PM Skincare routine…

Tags

Balance Me, Diptyque, Elemis, First Aid Beauty, Kielh's, L'Occitane, night time routine, Omorovicza, Oskia, skincare

This is my current nighttime skincare routine step by step!

STEP I:

– TIE HAIR UP – these might seem like a lot of hair ties and pins, but these go missing like crazy, so it’s always a good idea to keep a “few” in hand. Love these ones from Oysho.

STEP II:

– TAKE MAKEUP OFF – I’m a huge fan of cleansing. I firmly believe that a clean skin is a healthy skin… Therefore I double or triple-cleanse! 

Here is how a triple cleanse sounds like:

I’m starting with some L’Occitane Cleansing Milk on two large cotton pads to take off most of my makeup. Then I wash my face with an oil cleanser, my pick: the L’Occitane Cleansing Oil and to make sure that there’s no makeup residue whatsoever I also use a tiny bit of the First Aid Beauty Face Cleanser combined with the Diptyque Radiance Boosting Powder.

On days where I’m not wearing a full-face of makeup, I skip on the L’Occitane Cleansing Oil and go directly to the First Aid Beauty Face Cleanser + Diptyque Radiance Boosting Powder combination.

STEP III:

– USE A TONER/EXFOLIATING PADS – I spritz some of the Omorovicza Queen of Hungary Mist on a regular cotton pad, then gently, in circular motions I take it all-over my face. Every other day I replace the face mist with one of the First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads. These are amazing for a gentle acid exfoliation and they also tone and brighten your complexion. More on these coming soon!

STEP IV:

– HYDRATION + MOISTURE – USE A FACE SERUM – the one I’m currently using and loving the effect it has on my skin, is this Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Concentrate, of which I only use a few drops rubbed between the palm of my hands, then I press it into the skin. This is fast absorbing and doesn’t leave any greasy residue… I already wrote a review on it here!

                                         – USE AN EYE CREAM – I’m was testing for quite a while this Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream a lightweight, yet very hydrating eye cream Alina from Debenhams UK kindly enough to sent it over, along with the Kiehl’s Serum. The review is already up!

                                         – USE A MOISTURIZER – my moisturizer of choice has been lately the Elemis Hydra-Nourish Night Cream, an anti-oxidant, rich night cream. But for an extra boost of moisture and hydration I always reach for another First Aid Beauty product, the Ultra Repair Cream – a very, very rich cream that offers intense hydration for dry, parched skin.

                       – USE A LIP BALM – the lip balm I’m still loving at the moment is the Omorovicza Perfecting Lip Balm. I know, I kind of strayed away from my beloved By Terry Baume de Rose, but I felt that the Omorovicza one suited my needs better.

                       – USE A HAND CREAM – don’t forget about your hands! They also need to be moisturized regularly, especially at this time of the year. I still have left some of the Laura Mercier Fresh Fig Hand Cream, that I try to finish up. *Gosh, this smells delicious!* This would be the last hand cream in my stash then I will have to purchase a new one! Any good recommendations?

I would love to know what your PM Skincare Routine consists of, so please kindly share it in the Comments below!

Also keep in mind that this daily routine doesn’t include masks and other treatments I use! These will be featured in a separate post!

See you soon, beautiful!

xx, Annie

 

 

DISCLAIMER here.

NEW SKINCARE PRODUCTS in the L’Occitane Shea Butter range!

Tags

dry skin, intense hydration, L'Occitane, L'Occitane Cleansing Milk, L'Occitane Cleansing Oil 5% Shea Butter, L'Occitane Gentle Toner, L'Occitane Ultra Rich 25% Shea Butter Comforting Cream, natural ingredients, review, sensitive skin, shea butter

NEW products in the L’Occitane Shea Butter skincare range! The same old me who’s always eager to try them, especially at this time of the year!

 

Before starting this review, I would like to throw in a little DISCLAIMER!

My skin type is overall normal but tends to get a little dry at this time of the year! I too deal with occasional breakouts and clogged, enlarged pores and blackheads on my nose and forehead.

The really messed up part is that my skin is highly sensitive to certain minerals and oils also, which could mean that the skincare products I might use and work for my skin not to offer the right results for your skin type.

We have to agree on one more fact: skincare is a personal matter and as much as I love a product it might just not work for you! So I’d rather recommend to get to really know your skin and its issues and then try some products made specifically for your skin type.

Sensitive skin skincare is commonly known to be generally tolerate by all skins, but you never know!

If you have the curiosity to check, one of my first posts on annies beauty… was about this L’Occitane Shea Butter Serum. I also wrote in detail what shea butter is and how is made ( read review here ). I remember this light serum helped me improve the poor condition my skin was in at the time. Now, a year later, I’m in the same place writing again about this skincare range… I have to admit though that my skin is nowhere close to as bad as it was last year because I’ve learned a lot about it and what products work better with it!

Now let’s move on with the actual review…

The L’Occitane Shea Butter line addresses dry and very dry skins and it’s meant to be tolerate by all skin types, sensitive skins included. It’s an affordable and highly effective line of products which my sensitive skin seem to approve with ( or maybe my skin had recovered in the past year and stopped being so sensitive after all ) and which I’m gladly revisiting whenever I feel the need to! 

This skincare has now in the range: a makeup remover ( new in the line ), an oil cleanser ( new ), a toning lotion ( also new ) a light and more dense moisturizer, an ultra rich eye cream and a lip balm. I was more excited to try the new products, as I’ve used a couple of the old ones and really liked them.

The new L’Occitane Cleansing Milk is an excellent first step in cleansing your face daily routine. It’s a soft cleansing product enriched with shea butter and liquorice, which is known for its calming effects on the skin. It will gently cleanse your skin even of your most suborn makeup, maintaining its natural hydration.

The new L’Occitane Cleansing Oil 5% Shea Butter is a silky soft oil which works the same way all the cleansing oils do. Applied on the dry face, in contact with water it emulsifies and help you clean your face keeping it hydrated and nourished.

The new L’Occitane Gentle Toner contains no alcohol and it’s also enriched with shea butter extract and floral waters ( orange blossoms and cornflower ). It completes the makeup removing ritual, with a toning effect on the skin.

The last product I will show you in this post is the final step in any skincare routine: the face cream. This is the L’Occitane Ultra Rich 25% Shea Butter Comforting Cream. This is more of a treatment cream and it is advised to be used only for “emergencies”, when your skin is extra-dry.

It contains the highest concentration of shea butter and it was proven that it will manage to keep your skin hydrated, supple and nourished for a whole period of 72 hours. It also acts like a barrier against harsh environmental factors which might damage your skin.

Though, if you have a certain sensitivity to your skin or it’s prone to acne, keep in mind that you’d better AVOID MOISTURIZERS CONTAINING SHEA BUTTER. Yes, shea butter is a natural oil but it’s harder than most oils for the skin to break down, therefore tends to clog pores and give unesthetic whiteheads.

Overall thoughts:

I’m pleased, yet not wowed with the cleansing products. The Gentle toner tends to dry my skin a bit – so I might go back to my beloved and flawless Omorovicza Queen of Hungary Face Mist! The Comforting Cream I find it to be a bit too much at times, as I feel it just sits on my skin which might clogg my pores and cause makeup to slide. So it is definitely the one product to be used overnight! 

They do not contain alcohol, minerail oil or parabens, but they do contain PEGs, fragrance  and obviously Shea Butter which can definitely act as allergens for some sensitive skins! 

They use natural ingredients ( see more about that here ) and they also do not test on animals! 

Have you tried any of these products yet? What are your most loved L’Occitane products?

See you soon, beautiful!

xx, Annie

L’OCCITANE – 2014 Bag Essentials

Tags

face mist, Frisson de Verveine, hand cream, hand sanitizer, L'Occitane, perfume, refreshing, review, Verveine

The things a woman carry in her bag!?…

It is a mystery even for herself how the smallest bag can carry so many things… And let us clarify one thing: everything in there is necessary ( yeah, sure!!!). No wonder a woman can not find a thing in her bag when she needs it the most!!!

And being the woman that I am, my bag is a mess too – to use an elegant term!

So the seasons changed – we are half way through September, already?! I felt like I needed a change. So, since the classic haircut was not enough this year, I felt it would be the right time to change my bag!

While going through the stuff in my “summer bag”, I came up with the idea of this post. Why not to let you guys know which were my absolute essentials for the hot, summer days… Between me and you, it seems like summer was not enough this year!

At a closer look, the products I found inside my bag are most of them from the L’Occitane Verveine Collection. Étrange coïncidence!

I absolutely love the Verveine range from L’Occitane. So refreshing! And the scent is so zesty, and citrusy even though the verveine is not part of the citrus family. And before I forget, this scent complimented so well my favourite summer perfume – the Annick Goutal Eau d’Hadrien. If you do not know what I am talking about, here is the link to the review of this amazing, gorgeous, unique perfume! 

In the picture above you can see the actual products that “lived” in my bag this summer.

From left to right I had:

– a mini roll-on perfume to apply whenever I needed to freshen up a little… and did not managed to “locate” my Travalo with my Annick Goutal fragrance – two perfumes = double the chance to find my refreshing scent in that hot mess

– a hand sanitizer – not much to say about it. A hand sanitizer is… a hand sanitizer!

– a lightweight hand cream – this one is simply amazing! No greasy residue, no tacky hands, no weird after scent, no feeling like I-need-to-wash-my-hands after the application, it absorbs in a matter of seconds. It instantly became my go-to/ holy grail hand cream for summer

– a face mist – not going to talk much about this one since I have a full post dedicated to it and the other face mists I used this summer, read it here. And believe me, from all the face mists you will see in that post, I have so little left in that L’Occitane can and in my Caudalie Beauty Elixir spray bottle

– and the last item, missing from the picture though, was a pack of wet wipes from the same Verveine Collection. Those were the first to go, but I always make sure I have a new pack with me when the weather is hot.

I also carried with me a travel size of the L’Occitane Frisson de Verveine Shower Gel instead of a hand soap, and from the same line the Refreshing Gel for tired feet. Ladies, you are wearing heels too! You know what tired feet mean, right?!

Which were your bag essentials this summer, beautiful? Please share!

See you soon!

xx, Annie

 

 

Summer 2014 Favourites

Tags

Annick Goutal, Burberry, Caudalie, dior, favourites, guerlain, Hourglass, L'Occitane, Melvita, Omorovicza, summer 2014, Uriage

For us here, in Europe, the end of August sadly marks the end of Summer. But it also means that it is time for me to talk you through all my favourite summer products – both old and new amazing discoveries.

This is how you will see my favourites – in seasonal posts. I do not like forcing a favourites post every month, just for the sake of writing something! I have lots of ideas! And the Beauty World has so much to offer!…

This being said, here you have my most loved beauty products of Summer 2014!

My first ones are the Dior Addict Fluid Sticks which along with the Burberry Fresh Glow B.B. Cream were this year’s new releases. It was a real pleasure to be able to test them and discover them, because they are amazing! I already reviewed them ( Dior , Burberry ) so this is as much as I will tell you here!

As you may ( or may not ) know, for me the Summer of 2014 was all about bronzed, healthy and glowing skin. In fact, the whole month of July is a mini-series of related posts. So among my favourites I had to include my well-loved bronzers and highlighters: a new buy the Guerlain Terracotta Sun Celebration Bronzing Powder and Blush 30th Anniversary Edition the Star Sun Powder ( longest name ever! ) and another favourite the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Palette, both reviewed here and here.

My skin never felt more pampered than when I used an old favourite of mine – the Caudalie Divine Scrub. The name describes it perfectly: divine natural oils blend, divine scent, divine results after usage. Read full review here.

During summer, my go-to fragrances change from mysterious, grown-up scents to more fresh and floral ones. Last year I was loving Chanel No 5 Eau Prèmiere, but this year was a truly amazing rediscovery: the Annick Goutal L’Eau d’Hadrien. I reviewed this one at the beginning of this month, in a oh! such a poetic post.

My last favourites were face mists. Omorovicza, L’Occitane, Melvita, Caudalie, Uriage thermal… They are so easy to use and versatile: you can use them to moisturize your face, as a setting spray, on your beauty blender to apply your makeup, while traveling on the plane, or to refresh yourself in your car when you wait in the heat for the green light. Face mists/floral infused waters, especially Rosa Damacena infused ones, became a very important step in my skincare routine, replacing my toners – which I always find a bit drying and harsh on my sensitive complexion. More on my most used face mists, here.

These were my favourite products this summer. Which were yours?

See you in Autumn, beautiful!

xx, Annie

 

Summer of 2014 – Bronzed, healthy, glowing summer Tip #6: Stay Hydrated!

Tags

Caudalie, face mist, grape water, L'Occitane, Melvita, Omorovicza, review, rose water, skincare, summer 2014, thermal water, trio verde, Uriage

To maintain your skin looking healthy during the summer heat it is very important to keep yourself hydrated.

To do so you need to drink a lot of water have balanced meals with lots of vegetables and light meat and to eat more fresh fruits.

But you can also help your hydration process from outside by using face mists, face waters or thermal waters.

Here you have a few of my favourites!

From L’Occitane the Verveine Fresh Summer Mist is a face mist enriched with organic verbena  extract. It comes in a spray tube which you have to keep at a few cetimeters away from your face when you spitz it, to get the mist evenly on your face. The oil-free mist is very fine, and the verbena extract has a refreshing citrusy scent. After applying it, you instantly feel more comfortable and refreshed.

My next pick is another L’Occitane one, the Hydra Vital Face Mist à L’Eau d’Angelique Bio. It instantly refreshes and hydrates your skin. You can use it in the city, while traveling, at the beach or after exercise. It is a perfect step in your skin care routine or to achieve a long-lasting makeup finish.

The next one is the Omorovicza Queen of Hungary Mist a refreshing and calming rose water which originally comes in a luxurious glass bottle. Here I have the 30 ml, travel-sized one. I have a complete review about this and a few other Omorovicza best sellers here.

Another favourite of mine is the Melvita Damask Rose Floral Water. This is a hydrating and regenerating face water certified organic and with ingredients coming exclusively from fair trade. This floral water is obtained by steam distilation of fresh Rosa Damascena petals which makes it rich in active ingredients. It has a fresh, delicate rose scent and helps hydrate and regenerate the skin.

You can use it as a toner, for that cleansing step in your skincare routine. Highly tolerable, extremely beneficial for sensitive skins.

Next we have the Caudalie Grape Water and the most infamous in the beauty world, the Caudalie Beauty Elixir.

The Caudalie Grape Water comes in a spray can. It is a moisturizing, smoothing and refreshing water made of 100% organic grape extracts. It is preservative-free, fragrance-free. The mist is so fine and it has to be left to dry on its own and not to be rubbed onto the face after spraying.

The Caudalie Beauty Elixir, on the other hand is a more complex product. I am not going to give you too many details on this particular one, as I am sure you all used it or at least heard of it. It is a mixture of natural oils ( Grape, Orange blossom, Rose, Balm mint, Rosemary ) meant to help you achieve a smoother, glowing complexion. You can use it as a toner, to set your makeup with it or simply to refresh your face.

All Caudalie products are made of natural ingredients and they are cruelty-free.

The next two items are 100% natural. They are the Trio Verde Mint Water and Melissa Water. The Mint Water is calming and soothing and helps refresh your tired complexion. The Melissa Water calms and refreshes all skin types: the sensitive skin receives gentle and calming care and the mature skin receives hydration and smoothness.

They are good to use for face, body and hair and to remove makeup.

More on Trio Verde products on my previous posts here and here.

Last but not least, good to hydrate your skin during the hot summer heat is the good, old thermal water. The one I particularly love at the moment is the Uriage Eau Thermale d’Uriage an hypoallergenic formula excellent for sensitive skin which hydrates, soothes and it has an anti-free radicals action ( = prevents aging ), and an anti-inflammatory action. It is the thermal water with the highest concentration of minerals. It is also fragrance-free and easy to carry in your handbag. To use whenever you need a refresh!

These were my favourite face waters/mists to use during the summer to hydrate my skin! What are yours?

See you soon, beautiful!

xx, Annie