An Amazing Origins Duo

I think we all know Origins. There have been hypes about almost all of their products and I personally love the whole feel and concept of the brand. Last year I bought an amazing moisture duo, the Origins GinZing Energy Boosting Moisturizer, a lightweight oil-free gel formula, and the Dr. Andrew Weil for Origins Night Health Bedtime Face Cream, a think and rich restoring and repairing night cream.

I finished the Origins Ginzing Moisturizer in a few weeks and ran out of the latter just a month ago, just before I bought the Clinique moisturizers I talked about earlier, so I thought it was about time to do a little review on both.

Starting with the affordable one (€25), the Origins Ginzing Energy Boosting Moisturizer, which I will call 'moisturizer' from now on. This is summer in a bottle. The scent, the ingredients, the formula. It all screams summer. It's so lightweight, yet moisturizes perfectly. The citrus scent wakes you up instantly, even on those rough mornings. It's a cappuccino for your face. Yes, I love it as you can tell, and I might just buy this again next month.

The night cream on the other hand is not lightweight at all. It's one of those rich thick creams you can only dream of. I used to apply this in the evening feeling so happy knowing my skin would look like new the next morning, no matter what I did. I used this for the first time on my 18th birthday, and drinks usually break me out overnight. I had quite a few drinks and expected the worst. I woke up with only one pimple, that's about nine less than I expected. Also, my skin looked anything but red. The camomille in here calms down your skin instantly. Sad thing is, this little wonder has a bit of a heavy price tag (€75,-), so you might want to try a sample first.

As you can tell I loved both products a lot, and because of them I actually bought a lot of other Origins product which I will feature on my blog in the future.

Currently Loving #1

As I'm a sucker for beauty related products I try a lot of both low- and high-end brands, but sometimes I find myself reaching for the same products over and over again. That's why I thought it would be nice to do a favourites post (besides the monthly ones) every once in a while.

The first product is the one I probably adore the most right know, this little gem called Clarins Radiance-Plus Golden Glow Booster is a product I tend to use every other day, if not everyday. When I bought it and tried it for the first time I didn't like it at all, just because I didn't think it was doing something (read: giving me a gorgeous tan). It was only a week or two ago when I actually found out what it should be doing, and boy do I love it now. Three drops of this stuff mixed with your daily moisturizer gives you a sun kissed glow rather than tan in just an hour which even shows through your makeup. My skin looks more radiant and my complexion looks more even. I absolutely love it.

Next up is my beloved Chanel Crayon Sourcils Sculpting Eyebrow Pencil, I can't really tell you if it's any better than Benefit's or Anastasia's, because I've never tried those. But boy do I love this pencil. The shades appealed to me at first, because these were a little lighter than the average brow product. I recently went blonde, or more like blondish, and my almost black eyebrow product didn't fit me anymore. Besides the perfect shade (I have #30), the product just looks so natural and lovely, and the brush works very well too. I really like it and will probably buy it again.

L'Oreal Paris recently launched a new line called #TXT, and I really like their #TXT07 Volume Texturizing Spray. I feel like the product is a mixture of dry shampoo and volume powder, without making your hair look too dry. I use it almost everyday and this has to be my third bottle of the stuff. It gives so much volume and texture to the hair, especially when you've just washed it! If you're looking for a lovely but cheap texturizing spray this is for you!

The French skincare brand La Roche-Posay has a lot of loyal followers when it comes to their Effeclar Duo. This is a serum that prevents acne on long term base. It won't clear up overnight, neither will it in two. I actually didn't notice any difference when I used it for a few weeks, so I stopped. Probably one of the biggest mistakes I made that month, my breakouts got worse and so did my acne. This is the kind of product you've missed your entire life if you suffer from severe acne or any form of acne prone skin, just give it some time!

Last but not least is the Max Factor CC Cream, a lightweight product with amazing coverage. The only thing I dislike about it is the smell, because it does has a strong scent to it. However, when I'm at home or head to the store for some groceries this is my go to product. Applied in just seconds with a natural finish, what can you ask more for in early spring?

A Little Lush Haul

Sometimes you just have to go into Lush and buy something. I had that this the other day. Besides my love-hate relationship with their products, most just don't work for me, I do like the brand and the whole concept of it. And if a product does work for me, it works incredibly well! 

My one and probably only holy grail product is from Lush, it's the Tea Tree Toner Water (I will do a full review on this in the next few days). So when I ran out of it I went straight to Lush to get a new bottle, I got a small one because they didn't have a big one in stock, so expect another little Lush haul in about two to three weeks...

Anyway, I picked up a face and body mask, a spot treatment and the toner I just talked about. My skin is going through a bit of a blemish period, I break out almost every week and tend to wake up with spots every single day. The products that normally work for me didn't help this time, so I got a new face mask and spot treatment to calm everything down. Along with the toner my face should be clear in no time! Or at least I hope so.

I did try the face mask once already, and I'm pleasantly surprised by it. It feels very refreshing and calming rather than purifying, which is a good alternative to most of my face masks. Also, this one is great for in the mornings as it dries up in a few minutes!

I will let you know some more details about all products in the coming weeks!

Two Clinique Products for Dehydrated Skin

From time to time my skin gets quite dehydrated, especially during the seasonal changes. To get my drier than usual skin ready for the sheer and dewy spring bases I picked up two Clinique products that caught my eye.

The first one is a small version of the Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief. This gel based creme seemed to have everything I needed, a good amount of moisture without looking greasy. I love gel based products during the warmer months of the year because they sink in so quickly and look lovely throughout the day.

I took it with me to Barcelona, Spain to try it before buying the actual full size version, and I used it everywhere. On the plain, in the morning, evening and sometimes even when we went to the hotel to touch ourselves up a little. When I was about to buy the actual full size of the product, because I loved it, my eyes fell on a big yellow bottle.

And then I thought, why didn't I think of that one before! I read and even heard so many raves about how amazing the Clinique DDML (short for Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion/Gel) is and should have tried that one in the first place. As the bottle is a lot bigger I decided to just buy it, and I don't regret a single thing!

Don't get me wrong, both products hydrate extremely well, but I just prefer the big yellow bottle for some reason. I have to admit you need a little more product to make it work, but as you get more of it anyway I don't really think that's a bad thing. I use around three full pumps of it in my routine.

The Natural April Base

Because of my horrible acne scarring I've got a lot of redness in my face, which isn't something you want to show off. Or at least I don't. Skincare on its own can't solve this problem as quickly as I would like it to, so I do wear a little bit of makeup to cover up the things I want to hide.

I take a good look at my face to decide whether I need a bit more or a little less coverage that day. Most of the times it's less, I don't feel like covering up everything because I do like a natural look, but some help in the right direction never hurts.

Most of the time I use a BB Cream, but sometimes I do like a good CC cream if it's only redness that needs to be hide. I'm loving the Clinique Age Defense BB Cream, which isn't too pricey in my opinion, but if it's a bit out of your budget the L'Oréal Skin Lumiere BB Cream is a good alternative too.

I apply a BB cream with either my hands or the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush, a similar one to the Buffing Brush but a little bigger. If you apply with your hands the finish will be a little more sheer and natural, while the coverage really comes to its right when blended with the brush.

You might wonder: no primer? Indeed, I don't like the feeling of primer, or at least the primers I tried, on my skin and they also tend to break me out more often. If you don't have blemish prone skin, the L'Oréal Revitalift Magic Blur Base might be something for you as it pretty much solves everything a primer should. (full review coming soon).

After this I apply a little concealer if needed, the one I tend to use more often is the Dior Nude Skin Hydrating Concealer, but the shade (02) is a little too orange and dark for me, so I mix it with a blemish concealer from Garnier. Even though I do like the two from time to time, the coverage isn't natural enough for me...

To finish up the look I set everything with the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in Transparant and my Real Techniques Expert Face Brush, and spray on some finishing mist, mostly Mac Fix+.

And that's it, it seems like a long post full of make-up but I basically use two products, a base and a powder, both very sheer. I hope you enjoyed!