TOO FACED Chocolate Bar Eyeshadow Palette

I've been kind of stuck on this palette in March and I always stick one of three combinations: 1. Amaretto & Cherry Cordial for a reddish brown smoky eye, 2. Creme Bruleé & Gilded Ganache for the old gold look and 3. Marzipan, Milk Chocolate & Haute Chocolate for a basic neutral eye look. These are some of my favourite eyeshadows because I don't really have the patience to build up colour slowly and these have a nice pigmentation, plus they are easy to blend. There have been so many eyeshadow palette releases since this one, so I feel like most already forgot it, but I still consider it the best basic palette, especially since I'm not a fan of this new reddish trend that is prevailing in new palettes.

THEBALM Blush/Shadow

Frat Boy

Buying theBalm Getaway Trio inspired me to reach for Frat Boy a bit more than I usually do, even though it's that type of peachy pink that I wish was less bright peach on me, but I love the quality of theBalm blushes which are some of the best. They are pigmented and blend nicely, but their biggest plus is the staying power. 

MAYBELLINE Fit Me Matte + Poreless foundation 

100 Warm Vanilla 

I know I talk about this a lot, but it just so deserves to be mentioned more frequently. I try to use all of my foundations, which means I rotate them a lot and every time I come back to this one, I'm just shocked at how nice it makes the skin look because it just somewhat perfects it in all respects, so covers just enough, hides the pores a bit and at the same time doesn't look have that drying, cakey matte finish, instead it looks like skin. It's my favourite foundation for a reason.

MAX FACTOR Honey Lacquer 

Honey Nude

I actually had this in my last favourites, but considering I've worn it almost every day, I have to include it again. I'm not a lip gloss girl at all and it's a combination of the fact they don't last on the long on the lips and I think glosses in general don't suit me in the first place, but I just can't put this one away. It's so comfortable, balmy and I love the colour, plus the packaging is pretty - it's just such a great lip product. I knew I should have picked this shade sooner, because Honey Rose I own from before is so not my colour, but this is the best natural shade lip gloss.

COLOURPOP Lippie Stix Matte X

Mirror, Mirror

I picked this up rather randomly one day and it just reminded me how wonderful the formula of Matte X is, plus this colour is unlike any other hot pink in my collection, which makes it by far my favourite, The formula is so pigmented, soft and smooth, but immediately matte and the finish is similar to liquid matte lipsticks. I've already said that these are my favourite lipsticks ever, though Bourjois' Rouge Velvet The Lipsticks aren't far behind. Mirror Mirror is a more red type of a hot pink than others, which suits my complexion a bit more, but I also appreciate that isn't not a neon bright version of the shade.

COSRX Galactomyces 95 Whitening Power Essence

Now that I finally have a full size of this I can put it properly into favourites, not just samples. This impressed me last year already, but I only recently bought a bottle because I wanted to explore other options. It's a thick toner like product that absorbs very fast and it contains 95% of galactomyces ferment filtrate, which does all sorts of things from increasing skin's absorption, to basic moisturising, brightening, helping with spots and increasing elasticity. The rest of the ingredients are hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, plus some extra bits, but overall the list isn't that long which is a good thing. This just makes my skin look better. The texture is more refined, the pores aren't that big anymore and the skin is more even. It's the product that made me fall in love with K-Beauty.

ETUDE HOUSE Moistfull Collagen

I just love this line of skin care, though I can't say it's anything special in terms of effect, apart from that it's moisturising, but the textures feel so nice, especially the toner is such a winner with its thick toner-meets-comfy serum/lotion type of formula. The Emulsion is perfect for under makeup and it's what I've been using for two months now, and the cream is nicely moisturising as well. I also love the scent of the products and scents at any product is so important to me. I'd like to get these full size one day.

ETUDE HOUSE 0.2 Therapy Air Mask

Snail

I've already raved about this in my latest New in and on Instagram Stories, but I was very impressed with the results. First of the sheet itself and the comfy lotion deserve the praise because they make this mask such a lovely experience to use this, plus the scent is nice too. This calmed down a spot that I was sure is going to be one of those that stays inflamed for days and will leave a mark, but this reduced it significantly, plus then my skin healed a lot faster. It also made the skin feel smoother, so I'd definitely like to buy more of these.

THE BODY SHOP Milk & Almond

The smell of this is just divine. It's such a lovely creamy, milky, slightly sweet honey scent that reminds me of baby cosmetics, so it's quite a calming type of fragrance. The texture isn't the usual thick body butter like as the rest of TBS's offering, but it's still very nourishing and does the job about the same. I should have bought this is bigger packaging and maybe some other products too.

L'OCCITANE 20% Shea Butter Hand Cream

My hands have been so dry in the past month due to a combination of frequent hand washing plus the central heating, so for the first time I have noticeably dry hands and L'Occitane is the only nourishing hand cream that does the job and I don't find it obnoxious because it dries quite fast. It's a thick formula and it has this gorgeous shea scent, plus it comes is this big tube, so to me it's a winner and I really don't like hand creams from any other brand, though in the past days I started using Neutrogena Body Oil right after I wash my hands while they are still wet so I lock that moisture in and it works too because Neutrogena is a dry oil which sinks in fast.

UPDATES

I rarely say which nail polish I wore during the month, though I change it only once a week or less. This month started with L.O.V. Cosmetics LOVinity in Devoted Denim, which I find too muted and dark, so I took it off and went for a proper mint green, Barry M's Speedy Quick Dry Road Rage, which I hate the formula of, but I risked it any way and it turned out just fine. I'm currently wearing Essie's Spin the Bottle which is my perfect nude, while Wet n Wild 1 Step Wonder in Stay Classy is on my toes.

I'm close to building a good stable skin care routine for me. I've found a combination that keep my skin clear, bright and moisturised, though I still need something hydrating and maybe a bit anti-ageing, so I'm still exploring a bit. But this is so far my best combination of products that work for me:

Cleansing: BIOBAZA Exclusive Micellar Cleansing Oil, BALEA Washgel and MIXA Micellar Water Anti-Dryness

Scrub: SKINFOOD Black Sugar Scrub

For keeping skin clear: COSRX BHA Blackhead Power Liquid

Brightening and hydration: COSRX Galactomyces Whitening 95 Essence and LJH Vita Propolis Ampoule

Moisturiser: NUXE Oil. Occasionally including ETUDE HOUSE Moistfull Collagen Cream (my Panda is still unopened, but when EH runs out, I'll use that one. Both are great)

In the morning I use water for cleansing and then a combination of ETUDE HOUSE Moistfull Collagen products, a toner plus either an emulsion or cream.

My amazing reader Lorenna sent me a bunch of K-Beauty samples I'm currently exploring. The way I do it, so testing the products alone with a combination of my basic skin care (cleansers + Nuxe), it will take a while, meaning I can't say much about these yet, but I've tried a few already. KIKUMASAMUNE Sake High Moist Lotion was first and it's a nice hydrating toner type of product, though my skin was only more hydrated and not brighter as some notice, but I have other products for that. I bought ROHTO Melano CC Intensive Anti-Spot Essence so I'll fade my old blemish marks and this was the second product I tested so far for a bit over a week and my skin looked so good during those day, brighter, clearer, but I desperately needed some hydration, so I had to use some extra moisturiser hours after I applied this (Nuxe wasn't enough). SCINIC Honey All in One Ampoule was the last thing I tested so far and initially I loved it because it's cheap, hydrating and it smells a bit like honey, but I'm almost 100% sure it was the product that broke me out. Now I'm back to my basic skin care so I "reset" my skin and continue trialling other stuff (Scinic will get a second chance someday). Remaining products are:

- CEZANNE Skin Conditioner High Moist - basically the same thing as Kikumasamune. It contains ceramides, Job's Tears extract, 3 types of hyaluronic acid, collagen and amino acids.

- MIZON Good Night White Sleeping Mask - a brightening moisturising product.

- HOLIKA HOLIKA Skin & Good Cera Ultra Emulsion - Ceramides for sensitive skin

- RHOTO HADA LABO Premium Hyaluronic Acid Toner - upgrade of the regular Hada Labo line that contains 5 versions of hyaluronic acid (lotion is the most popular product in this line)

- RHOTO HADA LABO Premium Hyaluronic Acid Milk - same as toner, but a milk

- BEAUTY OF JOSEON Dynasty Cream - contains niacinamide (4th ingredient), hyaluronic acid and adenosine. Texture is one of the light ones.

- TOSOWOONG Propolis Sparkle Ampoule - a propolis contender of my beloved LJH Ampoule.

- MEISHOKU Ceracolla Perfect Gel - ceramides for strengthening the skin's barrier.

CURRENT WISHLIST

I went to check out The Balm Instain blushes this month and Houndstooth really appealed to me because it's a type of muted mauve-pink I don't have yet. Fortune Favours the Brave by MR also caught my eye quite unexpectedly while I was in DM. Normally I'm not a fan of MR eyeshadows, but I loved the colour selection in this one and at least those shades I liked most looked pigmented enough. I'm still delaying ordering stuff by The Ordinary because have so much other skin care to try, but I need a good chemical exfoliator (heard only raves about this AHA one) and Argireline has been on my wishlist for ages. I'm also delaying ordering from Colourpop, but I made my choice which Supershock eyehsadows I want to try, both are old gold shades, the lighter So Quiche and the darker Hammered.

Have a great day!

BOURJOIS Rouge Velvet the lipstick

14 Brownette and 16 Caramelody

These are my second pair of this lipstick formula so I already reviewed them in depth here. Bourjois added new nude shades to the original line up and I've seen four here in Slovenia: a nude peach, a pinky mauve and these two brown ones I got. Admittedly I'm not a fan of the shades because I never liked brown tones on me, so I already sent them to another blogger Petra, who is enjoying these a lot more than me (Caramelody is in her last favourites) and she'll probably post swatches too where you'll see how these look on someone with a warmer skin tone (in the meantime check how shade 02 looks on her. It's the one I want most). I said in my review that this is my second favourite lipstick formula (favourite out of the ones that are sold in Slovenia) and I love them because they have such a smooth and light formula, which sets to a proper matte finish. Staying power of these is also great and they don't feel drying to me. Check the original review if you're interested in more details. These cost 13.89 €.

 16 Caramelody

16 Caramelody is a medium caramel brown which has some greyness to it, at least on my neutral skin tone.

14 Brownette 

16 Brownette is a warm dark brown.

BOURJOIS Levres Contour Edition

14 Sweet brown-ie

Another brown shade, so it's no longer in my collection, but I have two other shades of these lipliners (01 Nude Wave and 02 Cotton Candy), which are together with Essence's Soft Contouring my favourites (these are better, but more expensive). Formula is soft and easy to apply, but waxy enough to stay in place. Sweet Brownie is a similar shade to Brownette, so a dark brown shade, but it's a even warmer version of the colour, with some orange tones to it.

These cost 6.49 €.

Essence describes these as "opaque liquid lipstick with a vinyl finish" and I can't say they nailed it, but they are more pigmented than their usual glosses. There are 10 shades available ranging from nudes to bright shades and some reds. 

Texture: While this is a thicker and more opaque formula than Essence usually makes their glosses, it's still a bit too sheer to be called a proper liquid lipstick. Usually with liquid lipsticks such as for example Rimmel's Apocalips you need one layer for full opacity, but here you need to layer it and when you do that the bottom layer moves like glosses normally do. At Apocalips and the likes that layer sticks better to one place and it's easier to build up. So this Essence one is more of a very pigmented lip gloss, though you can get full opacity if you wish, but you'll need more product and it'll move a lot. I've experienced some problems with bleeding and if you apply a fully opaque layer, you end up with a lot of product which is very prone to smudging and moving, it also doesn't stay opaque for long and it's wearing off quickly to a semi-opaque look. Finish is very glossy.

Colour: My shade is 07 bite me if you can and it's a classic neutral-warm red.

Staying power: Like I said above this moves a lot, so it doesn't outlast a classic red lip gloss, meaning it doesn't survive any type of touching, eating or drinking, at least not well. 

Packaging: The paint like tube is admittedly kind of cute and I like the applicator which is an hourglass design because it hugs the lips nicely, but I wish it were a bit more precise, since I had problems applying it neatly for the pictures. They reused the applicator from their old Stay with me glosses which I always liked. 

Scent: This smells of nothing much, it's just a chemical scent which isn't strong or noticeable.

Price and availability: These cost 2.99 € in the drugstores.

Though quite pigmented, this is still more of a lip gloss than a liquid lipstick because the formula is still too slippery to stay in one place. I'd stick to light shades because it's a formula that can be messy, but with light shades I'm sure this won't be that big of a problem. It's a comfortable and very glossy formula with not the best staying power, but at least it's affordable and it comes in a cute tube.

Have a great day!

*PR product

1. Ballpoint pen with a digital clock 

2. Cartoon pencil case 

3. LED ballpoint pen

4. Multipurpose ballpoint pen with a LED light and sticky notes |

5. Rose ballpoint pen 

6. Galaxy ballpoint pens

7. Feather ballpoint pen 

8. Fluffy bunny pencil case

9. Multi function ballpoint pen with a led light, key chain & a screwdriver

These links won't work forever, but there are always the same products sold by other sellers, you just have to do a quick search. You can find all of my AliExpress and eBay related posts by searching for the eBay Bargains label.

10. Heart shaped refillable perfume bottle 

11. Refillable sample perfume vials 

12. Refillable 75 ml silicone tubes with cartoon designs

13. Airless bottles with a pump

14. Travel refillable perfume atomizer bottle

15. Perfume vials with a butterflies 

16. Sample Jars

17. Refillable perfume bottles glass with metal/leather imitation caps 

18. Apple and leave-shaped silicone travel tubes

19. 10 pcs rose gold mermaid eye brushes 

20. 4 pcs blue silver makeup brushes 

21. Large rose gold foundation brush

22. Purple black lightning makeup brushes 

23. 4 pcs blue metal makeup brushes 

24. 8 pcs blue pink makeup brushes 

25. Bracelets/earrings/rings velvet box organiser display

26. Folding velvet necklace bust display

27. Velvet necklace & bracelet half cilinder organiser display

28. Velvet necklace display 

29. Velvet jewellery organiser box

30. Bracelet cilinder organiser display

31. Velvet necklace stand display 

32.  Suspended floating display jewellery case

33. Acrylic ring box 

34. Rose flower USB mini humidifier

35. Rose gold A Z letter foil helium balloons

36. Disney princess cushion cover 

37. Bra strap extender for low back dresses

38. High heel shoes with a detachable big bow 

39. Reverse folding inverted umbrella with pictures

40. Seamless plunge bra for low cut dresses

41. LED light emitting hair streaks

42. Suede cut out high heels

 Have a great day!

When it comes to non-powdery eyeshadows I tend buy those in stick/cream form because these type of liquid eyeshadows like the new Essence Story of my eyes were always such a disappointment in terms of pigmentation, creasing and staying power, but this formula was a big surprise. For one the pigmentation is amazing and once it sets, it doesn't budge. Regardless of these positive qualities, it's also one of the hardest formulas I've ever worked with.

I got the green silver/midnight blue combination called 10 roadtrippin' which is actually the most bold one, while the other four combinations are more neutral. There's a dark silver combination, two taupe combos (one taupe/light gold, the other taupe with taupe) and one is a rusty red/gold one. All combinations consist of a shimmery shade and a matte shade, which is actually satin.  Roadtripping contains a shimmery greenish silver and a satin finish midnight blue. Both shades are very pigmented and you get an opaque colour with one swipe.

Like I said before these are very hard to work with. The first time I tried just swiping these on the lids and when I started blending, I realised it's impossible because they dry in seconds. While I could get the silver working by applying a second coat and quickly blend it, the blue one is an a lot more challenging shade. It's best to first apply a thin coat of these by tapping them on the lid with a finger, therefore blending it already, then applying another coat with a doe foot applicator that leaves you with opaque layer of colour. The silver works fine like that, but the with the blue one there's an extra problem because applying something on top removes the colour bellow and you get a patchy result. It can be done, but the application needs to be very precise with placing the applicator on the desired area instead of swiping, so this is an eyeshadow that takes a long time to apply decently (it took me 15 minutes for the result in the picture and it's not even remotely as good as someone more makeup savvy would have done it). 

Once these dry, you have a perfectly opaque, intense colour that doesn't move and lasts a really long time. Eyeshadow is almost cemented on the lids and you can't wipe it off easily, but you can feel them on, especially when you layer the colour. I noticed no creasing on my normal lids, but I did notice some stinging at application and I don't have sensitive skin. The feeling disappeared after these set. 

These cost 4.39 €.

Don't buy these for a quick every day makeup  because you're setting yourself for a disappointment. However, if you're looking for an opaque metallic or satin eyeshadow that won't budge, these are a decent option, though blending and applying these is such a chore. I was excited to see such a rich midnight blue because I wanted such a shade for at least ten years and all turn out much paler than you expect, but this is is so hard to work with, I can't imagine I'll bother applying it often, while the silver is a much easier shade. 

Have a great day!

*PR product.

This is a limited edition palette from the Create & Transform My Wonder Palette trend edition, though Essence recently released a similar eyeshadow palette in their permanent selection. The collection also includes two more palettes, one with lip colours and one with face powders, so blushes, highlighters, contouring shades and the transformers. Eyeshadow palette contains 17 eyeshadows (5 are matte), 2 brow powders and 3 transformers, which are highlighting toppers with blue, purple-pink and gold reflect. 

The quality of the eyeshadows is typically Essence, which was especially apparent when I was swatching them. They are powdery, so more on a dry side and have a medium pigmentation with some fall out. However with some building up and a base they work out just fine. They blend ok, though some dark shades need extra work and they last on my eyes with no creasing or much fading for a long time. Still I want more from a palette, by that I mean better pigmentation and less powdery textures. Quality of the shadows varies in the palette, the best is that bronze shade in the top row which is softer and much more pigmented than rest, while that third shade in the top row (pale gold) and the midnight blue in the third row have almost no pigmentation because they are so dry. First two rows are better than the third and the brighter colours in the palette are quite chalky, so they need some colour base under them for a more intense look. The mint one is actually the best one, but it's overall quite a pale shade. The two brow products are matte and again more on the chalky side, while the transformers, though shimmery, are quite dry.

 The transformers.

Colour selection is quite nice. You get your standard neutrals, but also bright colours (though for those you'll need a base) and some nice rosy neutrals that are popular at the moment. The brow shades are quite limited to those with dark eyebrows and even though the left looks cool, on me it was too warm, so both will fit those with warm tones. The transformers are a nice addition and they make the palette a bit more fun. You can use them over any colour to add something extra and to change the colour. The blue one and pink one work great, while gold didn't add that much, but it's still useful. 

Last two shades in the second row, plus second to last brown shade in the from row. Lipstick is Essence's Colour Up! Shine On 10 Rosey Glitz.

Transformers over the rosy combination above. It's the last blue transformers on the right and the pink-purple on the left.

Fourth shade from the top row (bronze) with the last shade in the top row. On the lips is Essence's Draw the Line Instant Colour Lipliner 05 so un-grey-tful.

The packaging is plastic and it bothers me they made a simple opaque cover because they missed the opportunity to either add a big mirror (which would make it more expensive) or and even better idea would it if it were transparent. You get a sponge applicator and a mini flat synthetic brush with it.

 I believe palette is already available since 21. March and it costs 9.49 €.

I don't say this often, but for a non-neutral, this has quite a nice selection of shades and the transformers make it that extra special, however, I wish the eyeshadows were a bit better, as they feel too dry and some aren't that pigmented. It's still a useful palette, especially if you use a primer or at least a concealer under the eyeshadows, but nowadays there are so many inexpensive palettes, this one just doesn't stands out enough.

Have a great day!

*PR product.