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05 May 2016

Monthly Favourites: March + April

In the blink of an eye, the first four months of the year have vanished. How did this happen?! Today I'm bundling together my favourites for the past two months. This post features haircare, hand cream, skincare, and a couple of beauty bits.



Haircare



I was so happy to hear that the Garnier Ultimate Blends haircare range was coming to South Africa. I bought the Honey Treasures shampoo and conditioner that is set to be "the strength restorer" and is specifically for fragile hair that is prone to breakage. I have to be honest, I bought this solely for the smell and because the packaging reminds me of the honeypots in Winnie The Pooh! It smells sweet and flowery and the texture is a silky gel. It leaves my hair bouncy and soft and my hair is gently fragranced.


Skincare



I have never tried anything from Nip+Fab before, but I have heard many good things about their exfoliating pads. The Glycolic Fix exfoliating facial pads are for exfoliating and brightening. A tub contains 60 pads and each pad is soaked in a solution containing hyaluronic acid (to moisturise and refresh), glycol acid (to retexturise and resurface), and blue daisy extract (to soothe and calm). All you need to do is swipe one pad across your face (skipping the eye-area) at night. I use this around 3-4 times a week and the next morning I can see that my skin is definitely clearer.

I have mentioned the Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate in a couple of posts before, but this month I have been teaming it up with another product to give pretty good results. The Johnson's Hydration Essentials 2-in-1 Facial Gel/Mask contains ocean minerals and is cheap as chips. I bought mine while doing grocery shopping at Checkers and although I can't remember the exact price, I know it was less than R80. It's a pale blue gel cream and it smells clean and fresh. I must admit, at first I did not get on with it. I decided to use it as a hydration mask after using a chemical exfoliating mask and a clay mask, and it stung my skin so badly that I had to remove it. However, mixing this gel cream with 3-4 drops of the Kiehl's MRC and applying it to my skin at night has left me with plump and glowing skin the following morning.

I like to keep hand creams everywhere I go so that I am never without moisturised hands. I have one on my bedside table, one in my handbag, one on my work desk, and now one where I do my work at night and over weekends. The Crabtree & Evelyn lavender hand cream is the perfect size to pop into my handbag, but I prefer leaving it at my workstation at home. The texture is incredibly creamy and sinks in immediately. No greasy keyboard buttons here! The lavender scent is also incredibly soothing, and I have found that it calms me down in stressful (work)situations.


Makeup



For someone who never really wore foundation, this is quite a surprising turn of events as this month I'm featuring two foundations in this post! The Rimmel Match Perfection foundation is said to provide 24 hour hydration (who wears their foundation for 24 hours?), as well as a pore blurring effect. The foundation provides "invisible coverage, visibly perfected skin". I have it in the shade 200 Soft Beige which is a very good, albeit slightly warmer, match for me. It goes on smoothly and buffs in beautifully. It's not streaky and doesn't look like it just sits on the skin. I have combination/oily skin and it works beautifully with my skin, and I think many different skin types will love this foundation. The foundation comes in a glass bottle, which is bad for travelling, but it makes up for that by having a pump to dispense the product.

The second foundation is the Youthful Wear Spotless foundation from Physician's Formula. The packaging is very cute with the purple spots. The foundation also comes in a glass bottle and has a pipette for dispensing the product. This foundation is very runny and is a serum foundation boasting SPF 15. The shade range is very limited, but I have it in "Medium". It's a little bit warmer than I am, but it still looks natural when blended in. The foundation also comes with a small buffing brush, but it's a bit useless to try and apply your foundation with something so small. The foundation literally feels like applying a light-weight serum to your skin: it's absolutely weightless and provides a decent amount of coverage.

My favourite mascara of the past two months is the L'Oreal Miss Manga Punky Mega Volume mascara in "Black". I loved the original Miss Manga, but I think Miss Manga Punky is the new queen. The brush is long and stiff with synthetic bristles and it does a great job of separating and coating all my lashes individually. My lashes look long and lush, what's not to love? My favourite lip product of the past two months has been the new Revlon Ultra HD Matte LipColor in "Temptation". It's a lovely muted pink that applies beautifully to my lips and stays put for a few hours. Reapplying it isn't a problem, and it doesn't end up looking gunky. It also smells like fruit pastilles, so you know I'm going to love that...

And those were my favourites for March and April! Have you tried any of these products? What did you think? Let me know in the comments section!

Until next time!

Hildegarde
xoxo