NOTD: Color Club Tangerine Scream

Happy Friday to you all!!! For my nails I decided to use an old favorite, Color Club's Tangerine Scream, which was released with the Electro Candy collection back in the summer of 2009.

Tangerine Scream is a soft neon orange with shimmers, I'm not sure what color of shimmers are exactly, it depends on how you look at the bottle but I can see silver, white and some green also. Even though it doesn't look like a neon shade it is, it get's brighter in direct sunlight. I absolutely love it, the only problem I have with this varnish is that it is very sheer, I used 3 coats of this and it's still sheer. Unfortunately all the shades from this collection were  limited edition. Please excuse my bad cuticles, I have to get a good cuticle cream ASAP!

Collective Haul (Benefit, Sephora)

This is a collective haul I did the past 2 weeks, I got all of these stuff with really good discounts. Sephora here had different promos at different days and I took the chance to get some make up stuff that I really wanted for quite some time now. I got the Benefit mascara 50% off and the rest of the Benefit stuff 40% off, and the ones from the Sephora brand 30% off ( because I had a coupon). Here's what I got:

• Benefit Hello Flawless powder foundation in "Me Vain?" Champagne
• Benefit Dallas blush
• Benefit They're Real mascara
• Sephora Mineral powder brush
• Sephora Waterproof eye make up remover

Benefit Hello Flawless is a powder foundation that I wanted to buy for a long time. I'm mostly a liquid foundation person but this summer I wanted to try a powder foundation, since I had bad luck with tinted moisturizers that I've tried the past summers and I cannot wear a liquid foundation with such warm weather, it seriously melts and transfers everywhere on my face, so a powder foundation was my last choice. I wasn't sure what powder foundation to buy, I didn't want to pay a lot since I am very prone to breakouts and I didn't want to choose a really expensive one and not being able to use it at all, so I decided to choose Mac's Studio Fix but I when saw that Sephora promo I changed my mind.

I chose the shade "Me Vain?" Champagne and I have to say it's an amazing match for my NC25 skintone. I love the square compact, it has two layers, the first one is the powder and the second one is for the sponge and the brush it comes with. Now for the powder itself, I've already used it twice and I'm really and I mean really impressed!! It gives an amazing coverage without being cakey, it melts on the skin like a liquid foundation. I have oily skin but I have some dry patches and I was afraid that this powder would made my dry patches really visible but that didn't happen with this one. The thing that really impressed me the most was how long lasting it is even with really warm weather. Both of the times I've used it, the temperature was 30C, but this powder managed to stay on my face for more than 5 hours without transfering around my nose or my chin.

This is not a full review for the powder foundation since I've only used it twice but it's my first impression, and I'm really pleased with it! My only complaint is that it costs 34 euros and it contains only 7 gr of product, while Mac's Studio Fix I think it costs around 30 euros for 15 gr of product. It's a very expensive powder foundation!

Benefit Dallas blush, or face powder, I'm not so sure how exactly to call these Benefit powder boxes, is a bronzed plummish/rose blush that it can be also used as a bronzer. I was between this and Hoola bronzer but I chose this one since I can use it alone as a blush and bronzer together, and I have to say it's really pretty. It contains shimmers but they're not visible on my face, it just gives a soft sheen on my cheeks. Very pretty summery color, especially for warm skintones! Expensive blush, but it contains 9 gr, more than other blushes like Mac's for example.

The Sephora Mineral Powder brush is a brush that I wanted to buy for a long time but it was always sold out everytime I was in a Sephora store. I went to two Sephora stores to find it but they didn't have it, so I waited and went to a different one and they had only 2 of them left! I can understand why they were always out of stock because it's a really good brush!! It's a small dense round kabuki type of brush without being too dense like Sigma's flat top kabuki brush. I've already used it with both liquid and powder foundations, and I like it with both. It gives almost the same results with the Sigma's F80 brush, maybe with a little less coverage at liquid foundations, maybe because it isn't a flat top kabuki but a round one, but nevertheless I love it!!

Benefit They're Real mascara is a mascara that wanted to try since the day it was first released but I couldn't find a good promo to buy it, but with the 50% off it was a really good chance! But I haven't opened it yet, since Im already using my new Clinique High Impact mascara and I keep my mascaras only for 3 months before I toss them out. So I can't give you my first impressions about this product yet.

And lastly I got a back up of Sephora's Waterproof eye makeup remover. I find it to be a really good eye makeup remover, it doesn't take too long to remove my mascara. Some people find it to be too oily, but I don't mind being oily, even though the most oily eye makeup remover I've tried was Clinique's Take the Day Off  for eyes.

So tell me have you tried any of these products? Do you like them? And for my Greek followers, did you buy anything from the Sephora promos??

May Favorites

Well June is already here, finally!!!! Because May wasn't a particular warm month here and that was strange, because every year May is really warm. Anyway these are some of the products I really enjoyed using this month:

For make up items, two of the eyeshadows that I used a lot this month and not only this month but they're generally my favourites eyeshadows are Mac Arena and Time & Space, Arena is a satin light peachy shade great for all over the lids and Time & Space is a medium bronze brown shade, it was realeased with Neo Sci Fi collection back in 2008 but is very similar to Woodwinked from the regular line.

Mac Springsheen is a blush that I used a lot in May, and I don't know why because is a shade that when I first got it I didn't really like, but I decided to give it a second chance and I changed my mind, I think it's a pretty peachy pink blush, I only wish it had less golden shimmers but that's OK for summertime.

And a very plain but useful product that really helped me this month is Korres white soft eye pencil for my waterline. The whole May and still now I suffer from eye allergies and redness and the white pencil make my eyes look more bright.

And something for my lips, is the classic blue Liposan, or Nivea or Labello in other countries. I use it every single day but I wanted to include it in my monthly favorites not just for May but for every month. I've tried lots of lip balms but this one works the best for my lips.

For hair care items, and it's the first time that I mention hair products in my monthly favorites, are two of the products that completely changed my hair routine, John Frieda Frizz Ease Extra Strength Hair Serum and Dove Intense Repair hair mask-conditioner. The John Frieda serum is an amazing product to use just before blow dry your hair, it straightens my hair really quick with no frizz at all, this is the second tube I use from this stuff and it's almost over, I'm going to buy a new one very soon. The Dove Intense Repair mask-conditioner is a treatment and a conditoner in one. I've tried lots and lots of hair conditioners but this one is by far the best one that I've tried. It makes my hair so soft and for some reason it works amazingly good when it's combined with the John Frieda serum.

For skincare, La Roche Posay Cicaplast was a savior this past month! I didn't use any moisturizer on my face besides the Cicaplast on certain areas, it really helped with dry areas on my face, especially on my cheekbones and nose, which peeled like crazy.

And for my most used fragance this month is Escada Taj Sunset. I just love this fragrance so much. I bought it last summer, it was limited edition as is every summer Escada fragrance, and I was using it every single day, it's the perfect fruity summer fragrance, too bad it's almost over and this year Escada decided to re-promote old summer fragrances but not this one!

So tell me, have you tried any of these products? Do you like them?

NOTD: Essie Short Shorts

In a neon mood for the past 2 weeks, now I decided to use a pretty hot neon pink shade for my nails, Essie Short Shorts. It was released with Essie's Neon Shorts collection back in 2008, and I remember I was using it like crazy that summer. The formula is still amazing, it's like I've just purchased it, so smooth, no sticky at all.

Essie's neons have a different formula than other neons that I've tried like China Glaze, Misa and Color Club, they're not thick at all, they're runny and applying without streaks. But because of their different formula they do not look as bright as other neons, but they're still bright! The pictures I took are in daylight.

Do you like wearing neon shades on your nails at summertime? Let me know!