Namaste! This month’s Sephora Play contains products that address your summer needs. Sephora calls it the “Summer Starters”. It’s all about reinforcing your makeup to keep it longer in this warming temps while keeping your look fresh as always.
2. Benefit Cosmetics The POREfessional Face Primer (0.25 oz/Mini: $12, 0.75 oz $31) – Always been in love with this primer, together with Smashbox Photofinish Classic Primer. I love this because it truly blurs your pores and other imperfections as what it promises. It’s also very lightweight and without the strong silicon feel. It’s great for oily skin and I love the light powdery scent.
3. Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Lovesick (0.22 oz: $20) – Mauve Nude. The texture is just like any other KVD Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks which is matte and very long lasting, reviewed further HERE. But this shade is not really my cup of tea. It’s a little too bright of a pink for me.
4. Coola Makeup Setting Spray Spf 30 (1.7 oz: &36) – Seems like a really promising product, but it hurts the eyes and it irritates the nose upon spraying it on the face. The scent is like a strong isopropyl alcohol and the spray does not release a fine mist. It does make your makeup stay long enough though.
5. Klorane Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk (1 oz: $10, 3.2 oz: $20) – An Allure Best of Beauty 2016 winner, this is a well-made dry shampoo and one of the best I’ve ever tried. It has a very light lemon/perfume scent and it doesn’t leave any powdery residue on the hair. On top of that, it doesn’t weigh the hair down, instead, it adds a slight volume.
6. Verb Sea Spray (2.4 oz: $7, 6.3 oz: $14) – With quinoa protein and tea extract, this is a lightweight non-sticky hairspray or hair mist. It’s great for creating that airy windblown hair or even creating some very light soft curls. I think this is best when you want to create that Melania hair, a little windswept on the sides, here and there.
So far, my favorites from this month’s box subscription are; Bvlgari Omnia Crystalline Eau de Toilette, Verb Sea Spray, and the Klorane Dry Shampoo, despite my lack of enthusiasm about this month’s products. I think Sephora could’ve sent better products or something new or unique. Oh well, next time perhaps.
What did you get for this month’s Sephora Play? Did you like yours?
It’s Friday again guys and here are some products that you may want to hunt over the weekend. A lot of these samples are really interesting and some of them are the products I’ve been eyeing for quite a while now, but I wasn’t exactly sure if they’re worth it. Thank God for samples, now I know more or less which product I may want to test.ย
Kerastase Nutritive Bain Magistral (80 ml: $20.50, 250 ml: $41) – A Glamour-awarded shampoo for dry to severely dry hair. It’s meant to make the hair smooth, supple and shiny. Also, it promises to remove impurities and nourish the hair from within. I find this shampoo to be very moisturizing but if your hair is on the fine/straight side, and you don’t wash your hair the next day, well, this might weigh it down. It’s really great if you tend to have dry hair or even dry scalp because this shampoo will make it look shiny and healthy. I also love that the scent is non-irritating and it smells like iris and sunflower seed.
Tatcha The Water Cream (1.7 oz $68) – I’m so excited to try this newly-released gel cream from Tatcha since I love Tatcha beauty and skincare products. They have such innovative and interesting products that will really spark your interest. They also make their packaging look sophisticated and pretty like this moisturizer, which is SO good. It feels really light but it moisturizes very well. The moment I applied this, I felt like all the stress, pain, arthritis, and even the evil spirits went away, lol. This feels cool on the face and the light floral scent is just divine.
Sisley Paris Black Rose Cream Mask (2.1 oz $162) – Been dying to try this mask since this is basically a 5-star cult-favorite in France and in the US. Lots of people are raving about it even if it has a steep price. Even Emma Stone’s makeup artist used this on her when she attended and won the Oscar for Best Actress. I managed to score a sample at my local Nordstrom Sisley Paris counter and immediately tried it upon arriving home. I have mixed feelings about this mask. It doesn’t seem like a mask to me, instead, it’s more like a moisturizer since it’s really creamy. It’s meant to be used on the skin for 2-3 times a week, leaving it on for 10-15 minutes, wiping off excess product thereafter. In my experience, it’s true that my skin did absorb this quickly and there’s not even any excess. It’s really hard to treat this as a mask, but it’s easy to see this as a moisturizer instead, even though Sisley Paris has recently introduced the moisturizer version of this, seen HERE. So I used this as a moisturizer and left this on my skin overnight. My skin indeed looked luminous and well-hydrated, but I feel like any good moisturizer could do that. Even La Mer could do that, and compared to La Mer’s scent, this Sisley Paris Black Rose Mask has a strong rose stem/cucumber scent. A little too much for me. I don’t know, but I feel like it’s kind of hard to be so impressed by this, especially upon seeing how small the regular size is with respect to its price. I do feel like this cream mask is good for traveling or when your face had gone through extremes temperatures and harsh elements because this is really very hydrating.
Chanel Hydra Beauty Micro Creme (1.7 oz $98) – Here’s a gel cream that feels great and smells great. It so lightweight that it feels like slightly thickened water and it hydrates the skin like no other. It kept my face hydrated overnight and even the whole day. I also love the Camellia scent which is fresh and very irresistible. This would have been perfect, but the only caveat is the price.
Kerastase Resistance Bain Force Architecte (80 ml: $20.50, 250 ml: $41, 500 ml: $60) – A reconstructing and repairing shampoo for brittle and damaged hair. This hair care product is meant to rebuild every strand starting from the roots, and it’s supposed to prevent the hair from breakage and split ends. This shampoo lathers very well and it smells like citronella with a bit of tamarind. I love it.
Aveda Hand Relief Moisturizing Creme (1.4 oz: $9.50, 4.2 oz: $24) – This hand cream truly delivers what it’s meant to be, an intense therapy cream for those with seriously dry hands. This really made my hands look like human hands and not Neanderthal’s, lol. The only thing that sort of bothers me is the strong sweet citrus/grapefruit scent. Other than that, this is a great handcream.
Acqua Di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Mirto Di Panarea Eau de Toilette Spray (2.5 oz: $105, 5 oz: $160) – This scent smells really great at first, like a fresh burst of lemon and bergamot with the smell of the ocean, but it dries into something slightly musky for me and I could sense the faint traces of basil. I definitely think that this is more masculine even though it’s meant to be unisex. I like it though because it reminds me of the sea even if it doesn’t last long.
What’s Up Friends! I fell in love with Trรจstique’s beauty products the moment I tried their Maldives Luminescent Highlighter that came with last month’s Sephora Play! I thought it has a nice smooth shimmer that naturally illuminates the curves of your face. Well, since then, I wanted to try other Trรจstique products and I stumble into their Mini Contour Travel Set (0.04 oz $28), which has a blush, a bronzer and the same highlighter that I love in it, but in minis which are great for traveling.
I noticed that most Trรจstique products are aimed towards being practical. They’re pretty much easy to use, energy-saving and almost eliminates the need for a brush. Lord knows it can be quite draining to create the perfect makeup du jour, you know. Most of their products are pen style or have dual ends wherein the other end has a brush or smudger attached to it. I love that. Don’t we all?
Back to the Trรจstique Mini Contour Travel Set, each stick is about 3.5 inches long but there’s only about 0.5 inches of product in it. So there’s not a lot, but it’s good enough especially if you only use it for traveling. Also, for its price, it’s hard to complain. The formula of these mini sticks are not really creamy, I think they’re somewhat chalky and sort of dry, but they glide on the skin well enough. They aren’t very pigmented either, but they’re very buildable, so a couple more strokes on the face will do the job. They also don’t have any fragrance and they didn’t irritate my skin.
Brazilian Bronze (Bronzer) – A matte bronzer that appears to be light brown upon first swipe, but it can be layered to create a deeper tone, adding more depth to the face. Personally, I find that I have to put 3-4 deep strokes on my face to create that natural-looking contour.
Bora Bora Coral (Blush) – A coral-pink blush that also seems really light at first application, yet it’s buildable and it blends quite well. The nice thing is there’s no shimmer on this blush, so it creates a natural flush on the cheeks, which is nice, even though it requires a few more swipes.
Maldives Luminescent (Highlighter) – As what I’ve said in my previous Sephora Play! review (found HERE), this is a well-done pearly highlighter that gives a discreet soft shimmer on the face. It’s great for everyday use and it blends smoothly. It’s also very long-lasting and since it has a sheer coverage, I love that it doesn’t overwhelm the face with too much glitter.
This is indeed a great trio set for traveling, and it even comes in a mini round bag which is a great add-on. I just wish that these sticks were slightly more pigmented and that there’s enough product on each of them. Other than that, the Mini Contour Travel Set by Trรจstique is practical to use, easy to blend, affordable and time-saving. You might as well have one for your next sojourn.
The Trรจstique Mini Contour Travel Set is currently available at Sephora.
