NYX PROFESSIONAL Makeup Bare With Me Concealer Serum
Fair
Most of my concealers are old, (nearing) empty and discontinued, so I can’t repurchase some of my favourites and I was on a hunt for a new formula that fits dry skin. This appears to be popular and I have to agree with the hype. It’s one of the nicest concealers I’ve tried so far. It doesn’t really feel like a traditional concealer, instead it’s more like a foundation for dry skin. It layers well, it melts into the skin, looks natural, yet covers quite a lot for such a lightweight formula. I’d say the coverage is about medium, it’s not full, but it covers circles well and red spots reasonably well. I quite like this for blemishes because it looks a lot less cakey than pretty much all concealers I’ve tried, though it doesn’t stay on as well as matte formulas and it can slide off. I got the lightest shade Fair and it fits me well. The packaging has a pump dispenser which is very precise and can squeeze out the smallest amount.
TARTE Shape Tape Ultra Creamy Concealer
8B
NATASHA DENONA Glam Mini Palette
RARE BEAUTY Soft Pinch Liquid Blush
Grace
RARE BEAUTY Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil
Hope
*MAX FACTOR 2000 Calorie Lip Glaze Plumping Lip Gloss
000 Melting Ice, 005 Honey Crème, 010 Cotton Candy, 050 Guava Flair, 075 Pink Fizz, 105 Berry Sorbet, 150 Caramel Swirl, 170 Nectar Punch
000 Melting Ice: a clear gloss with shimmer.
005 Honey Crème: a clear gloss with golden shimmer. Reminds me of a shade of Clarins’ Lip Oils.
010 Cotton Candy: an essentially clear gloss, though it looks light pink in the tube. Cream finish.
050 Guava Flair: a light peachy-pink with more peach tones – the colour in the tube is deceptive at this one when my skin tone is concerned. This one is close to fully opaque. Cream finish.
075 Pink Fizz – a coral with gold shimmer. Sort of opaque.
105 Berry Sorbet – the deepest shade, a pink-purple/berry shade. For full opacity it needs to be applied in a thick coat, but it’s hard to make it even. Cream finish.
150 Caramel Swirl – a medium brown, cream finish.
170 Nectar Punch – a brown orange with gold shimmer.
000 Melting Ice, 005 Honey Crème, 010 Cotton Candy, 075 Pink Fizz, 050 Guava Flair, 105 Berry Sorbet, 150 Caramel Swirl, 170 Nectar Punch
CATRICE HEART AFFAIR Highlighter
PRIMARK Glow Up Highlighter
Rose
This was 1 € and I got it as a toy, so not for me to use. There’s a reason why it was this cheap. Formula is hard and it takes off the foundation if you swipe it on directly. Pigmentation isn’t brilliant with a swipe, but it can be build up. The worst thing it that they put large glitter particles in an otherwise nicely fine shimmer. It has a light bronzey tint, which blends out.
PRIMARK Liquid Blush
Light Pink
This is very similar to Rare Beauty liquid blush – of course based on performance on pale skin with a small amount. This is another super pigmented formula, so again I need to use the tinniest amount. I wore them side by side, one of each cheek and at the end of the day I found the Primark side looked more intense. The colour is a proper baby doll pink. I think there was one more shade available.
PRIMARK Lipstick
Brown Berry
Another product that was 1 €. Formula is like lipsticks were in the past, before all pretty much all brands started making high quality lipsticks. It’s a thick formula that feels harder than modern formulas and it doesn’t glide on the lips with particular ease. Colour is almost opaque and the shade a medium brown that is likely a great nude shade for medium skin tones.
*ORIFLAME The One Smart Synch Lipstick
Marvellous Mauve, Smart Red and Cherry Plum
NYX PROFESSIONAL Makeup Butter Gloss
Éclair
TERRA NATURI Highlighter Drops
Beige Gold
GISOU Honey Infused Hair Oil
A ridiculously overhyped product. I’ve been seeing this brand everywhere and so many praise the fragrance of this brand – it’s bland. I don’t get it. It smells like a fabric softener with some orange notes from the start. It’s very soft, barely detectable and forgettable – mostly because it disappears so fast. Formula is again nothing special, it’s a classic silicone-oil and there are so many that are exactly the same for a cheaper price. If you ask me, buy Orofluido if you want something that has an amazing scent, the same formula, effect and is much more affordable. Moroccanoil is the only that I find stands out a bit because it helps the hair dry faster, but overall silicone-oils are mostly all the same, though some are thicker/richer than others. This one is one of the thicker ones like Moroccanoil, Orofluido, Macadamia Natural oil, Precious Argan and Joico K-Pak. It adds the final touches, meaning shine, it detangles and it hides dry ends. This is a mini 20 ml bottle, so it wasn’t that expensive, but the full sized 100 ml’s price is unreasonable at 77 € – shocked this is a best seller.
REDKEN Acidic Bonding Concentrate Shampoo
A repurchase. Notino had a set with all three products for the price of two. This is one of my favourite shampoos because it feels so rich and produces a thick foam, which is nice to see in a sulphate free formula. I’m not sure it does much on its own in terms of hair health, as shampoos just wash off, but my hair has improved in the last months, but was probably due to other things. I didn’t notice a reduction in breakage.
REDKEN Acidic Bonding Concentrate Conditioner
Since I liked the shampoo, the conditioner was next on the list. It’s nicely rich and thick, the way I like my conditioner/mask formulas, however, it feels like a silicone-free conditioner and my hair had no slip when I was rinsing it off. It’s a formula I’d mix with Pantene Repair conditioner or Gliss 7 Sec to avoid that “bare hair” feeling. I haven’t used it without my usual army of leave-ins to see if it’s hydrating enough on its own, but it felt ok, I just miss the slip their Extreme conditioner has.
REDKEN Acidic Bonding Concentrate Leave-in
Redken’s best seller that like the other two is supposed to combat damage – it makes big promises, but I’ve tried enough products to know what to expect in reality. It doesn’t feel that special. It’s a just a creamy leave-in that isn’t that heavy, but it’s thicker than their Anti-Snap. It’s not as hydrating as Moroccanoil leave-ins, nor does it help with the frizz alone, but it is a heat protectant too. I have yet to use this whole line long enough to see if it’s capable of making a real change on bleached hair, but so far I haven’t noticed a reduction in split ends or breakage.
SOL DE JANEIRO Bom Dia™ Jet Set
I love the original Bum Bum Sol De Janeiro scent and feel lukewarm about the Beija Flor one. This is the third one I’ve tried and I got it based on rave reviews, but it didn’t win me over. I know I’ve smelled this fragrance before, I just can’t place it. Notes include plum, black amber, cassis, orchid, jasmine, vanilla, woodsy notes and musk. It’s a floral fragrance with lots of warm notes. It’d be a nice creamy, cosy fragrance if it weren’t for some overly sweet, green note that doesn’t sit that well with my nose. I get the fresh sweet plum scent from the start, then I think what bothers me a combination of orchid and cassis, while the base is a nice creamy mix of vanilla, amber, woods and sandalwood. The cream has the best version of the scent, just like at the Bum Bum Cream.
The Bom Dia Bright Body Cream is described as a retexturing and brightening formula with exfoliating fruit AHAs and Vitamin C. Considering the fragrance is very high on the list, those ingredients must be in low percentages. The AHAs are from banana and mango, vitamin C is in the Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate form. The texture feels very pleasant, it blends so easily and sinks in fast, leaving a silky coat on the skin – the feeling of this cream makes it worth it, despite not being a fan of the scent. The fragrance lasts a while.
The Bom Dia Bright Clarifying AHA BHA Body Wash has salicylic acid and lactic acids aside from AHAs from fruit extracts. Formula is nothing special, just a standard shower gel and I expected something more luxuriously creamy.
The Cheirosa 40 perfume mist has a less creamy and less vanillary-ambery-woody scent, so the focus is more of the floral notes. It doesn’t last long on the skin, I can’t smell it after an hour, though it stays on clothes. The cream’s scent lasts longer.
PACO RABANNE Pure XS
Eau de parfum
This is the 30 ml size so it comes without the gold snake, which might make this bottle more recognizable to you. Black XS was my fragrance in the past and this barely shares any DNA with it, but it was love at first smell when I tried it years back in the shop. To me Pure XS is what I wanted Olympea to be – it starts with this amazing salty popcorn note that makes it so unique. Then I most smell orange blossom, but it quickly becomes a soft vanilla scent. The rest of the notes include coconut, ylang-ylang, peach, white musk, ambrette, sandalwood and amberwood.
HIPP Body and Hair Cleansing Gel Sensitive
(Haut und Haar Waschgel Sensitiv)
NIVEA Anti-perspirant Pearl & Beauty
A repurchase of my regular deodorant. It protects me well and smells powdery. Like all such stick deodorants it leaves white marks.
PALMER’S Coconut Oil Formula Coconut Hydrate Body Oil
ALVERDE Pflege-ől All-in-One
A repurchase. It’s a tinted hair mask that matches my natural hair colour pretty much perfectly (dark brown with a cool undertone), so I use it to hide my highlighted hair, since I have massive roots and I don’t want to use a permanent colour. I’ve tried a lot of brown tinted hair masks and this one is the darkest, so pick it if you colour your hair dark brown to refresh faded colour, as the rest I’ve tried fit more light-medium brown hair. Formula is hydrating enough for my very dry hair. I can’t tell you how long it lasts as I always refresh it before it looks too faded, but it’s a mask that washes off the slowest of all I tried. One wash barely gets any colour off (after four washes, my hair is light brown and a lot of the colour is still on)..
BALEA Exotic Passion Rasiergel
Just a standard shaving gel that I always buy in the current LE scent. I’ve praised it for years, but I also found in the last year that Aveo’s (Müller’s house brand) is the same.
EBELIN Polierfile
A regular repurchase. This file polishes that nail so it’s glossy like I just applied a clear nail polish.
CHARLOTTE TILBURY Magic Foundation
I noticed only after taking the picture that this is discontinued. I don’t know why they are even giving out samples (Feel Unique).
ARMANI Luminous Silk Foundation
One of the most popular foundations for years now. I got a sample of a shade much too dark for me, 4 medium, so it’s not easy to test, but based on the sample, I’m on the fence about it. I think I may like it more in the summer. I always imagined this being very different, something like Double Wear, so a matte, high coverage formula that my skin dislikes. But it’s lightweight and has a soft glowy finish without being a moisturising formula for dry skin. 4 Medium is so dark it’s hard for me to say what the coverage is, but it’s lower than I expected. The thing that makes me want to splurge on it is that it doesn’t emphasize my smile lines, but it’s a formula that doesn’t feel hydrating and my skin needs a bit more. I’m not sure if there even are light enough shades for me. Maybe n.3 or 3.75.
PRIMARK Mini Nail Polishes
I didn’t know if I should even mention these. They are at the kids department and 12 of these cost 2 € with a discount. They are much better than expected, thought at some the colour changes when they dry. These are some of the nicest peel off formulas I’ve tried. They all came off in one piece easily. Staying power is poor though, but who cares. The bottles are so tiny with only 2,5 ml per bottle.
PRIMARK Minie Lip Glosses
These were also 2 €. They are almost useless, with barely any shine and a thin formula. Each has its own scent, but most are very artificial. As toys they are ok, though the complaint I got was “these have no colour”, so they are a boring.
*PR products.
