ESSENCE Camouflage+ Healthy Glow Concealer 

10 light ivory

I'm currently working on an updated version of the budget friendly products story for Instagram (it's been taking soo long to finish) where I'm obviously including most of my high coverage concealers simply because they are very similar and it doesn't matter which one you get. And that's the reason that when my stock finally diminishes (in my defence I only bought 1 myself out of 6), I'll be repurchasing only Essence's. I'd pick Look by Bipa, since it's my best match shade-wise, but it's sold in Austria, which isn't convenient. Camouflage + Healthy Glow has got a high coverage, yet it's the one formula that I've used plenty of times all over the face when I was pressed for time and it never looked ugly cakey. It wears nicely and doesn't oxidise, plus the shade is pale enough for me. I find it's better than Catrice's famous Liquid Camouflage, especially since it's a bit thicker and the shade range is better for me. 

ESSENCE Soft Contouring Lipliner 

08 big proposal

I've "rediscovered" this recently, again due to the post that's in the making and I've been wearing it on most days. This is my perfect my-lips-but-better shade. It's about a half a shade darker than my natural lip colour which is very pale compared to most and it's perfect for defining the lips without looking to much like makeup and I can cheat/fix my lip shape. The formula of these is lovely, better than the previous overly soft one that everyone but me loved. It's soft, yet firm enough to be precise and to be able to apply all over the lips. It's also got a better staying power than before, but it could be better. I wish I had a matte liquid lipstick or regular lipstick in this precise shade, though I have no idea what would be a dupe for this colour. 

EUCERIN Hyaluron Filler Vitamin C Booster

I was about to give up on vitamin C because neither Melano nor the much stronger Tiam had any effect on my skin, so I thought maybe these types of products just aren't for me and I should stick to niacinamide for brightening. I don't often participate in giveaways unless I really want the reward, so I was very happy to hear I got lucky and won two bottles of this. Before I was using Tiam which has it's been driving me crazy with its difficult to work with texture, so I was eager to try something else, though Eucerin has a 10% of ascorbic acid, while Tiam is much stronger with the 20% content. Eucerin's version also has no alcohol and it contains glycerine, squalane and hyaluronic acid. This is the first vitamin C product I see results at. My skin is brighter, it looks more healthy, even and it just looks so good. It's also a lot nicer product to use than Tiam, so I'm really loving this. I'm close to the end of my first bottle, which lasted me about three weeks, but I used it both morning and night for the first two weeks, so it could last longer. I started seeing proper results after about two weeks. Vitamin C is packed in the bottom of the packaging separated from the emulsion, so before first use you have to mix them together. The emulsion has a lovely smooth liquid formula that applies with ease and feels moisturising, so a complete opposite of Tiam. Eucerin recommends to mix this with your moisturiser, but I don't do that for two reasons: 1. it would dilute the vitamin C content and I'm already used to much higher percentage, so I didn't experience that initial reaction I had at Tiam when my skin became sensitive for a few days. 2. from what I read vitamin C needs low pH for it to work and moisturizers tend to have higher pH than vitamin C or acids. I could be completely wrong about both of these claims, but that's what I read on Reddit before I got Tiam. I apply it alone and leave it for at least 15-20 minutes to absorb (again that's something that Reddit comments recommended as otherwise you're wasting vitamin C). It absorbs much quicker than Tiam and it doesn't become sticky, it just feels nice. This also means that I can easily use it in the morning too under sunscreen and makeup. It also smells nice, it’s got a classic clean-creamy pharmacy fragrance that's quite strong. The bottles are very small with only 7.5 ml of product and while I like that they are small because by the time you finish the bottle the vitamin C is still relatively "fresh" compared to bigger bottles, but the price of these is so high for the amount you get (17 €). 

NIVEA Sun UV Face Shine Control Cream SPF50

UV Gesicht Mattierender Sonnenschutz LSF 50

I've discussed this one at length in my Instagram Stories when I first got it and now that some time has passed I'm still very impressed by it. I asked on IG if it's worth the purchase and I got a 51:49 result, which didn't inspire confidence in me, but I still decided to take a plunge after a couple of followers wrote such great reviews for me. And both were completely right, this is a very nice sunscreen in our drugstores. There are four versions of these Nivea face sunscreens, which was so confusing and I could only find this version in Müller. First of I have to say that my skin is dry with no oiliness for far this year, so I can't say anything how this will perform on skin with any greasy shine, but for me this is a great sunscreen. I apply the recommended 1/2 teaspoon on my face and neck (most ends up on my face though and I usually apply more on the neck when I do a separate application on my chest area). Texture feels like a regular cream, more on the thick side and it’s like a typical heavy sunscreen from the start with a lot of shine, but after a few minutes it completely sinks in and leaves a velvet primer type of feeling on the skin, similar to Biore. There is a bit of sunscreen shine, not greasy one, since this feels dry to the touch when it sets. I wore it under makeup too, applied with different methods and it never pills. Makeup goes over it beautifully, as like I said it feels like a primer on my dry skin and it wears of nicely during the day, but I should say again that I get no oily shine naturally. It's nowhere near as light as Biore, Etude House or A'Pieu at application, however, on me it sets to a Biore-like finish, still on oily skin it might be better to go for the less risky Etude House Sunprise, but Nivea might surprise you too. It's got a strong Nivea sunscreen scent at application which I like, but it might be irritating for some. From what I could gather from messages I got, this is not for sensitive skin and it has a tendency to clog pores, but had no such problems. They have a sensitive version too. Overall I'm very happy with this one, the only problem I have with it is that although it feels dry to the touch and there is no oiliness, it's sometimes smudging my eyeliner, since I apply sunscreen everywhere, including eyelids, so Biore is a lot better in that respect, but this is easily available, about the same price and doesn't have alcohol as high on the list.

NUXE Huile Prodigieuse

Florale

My Nuxe bottle ran out recently, so it was time to repurchase this and this time I got the new Florale version though I'm very fond of the original. I've been using this every day for many years, it just fits my skin and it a product I can always rely on doing its job and never causing me any problems. When I'm testing new products and if the break me out, I always cut down my routine to only cleansers and this oil and wait for everything to normalize. It's quite light for an oil and since it's dry it doesn't feel greasy forever on the skin. The new Floral version smells very similar as the discontinued Fleur D’Or Acacia by L’Occitane, it’s just a bit more green and citrusy. Nuxe says it smells like magnolia, white musk, grapefruit, lemon, bergamot and orange flower. Overall it’s a citrusy floral scent and it smells like spring to me. It's nice because it's different, I've been using the original for so long I don't even notice the scent anymore, but I still love it a tiny bit more than this one, though this one is pretty nice and I think also stronger. The ingredients are the same as in the original one. I feel that introducing Eucerin vitamin C plus starting using this oil again after a month or two, really helped my skin look its best.

BATH & BODY WORKS Fine Fragrance Mist Oahu Coconut Sunset 

I had an era when I couldn't stand this, which is weird because I loved this last year, but this month I finally got back to it. I've described it before as a night time summery scent, as unlike most of BBW summer mists this is quite syrupy, yet it still has the tropical holiday coconut vibe. I've still seen these on BBW website, even though I thought they were LE, but maybe they were just popular enough to bring them back. I've also been using all the samples of BBW mists that Sandra kindly sent me some months ago. BBW just has the best summery scents for an affordable price that come in large bottles.

UPDATES

L'OREAL Elseve Total Repair 5 Extreme

I promised an update in my New in, since this didn't get its turn before I posted it. I've used up several pots of the original Total Repair 5 in a white pot and this should be the intense version. I used this on a day when I decided to air dry my hair, which I always end up regretting, so I don't know why I do it (for some reason using a hair dryer works better for me, maybe because the hair is sleeker, but leaving it air dry leaves my hair so unruly, hard, dry and frizzy). It did nothing for frizz and my hair didn't felt moisturised enough, so for now I'm thinking this might not be as good as the regular Total Repair 5 as it also felt a bit thinner, but I'll give it another try going the regular routine, since I also skipped on all the leave-ins. It has the same scent as Total Repair, which reminds me of the sweet scent of roasted chestnuts. I prefer L'Oreal Professional Absolut Repair Lipidium that I buy in a big 500 ml pot for about 17 € because it's thicker and feels more intense.

KÉRASTASE Chronologiste Essential Balm Treatment

Another mask I promised an update on. It's thicker than the discontinued Nutritive Masquitense Epais-thick and has almost a balm consistency, this sadly means it's not as easy to spread as  Masquitense and you end up using more. It tamed frizz very well and helped my hair dry a lot more sleek, it was also nourished enough, however the effect for some reason did not last long and my hair wasn't as soft as I hoped. I'll give it another try and report more on it, because given my experience with Kerastase their masks are usually amazing, so I'm hoping this still surprises me somehow. It smells like some perfume, not exactly like Miss Dior Cherie and Chanel Mademoiselle, but something like it.

L'OREAL True Match Blush Sandalwood Rose - We finally got some individual L'Oreal blushes in our drugstores and the texture both True Match and Woke up Like this looks so good. I've have two of their palettes and they make such fantastic blushes. This shade looks so much my colour, a dirty pink-peach with some shimmer. 

MAX FACTOR Crème Puff blush 15 Seductive Pink - I have two of these and I use Lavish Mauve a lot. I regularly go to the drugstore to swatch this one just to remind myself how pretty it is, but so far looking is all I've done. Maybe one day when I finally decide to chuck away 7+ year all blushes (I just can't let go of ancient NARS, MAC and Benefit stuff that I never use, but it was so expensive), I'll renew my stock with this one. 

BALEA Oil Repair Intenziv Thermo Turban Maske - normally I stray away from Balea's hair stuff apart from their hair oils, but this is intriguing. I haven't tried any of the turban masks yet, though I've known them from K-Beauty first and I'm interested if they are any good or just another gimmick meant for people with moderately dry hair. Ingredients look good (though I'm bothered by the lack of silicones) and it's relatively reasonably priced compared to L'Oreal's (though for one use it's not that cheap). I'll give it a go sometime soon I think. 

Jade roler and gua sha - I'm undecided about these two things and still in the research phase how gimmicky these are, since I occasionally do a massage with hands and see no difference, but maybe I'll get them or one of the things I don't know. 

SULWHASOO Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Eye cream - while I'm not insane enough to spend 180 $ for a mini pot of eye cream, but I might get samples of eBay which are much, much cheaper per ml. I've been researching what's the best eye cream and this is often mentioned as the one that makes a visible difference. I'm still thinking about the Innisfree Orchid cream, so I might try both. 

EUCERIN Hyaluron Filler Night Peeling Serum - Vitamin C impressed me so much I went to check Eucerin's website if there's anything else that's interesting and though most stuff seems very mediocre when it comes to ingredients (I wouldn't know about effect though), this looks like an interesting AHA product. I've been having trouble finding one for me as most stuff seems too weak for me, including the Ordinary 30% AHA, but since the Eucerin's 10% vitamin C is working better than the 20% Tiam on me, maybe this peeling is worth a try. Though I'm currently very happy with my skin care routine and I'm sticking to vitamin C only for the summer.

Have a great day!