Packing Makeup for Long-Term Traveling! Which Products Made the FINAL CUT?

     Salutations, and happy and beautiful Sunday to you all! I have finally gotten to the "settling down" stages of my Chicago move, I wanted to make a roundup post of all the pretties widdled out of my self-perpetuating sea of beauty products to fit into my carryon bag. These products were ultimately selected to come with me to my initial hurrah of my trip, before I could go back to my home city to get the rest of my stuff. I managed to get through two months using just these products! 😁😌 The only casualty of my trip was, indeed, the Sleek eye palette that I was raving about in the video. I hadn't even had it that long...ah well.

                                 

                         View from Merchant Mart! Chicago, IL

Maple Holistics Sweet Almond Oil Skincare Review | A Cruelty-Free, All Natural Brand!

It's true - once you experience the immensely soothing skincare benefits of almond oil, you never go back. This small almond oil obsession of mine is getting to be a bit real. . . 

Disclaimer: This product was kindly sent to me by Maple Holistics for testing and reviewing purposes.

What's In | Affordable Korean Skincare

     Happy Tuesday!  Imagine my surprise when I was making a visit to Ulta after work one day, and realized that they had added Skinfood and Tony Moly to their skincare selections in the U.S.! I rewound back and remembered when I bought a cleanser when they had the entire Tony Moly brand at steeply discounted prices a while back, so I thought that some Ulta's were phasing the brand out to make way for a new one. I'm so glad that I was wrong, and that they now have a revamp and an even larger selection of the brand! 

Skinfood and Tony Moly are fairly affordable Korean skincare brands that both have origins in South Korea. I was familiar with Skinfood for their salmon corrector (which you have seen on this blog since the very first post I published back in 2014 - this concealer is truly my holy grail!), so I was excited to delve into their skincare! My experience as of yet with their fares consists of a shea butter lip balm and their Moisture Foam Cleanser. 

Skinfood Egg White Pore Mask, $10.50, Tony Moly Bamboo Cool Water Soothing Gel, $9.50

As is probably obvious, the packaging is what ultimately won me over with these items!

3 Pampering Body Care Essentials for Late-Winter

   
     Welcome back!  Well everyone, we have reached the time of year where the inconsistent weather patterns and climates can really begin to wreak havoc on our skin and affect it in many ways, whether it's a cold and dry climate or hot and damp - skin changes along with the weather. That's why it's essential to take care of your skin and keep it well-hydrated and exfoliated, especially during the cold-weather months! Here I will showcase a few products that can battle the winter and keep dry, parched skin at bay, replacing it with soft, radiant, and nourished skin!

A Cleanser You Should Try! Lumene Finland Bright Touch Cleansing Foam

     Welcome back! How are you all?  Oh yes, I have a mid-week skincare review! The Lumene Skincare brand is an affordable Finnish brand of which most ingredients are plant and mineral based (and 80% are located within the Arctic Circle, how sweet is that?), and this brand has been all over my radar lately with their increasingly accessible targeted lines of skincare! They have anti-aging benefits with many of their products, some of which are marketed for all skin types, such as the one I'll be reviewing today: the Bright Touch Refreshing Cleansing Foam (formerly Radiant Touch in a squeeze tube instead of Bright Touch in a bottle w/ pump).

More Product Empties! What Would I Repurchase?

     Happy Sunday! When looking back through my archives and seeing that I hadn't done an empties post since November, I have since accumulated a bit more of a selection of items I had recently finished up, and to avoid clutter and those hoarder tendencies, I generally always want to throw things away as soon as I finish them. That's why my future empties posts will more than likely never feature a bunch of stuff that's been laying around for ages. Some of these things I find worth repurchasing, and some of them are repurchases themselves. So, let's get on with it so I can finally throw this stuff out! 😀

Comprehensive Gift-Giving Guide: Premium Skincare Gift Sets with the Best Values!

Hello! As Christmas is less than a day away, are you still putting it all in at the very last possible moment as far as holiday shopping?  Premium-brand skincare is quite an investment to make for anyone, and this comprehensive guide is for all the skincare savants in your friends and family you still haven't crossed off that list yet. If this person you're buying for is all about luxury skincare, this post will only showcase mid-tier brands, not luxury brands, per se. So if that is the case, you'd be better off looking elsewhere!

But if you're here for a value resource, no frets, I have you covered! All skincare sets I found are under $75, and I also took product size portions in each set as a factor, the ounces in the travel sizes compared to the full sizes, the variety of functionality of the products included, etc. Skincare is something that's inevitably used up fairly quickly, and let's be real, someone doesn't really know if they like a product or if it works for them in the long term if there's only enough in a mini travel size worth only about five uses, which equals about a week or two of use, right? I took that into account when doing my scouring through websites. By the way, this is not a sponsored post.

If you are wondering what to get, and what the best value skincare gift sets are from the top premium brands this holiday, stay tuned! 

New Skincare and Makeup Acquisitions!

 

     Hey, what's that tattered piece of fabric I see being whisked away in the horizon?  Oh, it's just my wallet floating away. Well, to be fair, what is going to be discussed in this post are close to being the only beauty products I've purchased in the past six months or so, and for me, it's the inevitable time of the year where I'm reminded that my birthday is approaching, so I suppose I have a bit of an excuse. However, that is to be determined. 😅

Alright my lovely beauties! It has been a hot minute since I've acquired a couple of these products: There are two high-end makeup items I'll be showing, which were indeed purchased much earlier than the drugstore items. I've changed jobs since, for college, so my current budget is at legitimate shoestring status. What's more, most of the skincare and makeup items were purchased at a rather steeply discounted price! Huzzah for bargains!

A Skincare Sunday Review: Shea Moisture Superfruit Multivitamin Renewal Eye Cream

     Hey everyone! Welcome back to another Skincare Sunday review!  It had been a while since I had even thought to try another eye cream after finishing another drugstore one a year or so back. At the time, being a broke college student, I just wasn't thinking of my skin, and wanted to find something cruelty free that fit my insanely tight budget. The caveat was, I couldn't find any eye creams which fit the description. Then Shea Moisture comes onto the skincare scene and I was hoping to be proven wrong through my discovery of their Superfruit Multivitamin Renewal Eye Cream.

Drugstore Skincare Review!! Freeman Charcoal and Black Sugar Facial Polishing Mask

*Contains Affiliate Links     

     Hello, and good day to you all!  So, now is the time for me to finally express some thoughts and other ramblings of a review on this seemingly inexpensive skincare product from the Freeman brand, and seriously, this stuff is pretty much the grand-daddy line in the drugstore skincare market. My first tube is currently on its last leg, as you will see from the photos. The product in question is none other than the Freeman Feeling Beautiful Charcoal and Black Sugar Facial Polishing Mask. I was originally planning on making this a Skincare Sunday post, but limiting myself to one skincare review a week would be pretty pathetic on my part lol, especially since I have quite a few products I want to discuss with you all! This is a beauty blog after all, for goodness' sake! :)

     And look, this tube is almost empty, so please excuse all the photos of this crinkly, beat-up packaging. Should've clicked away on the cam when I first bought it, right? I know, le sigh. 

Freeman Charcoal and Black Sugar Facial Polishing Mask

A Few Product Empties! + Would I Repurchase?

*Contains Affiliate Links

     Hello there!  Hooray, it's almost the weekend! So, today, I have a scarcely proportioned roundup of the products that I've recently finished up completely (and these are the ones I actually managed to keep the empty containers for). This is split in half with two skincare products, and two makeup products. And, I know, in theory, it's a good habit to throw away crap as soon as it's coming up empty, but for posts like these, well....let's just say there are a few other things I finished that I wished would've stayed around a bit longer for me to do a post on them. Hmmm, hoarder tendencies there, or no?

In all honesty, I sometimes don't really see the point of "empties" posts without information that I can get something out of, whether I'm reading or watching, so to reiterate what some others prefer to do, I would like to tie in some mini reviews on these items. Ultimately, what it will come down to is, would I purchase and try these babies again, or were some of these products just a thorn in my side that I couldn't wait to use up, so they would be out of my hair forever? Read on to find out! 

A Skincare Sunday Review: No7 Beautiful Skin Blemish Defence Serum

No7 Beautiful Skin Blemish Defence Serum

*Contains Affiliate Links
     In my skincare discoveries, I have recently been converted from heavy creams to lightweight serums and the occasional skincare oil for nourishment and hydration. I find that these aforementioned options are much less pore-clogging for my skin, particularly. In all honesty, I went into purchasing the No7 Beautiful Skin Blemish Defense Serum, knowing that this serum's claims were promising me no more than a sans-frills pre-step for prepping the skin for moisturizer, with some peptides and Willow Bark Extract to calm any mild breakouts I was having, and block any more from making themselves come to the surface. I wasn't expecting an acne-clearing miracle, nor was I expecting adequate hydration from using the product alone.

My First Foray into Carrier Oils feat. Aura Cacia Nurturing Sweet Almond Skincare Oil + Hello Again!

*Contains Affiliate Links  
     To prevent at all costs a dismal rambly post explaining my 6 month long hiatus from my blog, I'll just say, 'tis great to be back! Even if I'll just be posting on this blog in the summer months, I have had time to really think about what direction I want my online writing platform to go (and I'm not talking about this blog individually). And believe me when I say that, in interim, as far as the beauty stuff is concerned, with research, I have really had the chance to reflect on how to implement improvements into my skincare game. Huzzah!

     Aura Cacia is a brand I just recently discovered whilst perusing the aisles at Whole Foods a couple months back. I was in a somewhat desperate search for something that could act as a moisturizer for the face that didn't veer off into 'oily' or 'heavy' as being the main points of discussion in the reviews I read, and upon reading an admittedly large amount of reviews (as I was always skeptical of a carrier oil alone doing an adequate service in regards to the inflammation, hyperpigmentation, acne scars, and other skin problems I was having, all the while being lightweight and comfortable), in the end, something that seemed to tick the boxes for me was the Nurturing Sweet Almond Skin Care Oil.

Favorites: Skincare & Haircare

     Hello!  When I decided to write a post dedicated to my skincare and haircare favorites (but mostly skincare) which spans over a non-specific time period (from the past three months or so, in this case), it was brought to my attention that I haven't created a single post regarding my monthly or weekly makeup  favorites. And I have come to the conclusion that featuring those type of posts on my blog will probably be few and far between, if any at all. I know, I know....Never say never.  So, it could  happen occasionally!