Maša M blog
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Product empties

I can’t believe how time flies. It’s less than 2 weeks until December and less than a week until my first ever Christmas giveaway 🙂 Are you excited? I know I am.

Anyhow, I’ve again gathered a whole bunch of empty products which I have more or less firm opinions on already. I think that these particular empties are much more random than the first ones, so I tried to put them into categories to make things easier on all of us. As usual, I will also answer the »would I repurchase« question with each of them, since it’s what really counts in my opinion.

First up, four random products that I really don’t know where to put. First are the Dvorec Trebnik bath salt and Biodent mouthwash.


I picked up this Dvorec Trebnik salt on a whim in Mercator one day. I don’t really have the time to take long baths on a regular basis, but I must admit I’ve taken a lot more since I’ve bought this product. It gives the water a smell of a luxury spa. The granules are a bit slow to disintegrate so I usually put them in the bath before I start running the water. I’ve used up the bottle in about 2 months, but then again, I probably use way too much of the product, to be honest. I repurchased itin the Vanilla scent but I actually prefer the orange one.

The Biodent mouthwash perhaps doesn’t exactly fall in the beauty category, but I think that beauty is also hidden in a pretty smile. I think we have tried every mouthwash out there in our household and while I didn’t mind most of them, my hubby hated all except for this Biodent brand (which, incidentally, is the cheapest one out there). So it’s become a staple in our home and I will continue to repurchase it.

Next up, we have my even favourite deodorant – Axe Anarchy for her. This is a budget alternative to buying a really luxury product that you match to your perfume – Axe Anarchy costs about 4 € (I’ve only seen in in Mercator and Müller). It’s not an antiperspirant which is great and it really lasts for 12+ hours of furious pace, which is even better (or a must, to be honest). This was my fourth bottle and I will continue to purchase these in bulk because I’m scared they will stop producing it. It was already included in my first empties and I expect it to make another appearance soon 🙂 View Post

My Fall and Winter Skincare Routine

I’ll be the last one to claim that I always stick to my routine, go through all the paces, take 20 minutes to get my face ready in the morning or clean at night, never sleep with my make-up on. Let’s face it, we’re all working people in some way or another. I don’t have half an hour a day to go through each of these steps. But when I do take the time and put in the effort, this is my normal autumn & winter skincare routine that is quite different from what I do to my face in the summer.

In the morning, there are four steps I try to take before putting any make-up on. First, some warm water never hurt anyone and apparently, it opens up your pores and prepares them for everything that is to follow. When dry, I follow up with the moisturizing part which is my absolute favorite thing to do in the morning – it really helps me feel fresh and ready to start the day. I’ve recently switched up my daily moisturizer to Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel.

So far, so good. It’s a little dry for my taste so I will probably try the lotion from the same line next time, but it does not break me out which is a step in the right direction. Normally, I’ve had luck with Clinique skincare products in general, so it’s a positive trend.

I try to take off my make-up when I get home from work, but it still normally has a good 12 hours to jump around my face clogging my pores, melting away and doing all kind of other silly business. I don’t tend to do the entire skincare routine at that moment though – I just use some cleanser (right now, I’m using the Nivea Pure&Natural Cleaning Milk) and a facial wipes. I’ve written a long post about many of these already and I’m currently using the Yes to Blueberries wipes which I again adore 🙂

In the evening, the real pampering (or torture, depends on the type of person you are) starts. About 3 times a week, I try to exfoliate with my Olay Pro-X and the Neutrogena purifying pore scrub. I’ve also gotten my hands on some Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 1 % BHA gel and I’m excited to try this stuff out to see how my skin will like it. When I exfoliate, I always end the process by putting the Nuxe (Huile Prodigieuse) oil on my face and let it really nurture the skin properly for about 15-20 minutes before doing anything else. I feel that exfoliation is quite stressful on the skin and it deserves a little pampering afterwards.

But as a part of a regular, everyday routine, I first take off my make-up as described above. Then I let my skin rest for a couple of minutes before applying Mixa Soothing Toner. It’s good, but it is not my favorite. That would have to be the Nuxe Eau Demaquilliante Micelaire (Micelar cleaning water). I’ve only had a deluxe sample of that and I am quite ready to invest in the whole bottle.

Then I apply the eye cream. I am currently using the Eveline Argan Oil Anti-wrinkle rejuvenating eye-cream, but I doubt that I will finish the whole serum – it does not seem to do anything to have any benefit whatsoever on my skin and I am a bit disappointed in it. Last but not least, I apply my nightly moisturizer. I switched this one as well, so I am using the L’Oreal Triple Active night moisturizer (I dropped it one day hence no lid because it broke). It’s very, very nice – quite oily, but I like that in the night cream since it has plently of time to really do its thing to my face throughout the night. I also apply down my neck as well.

And that is IT. It’s really simple in my opinion, although my husband would probably not agree.

What is the one thing that cannot be missing from your skincare routine when you want to pamper yourself? Comment below!

Until next time, stay beautiful, stay awesome!

Holiday wishlist

Yes, I know, December and Christmas are still far, far away, but somehow the Christmas spirit always catches me unprepared way before it is supposed to – and once I get overall excited about something, it’s hard for me to stop obsessing.

In the past weeks, I have seen some Youtube videos and read some blogs about the Christmas or »Holiday« editions from several high-end companies like Urban Decay, Benefit, Stila and so forth. These are normally value sets tricking you into buying them by saying you’re only going to pay something like $45 for $200 value. Now i KNOW it’s not true, but that reasonable part of my brain somehow goes on vacation in December. I did not care last year, but I definitely do care this year. And since I’ve just booked some plane tickets to visit a country that has Sephora stores in December, I know that I’m not going to be able to resist picking up at least a few products. Hence the wishlist. But this wishlist also includes some items that can be bought over here or in EU stores (hinting heavily to my most loyal reader of all). 🙂

Number one on my list is definitely the Sephora Favorites – Superstars. It contains many of the items I have been wanting to try for sooo long and some that I have tried and absolutely love.

It is priced at $75 and apparently worth $225. I did my own calculations based on the number of full-size products and deluxe samples and came to $222 so yes, the calculation is legit. It contains the Anastasia Brow Wiz (full size – 21 $), Benefit POREfessional (deluxe sample – about 10 $), Benefit They’re real mascara (deluxe sample – about $5), Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray (travel size, about $15), Chloe Rollerball (full size – $25), Formula X Nail color in Ignite (full size – about $11), Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted lip treatment (deluxe sample – about $12), Josie Maran 100 % Pure Argan oil (travel size, about $16), Nars blush in Orgasm (full size – $30), Smashbox Camera ready BB Cream (full size – $40), Stila Stay All Day liquid eye liner (full size – $20) and Urban Decay eyeshadow in Sin (full size – $18). I am excited about just about everything in this package, I think the colors would all work for me and I am getting my hands on this one! There are so many brands in this set that I haven’t even tried yet that I’m sure it is well worth the money.

Another set I really, I really want is the Josie Maran Winter Dream Argan Skincare Collection. This is not a steal as the Superstars, it’s priced at $39 with $68 value so I’m not even going to calculate this one to extensively.

 

 

It contains everything you could possibly need for your skincare routine – cleansing oil, hydrating treatment, pure argan oil (which I use and is absolutely fabulous), intensive creamy oil, daily moisturizer with SPF of 47 and as a special bonus, a hand creams. This brand is all natural and I would love to try the products.

The third set that I will most likely be tempted to snatch in Sephora is the First Aid Beauty – Cheers to fab skin set, priced at $48 for $100 value. I did my calculations on this one and again came to a very similar number, so I am satisfied 🙂 I have purhcased a few items from this brand on my last USA trip for my mother and she absolutely loves them so I really want to give them a go as well. View Post

September favorites

September rolled by so fast that I was actually stopped dead in my tracks when I glanced at the calendar. Oh well, another month older, and only 2 months to go until December which is my absolute favorite month of the year. But anyway, here are my favorites for this month and you can tell from the background that I’m really going to miss the summer as well.

First up, let’s talk about the Philip Kingsley products. I got these trial sizes from Look Fantastic website for a couple of € – the Body and Shine try me kit included 20ml of an elasticizer, 20ml of shampoo and 20ml of conditioner. Now supposedly this should be enough for only one use, but I was able two scrape out two from the bottles and there’s still some left. I didn’t care much for the elasticizer, but the shampoo and condition left my hair bouncy and silky the way they usually only look when I leave the hairdresser. The full size is very expensive, but I think they will be my Christmas gift to myself this year.

Next up – again from Look Fantastic – I got the Ambiance Volumizing Dry Shampoo in Blonde, which is the color I dye my hair. I would normally never buy this because it regularly costs about 15 €, but it was on sale for about 5 € and it even came with a free refill.

It claims to clean and refresh hair without water, and maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, I can’t really tell. But I haven’t had the time to go to the hairdressers in over a month (don’t judge – it takes over 4 hours) and my roots are starting to show, so I’ve been using this dry shampoo as some sort of fake everyday color. It applies with a brush which is great for even application. The only downside with this is that it’s really difficult to stuff the brush back in when finished, but I can live with that. View Post

Make-up remover wipes

Being low maintenance and all (yeah, right, wait ‘till you see the most recent haul, even I was a bit ashamed of myself), I tend to use the simplest method of all to get rid of the main part of my make-up every evening. And since I feel an obligation to you lovely beauties to try everything once, I have tested out no less than five different brands or types in the last few months.

When using a make-up wipe, I need it to be effective, meaning it actually does remove some of my make-up and doesn’t just move it around my face. Secondly, I want it to be soft on my skin. I am not a fan of rougher wipes – I swear that I can literally hear some scraping at my skin. Thirdly, I want them to smell nice, and when I say nice, I don’t mean some nasty fake smell. I want them to smell clean, if that makes any sense. Next up, I want them to have enough moisture in them so I can use them all over my face. And last but not least, I want the packaging to be designed in a way that it can be closed well so that the wipes don’t dry out in the first couple of days.

Low maintenance maybe, but my standards regarding make-up wipes are quite high 😉

Anyway, I will just go over these five in the picture below briefly, while trying to rank them from worst to best. Your thoughts, comments and opinions are as always highly appreciated.

4th runner up: Müller Cadeavera Vital (35+ years)

Nope, nope, nope. These wipes were so rough against my skin that I ended cleaning up the fallout around my sink with them after I’m done applying my make-up. They didn’t have an unpleasant smell, but they were also less than effective in doing some serious damage to my make-up. Will not, would not, am not going to repurchase. View Post