Collective haul #2 : clothing

Hello everybody !

I went shopping these past two weeks, and I bought a few pieces from different shops that I thought I would show you.
I decided to make two separate articles for the clothing and the makeup, so that it's not too big and boring to read it all at once.
Let's start !

First I got this beautiful dress from Pull and Bear :

 

It is a bodycon dress with an amaaazing flower pattern on it. I literally fell in love with the colours, with the flowers... and also the shape of the dress and the fact that it's very structured because of the black panels on the sides. It will be a perfect dress for summer parties !

It was 25.99, and you can find it on the website. 

Pull and Bear has very good stuff at the moment, especially in terms of white/cream lacy dresses... they have a few different ones and they are all stunning !

The next item is from New Look :

It is a creamy white lacy cropped top. The sleeves are made of lace only, just like the back of the top, but of course you have some material at the front so that it's not see-through.

The lace looks like this :

You could wear it with anything : high-waisted shorts or jeans, a skirt, or even a dress where you would show the bottom part only. It is a very simple piece but that's good.

It was 14.99€ and again you can find it on the website.

Then I went to Forever 21 a few days ago and I bought a couple of items.

First I got this dress. The moment I saw it I knew it was made to be mine. But I'll have to wait until the sun comes again to wear it... 

It is a kind of dip dyed dress, with blue, green and purple colour designs. When you see it from afar, it looks like clouds. Sort of a remix of galaxy prints, you know. 

It is sleeveless and floaty, very summery. Perfect ! It was 23.95€.

Then, again in the "weird but cool" prints, I got this sleeveless top... with loads of cat heads on it. Yes.

It is a love or hate item, but I like it a lot. It is so easy to throw it on top of a pair of black leggings or tuck it in a skirt. And it was only 13.95 !

The last clothing item I got from Forever 21 is this little top. It is light blue and looks like denim, with white dots all over. It is made to be tied at the front. I've been wanting a top like this for a while, it will be awesome for summer, with shorts or with a skirt. This was 15.75€.

Then I got a necklace : it is a very simple gold necklace with an elephant pendant on it. I love necklaces with animals on it so this is amazing and sooo cute. It was 2.90€, what a bargain !

On the same trip, I went to Bershka. I wanted to buy so many things there ! but it was quite pricey so I went for one item only. It is a sort of cropped top, white with "tropical" designs on it : leaves, flowers, parrots, etc.

It will be perfect during summer, to throw over a pair of shorts ! It was 12.99€.

The very last item of this haul is from Claire's. It is a chunky gold necklace. I wanted one for so long but I couldn't find anything that I liked, until I saw this one. There were also chunkier ones but I chose the "medium" one. It was 6.95€ I think.

(And sorry for the weird picture, I didn't know how to show it well haha.)

***

So that's all for my clothing/accessories haul, the next one will be my beauty haul.

Julia xx

Review : Angels on bare skin by Lush

Hello !

Today I'll be reviewing a Lush face cleanser, Angels on bare skin.

At first, I was supposed to buy Coalface, but I changed my mind because I thought Angels on bare skin was maybe more useful for me, as it has little bits that could be good for exfoliating my face.

This is the product :

 

Here is what the website says about the product :

"Angels on Bare Skin evens out skin tone, reduces redness and improves the health and appearance of your skin – giving a natural healthy glow.

The ground almonds in this product release their goodness and turn to an almond milk on your hand when you add water."

 The main ingredients are almond, kaolin and essential oils, and lavender. It looks like this :

You can see the little lavender bits of the product. They can fall off it very easily when you take some product so you can find them everywhere in the sink ! And the little orange dots (if you can see them here) are the almonds.

Basically, to use the product, you take some of it (about the size of a pea) and mix it with water, then apply it on your face. Then, of course, you take off the product and that's it !

When I use the product (every morning and night - I mean before going to bed or around that time), it cleans my face very well and makes it smooth and mat. I noticed that it diminishes my imperfections and spots and leaves my skin clear. I really like that !

The only thing that bugs me is that after I clean my face with it, my skin is dry in some areas, around the nose and on my chin. I've always had dryness in these areas of my face, and unfortunately the cleanser is not moisturising enough - I know it's not really meant to be, but still.

For the smell, it is a quite strong one. When I first smelt it, I disliked it (even though it's lavender and I love it) because it was so strong. But after some time you get used to it. It reminds me of the Portuguese countryside where I go every now and then during the summer !

So to sum up, this cleanser is a good product and does the job well, but it's not a miraculous one though.

I'm not going to purchase it again, I'll try a new one to see if I find the perfect one for me !

Julia xx

Spring selection : nail polishes

Bonjour !

As the weather is starting to be nicer (it was about time, since we're almost in May), I'm feeling more... springy these days. So I decided to make a few selections of things that would suit perfectly for the season.

I start with one of my favourite make-up things, i.e. nail polishes !

I chose ten of them, and I split them into three categories. I swatched them on adhesive tape because it would take me too much time to do it on my hands properly.

So here is my selection :

You can see already that I only chose light colours... I'm keeping the brighter ones for summer I guess !

So here is the first category, the pastel nail polishes :

They are all from Kiko. It is an Italian brand of quite cheap products, but in general the quality is good. They have an amazing range of colours for their nail polishes, and most of mine are from this shop.

I chose a very light green, a light blue (it's not a baby blue, but a little brighter) and a lilac. These are staple colours for spring, when you want colour but still with soft shades.

From the left to the right, you have the 345, the 339, and the 330 (Kiko nail polishes don't have names).

Then, the nude nail polishes :

I don't have many nude polishes, so it was easy to select these !

I'll describe them starting from the bottom of the picture.
The first one is the "Don't Touch My Tutu", in the mini version (I got the New York City Ballet kit). It is very sheer, and you'll have to apply at least four or five coats to make it opaque, but you could also wear it with two or three coats for a very discrete and classy result.

The Essie nail polish is "Muchi, muchi", an amazing "French manicure" pink. Again it's a sheer shade so you'll need maybe three or four coats to have a very pale pink on your nails, but you could go for a French manicure effect with two coats too.

The last one is the "Naked" by Urban Decay, which comes in the Naked polishes kit. It is a plain and simple beige, almost with orange undertones. You can have a good and opaque result with two coats only.

And finally, the last category : the pearly/almost glittery nail polishes !

Again, two Kiko polishes in the selection !

The first one is the 371. You can't really see it in the pictures, but it is a nude beige with gold glitter in it. It put it in this category because of the glitter, which really make the colour prettier. On the nail you don't really see them though, except in the sunlight. But still !

The other Kiko one is the 303. It is one of my favourite nail polishes ! It is beige, with almost pinky undertones, and silver glitter. Two coats are enough to have a good colour. It goes with everything and suits any colour for an accent nail manicure. 

The first O.P.I polish is "It's Totally Fort Worth It", from the Texas collection. I bought it (with the other O.P.I. one) during the winter sales, half price each so I got one for free, yay ! The shade is very difficult to describe, it's a sort of pearly white with pink/light purple and gold undertones. Again it goes with everything so I tend to wear it a lot.

The other O.P.I. polish is "I Don't Give a Rotterdam", from the Netherlands collection. I think it's quite famous ! It is a light blue with tiny silver glitter on it. And you can really see the glitter when you apply the nail polish on your hands, it's not only in the bottle like the Kiko 371. It is beautifuuul !

***

That's all, here are my ten nail polishes for spring ! Of course I could have chosen more, maybe add some brighter colours like a pink or a bright blue, but I'll keep that for summer, when the sun is around a lot more !

Julia xx

Review : Mat Velvet + foundation, by Make Up Forever

Hi !

After a month of using it, I'm finally making a review of my new foundation ! It's the well-known Mat Velvet + foundation, by Make Up Forever.

I have a combination to oily skin, and finding a good foundation is a real struggle for me. My last one was a Maybelline, for no particular skin type. It did a good job, but even with some powder on top my skin always became shiny in the afternoon. It annoyed me a lot.

So when I almost ran out of my foundation I started looking around on the Internet to find a new more more suitable to my skin... And I quickly found out about the Mat Velvet + one.

After watching and reading some very good reviews, I decided to get it, to give it a try.

The foundation looks like this :

I was so surprised when I bought it, the bottle is tiny. You have 30ml of foundation.

You take the amount of foundation you need with this tip :

You have to take care because before using the product you need to shake it, but when you do so the foundation goes out even if you don't press the bottle : you may end with too much product on your hand. But I guess this happens only in the beginning when the bottle is still full.

I read that the texture was very thick, but I think it's not, it's not difficult to apply on your skin or anything.

Here is a swatch on my hand :

 

So now, let's go for the face review !

As I said, it's quite easy to apply, I didn't struggle to put the foundation on as some people did according to some reviews I saw/read. I apply my foundation with my fingers and it blended really well.

The effect is indeed mat, your skin goes instantly mat and unified when you wear the foundation. I was very happy of the result, except for the coverage maybe ; it's not as high as I thought it would be. Everybody said that the coverage was amazing (and even a little bit too much maybe), but that's not what I feel when I wear it... so I would say it has a medium to high coverage instead.

Time for pictures, so here is one picture of (one side of) my face without foundation, and another picture when I have the Mat Velvet + (and no concealer or anything) :

No foundation obviously, yerk !

Foundation on !

Sorry for the lighting on the second picture, it turned out quite orange but that's not what it looks like in real life, I promise !

You can definitely tell the difference between my skin with the foundation and without it. It covers my scars (well I don't know if they are scars actually, but I mean the reddish parts on my cheeks) quite well, my blemishes, etc. But if sometimes you have spots, the foundation will not be enough and you'll have to wear concealer for a perfect result. Anyway, when I apply the foundation in the morning, I'm very happy and I love it and all that jazz...

Then we come to the not-so-good part of the review... the matifying effect !

As I said when you apply the foundation your skin looks amazing, mat, perfect... but unfortunately, it doesn't last so long (well it didn't for me, maybe other people are luckier) !

When I come home, maybe 8 hours after I've done my makeup, my skin isn't matified anymore... you can tell it's oily and not pretty at all. Maybe if you add a little powder during the day you can make the effect last a little more, but the foundation was supposed to do the job alone and I'm afraid it doesn't... I was quite disappointed of that. I read a few times that you didn't even need powder on top of the foundation, because it lasted so well... 

Maybe my skin's just weird, but the result wasn't what I expected. 

***

To sum up, here are my thoughts about the Mat Velvet + :

 + it's easy to apply on your skin

 + the shape of the bottle, the tip of it

 + the coverage (even though it's not as high as I thought it would be)

 + the effect right after you've applied it

 - the price (I know it's Make Up Forever, but still)

 - the quite short-lasting matifying effect

I think that's all for this foundation !

This is a looong post I know, but at least I'm sure I said everything I needed to say about the product.

I hope this post will somehow be helpful, if you're interested in buying the foundation !

Julia xx