Monday, December 31, 2012

Top 12 for 2012

I was planning to do a 2012 favorites at the end of this month, showing you all my beauty favorites, make up, bodycare and haircare for this year, but I was tagged by the lovely Irene from Blushing Loves to do a top 12 for 2012 post, and I decided to this one instead. It was a challenge to find only 12 favorite products to show you but I think I did it pretty well!
 Some of the products I include are old faves of mine that I kept using the whole year because I love them so much, and some are new discoveries within the 2012. So let's start!


Clinique Even Better Foundation
I was a little bit torned on which of the two foundations I love the most to choose as my top one for this year, Mac's Pro Longwear or this one, but I think this one is the one i loved the most this year, Pro Longwear it's an older love of mine anyway. I used to have Even Better foundation in my possesion for a few years but I refused to use it, I thought it was terrible, and around March I discovered how wrong I was! It's an amazing foundation if you apply it with the right brush, I prefer flat top kabuki brushes, they give a flawless look on my face.

Seventeen Ideal Cover Concealer
If you follow my blog for quite some time now, you'll propably know how much I love this concealer. It's my most used concealer of the 2012 for sure. It's not very expensive, it covers quite well, not only under eye circles but also blemishes, and it brightens my under eye area.



Benefit Hello Flawless Custom powder Cover-Up
This is propably one of my biggest discoveries within 2012. A powder foundation that provides amazing coverage that doesn't look powdery or cakey. It's like you apply a liquid foundation on your face only that it's not liquid, the best brush to apply it is with a flat top kabuki one that it's not super dense, the ELF one is the best one I've found so far! I've used it the whole summer, about 4 months straight, without using a liquid foundation at that period, I even hit a pan on it and bought a new one, I think that one says a lot!

Mac Fleury Blush
This is for sure my most used blush of the year, and I bought it many years ago with a Mac's limited edition collection. It's very smooth and blendable, and the peachy pink shade suits almost every single one of the looks I go for. I'm a sucker when it comes to Mac blushes, I've tried lots of them, but this one is propably my HG one!



Mac Nubile Paint Pot
Yeah I know a neutral beige colored paint pot, soooo boring! But for me it's the best neutral beige cream eyeshadow I've tried so far, it suits really good with my natural lid color which is brown, and most of the colored eye bases I've tried made my lids look weird! I also noticed that the texture is way creamier than Soft Ochre which I hated! I only wish Mac would make this permanent!

L'oreal Mega Volume Collagene 24H Mascara
This year I've tried lots of good mascaras, L'oreal Lash Architect 4D, Maybelline Mega Plush, but this Mega Volume Collagene 24H from L'oreal was my HG! It makes my lashes look fuller and longer, seperates them amazingly well, it doesn't smudge on my lower lashlines and the best part is that it's soft, doesn't make my lashes hard, and I hate when a mascara makes my lashes hard, that really hurts my eyes!



Too Faced Natural Eye Palette
Best neutral eye shadow palette out there, hands down! I have it for 2 years now and I always reach for it. One of the best quality eyeshadows I've ever used, way better than Mac, even the matte ones!
The shades I use the most are: Heaven as my browbone shade all the time, Silk Heavy on the inner part of my lids for brightening my eyes, Push Up is my HG shade from the palette, it's a medium bronze shade perfect for all over the lids, Cocoa Puff a deep shimmery chocolate brown for the outer half and lastly Sexspresso a dark matte brown shade that I use all the time as a liner.



Urban Decay Naked Eye Shadow Palette

Yes another eye shadow palette, just because I love neutral eyeshadows so much that I couldn't choose between the Too Faced's Natural and this one, I decided to include them both in my top 12 of the year!
I have it since May but still I haven't use all of the shades, I mainly stick to the ones I'm most comfortable with. The ones that I really love are Naked, Buck and Smog, but I also like Darkhorse, Toasted and Sin. I think that the eyeshadows have amazing quality, and if I ever run out Naked, Buck and Smog I'll definetely purchase the full size ones! That's the best part about Urban Decay Naked, all the eyeshadows in the palette come in full sizes too.



Mac Way To Love Lipstick
That's the lipstick I rediscovered in my make up stash this fall. I have it for a few years but I just started using it more and more, and I absolutely love it! It's a medium pink with neutral undertones, it's neither cool or warm toned, it's something in between. It's one of the good Lustres Mac has released, and I say that because there are some Lustres that were horrible, but this one is very smooth and glossy! Too bad it was limited edition. 

  Dior Addict Lipstick 343 Miss Dior
This was my HG lipstick at the warmer months, it's a super glossy peachy shade with golden shimmers. Dior Addicts in my opinion are one of the best high end lipsticks in the market, along with YSL Pur Couture. They feel something between a gloss and a lipstick on the lips, but also very moisturizing like lip balms. There are many dupes outthere like Revlon Lip Butters but they can't beat the Dior Addicts, the texture and color variety is way better. I promise to myself that within 2013 I'll try more of these!



La Roche Posay Cicaplast
I found one for my HG skincare products this year and that is La Roche Posay's Cicaplast. That cream really saved my skin when I had itchyness from allergies or when it was really dry from the weather.
It has that silicone texture, very lightweight, it can also be worn under foundation, mostly on the problematic and peeling areas. It's also very good if your skin around your nose is peeling after you had a cold, and helps with chapped lips.

  Sunslik Perfect Straight by Yuko Leave In Cream
Also a great discovery for this year, this time for my hair, Sunsilk's straightening leave in cream.
I used to love John Frieda's Frizz Ease Extra Strength Serum for almost two years, but it's very expensive and the quantity is very small, so I gave this Sunsilk leave in cream a chance and I realised that it was giving me the same exact results with John Frieda's serum, maybe even better. Also on my hair I prefer the cream texture over the silicone one that serums have. Plus it's super cheap, only 2.5 euros, you cannot beat that price!





I hope you liked my top 12 products for the 2012. If you have try any of these let me know what are your opinions on them! And for anyone who hasn't done this tag yet, I tag everyone! I wanna know what are your top 12 beauty products for this year, let me know!
I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Sophia
xoxo

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Lush Christmas Haul


As I told you in my latest post, I was waiting for my Lush Christmas package to arrive for over two weeks but I received it as I was writing the post so I couldn't include it in that one. That's why I decided to a seperate small haul post to show you what I got!


Since we don't have Lush stores in Greece, I always order through their UK site. It's a tradition of mine to buy some of their Christmas goodies since 2008, I've done several orders within these years, not only at Christmas time, I've tried lots of their products, some of them were hit and miss.



Snowcake Soap
I start with the soaps because I believe that Lush has some great ones, and I'm more of a soap person myself! I first tried Snowcake back in 2008 and I was immediately hooked, since then I buy it every single year. It's a super creamy and moisturizing soap, in my opinion the creamiest Lush soap I've ever tried. It smells like almonds, it has that gorgeous festive marzipan scent which I love. If you could buy only one thing from Lush Christmas collection it should be that one!


North Pole
This soap was a new addition to Lush Christmas collection, I haven't tried it yet to test if it's creamy or not. I got the pink side of the soap, there's a white one too which smells more woody, the pink one has a minty-chocolate scent which I find very refreshing!



Cinders Bath Bomb
I don't usually use bath bombs but when I do I like vanilla and spicy scents the most. Cinders has a spicy cinnamon scent, but it's not very moisturizing, it's mostly used for its aroma.


Butterball Bath Bomb
These on the other hand are very moisturizing and smell like vanilla! I don't use the whole thing at once, maybe just the 1/4, depends if I use it for my body or just my feet for pedicures.



 Melting Snowman Bath Melt
I love how these look exactly like melting snowmen, with eyes made of chocolate chips and nose made of brown sugar! These are bath melts, which means that they do not fizz when you put them into the water like bath bombs do, they just melt. But they're 100% more mosturizing than bath bombs, they're like butter, and you only need a tiny bit of this. The reason why I got two of them, is because they smell exactly like Snowcake soap, pure marzipan!




Well that was my small Lush Christmas haul, I hope you liked it. It's a pity that we don't have Lush in Greece and I have to order through their UK site, with not so econimical shipping rates, but once a year I like to pamper myself with these goodies, in my opinion they worth it!

Sophia
xoxo

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Collective Christmas Haul (Stila, bareMinerals, China Glaze, Vichy, Mac, Taylor Swift)

 
I think it was about time to show you what I hauled for Christmas! I got most of these stuff online, some of them were purchased on Black Friday but my post office was so slow and I received them 10 days ago! I was also waiting for another package from Lush to arrive so I can show you all the things that I purchased but it literally just arrived so I didn't have the time to take pictures. I may do a seperate post, only with my Lush goodies! So let's start!


Taylor Swift Wonderstruck Perfume Set
As I mentioned in my Christmas beauty wishlist post , every Christmas I like to buy a perfume, this year I was planning to buy Vera Wang's Lovestruck, but I saw this set at Feelunique for only 18 euros and I said why not! You get a 30ml bottle of the perfume plus a small 5 ml one, and the body lotion! 
I've read really good reviews about this perfume and since it's not available in Greece, buying it online was my only option. But it's a risk buying a perfume you haven't smell before, there's always a chance that you may not like it, and now that I smelled it I'm still not quite sure if I like it or not, but them again I've used it only twice! It's a little heavy and a sweet perfume, but a unique one for sure! At first it caused me a headache, but in the past I've had perfumes that I couldn't stand and then later I loved! So who knows, I may eventually get used to the scent!



Stila In The Know Eye Shadow Palette
This eye shadow palette is the highlight of my haul! Before November I've never even heard of this palette, and I think it was released last spring! But I was watching a Youtube video from ARose186 , and I suddenly started lemming it like crazy!
 It's a palette with only matte eyeshadows, and let me tell you it's so hard to find an eye shadow palette in the market with only matte eyeshadows, I think Too Faced has one but the colors are too cool toned for me. Amazing quality and pigmentation, all the colors are so pretty and neutral, perfect for subtle everyday looks or even intense night looks! Plus you get a full size Stila Smudge Stick Eye Liner in Halfmoon, it's a dark grey color, very creamy and long lasting!
 
 I got the palette from BeautyBay for 25 euros on Black Friday when they offered a 20% off. It normally  retails for 32 euros, in my opinion it's a really good price for 10 high quality eyeshadows and a full size eye pencil. I may also get the In The Light palette in the future,which contains one of my HG eye shadows ever, Kitten!



bareMinerals Buxom Time To Shine Lip Collection
I was lemming this lipgloss kit for a while now, it was also in my Christmas Beauty Wishlist. It contains 6 different Buxom liglosses, with 2 different textures, 4 of them are Lip Polishes which have shimmers, and 2 of them are Lip Creams with no shimmers at all. Buxom lipglosses are supposed to be lip plumpers, I haven't notice if my lips look more plumpy with these on or not, but let me tell you if you haven't try them before the first time you do it feels so weird! It's like you put ice on your lips and that sensation does not leave until you remove the whole lipgloss from your lips!
The one I use the most is the White Russian because it's a milky pink with cream texture and can be used on top of any lipstick! Katie is also my favorite which is light peachy pink with shimmers and Berry Blast which is a gorgeous berry color with no shimmers, perfect for the winter! I have to mention that they are a little bit sticky, mostly the Lip Polishes, but not as much as the Mac lipglasses are.



Vichy Normaderm 3 in 1 Cleanser + Scrub + Mask
I got this exfoliator/mask 2 weeks ago from the drugstore, I was looking for a good salycylic acid mask for a while now, and this one from Vichy had really good reviews. I got it mostly to use it on my nose and chin area where I have the main problem with my break outs, and make my pores look smaller and clearer! I've used it 3 times, I haven't notice any difference on my pores yet, but I like the natural clear finish it leaves on my skin afterwards!

Mac Omega Eye Shadow
I was looking for an eye shadow to use on my brows, that would have the exact same shade as my HG eye pencil from Mac, Lingering. I was told that Mac's Omega eye shadow is very similar to it so I went for it. I have to say that it's a tone lighter than Lingering but still in the same cool tone family, because I hate to use warm toned shades on my brows. I love the soft look it gives on my brows for an everyday use!

China Glaze Merry Berry and Champagne Kisses
I got these 2 shades from the new China Glaze Joy Holiday collection through Ebay. Merry Berry is a gorgeous and very sophisticated dark berry shade with a cream finish, a perfect shade for fall and winter!
Champagne Kisses, which I showed you in my Christmas NOTD here, is a rose gold glitter nail polish, very festive, very Christmassy, I love it!!



So that was my Christmas Haul, I hope you liked it! Have you try any of these products? 
What did you get for Christmas? Let me know!

Sophia
xoxo

Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas NOTD: OPI Wocka Wocka! & China Glaze Champagne Kisses


It's Christmas Eve and I wanted to post a festive NOTD, so I choose red and gold! OPI Wocka Wocka! was released last year with OPI's holiday collection, The Muppets. It's a gorgeous deep blue-toned red with fine gold shimmers and in my opinion one of the best reds I've ever tried!
And to make my nails look more festive today I chose a gold glitter for my ring finger, China Glaze's Champagne Kisses. I got this one last week, it's from the new China Glaze Holiday Joy collection, it's a stunning champagne gold glitter polish, almost rose gold, with very fine milled glitters, you only need two coats with this one!


What's your festive nail polish for the Christmas?  Let me know!
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your friends and family!

Sophia
xoxo

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Sephora Jumbo Liner 12HR Wear Waterproof Review


I've been wanting to review my collection of Sephora Jumbo pencils for a while now, and I don't know why I waited that long to do it! I've been collecting them since last year, I only own 4 shades but I really wanna try some new ones in the future, they're quite fun to use!

05 Beige


 06 Copper


 04 Taupe


 15 Purple



Colors
05 Beige: A shimmery light champagne shade, perfect to be used as a base to any shimmery powder eyeshadow, also great for the inner part of the eyes towards the nose, to make them pop!

 06 Copper: A shimmery bronze-copper shade, in my opinion the perfect summer shade to use alone all over the lids with some mascara.

04 Taupe: A metallic grey taupe shade, also a great shade to use alone all over the lids, perfect for cool toned eye looks.

15 Purple: A rich shimmery eggplant purple shade, highly pigmented, it can be used alone at the outer half of the lids, also it can be used as a base for any purple eyeshadow to intensify it.

from L-R: 15 Purple, 04 Taupe, 06 Copper, 05 Beige



Price
In Greece they cost 9.9 euros each, and you can find them only at Sephora Stores.



Pros
-The packaging is very simple and sleek, like a high end brand!
- The texture is definitely a winner, they're super creamy and smooth, very easy to apply.
-They are very longlasting, they last at least 6 to 8 hours without smudging. I still haven't test them for 12 hours alone without an eye primer, but if you do wear an eye primer they could definitely last for more than 12 hours!
-They're very pigmented, especially the darker shades. 
-They have over 20 shades to choose from.
- They're cheap! It's exactly the same product with Make Up Forever's Aqua Shadow Pencils and Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide On Shadow Pencils but for half the price!



Cons
The only bad thing I could find, which basically it's not bad, it's the fact that once you apply it on the lids it dries quickly. And that's the issue with any waterproof eyeshadow or eyepencil, the only thing you can do is  to be quick when you're blending it.



Rating: 10/10
Yes for me it's a perfect ten! A very high quality product for only a few euros, what more can I ask?


Have you try the Sephora Jumbo Liners yet? Let me know!

Sophia
xoxo

Thursday, December 13, 2012

NOTD: OPI Tomorrow Never Dies

It's been such a long time since I did a NOTD post, and that's because I didn't paint my nails for a long time  for some weird reason, I did a small break, but now that I got  few new nail varnishes I decided to start posting again. 

I recently bought two shades from the new OPI Skyfall collection, this time I'm showing you Tommorow Never Dies. I have to admit that it's not one of my favorite Bond movies, but it has a great theme song!


Tomorrow Never Dies is a unique metallic deep blue purple shade. I love that the color changes depending on how the light catches it, sometimes it looks more blue other times it looks more purple, this picture was taken with natural light. 
The formula for this varnish is amazing, very smooth and glossy, OPI never disappoints me!



Have you picked up any color from the Skyfall collection? Do you like Tomorrow Never Dies? Let me know!

Sophia
xoxo

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

November Favorites.

 I still can't believe November is over , I can't even get into a Christmas mood, mainly because of the weather! This is my last favorites post for this year, since I'm not going to do one for December, instead I'm going to write a post about my 2012 favorites.

But for now let's get into my November favorites!


Vera Wang Princess Perfume
I got this perfume in July but I start using it within October. I adore this perfume, it's so me! I know this is not a proper description of the perfume, but it's so hard for me to find just the right one that it's not too heavy and at the same time not too light, this one is something in between, more on the light side but still it's not unnoticeable. I'm not good at describing scents but this one is something between a floral and a fruity one. It's the perfect everyday scent in my opinion!

The Body Shop Vanilla Body Lotion
This scent to me screams Christmas! I remember when I was a little girl going into a Body Shop store and smelling all these gorgeous Christmas fragrance and body sets they had, the Vanilla ones have always been my favorites. It has such a warm vanilla scent, not sickening at all, with a moisturizing texture, not too heavy like the body butters. I'm not so sure if they discontinued it because I haven't been in a Body Shop store for a few months, but they don't have it in their website and that makes me very sad!


Mac Ladyblush Cremeblend Blush
This is the only cream blush I own, I used to love cream blushes when  was younger but not anymore. I got Ladyblush last year and I barely used it, but now I started applying with a brush instead of fingers, Sephora's Mineral Powder brush, and I saw a huge difference, it looks way better and the blending job is much more easy with the brush. I loved it so much that the whole month I only used this blush!


Revlon Peach Parfait Lip Butter
I just start using the two Lip Butters I got a few months ago, and I'm really impressed. Peach Parfait is a soft peachy pink with some glitter particles, which are not gritty at all. The texture is very smooth and glossy, Peach Parfait is more glossy than the Berry Smoothie though. For their price they're excellent, but they still can't beat my beloved Dior Addict lipsticks!

Mac Patisserie lipstick
Patisserie is my favorite from all the Mac lipsticks I've tried and I've tried lots of them. The perfect winter nude for me, although it's not the typical nude, because it's a tone darker and it has more brown undertones. I can't stand most of the nude lipsticks, they wash me out and make me look like I'm sick.


Seventeen Super Smooth Waterproof Pencil 06 Pearly Bark
The best and I mean the best matte dark brown eye pencil I've tried so far, and Seventeen had to discontinued it! I love the Seventeen Super Smooth eye pencils, they're so easy to apply and they stay forever! I recently found out that Seventeen makes the exact same shade in a retractable pencil, it's called Twist Eyeliner, I'm going to buy one in the future for sure!

Erre Due Silky Lip Pencil 61
This is a very smooth and creamy lip pencil, that's what I love in a lip pencil because I have sensitive lips and I hate harsh lip pencils. The shade is a light brownish orangy nude, I pair it with beige-pink and darker nude lipsticks. This is my go to winter lip liner.


I didn't have many beauty favorites this month, because pretty much I was using the same stuff that I used the previous two months. 




 Non Beauty Favorites
 
 
Oh yes, this poster is definitely an eye candy for the ladies! But besides the poster, Arrow is propably my favorite new TV show for this year. The show is about the origin story of Green Arrow, for those who used to watch Smallville they propably already  know this character. I'm watching more new TV shows, and I like some of them but for now Arrow is my favorite.



I've been listening to Taylor Swift's Red album every single day the past month, and it's really strange for me since I was never into Taylor Swift's songs before, I'm not a teenager I'm in my late 20s. The songs I like the most are, I Knew You Were Trouble, I Almost Do, Starlight, We Are Never  Ever Getting Back Together and the one I love the most is 22, I can't stop listening to this song!



Scent of the month, and propably for the whole month of December, is Yankee Candle's Christmas Cookie. It's such a delicious vanilla and sugary scent, perfect for Christmas!



Well that's all for my November favorites, I hope you liked them.
Let me know what are your beauty and non beauty favorites!

Sophia
xoxo