June 19, 2013

Beauty : my all time favourites

Hello people !

Today I'm going to share my beauty favourites. As I don't try enough products every months to make monthly favourites, I decided that it would be good to share the products that I particularly love and that I still will be using for a while.




The first product is skincare : it's the Crème Prodigieuse by Nuxe for normal to combination skin.
I got this cream in a Christmas box and at first I was afraid to use it as I have oily skin, but I decided to give it a go anyway. And I'm glad I did !


First of all, the cream smells delicious. The texture is not too watery nor too thick. It moisturises the skin, but without leaving an oily feeling when you've applied it. I use it as my daily moisturiser since maybe January and I still have a lot in it. I really recommend it, Nuxe are said to make really good skincare products and that one proves it to be true !


Another Nuxe product that I cannot live without is the Rêve de Miel lipbalm.
I made a review about it a few months ago, saying how good this balm was. I repurchased it last month and I'll probably be using it non stop from now on.
It is very moisturising and recommended if your lips are really chapped. The texture is thick and smells of honey. The best lipbalm I've ever tried !



Next is a Lush product ! I've tried a few of their face cleansers, but I always go back to this one (and I'm definitely purchasing it again soon) : the Aqua Marina.
 (I'm not putting a picture of mine, because it's empty haha, I've filled the box with bubble bath things !)


This cleanser is amazing. It smells reaaally good (it may not be to everybody's taste but I love it !), very fresh and "natural" etc. The texture is a bit unusual, a pinky cream with seaweed on it. The seaweed can be difficult to handle in the beginning but you get used to it. It works like most of the other Lush face cleansers : you take a little amount of product in your hand, pour some water on it to make it melt a little and then wash your face with it. When you're done, you face looks so clean and pretty. The only thing is that it leaves some areas of your skin quite dry (if you naturally have dry patches sometimes), but that's the only thing I noticed.  Anyways, this product is perfect for daily use, to clean your face in the morning and then in the evening after you've taken off your makeup.


The next product is a statement one. It is so famous that I won't talk about it much, everybody knows (and probably has) it. It is the Naked Palette, by Urban Decay. Here it is, without the brush because I've stored it elsewhere :


Do I really need to explain why this palette is fantastic ? The colours are perfect, either for everyday wear or for a going out/party makeup, the eyeshadows are very pigmented, they last very long (I don't even use a primer anymore and they still stay all day on my eyes)... And 12 eyeshadows for about 45€ (even though I paid a little less when I bought it, which was two years ago) is quite a good deal !
This palette will last me a very long time, this is the only real palette I own and it is definitely enough for now ! I love using it, the colours suit my skintone perfectly and I like them better than the ones of the Naked 2 Palette. Love that !


Another eye product in my favourites, a mascara this time. I've had the chance to try this as a sample, which was sent to me after I asked for it online (thanks to a website offer). And now I use it all the time and I'm really considering buying it when I run out of it because it's so good ! It's the Le Volume mascara by Chanel. It looks like this :


I'm really happy that I got to try it because it's amazing. I love the brush, it curls your lashes very well and makes the mascara easy to use. Your eyelashes look longer, more voluminous, but not dramatic either. I've had it for about two months and I've been using it non stop ! I just fell in love with it. 


The last face product of my favourites is a lipstick I've already talked about, but I love it so much that I have to add it to my list. It is the l'Oréal Caresse lipstick in "dating coral".


As I've already swatched it and talked about it in a previous article, I'll just add that it's one of my favourite lipsticks, the colour is wonderful and goes with every makeup. When I don't want to put a lot of colour on my lips, I go for it because even though it's a coral, it has a nice glossy finish that makes it look fresh and simple. Maybe I'll try other colours of this range, because this one is so good !


My last all time favourites product is a nail polish. Even though I love nail polishes to death, I don't tend to have one or several favourites in terms of colour, because it changes all the time depending on my mood. But there is one nail polish that I love all the time, that I could wear any day, and which is maybe my favourite colour ; it is the 529 Graphite by Chanel



You can see how much I love it by the so little amount of product that is left here ! I've never finished a bottle of nail polish before, I will be so sad when I finish this one... And I'm not sure about buying it again because of the price and because even though the colour is wonderful, it doesn't stay really long on the nails.
In spite of the negative "technical" aspects of it, it will stay on my favourites forever just because of its colour. It looks beautiful and shiny in the bottle, and it's even greater on the nails. Have you ever seen real graphite ? well that's what inspired the nail polish, and I think they did a good job.

Aren't they the same ?  

So this colour looks great on the nails and I love wearing it. Favourite colour ever. Thanks Chanel, you're way too expensive but you did right with this one !

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So I'm done with my all time favourites. I would recommend those products to everybody, they worked out great on me so I hope it does the same for everyone else !

Julia xx

June 02, 2013

What I'm loving right now : Lily Elsie

I love these posts where I just speak about my random interests, and it's been a while since I've done one of them. And today I've got the perfect subject to talk about ; a lovely lady I discovered a some time ago.

Her name is Lily Elsie.



She was an English actress and singer, very famous in the Edwardian times.
She became famous in 1907 when she acted in the operetta Merry Widow, in London. She quickly became a very popular figure and was pictured in a lot of magazines and advertisements at the time.
She took part in a lot of shows and even performed in two movies : "The Great Love" in 1918 and "Comradeship", in 1919. I would love to see those films !

Her pictures were used on hundreds of postcards. These are the most vivid memories we have of her, and a lot of vintage and Edwardian times lovers are here to remind us all of this fascinating lady.

I love her pictures. She has a perfect face, and amazing melancholic eyes. I'm also fascinated by her style, the way her hair is styled, with a hat or not. And her clothes and dresses are wonderful, the one on the first picture up here must have been stunning ! No wonder she was one of the most photographed women of her time.
Here are a few pictures of her I fell in love with :





This hairstyle and hat are amazing !







And a last one ! This one is quite different because Lily Elsie is wearing a suit. I find it funny that she is wearing what at the time was still considered a man's outfit. She still looks beautiful in it !



I took some extra info about Elsie in this very complete website : www.lily-elsie.com.


Julia xx