Pots & a Pan

Spring is in the air, so what's cooking?

 Let me show you my new pots. And my domestic virtue is still slightly underscored by my love for makeup, but I still have a cute pan thrown in it as well. I mean, beauty and health also comes from the inside, right?

•  Top: Gressa blush/lipstick Radiant: I've gotten on the organic Gressa bandwagen and got both this blush/lipstick as the foundation.
• Right: RMS Illusive blush: I'm trying to get as organic as possible lately and I did not have a colour like this yet in the organic range.
• Bottom: NARS eye Paint in Ubangi: I know, not organic but still pretty & pot-like to feature.
• Left: Tata Harper Volumizing lip & Cheek tint in Very Sweet: Oh my, this is the perfect organic hybrid between liptint and cheektint. It has a highlighting quality without compromising on colour.
• Left Top: RMS lipgloss in Bloom: a GPW from cultbeauty and a sister of Tata Harper very sweet. This one is a true lipgloss instead of a hybrid.
• Middle: Stella-Marie-Maris Pure Shea Butter: I got this one for my flare-up skin as it is the most neutral of butters. It takes some work to get it working for you, though.

As for swatches [unblended], I'll spare you the NARS as it has been featured a-plenty. Let's go for my latest organic ones:

1. Gressa Radiant is one of the most pigmented and poppiest colours in my organic section. It is almost too pigmented for my liking. On young-n-pretty skins it would look like this (See Brittany). I'm slightly hindered by some earthy note of fragance: it's not my favourite scent.
2. RMS Illusive: I needed a perfect Mauve-nudish blush in my collection and RMS Illusive seemed to be qualified. I think it's slightly muddier in real life. I was hoping for the cream version of Surratt La Vie en Rose. It still translates as a neutral-slightly cooler blush on my skin but I think the formula is sorta hard during colder weather.
3. RMS Bloom: I've been most delighted by this GWP. It's a true lipgloss compared with Tata Harper's clingier formula, but you could still use it as a short-term cheekgloss.
4. Tata Harper Lip & Cheek Volumizer in Very Sweet: Tata Harper makes brilliant organic products and seeing her doing makeup makes my heart sing for joy. I think this balm bring out a volumizing quality on cheeks (& lips) without feeling heavy. Very Sweet has been a gorgeous peachy highlighter-esque colour and I hope she'll make more of them. Hint: in dusky rose?

I have not added any blended swatches yet. I will do and compare them later: for this post I just wanted to show you the difference in texture.

I've said this a couple of times, but *organic* is not some kind of magic word. As for my latest pots, there is a new love that could replace anything chemical [Tata Harper] and there is the one that probably is more difficult than I'd expected from the raves [Gressa]. In any case, beauty reviews are highly subjective and based on so many things: weather, hormones, age, fragance memory and I could go on.

Basically, just my 2 cents or that bit of herb in the cooking...

One Sample led to another: Marie-Stella-Maris

I've been happy to sample up something from a new cosmetic company: Stella-Marie-Maris

I fell head over heels on the minimalistic packaging and the French aura it exuded. Especially the heels because the footcream with thyme is bliss for tired, parched feet.

 Doesn't it look like a Saint Laurent editorial?

 

I absolutely feel like being invited to a show during fashionweek:

 

Now we've gotten the superficial intentions of buying out of the way, don't we all fall for packaging every now and then, it has an inside too:

Ok, besides the ingredients:

Their website: I think they 'care for water', or is that just a hunch of mine?

This is also highlighted on their packaging:

Beyond looking through the rose-tinted glasses of nobility towards good causes like water maintainance, I am quite enthousiastic about this footcream.

Feet are somewhat the forgotten child of the beauty industry: only few companies pay attention to them. But how important or annoying can they be when they're not happy or feeling good? A good footcream should be the perfect hybrid between being moisturizing but also fast absorbant: who is actually sleeping with socks in order to get pretty feet? Raise your hands (or feet) if you do!

Besides of absorbing rapidly, they also have this wonderful blend of herbs that give zest to tired feel.  A mix of pepper mint, thyme, natural oils and pumice makes them feel cleaner. 

So this specific sample led me to the full size. It's a gorgeous footcream that will revitalize tired (sandal/slippered/heeled or broody sneaker-ed) feet to life again. And I think it will add the right amount of moisture when winter will arrive.

Perhaps there will be more on the cards with my new set of samples:

Who knows? 

Find them on their website, skins' website or at their flagstore @ Herengracht in Amsterdam.