Favourites of the month of May :)

- Albert Heijn, wilde muizen 
- Ambre Solaire, Sensitive Advanced Face Mist SPF 50 
- Daiso x Disney, blotting paper 
- M.A.C, lipstick in Antique Velvet 
- M.A.C, brow sculpt in Cork 
- M.A.C, sized to go zoom lash mascara in Beets Me 
- Yves Rocher, macadamia nut lip balm 
- Yves Rocher, perfect skin – after sun, moisturizing repairing lotion 
- Theo, WA 258 
- Too Faced, Milk Chocolate Soleil bronzer 
- Weleda, Almond hand cream 

May: a month of candy mice, beauty products and new glasses.
Find out more behind the cut!


 

Protect your face 
It took me a while to find a product that I can use to protect my face from the sun and that won't screw up my make-up, or my skin. 
And lo and behold: this actually holds true to it's claims. 
Paraben free, check (because my skin isn't blistering). 
Not causing black heads, check (I've not got more than usual). 
Compatible with make-up, check! 

The UK version of the bottle actually claims that it's a setting spray, but the Belgian version doesn't quite go as far, it just says it's “make-up compatible”. Which is definitely true. Seeing I don't normally use a setting spray, I can't actually tell whether or not it works as one. I think it may, because my make-up does look really nice after spraying this. 
 It is pretty good at keeping make-up intact in the heat, because I wore this over make-up (blush, bronzer, highlighter, eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner) when it was boiling hot here on March 17 and even after 7 hours, my make-up was still looking pretty nice! 

I believe I shall hoard this like a demented hamster so that if they decide to discontinue this, I at least have a supply of it to last me a while. 

My one gripe with this product, and it is a significant one, is that it is basically owned by Monsanto (who L'Oreal, who in turn own Garnier who own Ambre Solaire). 
It's not cruelty free, and owned by Monsanto, that's like two strikes. So basically, whilst I do love this, I am only using it 'till there is a valid alternative on the market. 
Please Boots, release this in Soltan version and make it part of your permanent collection!!! 

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Why not just call it what it is? 
Which is a dark chocolate. 
The end. 
 Don't get me wrong, I feel like Antique Velvet, as a name, has a steampunk feel to it, which I'm all about, but I don't see how this colour is either antique nor velvet (especially as it's a matte formula). 
Anyhow, before I really stray off the point: this is a dark brown. 

I did doubt between buying this one and Digging It, which is a slightly lighter, warmer toned and slightly more caramel version of this. But in the end of the day I decided I wasn't going to do the limited edition thing to myself yet again, and went for Antique Velvet. 

To be honest, it's not very different from Film Noir, other than that there are less red undertones (Film Noir generally looks very red brown on me) and this is a matte finish. 
In all fairness, I thought it was a true brown, without red undertones (damn you M.A.C Louvain store lighting), but I still like it. 
Had I known the difference between this and Film Noir had been so small, I wouldn't have bought it, but now that I own it, I do really like it. 
I wouldn't repurchase them both, but I do both love them enough for them to each have deserved a monthly faves spot.



 

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And whilst we are on the subject 
On the subject of chocolate that is... 
This really does smell like chocolate. 

I actually got this in a deluxe sample size with my Too Faced order (thank you again Jon!) and I really love it. 
It's only a few shades darker than my skin, which allows me to fake looking a lot healthier than I am very easily. 
It's also a perfect combo with my much beloved Too Faced love flush blush in Baby Love (which is the blush I wear the most). 
When I run out of the sample version, I will absolutely buy the full sized one. 

I'm actually working on a blog post comparing this bronzer to another one, so yeah, more about this soon! :).

 

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Exact match 
Originally, I refused to do anything with my brows. 
When, for some reason I had to do something with them, I used Mocha from my Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons palette. 
When I got a tiny sample of the Benefit Goof Proof brow pencil from the French Sephora and figured I might as well use it. I did quite like it, but I felt that nr 3 was really rather too dark, and just not the right colour for me (I ended up mixing in gold eye liner from NYX). 

Now, I don't know what it's like where you guys live, but here in Belgium it is IMPOSSIBLE to find a Benefit counter (they have them at Inno) where you can actually test these things. Testers are ALWAYS empty (and generally in a really shit state). Because there was just no way I was going to shell out nearly €30 for a brow product and just guess a shade and I'm not that keen on Benefit as a brand (can't argue with their graphic work and packaging though, that's definitely A+), I figured I'd wait for the French Sephora to get the Too Faced Brow-nie in stock, and then swatch one at some point. 

Of course, then M.A.C came out with their brow sculpts, and I just immediately threw the Too Faced plan out of the window in favour for one of these. I'm glad I did too, because Cork is the EXACT SAME shade as my eyebrows. I'm not even joking, even the shop girl that matched me was surprised. 
Should have known I could count on M.A.C :). 
And yes, I know, M.A.C isn't cruelty free either, but M.A.C has been so reliable for me through the years, especially with my skin allergies and such, that I'm willing to stick with them. 

Anyway, I love this thing. It has the softest spoolie in the universe, and the product itself is just really pigmented, well formulated and easy to use. 
Plus, it's €20, so cheaper than both Goof Proof and Brow-nie. 
I'm happy with it :). 

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SFX on the lashes 
Well, this shade of burgundy-eske brown looks like dried blood. 
Which is not only awesome in it's own right in my book (because the black zoom lash is just too damn black!).  
BUT it also means it works really well to simulate scrapes. Some Beets Me, a little cherry skies from NYX and done. Roll on the Halloween season :). 
I like doing SFX stuff with non SFX products, you'd be surprised how much money I can save this way!

Aside from all of that, it's also not a complete nightmare to remove. I wouldn't say it comes off with just one swipe, but it's not like you have to rub your eyes raw to get your mascara off either, it comes off pretty easily with a good remover.

So basically I get a nice colour mascara AND an SFX product at the same go. Sounds great to me! 

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Cute and effictive 
My friend Marie brought back this blog film for me from Tokyo. 
Let me tell you, if I ever find a Daiso that carries this kind of blotting paper, I will buy a LOT of it. 
I really love it, it's very effective. 
On top of that its also cute, which is a fun extra. 
I must admit that I had never used blog film before, so I can't compare, but I do really love this one. 
It definitely beats trying to wipe sweat off my face with my fingers (which I totally can because I don't wear foundation), especially as this is much nicer to my skin! 

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Hands need care, too 
I've been looking for a really good hand cream I would want to repurchase for a while now. 
And I think I'm finally there. 
My previous hand cream was also by Weleda (the sea buckthorn one) and whilst it did everything it was supposed to do, I didn't like the scent. At all.
So I switched to this one, which also does everything its supposed to do. 
And, this smells like marzipan (just like the Weleda almond facial cream), which I really like. 
The scent doesn't stay though (unlike the sea buckthorn one, which would linger for an hour +), so if you're not into the scent of marzipan, you won't be bothered by it for longer than a minute. 
Would totally buy again.

 

As do lips. 
Because I loved Yves Rocher's limited edition Guatemalan Macadamia nut lip balm sticks so much, which where sadly limited edition, I opted to get three regular macadamia nut lip balm sticks when I got a really good loyalty deal on them. 
And guess what, they are exactly like the limited edition... 
This does mean that I love them, but I'm a little less than impressed by the fact that Yves Rocher pulled a stunt like that. 
I certainly won't be buying special edition macadamia lip balms from them ever again! 

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Protection from the sun continues after actually being in the sun 

That's what I use this after sun for. 
It's the new, paraben free version of the old Yves Rocher one I had (when it wasn't full of paraben, obviously, they just added that mess at some point). 
I don't like that it's now pricier, and I kinda liked how it used to be full of aloe rather than this weird sea holly now, BUT it is still as efficient as it always was, so I'm fine with it. 
Also: it works against actual burns too, which means I don't have to buy that horrid chemical waste that is Flamazine. 
Therefore I approve. 

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Wild mice 
This is a tie with my other fave candy: Haribo's Croco Pik!. But seeing I can only get the sweet & sour crocodiles at select stores in France (so hardly ever), I tend to eat this a lot more, as they sell it at most Albert Heijn and some Delhaize stores (sadly of course not my local one, that'd make life too easy XD). The mice have super yummy soft gummy bodies and gummy worm tails. Like: the best combo EVER! And, unlike most candies, literally every flavour in the bag is delicious! 
So good. 
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Theo loves you 
Well, I love Theo too, the frames at least :). 
And no joke, that's actually the company's catch-phrase. 
I digress. I still LOVE my old glasses, but, as some of you know (and most on my old blog know) I was in an accident caused by faulty infrastructure in Berchem train station a few years ago, which you can read all about here (you may never feel safe dealing with the NMBS ever again though). 
I was actually wearing my big retro glasses, which came out without so much as a scratch (ever wondered about Theo quality? That's literally all you should consider in that case). 
Due to the issues with my nose because of that accident, when there is a lot of fine dust in the air (so very often), my nose clogs up more, and it actually becomes really painful to wear my acetate frames as they are quite heavy, which sucks because I LOVE those frames. 
I tried going back to the frames I had before then, which are also hella cool, but they are way too small for me to wear and drive a car, as I feel my sight is too limited. 
Ergo: I was in actual need of new glasses (there went my savings!). 

So I went to the Theo flagship store, Somers Opticians, in Antwerp, and picked out this pair. 
Actually, Bert and I went to Somers together, so he could give his opinion.
Luckily he didn't mind these at all, because these are the ones I liked best and I would have gotten these anyway :D (sorry Bert!). 

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Past monthly faves on this blog (newest to oldest).
Faves of past months going futher back, but on my old blog (newest to oldest).

Added note: where possible I link to English language (UK or US) websites in the summary, even when I bought the product in a Belgian store, or via a Dutch language website. So simply google for your country's website alternative. Most stores I buy from have one. 
Eventually these links may expire when a company discontinues a product, but at the time this post goes live, they *should* all be good. 

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