The Face-off: Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair vs. The Body Shop Drops of Youth Bouncy Mask

The big 4 0 is right around the corner. It's a time when one checks for new wrinkles, a bit of sagging skin around the mouth, discoloration around the nose. Then to battle these nasties, one has no choice (eating healthy and adequate sleep are not choices where I'm concerned), but to resort to looking up reviews for a magical elixir of youth. After days of research, I narrowed it down to two products:

vs.

     

June Favourites

This getting to be a bad pretty habit, procrastination that is. Each time I want to do a favourites post, I end up putting it up way after the 5th.

I finally got around to doing it. This month I have a couple of beauty items apart from just makeup. Some are staples, things that are just classic and that I feel very strongly of never letting go, others are new discoveries.

Let's dive right in:

The Body Shop Drops of Youth- First Impressions

Catchy name, paraben and silicon free, this product drew me right in, even though I am no skin care fanatic. But after finally accepting that I am getting on in my years and that the word 'youth' did not anymore involve me, it was time past time I do something about it. After reading lots of reviews, most positive, I decided to take the plunge myself.

Drops of Youth

At first I thought it was something from the tea tree oil range, but I quickly realized my mistake. I bought the bigger bottle, to be frank it was the sales lady who talked me into it, because obviously buying the bigger bottle would be more economical etc.

The Body Shop Face and Body Brush

I know it's been a while, but nevertheless I'm back again with another review, this time about one of my all time fav brushes.

I don't have much experience with MAC brushes, but I do have my fair share of Sigma brushes and some of the Real Technique brushes and both are wonderful, but as far as a powder brush is concerned, I relly like this one.

The Body Shop Face and Body Brush

Setting Your Makeup

So after getting the perfect makeup for an event, you'll obviously want to set it so that it lasts you for a good six to eight hours. The best way to do that is to set it either with a translucent setting powder (white) or with a setting spray. The reason you don't want to set it with a pressed powder or colored loose powder is because all that hard work you put in to get the intensity of everything just right can change quite a bit by adding on more color at the end. Translucent powders will not do that, neither will setting sprays that are all the rave these days.

My go to:

The Body Shop Vitamin E Face Mist and Chanel Crystalline Powder

The Body Shop Oil Free Balancing Foundation

This is one of the very first foundations I used. I remember using it on my engagement day and I remember getting plenty of comments. To this day I love this foundation and the few that I have actually repurchased. The reason is that the climate back home is quite humid and even the a pretty dry skinned girl can end up with unflattering oily skin.

I'm in the shade 03

March Favorites

Hello friends…

I am here with my first post in the “Favourites” series. Some things I have been loving and using the past month. Some new discoveries and some old favorites. Here goes...

My Skin Care Routine

It's sketchy at best. I have some skin care products that I have been pretty much using all my life. Since I never did have problematic skin, I just stuck to my favorite face washes, creams and such. I not strict about the regimen, but it exists and it was one of my resolutions to adhere to it better. Broke that one months ago. But I thought I have been asked about what skin care products I use and so today that's what I'll talk about. Let's be clear, skin care is important.....and it shows.

In the words of Coco Chanel:

The Body Shop Tea Tree Pore Minimiser (Primer)

I've always been a fan of The Body Shop, I especially love their Vitamin E and Vitamin C range of skin care products. Back in the day of the acne and break outs, the tea tree oil face wash was a staple on my bathroom counter. As my skin matured, it settled and became less oily, so now I alternate between the Vitamin C and Vitamin E ranges. So when a friend of mine asked me to recommend a primer I immediately thought of their mattifying silicon based primer, which is also pretty good. But as I was admiring the impressive array of products in each range I saw this particular product...

Since my friend has pigmentation issues and pores, it made more sense to go for this though I didn't even know this product was on the market. It seemed like a better fit for her. So she bought it. 

Favorite Liquid Eyeliner - The Body Shop Liquid Eyeliner

I love my gel eye liners, I do. But some days its such a task to get my brush from my brush case and dig out the pot, struggle with the right amount and all that. On such days, my favorite thing to use is The Body Shop Eyeliner. I have experimented with many eyeliners, and though most fare well enough, nothing has quite yet beat this particular one. I find myself inevitably reaching for it again and again. And I'll tell you why.

The Body Shop Liquid Eyeliner

Colors to Flatter Brown Eyes

In a post I did few days back, I mentioned that brown and black eyes girls are lucky because their eye color is neutral (with maybe some warm or cool flecks) and hence they are able to make most colors work to enhance it.

Which got me to thinking about some colors that would look amazing, and suggestions for you.

Some shades might push you out of your comfort zone, but you could always use the brighter or bolder colors as a liner shade under your eyes rather than a full on lid color. Once again I want to remind you that the swatches that will come later are without primer so obviously with primer they come off as more intense.

So here we go...

What colors? From L to R: Navy/deep blue, burgundy, slate/dark/gunmetal gray, deep purples, moss/olive green, gold, bronze and in the middle champagne, and glittery black....