By The Pool Beauty Essentials (for me)

How's your summer been so far??

Mine it's been pretty good! I've been without my computer for a couple of weeks and I had to spend my time doing other things than blogging, so I've been playing around with my make up, I've tryed some more products that I want to review and products that has been working for me these summery days.

The beauty products I've been taking with me in my beach bag have been the following:

1- Compact Tangle Teezer. Mine is the black one. It's the best to detangle your hair. Wet or dry!! Best thing ever!! Since it's compact it has a cover for the bristles and they won't break. Makes it perfect to carry in any bag or purse... 

2- EOS lip balm with SPF 15. I love the lemon one. Since you're in the sun, SPF is required. I like this one because it has SPF and an amazing lemony smell. It's easy to apply and your lips will be moisturized and pretty.

3- Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration SPF 15 Sunscreen. Do I need to explain why I carry this with me? It only has SPF 15 but I reaply it every 20 or 30 minutes.

4- Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Faces Lotion SPF 30: I like this face sunscreen not only for pool days or beach days, but also as an everyday sunscreen to wear under my makeup.

5- Elilzabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream Skin Protectant Fragance Free: This balm works amazing on my skin when it feels dry. Works for lips, cuticles, foot blisters, it tames your eyebrows, sunburn, wind... It's another product that it's not only for the pool days or beach days. I've been using it everyday since I bought it.

6- The Body Shop Vitamin E Face Mist: Perfect to refresh your face and body when you just don't want to jump into the pool one more time. I know it's for the face, but sometimes I've used it in my arms, chest and neck area too. It smels like roses and the skin feels nice, soft and fresh.

My other beauty basics for pool or beach days include a nice pair of sun glasses, a good towel, hair clips, hair elastics, a good book, my ipod with my favourite music and if I want to have some colour on my face I use some Benefit Posie Tint on my lips and cheeks and some Maybelline Tatoo eyeshadows on my eyes.

What do you have in your beauty beach or pool bag? Would you recommend something else?

Thanks for reading!

My Makeup Musts When I'm Sick...

These past few days I've been sick.

I was not feeling well, my temperature was fluctuating from 34ºC to 38ºC (93F to 100F). I tried to stay at home, rest, getting better and go out only when highly required. 

And it was when I had to leave home that I needed to look presentable and better than I was. I had to cheat that I was feeling good when I was not!! So I had to play with some makeup to achieve that.

My must have products to look better when I am (I was) sick:

1- A light texture BB cream. I've been using my  L'Oreal Nude Magique BB Cream. It's lightweight and it evens out my complexion. It moisturizes your skin and has some SPF in it. 

2- Concealer: My go to concealer these days has been the Bourjois Healthy Mix Concealer for under circles, skin imperfections and to slightly highlight my cheekbones. Also used on my eyelids to even out that area.

3- Blush and Bronzer: This is a must for me if I don't want to look washed out. I find that some color on my faces really makes me look healthier.

The blush I've been using these days has been my MAC Alluring Aquatic Extra Dimension Blush in Sea Me, Hear Me.This looks like my natural blush and really makes me look healthy.

The bronzer I've been using is my Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil Bronzer. This bronzer is a tad bit light for me right now, but it has been my go to bronzer during the winter months. I cannot use it right now because I've gained some color (even though I've been indoors and wearing SPF when outside) but those days when I was sick, this shade was enough for me. 

 

4- Mascara: This step really made me look more awake! Somedays I used an eyelash curler + mascara and other days I just put some mascara on and nothing else. Since before that I applied some concealer to my eyelids, those looked slightly healthy. The mascara was just to define my eyes some more. 

The mascara that I used was my Maybelline Colossal Volum Express Waterproof mascara. You can find my review here.

 

5- Lip balm. A must if your lips feel swallen. I have two options here:

Option 1- When I don't feel good I really don't want to wear any makeup at all, but if I need to look presentable, I have to. So, for those days when i really don't want much on my face, I just use any chapstick I happend to have handy. Any Nivea or Liposan lipbalm will do. I've applied also Rose Hip balm (the one that I have is also bood for your nostrils when they feel raw) from Repavar. 

Option 2- I find that some color on my lips really helps making me look healty. The colors that look nice on my lips must not be nude, other wise I look even sicker. I've been using my Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry Me! to give me some nice color, Clinique Chubby Stick Intense in Heftiest Hibiscus and my Bourjois Lipstick Color Boost in 01 Red Sunrise. All those shades make me look better, and on days when my eyes looked specially small and didn't want to draw any atencion to them, those shades were my best option.

What are your best friends to make you look better when you're sick??

Thanks for reading!

Natural Beauty: Monoï Oil

I would like to introduce you a natural beauty product: Monoï Oil.

Monoï oil is coconut oil infused with Tahitian gardenias aka Tiaré flowers. This product has been used over the years in many polynesian islands. It softens hair and skin and it's a very good moisturizer after the sun exposure or after the shower.

To avoid imitations or sinthetic based monoi oil Authentic Monoï oil has been protected since 1992 by the Appellation of Origin, and it has to contain at least a 33% authentic Monoï Oil to be considered as true Monoï. 

The one I use is the one from Soleil des îles. It's the one I happened to found. It's not an easy product to come by, but it's devine. This bottle is about 6€ and contains 125ml.

Monoï Oil gets solid at temperatures bellow 25ªC. As you can see in the picture, it marks where the oil is. When I took that picture, it was solid. When in liquid form, it's color is a very pale yellow shade. 

I use it on my body after the shower to moisturize my skin and also as an aftersun. It's a good product for the hair, also. I like to apply it like a hairmask for 30 minutes, and then wash my hair as usual. A small amount is enough, keep that in mind when using it.

It's a wonderful massage oil. Can be mixed with beewax or vaseline to create a balm for soothing skin, lips or to make an anti-blister balm. 

Some of the products of this range contain SPF and can be used as sunscreen, but not this one. This is the "Véritable Monoï" SPF 0. 

The worst thing about this product (the one that I have) is the bottle. It's not convenient when it gets solid. I have to put it somewhere warm or under the shower so that it gets liquid and can be used.

If you want more information about the Monoï Oil, take a look at the Institut du Monoï site.

Benefit Erase Paste Concealer

I'm not one of those lucky girls without imperfections on their skin. I have blemishes, dark under eyes, large pores... so I try everything I'm told to hide them. That's why I tried Benefit Erase Paste.

This is a creamy concealer that works wonders on my under eye marks. Those dark circles are gone! 

What is this product? This product is concieved as a concealer that will hide all the imperfections you might have on your face. It's a salmony concealer available in 3 different shades. I have shade number 2. It comes in a small pot with a small spatula. I say a small pot because it only contains 4.4g. of product. Compared to other concealers, this one is quite expensive. But to be honest, it works wonders under the eyes.

Since it have those salmon tones, it corrects beautifuly the under eye area, hiding those dark blue ugly marks. Can be applyed directly over the skin with the spatula and then blend with your fingers, or you can use a brush.

I apply the product after my foundation with a Zoeva 142 concealer buffer brush.  This way I can make sure both products blend well. If I use the concealer first, sometimes it's harder to blend, or it migrates if my eyecream is too emolient.

I don't like how this product hides blemishes. The color does look too salmon on my skin when I try to cover them. It does not look like natural skin, so I don't use it for this purpose.

The worst thing about this product is the price, and although you don't really need a big quantity of product to hide dark undereyes, I think it's too pricy for what it is. I'll try to find something else to compete with this product. If anyone knows any good dupe, please, let me know.

Thanks,

Fine One One Blush by Benefit Review

I bought this blush without thinking. I liked the idea behind it. I found it to be a cool new product by benefit and I was curious about it.

I was at a Benefit counter in Barcelona and I was just looking at their products. My idea that day was not to buy anything unless I really needed it. But I paid no attention to my mind. Of course I needed a new blush... we all do, right?? ;)

I have a love-hate feeling with this product. Let me explain...

Benefit Cosmetics came out with a new idea of highlight+blush+contour. You can find a link to their website here. This is a stick blush. Comes in a nice rosegold packaging and since it's a stic, it's easy to carry around and apply. And you can blend it with your fingers and you're good to go.

The product has 3 different shades: a pale light pink to highlight, a hot coral pink to give color to your cheeks and an orange shade that gives color and helps you contour your face. You only have to blend them a little bit and you're done.

The colors look quite nice when you swatch them. In the next picture you can see how they look when they are not blended. 

The pale pink highlight is nice and once blended looks great on my NC30 skin tone. You can dab a little bit of it with your fingers and then apply it on its own. So beautiful.

The middle coral hot pink is nice. I tend to gravitate toward these pinks when I look for blushes, so no surprice there. Of course i like this blush.

The last shade is a nice orange shade. Pretty on its own too, and pretty when blended in with the pink. 

Actually, when you blend the orange and the pink you end up with a gorgeous coral shade that I love!

But here ends what I like.

There are a few thinks that I dislike about this blush. Starting with the price and ending with the staying power.

• Price: It's about 30€ at Sephora. 
• When blended, it really looses its pigmentations.
• I have oily skin, and when I apply it without a powder product on top, my cheeks end up looking oily in a couple of hours, wich leads me to the next point,
• Staying power: As soon as it starts getting oily, the color fades away, and in less than 4 hours there's no blush on my face. 
• If I apply a powder product on top the original color of this blush disappears. If I apply a powder blush, the color you will see in my face is the one from the powder blush. This Benefit Fine One One does not show and does not leave any trace that it's been there. And if I apply a mattifying powder, the color of the Fine One One looses even more picmentation, but if you apply too much of it to keep the pigmentation you want, then it even gets more oily.

I think there are more things I don't like about this blush than the ones I do like... It's not a bad product, I will not repurchase it when I finish it (if I ever finish it). Maybe I'll give it to someone with dryer skin than mine, and see if that blush works better on other skin types.

Thanks for reading,