Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! May you all have an amazing holiday.
I love Jordan Samuel Skin and I've been playing with The After Show Balm Cleanser for some time. I'll be posting a review after the holidays. I love the texture. It removes all my makeup with ease yet isn't a heavy feeling balm cleanser. It has an emulsifier to help wash it off clean with just water. You can use it with a cloth for best removal effects or with water if you want to leave a little oil behind. I've heard you can use it as a overnight balm as your moisturizer. I need to try it that way before I fully review it. More to come.
Koyudo makes the best makeup brushes. Japanese brushes are the highest quality. Nothing compares. The Blush Brush BP017 is made with Canadian Squirrel hair and picks up the perfect amount of powder. Review HERE. I've been reaching for the Sisley Sisleya Le Teint Foundation in Linen all week. It's got this amazing satin finish with a light to medium coverage. The formula is packed with anti-aging skin ingredients and makes my skin so smooth. Review HERE. Urban Decay VICE Lipstick in Wrath is perfect for this week. It's the perfect shimmering metallic true red. Review & swatches HERE. I love the VICE formula it's creamy and very comfortable.
I recently grabbed a few of the new de Mamiel Sleep Series products. The Soothe roll-on will unburden your mind of stressed, anxious feeling and quell that uncomfortable churning feeling we often hold in our centre. Combining a bespoke blend of herbs, watermelon seed oil and passionflower oil (which maximise the absorption of vitamins and minerals essential for quality sleep) alongside sandalwood and ginger root essential oils, this potent blend settles both senses and body to ease you into a deep, calm, comfortable slumber. Details per Cult Beauty. I've been using this to help sleep at night. I love the light essential oils, it's not too heavy.
I've also been using Anchor which is a balm to ease you back into a blissful slumber if you’ve found yourself rudely awakened. Combining a bespoke blend of herbs, watermelon seed oil and passionflower oil (which maximise the absorption of vitamins and minerals essential for quality sleep) this potent blend anchors your senses – just the thing for those nights when you can’t stop tossing and turning. Details per Cult Beauty. This balm is a bit more intense than the roll on. Loving it.
Ormonde Jayne is one of my all time favorite perfumeries. The UK niche brand just makes the most amazing unique scents. Woman is a woody oriental perfect for colder weather. It's so unique and I love it. I talked about it HERE. Details per Ormonde Jayne:
Ormonde Woman Eau de Parfum is created with Black Hemlock Absolute and includes notes of grass oil, violet and jasmine absolute. Cedar wood, amber and sandalwood make this signature scent a dusky, seductive perfume like no other!
Top: Cardamom, Coriander and Grass Oil
Heart: Black Hemlock, Violet and Jasmine Absolute
Base: Vetiver, Cedar Wood, Amber and Sandalwood
Miller Harris is my other favorite niche perfumery and also from the UK. Feuilles de Tabac is a heavier tobacco woody chypre. Also perfect for winter and holidays. I talked about it HERE. Details per Miller Harris:
Feuilles de Tabac is an inimitable and confident tobacco perfume without comparison. Suggestive of the leaves wrapping a fine cigar and a golden pouch of honeyed tobacco, Feuilles de Tabac opens with a spark of fiery pimento berries and Cuban cascarilla oil - imparting a spectrum of smouldering spice. Sage and pine needles provide timeless cool, whilst tobacco leaves are wrapped in Malaysian patchouli and the cherry-tobacco sweetness of tonka beans. The overall impression is of an exquisite cigar, ready to to be lit.
Top: bergamot Italy, sage France, pine needle Siberia
Heart: cascarilla oil Cuba, pimento berries
Base: patchouli Indonesia, tonka bean, tobacco leaf France
AIKA is a newly discovered Australian green beauty brand. I grabbed two of their facial oils or elixirs. TRI DOSHA Radiance Elixir is the most expensive facial oil I have ever bought. It is also the most amazing. My face feels so good after using. I just want to keep touching my face after applying this. The texture is thin for an oil yet it glides on and is so hydrating. My skin feels so smooth after applying and it literally makes my skin just feel perfect. It has a unique set of ingredients with the main being saffron which is a rare expensive herb. I like to cook with saffron it's just pricey. Full review eventually but here's the ingredient list:
Sesame indicum (sesame oil), Cow’s milk, Crocus sativus (saffron), Vettivera zizanoides (vetiver root), Rubia cordifolia (manjista), Glycyrhhiza glabra (liquorice), Cinnamomum Tamala (Indian bark), Prunus cerasides (Himalayan cherry), Nuciferra nelumbo (sacred lotus), Santalum album (white sandalwood), Curcuma longa (turmeric), Burberris aristata (Indian barberry), Mesua ferra (Indian rose chestnut), Beutea monosperma (flame of the forest), Ficus religiosa (holy bodhi fig), Jasminum officianale (jasmine), Alphinia galangal (galangal), Acorus calamus (sweet flag), Cera alba (beeswax), Santalum spicata (sandalwood oil), Rose damascena (rose otto), Jasminum officianale (jasmine).
I have been loving mandelic acid lately. An alphhydroxy acid made from almonds--mandelic acid tends to not only smell like sweet almond oil, it's more gentle than glycolic. I've been using the Colleen Rothschild Mandelic Acid Radiance Serum at night for a while. I love how gentle it is while still resurfacing my skin beautifully. More to come.
Perricone Hyalo Plasma is one of my favorite hydrating gels. It's not a typical gel cream like Clinique. It's lighter yet with more intense hydration. It layers beautifully. I love using this in the winter in lieu of a hydrating serum. So for those few months where it's colder and the artificial heat comes on I love using this as an extra boost of hydration. My skin eats it up, it sinks in with no heavy feeling yet leaves this moisture barrier behind. I talked about it HERE. This is my second jar because I loved it so much. This and Zelens Z Matrix are my top two gel cream style hydrators. Details per Perricone:
Scientifically formulated with three forms of Hyaluronic Acid, Hyalo Plasma Hyaluronic Acid Intensive Moisturizer promotes the appearance of youthful convexity and noticeable smoothness, suppleness and radiance for skin that appears more nourished and revitalized. Luxurious and oil-free, it imparts visible radiance for younger-looking skin.
Top to Bottom--Sisley Linen, Urban Decay Wrath, Perricone Hyalo Plasma, Jordan Samuel Skin The After Show Balm Cleanser:
