Review: L'Oreal Infallible Brush

I've tried the L'Oreal Infallible foundation before, and I even reviewed it here on the blog before, here, and while I liked it, it wasn't all I wanted from a foundation (believe it or not, I am yet to find the perfect foundation, actually, which is why I keep trying more and more of them), I still really liked this foundation, so when I saw that L'Oreal had launched a new version of it, with a built in brush, I decided to try that, to see if I preferred this foundation with a brush or without.

You should know I usually don't use brushes to apply foundation though, I basically only do it when I use MAC products, like MAC foundation, that somehow seem to go on better with my MAC brush, so using a brush with foundation is not a must for me.

Still, I really thought the brush was nice, and I think this foundation with the bottle and the brush in one set is great for when you need to be able to have more foundation with you, for re-application somewhere and stuff.

I don't think the brush is perfect though, the MAC brush I mentioned before gives me a more even result, I do need to use my fingers a bit afterwards too, but it's pretty good.

So if you are using the Infallible foundation at the moment, and are thinking of trying the brush version too, I would definitely recommend it. And of course the foundation is really nice as well, but if you want to read more about the foundation, I recommend my original post for that. As far as I understand, the actual foundation is actually the same in both bottles.

Review: Payot Alcohol-free revitalizing toner with wild rose hip

This is the first product I will be reviewing, that I got in my GlamGuru box that I got recently.

I should mention that I only got a small bottle of this, though, so I haven't really been using this toner for a long time.

But even during the short time that I did use this toner, I noticed that:
- It smells wonderful. Scent is really important to me, nice scents make it so much more enjoyable for me to use a product for some reason, and this toner definitely has that!
- It doesn't sting or anything, making it very pleasant to use. It has some kind of a natural feel to it, which I really, really like.
- It didn't make me break out or anything like that, which is always a primary concern for me, since I have rather problematic, combination/oily skin, and this toner is not for that kind of skin type at all. So I was a bit worried it would cause some kind of problems for me, but it didn't!

Besides that, I am not much of a toner user, so I can't really compare this to other toners. I would probably get it again though, if at some point I decided that toner is something I need. But at the moment, I can do without toner too, so I don't plan on getting this toner any time soon. That said, I have nothing negative to say about this specific toner, it's more an issue of me not being a toner type of gal...

Review: Shisheido Sun Protection Eye Cream

I live in a very sunny country, where sunscreen is really important. But even so, I had never tried a specific sun protection eye cream, until I ran into a good deal for Shisheido's Sun Protection Eye Cream at my local pharmacy. So I decided to give it a try, even though I was not so familiar with Shisheido skin care until then.

This cream comes with SPF 25, and I was expecting it to have an eye cream like texture, but the texture of this is actually more like sunscreen, making it a bit too heavy for an eye cream, in my opinion. I also have rather dry skin around my eyes, despite having oily skin otherwise, so I do need something in this area that actually moisturizes a lot too. The Shisheido Sun Protection Eye Cream, unfortunately does not. So at least I need to use another eye cream on top of this one, which is not what I was hoping for, since I thought this was some kind of combination product.

So while this is a great sunscreen by all means, and might be a great fit for anyone who doesn't want to apply regular sunscreen around their eyes, it's not much more than that.

That means I probably won't be getting this again, but I wouldn't mind trying other similar products in the future, since the idea of combined eye cream and sunscreen is great!

Review: Decleor Aroma Night Ying Yang purifying night balm

I mentioned in a previous post that the Decleor Hydra Floral Moisturizing Mask reminded me of how much I actually like Decleor products, and made me decide to get some more Decleor stuff. Well, I did, and now I thought I would share what I thought of their Aroma Night Ying Yang purifying night balm, a completely new product for me, but I saw that it had excellent reviews, and since I've never really used night face masks, I thought it could be interesting to try what having a face mask on during the night might be like.

I must say that using face masks during the night might not be for me. This mask is rather greasy, no matter how much of it you apply, and while it didn't really make my hair or pillow cases dirty or anything, I did find it a bit weird to go to bed with such a greasy face. I also thought the balm might have "soaked in" by morning but nope, my face was just as greasy when I woke up too, so I did need to clean my face thoroughly as soon as I woke up, to get rid of the stuff.

But! Even though the Decleor Aroma Night balm feels greasy, it definitely does not make my skin greasy at all! Instead, my skin looked excellent after having used this, so it really does work! If you have oily and combination skin, like me, and don't mind the greasy feeling at night, this is definitely worth trying, because I was really impressed with how my skin looked afterwards!

The Decleor Aroma Night Ying Yang purifying balm smells wonderful too, so it is definitely a more high end product than some of the other skin care I use. And while this might seem like an expensive balm, it actually isn't, since a little really goes a long way with this balm. You only need to use very little at a time, so I think one small jar will last for quite some time, to be honest.

So I came to the rather weird conclusion that I probably won't be getting this again myself, because I am just weirded out by the greasy feeling of it, but I would still really, really recommend it to others! Because while it seems weird that something greasy, with essential oils, would improve already oily skin, it actually does! So give this a try if you have any skin problems like that at all!

Review: My first GlamGuru box

I've been wanting to try beauty boxes for quite some time now, and I even ordered one (a Beautylishious one, that I wrote about here) some time ago, but my first beauty box turned out to be a really bad experience, because it was never sent to me, even though the seller of the Beautylishious box claims to have sent me several, but I never got any of them, and none of my other orders ever get lost (and I order A LOT of stuff online, but of course the Beautylishious owner can't know that...), so I simply do not believe that they were event sent! I did have to pay for the boxes that never arrived, though, and the communication with the seller of the Beautylishious boxes was really bad as well. So I would really not recommend trying these beauty boxes out, seems like a scam to me!

Still, I decided to give beauty boxes another try, and ordered one from GlamGuru, a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, where I live as well. I figured THEY couldn't say stuff got lost in the mail, since I would actually be able to pick the box up myself, after all. But this company actually surprised me by delivering the box to my house, for free! How nice is that? So I was thrilled with this beauty box company before I had even seen the box, basically.

But the box itself was also rather impressive when I saw it. Well, maybe not the outer box, it looks like this (the scratches on the side are my fault!):

And the inner box is really nice, a chic black one, that I will be keeping for something else for sure:

I also love all the pink paper the products are wrapped in:

And as for the products, the variety is really nice, there's a little bit of everything in this box. I got:

- Some Facial Vitamin Capsules with Black Caviar, by Beyond Professional. Sounds fancy, doesn't it? (and judging by the price if you want to buy a full pack, it actually is, too!) But these capsules are supposed to be used by women over the age of 40, it says, so I am not sure how suitable they are for me... Still, I'm going to try them for sure! Well, at least one of them...

- A tester sized Kava Kava 60 Second Mask for Dry/Damaged Hair. I actually have a full sized version of this hair mask already (I reviewed it here), but the mask is really great, so I don't mind getting more of this stuff at all!

- A Pupa Milano Lip Perfection Natural Shine Gloss, in a shade that doesn't seem to be great for me, at least at first glance, but Pupa really makes great stuff (I've tried one of their primers for instance, read about it here), so I will definitely give this a try anyway!

- A Barbara Hofmann brush. I believe it is a eye shadow brush? Kind of weird to add that to a beauty box, I think, but good makeup brushes are always good to have, so I can't complain about that...

- A small bottle of Payot toner with wild rose hip. Payot is a brand I haven't tried yet, so I am happy to give them a try, and it actually doesn't bother me at all that the bottle is small, since I am not very big on toner anyway, so this is just a product that will be fun to try, not much else, for me.

- A Payot face cream. Will go well with the toner, I suppose. So I guess I will be using them together. Also tester sized.

- A Sothys Paris (another new brand for me!) hydrating face cream, tester sized. But should also be nice to try. I tend not to buy new face creams that often, due to having problematic skin, so getting them in a beauty box is a great way for me to be forced to try new face creams, hehe!

- A small bottle of Uniq One All in One Hair treatment. I've actually heard about this brand before, and wanted to try it, so it's really great to get a sample of this! Especially considering that reviews that I found online for this specific product were really good, so this seems to be an excellent product too!

- A Kaiser nail file, by far the worst product in the box. I don't know about you guys, but I already have way too many nail files, and seem to get more of them whenever I have a manicure or pedicure (which is quite often, ahem!), so I really could have done without this. So if I could give GlamGuru some advice for the future, it would definitely be to leave nail files out of the boxes in the future!

But other than the nail file, I was really happy with my GlamGuru box, and I will definitely be getting the next one too! I haven't tried the products yet, as I only got my box yesterday, but I will be reviewing all the ones worth reviewing separately in separate posts, in case anyone is interested in the products I got. And if you would like to get a GlamGuru box, too, they do ship internationally, and you can get a box here.

Review: Bliss Clog Dissolving Cleansing Milk

I love Bliss and their awesome products, as well as Soap & Glory, another brand founded by the same woman that founded Bliss. So I am always really excited to try out new Bliss products, but when I ordered the Bliss Clog Dissolving Cleansing Milk, I wasn't prepared for how similar it would be to Soap & Glory's Peaches and Clean Cleansing Milk. But these products really are quite similar (even the bottles look the same!), except when it comes to the scent. Peaches and Clean has a peachy scent, after all (hardly surprising, considering the name), while Bliss Clog Dissolving Cleansing Milk has a nice citrus/grapefruit scent.

I must say I prefer the scent of the Clog Dissolving Cleansing Milk, but I think that's mostly a matter of personal preference.

Another thing you should know is that you can actually leave the Clog Dissolving Cleansing Milk on for a bit longer, for like 5 minutes, if you want a more thorough cleansing of your skin. I don't think you can do that with Peaches and Clean, because I've tried it by accident once, and it really made my skin sting, but the Clog Dissolving Cleansing Milk doesn't do that, so you can use it as a faster version of a face mask from time to time as well, if you want.
(I must admit I don't do that though, if I want a face mask, I put an actual face mask on instead, so I am only using this cleansing milk when I am in a hurry)

I have oily/combination skin and this really helps clear my skin up. So I can definitely recommend it for anyone looking for clearer skin. I will get this cleansing milk again for sure, and maybe alternate between this and the Peaches and Clean one.

Review: Chanel Miroir Double Facettes Mirror Duo

I've mentioned at least twice before (here and here) that I got a Chanel Miroir Double Facettes Mirror Duo on the Strawberrynet makeup sale a while ago (why the mirror was included in a makeup sale is beyond me, but I did get a nice discount on it, so I am certainly not complaining!), and now I have had a chance to try this mirror for some time, so I thought I'd share what I thought of it.

First of all, I will say that no-one really NEEDS a Chanel mirror of course, but if you are like me, it is a nice purchase since using a mirror like this instantly adds some glamour into your daily makeup routine. The mirror looks very chic, very Chanel and is well made. So one of the mirrors does indeed magnify, while the other mirror is more of a normal mirror.

I am happy I got this mirror, it looks exactly like it does in the pictures on Strawberrynet in real life too, doesn't seem to be very fragile, so I don't need to worry about scratches and such just yet, and I will happily carry this mirror around with me for now. It's fun pulling out Chanel stuff out of your bag when you need a small pick me up, even if it is just a mirror!