My Makeup Favourites for a Classic Chic Look ♥

Hello everyone !

Today, I'm showing you my favourite products to use when I want to create a classic but chic look, for example for birthdays or nights out. On these occasions I tend to go with a simple look, and put my efforts in my outfit intead ! 

So here are some of the products I usually use :

When you want to go for a chic look, you have to pay attention to skin and make it look flawless. The best thing for that is to wear a good foundation. Mine is the Mat Velvet + by Makeup Forever, which I reviewed here. It's quite thick and has a good coverage, so maybe some people wouldn't like to use it on a daily basis because of this coverage. But for a special occasion, it's perfect to make your skin look perfect and matte for a long time !

My eye makeup for this type of look is winged eyeliner and long lashes. There is nothing as lovely and easy as that ! Well, it can be difficult sometimes to match both eyes for the eyeliner but the more you practice, the better you get at it ! My eyeliner is the Super Liner by L'Oréal. The brush is not the thinnest you could find, but I don't really like thin eyeliner, so I don't mind. It's still quite precise and handy ! My mascara at the moment is the Millions de Cils So Couture by Maybelline. It is great ! It makes the lashes look longer and it gives it a nice curl. For a night look you could add fake lashes of course, to make the eye makeup look more dramatic.

To go with eyeliner, red lips are the way to go ! There are so many red lipsticks and mine is a Kiko. It's a simple satin red lipstick, with orange undertones. 

Finally, to give more definition to the face, you could use a bronzer (but I don't haha) and add a bit of red on the cheeks. The Benetint by Benefit is great for that, because I feel like when you have red lips, you want to have something more subtle on the cheeks to make your complexion look more natural. The Benetint gives you a slight red shade on the apples of the cheeks, and as it's a liquid formula it stays on the skin for a long time, no need for touch-ups ! (except for the lips of course ;) )

That's it for my classic chic look ! This combo works fine on everybody I think, and it's timeless :)

Julia xx

My makeup favourites for a nude look ♥

Hello !

Instead of doing a post with my favourite beauty items in general, I've decided to split my favourites into a series of several themes. I'm starting with my favourite products to use to create a nude look !

Most days, I tend to go for natural makeup, without eyeshadow or strong lipstick, just because I can't be bothered to do it all the time. But a nude look doesn't mean a bare face either, and it's always pleasant to have a nice result with only a few products and very little time ! :)

Here are my favourite products I always use to achieve a quick nude look :

For the skin, I only use a bit of concealer (the Full Cover by Makeup Forever) to hide redness, spots and dark circles. After that I apply some powder, the Stay Matte by Rimmel, which is very good to keep a matte look for a while.

Then to add a bit of light, I use a tiny bit of High Beam highlighter by Benefit. It is so pretty, I adore it ! I put it on my browbone and on the top of my cheekbones, it gives a nice glow to the face without being too shimmery, which I really like - I'm not keen on proper glitter anywhere else than on my eyelids !

Of course you could add some blush on the cheeks and that's what I do usually, but I don't have a favourite in this category, I tend to use by Sephora pink blush (which has no name) all the time. Just a bit of pink on the cheeks make you look more alive !

For the eyes, I use my Vibrant Eye pencil by Kiko as an eyeliner. The colour is a dark brown which looks more natural and neutral than black, and which fits a nude look better. This pencil is really smooth and you can blend it easily if needed. The only other thing I wear on my eyes is mascara, and my favourite ever is the They're Real by Benefit - nothing new here, everybody knows how great it is !

(yep the pencil is disgusting and not even sharpened... sorry for that !)

Last but not least, I stick to a very light pink for my lips with the Apocalips by Rimmel (named "Show off" in France, no idea why they changed the name), this is the colour 201 "Solstice" - again the names are different in France, but this one really looks like the "Galaxy" colour you have in anglophone countries. It is not a real nude, more of a pink with a slight shimmer, but it looks natural enough.

I've added what I would use on my nails to complete the look : the is the Maybelline Forever Strong Pro  in the colour "ivory rose". It is a simple beige nail polish, which applied in three coats gives you the best nude nails ever. It is so chic and makes your hands look like delicate princess hands ! The brush is nice and thick also, like the Essie brushes, so you apply it very easily. A must have !

There you have it, my favourite beauty items for a nude look ! Maybe you have and love some of these already :)

These pinks and beiges are the best colours to make you look nice but effortless !

Julia xx

Wishlist : Spring '14

I haven't made a wishlist in ages ! Maybe because I haven't bought many things either during the last months. But now that we're in spring (and almost in summer, who could believe time would pass so quickly !), I decided it was finally time for a new wishlist.

So here are all the things I want to buy in the upcoming months ! :

1. Dahlia Noir, by Givenchy (50mL), 62,90€ in Sephora. I got this perfume for Christmas and I've finished it, sadly ! It smells sooo good and is perfect for the season, that's why I need it again in my life.

2. Fit Me Concealer, Maybelline, around 9€. I've heard many good things about this concealer, and I'm almost running out of my Full Cover Concealer by MUFE, and I can't afford another one right now haha. We'll see if this one's good !

3. Effaclar K, Laroche-Posay, around 12€. This product is a sort of base/cream for combination to oily skin, supposed to reduce spots, regulate the sebum of the skin, make it look clearer, etc. Again I've heard good things about it, and Laroche-Posay is a nice brand for skin-related products. 

4. They're Real mascara, Benefit, 25€. I've got this mascara in sample size, and I'm afraid it'll run out soon. It is such a good mascara, I must buy it again !

5. Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell. I've watched the BBC adaptation of 1999 of the novel, and I loved it so much I want to read it now (I'll probably make a blog post about it by the way). Nineteenth century literature is my favourite, so I know I'll have a great time reading the book.

Well, that's it for my spring wishlist ! I could add some other things in it, but they aren't items in particular, more like "categories of things I need to get" : some pastel nail polishes, new black treggings, a mid-season jacket... Let's hope I will find all these things !

Julia xx

My empties #1

Hi everyone !

Today I'm trying a new type of posts that I've seen in many other blogs but that I never thought about doing before. Empties posts are quite nice to discover new products or see if something is worth the try or not.

I've got five things that I've finished recently, so I'm going to show them to you and tell you what I think of them and if I'm going to repurchase them or not !

1/ Le Volume mascara, Chanel

I've spoken of this mascara in my all times favourites, some months ago. It is a really good product, makes your lashes look great. The brush is quite thick and takes every lash perfectly.

Although because of its price, I won't be buying it again for now (and I have a sample size of the great They're Real by Benefit to use hehe). But I'll surely buy it someday, because I loved it !

2/ Blueberry body butter, The Body Shop

I've had this body butter since last year, and I finally finished it ! I only used it during the autumn/winter times, so that's probably why it lasted me so long.

The smell is quite good, not too strong nor too sweet. And it lasts a few hours on the skin, which is always nice ! But I won't rebuy this one, because I want to try new scents from The Body Shop.

3/ Exfoliating body scrub, Galeries Lafayette

I bought this last summer during the sales, mainly because it was cheap and smelt good haha. It smells of iris, so a very floral and light scent. I used it as a scrub before using my shower gel, and it did a good job and left my skin soft. The exfoliating bits are tiny so they don't hurt your skin as some scrubs could do. But I won't be buying it again, because I have another one of the same brand to use !

It is only sold in the Galeries Lafayette in France I guess, but it is maybe something to try if you are in France and want a nice shower product !

4/ Gliss Ultimate Repair mask, Schwarzkopf

As I have curly coloured hair, I'm always on the hunt for a good mask that will moisturise my hair and leave it soft. I've tried sooo many that I couldn't list them all, but as I've just finished this one I can really say what I think about it.

It is one of those masks that you apply after your shampoo for a few minutes - I always left it for about three to five minutes. It does make your hair soft, and pretty shiny too. But this effect doesn't last, at least on me. If you have normal to dry hair I think it should work well - but if your hair is damaged or frizzy, it probably won't be enough.

Not sure I'll rebuy it because I'm always changing my hair routine (at this point this is not even a routine haha), but I can say that it's a pretty good product anyway!

5/ Vanilla dee-lite body lotion, Lush

I got this lotion on the Lush box I received for my birthday. I was excited to try it out, because I haven't had the chance to use a cream/body lotion from Lush before.

First, the smell is amazing. Although it is called Vanilla dee-lite, it doesn't smell of vanilla, but rather of jasmine, and it even reminds me a bit of lilac, which is my favourite flower ! So as you can imagine, I love the smell of it. It is very light-weight as it is a lotion obviously, and it is very refreshing. I would recommend it for the months of spring especially, because it is not at all a winter smell.

As it is very light, it doesn't moisturise your skin deeply, and if you have a very dry skin I would probably advise you to use a thicker texture. But I'd love to buy this again for spring and summer, I love it !

***

That's it for my first empties ! A lot of shower/body products as you can see, but naturally these are the ones we can finish the most easily. 

I'll do another empties post in a few months maybe, see if I can find new interesting products to show you !

Julia xx