Soleil Tan De Chanel = To Die For Bronzer!

Before I figured out how to use Chanel's bronzing makeup base: Soleil Tan De Chanel (formerly Bronze Universel De Chanel), it just sat in my makeup drawer collecting dust. Click here for link to bronzer. I didn't know how to apply it, and was using a sponge applicator. I didn't like the fact that when I put it on with the sponge, I never was able to get an even application. My skin always looked blotchy from the bronzer looking cakey in areas. Ugh!

Thank goodness I eventually learned how to apply it correctly...with a face brush!! What a difference! If your experiencing the same dilemma, try it this way. Just swirl your fluffy face brush (I use Chanel's Le Pinceau Poudre-#6 Powder Brush) in the mousse like consistency. Click here for a link to the brush. Then start from the outside of your face, and work inwards. Lightly brush all over face for an amazing glow! That's it! You can wear it just by itself for a more dewy fresh look, or try setting it with your favorite powdered bronzer. My current favorite I am using is Chanel's Irreelle Soleil Silky Bronzing Powder in #22 Sierra. I'm pretty sure they don't make this color anymore, but here is a link to the one's Chanel is currently carrying: Chanel Silky Bronzing Powder

Even though at a pricey $48.00, this bronzer is worth the splurge! I have had mine for almost a year and only now have I started to make a dent in it. It has become one of my staple items. It lasts all day and I never have to retouch it! After a long night of partying with friends, it did not budge, smear, or melt off. It stayed on like a true champ! Definately check this product out and let me know what you think!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I celebrated my 26th birthday a few days ago (26! I know, frightening!)

One of my dear friends gave me a Sephora giftcard worth $30 for my birthday! I am so excited to go and pick up something nice! Any suggestions on what I should purchase?

My wonderful friend Tiffany bought me a C.O. Bigelow Mentha Exfoliating Body Soap. It smells so good! It's infused with peppermint oil and has crushed walnut shells for a deep down exfoliation. I cannot wait to get into the shower with this. Last year, she bought me something similar from Bliss and I used it until the very last bit was gone, so I am super excited to try this one out!

And of course my amazing boyfriend bought me a few things I loved too! One of them being this beautiful key pendent necklace! Isn't it gorgeous? I've been wearing a lot of gold lately, and so he noticed I needed something in silver. Love him!

Happy birthday to anyone who has a March birthday!!

Michael Kors Gold Watch = Wanting!

I have been eyeing this watch for over a year! It's absolutely gorgeous!! The original one I saw didn't have the diamonds around the face and was just as beautiful, but of course diamonds make everything better! Isn't it dreamy? I love how it is large and bulky like a man's watch yet still girly. It's completely classy and sophisticated. I am in love. My birthday is coming up in March, maybe it will be a birthday present to myself. Check it out here!

Nightly Face Routine

I've had such a hard time finding a face washing routine I can stick to. I like my face cleansings to be 1-2-3 and your outta there! Taking more than 5 minutes to get a good deep down scrub and clean aggravates me. Often before this I would find myself just using one cleanser (usually St. Ives Apricot Scrub, which by the way, I know is horrible for your skin) and forget about it. But finally I have found something that works for me and that I love!

It's important to have at least a three step skincare routine before going to bed or applying makeup, especially in the winter. Exfoliate/cleanse, tone and moisturize! Of course, you can include as many steps in your morning/night routine as you’d like but I'm just lazy and like the shortest route possible. Mine is only four steps.

I've been using mainly Biore products lately in order to stick to one brand, so that my skin is not surprised by different brand's ingredients. I am in no way promoting just using one brand. Everyone has different skin and should use whatever products works best for them.

This is my nightly routine before going to bed. My morning routine is slightly different.

First I use:
Biore SkinPreservation Even Smoother Microderm Exfoliator

This polishes and buffs my skin using tiny little crystals (the same ones used in professional microdermabrasion). It also improves skin tone and texture. However, do not go overboard with this product. Just a tiny dime size will work for your entire face. The first time I used it, I scrubbed so hard with it, that my face compeltely broke out. It felt like I had scrubbed the first two layers of skin off! So be gentle with it. I love how this makes my skin so soft and prepares it for cleansing.

Next I use:

Biore SkinPreservation Clean Things Up Nourishing Gel Cleanser

I love this cleanser!! It's super gentle and has little Vitamin E beads that dissolve into your skin. It has definitely improved my skin's texture as well. It used to be really dry and tough, but now it is really soft. I especially love how it leaves your skin feeling clean and moisturized without leaving it greasy. By the way, it smells amazing!

After I use:

Proactiv Solution Revitalizing Toner

I use this because it is what I have handy and I really like that leaves my skin refeshed. However, I have always used L'Oreals HydraFresh toner and I love it just the same. I really find that most toners (for me anyways) are very similar and any one will work.

And finally I use:

Biore Skin Preservation Hard Day's Night Overnight Moisturizer

This overnight moisturizer leaves my skin super hydrated and is a little bit thicker than most moisturizers. It isn't greasy though which I like. I will put it on before bed as my last step in my routine and wake up in the morning with my skin feeling extremely soft and flexible. It's also made my skin less dull and more dewy, making it healthier looking.

So far, I am really pleased with my four step night routine. It's fast and easy and I've seen great results in my skin's texture and appearance.

What skin routines do you use?

Lux Naturals Soaps: Love!

I've been using Lux Naturals soap all week and I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised. As I said in my previous posts, I am not a natural, handmade soap kind of person mainly because of the smell. I tried Lush and hated them. Lux Naturals soaps however smell so good. They lather nicely and cover you in bubbles. They also leave you skin feeling squeaky clean which I love.

These are the samples I got:  

1. Moonlight Pomegranate

2. Sweet Pea

3. Honeysuckle Breeze

4. Coco Mango

5. Red Apple

6. Pearberry

7. True Honeydew

8. Coconut Lime

9. Watermelon

10. Blackberry Sage

 

They smell just like their names! My favorite one hands down is Moonlight Pomegranate. It smells like nothing I've ever smelled before!  Love it!! And it is so pretty! It's got all different swirls of vibrant colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All there soaps are $6.50 for a big chunk (4.5 ounces)! They also have huge 7.2 ounce bath fizzies (bombs) for $5.00!!

 

I'm really happy with the quality and smell of their products as well as their awesome service! I will definitelly be purchasing from them. check this company out and let me know what you think. =) Click here for their site.

Update! Lux Naturals Soap

The kind people over at Lux Naturals have decided to send me a few sample slivers in order to test out before I decide to purchase anything.  My package has arrived and I am so excited to try these handmade soaps out. I will let you know what I think! By the way, the package smells so good! I can smell all the soaps through the envelope lol!!

Peace, Love and Soap!

Mon

Lux Naturals Soaps

Okay, so now that you all have heard about my Lush Cosmetics disappointment, I was thinking of trying out Lux Naturals. Check them out here: Lux Naturals. They are also a handmade soap and body care company that someone suggested to me. Does anyone have any experience with this company and the smell and quality of their soaps? They have a couple that I am eyeing like Moonlight Pomegranate, Sweet Pea, Honeysuckle Breeze, Coco Mango, and Pearberry. Don't they just sound so good?! I will let you know if I end up ordering anything.

New Bag!!

My boyfriend picked up this bag for me in Portugal when we were there on vacation. I love it!! It's by Lookat, and we bought it at some random purse and accessories boutique in the town of Chaves. Check out its super duper-ness!!

It's a nice big size so I can carry my whole life in it!

The material feels sort of like suede, but it's not.

I am just absolutely in love with the hardware and industrial look of it!!

Also, the navy blue color is really pretty.

Here I am! Look how big it is! Love it!

Lush = Disappointment!

Warning: Long rant ahead. Read at your own risk!

I am not going to lie, I am not a big fan of "organic" soaps. I just never liked the smell of them or their greasy consistency. However, after hearing about Lush and its awesomeness (if that's even a word) from about every single Blogger and Makeup Guru out there, I figured that I would fall in love like the rest of you guys. I mean the Lush brand itself promises clean, vegetarian, no-testing-on-animals, great smelling products for both bath and body, so how could one not be intrigued. I was on a mission to indulge in these products myself, so I found the closest store (about 50 minutes from where I live) and dragged along the sweet boyfriend. I say sweet because 1. I talked his ear off about how great these products were going to be, 2. we got lost along the way and actually ended up taking about an hour and a half to get to the store, and 3. because well he's a boy and most boys don't care about anything cosmetics related. But nonetheless, he accompanied me anyway and we drove up with visions of Honey I Washed the Kids, Rockstar, and Sultan of Soap dancing in my head.

Now, let me say this before I continue. I understand that my opinion is my opinion and that about 90% of you love Lush, so understand that I am in no way criticizing anyone when I say the following: What are you people seeing that I'm not seeing?! No in all seriousness, did I miss something?

Unfortunately, to my great dissapointment, I did not like one single thing in that store. I feel so unbelievably disillusioned with Lush that I don't even know where to begin. I was expecting wonderful smells when I walked in to it. Nothing. That's what I smelled. Not kidding. Nothing. Also, all of the smells were so hemp and incense like, that I felt sort of light headed when I left. Not even the Honey I Washed the Kids bar smelled good to me. In fact, it didn't smell like anything it promoted. Rockstar? What a joke! I've heard that it's smell is other worldy and also like nothing else you've ever smelled. Really? It smelled just like bubble gum to me which is not anything I want to smell like when I get out of the shower since pink bubble gum flavor/smell makes me want to gag. The bath bombs, well the only good thing about them was that they were a nice big size. Again, their smells were nothing amazing and some of them smelled like old perfume.

The sea salt scrub, which I was so excited about smelled horrible and felt like sandpaper of a gradient 3 on my skin. The only bar of soap that I didn't mind the smell of was Sultan of Soap. But it had so many full size nuts and raisins in it that my boyfriend made a good point of how it would most definitely clog the shower drain. His favorite was porridge. I thought it smelled like dirt.

And finally, the biggest disappoinment of all were the prices! Even though I practically hated everything, I still was going to cave in and buy Honey I Washed the Kids, because aside from its smell, the honeycomb pattern on the side looked like it would be a good exfoliator and even though I was skeptical, I still thought that it would smell better maybe when I used it in the shower. So I walk over to the register (where the friendly cashier was) with a bar the size of a 3x3 square (much smaller than any store bought soap) and it weighed in at a mind boggling $14.92!! WHAT?! Any last hope that I would buy anything from Lush was left there in the dust at the register. That is beyond ridiculous. Who ever pays fifteen dollars for a tiny bar of soap is just letting money go down the drain (no pun intended).  

Ugh! I'm sorry to be such a downer, but I was just so completely dissapointed. I really, REALLY, wanted to love Lush like all of you guys but I just did not get it.

Are there any other companies out there that also create handmade soaps that I should try out. Let me know what your experiences are with Lush soaps and products!

Dear Perfect Concealer, Why are you so hard to find?

Concealers and I have a love/hate relationship. I try to do most of the loving but they always end up doing most of the hating!

I don't know about you, but I can not stand when a concealer is sticky and gooey. I just feel like it sits on my skin attracting any lint particle to it and then eventually melting away. Often I find that 85% of concealers out there, are too watered down, so I don't get the coverage I need for my dark undereye circles and my monstrous hormonal pimples that decide to pop up whenever I am stressed. It's hard to find a concealer I love.

I used to swear by Laura Mercier's Secret Concealer: until of course it was discontinued. This was by far the best concealer I have ever owned and used on my face. Never sticky, not watered down, long lasting. Basically perfect!

Then it took me years to find another great one: Revlon's Age Defying Concealer (light). The consistency and coverage of this concealer was almost identical to the one by Laura Mercier, so you can just imagine my excitement! Of course that one also was discontinued. I swear I think cosmetic companies love to do this: you know, when you find your holy grail cosmetic and then the company decides they are going to take it away from you!

Now after another year or two, I have found Maybelline's Super Stay 24hr Concealer (light). It's what I have been using for almost six months. It's wonderful! It covers like no other concealer I know, even more so than the previous two. It is not sticky at all and in fact, dries completely to blend into your skin. It's coverage is seriously amazing. They only downside is that dries quickly so you have to work even more quickly to spread it on. This so far is my new HG concealer. If they decide to discontinue it, I think I will pull my hair out.

What concealers do you use and love?

Update: Having a great time in Portugal!!

So far I have been having a great time here in Portugal!! My boyfriend decided to come last minute which makes this vacation even more special and fun since I get to spend my time with not only family and friends but also his family and friends and of course him! <3 I haven't done much shopping since we have been spending a lot of time catching up with our family. I am from the center of Portugal near Lisbon and he is from Chaves, which is farther up, closer to Spain. We came up to see his family this past Tuesday and we're leaving tomorrow, which gives us five days of exploring his town, which I have only been to twice. He took me shopping in the town center and bought me THE cutest bag! A dark blue material almost like a suede texture but softer and it has some decoration along the front giving it a heavy duty and industrial look and feel to it. I am in love with it!! He's the best! I also bought two pairs of leggings and a long sweater at Bershka, one of my favorite stores here. I will be doing a whole haul when I get back to the states of stuff that I bought and accumulated along the trip! Just wanted to update you guys on what's been going on. =) Happy Friday!!

Vacation!

I will be traveling to Portugal this week for some vacation time with my family. I am so excited to see my grandmothers and other family and friends! I am also excited to see what the latest trends are. However I am not that excited to check out any cosmetics while over there. Makeup doesn't seem to play a major part in the lives of women there. At least in comparison to the states. I also find drugstore makeup ridiculously expensive! I'm talking about 14 euros for a L'Oreal mascara which equals to about 20 US dollars. Their skincare products are not too bad. I am most excited to do some shopping at the new mall in my town which includes stores like Bershka, Stradivarius, and Pull and Bear!! I will be away from this Friday (the 15th) to Sunday (the 31st). I will try and take a bajillion pictures and do a haul post!

This is the street where I do most of my shopping.

Although now I have spent most of my time at the new mall in town!! See below...