Empties #4

It's empties time! Not much explaining to do here, I show you all the products I finished the past months and tell you my final thought on them! Sit back and relax because I collected quite a bunch of products.

Just to make one thing clear; I do regularly wash my hair, y'all. Every other day, even! For some reason I just really go through these Batiste dry shampoos like nobodies business. I pretty much only use them for my small baby hairs that tend to get greasy pretty quickly. 

I don't really notice a big difference between the different kinds of Batiste dry shampoos, only that some smell different. But they work perfectly for me, it can't get simpler than this.

These are my makeup empties and I've finished quite a few products (I'm so proud of myself). I ran out my Revlon colorstay foundation for oily/combination skin, it was nice but the high coverage was too much for me. I love other foundations more so won't be coming back to this one very soon. 

Also my Bourjois brow pencil in Blonde really was getting pathetically small and annoying to use. It lasted me years and I've already repurchased. It's perfect for a very subtle brow look.

The Rimmel Stay Matte Powder was also totally finished. I probably won't repurchase, I got my eye on the MAC Mineralized skinfinish natural!

Another Rimmel product, this time the Rimmel Scandaleyes mascara. I won't repurchase it, since the wand was so ridiculously big! I could hardly touch my lashes without blinding myself! Check out the full review here. 

The other two mascara samples I finished are the Benefit They're Real mascara and the Chanel Le Volume de Chanel mascara. Liked them both quite a lot, read the full review here and here.

The last makeup empty I have for you is the Maybelline Magic Lumi concealer in 01 light. I love this so much, but have so many concealers to finish first, so I'm going to have to hold myself back. It's just so darn cheap!

Skincare! And lots of it! Firstly, I finished the Vichy Laboratoire Normaderm Nuit, a night cream for acne-prone skin. Liked it for a while, don't like it anymore. It felt nice but it didn't really seem to do much for my skin.

The same story for the Clinique anti-blemish solution cream and the Biotherm Biosource foaming cleaning gel. They were both okay, but didn't seem to make a difference. 

The La Roche-Posay Effaclar Mat anti-blemish moisturizer however, I really like and have repurchased. It really helps to control the oils in my T-zone. 

Some more skincare items: the Garnier exfoliating gel really didn't to anything for my skin, I barely noticed a difference if I used it or not. I'm still on the hunt for my Holy Grail exfoliator! 

I've been using the Nivea eye makeup remover for a very long time and it does its job perfectly. It removes all my makeup, doesn't sting my sensitive eyes and is cheap too!

Another Labello lip balm bites the dust. I will not be repurchasing though, since I've been noticing they haven't really been moisturizing my lips, they just make them crave for more lip balm. In the market for a new one!

And here we have the Lancôme cleansing milk. I like it and purchased the full size a while back, but don't know if I like it enough to keep repurchasing it though.

Last but not least, we have these two -very dirty because of foundation stains- Urban Decay Setting Sprays, the All Nighter one and the De-Slick one. I liked them both and noticed a clear difference. The All Nighter setting spray really helped my makeup stay on longer and left my foundation with a beautiful natural finish. 

The De-Slick setting spray does help with oil, but I feel like it doesn't make my makeup stay on longer. So if I'd repurchase, I think I'd go for the All Nighter setting spray!

Few, that were A LOT of empties! Have you tried any of these products? Do you have any recommendations for me?

Xoxo Anine

New skincare routine

I've never been the greatest skincare geek/lover/goddess, but since I've started my new job, I decided my teen years were officially over and it was time for me to embrace the fact that I needed to take more care of my skin (before it's too late?). 

A friend of mine has always been so much into skincare, that I took some of her advice and along with that, some of her skincare products. She uses them religiously and has flawless skin. We also have the exact same skin type so I set as a goal to never have pimples again and try to achieve a similar beautiful skin as my friend. 

This Vichy face wash is from the same Vichy Normaderm line as all my previous skincare items, and I really have been loving it. It cleans better than my Biotherm cleansing sample and leaves my skin feeling very fresh. 

I used to use La Roche-Posay products back in high school, so it was a trip down memory lane to pick up this Effaclar Mat moisturizer. So far so good. I've noticed that my skin is producing less oil.

I'm pretty scared to try this night cream from Vichy. Right now I'm still using up the night cream from the Vichy Normaderm line, even though I don't like it anymore. But this one has the word Aqua in it, which worries me... I hope I won't wake up shiny-faced every morning when I start using this *fingers crossed*.

I've been using this Lancôme Cleansing milk for a while now as well. It takes off my makeup very nicely, but does leave a greasy-looking residue on my face which I dislike. This means I'm still in the market for a cleansing milk. Anyone got any recommendations?

Of course, Bioderma Micellaire cleansing water. I've used up a tiny bottle of this before and really like that it takes off any residue of my Lancôme cleansing milk and any makeup that is left on my face.

I still have to try out this scrub as well, since I'm still using up my previous one - that I very much dislike, I'll fill you in later. Excited to use this!

I've been using my Tea Tree Toner water from Lush for almost a year now and still love it. It leaves my skin feeling fresh and hydrated without feeling oily!

This is my new skincare routine, which skincare products have you been trying out?

Xoxo,

Anine

Empties #2

Let's get into this empties post! Find my last empties post here!

The first thing I used up was the Lush Avobath bath bomb. I really liked the moisturizing effect of it, but barely was able to smell it. Such a shame! 

This is the second bottle of Vichy Normaderm Miccelaire water I used up. I liked it, but I like Bioderma better!

This Syoss one minute repair mask has lasted me ages! No seriously, it took me more than a year to use this baby up. I used it after shampooing and conditioning and really loved it. I think I will be repurchasing this. It made my hair feel so soft and smooth without making it greasy easily or weigh it down, plus it really did need just one minute to work properly. 

I also used up this sample of the Rituals Himalaya Wisdom body scrub. I did not like this, it made my skin feel greasy. Also the grain in this scrub felt too big, too rough.

These two Fa deodorants also last me a pretty long time. I liked them enough, I'm not very picky when it comes to deodorant. 

Next: this L'Oréal cleansing milk. It took off my makeup nicely, but left my skin feeling a bit greasy. Will not repurchase (I know cleansing milks aren't great for combination skin but I like it a lot to take off my makeup).

Here is another Rituals product: the Sunrise scrub. I liked this product, the grain in the product wasn't too big and it moisturized my skin without making it greasy. The smell was nice.

Last but not least, these Garnier makeup cleansing wipes. Before these, I used the Simple ones and I liked the Simple ones so much better. These didn't seem to do anything for my skin, barely took off my makeup and still cost me 6 euros. Ridiculous!


I hope you liked this fast post,

Xoxo
Anine

Empties #1

It was about time for a first empties post! Empties are the products you use up. Since you've used them all up, you know quite well if you like them, if they work like they're supposed to and if you'd repurchase them.

I've collected these empty items in the last months:

  

Let's start off simple. The first item I used up is this base coat from the Dutch drugstore Hema. It's cheap and it worked just fine. Since I've never used anything besides this, it's not relevant to compare this.

I also ran out of my MAC Oil control lotion, that I use as my daily moisturizer. I started using this about a year ago and it definately helps to control the oil in my skin. I always thought I had oily skin, but since I started using the MAC Oil control lotion, I know that actually I have a combination skin since only my T-zone gets oily. This is probably my second bottle of it, and I've already used a fair amount of my repurchased one. It's still going strong!

 This Maybelline the Falsies Volume Express Mascara has been gone for a while and I've had several tubes of it. It's the best mascara I've used so far, but I won't be repurchasing it for a while, since I'm testing out a lot of new ones. I do think I will eventually go back to this one.

My Vichy Normaderm exfoliating gel has gone too *snif snif*... I loved it, it left my skin pretty much spotless (which is extremely rare for me). I have a lot of samples and exfoliators I need to try out, but after that, I will definately be repurchasing this.

The Vichy solution micellaire is from the same Normaderm line as the exfoliator. I liked this, but tried out the Bioderma one afterwards and simply liked that better. I still have a second bottle of this have to use up though. 

So naturally, here is the small Bioderma Sensible H²0 Solution Micellaire bottle. I tried it out and loved it. On my trip to Paris I will be stocking up! This is the one for sensitive skin and it worked perfectly, but I know that there's also one for oily skin in this line. However, from the online reviews it seems to be less effective. Have you tried both? What do you think I should try?

I also finished this L'Oréal Elnett Satin Hair spray for extra volume. I love it and have been using it for a long time. It doesn't make my hair crunchy, it gives it that extra *Ooomph* that my hair needs in the morning. Will be repurchasing this.

And last but not least, I've used up this Urban Decay Naked skin foundation in color 3.0 a few months ago. I liked the light to medium coverage and easy application very much, but was disappointed by the staying power. This shouldn't be the case when you buy a more high-end foundation. I am very interested to see if the Revlon Nearly Naked (which is supposed to be the drugstore dupe) stays on longer? They don't seem to be selling it in Belgium, though. But I won't be repurchasing the Naked Skin foundation.

Have you used any of these products? Which ones did you like and dislike?

Xoxo,
Anine

Winter favorites: skincare

Baby, it's cold outside! Western Europe is covered underneath a blanket of snow, so what better time to choose some winter favorites?

My skin has never been so dry as now. This might come as a surprise, since my skin has always been very oily. Because of my stay in the UK, my eye skin even got so dry, that it got itchy and it was impossible for me to wear any eyeshadow (what a nightmare!). I returned to Belgium last week and my skin luckily has already recovered a bit from its dryness. Because of this weird skin issues I tried some new skincare products and ended up liking them very much:

The Vichy Normaderm Line: 

Vichy Normaderm Scrubgel

Vichy Micellaire Purifying Lotion 

Vichy Normaderm Night

These three products work so good for me! The scrub is perfect for my skin, not too drying, but rough enough for my oily T-zone. I use it every other day. I use the toner every morning and night and it feels so fresh and calming for my skin and it takes of any make-up that is still left on my skin. Then there's the night cream, which is the biggest surprise to me. Over the last six years I've tried night cream over and over again, and no night cream was good for me. They usually were too oily and I woke up with skin so oily that I reflected the sun like a mirror! The Vichy night cream dries in about two minutes after application and becomes very matte-feeling and soft. I certainly have seen an improvement on my skin. I have less blemishes and they also heal quicker. I'm a big fan of this skincare line!