Behind the Mirror: Empties August

Hello My Dear Readers,

I do hope you are all doing fine wherever you are!

I have been through some changes in July - I decided to take a Roaccutane treatment, I will post my experience in some months, after I will finish the treatment.

But today I will share with you what products I have been using up lately (since my last post about Empties in May) and what my experience was with them, because I discovered I have a pretty big collection of beauty “garbage” I need to send to the recycling bin.

M.A.C. Select Moisture Cover in NW15
I am actually an NC15, but the girl at the store suggested that some warmth will do my under eye area some good. I got this product in February and in the middle of July I discovered without any warnings that I finished it. I believe that this was mainly due to the packaging of which I am no big fan. I used it on my under eye area and on my acne spots. It made the under eye area look fresh, but it was not that good at covering the acne spots. I got another M.A.C. concealer in my color when I went to get one, after I unexpectedly ran out of this one.

Color & Soin Natural – 10R Shining Red

This is a bit of a cheat, because I used this in April, but somehow I forgot to mention it in the May Empties post. I got it from a local Pharmacy, when I could not get hold of my preferred henna from Mayam for about 2 months in a row.
PLUS: Very easy to apply, with strong natural pigments (it colored even dark hair like mine). It did not interact in a bad way with the parts of the hair that were dyed with henna (but if you want to use it, I recommend at least 2 months of pause between a henna mask and this dye). It is already prepared. It has no ammonia and silicones. The hair conditioner it comes with smelled really nice and had rosemary and eucalyptus oils.
MINUS: Double the price of henna and dried the hair pretty badly. The color disappeared in four weeks.

Balea Totes Meer Salz Dusche

I got this from DM at a time when my skin was very dry and irritated, because it stated on the label to be a good product for this skin type. It smells lovely of red fruits and is enriched with minerals. I could see that my skin felt better after this shower gel than it did before. I generally like the Balea products, because they are cheap and they work. This product had 300ml and was almost twice as cheap as a Nivea 250 ml shower gel.

NIVEA Powerfruit Relax

Speaking of Nivea shower gels, I fell in love with this shower gel that has Acai scent and Blueberry antioxidants. I am not sure if really has all these, but it smells heavenly (I also repurchased it) and keeps my skin from drying.

Alverde Ultrasensitiv Dushcreme

I also got this product in the winter, to calm down my highly allergic skin and I still used it on and off until spring, when I finally used it up completely. It is a very good product for very sensitive skin, it calms it down and keeps it from drying. It has no perfume, no colorants and preservatives. It is slightly more expensive than  the Balea products, but for an all natural product it is rather cheap.

Dettol Moisture Liquid Soap

I got this product to clean my brushes, because I am a freak and I clean my face brushes after every use, since I had some bad experiences with acne outbreaks. This liquid soap is supposed to kill 99.9% of bacteria. It is not as moisturizing as I would wish, but for the brushes it did a pretty good job.

Balea Wellness Fuß Badekristalle

I got this salt mixture for swollen feet after I did the half marathon in May. This bag is for 2 usages, I used one right after the run and another one sometime after to do my pedicure. I like the fact that it helped with the swollen feet and that the feet felt refreshed after using this. It contains camphor, mint and rosemary oils and aloe vera leaf powder, which help with swollen tissue and calm down any irritations. As with their shower gels, this Balea product is good worth for its money. I will get it again.

Balea Urea Handcreme

I liked this hand cream, it was very moisturizing, because of the urea and shea butter. It also smelled really nice. I used it mainly in the evenings, because I wanted something luxurious for my hands. I think you can also use this products without any problems during the day, as it is not heavy. I got this in winter and used it on and off until spring-summer. It is also a good product for its money.

Balea Hand Balsam

This product contains monoï oil and shea butter and in the same time has no perfume. I liked that it was like a balm and protected the skin from drying. I also used this product at night to get the same SPA-feeling I was mentioning about earlier. It had only 50 ml and costs as much as the Urea hand cream, but it is worth it, you get a good hand cream.

Alverde Körperbutter

I got this body butter in the winter when I wanted to use it for my hands at night, but eventually I ended using it on my body, after the winter allergies passed. It smells lovely of red oranges and elder flower, but it also has shea butter and glycerin. It penetrates the skin very fast and doesn’t leave it oily or creamy, but hydrated. The price is very good compared with other body butters from other brands. I really recommend it.

The Body Shop Absinthe Purifying Hand Cream
I fell in love with this cream the first time I tested it in the store. It smelled absolutely lovely. It has Brazilian nut (due to its highly hydrating properties) and marula (which has purifying properties) oils and absinthe extraxt. I like t use this hand cream during the day, because it is a very light cream, it is immediately absorbed in the skin and it leaves a lovely scent. I alway get a lot of compliments when I use this cream. I repurchased it in a bigger size.

Oriflame Feetup Foot Cream

This product has 10% urea and is a very heavy cream for feet. I used it at night and it was pretty good during the winter time. It kept the feet hydrated and fresh. But I went through it pretty fast and decided to use it on and off towards spring time. It is an ok product, I am not sure if I will repurchase it.

Kiss my Face Sport broad spectrum SPF 50

I managed to finish this product in a month, because we have summer in Bucharest and because I have very fair skin. I used it every time I left the house. I liked this product. I loved the smell and the fresh feeling I got when I used it. More details about where I got it from you can find in my post here. Unfortunately when I wanted to repurchase it from iHerb, they were out, so I had to get a similar product from another brand locally.

Garnier Mineral Intensive 72h

Now, normally I would not talk about antiperspirants, but I felt this was worth a small mention. The reason being the fact that it was pretty impressive how it behaved itself during the hard gym classes. I felt fresh even after the classes. It says on the bottle that it is “enriched with absorbent mineralite, regulates perspiration peaks”, is good for sensitive skin and has no alcohol. Nothing to contradict there.

Vichy Capital Soleil SPF 50

This cream is for oily skin, I got it last year (yes, I know, I shall not use last year’s sun protection, but this one was in the fridge) and used it when I went to the sea side and every day during summer. I was so happy when I finished it, because the smell drove me crazy. I cannot understand why some dermatological-cosmetic brands insist on adding perfume to some of their formulations, when they mention “hypoallergenic” on their packages. Sensitive skin being mostly allergic to perfumes (even natural ones). But in any case this product did its job and protected me from the sun and in the same time it kept my skin from getting too greasy. Unfortunately, I will not get this again.

Logona Bio Calendula Lip Balm

I love this product! It is perfect! Do you know how some of the lip products hydrate the lips, but in the same time you don’t feel that they are moisturized? Like the product only makes the first skin layer smoother, by coating it? Well this one doesn’t. You really feel like your lips are hydrated to the fullest. The only downside of it is that it does not have a SPF. I used it during the nights to keep my lips from drying. Oh… and this is my 2^nd finished tube.

OptiFree Replenish and Refresh Eye drops

I spoke about these products before, but this is the last time I will mention them. Because my doctor changed my lenses solution and eye drops.

Coconut Oil

I have been using this oil (that is solid at temperatures under 21 degrees) in a variety of mixtures (body oil, henna, hair oil and lip butter) because of its hydrating properties. I also applied this product in the evenings directly on my skin and hair, but I am no big fan of coconut smell, but in the morning the effect was wonderful – both the hair and skin were feeling hydrated and smooth and I still could detect a faint scent of coconuts. It is not a heavy oil and penetrates the skin very fast.

Castor Oil

This is a very heavy oil. I used it mainly in hair compositions (henna, hair oil) and applied it directly on my eyelashes each evening after I removed my make-up and applied the eye cream. At one point I even made an eye make-up remover with castor oil and cornflower water. I like what this hair does to the hairs: the hair is much shinier and the roots are strengthened.

Cornflower water

Besides using this water in the above mentioned eye make-up remover, I used it in eye cream and eye gel compositions. I talked about them here.

Argan Oil

Everybody without exception loves this oil. It is the perfect oil for hydrating any skin types and for preventing wrinkles. It is also very good for the hair. I used it in body oils and hair oils mixtures. I haven’t used it by itself on my face skin yet, because until recently my skin was oily, but now that it is drier I am thinking of using it in face massages.

Tahiti Monoï Oil

I know everybody is crazy after Monoï oil. I am not sure how many know, that this oil is composed of coconut oil with a specific natural fragrance, which makes it so unique and even good for dry and sensitive skin. I used it in body oil mixtures and as it is directly on the skin in the evenings. The smell is not overpowering, it actually is very soothing and calming and the skin felt amazing.

Pomegranate Oil

This is a very potent oil and needs to be added 1 to 10% in other oils. It has a very strong antioxidant effect, thus preventing wrinkles and premature skin ageing. I mixed it with various oils for body oil mixtures and added it also in face masks.

Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

I used this essential oil in hair mixtures. It makes the hair oil mixture and the henna mask smell better and even after you wash the hair and condition it, a faint smell of ylang-ylang can still be felt. One of its advantages is that it does not dry out the hair.

Red vine extract

I got this product with the idea of mixing it in eye creams, but after looking at the recipes I came to the conclusion I cannot add it. But after doing some more research, I found that I can use it in a make-up remover. So I added it and enjoyed the result very much. This is an active ingredient, which helps improve the blood flow in the capillaries and helps reduce dark circles around the eye. The overall effect of this ingredient is of fresh looking skin, because the skin gets more oxygen.

Tea Tree Essential Oil

I used this product in a face gommage cream, face masks, face oils for massage and make-up removal. I also used this product directly on the spots at night after the face oil. However only until after I started on the Roaccutane treatment I could notice an improvement for my skin due to this oil. I know that normally this product takes longer than its medical alternative (benzoyl peroxide) to show a real effect on the skin, but until recently I only felt that my skin was feeling slightly refreshed after using it, but with no other benefit. Now, I can really see what it can do. I am happy that I could really make use of this product and make my skin get over the chemical alternative that is benzoyl peroxide (or not, as it is now the case in Romania, that we cannot find Brevoxyl, the product containing this active ingredient anywhere).

I know it has been a very long post, but I do hope you can find some useful information within it. All these products were purchased by me during some months. This post is in no way a sponsored post.

Please let me know if you used or use some of these products. I would love to read what your experience was with them!

Until next time,
Smile, it is good for the skin!
Love,
Alex.

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Behind the Mirror: April Empties

I got the idea to do an “April Empties” blog after I’ve been watching some of Essie’s videos on her empties. I think her enthusiasm got to me and since I also have my share of empties within a month, I thought “Hey! I can do it too!” and I can also give some tips and tricks from my experience with the used products.
First of all, you have to know I am a do-it-yourself, all-natural kind of girl and I have recently found out that I do want to learn to do some of my own cosmetics (more on that will come – I think).

I can’t remember the exact order in which I used up the products and some of the packaging I already threw away, but I have replacements already, so I can show you those. Without further ado, here they are:

1. Green clay powder (for facial masks) from Mayam. I think this is the second time I used this up. I got it from elemental. I use it after I do a thorough deep cleansing twice a week. I mix it up with green tea and some other goodies (ex: grape seeds oil, rosa mosqueta oil, raspberry oil or acmella). For my weird sensitive and acné prone skin this is the perfect calming mask after a thorough scrub. Also being green it does not modify the natural color of my skin (which is pretty fair and I like to keep it that way, but more on that below).

2. Anti-Cellulite Gel from Life Care. This is the first time I used it up and I must admit I like it very much for a deep burning gel – now, I know this sounds very burning-the-witch-on-the-stake-middle-aged, but it actually does the job – it heats up very fast and very intense and you end very up red and burning. It contains mint, rosemary, carnitine and of course caffeine (the last two are famous for their fat burning capacities). I have recently seen a commercial for also a cellulite burning product from Nivea which should be very good because it had carnitine. Now sportspeople have been taking carnitine supplements for keeping their muscles fit and the fat from building for some time now, I find it rather funny that some beauty brands advertise it as it was just discovered. But anyhow….

Because I am exercising I cannot tell if it actually burns all the cellulite away (this is the way you are supposed to use it anyway), however I have noticed that it got somewhat diminished. It also helps with the muscular fever after exercising, because heating up it relaxes the muscles and sweats the remnants of the lactic acid out of them. In the same time it keeps the skin hydrated. The deeper you massage it the better it works.

I have mainly used it at night, but when I used it during the day I noticed that after some hours there were still some burning sensations going on. I suppose that was a good thing.

However I must admit that I haven’t managed to use it every day (maybe this is why it lasted from December until April), but I did try to use it constantly.

3. Henna from Lush. I am afraid, I cannot show you more than the packaging from Lush in which I got the henna, which is not that interesting. I am using henna for… about… 3… 4… years now (wow, that long!) and I have tried different brands in the range of red, mahogany red, deep red, a.s.o. Yes, I wish I had red hair, but since mine is so dark brownish, it will take a while to get it red or at least reddish… This one from Lush was in red. I got a big bar (of approximately 360gr) which I used twice (in two months – one application per month). From all the hennas I have used so far this was the most hydrating the main reason for this being that it contained cocoa butter. I will not insist on henna right now, because I plan another post on henna alone, but I must admit I like it very much and in the winter times I might get it again.

4. Coconut oil from Logona. I got this in November – December knowing it was pretty small (only 45 ml) and I wasn’t much expecting it to last. But it actually did last up until April, so it was the money worth after all. I use it on my hair the morning or the day before washing it up. I massage it on the length and ends by avoiding the roots, after that I tie the hair in a braid. I have noticed that it actually provides good nourishment to the hair. It is softer and had less split ends. Because it is a bio product has no parabens, silicones, a.s.o which goes perfectly with my henna routine (I actually mixed it up with some henna powders) and hair mask. I am no fan of the coconut smell, it actually gets me pretty queasy, but if it works for the hair I can take it as a girl. More on hair care, in a future post.

5. Anthelios AC from La Roche-Posay SPF 30. I mentioned before that I like my skin the way it was naturally meant to be: pretty fair. In order to keep it that way and because it is very sensitive and acné prone I need to shield it from the sun (UVA & UVB rays) all year long. After I watched Lisa Eldridge’s videos on Sunscreens I decided to go hunting and in November I got this one (yes, it lasted me from November since April). It is a fluid which enters the skin very fast and it is not leaving it as fattened as a lot of other sun screens usually did. It is water resistant, which comes in handy if you want to apply make-up over it, because the foundation blends very well over it and stays on for a longer period of time. However it does not hydrate the skin, so in winter times it is very important to use a hydrating cream or treatment during the night to prevent it from drying (yes, oily skin gets dehydrated too, I am afraid).
Because I have to use acné treatments, which give the skin a higher sensitivity to sun light (even in winter), I have to use a sun screen during the day. I use this as a day cream and make-up base all on its own without any other creams.

6. Brevoxyl. The main reason I use the above mentioned sun screen is this product. It bleaches and disinfects the acné affected areas of the skin and as a result the skin gets dehydrated and highly sensitive to the sun. The conclusion is – yes, you guessed it right – sun screen is needed during the day…
I got this product because it was recommended to me by my dermatologist. Now if you have acné and go to the nearest pharmacy and ask for this you might probably just get it, however you might not tolerate it very well. It is highly damaging (I cannot use it on the face anymore) because it dries the skin up, but it also helps with the eruption by calming it down. I use it with Avène’s thermal water, because it helps with most of these side effects. Therefore if you feel that you need this, just go and ask your dermatologist first. You need to know that this product is in no way to be associated with salicylic, glycolic acid or other fruit acids and retinol – because you will get chemical burns on your skin.
So… I used this “bad boy” up in April and got a new one (yes, unfortunately I need it on my back).

7. Aloe Vera Gel from Life Care. This is not a cosmetic product, but I decided to include it because inner wellbeing reflects itself on the outside as well. I have been drinking a few spoons of this mixed with grapefruit juice every morning for a month. It should cleanse and help detoxifying your organism. I am not sure if after a month you can tell if it did its job or not, but I feel that my liver is feeling a litter better after taking this (I think the grape fruit helped too). You can drink it mixed with juices from other fruits as well or on its own (for those of you with sensitive taste buds – I must warn you it does not taste very yummy).
You must also keep a healthy diet, if you want it to be efficient in its detoxifying job.

... and with this we come to an end. I hope you liked it. Please let me know if you might have any questions or comments. I am looking forward to them!

Smile, it is good for the skin!