While rounding up my most-used products of March, I couldn't help but think how the heck is it April already?! It feels like the other day we came back from Christmas holiday and now it's almost Easter!
My favourites from March include a skincare product, a hair care product, a couple of makeup products, and one hair gadget. Let's get stuck in!
Kiehl's Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser
I received this 30 ml sample many months ago along with a purchase from Kiehl's. I started using it most mornings and I absolutely love it. It's a very light, pottery clay coloured facial cleanser. The texture is difficult to describe. It's not thick like a clay mask, but it's not like a lotion either. It's slightly gritty and has a light smell. It contains Amazonian white clay and exfoliates and detoxifies. It's best used on normal to oily skins, and I have combination oily skin, so this is pretty perfect for me. I use this in the mornings and apply it to wet skin. I gently massage it in and rinse it off with warm water. My skin feels clean and smooth and refreshed. As soon as space opens up on my cleanser shelf (I have a lot of cleansers on rotation), I am definitely buying the full sized version of this.
Kérastase Elixir Ultime for Damaged Hair (Moringa)
This hair oil normally costs around R450, but RetailBox and EverythingHair recently had huge sales on the Kérastase Ultime range, so I bought two bottles (I think I paid R99 per bottle). The pump bottle works great, as you don't need to screw on caps with oily hands. The consistency is light, but this is definitely not a dry oil. Halfway through blowdrying my hair I rub one pump of oil between my hands and work it through my hair, focussing on the ends and the lengths. I then continue blowdrying my hair until it is completely dry. The smell is amazing and makes my hair smells like moringa flowers for the rest of the day. The oil leaves my hair soft and shiny, and tames fly-aways without leaving my hair greasy.
Makeup favourites
My makeup favourites for the month includes the Stila CC Cream. This is an amazing product to use when you don't want to layer on the makeup, but still want to hide a few blemishes and a bit of redness. The CC cream comes out of the tube as a light grey product, but it buffs into the skin beautifully. I've been using this most days, and sometimes I like to mix it with a drop of the Stila Bronzing Beauty Balm for a sunkissed glow.
I have already done a blog post on the Benefit Coralista blush
here, so I won't harp on about it. It's a lovely glowy peach colour and I see myself using this well into autumn.
On my eyes I've found myself wearing the eyeshadow I bought from the lovely
Nicole's latest blogsale a lot in March. The Smashbox Eyeshadow Trio in Filter is a beautiful trio of matte browns. There is an off-white colour called Vanilla, a light brown called Sable, and a dark brown called Sumatra. The shadows are buttery and blend beautifully. The compact shuts tightly and it's fantastic for travelling.
The mascara I've been loving this month is the Essence Maximum Definition Volume Mascara that I got from the sweet Johlet in a box exchange. The brush has short plastic bristles, and the formula is not too dry, and not too wet. Normally I'm running late in the mornings, so I can just sweep this wand through my lashes without covering my entire eyelid in mascara, or poking myself in the eye (yes, it happens). I have naturally long eyelashes, so this gives them good volume. All in all, a lovely mascara, and being from Essence, it's sure to be very reasonably priced too.
The last makeup favourite for this month is the Bourjois CC Eye Cream. This product has revolutionised my under-eye concealing. I have just about given up on under-eye concealing, as nothing was really working (or I wasn't using it properly). This is a colour correcting concealer, basically a CC cream for your eyes. Genius! The applicator is perfection. Instead of a nozzle that continues to bleed product long after you're done, this rubber tip only lets product out when you twist the tube on the bottom. It's hygienic and the rubber tip is soft on your skin. The product is quite liquidy but blends beautifully into the skin. I have found that if I don't use a rich eye cream with my morning skincare routine, the concealer does settle into the fine lines below my eyes. That being said, if I apply the concealer and set it with powder, it lasts the whole day. That to me is quite a fantastic thing.
Hair gadget: Invisibobble
The last product in this month's list of favourites is the much hyped-over Invisibobble. Long haired ladies, you need this in your life! I don't know about the rest of you, but I go through hair elastics like it's going out of fashion. If I don't lose them, they snap. The original Invisibobble comes in a couple of colours, and you get three bobbles for R80. There are cheaper knock-offs, but I haven't tried them yet. The Invisibobble promises to leave no trace on your hair: so you can tie your hair in a bun for a few hours and not worry about it leaving a weird kink when you take it out. All in all, a game changer.
So that's it for this month! Have you tried any of these products? What did you think? What's your number one favourite product for last month? I love hearing what other people rave about.
Until next time!
Hildegarde
xoxo