BOURJOIS New Healthy Mix Foundation
I picked up this New Healthy Mix Foundation in Boots back in March. I still had a little bit of Healthy Mix Serum left but I needed a new one anyway and I wanted to see what the difference was.
My shade of
Healthy Mix Serum was 52 Vanilla and it matched my skin tone so I picked
up the same shade of Healthy Mix Foundation. But apparently the
foundation one is a little bit darker than the serum which you can see
in the photo.
I always use Buffing Brush from Real Techniques to blend in the foundation, and I noticed that serum took longer to blend in as it stays on my skin longer than the foundation does. When I buff in the foundation, it just melts into my skin and disappears while correcting my discolourations. Also you can see the serum looked a bit drying and cakey in the photo above, but the foundation perfectly blended in and it looks as if it's my bare skin.
Overall I like the foundation better than serum. I like how it smells, how it works and how it makes my skin look. I wish I picked up the shade 51 but hopefully my skin gets a bit darker as it's summer soon (although I don't get tanned at all). Have you tried this product? If you've used both the serum and foundation, which one was your favourite? :)
I used to love coffee much more than tea. I drunk at least two cups of coffee a day and I only drunk iced tea with syrup in summer mainly. Also I hated herbal tea because I thought it taste disgusting but from God knows when I became a tea junkie and now I have more than 10 tea boxes sitting in my kitchen cupboard. I picked some of my favourite teas here to talk about, to share my obsession with you all!
When I am tired and stressed, I drink these relaxation type of teas. Celestial Sleepytime
is my favoruite tea to drink before bed. More than a year ago, there was time I was anxious about everything and couldn't sleep well. But every time I had a cup of Sleepytime before bed, it made it much easier to fall asleep and I even had really nice dreams. It makes me relaxed and feel secure somehow.
Yogi Organic Herbal Tea Comforting Chamomile
is also very soothing and relaxing. It's pure chamomile tea which I drink whenever I have a stomachache that is caused by stress. It doesn't have a strong taste but it's definitely soothing.
Pukka Relax Tea Organic Chamomile Fennel & Marshmallow Root
has a little bit of a unique flavour that people who don't usually drink herbal tea might dislike. It tastes pretty herbal but again it contains chamomile which is my favourite. I also love the packaging, the logo is one of the prettiest logos in the world!
BOH Lychee with Rose tea is my favourite tea for Sunday afternoon. It has this fantastic aroma of the mixture of luxurious rose and fruity lychee. The base is black tea I assume but the aroma is pretty strong so I don't usually add sugar or milk. I love how sweet it smells but doesn't have any sweetener such as stevia. And look at the packaging! It looks so pretty!
I picked up AHMAD TEA Apple Refresh in The Tea House in Covent Garden. I picked up some nice teas for my mum and her friend so I thought I should buy something for myself too without spending a lot of money. This one was only about 2 pound or something and also I love apple tea so I thought it was perfect! It has this amazing aroma of fresh apples which I am totally in love with. I recently found out I can buy their teas in Japan although they're much more expensive here, so I might purchase some other fruit tea from the brand as well as this apple tea. Do you have any recommendations?
Last but not least, Twinings Apple and Pear Green Tea is just brilliant. I had a very similar one last year at my husband's sister's house and I looked for it everywhere as I loved it so much, but I never found it. It was black tea with apple and pear flavours, and I asked her to find it for me this year but she said she couldn't. They might have discontinued and instead they made this green tea version. She kindly got this one for me instead and I ended up buying 2 boxes of this amazing tea to bring back to Japan. I love anything with pear! I thought it was really weird paring apple and pear with green tea because for us Japanese, green tea is supposed to be plain. But this green tea is totally different from the one we drink in Japan and actually it tastes really nice with fruity flavour.
What's your favourite tea girls? And what do you drink when you want to relax?
Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer £4.19
I don't even need to introduce this product here, do I? Everyone knows Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer. Everyone loves it. As I'd been suffering from dark circles since 15, I really wanted to try out these concealers. I picked up 01 Fair and 02 Light in Boots so that I can mix them up if they don't match my skin tone.
Fair looks yellow with a bit of pinky undertone, and Light looks pretty pinky and orangey. I don't use Light on my dark circles because it emphasises them. On the other hand, Fair makes them look grey somehow, and it feels a bit cakey. So I mix Fair with my Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in Light (Full Review) to prevent dryness and to add yellow-tone. It works OK although it doesn't completely cover my dark circles unfortunately.
My dark circles are pretty bad, and I've never found a concealer which covers them. No matter what I do, how hard I try, they are just THERE. Never been gone. Even a makeup artist from MAC told me that they were pretty hard to hide because of my skin tone and the colour of the dark circles. He told me to cover them up with orange concealer and light beige concealer on top, then finish with light coloured pressed powder. He did well using the MAC products but it looked quite cakey and heavy, and it was a "Yes I'm trying so hard to cover them up" look for me.
Anyway, these concealers didn't disappointed me because they are really good for blemishes, pimples and discolouration for sure, the quality is very good for the price. But because they are full coverage concealers, they tend to be drying and cakey especially under my eyes. If you know any good concealers to mix with this product, let me know because I don't want to waste them and I really like them!
And lastly, they should definitely expand the colour range!!! They are such good concealers but it's not cool they only come in 4 shades!
Sleek i-Divine Storm Palette £7.99
This eyeshadow palette was something I wanted to purchase online but couldn't because I didn't accept PayPal. So when I found it in Superdrug in London, I didn't hesitate to pick it up. Now I kind of regret that I got this palette because the shades are pretty similar to MUA Undressed palette, and that I should have picked up Oh So Special instead.
There are 12 shades in this palette, and 3 of them are matte and 9 others are shimmery.
Here are the swatches. I love all the colours except the matte black one. It's just not the shade I usually use and also it's a bit chalky. Love silver-blue, navy and green at the bottom as well as the champagne colours at the top.
I used silver-blue on the eyelid, navy at the outer corner and the mixture of navy and black on the lower eyelid on this look. Oh and I might have used the matte beige colour on the crease.
On this look, I used the champagne colour on the whole lid, then added the bronze colour at the outer corner, then the matte beige shade on my crease.
Overall I'm quite happy about the quality of the eyeshadows, especially considering the fact it's under £10! They are creamy except the matte black shade, and the shimmer looks gorgeous. All the shades are very pigmented and a little goes a long way.
I'll definitely try their other palettes when I have a chance, and also I'm interested in their blusher and contour as well. If you have tried any of their products, please let me know how you liked them!
The Olive Branch £8.95/250ml
This product had been in my wishlist for ages. I received the small bottle of The Olive Branch many years ago and I totally fell in love with it, but I didn't feel like buying it myself as it was pretty pricey. In Japan 250ml bottle costs 2000yen which is about £14-15. It's not too expensive but not cheap for a bottle of shower gel. So I didn't hesitate picking it up when I went to LUSH in London in March.
It contains rich olive oil and vine leaves to moisturise your skin, and the best part is the scent which is the mixture of bergamot and fresh mandarin. It sounds like it smells fresh and citrussy but actually it's more like a deeper and complicated scent. I don't know how to describe this scent but it smells really unique, there's no other stuff which smells like this product. If you have never smelled it, please go have a sniff because it's THAT good.
Also the scent left on your skin after shower would smell a bit warmer than the scent you smell from the bottle directly. It's not an overpowering smell at all but it leaves my skin smelling divine. It also moisturises my skin really well, I never get dry skin while I'm using this shower gel. It's one of the best shower gels out there and I'll purchase the biggest bottle next time I come to London!
What's your favourite LUSH product?
Models Own : Freak Out!
I always wanted to try out their glitter nail polish because they looked unique and different from the ones from other brands. Their ones have got the mixture of chunky and small glitter in many different colours and it just looks really nice on nails.
So when I found their stand in Boots, I got 3 colours with the offer "Buy 2 get 1 free" and gave one of them to a friend of mine. The first colour I picked up is Freak Out!, which has got blue and purple glitter in it.
Unfortunately the brush is crap. Can you see that it's bent? I guess the glitter is pretty big and was pushing the brush in the bottle for quite a long time or something, but whatever the reason is this brush makes it so hard to apply the nail polish. Thank god it's glitter one, if it was the normal colour I would not be able to use it at all.
I added this glitter on top of Make Up For Ever Black Tango Nail Polish in Blue Black (Full review HERE) and it gives really beautiful effect like a stained-glass. I'm thinking of getting a black nail polish and add this glitter on top, that would look beautiful as well. In summer, I might pair it with my favourite nail polish from usul airlines in pastel blue!
Do you have nail polish from Models Own? Have you tried their newest colours which smell of fruits?
L'Oreal Paris Glam Shine Stain Splash £7.99
I first got to know about Glam Shine Stain Splash when it was introduced as "Colour Caresse Wet Shine Stains" in the video by Allura (WATCH HERE) in December. Since then I was waiting for someone to sell on eBay so that I could get my hands on it but luckily I was able to pick these two shades up in Superdrug with this amazing offer "Buy one get one free"!! Unfortunately the colour range is much better in the US, and the shades I really wanted the most didn't seem to be sold in the UK. (They're Pink Resistance and Lilac Ever After by the way) As I don't ware deep colour on my lips, I choose these wearable colours.
Lolita
It's the lightest shade out of 8 colours sold in the UK. It's a pretty beigy pinky colour which you can wear to work.
The sponge applicator fits perfectly on the lips and it makes it super easy to apply.
It feels almost like water when you apply it, it makes sense because 30% of the formula is water according to the website. It's super sheer but definitely biddable.
I wear this colour on a daily basis since I came back to Japan. It doesn't give too much colour on my lips but definitely brightens up my whole face. It makes me look healthy, which is important for me because my coworkers always comment on how I look saying "Oh my gosh you really look pale, do you want to rest?" or "You look dead today". But I think it helps me looking healthier than usual as they don't say that when I'm wearing it.
It looks a bit shiny in this photo but it becomes matte after like 30 minutes. The colour stays for more than an hour (it's hard to tell because it's not a bright colour which you notice obviously when it's gone) but if you wish to keep shiny lips, you need to apply lipgloss on top.
Romy
This colour is a bit more pinky and brighter than Lolita.
It looks pretty bright blue toned pink on the applicator.
Still it's sheer and wearable.
It looks much pinkier than Lolita on the lips. It doesn't look too opaque in this photo but it's the brightest I can wear! I only wear this shade when I'm not wearing too much makeup on my eyes otherwise I look OTT. I love this colour but I tend to wear Lolita much more often especially at work, because Romy catches attention and I don't want to look like I'm trying too hard at work if that makes sense.
Overall, I love this product so much that I regret not buying more. I wish I could get my hands on the shades sold in the US because they have more wearable colours in my opinion. Have you tried this product yet? If you live in the US, which colour is your favoruite? And also, do they have the same colours in the US and UK in different names?
MUA Undressed Palette £4.00
I love beauty products including makeup so much but that doesn't mean I'm good at makeup. Actually I always thought my face was pretty boring to put makeup on because I don't have deep sockets, big nose and pretty lips which look wonderful with a bright lipstick on. But last year, I started exploring some methods and techniques of makeup and now I'm totally in love with makeup as well as skincare, haircare and bodycare. I always wanted to get my hands on Urban Decay Naked Palette as all the colours contained in that palette looked amazing and wearable. The only problem was the price. So when I heard about MUA Undressed Palette, the "perfect dupe", I decided to purchase it next time I would go to England. And I did, finally!
It contains 12 shades. It's a bit odd that the name of each colour is like "Shade1" and "Shade2" just because it would be much better to have fancy names. I'm glad they've improved that point and named each colour on Undress Me Too Palette which I'll talk about another day.
These are the swatches of the shades on the top part. First of all I was surprised to see how pigmented they were! The colours are gorgeous, especially the shimmery colours. The matte colours such as Shade3 and Shade5 are not as pigmented as the other shimmery colours as you can see, but they are perfect for the crease and sometimes I use them as base.
These are the shades on the bottom part. Again, they all are impressively pigmented. I personally am not sure about Shade7 (left) as I have no idea how I would wear this colour, I don't think it would go well with my skin tone...On the other hand, Shade9 is my favourite. It's a dusty rosy colour that I would wear to work.
Base : Shade1
On the whole lid : Shade2
On the corner of the eye : Shade9
Base : Shade3
On the whole lid : Shade4
On the corner of the eye : Shade8
As I'm still new when it comes to makeup, I'm still trying to figure out how to play with the amazing colours. I don't want to waste a single shade, so I've been watching some tutorials on YouTube and trying to learn some new techniques! So far I really like this palette as there's no colour (except Shade7) that I wouldn't use. I was also impressed by the pigmentation, I don't mind paying more for this quality of the eyeshadows.
One thing I can't figure out is that it's so pigmented when I swatch it with my finger but it's not as much when I use my eyeshadow brush. Do you have any idea why? Currently I'm using my finger to apply when I want a stronger colour payoff, and blend it in with my eyeshadow brush.
Another thing is that do you know any good Asian YouTubers? I mainly watch tutorials by Pixiwoo, Lisa Eldridge and Tanya Burr, but it would be nice if I knew some Asian makeup artists on YouTube so let me know if you know anyone :)
Aussie Miracle Shine 3 Minute Miracle £4.99
I have talked about Aussie before (HERE) when I tried their products for the first time. I really liked their Colour Deep Treatment because it lifted the roots of my hair up, which gave my hair volume without a styling spray. I really enjoyed the product besides the peachy scent it had -it smelled a bit too artificial and childish if that makes sense. Because I loved how it made my hair so shiny and voluminous, I was going to pick up tons of 3 Minutes Miracle in England. I ended up getting only 3 bottles as my suitcases were packed, but at least it'll last about 10 months hopefully.
So, I decided to pick up two bottles of this Miracle Shine hair treatment as it smelled much better than the other ones. It smells perfumy and feminine. It's got this unique floral scent with the fruity scent which is kind of like strawberries. And also another reason why I picked this one up was because it was new. I believe it was out in February which doesn't sound new but what I mean is that it was the newest series!
It has the same texture as Colour Deep Treatment, but as I mentioned earlier, it smells much better in my opinion. And also the difference I personally felt was that it's a bit heavier than Colour Deep Treatment on my hair, not that it weights down my hair but it feels more moisturizing. As my hair is damaged and super dry, I cannot tell you that I noticed a big difference in terms of shine but so far so good.
I guess it might work better when I pair it with the shampoo from the same range but as I like Redken shampoo, I didn't get any shampoo from Aussie this time. Do you use their shampoo? Do you like it? Or would you rather pair it with your own shampoo? Let me know! :)
Sexy Mother Pucker Gloss Stick £8.00
I don't remember who it was but I'd seen a blog post about this product about a month ago. I really liked the colours as well as the packaging so decided to get my hands on this product when I went to England. None of Boots I went to didn't have testers which made it really hard for me to choose the right colour. Plum Jam which is a bright red seemed too bright for me, and Nudist which is actually a perfect nude pink shade seemed too dark for me (which was wrong I guess), so I picked up this colour; Fuchsia Ristic.
I was a bit surprised to see how bright it looks when I finally opened it back in Japan. I thought it could be too bright for me. And also it looked really orange, not even pinky-orange, and that worried me a bit.
But look how sheer it is! The colour transforms pretty pinky on the skin, not orangey at all. I love how sheer it goes on my lips, and it definitely brightens up the whole face!
It doesn't have shimmers or glitters in it but instead it makes me look healthy in a very natural way. I sometimes wear it with minimum makeup such as some concealers around my eyes and nose, eyebrows and a mascara. It's perfect for a natural look as well as a night-out look with some shiny lip gloss on top!
Another good point is that it smells yummy. I smells just like vanilla extract I use when I bake cookies and cakes. There's nothing I want to complain about this product, I regret that I didn't buy Nudist as well...I haven't seen the colour actually besides the image on their website, but I guess it goes well with my skin tone. Have you tried this product before? If you have, what did you think? :)
I went to Boots the day after my arrival in London. I needed to shop immediately so that I can go back there as many times as I want just in case they have different offers or I forget buying something. Also I needed to pick up some essentials such as my shower gel, toothpaste and bath lily. I was going to pick up some products from Soap and Glory including The Breakfast Scrub which is my favourite and Sugar Crush which I heard good things about, but as they were too big and heavy I gave up bringing them back to Japan. Instead I got some minis with an offer which I remember was 3 for £7 or something.
CLEAN ON ME
Even though I didn't like the scent originally, I decided to pick this one up rather than CLEAN, GIRLS. The weird thing is that last time I smelled this Original Pink Fragrance was in Japan and I absolutely hated it. It was too perfumey and overpowering to me. But this time I didn't mind the smell at all, I even thought it was kind of a good smell. I guess it was because of the air or humidity or temperature or something like that, because you can handle stronger scents in colder temperature.
I really enjoyed using this shower gel in England but because of the water and dry air, my skin was so dry. It's my fault because I didn't take any body moisturizer and couldn't be bothered to buy one. I know it sounds stupid but I regretted that I didn't try to rescue my skin a few days before I flew back to Japan because it was itching and bleeding and miserable. So the point I'm trying to make is that I cannot judge whether it's the kind of shower gel which dries out your skin or not. I'm going to try to use it in Japan to judge, but so far I didn't think it was moisturizing unfortunately.
GLAD HAIR DAY THICK CONDITIONER
I picked it up because I didn't want to open my Aussie hair treatment during my stay. But I guess I should have gone for Glad Hair Day Conditioner instead of Glad Hair Day THICK Conditioner because Glad Hair Day is supposed to be made for fine hair which I have. Obviously this conditioner is too light for me and isn't moisturizing enough. It makes my hair frizzy and dry. I didn't hate the smell of peach or some kind of fruits but I stopped using it and gave it to my mum who's got really thick hair.
HAND MAID
I never use hand sanitizer in Japan although I travel on the train everyday. I wash my hands when I get to work or before eating something. But when I was in England, somehow I felt the need of carrying hand sanitizer in my bag. I picked this one up instead of a normal boring one which doesn't have any scents. But this one's got the scent of Original Pink Fragrance which is a bit too strong for me especially before eating, that's why I barely used it during my stay.
Let me know how often do you use hand sanitizer like HAND MAID, do you use it in daily basis? Or do you use it occasionally when you travel or something?
