I finally found my camera, so hopefully I can take better photos rather than using my iPhone (which I've been doing for the past few months). Today, I will be talking about my favourite beauty products of the month. I didn't just want to include products I've just been using every day this past month, but I wanted to talk about the products I LOVED this month. Although I've been using the same moisturiser, foundation, powder every day this month, I can't say that it is can't-live-without-it material.
I also want to make note that I have been a lover of all things drugstore slash high street for the longest of times. However, things have gotten pretty out of hand with my collection of makeup and it doesn't make sense to me to have loads of makeup that I will never end up using. Due to this, I have leaned more towards higher end makeup as I can invest in one good product and actually use and appreciate.
Enough rambling, onto the favourites.
My first favourite for this month has to be Lancome's Tresor Mightnight Rose (£38 for 30ml, £52 for 50ml). A lovely sweet scent, perfect for summer. This is described as "a sexy, sweet and playful fragrance... It embodies mischievous femininity: the rose becomes playful, driven by deliciously tangy raspberry tones, wooden shimmers and voluptuous vanilla notes". When you first spray it, you really get a scent of blackcurrant - if you like sweet scents, I would definitely recommend this scent to you.
London has been super hot this month and it felt like I was literally melting. To get through the hot sticky days, I kept the Vichy Eau Thermale (£7 for 150ml) in my bag at all times. This is a smaller bottle of 50ml that I was received in a beauty box and was a perfect size to carry around with me. Vichy describes this as "a light and refreshing formulation is rich in fifteen rare mineral salts and oligo-elements that work to decongest, relieve redness, soothe sensitive skin and reinforce the skin's natural protection... During the day, it immediately soothes and refreshes". This is an aerosol spray that sprays a fine mist over your face. Spraying this over my face whenever it got really hot was instantly refreshing and made the heat somewhat more bearable.
I have also been loving the YSL Terre Saharienne Bronzing Powder (£34, 10g) in the Shade 5 which is a nice bronzing powder with subtle gold shimmer particles. The colour is not too orange (in my opinion) and I think is suitable for light-medium skin tones. For reference I am around MAC NC30. I'm not usually fan of any shimmer in my bronzer, but this is very subtle so gives a very nice bronzed glow. The formula is nice and lasts pretty well on the skin. The compact has a pretty decent mirror and is pretty lightweight so is perfect to travel with. Although weighty compacts tend to feel more luxurious, it somewhat impracticable to carry around.
My current favourite blusher is MAC's sheertone blush in Pink Swoon. This is a bubblegum pink which I think would be perfect for light to medium skin tones. The blush is sheer (as the name would suggest) but is definitely buildable and looks lovely on the cheeks. Make sure to really blend it into the skin or else it can look pretty powdery.
I've also been enjoying the Giorgio Armani Sheer Blush in Tourmaline Pink Blush from the Spring 2012 Luce Collection. It is indeed a very sheer blush that is a very light pastel pink colour, with the slightest hint of peach, with very sublt shimmer particles in it. I don't use this as a blush and would need to use a lot of it for it to actually show up on the skin. It may work for really fair skin tones, but I find this to be the perfect highlighter for light-medium to medium skin tones. It is absolutely gorgeous on the cheekbones and provides a very nice glow to the face without shimmer overload.
My final makeup favourite this month is the d.j.v. beautinizer fiberwig LX mascara. It has a curved brush with lots of fibre extensions in it. I got this from Sephora in the mascara box which they release every Christmas and features a number of different mascaras (most of which in sample size). This is the first time I've used a mascara with fibres and I've read good and bad reviews about these kinds of mascaras. The fibres in the mascara are supposed to really lengthen your lashes but can end up looking really clumpy and spidery (from what I've heard and read). Seeing as this is in my monthly favourites, it's fairly obvious to say I really like the fibres in the mascara. I have Asian, non existent lashes and need all the help I can get. It doesn't hold any curl (but NO mascara has ever done that for me). It helps with the volume and the length of my lashes, but CAN look really clumpy and spidery. I don't mind too much if that happens to me as if I'd be lucky if you can see my lashes at all, even with mascara. What I LOVE about this mascara is after a few coats on my BOTTOM lashes, it most definitely lengthens it, I would even go as far as to say by twice the length of my natural bottom lashes. I will say that this smudges a little and when it comes into contact with water, it turns into a really weird almost rubbery feeling, so take care to remove the mascara properly. Also, I have no idea where you can even find this mascara, so I will enjoy it for three months and continue my search for the perfect mascara.
My last favourite for this month is an absolute essential for the summer and for anyone who has oily skin. I've used different kinds of blotting sheets before, the kinds with powder on them, and the kinds without. What I dislike about blotting paper is that they tend to fall apart when I'm using them. Perhaps I'm too heavy handed by I want that grease of my face. The Clean & Clear oil control film sheets are plastic-like and won't rip and tear when you're blotting your face with them. They're pretty inexpensive as well. I know they are harder to find in the UK, I asked my friend to pick up a few of these when she went to Hong Kong. I believe these can be found in drugstores in the States. For anyone who don't have access to them in stores, eBay is your friend. Even though you're expected to pay a small increased price for these on eBay, they're still reasonably priced for what I consider to be the best blotting sheets I've used. Sidenote, I've recently ordered the Shiseido blotting papers to try out.
Even though I only had seven beauty favourites this month, I sure had a lot to say about them. I hope you found my thoughts on these products useful. I would also like to say that I believe the YSL Bronzer shade and the Giorgio Armani Blush shade were limited editions so you may not be able to find them. However, if you find a shade that tickles your fancy, I do recommend the product as I am a fan of the formula and product itself, as well as the colour of them. Hopefully, I will get to blog some more now that I'm much more happier with the quality of the photos (although I know they're not super fantastic as some of the more established blogs).
I for one, cannot wait for this summer to be over, but for those of you who enjoys the sunshine and heat (why?), hopefully the recent thunderstorms will go away and leave us Londoners dry for the upcoming week. And until next time..
- Diem xo
