it blended a bit strange when I tried it on my hand because it pilled on the edges of application. E.L.F. Cosmetics Poreless Putty Primer is sold out everywhere since it's hailed as a dupe for the much more expensive Tacha The Silk Canvas Protective Primer. ARITAUM Pore Master Sebum Control Primer is another supposed dupe, this one for the famous Benefit POREfessional. HEIMISH Artless Glow Base SPF 50+ PA+++ is a primer I want mostly for the sun protection. If you have any recommendations, let me know.
ETUDE HOUSE Lash Serum - I found this while researching primers. It's got a very high feedback and it apparently works despite the low price. It might be worth checking out.
REVLON One Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer - I really want this. Drying frizzy hair like mine is a struggle and this makes it look easy, even though I know that huge handle will not fit my child-size hands. I'm still deciding whether I'll get the original (provided I find a reputable seller on Amazon.de because I need one with a EU plug) or just buy one of the many cheap knock-off on Amazon or eBay or AliExpress, which are also very praised, but I have concerns about the settings and how long they'll actually work.
SKIN DROP Renew Advanced Retinol Complex - I found this on a blog that tests different retinol products and this is highest rated. I won't be getting this one anytime soon because it's very expensive and it ships from the US, which means shipping + taxes, but it's on the list for someday.
Have a great day!
