July & August Favorites.

This year like the previous one I decided not to post my July favorites and post together my July and August favorite products in one post, just because at summertime I don't usually wear make up that often and also because the whole July I was experimenting with some new products that I got. I think now it's the perfect time to show you what I enjoyed the most this summer. Sorry in advance because this post contains too many pictures!

Frezyderm Face Foundation PF30 

 I've talked a lot about this foundation in my blog for more than a month, I really really like it! It's a foundation and a sunscreen in one, which is very convient because I didn't have to use 2 different products on my face. It's also good for oily skintypes and it stays on for hours!

  Benefit Boi-ing Concealer

This concealer really saved me the past moht because I had some bad skin days and I broke out a lot around my chin. This concealer is actually one of the best I've tried for covering pimples and redness! The shade #3 is the best for my skintone ( NC25) but under my eyes the #2 looks better, sometimes I like to mix both shades.

Seventeen Cafe Au Lait Matte Blusher

I've talked about this blush like a million times, I switched from a traditional bronzer to this and I'm very happy, it gives to my face a beautiful warm tanned look. I'm pretty sure I'll continue using this for the next few months a lot!

Essence Secret It-Girl Silky Touch Blush

This blush is the only I've been using for a little over a month, it's beautiful, pigmented, matte and peachy, what more could I ask? Propably one of the best peachy blushes that can be found in the drugstore, and it's so cheap!

Essence Dreaming Under a Cherry Tree quad

I didn't use much for my eye make this whole time besides a mascara, bust sometimes whenever I was feeling the need to use a little more color on my lids I used the peachy and the coral shade from this Essence palette. this palette was released with the Cherry Blossom Girl collection last fall, too bad it was limited edition.

Mac Pleasureseeker Lipstick

 One of Mac's most beautiful peachy lipsticks and it had to be a limited edition like pretty much all of their peachy ones. It's a sheer light peachy shade perfect for the summer, with a satin finish. This is my second tube of this lipstick, I used to have the one that it was first released back in 2008 with another limited edition collection, but for some reason it gone bad really quick.

Essence I'm Sailing Lipstick
This one from Essence is a little more coral peachy than Mac's Pleasureseeker and also more pigmented and glossy. I've mentioned it a couple of times in my blog, I love it and if I had to choose only one lipstick to wear all summer it would be this one. Unfortunately it was limited edition a couple of years ago.

Bare Escentuals Buxom Lipgloss in Kate
I don't usually wear lipglosses, but because it's summer sometimes I wanted a more juicy look on my lips, this one from Bare Escentuals is just perfect, because it has a light pink tint and it's very glossy, I wore it on top of my peachy lipsticks or sometimes on its own.

Real Techniques Blush and Setting Brushes
Since I got my Real Techniques brushes I've been using them all the time, but the blush and setting brushes are the ones that I love the most. I use the blush brush to apply my bronzers, occasionally I use it for blush too but I find that it applies the blush way too light for my liking. And the setting brush is just amazing, I use it to apply powder under my eyes to set my concealer, but I also love it for appying highlighter on my cheekbones and sometimes apply concealer under my eyes. This brush is so multipurpose that I seriously consider purchasing a second one soon!

Frezyderm Moisturizing 24H Hydrating Cream
This is the only face moisturizer I've been using for more than a month day and night and I'm very happy with it. My skin has been through many changes this summer, it went from oily to super dry and flaky with break outs, and back to oily and then just to normal, and this moisturizer really helped to control the hydration on my skin. The only problem is that whenever my skin was very dry and  flaky this moisturizer wasn't enough, but it's perfect when you have normal and mixed skintype.

Nivea Soft
Such a cult beauty product, and only this summer I realised just how awesome it is. At first I was using my mother's jar to moisturize my legs and feet and now after 2 months I've gone through 2 jars, a 200 and a 300 ml one, and I've already repurchased a big one. It hydrates my body very well without feeling sticky at all, it leaves a cooling sensation on my feet which is pretty amazing because most of the lotions and creams that I apply on my feet they feel so sticky and heavy, and I can't stand them. And when my face was in a bad situation I used this cream twice and I was amazed by how good it hydrates the skin without feeling oily. Such a multipurpose cream.

Herbal Essences Bee Strong Shampoo
From all the Herbal Essences shampoo that I've tried, and I've tried like most of them, this is the best one by far. If you have normal to dry hair you will love it. The rest of the Herbal Essences shampoos that I've tried can be drying, even the ones that are targeted for dry hair, but this one never did that, it leaves my hair soft and detangled. And even if I like to switch up my shampoos very often, I will come back to this one for sure.

Sunsilk Nourishing Oil Spray
I've already talked about this hair oil a lot, I've been using it a lot all summer and I love it. It's a mix of a hair oil and a leave in conditioner in a spray bottle. It's so practical you, can carry it around with you for a quick hair fix, or travel with it or even at the beach, it leaves my hair incredibly soft.

Sunsilk Sensational Curls Leave In Cream
One of the best curl creams that I've ever tried, and if there's any of you that has curly or wavy hair you should definitely try it. It creates the most beautiful and well defined curls, even more beautiful than the ones that a curling iron gives, because they're small loose but well defined at the same time! All summer I didn't use any heat on my hair, I was just using hair oil and this curl cream. And the best part is that it's ridiculously cheap, only 2.5 euros.



I know this post is way too long but I wanted to show you all the stuff that I've been enjoying the past couple of months. I want to know if you've tried any of these products and if you like them or not. Also what were your favorite summer products? Leave me a comment.

TAG: 5 Product Make Up

So I was tagged by the lovely beauty blogger Sofia from the blog Beauty In Crisis to do this 5 product make up tag, so if I had to do my make up with only 5 products which products I'd use. Because it's summertime and we all get a bit lazy with our make up routine,it was easy for me to choose only 5 products, let's take a look at the ones I used and enjoyed the most!

It's very important for me to use some kind of base on my face, whether it's a liquid foundation or just a powder, my absolute HG face product for this summer was definitely the Frezyderm Face Foundation SPF30, which is a foundation and a sunscreen in one. It gives an amazing coverage and also protects my face from the sun. A concealer is also very important to me, actually it's even more than a foundation, because if I have a good skin day I just pop some concealer on my face a little bit of powder and I'm done. I chose the Benefit  Boi-ing concealer and not one of the others I have in my make up collection because it provides amazing coverage for my face and not just for under my eyes, it's propably the only concealer that covers so well my imperfections such as redness, spots and scars, so if I had to chose only one concealer it had to be this one!
 A bronzer it's an essential whether it's winter or summer, and because I had to choose only 5 products for this tag I decided to skip the peachy blush and just go for a brown blush that can be used as a bronzer. My HG is Seventeen's Cafe Au Lait blusher, it gives to my face the warmth it needs so I won't look like a ghost.
As for my eyes I decided to choose just a mascara, because I can go without eyeshadow and liner with no problem, I have hooded eyes and my lids have a natural brown tint so most of the times I look like I wear brown eyeshadow without even wearing one! The mascara I love the most is L'oreal's Mega Volume Collagene 24H, it makes my poor thin lashes look fuller.

And lastly for my lips it was really hard for me to choose only one lip product, but I'm 100% sure that the Essence I'm Sailing lipstick is the one that I loved the most this summer. It's peachy, quite pigmented and with a glossy finish, what more could I ask? Whenever I use this lipstick I look like I have a tan when I actually don't have one.


I hope you liked this tag post, I know that you've already seen most of these products in my previous posts but these are the ones that I love and use the most right now, and definitely the only ones I would use on a daily basis. Since I'm propably the last person to do this tag, I want to tag every single one of you to do this post if you haven't already done it, and for those who don't have a blog I want you to leave me a comment with the 5 products you would choose to do your make up.

Summer Essentials Part 2 - Make Up

I know it took me a while to do the second part of my summer essentials post, but that's because I recently changed a lot in my make up routine for this summer and I wanted to be sure of which products exactly I'd show you. These are the products I use all the time now, and I think they're pretty much what everyone likes to use when it's summertime and we're kind of lazy with our makeup routine, and do things more quick.

Face

 I've been the laziest person ever when it comes to make up lately, and I was looking for a product that would act both as a sunscreen and a foundation together, so instead of using 2 or even 3 different products on my face I decided to just stick with one, and I found this amazing product, the Frezyderm Face Foundation Sunscreen SPF30, it's the perfect combo of a sunscreen and foundation in one, I only wear this and I'm ready to go! 

As for concealer I always prefer liquid concealers in the summer because they're super easy to blend. Right now my favorite is Mac's Mineralize concealer, I use it under my eyes and around my nose or on top of any blemishes I might have and it covers them perfectly. 

And because a powder is always a necessity, the best one in my opinion that everyone must have in their make up bag is a blotting powder, because it's summer and most of the times we end up looking very greasy after a few hours. My absolute HG blotting powder for many years now is Mac's Blot Powder.

One thing that is always a must have in the summer, is a bronzer. You can use a traditional bronzer or a brown  blush, I alternate between these two, Mac's Sunny By Nature Mineralized Skinfinish and Seventeen's Matte Blusher in Cafe Au Lait. I like to use them with a big fluffy powder brush such as the Real Technique's Blush brush on my cheekbones and forehead for a more all over bronzed look. The Mac Sunny By Nature is more of a peachy toned bronzer and the Seventeen one is a straight brown shade, I love them both.

As for blushes, I think the safe choice is always a peachy one, at least I always go for the peachy ones! A blush that really impressed me the past year is the Essence Secret It-Girl, a beautiful true peachy matte blush, super cheap and also permanent. A peachy-bronze blush is also a very good choice, Mac's Nuance Mineralize Blush is one of them, and it can also be used as a highlighter because it has a beautiful golden sheen to it, unfortunately it was limited edition many years ago, but I'm pretty sure you can find a similar one.

Eyes

When it comes to eyeshadows I always go for the bronze ones, sometimes I only use one all over my lids and I'm done. You can get a beautiful premade eyeshadow palette full with neutral shades, such as the Too Faced Natural Eye palette which is the best premade eyeshadow palette I've ever used.

   Or you can make one on your own, Mac has some beautiful neutral shades in their collection. My favorite quad consists the shades Arena which is a light satin peachy shade to use all over the lids as a base, Time & Space which is a medium bronze shade perfect to use it on its own on the lids for a bronzed eye look, and it's very similar to Woodwinked. Cork, a medium matte light brown shade for the crease, to give your eyes more depth and last but not least Bronze, a beautiful dark bronze-brown shade for the outer corner.

For eyeliner, even though I rarely use it at summer, you can always go for a bronze-brown one to compliment the neutral eyeshadows. My HG is Seventeen's Brown Pearl 05 Super Smooth Waterproof pencil, it's also very long lasting and it doesn't crease even when it's super hot outside.

Lips

For lips I always go for coral and orange, the perfect shades for summer lips! Dior Addict in Delice is one of the most beautiful coral lipsticks I've ever tried so I had to include it in my summer essentials, it's very soft with a glossy-balmy texture, I could only wear this all summer! And for something less expensive and more affordable the brand new L'oreal's Glam Shine Baume Gloss in Bite The Maracuja, it's still coral but more orange than the Dior one with golden shimmers, I also love the baume texture, it's very moisturizing!

And for those who prefer to use only lip balms at summertime, Korres Mango Lip Butter is one of the best! It's a tinted lip balm, a beautiful true coral shade, and the texture is just perfect, not super glossy more on the waxy side and it makes the lips look flawless. The Korres Lip Butters have the most incredible texture of all the lip balms I've tried.

Nails

And lastly nails, how could I ever forgot nail varnishes, in my opinion it's the most fun part when it comes to summer beauty. You have so many options, so many colors to choose from, pastels, corals, reds, neons, and as you can see from the picture I always go for the neon ones! The three neon shades I enjoyed the most this summer are the China Glaze You Drive me Coconuts, a beautiful purplish pink with a jelly finish, Model's Own Pink Punch a medium coral pink shade, one thing worth mentioned for this varnish is that it has one of the best formulas I've ever tried in a neon varnish. And last but not least Nails inc. in Portobello, an orangy-coral shade with a glossy finish.

So these are my make up essentials for this summer, I hope you liked them! I want you to tell me what are your summer make up essentials. Have you tried any of the products I mentioned? Let me know!

July Collective Haul - Part 2 (Frezyderm, Mac, Essence, Seventeen, Korres, Apivita)

This is the second part of my July haul, most of the stuff I got are from drugstore brands, and even though I have them for only 1 or 2 weeks, I've been using them quite a lot and I've been really liking them, I changed a lot in my skincare and face make up routine.

Frezyderm Moisturizing 24h Cream (20+)

I was in a hunt for a moisturizer, since my Seaweed Day cream from The Body Shop finished a while ago and I was only using the Garnier Hydra Match for normal skins. My skin has been acting a little crazy for the whole summer, sometimes is very dehydrated and others is combination and oily, so the Seaweed Day Cream was too light and did nothing for moisturizing my skin and the Garnier one was too heavy for the morning time. I really have to send a special thanks to Mata from the blog bymatahari, who reminded me this moisturizer from Frezyderm, which I was using 5 years ago and I had totally forgotten about. Back then it was a little too heavy for my liking but now is just perfect! It really moisturizes my skin without being heavy and it absorbs quickly into my skin, plus it leaves my cheeks very refreshed. I've been using it for 2 weeks straight and my dehydrated cheeks and the dry patches around my mouth completely disappeared, and it hasn't broke me out.

Frezyderm Sun Screen Face Foundation SPF 30

I've been quite lazy with my face make up lately and I was needing a face product that would act both as a sunscreen and as a foundation at the same time, wearing a seperate suscreen and on top of it a regular liquid foundation was too heavy for my face, the weather has been super hot and humid and as a result my face make up is starting to melt after 2 hours. I remembered that last summer I watched a  video from the lovely Youtuber Pasxalia from pasxi1983, and she mentioned that she enjoyed using the whole summer this Sunscreen Face Foundation with SPF30 from Frezyderm, Frezyderm is a greek pharmacy brand. She mentioned that it is a medium to full coverage foundation and a sunscreen at the same time, and not a typical tinted sunscreen, so I went to my nearest Hondos store and I tested it out on my hand, and I was blown away, it is indeed a foundation with amazing coverage ,like Mac's Pro Longwear. It comes only in one shade, which is very similar to my skintone, it's beige with slightly pink undertones, very close to a Mac NC25 but with no yellow in. Actually now that I'm thinking about it the shade it's very similar to Clinique's Even Better foundation in 03 Ivory. It really surprised me that it stays on for hours without transfering, I mean this stuff doesn't move at all, even with 40 Celcius!

 One thing that I had to get used to is the texture, it's very thick not at all like a tranditional liquid foundation, and also very pigmented, you only need a small amount for you whole face, and you have to blend it really well on your hand before you apply it. I still haven't attempt to apply it with a brush because it's too thick and I don't think it will work, I've been applying it only with my fingers and a sponge. I took a few extra pictures to show you the shade and the texture of the foundation and how exactly it blends into the skin:

The amount of product in the first picture was way too much so I had to wipe out quite a bit of it for  the other 2 pictures in order to apply it and not cover my entire hand! I'm sorry if this turned into a first impression almost review, but I'm really impressed with this product and I really wanted to share with you my opinion about it. I've been using it every single day for a week to test it out and see if it's causing any break outs, it still hasn't broke me out which is very good, because the majority of sunscreens tend to break me out, but we will see, I just hope it won't because I really like it!

Mac Mineralize Concealer in NW20

I'm a sucker when it comes to concealers, especially the Mac ones, I want to try all of them and the Mineralize one was in my wishlist for over a year. I prefer liquid concealers in the summer for under the eyes, they're easier to use and look more natural. I've been hearing that the Mineralize concealer doesn't provide much coverage but I find it to cover really well, not as good as the Studio Finish but it covers better than the Seventeen Ideal Cover which I really love, and I think it's really close to the Mac Pro Longwear. I find that the Pro Longwear is really good for covering pimples scars etc, but I actually hate it for under the eyes, it doesn't cover well and it looks way too cakey and dry, the Mineralize one is what I wanted the Pro Longwear to be and I'm really happy with it. The NW20 shade is really close to my skintone, but still it looks a little light. The girls at Mac always confuse me when it comes to choose the right shade of concealer, some say I'm a NW20 and others say I'm a NW25, I believe that I'm something in between, but now that is summer I think the NW25 would look better but that's OK, the NW20 still looks good. In the future I'll definitely try the NW25 too.

Seventeen Natural Matte Blusher in 03 Cafe Au Lait

I really want to thank the lovely Youtuber Lucy from loukiaki89, for introducing me to this amazing blush! Lucy is using these matte blushes from Seventeen for quite some time now and she mentioned that she uses the Cafe Au Lait to contour her cheekbones, and since I wanted to try a new bronzer I thought to myself why not getting a brown blush instead of a bronzer this year, and it was propably one of the best make up desicions I've ever made! I see a huge difference on my face when I use this blush, my cheeks look more defined and the brown shade makes me look like I have a very natural tan.I don't know why but this blush doesn't give me the same look as a bronzer does, I like it way more and I think that I'll invest more in brown blushes in the future. Here's a swatch picture:

I'm really impressed with the texture of this blush, it's very pigmented and really soft without being powdery and chalky. I already have one more of these blushes in a pink shade from last winter, but I think I need to try more shades in the future, especially peachy ones.

Apivita Creamy Face & Eye Foam Cleanser with Olive & Lavender

I wanted to try this cleanser for over a year, it's very popular here in Greece especially in the beauty blogging and Youtube community. I was searching for a long time the mini size to try it out and I finally found it. I've only tried it a couple of times and I think it will be amazing for when the times gets colder or whenever my skin is more dehydrated, because it leaves my skin really soft and not tight at all, and as much as I love my Avene Cleanance cleanser for many years that is a problem I have with it, it leaves me face tight afterwards and I can't stand that when my skin is dehydrated. I'm still waiting for the right moment to try this cleanser from Apivita and share my opinion about it with you.

When my skin was dehydrated I got a few moisturizing masks but because my skin became normal again I didn't have the chance to use them yet, but I've tried the Korres Yoghurt Moisturizing Mask in the past and I loved it, it's the best mask to use after a long day out in the sun or the beach, it's very refreshing. I also got a moisturizing paper mask, the Essense Deeply Moisturizing Paper Mask because I haven't used a paper mask before, I can't wait to try it!

A few more things that I got from Essence are the Studio Nails Better than Gel Nails Fast Dry Top Sealer, wow that is a long name to say, and a nail polish in the shade 109 Off To Miami, God I love this name, and the beautiful coral shade! I was in search for the Better then Gel Nails Fast Dry Top Coat for so long but I couldn't find it anywhere because it was always sold out, and now I understand why, it's amazing! It's so similar to the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat that sometimes I can't even tell the difference. And I'm very happy about it because the Sally Hansen one is very difficult to find here and it's also very expensive, while the Essence one costs only 3 euros!

So that's everything I hauled the past month, I know that it's a lot but I'm very happy about them and I also changed a lot in my make up and skincare routine and that makes me happy, changes are good! And I'm sorry if this post was way to long, but I wanted to share with you my opinions on most of them. I want you to tell me if you've try any of these products, and if you like them or not!