10 beauty rules I don't follow

1. Cutting my hair every 4-6 week
My hair is not damaged. I also want to grow it to my waist, cutting it every 6 months and doing a weekly split end hunt is enough.

2. Exfoliating my face once to twice a week
I once listened to a make up artist who told me to do that. I hardly had any skin left! With my dry sensitive I only do it between 2-4 times a year!

3. Doing deep hair treatment
Hair is dead. Dead I tell you! Leave it alone if you don't need it. You simply can't repair hair.

4. Using hair conditionner
I do use a homemade spray after my shampoo but that's it. I realised that my hair was getting dry because of product buildup.

5. Washing my face morning and night
You don't need to use a cleaner twice a day it will likely irritate your skin. I just put at bit of water in my face in the morning or a spray of rose water. No cleanser needed!

6. Changing my make up colours according to season
What is this the 1920's? Buy make up you like, ignore the rules and have fun!

7. Changing my fagrance according to season
Who does that anyway? They do those rules to make you consume more.

8. Plucking my eyebrows religiously
Best way to end up with tiny teeny eyebrows. If you have a tendency to over-pluck do not pluck for three weeks and start over.

9. Contouring 
I like my big round cheeks. I don't want to look like somebody else. It also involves a lot of blending, I'd rather spend this time on sleeping in the morning!

10. Following the make up and hair trend. 
It is important to stay up to date with the techniques, nobody wants to look dated. But this fall for example medium length is doing a comeback, if long hair comes back in the winter, how are we suppose to frow magically 20 cm of hair!

How about you what rules do you break?

Lush colour supplement review

Today I want to review Lush colour supplement. I use it part of my resolution to not use real foundation, especially long wearing one on a regular basis. The foundation comes in 5 colors: light yellow, dark yellow, light pink, dark pink (the darkest shade available) and Jackie oates. The latter is made for extremely pale skin and uses different ingredients. It's also one of the only really pale foundation easily accessible that comes in a slightly yellow shade. I'm glad that a company understood that very pale skin is often very red and pink undertone in foundation doesn't really help. Lush also makes a cream bronzer that can be used as foundation on dark skin. (It will probably be too pale for deep skin).

Personally I am fair but not that fair and I'm wearing the color light yellow (licht geel) which is the second palest shade. I've also tried light pink in the past and it was a great corrector for under eye circle but way too pink for my skin it was also too dark. The light yellow shade is also very close to a neutral shade. According to the ladies at LUSH it is the most popular shade they offer. It will accommodate most light to light medium skinned ladies.

The color supplement is meant to be mixed with your favorite moisturizer as a tinted moisturizer. You can also use it straight. I've mixed it with lush enzymion that I received as a sample. I wouldn't suggest mixing it with a very heavy moisturizer.

As for my review, I love it! The color is great it gives great glow and it just gives a little bit of coverage enough to cover my redness, perfect for work or day wear. It doesn't oxydize, cling on dry patches and it stays on my dry skin pretty well. I wear a bit of jojoba oil under my makeup.

Here's the foundation in action

Now the finish look

Lipstick review: 2B violet flame

I'm utterly suprise by the brand 2B. It is a very fun, flashy young and cheap brand from Belgium. The lipstick cost around 6 euros and they are CRAZY pigmented. The finish is glossy and slightly shinny and it wears for a solid 5 hours. They do not dry up the lips. I picked up the shade Violet Flame with is a purple with a pink undertone and I love it! I didn't want to spend to much money on a purple lipstick since I didn't know if I would like it.Can't wait to try other colors from the brand.

I would give the lipstick a good 4.5/5

Here's the full face without flash

This picture shows how dark the lipstick actually is. It's a tough color to photograph but it is definetely a vampy fall color.

Product Battle: Revlon lip butter - Maybelline color whisper and L'Oréal rouge caresse

What beauty addict never heard of the Revlon lip butter? Pigmented like a lipstick, moisturizing like a lip balm and with a glossy finish. Beauty addicts all around the world tried them and most of them loved them. As a response to that, many companies such as L'Oréal and Maybelline created their own answer to the product. But do they measure up to the lip butter?

First contestant: Maybelline color whisper in Rose of attraction.

Maybelline describes the product as pure color pigments suspended in a weightless gel no heavy waves or oils, soft sexy gel color. 

This shouldn't be called a color whisper but a color silence. It barely does anything. I have chronically dry lips no matter what I do and this moisturize okay but nothing sensational. The pigmentation is barely existent, the packaging is a copy of the revlon lip butter with the same flaws (I will get back to that) and the writing is rubbing of. I wore it this morning with my coffee and after one hour there was nothing left. It is so light weight that it just doesn't adhere properly to lips. It's not an offensive product, but it just doesn't do anything. There is a slight shimmer in the finish. For the price it isn't worth it.

Packaging: 2/5
Pigmentation: 1/5
staying power: 0/5
Moisturizing ability 3/5
Overall result: 1.5/5

On lips (sorry for the dry patch, but it shows how thin the product is)

Second contestant: L'Oréal Rouge caresse in Cherry and sassy

L'Oréal describes this product as a flutter of kissably soft light-weight feeling colour. Its delicate texture glides onto lips creating a veil of colour with a luminous shine.

This product is the most expensive one of the contestant. The packaging is the best of the three, easy to hold and with a transparent cover so that we can see the color. The problem is once again the pigmentation and the staying power. It feels very slippery on the lips and it just doesn't quite stay. The glitter in this product is very pretty and well balanced. I just wish the product would apply a bit thicker on the lips. It's very similar to the maybelline product with a better packaging. I really love the light bright pink glitters in this one but the pigmentation, the price and the staying power will save me from repurchasing.

Packaging: 4/5
Pigmentation: 2/5
staying power: 0/5
Moisturizing ability 2/5
Overall result: 1.75/5

On lips

Third contestant: Revlon lip butter glitter finish in peach parfait

Revlon describes this product : sheer to medium color with buttery shine.

Revlon lip butters have two finishes a glossy finish and a glitter finish. The glitter finish is very glittery and gritty. I'm not going to focus too much on the color since this is a product battle and not an individual product review but this is a great color for a bronze make up look. It's one of those color that make your lip look bigger. The lipstick feels very nice on the lips and quite ticker than the two other contestant. It's just waxy enough to adhere on the lips without feathering without feeling tacky. The glittery finish is less moisturizing and pigmented that the other finish. It contains a lot of glitter.

Packaging: 3/5
Pigmentation: 4/5
staying power: 3/5
Moisturizing ability 4/5
Overall result: 3.5/5

On lips

Third contestant : Revlon lip butter glossy finish in sweet tart

The glossy finish (without glitter) is definitely the best finish from the lip butter. The texture is consistent and nicely pigmented. My only problem with the lip butter is that the packaging is hard to open. It's hard to hold the tiny bottom part to open the tub. With the lip butter you can try bright color without being too much. This one is a pretty bright pink but it's still wearable. This finish is the most moisturizing finish of the 4 lipsticks. I gave a better rating as the maybelline lipstick because it is sturdier.

Packaging: 3/5
Pigmentation: 4/5
staying power: 3/5
Moisturizing ability 5/5

Overall result: 4/5 

On lips

The results: 

The revlon lip butters are the clear winner is this product battle. I would highly suggest to choose a finish without any glitter even though peach perfect is quite pretty on the lips. The darker colors can slightly stain the lips. The L'Oréal and Maybelline lipstick just don't stay on the lips. You would achieve better results by taking a dark lipstick using it as a stain and then butting some lip balms on the lips or just simply use a tinted lip balm. 

None of those lipstick are very long wearing, but none of the companies claims that they are. I always carry one of those with me during the day and I take something more pigmented at night. 

Here's a swatch of the products.

From left to righ: LB in sweet tart, LB in peach parfait, RC in cherry and sassy, CW in rose of attraction

Make up fail at MUFE make up counter

I am following different make up companies on facebook and I often use their make up look as an inspiration. Make up forever is probably my favorite make up brand and I always had very good service at their counter. But I just couldn't let pass this picture that they posted on their canadian facebook page. I do not own this picture (and quite frankly I'm not sure it's worth anything).

I hesitated posting this article, because it could be seen as controversial. I decided to go forward because Make up for ever Canada posted the following picture with this caption "Smoky Eye Technique training at Sephora Metro in Vancouver... beautiful work from the cast!" and the girl didn't do this make up herself. Underneath all that bad make up she still look pretty. So anyway here's the damage..

My first reaction when I saw this was wow what have they done to her eyebrows. I keep seeing this over and over again with make up enthusiasts overly-drawn eyebrows. It's not flattering when their is so much eyebrow filler. It's also always safer with dark hair to go with a slightly paler color than your hair to fill up.

Then my other obvious reaction was about the contouring job, especially on the nose. I'm really not a fan of contouring in general but this is just plain bad. Way too dark, way too warm and way too much in general, especially with such a strong make up look. It looks especially bad with the very obvious highlighter on top of the cheek. When you contour you need a slightly grayish shade to do shadows, nobody's shadow is warm brown. And what's with trying to cheat your nose shape! Just another way to make women feel bad about themselves. Make up is suppose to be fun.

If you keep looking at the picture you can see the awful contrast between the very obvious pearly highlighter on the brow bone and the matte black smokey. Not a good look unless you are a drag queen.

Finally with such a strong make up look, you've gotta keep at least your lips understated. The frosty lipgloss is just too much.

I don't expect make up counter staff to be skilled make up artists, but this is just way to much of everything. The poor girl needs a make under.

How about you what do you think? Does that make you want to go to a MUFE counter?

Products I'm not allowed to buy anymore.

There is a lot of post lately on decluttering. I think many of us, beauty addicts, have a tendency to accumulate way too much products. As a general rule I'm trying not to buy too many products that last a very long time or that are very similar with each other. What I mean by that is products like foundation, there is just one shade that's right for you, you cannot alternate colors, so there is not use in having ten different bottles.

I limit myself in the follow products:

- Foundation
-concealer and corrector
- mascara
-Body creams (I've been trying to finish one of my body shop body butter for 2 years!)
- Body Wash
- Hair and body oils
- Skin care products in general
- Shampoo
- eyebrow products

The products that I think it's nice to have many of:
- Eye shadows
- lip products
- blushes
- highlighters
- Perfumes

How about you? What products do you try to limit? With what products you let go your hoarder tendencies?

Review: Dior Diorskin forever flawless perfection fusion wear makeup

Hi ladies,

Today, as promised I will do a foundation review namely about Christian Dior's Diorskin forever flawless perfection fusion wear makeup. (Ridiculous name, isn't it?)

Product description
The foundation comes in a lovely square frosted glass bottle with a pump and an holographic CD on top. It's a satin finish foundation that promises all day wear. I would say this is a medium to full coverage. The products also claims to have hydrating and matiffying elements. It comes with an SPF of 25. It as a very pleasant, but strong fragrance.

Color range
I wear the palest shade available Ivory 010 which is neutral toned. It comes in 12 shades ranging from Ivory to Light moka. This foundation would not be suitable for ultra pale ladies or ladies with deep skin. The presence of SPF would probably make it look ashy on dark skinned ladies.

Finish
This foundation gives a satin finish very similar to Make up for ever HD foundation. I prefer the finish of this one which covers really well without being cakey and is also less drying than the famous MUFE foundation.

My review
Shade wise this is the best foundation I own. I love the neutral color and it really suits me perfectly. I really like this foundation for going out, but I find it too heavy for everyday wear. Long wearing foundation have a tendency to amplify my rosacea when I wear them everyday. The foundation can also be slightly drying. It's hard for me to judge the long wearing claims since I never have problems in that area, but it does stay really well on my skin. I also which it wasn't as heavily scented. I get a medium to full coverage with only one pump and a half.

Here's my skin without any make up. (sorry for the lighting this lighting is really bad in my apartment)

The foundation. I'm also wearing a corrector underneath my eyes

And now the finish look.

What I expect from foundations

I am a  major make up hoarder. The only thing I don't have that many of is foundation. It's also due to the fact that foundation, unlike eye shadows, are easier to finish. I'm always very careful when it comes to trying new foundation, because most of the time I am very disappointed. When I buy foundation I'm looking for the following things:

Dewey finish: I have dry skin. My skin is naturally pretty matte. I think that having glowing skin is more flattering on everyone. (Of course is you have oily skin you can look for a satin finish or a matte finish that won't look too matte on you). Most matte foundation are very irritating to the skin and hard to remove. They also often give a mask effect especially when combined with powder.

Medium coverage: foundation is meant to be your skin but better. It should be almost invisible. I also like to have enough coverage to even out my redness. If I want light coverage I will be tinted moisturizer not foundation!

Easy to blend: Nothing annoys me more than a splotchy uneven foundation. A good foundation should be easy to blend and to layer where you need more.

Neutral undertones and great color selection in general: A lot of foundation in the market are either very pink or very yellow. Very pink foundation are especially bad for me since it accentuates my redness. Drugstore foundation in fair shades tend to be very pink (bourjois is the exception). Drugstore foundation also tend to be very dark. Some companies' palest options are still too dark for me and I'm not even that fair. They are also often too pale or too ashy for women with deep skin.

Reasonably priced: I have tried many high end foundation, but I refuse to pay more than a certain price. Armani foundations are apparently very good but they are ridiculously expensive.

And finally they have to be non irritating. Why do companies need to put so much perfume in their foundation? Some even put essential oils (I'm looking at you origins)! I put foundation to have better looking skin, not to be stuck with skin that need more and more foundation!

Next week I plan to do complete review with pictures of the foundation I own from Make up for ever, RMS, Christian Dior, Revlon and Maybelline.

Cream eye shadows

In 2013 I did the discovery, when it comes to make up application: cream eye shadows. My eyes are not the best feature of my face, I would say my lips are. My eyes are okay, I'm lucky enough to have good eyebrow and eyelashes and my eyes are also a bit bigger than average. My main issue is the shape, I've got "puppy eyes" also know as down turned eyes (like Katie Holmes or Sarah Michelle Gellar).

Through the years, I tried many techniques to try to "lift" my eyes without much success. I mean how naive can I be? If they can't hide it on Britney of Maggie Gyllenhaal how can I hide it? Those ladies have the best make up artists in the world. So I did it all, I was even sometimes using five different color of eye shadow: one pearly highlighter in the inner corner, a mat highlighter on the brow bone, a base color, a contour color and sometimes an even darker one blended in the contour to try to cheat even more. Than came the eyeliner and the mascara, ouf! I got good results, but it was almost taking the fun away of make up.

This year I started to simplify and finally I started to watch more and more videos of the talented Lisa Eldridge (make up artist of Keira Knightley and Kate Winslet among others). Ms Eldridge uses cream eye shadows a lot which she considers more modern. Those of you who don't know her I strongly advise to check her website: http://lisaeldridge.com/

Pros:

• They blend like a charm.
• They give a luminous result
• You only need one or two colors
• Dark colors can be used as a eyeliner
• They are very easy to apply, you don't need to be skilled with make up
• They don't have any fallout (you can always do the face first)
• They can be used as a base color under powder make up

Cons: 

• They don't last as long as powder eye shadow, they end up drying up
• Hard to find good ones on a budget (I really like the maybelline one, but some colors are not so good apparently)
• They take more place in your make up kit; you cannot depot them and put them on a pallet
• They might crease on extremely oily eyelids. 

I will do reviews soon of the ones I got and maybe take some action pics. How about you, do you use cream eyeshadows?

Changing country? Go fusion!

I know I said this blog will be about beauty and it will. I know that most people are not interested in my latest weight loss scheme and quite frankly it's not very glamorous either. But I thought it will be fun to address a common problem that one may face we they change country: the food!

Most Flemish are creatures of habit. They eat something very small for breakfast or they don't eat at all, a sandwich for lunch (to be fair though the sandwiches here are soooo good!), and then they switch it up a bit for supper. I'm the opposite, I need to switch it up all the time, because I get bored very easily.

The groceries here (not all of them of course) seriously lack variety. I think I already bought every single item in the japanese section in my grocery. I'm also trying to eat better and I no longer eat pork and red meat at home. Fish and poultry can easily get tired. I'm also a huge fan of asian food in general, thai, corean, chinese, indian and vietnamese mostly. The main problem I have is that as much as I like a good coco curry or a lemongrass chicken, I'm not a very big fan of rice. Rice also doesn't have much fiber, yes even the brown one. What I do now most of the time is replacing rice with bulgur, it's loaded with fiber, it tastes delicious and it is easily accessible here because of the big middle eastern population in Europe in general.

Going fusion can also be a solution for the lack of certain ingredients here. Yesterday it was another rainy day in Belgium and I found myself craving some fajitas. I went in the tex mex section of the grocery and I found some fajitas cooking sauce (which was surprisingly good by the way) and tortillas, but once I was in the cheese isle, I realised that I could not get the right cheese. So I improved and made some fusion French-Mexican food with comté cheese (only 2 euros for a pack of that awesome cheese, isn't Europe great?) and roquette lettuce. I think when you are looking for a certain recipe overseas you have to keep an open mind and be ready to trade some ingredients for something local.

The last reason for switching some of your favorite ingredients for some more readily available in the country where you are is of course the price. When I was living in Montreal I kept seeing some poor very chocked French people who were ruining themselves buying French cheese and wine.

Part of the excitement of moving away is experimenting with new ingredients.

Shampooing, you’re doing it wrong!

At the risk of sounding arrogant (not that it ever stopped me before) I think most people are not shampooing properly. We women are brain washed into finding the perfect deep treatment and we don’t really see the shampoo as such an important step. Here is what most women do wrong:

-Pilling their hair on top of their head like in the shampoo ads. Your hair length consists of older hairs. As you know hair is dead and cannot be repaired. You need to treat your hair like fragile wool. Shampoo can really dry up some more fragile hair types and it is really not necessary to put it all over your hair. This type of shampooing method can also create tangle and the tangle removal can break your hair even more. (Btw always be gentle when you untangle your hair, when I see women hitting their hair with a rough brush it makes me cringe!)

-Shampooing twice. Later rinse and repeat only makes you dry your hair too much and make you go through shampoo too fast. If your shampoo is adapted you will only need it once.

- Putting too much shampoo. You only need to shampoo the scalp. The suds will run down your lenght and it should me enough.

-Choosing the wrong shampoo formula. Lately there is this big paranoia about sulphates and silicones and more and more companies market products without thoses ingredient. The thing is if you use serums or if you have hard water cutting down the sulphates is a bad idea and it will result to bad buildup. Your shampoo needs to be strong enough to remove your product residue. You can also be using a too strong shampoo especially if you have very damaged, dry or very curly hair. Some women with very curly hair do not shampoo at all and clean their hair only with a very runny conditioner. You can also be in need of a chelating shampoo once in a while to remove mineral buildup. Clarifying shampoo only removes product buildup.

Blog relaunch and language change

Some of you might have read my very short lived blog two years ago. I was in my natural beauty phase and writing on “toxic free” cosmetics limited me quite a bit. Also to be honest with you I’m all for simpler natural methods, as long as they work properly with is sadly not always the case. This time I won’t limit myself so much. I’m also very much into hair care and skin care now and my broader interests make the redaction of this blog easier. I hope you will enjoy my European quest into beauty (beauty products are seriously expensive here except in the UK) and I will try to update it frequently.