Fantastic Clarisonic

Hello Hello fellow readers!

I am so sorry not to have posted anything for ages but I have been quite busy working on an awesome project with a friend. I am sure you will love it! So far it is top secret but be prepared... hehe

In the mean time, let me tell you about a fantastic little jewel that me and my skin just love!

Maybe you have heard about it before, maybe you always dreamt to have one too... It was the case for me...

Mia 2 from Clarisonic

I hesitated quite a long time to buy this little machine as it is quite expensive. I watched youtube reviews from my favourite beauty gurus and read many articles about it. Because of its success and the very positive comments, I gave in and bought it. (iAmAConsumptionSocietyVictim)

"Gentle yet powerful cleansing for twice daily use on all skin types, for smoother, softer, healthier looking skin. Cleanses so thoroughly, skin care products absorb better. Reduces the appearance of pores, fine lines and wrinkles."

I have been using this product for two weeks now and I can really see the difference! I could even see the difference after only two days. The biggest improvement on my skin is its luminosity and the pores. My skin is more glowy and my pores seem tighter. They are less apparent than before. I don't have any blackheads around the nose any more... It leaves my skin soft and supple. My skin looks so healthy, I ditched the everyday BBcream for powder on the T-zone only! Well, you've got it, I just LOVE it! 

Now, I know that such tools/machines/weird-pro-things can frighten some of you but really this brush is really simple to use. You just dab a nutshell of cleanser on your skin (forehead, cheeks, nose and chin) you turn the Clarisonic on and you start moving it around for 20 seconds on the chin area, then 20 seconds on the forehead and you finish with 10 seconds on the nose area. There is a timer included so you don't even need to count to 20 (and god knows how hard it is on a monday morning or a saturday late night...)

As you can see on the picture above, it comes with a charger (I have used it everyday for 2 week now and didn't need to charge it again yet, so it has a very good power autonomy) and with a small box to put it in when you travel which I think is really really handy. They also offer you a small cleanser (I haven't tried it yet) 

Clarisonic was initially only available in the U.S. and the U.K. but is, now, lucky us, available at Ici Paris XL for the Belgian readers...

The Mia 2 costs around 150€, the brush head must be changed every three months. You can buy them separately and there exist different types of brushes (sensitive skin, very sensitive, normal, acne, etc.) There even are brushes made of cashmere or satin (available in U.S. only at the moment)

Stone age invented the pumice stone, the years 2000s invented Clarisonic! Amen!

Top Ten N°3

Hi everyone!

It's time for the top ten n°3 product to be revealed! Excitiiinn'

This post will be about hair and everyone knows how long can anyone of us talk about our hair (answer: endlessly) But because it's sunday and that the sun is finally shining in the small and charming country of Belgium, I'll do my best to keep it simple and short!

So, long story short: I have always had my hair curly (not too curly but more curly than wavy) which makes everything more complicated when it comes to styling. A few years ago, I started with the brazilian straightening system to keep them straight and not to have to empty 3 bottles of products every time I wash my hair.

Before the treatment and still now, I have been using almost every time I wash my hair this wonderful oil called Moroccanoil Treatment

Usually when I see 'oil' on a product, I tend to cringe... Oil sounds too much like grease. It's obviously not the case here at all. This oil is gonna make your hair soft, shiny and supple. 

If you have straight hair, the best is to apply it before drying your hair when it is still a bit damp. I can guarantee that you will see a direct difference.
If you have curly hair, I suggest you use it on damp hair before any other styling product you might be using. If you wish, you can also apply it on dry hair, lock by lock.

What's more about this product? It has a very subtle holiday smell (at least to me)

The only inconvenience: you cannot find it in Belgium, you can buy it online or in the UK at specific hair dressers or at Harvey Nichols.
Online: http://fr.feelunique.com/brands/moroccanoil

If you feel like holidays before holidays, wrap your hair around it!

Bye Bye Dull skin et Merci Chanel!

Hi girls,

Long time no post! If you live in Brussels or in Belgium or in any rather near country, you probably feel like spring is on its way! Well that was until today... It was pouring so hard that I almost got bronchitis! And if we look at the weather forecast, it's not gonna get better any time soon!

Funny how we take the sun for granted as soon as it is shining! You'll think it'll always be there until mother nature just decides else. 

GOOD NEWS IS, while we wait, we can still have beautiful glowy healthy sunkissed skin (yes all of that with a single brush sweep) thanks to this little treasure.

I bought Chanel Les Beiges Powder over a month ago and I am addicted to it! 

It is the perfect powder. The one that has light coverage so it just perfects your skin and does not make your make up look cake-y. 

As its description indicates it gives you a 'healthy glow' without you looking like Edward Cullen in the sun (or a disco ball if you are not familiar with the Twilight hero)

It exists in 5 different shades. Don't hesitate to take a shade slightly darker than your skin tone since you will wear it during the summer and because it can also, then, give you that sunkissed skin touch. The best way to apply it is by forming a 3 shape from your forehead to your jawline passing by the cheek bone. 

Girls, let's be stronger than the weather! 

TOP TEN N°2

Happy Sunday Everyone!

As promised here is another one of my top ten products. I bought this product over and over again and when I traded it for another one, as was never as satisfied and necessarily came back to it.

This product is (drum roll sound in the background): Mustela Hydra Bébé
Yes yes you read right, it is a baby cream. If you click on the link you'll be overwhelmed by beautiful little babies faces, butts and so on. How cute but how effective too for what is the best way to have a baby skin? Use baby products of course!

My mum used this cream for my siblings and I when we were babys and kids. Then of course it disappeared from our bathroom drawers.

As I was once in a pharmacy, I saw it and it remembered me many things (Proust Madeleine style if you see what I mean). I missed the lovely smell so I bought it again and I was completely stunned at how good this product made my skin feel like.

I use it almost every morning ever since and I have recommended it to many friends already. They are all satisfied with it.



It is very light and non greasy, it smells good and leaves your skin hydrated and supple.
Plus it has 0% paraben, phthalate, phenoxyethanol. 
And it blends very well with most foundations. I personally like to mix them with a cream to obtain a lighter coverage.

This cream is available in pharmacies only and not in all of them. So if you die to try it (and you should) I suggest you go to your 'around-the-corner' pharmacy and make it your mustela spot if they have it.

Bye Bye Babies!

Brow Mania

Hi everyone, 

It's been seen everywhere for months now and if you have not heard about it yet then poor you, you are probably deaf...

Luckily I am gonna write about it so: glasses oooonnnn!

Cara Delevingne Spectacular Eyebrows

This make up trend initially started when Cara Delevingne (Queen of the catwalks, darling of the fashion designers) was literally thrown in the fashion world. Apart from cherishing bacon and beanies, the super model loves grooming her eyebrows. 

Word of mouth is that your eyebrows must be thick and wild (wait... Not Tarzan wild either). Correctly drawn, eyebrows give a very nice frame to your eyes and structures your entire face!

Many products have been developed/talked about to achieve the expected results.

There exist different types of products such as pencils, felt tip pens, brushes. You can even have them permanently, semi-permanently tattooed. 

Here is the products I have been using again and again to give my eyebrows shape and definition.

Colorsport Pen Brow Definer
(available at Boots UK)

Because it is a felt tip pen it has a very light coverage. It is very easy to use without making mistakes.

It lasts very long (24hours for me) If you want a darker coverage you can still wait for the first layer to dry up a bit and then start with a second application. I love to use this as a base when going out or when I will do sport.

Benefit brow zings

Slightly more complicated to use than the one above, it is also a very different type of product. It comes with 2 tiny brushes.

After having brushed your eyebrows, use the angled brush to apply the dark brown 'paste' and give your brows the shape you want. Then with the other brush, pat a very small amount of powder (right part of the kit). The powder is highly pigmented and very dense so a little amount should be enough. 

It lasts very long and is really workable. It gives a more intense result than the pen though.

Couleur Caramel eyebrow pencil

This is definitely my all time favourite. I have already bought it 3 times. 

This pencil is ideal for the everyday necessary brow touch and it comes in 3 different colours (for blondes, brunettes and very dark hair) It is a pencil so, as you can guess, it's much easier to use than the benefit palette. 

Pro's: easy to use, there is a brush at the other end of the pencil, it comes with two caps to keep the pencil and the brush protected, it's natural and organic, it's cheap and last but not least, it lasts the whole day (except if you tend to rub your eyebrows constantly but who does that really?!) 

Tips: I suggest you have it quite sharp when you will use it. Also you will have a more natural result if you brush before and after you apply it and when applying it follow the growth of the hair to mimic the shape of your brows as best as you can. 

Voilà now let's go get our brows 'Delevingned'!

Hi everyone,

It took me some time to write my first post ! Don’t blame the lack of inspiration but rather this horrible blank page stress. There are so many things I wish to write about that I really didn’t know where to start.

Then I thought, I should start with my top products chart. Once a week, I wish to post about a product that I really can’t live without.

Here is the first one :

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB

I tried this BB cream over a year ago when I started working at L’Oréal and I have used probably 4 tubes since then !

Despite of what the description says, here is my opinion:

• It is a BB cream ! Meaning it has a rather light/natural coverage, perfect for everyday.
• The texture is really soft and blends very well. If you want a fuller coverage you can apply some more (however, I wouldn’t recommend that. Indeed it is a BB cream and thus shouldn’t be used as a foundation)
•  The tube is rather small so you can easily put it in a small beauty case when you travel and it is in plastic so it’s not as heavy as glass bottles.
• It does give you a glow but very very discrete. Your skin appears more luminous and dewy  but not shiny, your skin is more even but still with a very natural look.

How to apply

BB creams have been so popular in the modern woman’s world because of its easy application and because it reunites what a woman on-the-go wishes for her skin 

Even though it is said to be a cream and that it can be used directly on clean skin, I always prefer to put a real moisturizer beforehand.

You squeeze a small amount onto your fingers and you apply it on different spots of your face (nose, cheeks, forehead and chin) and then you blend (still with your fingers) like a cream really.

Now little trick here : The product usually gets sealed in your eyebrows and is apparent sot for a better result it is better to remove that excess. You can wipe off the product excedent from your hairline and your eyebrows with a clean tissue.

For a slightly fuller coverage, you can also apply a bit of powder on the T-zone with a wide brush.

Tints

Light, Medium, dark, and universal glow.

I have a rather fair skintone in the winter so I use the ‘light’ tint. In the summer, once I have a bit of a sunnykissed skin, I use Medium or I mix Light and Medium to reach the perfect shade.

The universal glow is more of an orangy, adaptable colour that can adapt to anyone but I don’t find it as covering as the normal tints.

To find the perfect shade, it is better to go to Di or Inno where you can actually try the product on your jawline (not on your hand !)

Where to find this product

This product is very easy to find as it is really mainstream.

Di, grocery stores, Kruidvat, Inno, etc.

Price : €

A little word about myself...

Hi dearest reader !

First of all thank you for stopping by my blog ! I started it not so long ago though I have been interested in makeup for ever.

At the age of 7 I made one of my school friends eat a lipstick assuring her it was a candy !

Mmmh… Ok… Well, not the exact conception I should have of makeup but it really looked tasty. Luckily, today, I am more into testing, browsing, buying, collecting makeup and eventually blogging about it.

I am from and live in Belgium, a small country on the old continent. Although it is very well known for its horrendous politics (yes, yes, we did worse than Italy not so long ago) and as the centre of Europe, Belgium does not have the most exciting brand variety when it comes to makeup. So I have gathered products from the States and the UK where I lived for 2 years. Last year I had the chance to work as an intern at L'Oréal in Belgium in the makeup department. I also learned a lot from youtube, other blogs and websites – wisdom of the year 2000s, hellooooo !

Though I am fond of makeup, my life does not only revolve around that.

On my sparetime, I love to read, procrastinate on the internet and go out with my friends. I also play field hockey and go for a run once a week.

I am a very keen traveler. I love to organise city trips with my best friends around Europe or visit a more distant country with my family.

I usually visit our lovely neighbours, les Français, a few times per year. They don’t only have the best bread on earth, it is also the only country I know that has U.S.-sized- Sephoras…

Anyway, throughout the years, I have gathered and tried an impressive collection of blushes, powders, foundations, mascaras, pencils, brushes, name-it, that I feel I should not keep all my observations/opinions to myself !

I hope this blog will help you find what you look for, discover new products, try new looks, give you ideas, comfort you in your choices or help you make a decision when hesitating on a product.

So go have a look!

Xx

Poppy