Subrina Vitamins & Strength

I am such a sucker for foreign brands that I rarely think about reaching for something domestic, which is unfortunate, really, since I am only now learning how many wonderful brands are being made right here in my backyard.

Subrina is one of the brands that's really been neglected on my part and I got a chance to try two of the products from the Vitamins & Strength line that I got at the Beauty Blogger Meetup. They are sold at the Click2Chic online store. The shampoo costs for 2,34 300 ml and the conditioner 2,49 € for 250 ml. 

Both shampoo and conditioner are without parabens, mineral oil and formaldehyde releases meaning that they don't contain all sorts of things that are not really beneficial for your hair or your scalp.

Oils are not just for cooking: Afrodita Oil products

You know the myth about not ever applying oils to oily hair and oily skin? I personally am well acquainted with it and I deprived my skin and scalp of good oils for years and years. Well, the tables have turned and now I'm a deep believer in providing that extra bit of nurture.

I bought the Afrodita Jojoba oil shower gel a couple of weeks back and guess what - it was my first ever Afrodita shower gel. Like - the first one to enter my bathroom. I went on using it for a couple of days and then I noticed that the amount in the bottle was vanishing at a quicker pace then expected.

My Aussie experience

Since the 1st Beauty Bloggers meetup, I have banned myself from shopping completely. I have so many wonderful products at home, so many new brands to explore and so many posts to write that I simply don't need any more beauty products in my life right now.

Consequently, I decided to attempt (to the best of my abilities) a month with a post each single day, which I named Blogvember. Hopefully, I will be able to keep my word and 30 separate posts, although it will be no walk in the park since November is usually the busiest moth of the year at work and I will also be flying somewhere warm to soak my feet in the middle of the ocean during the month. But I believe in myself and hopefully, you will enjoy the posts will bring to you!

One of the brands that I had almost no experience with before the conference is Aussie. I was quite excited to see their products in the gift bags since I have heard many good things about it from other beauty bloggers.

At the conference, I got the Aussie Repair Miracle Shampoo (300 ml, about 5,60 € at Boots) and the Repair Miracle Conditioner (250 ml, also about 5,60 € at Boots). On one of my trips, I also picked up the Aussie Miracle Dry Shampoo (Colour Mate, about 6,6€ at Boots).

New products – August 2015

I tried to be reasonable with my shopping in the past month, since I've got quite some business and personal trips coming up in the near future and I intend to purchase some products that are not easily available to me in Slovenia (or not at all). That being said, I still slipped on some occasions and I also received some Freedom Make-Up from Licila.si to try out, but I will review those in a separate post.

First off, I took advantage of a nice Yves Rocher offer where one could choose three products for 12,50 € (the promotion is still valid). 

Since I've never tried Yves Rocher products before, this seemed like a nice opportunity. I bought the Replumping serum foundation, Blackberries sparkling body powder and Hair Repair Oil. The company also sent me some extra samples to try out and a shopping bag which comes in handy for my everyday grocery purchases. 

I haven't tried all of the products yet, but can I just point out how beautiful this packaging from the sparkling body powder is? I absolutely love the little puff and the smell of it as well – it really does smell like blackberries!

It was love at first sight for me and the Kaviar Gauche for Catrice face powder (about 2,5 € on sale). This one comes in shape of little balls which can easily be gently swirled around with a smaller face brush and give away just enough product. I personally use them as highlights on my cheekbones, since they are a bit too shiny for the entire face. I give Catrice ***** on the packaging alone – it could have easily been a Chanel or Dior product as well. 

I also purchased two Bourjois products from Look Fantastic website – the Silk Edition Compact powder (12,75 €) which I've used before and absolutely love, and another shade of Bourjois Rouge Edition 12 Hour Lipstick in Rose Vanity (11,35 €). 

I really like the consistency of these lipsticks and although they don't exactly last for 12 hours, they are still reasonably long-lasting and not drying at all, which is something I normally associate with long-lasting lippies. 

I have not yet touched The Nuxe Melting Cleansing Gel with rose petals (17,75 €), but I have used up samples from the Rose line before and liked them quite a lot. 

I am also excited to use the Kera Care Silken Seal (10,65 €) – since reading the great reviews for this product on Look Fantastic website, this was the product I was most excited for to arrive. I will definitely report back on it.

And since I did spend quite a lot of money on the Look Fantastic website, I was gifted some extra goodies from them. I received the Origins Skin Saviour Set (worth 27 €) which includes a face wash, exfoliator and overnight mask. But as if they suspected that my skin is in quite rough shape at the moment, I also got the Elemis Absolute Spa Collection (worth 67 €) that includes a milk bath, Pro Collagen Marine Cream and Papaya Enzyme Peel. I am looking forward to treating my skin to these new products and see if any of them will work wonders. 

Stay tuned for the review of Freedom Make-up products coming up tomorrow! Until then, stay beautiful!

Empties #4

Once again, I dug out my beauty trash. I tried to keep your advice in mind and do this post a bit earlier this time so the post doesn't stretch into infinity. I don't think I did very well, though. 

Let's start small. I've gotten or purchased quite a lot of samples and for once, I managed to use some as well. 

I love Paula's Choice Skin Perfecting exfoliator. It was my first time trying something with BHA gel and I'm really tempted to get a full size of this. It made my skin bright, I really had a feeling that it was clean and soft. I can't say the same for the Delarom Infinite White serum – I noticed no difference to my skin after using a couple of these samples (which I got in the Dashbox). 

I will get my behind whooped by beauty bloggers for saying this, but I was really, really unimpressed with the Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Reconstructor. My hair didn't feel any different or feel any different after I used it. I might try some other Aussie products in the future, but I will not be purchasing this any time soon. 

Midyear favorites 2015

You may have noticed that I stopped doing monthly favorites about 6 months ago. The reason is quite simple – I don't have many new favorites every month, so I prefer not to talk about products until I have a firm opinion about them. With that in mind, I give you my mid-year favorites for 2015 – the products I used and loved in the first six months of this year.

Let's start with body products. I've talked about both of these before. 

My first favorite is Nivea In-Shower Body Milk with shea butter. I love the idea of moisturizing while taking a shower and it really saves me a lot of time. I prefer this formula for dry skin to the one for normal skin – the shea butter really gives it the additional *umph*.

Secondly, I've really been enjoying my Stenders Salt Scrub in Rose and it's not long before I'll completely run out. It's a fine scrub with some rose petals in it – it gets rid of the old epidermis and also moisturizes, since it's oil based. The only downside is the amount of time you'll need to scrub your shower clean after using it. 

For hair, I haven't found my new favorite shampoo&conditioner combo just yet. The only thing I am including here is my Kerastase Elixir Ultime. I apply this to my roots and about 10 cm up after each wash and I feel I've had lot less split and dry hair in the past few months. This product is quite expensive, but the bottle will last you ages, since you need the smallest amount per day / per wash.

What’s in my beach bag?

Hopefully, by the time you are reading this, I’m either on my way to my well-deserved vacation or possibly already lying in the sun. Either way, I needed to do some packing and I thought I’d bring you along for the ride. 

This is most likely just a part of everything I will be hauling to the beach every day (and by that, I’m sure you can tell I really mean that my hubby will be the one at risk of a spinal injury). I will add tons of books, magazines, some temporary tattoos, fruit and water, phone, tablet and other bits and bobs I pick up along the way. But in the beauty sense, these are the main things that absolutely need to come with me. 

My bag was a freebie from Max Mara Weekend a couple of years ago and I love it. It’s a lovely boho-chic bag that doesn’t look too fancy and I don’t really care if it would get dirty (or worse, stolen). I can easily pack it away in the suitcase since it’s very soft. 

Inside the tote, I always keep a smaller bag – this one is another freebie from Decleor and I really like it since it can be pulled out and sealed (see the pink part), but when tucked in, it can also act as a large wallet & phone holder when you want to go get a drink at a cafe whilst at the beach. 

Of course, SPF is the bare essential when going to the beach. I normally keep two large bottles at hand. First one is for the first days when I’m still pale as a ghost – it’s the Nivea Sun Kids Pure&Sensitive lotion with SPF 50. The other one comes in handy when I get a bit of tan and I don’t risk getting sunburned as much anymore – that’s the Garnier Ambre Solaire with SPF 15. 

Naturally, we mustn’t forget about the face. I got this Decleor Aroma Sun Expert with SPF 30 this year and I’m hoping it will do its job well.

Speaking of getting a tan, here’s a product that has been all the rave this summer – the Afrodita 100 % Bronze Skin Fast Tanning Jam. I have had a little dip in it just to make sure I didn’t have any reaction to it, but I could hardly contain myself not to eat the whole jar. I’m curious to see how it will perform!

I like to dive and go snorkeling on my vacation, so my hair is always a bit of a mess. This year, I’m bringing along my new Wet Brush (from the Look Fantastic Beauty Box), since I am more willing to lose this as my Tangle Teezer. My hair stylist also hooked me up with the Schwarzkopf Sun protect Spray conditioner which I can use throughout the day to give my dry and frizzy hair some TLC. 

Since I do like to hang out with people when I’m on the beach, I also always bring with me a random deodorant and my lovely Body Shop Pink Grapefruit body mist. It’s a refreshing, rejuvenating smell that isn’t too heavy, but rather just gives the hint of freshness in the heat. 

On that note, I also always bring some make-up, just in case we decide to go to dinner straight from the beach. This year, I’m bringing my Avon Flawless CC cream and Lancome Virtuose Drama. Another perk from the Look Fantastic Beauty Box – my Cowshed lippy cow natural lip balm – is coming for the ride as well. 

And last, there are the accessories. As you can see from the first photo, I always bring a light scarf which I can wrap around my shoulders if the sun is hitting me too hard when we are walking to the beach. Other than that, I have some accessories that I couldn’t ever rock in Ljubljana, but go great together with my summer attires. 

And that’s it for my bag. Did I forget anything? Let me know - perhaps you won't be too late to save my skin! :)

Until next time, stay beautiful!

April Favorites

Another month rolled by and I almost can’t believe that it’s almost been a year since I started writing this blog :) Anyway, April brought some new, wonderful discoveries for me, and I also found some of my old friends lurking in the back of that closet that I keep mentioning all the time. 

Quite a few were already mentioned in my other posts, so let’s start with those. First is the Lord&Berry liner that I received in the LookFantastic beauty box about a month ago. It’s been well loved but I’m determined to use the very last inch of it. You can read more about it here – and thank me later when you go and buy it ;)

Essence Longlasting Lip Liner in Yummy Berry

Another favorite that I only recently became acquainted with is the Essence Longlasting lip liner. I love quite a few colors, but as I already mentioned in this post, the Yummy Berry is my favorite. I need to go out and buy a few back-up’s in case it makes a disappearing act from the shelves.

A – Z Favorites

I recently learned about this tag from a fellow blogger and I must say that it is quite a fun one, since it really will make you go through your collection and pick out the things you absolutely love the most. Basically, you choose your favorite cosmetics item for each of the letters in the alphabet, hence the A to Z name. Here are my favorites!

A – Avon Advanced Techniques leave-in conditioner. I have talked about it here already. It's my favorite conditioner and I will continue to use it on a daily basis. It gives my hair a little bit of nutrition and leaves it silky and shiny for the day, with the added bonus of a great scent. 

B – Benefit They're real! mascara. I didn't like this mascara at first but after I left it open for about a month, it quickly became my favorite. It gives a ton of volume and really holds the curl for the entire day. It's beginning to flake a bit so I'll probably have to let it go soon, but I will repurchase it as well. 

C – Catrice All matt plus foundation. Some of you suggested I try a Catrice foundation and although I was sceptical at first, I've already gone through half of the bottle in a month. It has great coverage without feeling heavy and leaves my skin matte for hours without any touch-ups. My absolute favorite foundation of 2015 so far. 

D – Dvorec Trebnik bath salts. I just happen to have the Marigold salts opened right now, but I've tried many different scents and have loved them all. I already wrote about it here. Honestly, I've never taken as many baths as I do now since I've discovered this brand!

E – Essence Longlasting lipliner. I've got a separate post about these lip liners coming up so I don't want to reveal too much, but since I'm putting them among my favorites, you can guess that I'm absolutely in love with them!

Decluttering like a pro: everyday cosmetics (a long post!)

Every single time I bring home a new product, I feel the need to use it right away. It doesn’t really matter if I already have 3 hair sprays opened, or 5 body lotions – surely, this new one will be so utterly superior to them that I will throw the old ones away and only use the new one for the rest of my life. Sounds familiar? If it does, then you probably have seen something like this before. 

Every once in a while, I reach a point when everything starts falling out, I have no place for new things and I really, really need to clean stuff out. So I did something similar as with nail polishes – got everything out and went through it. Here are the results with small reviews on each of the products and whether I tossed or kept it. I suggest you get a snack, since it’s going to be a long post!

Let’s start with hair products.

L’Oreal Elnett de Luxe – strong hold which also offers extra heat protection. I don’t like the pump, would prefer a spray, but it’s a good hold, and I don’t really use hair spray all that much. Keeping.

Taft Cashmere Touch Power Spray.  This was sitting in the back of the closet for about 2 years and I distinctly remember why I stopped using it – it made my hair so hard that I had problems combing through it after I used it. Trash.

Aiko Styling Heat Protecting Spray. I did not know it was a Müller brand until this very moment. Did not care for this product – I didn’t see any difference in how my hair behaved or how good it looked whether I used it or not. Trash.

Syoss Anti-Grease dry shampoo. This smells like lemon, which I like a lot since it makes my hair smell fresh. It does work to give second day hair a bit of volume, but I wouldn’t necessarily use it instead of washing my hair after that. Good value for money – lasts a long time. Keeping.

Nivea Volume Sensation Styling Mousse. Number 4 (out of 5) – extra strong. I normally put it into wet hair before washing to give it a little extra volume around the base. There’s not really that much left, so I am keeping it.

In my previous post about hair botox I talked about the frizz in my hair and their general dullness. I have quite a few products to combat that, not including the Morrocan oil and Keraste oils I just purchased.

A bit of TLC for my hair - Shisheido Senscience C.P.R.

As I probably mentioned in some of the past posts, I switched my hairdresser about six months ago. I was getting really unsatisfied with my old one (who in my opinion was not following the trends in products and styling at all) and decided to go for it. It was stressful, but I think it turned out OK

Anyway, I had blonde hair with highlights forever. For about half of my life. Since my old hairdresser really was not paying much attention to the quality of the products, my hair was damaged, brittle and breaking all the time. 

So anyway, with the change of stylist, I was ready for something completely new. I decided that we should go back to my natural hair color (which is this really boring light brown), but give it a little somethin’ somethin’, if you know what I mean. After spending countless hours on internet, I eventually decided to go with sombre – basically a more subtle variation of ombre, where only individual locks are highlighted by hand. I am happy with the color, but my stylist kept going on and on about how we should do something more for my hair since it’s so damaged and unfortunate looking. 

Eventually, I gave in and booked an appointment for “botox” – which leads us to this post.

This is my hair before the treatment. You can see that I had tons of split hair, frizz and how dry the hair looks (BTW, don’t judge, this was taken moments before I left for my appointment and at that point in time, I haven’t brushed it for about 10 hours).

Now let’s discuss this botox thing. The first thing that I want to make clear is that there is no actual botox involved. It’s basically a buzzword for a deep conditioning treatment, which can’t (well, is not supposed to) be done at home, like you would do with a normal hair mask. 

There are many variations of these treatment available, but two are most frequent. First is the L’Oreal Fiberceutics treatment. This is the “light” version, apparently only takes less than an hour with the styling and everything and is considerably less expensive. From what I could gather, it gives a good first result, but is really not as effective in locking in the moisture in the hair. Basically, a glorified hair mask. You can find such treatments often on the websites offering special promotions. 

The other treatment, which I have undergone, is the Senscience C.P.R. (Cuticle Porosity Reconstructive Treatment), developed by Shisheido. It is intended for very dry and damaged hair, which, in short, described my hair situation perfectly. The products contain Keratin, Silk Amino Acids and Bio-Structurer (which apparently is the key of the “secret” formula). It’s a two-step process which takes about an hour and a half to complete, so I was styled and out the door in about two hours. 

Look Fantastic Beauty Box – March 2015

The March edition of Look Fantastic Beauty Box arrived a lot faster than the February one and I was so excited to find the package on my desk when I arrived at work. I gave it my all and actually did not go snooping around the internet to see what other people received, so opening it was again a nice surprise. 

But before we get into this box, let’s do a quick recap of some products in the February box. Remember this?

I have not yet tackled the Korres Citrus body milk and the Sea Mud cleanser. I absolutely don’t want anything to do with the Bellapierre eye pencil anymore – it’s so hard that I almost poked my eye out a couple of times while tightlining. I am quite disappointed since it was my first mineral eye pencil and I was really excited to receive it at first. Also, I am not impressed by the Monu Illuminating primer. It is very, very sticky and difficult to apply. It also doesn’t seem to extend the lifespan of my foundation or make it go on any smoother. I would not purchase a full size of either of these products.

I can however say that I am almost through with half of the bottle of Moroccanoil. It is an absolutely divine product and I love it. I will however hold on the final verdict until I try the new Kerastase oil I received recently. And finally, I am giving the dr. Pawpaw balm a big thumbs up – I used it for my lips almost every night and they have been looking considerably better than usually. I would definitely repurchase both of these items.