July Collective Haul - Part 1 (Real Techniques, Benefit, China Glaze)

I've been hauling a lot this month, I still do please don't judge me, for some reason I want to try a lot of new things especially for my face make up and skincare. At this post I'm gonna show you half of the stuff I got a few weeks ago, and I'm gonna do another one next week about the newest stuff I got recently.

I have to start with the big order I did from iHerb, I got lots of Real Techniques brushes for the face, mostly because my skin started to react to most of my brushes in my collection and since Real Techniques brushes are synthetic I thought that it would be a good opportunity to try most of them, this is something that I wanted to do for almost a year now. I got the Core collection, the powder brush, the blush brush, the stippling brush and the setting brush. I've tried all of them and I have to say that they're amazingly soft, my absolute favorite so far is the Blush brush, I use it for my bronzer because it has the perfect shape! Also I've been loving a lot the setting brush, which is really good for applying concealer under my eyes and around my nose, and also applying highlighter on my cheekbones. I really want to try and experiment with them more and see which are the ones that I love the most.

A few weeks ago Sephora I got this Benefit How To Look The Best At Everything make up kit with 40% off, which I think that was such an awesome discount. I got the kit in medium and it includes the famous Porefessional face primer, the Hello Flawless Oxygen WOW Brightening make up in Honey, two shades of the Boi-ing concealer in 02 and 03 and the Hello Flawless powder foundation in the shade Honey, all the products of course are in a mini size. I've been testing them out for a few weeks and besides the powder foundation which I already love and I've mentioned it countless times in my blog, Porefessional is the one product that I enjoyed using the most from this set, it's an a amazing primer and I want to test it out with the rest of my foundations too besides the Hello Flawless, and see how it performs. I'm still not sure if I like the Hello Flawless Oxygen liquid foundation, I love the shade it's the perfect match for my skintone (NC25), but it gets really oily after two hours and it transfers a lot, I'm not sure if this is happening because the weather here is being super hot and humid, but I really want to test it out on a colder weather too, maybe I'll like it more then. The Boi-ing concealer is really good, it reminds me a lot of the Mac Studio Finish concealer, a little less creamier though. The shade 03 is really similar to my Studio Finish in NW25, but Boi-ing performs way better as a face concealer, on blemishes and scars, it stays on longer.

Lastly I got from Ebay two polsihes from the China Glaze Summer 2013 Sunsational collection, Shell-O (left) and You Drive Me Coconuts (right). I love neons for summertime, actually I only wear neons on my toes for the whole summer. These two are jellies, which are more sheer than the usual cream textured neons, but most of the times I end up hating cream neons because they create lots of streaks. Shell-O is a beautiful coral pink shade and Drive Me Coconuts is a bright pink with purple undertones. Actually Drive Me Coconuts is the one that I love the most and that surprised me because I'm more of a coral person, but the texture is way beter than Shell-O's, is not as sheer, and the purple undertones matches really good with my skintone.

I hope you liked my haul post, there are more to come in a new post! Until then tell me, have you tried any of these products? Do you like them?

Oh and one more thing, if you want to make an order from iHerb for Real Techniques brushes and more,  you can use this gift code, TDZ975, and you will receive $10 off your first order of $40 or more, or you can take $5 off if your order is less than $40.

Summer Essentials Part 1 - For Skin, Body and Hair

Hello my lovelies, I hope you're having a great summer so far! And speaking of summer, I thought I would share with you my beauty summer essentials. I know I should have done this post earlier, but hey it's still summer, it's never too late.This first post is going to be all about my skin, body and hair products that I use the most at summertime, and the next one will be all about my make up summer essentials. So let's start!

Face

Now that it's summer our skin tends to become more dry and dehydrated from the sun and the salt water, so it constantly needs to be hydrated. It's very important to use a sunscreen that is right for your skintype, here I chose a lightweight sunscreen, the Korres Sunscreen Face Cream Yoghurt Extreme Fluid SPF30, which is perfect for combination and oily skintypes, and the yoghurt hydrates your skin really well, after you apply it you can feel your cheeks very refreshed. I love the Korres Yoghurt Sunscreen line, the one for normal skintypes is also one of my faves whenever I feel that my skin needs more hydration. You always have to be sure that your sunscreen protects you from both UVA and UVB rays.

A good moisturizer is also very important for the nightime, the Garnier Moisture Match for normal skintypes is very good, I love using it at nightime because it can be a little to heavy underneath make up. It really helps with my dry cheeks a lot, plus is very affordable, and you can find it almost anywhere.

A thermal water spray is a summer essential of mine for years now, whenever I feel my skin dehydrated throught the day I always spritz a little bit of this on my face, and it instantly feels refreshed and hydrated. Avene's Eau Thermal Thermal Spring Water is the best one out there, and I've tried lots of them. It also helps with skin irritations from the sun.

 

 

Body

Sometimes we forget to moisturize our body along with our face, but hydrating your body is also very important. I really like exotic scents at summertime, one of the best exotic scents in my opinion is The Body Shop's Coconut Body Butter, which is super moisturizing it smells like suntan lotion and summer!

One more product that I love using now is a body oil, Garnier's Beauty Oil is one of the best I've tried. I used to use plain baby oil on my legs after shaving, but it was too thick and it was impossible to sink into my skin. Garnier's is like a dry oil, I use it on wet legs and my skin instantly absorbs it, and it smells amazing! If you like body oils you should try it.

 Here in Greece, the sun is super hot and dangerous, a body sunscreen shouldn't just be used whenever we are on the beach or the pool but also while we are outside in the city, the same way we protect our face we should protect our body too, especially when we're wearing shorts and short skirts because our skin is exposed to the sun. Since I'm very white at the moment (my body is a lot paler than my face which I don't understand), I always use a sunscreen on my body with SPF50, the Garnier Sensitive Advanced SPF50 is really good, and absorbs really quick, which is rare for a lotion with an SPF50, most of them are very sticky and whitish. After I get a little more tanned I like to switch to an SPF30 one, the Piz Buin Wet Skin is their new range of sunscreens and they are supposed to be used on wet skin, which makes the sunscreen absorbs really quick and it doesn't feel sticky at all. I'm quite impressed with this one, is the perfect sunscreen to use whenever you're at the beach or the pool.

And here's a product that I can't live without, Apivita's Moisturizing and Cooling After Sun Cream Gel, and if you remember from last year I've already done a post about it here. It's my absolute love, I will never switch to another after sun lotion, ever. It's the best product to use when you have skin irritations from the sun, even the bad ones. Please try it if you can, you won't regret it!

Hair

And now it's time for the hair. Sun and salt water is hair's worst enemy, especially if they're already dry and damaged. I personally noticed a huge change on my hair and scalp the past few months, they switched from oily to dry, and I'm trying a whole lot of different products to keep them hydrated, I also let them air dry a lot which is rare for me because I'm not particular a fan of my natural curly hair but that's OK, it's summertime and I don't care that much.  A hydrating hair mask is very important, a favorite of mine is Herbal Essence's Hell Hydration Hair Mask, it leaves my hair really soft and hydrated, and even though it's a drugstore hair mask is a lot better than many others from salon brands. And you cannot beat the smell, OMG it smells so coconutty and exotic, it feels like you're on holiday everytime you're in the shower!

 

I always use a hair oil after I wash them, and my choice is Sunsilk's Nourishing Oil Spray with Moroccan, Argan and Almond Oils. It's seriously one of the best hair oils I've ever tried on my hair, it leaves them syper smooth, and since it's in a spray bottle I can take it with me at the beach to use it as a detangler.

And as for styling products, since I don't blow dry or use a flat iron to straighten my hair, I need to use something to enchance my natural curls,  last summer I got the L'oreal Professionnel's Play Ball Beach Fizz and I haven't regret it, even though it's a little on the expensive side, it's the best sea salt spray I've ever tried, way better than Bumble & Bumble's which I absolutely hated! It never left my hair dry, and it creates the best cute beachy type of curls, I couldn't ask for more. Sometimes I use a curl cream from Sunsilk before I use the sea salt spray, and the results are even better!

I hope you liked the first part of my summer essentials and really soon I'll post my make up essentials for the summer too. Until then, let me know what are your summer essentials for your skin, body and hair.

L'oreal Mega Volume Collagene 24H Mascara Review.

It was about time to write a review about my absolute HG mascara, I didn't review it the first time  I bought it last year, but I'm going to do it now. I have to say that L'oreal mascaras really impressed me this past year, they have the best drugstore mascaras, and they're even better than lots of high end ones.

Brush - Texture

The Mega Volume comes with a typical mascara brush, not a plastic one, which is good because I don't like plastic mascara brushes anyway, so that's a bonus for me. It's kind on the big side, but not extremely huge, like the ones that can poke your eyes and cause a mess on your lids everytime you try to apply even one coat of it. The bristles are not very dense, you can see there are gaps between them, and that helps a lot with defining the lashes, and the best part is that it doesn't clump, at all. 

The texture is what I love the most about this mascara. It has a very soft texture like a mousse, it reminds me of the Maybelline Mega Plush mascara, not as soft as the Maybelline but close enough, and the old but discontinued here Maybelline Full n' Soft. I can wear it for hours and hours and not make my eyes hurt or make them watery, which is my main problem with mascaras, I can't stand heavy mascaras, they make my sensitive eyes watery and after a few hours they hurt. One more thing that I noticed is that with this mascara I can use a second coat, while with others I can't do it because their formula is too hard and I find it difficult to add a second coat, with the Mega Volume I don't have that problem. It's not a waterproof mascara but still it doesn't smudge on my lower lashlines, even now that is summertime.

Application 

This mascara is mostly a volumizing one, even though I can see that it adds some length on my lashes as well.  Here's a picture so you can see the results:

It definitely adds volume to my lashes and holds a curl, these are the two things that I look in a mascara! Also it's very easy to remove, I only use one cotton pad while with other mascaras I need 2 cotton pads for each eye.

Price

Here in Greece, it costs 18 euros, which is not that cheap, especially for a drugstore mascara. I got mine with a 3 euros off coupon, but even if I didn't have the coupon I'd still buy it anyway because I love it so much! You can find it at Hondos Center stores, Sephora, etc.

Pros

- It adds lots of volume on the lashes.

 

-It has a very soft texture that doesn't make my eyes hurt even after many hours of wearing it.

-It does hold a curl.

 

-It doesn't smudge throught the day.

-It's very easy to remove it.

Cons

-The price, it's somehow expensive to be a drugstore mascara.

Rating: 9/10

I would give this mascara a ten to ten if it wasn't for the price, but overall in my opinion the L'oreal Mega Vollume Collagene 24H mascara is the best drugstore volumizing mascara out there. I don't have to say a lot, besides that I absolutely love it!

I'm very curious to know if any of you have tried this mascara, because it's not very popular in the beauty blogger community. I want to know if you like it as much as I do!

 

Soap & Glory and Rimmel Giveaway Winner.

The winner for my Soap & Glory and Rimmel Giveaway is.......

Vicky Kemerli

I've already contacted with the winner, if she doesn't respond within 48 hours I will pick another winner.

I want to thank everyone who entered my giveaway. There will be more in the future for sure!

 

What's In My Makeup Bag.

Happy Monday everyone! I wanted to do a "what's in my makeup bag" post for so long, but I was afraid that you're going to find it boring, since I don't carry a lot with me whenever I go out, but since everyone has done a post like this, I said why not? Keep in mind that these are only the things I carry with me in my handbag, and not my makeup of the day, things that I know I will need the most in case I want to touch up my make up, and some other essentials.

 I got this makeup bag last summer from H&M and I'm completely in love with it. I love the black and white design, it's super soft and I can put a lot of stuff in there.

I'll start with the things I use to touch up my face make up. My number one essential, Mac Blot Powder, that stuff is my savior, I use it for over 4 years now and I always carry it around with me, I still haven't found a better powder for my oily skin! What I always like to carry with me is a blush, I don't know why but my blush always dissapears off my skin within a few hours, especially at summertime. Here I have Mac's Nuance Mineralize Blush, it's a beautiful peachy bronze shade with golden sheen, so you don't need to wear a seperate highlighter with this one, the perfect blush for summer.

Lastly a blush brush is very essential, I carry with me Stila's #24 Double Sided Powder brush, because it's the only short handled blush brush I own. Even though it's a very old brush (Stila doesn't make this anymore), it's still smooth as a baby's butt! This is the most expensive brush I own, I paid 55 euros back in 2005 for this baby, it's like I'm carrying something really precious with me!

As for my lips, most of the times I like to carry a lot of lipsticks with me, sometimes even three, but now I'm OK with only one from Dior, my beloved Dior Addict in Delice, a beautiful coral shade with glossy finish. I also carry a mini lipgloss, even though I don't wear lipglosses that often, Benefit's Coralista is one of my favorites, the texture is like a balm, and it's in a mini size which is perfect to carry around.

I love when I find perfumes in mini sizes, because that means you can bring your perfume in your bag without taking a whole 50ml bottle of it, which are also pretty heavy. This one is the Escada Cherry In The Air, which came as a gift with purchase when my mother bought me the full size as a birthday gift a few weeks ago. I love the scent, it's very fresh and fruity.

And here are the rest of my essentials, that I always have to carry around with me. Of course a hand sanitizer, who doesn't need a hand sanitizer with him? It's the number one essential! Eye drops, because my allergies are killing me every single summer, and I end up with red eyes all the time. A mini hand cream, Nivea's Soft, which is my HG hand and body cream, the texture is light yet still moisturizing, and the smell reminds me of summertime, since I was a child. A lip balm, right now I'm loving Nivea's Caramel Cream Lip Butter, it has a delicious caramel taste. And lastly Sephora Blotting Papers, which I cannot live without, I use them all the time before I use my Mac Blot powder, and it works like magic, keeps my oiliness away for a long time.

So these are all the stuff I have in my makeup bag, I hope I didn't bore you that much. I know some girls like to carry around with them more makeup stuff, but I don't see the point in this since I don't go out for many hours and my makeup lasts for all this time I'm out.

What's in your makeup bag?? I'm curious to know!

June Favorites.

Apparently I must be the last person to post my monthly favorites this time, I'm sorry I know, I've been so lazy the past few days, it must be the summer's heat.

I'm so happy that this time in my monthly favorites post I can show you some new stuff that I've been really enjoying using these past few weeks!

Revlon Nearly Naked foundation + powder

I got these two a little over a month ago when I was in London, and I've been loving them since. The foundation is very lightweight, with sheer to medium coverage, which i think it's perfect for summertime. It can be a little oily sometimes, especially now that it's summer and here in Greece it's super hot, it gets oily mostly around my nose and chin, but I always blot with a powder or blotting papers. I'm pretty sure a primer would help but I don't own any primers right now, it's something I really want to invest to in the near future. The powder really compliments the foundation, it gives a really beautiful dewy look, I love that it makes my cheeks look flawless. The best part is that the powder is a little darker than the foundation and more beige toned, which neutralizes the yellow shade of the foundation.

Benefit Hello Flawless powder

Last summer this powder foundation was the only thing I was using the whole time, and as you can see I'm almost done, but I got a back up last fall while it was on sale. Now whenever it's super hot and I can't stand anything on my face, I skip the Revlon Nearly Naked foundation and I only wear this with some concealer underneath. It provides amazing coverage, it's super easy to use, I apply it with ELF's Powder Brush, which is a flat top kabuki brush but not with synthetic hair, this powder doesn't apply well when you do it with a synthetic brush. I only wish I had the next-darker shade, just because I find this shade to be a little too light and yellow for me right now, this one is in the shade Champagne.

Benefit Dallas

Dallas is a versalite face powder, it can be used  as a bronzer and as a blush. Right now I've been using it as a bronzer, it's not my favorite bronzer but it looks good, I really like the soft texture it has. I prefer my bronzers to have strong brown undertones, they look better with my skintone, Dallas has more of a plum-rose undertone, and that's what makes it good as a bronzer and as a blush too.

Benefit Coralista

I got Coralista in a mini size as a part of the Go TropiCoral make up set last summer, and I haven't used it that much, just because it's too sheer, for some weird reason Coralista doesn't show up on my cheeks at all, and I'm only a NC25. But I tried to layer it on top of other peachy blushes and it works really good, it adds a very beautiful peachy sheen to them, so that's why I have been using it as a subtle highlighter. Plus it has an amazing smell, very fruity, like mangoes.

Artdeco Blusher in #05

A true peachy blush in summer for me it's an essential! One of the best peachy blushes I've tried is Artdeco's 05, it has an orange-peachy shade with matte texture and it costs only 7 euros, what more could I ask? I don't know if it's in their permanent line because I got it last summer with their summer collection, but if you can find it, grab it!

Here are swatches for all three products:

from left to right: Benefit Dallas, Artdeco #05, Benefit Coralista

Benefit Coralista Ultra Plush lipgloss

I have the mini size of this lipgloss, I also got this in the Go TropiCoral make up set. For almost a year I rarely wear lipglosses, I like glossy balms, glossy lipsticks but glosses....no, not so much. But this one is just perfect, it's like a balm, super smooth on the lips and not sticky at all. I love using it under bright lipsticks to make them look more sheer, the shade is a very sheer coral one. I'm really considering trying more of their Ultra Plush glosses in the future, especially Hoola.

L'oreal Glam Shine Balmy Gloss in 910 Bite The Maracuja

I got this a few weeks ago, and it's already been my HG lip product for this summer. It's an orangey-coral, glossy-balmy lipstick (I hope I didn't confuse you with this description) with some gold glitters. The shade it's perfect for summertime, and it's super easy to use. 

Here are swatches of both:

from left to right: Benefit Coralista, L'oreal Balmy Gloss in 910 Bite The Maracuja

Sunsilk Nourishing Oil Spray with Moroccan, Argan and Almond Oils

This is propably the one product that I enjoyed using the most this month, and I'm still loving it. It's a duo-phase hair oil and conditioner, I'm using it right before I comb my hair as a detangler, and then I do a few more spritzes all over the hair and using it as I do with a hair oil. It makes my hair incredibly soft, and helps with the whole process of blow drying. If it's available to you, because I know Sunsilk is not available in many countries, please try it!

Non Beauty Favorites

Even though Awkward is a teen TV series, for some weird reason (as if I don't watch Teen Wolf already) I was hooked on this show. I started watching at the beginning of June, and within 2 weeks I watched all 3 seasons. I really like it, it's funny and I think it's a really good choice for the summer. But now I have to wait until next summer for the fourth season.

And for my music choice this month, I've been loving Rihanna's Unapologetic album. I know this album was out in November, but I just started listening it to it, and I'm so hooked, propably my HG album for this year, along with Justin Timberlake's the 20/20 Experience. My favorites songs are: Loveeeeeee Song , Nobody's Business, Get It Over With and Jump.

So these were my beauty and non beauty favorites for June. What were your favorites? Beauty and non beauty related. I wanna know!

Soap & Glory and Rimmel Giveaway (Greece only)

When I went to London last month, I decided to pick up a few beauty goodies to do a giveaway just for my Greek subscribers, just because we can't find these brands here in Greece. I picked up a few things from Rimmel and Soap & Glory, so let's see what the winner gets:

-Soap & Glory Hand Food in mini size

-Soap & Glory Flake Away Body Scrub in mini size

-Rimmel Scandal Eyes EyeShadow Stick in Bad Girl Bronze

-Rimmel Scandal Eyes Waterproof Khol Kajal in Nude

-Rimmel 60 Seconds nail varnish in InStyle Coral

 
I wanted to get you a few mini sizes from Soap & Glory's best seller products, the Hand Food hand cream and the Flake Away body scrub, to try out. From Rimmel I really wanted you to try the amazing Nude Scandal Eyes khol for the waterline (I also got one for myself), one of their new Scandal Eyes eyeshadow stick in a bronze shade, which you can wear all over the lids and the bronze shade makes it perfect for summertime. And lastly a nail varnish, since Rimmel has such a gorgeous color selection in their nail varnishes I picked up a beautiful coral shade which I'm sure everybody loves to wear now that it's summer.

So the rules for the giveaway are simple:

1. You have to live in Greece

2. There are two mandatory entries, as you can see in the Rafflecopter form below, first you have to follow my blog on Bloglovin and second follow my blog via GFC.

3. You have to be 18 years old or older, or have your parents/guardians permission as I will need your address to send the prize.

The giveaway will end on July 15th. The winner will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to respond. If no response is received, the prize will be passed along to another entry.

  

 How to enter

It’s very simple, just fill in the Rafflecopter form below, and you can get some extra entries too!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
Good Luck!