Last minute Empties B4 2015 is over and done with...(part I)

Ohhh. look at the Used-up bag...It's totally full!

Ok, these are actually from the last two months, but fact is...that's a lot. And I feel slightly ashamed for not having reviewed anything in a full post yet. So that will be an after-idea but first I'll post the shorter reviews...

1st batch: Skincare & Co

• Sunday Riley Good Genes: I personally found this exfoliating treatment too strong for my sensitive skin. I used it for hands, and they gotten better texture. However, that's a bit too expensive for hands for repurchase.
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• Acorelle Skin Gel Sunblock SPF 30: This oil-in-gel felt too greasy on my skin.
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• Olivine Love + Roses Tonic: I really liked the freshness of this product and the fact it is made from organically grown roses. The glass bottle will be reused to decant other toners.
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• Grown Alchemist Antioxidant+3 Detox Serum: I was looking for a detoxing serum. It feels like a Essence, very watery. I think it helps a bit: the harder work is detoxing from the inside...
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• Arcona Chamomile Balm: Soooo REPURCHASE for wintertimes. This is a sensitive skin staple that I import from skinstore.com and often have to pay duties...still worth it.

-bottom part-

• Skin & Blossom Age Resist Daycream: This is a gorgeously neutral, organic daycream that is packed with good pro-youth ingredients. It needs a full review. Already Repurchased.
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• Aurelia Revitalise and Glow Serum: This baby has passed on my blog frequently (see here). Another Winter/seasonal change product I keep on repurchasing.
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• Tarte Maracula Oil: I like the light but nourishing feel of this oil. Does it have to be from Tarte? Meh, I like other brands as well but the freebie has been wonderful.
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• Tatcha Soothing Indigo Renewing Treatment: STAPLE for my problematic skin. It soothes upcoming psoriasis spots like no other and it costs me a fortune but worth it.

Next batch of skincare:

•  Algenist Gentle Rejuvenating Cleanser: Nice and foamy. Not the most advanced or organic but it does the job and is soft.
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• Sanoflore Floral Water in Camomile & Cornflower: The Camille is so soft and retexturizes skin so gently...Just got my new French repurchase today! The Cornflower water is ideal for post-cleaning the oil & water mascara removing products-that-always-leave-this-filter-on.
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• La Roche Posay Serozinc: Everyone seems to love this one and me too. Repurchase.
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• The Body Shop Camomile Waterproof eye makeup remover: Lovely. I think Yves Rocher or cheaper brands do a similar job. On the other hand, it feels absolutely like a breeze on my eyes and I do not need to use Cornflower water to soothe afterwards. Repurchase. 

Random Hair & Body Batch

• Elancyl Cellu-slim Nuit (night): I would not be Birkinbagbeauty if I did not test out the occasional anti-cellulite lotion. It's fine but I prefer a tube formula over a pot as active ingredients do not vaporize so quickly.
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• Phylia [de M] Connect: another frequent flyer on my blog (here). My love is cooling down as I do not see that much results anymore. Oversaturated maybe?
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• Lush Marilyn: I sound like a broken record but I often use this one to both moisturize and freshen my blondes in a natural, non-chemical way.
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• Shwarzkopf Blond Me Cool Ice Anti-Yellow-Effect Spray Conditioner: Ohhh, I cannot believe I reviewed it yet. It is the ideal holiday swim anti-brassy easy toner spray. 
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• Mediceuticals x-folate anti dandruff shampoo: Well, it does a bit of exfoliating but once going organic shampoo, you will find the chemicals still affecting your scalp negatively.

******
Tomorrow I'll post the remaining Empties. Probably nobody will read it as everyone is too busy, but perhaps on your booze-fueled, hangover 1 January as some distraction for yer poor head ;)

Eye Travel with Sunday Riley Start Over travel-size

Now most of us are either holidaying or have one coming up, I'd like to share a travel favourite of mine.

Meet Sunday Riley Starting Over Eyecream. It looks as simple as any other eyecream: 

Tube ✓

Clinical letters ✓

White packaging ✓

Or somehow I find eyecreams to be looking kinda sterile compared to other facial care. 

 Might be because it comes closer to a fragile area, the eyeball?  

In any case, Sunday Riley has Results as their 1st concern:

 Now, I do think the concept of 'having results' is a variable. In normal English: what I want from an eyecream might be totally different from my teenage daughter. She might combat dark circles that come from Festival [lack of] sleeping; I want wrinkle care!

But my love for this eyecream is probably veered towards it's travel purpose: especially airplanes that suck the moisture out of your body like a Saharan desert. Also, the puffiness reminiscent of walking in a sandstorm.

This Metallic top has this perfectly cool feel on eyes. A bit of a squeeze will bring out a small dollop [practice first otherwise you'll have an amount to equalize for the whole face], and the feel of the metallic top with the super-moisturizing eyecream will have your lids soothed to a key.

Ingredients:

V-5 Ageless Complex (Opuntia Tuna Fruit (Prickly Pear) Extract, Agave Tequilana Leaf (Blue Agave) Extract, Cypripedium Pubescens (Lady’s Slipper Orchid) Extract, Opuntia Tuna Fruit, Opuntia Vulgaris (Cactus) Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract & Saccharmyces Cerevisiae (Yeast) Extract), Squalene and Olea Europea (Olive) Fruit Extract, Rosa Rubiginosa (Rosehip) Seed Oil, Punica Granataum (Pomegranate) Seed Oil, Methysilanol Carboxymethyl Theophylline, Butylene Glycol, PEG-75 Meadowsol, Ammonium Polyacrylate, Isohexadecane, PEG-40 Castor Oil, Hydroxyethyl, Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (Vitamin C Ester) Glucosamine HCL & Algae Extract & Yeast Extract & Urea, Algae Extract, Artemisia Vulgaris (Mugwort) Extract, Glabridine (Licorice) Extract, Lecithin, Cholesterol Oleyl Carbonate & Cholesteryl Nanoate & Cholesteryl Chloride, Punica Granatum (Pomegranate) Seed Oil & Astaxanthin & Lycopene & Alpha D-Tocopherol, Methyl Paraben, Propyl Paraben, DMDM Hydantoin

As for these results again: The ingredients focus on hydratation [eg: Rosehip seed oil, Squalene oil, Pomegranate seed oil] , anti-ageing [eg: Prickly Pear extract, Vitamin C, Algae extract, again Rosehip & Pomegranate] and brightening [eg: Licorice extract & Licopene].

I often feel I "start over" a bit when arriving at a new destination from an airplane. Perhaps because of the fast way of overcoming total areas, timezones and sometimes seasons.

Now I can "start over" with representative & hydrated eye-area.

But why does only the travel format come with the eyecontour-saving metallic lid???

Also, can we have this in the facecream as well? 

Using... Used... Gonna Use

One of my beauty resolutions is actually using up things...it's going all right. 

I will start off with the Using category:

• Using: Sunday Riley Good Genes treatment 

 Marketed as both a serum for 5 days a week or as a mask which has some potent Lactic Acid for that bit of exfoliating

Right now I find it a bit strong (read: stingy) for my delicate skin. I think I will alternate it and use it as a mask.

Talking about masks?

• Used: Glamglow mud mask (sample)

Although I love my sheetmasks, I really like the deep cleansing effect I will get from a mudmask. I have tried a variety from BeautyDIY Glacier Ice mudmask to Fango's various types, and I especially love them in summer when I pile up the sunscreen.

Glamglow has been marketed as the "Hollywood Mask" and the name already suggest "Glamour".

I really liked using this...as you can see from that picture above, it's that mudmasky green colour that would make Kermit envious. Also, it has some grains in it that become effective when you rinse off the mask in scrubbing motions.

Is it more fabulous than my other mudmasks? Not really, but I already have a really good stash. The Borghese Mudmasks each target a different aim, eg whitening or cleansing and are really effective for each cause. The Beauty DIY Glacier Mud is also so gorgeous as you only need a thin layer and it dries so fast. Moreover, Glacier Mud has a variety of minerals that really have an effect on the skin, besides the wonderful cleansing effect.

in the Clay department: Borgese & BeautyDIY

Still, I like it and it gets a 2-in-one action by cleansing(tingling) and scrubbing.

• Gonna Use: My gmarket diary

 

Wow, I purchased this one 1 1/2 year ago when I still was quite attached to Gmarket. I ordered a couple of their agendas then (eg this Alice in Wonderland) and forgot about this one untill I found it again. 

Most of Gmarket (Korean) agendas do not have fixed dates but only days of the week, so you can start and finish your agenda whenever you want.

Moreover, don't you think the "Plans of the Week" are cute? I am going to schedule in "Falling in Love" & "Beautiful Travel" soon.

Using...used...gonna use..

I've been hitting the plateau of beauty frugality lately. First, it was being compensated by fashion exuberance in spending, then it was both, and now both seem to tone down.

Still, I have been using some things, swapping on makeupalley and want to revise some earlier opinions as well.

Using...Used....Gonna use...

Used: (and up for repurchase) Shu Uemura Full Shimmer Conditioner

Actually almost used: I bought this massively niche and expensive conditioner from Shu Uemura I'd discussed over here. This conditioners has actually been quite good: to be precisely...good in the form I have to discard my beauty-frugality soon to repurchase.
The thing is that my hair-quality have gotten slightly better by Kerastase Elixir Ultime Moringa and some haircuts too, so on healthy hair this makes it even more delightfully shimmery.

Using: Sunday Riley Starting Over eyecream

I really wanted to post about this one because today the retailer of this, cultbeauty, has a sale going on giving discount for a whopping 25 % with code FLASH25 (link)

It seems expensive and it actually is, but I have been using it since may this year, and you can see I haven't even used half of it. It is not the eyemiracle I have been hoping for, however, I cannot stop the complete ageing process and it actually makes my eyes appear more lifted and hydrated in the morning after I slept the night with the heater on (always turn off the heat at night, unless you live in Antartica). It is creamy enough for nighttime, yet fluffy and fast penetrating enough for hasty mornings.

To be used: Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill

I received this gem during a swap and I'm dying to use it soon. However, I always seem to be distracted by the virginity of unused makeup and end up staring at it's sparkles and the way the logo still seem to be looking like freshly stamped in...

So swapping on makeupalley?

I've been swapping some beauties in the form of Burberry blush for my latest high end cosmetic crush Giorgio Armani. I looooove blush, but going to winter and seeing my skin going more wintery as well, I find myself into clowncheek dillema that looks fashionable on fashiongirls but basically clowncheek on me (seriously, I think it sometimes looks clowncheek on them too and I almost want to chase them with a stipping brush and blend*blend*blend that colour into something less russian-doll)
I know, and admire pale porceline princesses such as the stunning DrivellerKate flaunting a huge aray of blushes and making themselves even more ridiculously beautiful, but I'm slightly older with less perfect complection so I had to revise some of my stash to see if they would work if

• I'm in a hurry and cannot spend ages on blending/mixing with other colours
• smell ok (Burberry seems to get slightly sickening on me lately with it's hyper-rose scent)
• have a primer-esque quality without actually having primer (hence, not pore enhancing but smoothing)

FYI, the sale of cultbeauty.co.uk is still going on until today at midnight GMT and they have some delightful brands beside Sunday Riley. Again, the code is FLASH25 and international shipping is free after spending £100 (before discount, so after the discount I still got my free shipping even though it was under the £ 100).