My empties #1

Hi everyone !

Today I'm trying a new type of posts that I've seen in many other blogs but that I never thought about doing before. Empties posts are quite nice to discover new products or see if something is worth the try or not.

I've got five things that I've finished recently, so I'm going to show them to you and tell you what I think of them and if I'm going to repurchase them or not !

1/ Le Volume mascara, Chanel

I've spoken of this mascara in my all times favourites, some months ago. It is a really good product, makes your lashes look great. The brush is quite thick and takes every lash perfectly.

Although because of its price, I won't be buying it again for now (and I have a sample size of the great They're Real by Benefit to use hehe). But I'll surely buy it someday, because I loved it !

2/ Blueberry body butter, The Body Shop

I've had this body butter since last year, and I finally finished it ! I only used it during the autumn/winter times, so that's probably why it lasted me so long.

The smell is quite good, not too strong nor too sweet. And it lasts a few hours on the skin, which is always nice ! But I won't rebuy this one, because I want to try new scents from The Body Shop.

3/ Exfoliating body scrub, Galeries Lafayette

I bought this last summer during the sales, mainly because it was cheap and smelt good haha. It smells of iris, so a very floral and light scent. I used it as a scrub before using my shower gel, and it did a good job and left my skin soft. The exfoliating bits are tiny so they don't hurt your skin as some scrubs could do. But I won't be buying it again, because I have another one of the same brand to use !

It is only sold in the Galeries Lafayette in France I guess, but it is maybe something to try if you are in France and want a nice shower product !

4/ Gliss Ultimate Repair mask, Schwarzkopf

As I have curly coloured hair, I'm always on the hunt for a good mask that will moisturise my hair and leave it soft. I've tried sooo many that I couldn't list them all, but as I've just finished this one I can really say what I think about it.

It is one of those masks that you apply after your shampoo for a few minutes - I always left it for about three to five minutes. It does make your hair soft, and pretty shiny too. But this effect doesn't last, at least on me. If you have normal to dry hair I think it should work well - but if your hair is damaged or frizzy, it probably won't be enough.

Not sure I'll rebuy it because I'm always changing my hair routine (at this point this is not even a routine haha), but I can say that it's a pretty good product anyway!

5/ Vanilla dee-lite body lotion, Lush

I got this lotion on the Lush box I received for my birthday. I was excited to try it out, because I haven't had the chance to use a cream/body lotion from Lush before.

First, the smell is amazing. Although it is called Vanilla dee-lite, it doesn't smell of vanilla, but rather of jasmine, and it even reminds me a bit of lilac, which is my favourite flower ! So as you can imagine, I love the smell of it. It is very light-weight as it is a lotion obviously, and it is very refreshing. I would recommend it for the months of spring especially, because it is not at all a winter smell.

As it is very light, it doesn't moisturise your skin deeply, and if you have a very dry skin I would probably advise you to use a thicker texture. But I'd love to buy this again for spring and summer, I love it !

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That's it for my first empties ! A lot of shower/body products as you can see, but naturally these are the ones we can finish the most easily. 

I'll do another empties post in a few months maybe, see if I can find new interesting products to show you !

Julia xx

Review : L'Oreal Skin Perfection 3 in 1 Purifying Miscellar Solution

Since I've discovered miscellar water and miscellar solutions to take makeup off, I haven't really found another type of makeup remover that satisfied me completely. Whenever I use a gel or a creamy texture, I feel like my face is still dirty and oily and I need to use a cleanser straight away to take off the makeup remover. With miscellar solutions, this didn't happen anymore !

My favourite one is the Bioderma miscellar solution for oily skin. As it is a French brand, I think you can't buy it in other countries, unless you buy it online of course. So I decided to try the L'Oréal one, which came out quite recently, and see if it was a good alternative to Bioderma.

Basically it's like water, but it does an incredible job at taking your makeup off. It doesn't have a scent, which is good if you don't like the (sometimes strong !) smells of common makeup removers.

It is really effective and takes off everything you have on your face very quickly and leaves your skin clean. I haven't tried it with waterproof mascara but I guess it should work well too.

The product claims to be good for dry and sensitive skin, and even though my skin isn't sensitive, from what I've heard it does indeed work well on these types of skin.

One thing though, you have to be careful when you put it on your cotton pad, the hole on the bottle is a bit too large so you could easily drop much more product than what you actually need.

It is nonetheless a good product, you won't be disappointed about it's efficiency ! But I think I still prefer the "eau miscellaire" by Bioderma (and that's the one I'll be buying next time). But for people who can't have easy access to Bioderma, this L'Oreal miscellar solution is still a good alternative !

Julia xx

What I got for Christmas + my Christmas cupcakes !

First of all, I want to wish you a happy new year ! May 2014 bring you joy, health and happiness :)

And I know it's a bit late, but I thought it would be nice to show you the things I got for Christmas. And at the end of this post, I'll feature some pictures of the Christmas cupcakes I made for my family gathering on Christmas Eve - everybody liked them and I'm quite proud so I wanted to share that too.

Let's start with the presents ! I really love them all, as I chose them myself - yep there was no surprise of any kind with those, but I was asked to choose and so I did. I'm so excited about all this, I always feel like a

child when I open my Christmas presents !

The first one I want to talk about is the one I coveted the most and for the longest time. My own Deathly Hallows necklace ! All Harry Potter fans will know what this is, and understand why I am so excited about it. This symbol represents the three objects that, when you possess them all, make you the Master of Death : the Cloak of Invisibility (the triangle), the Resurrection Stone (the circle), and the Elder Wand (the line in the middle).

I won't go in details about the whole story, but to me this symbol is one of the strongest signs we have in the Harry Potter fandom and universe, and I'm so so happy I now have this amazing necklace. 

I'm a little afraid to wear it honestly, I don't want to damage it - but I'll definitely do it anyway, it looks so cool !

Next is a perfume. I'm almost running out of the Flower by Kenzo I've been using for months (this is my signature scent I guess, one of my favourite perfumes ever), and my mother kindly suggested to buy me a new one for Christmas. I wanted to change and not buy the Kenzo again, and I went for the Dalhia Noir by Givenchy.

I remember smelling it when it first came on stores, and I immediately loved it. It is very different from the scents I go for usually. I couldn't describe it, but I feel like it is a more "mature" feminine scent, a bit stronger too than what I'm used to. So I decided to go for it ! It came in a little set with a nice box to keep it in.

To stay in the beauty theme, I got the Sugarlicious kit by Benefit. I've always wanted to try Benefit products, since everybody likes them and says the quality is really good. This kit is composed of the Sugarbomb blush, the High Beam highlighter, the Benetint for lips and cheeks and the Ultra Plush Sugarbomb gloss, all in sample size. I'm not going to talk too much about this since I want to do a complete review, but I can safely say that this kit is amazing and that I love every product in it !

That's all for the actual presents ! I mainly got money from my family, which is greatly appreciated because sales are starting tomorrow in France :P

And now, my Christmas cupcakes !

I really wanted to cook something for my family this year, because I always eat a lot but I don't really help to cook at all, which is a bit unfair to my nice aunties who spend their afternoon in the kitchen.

I found this wonderful cupcakes decoration kit in New Look, it is sooo cute ! 

It is composed of 24 little cases with cute Christmas patterns on it (I looove the reindeer !), and 24 toppers of four different styles : Santas, glittery stars, penguins and reindeer.

So I made vanilla-coconut cupcakes and used these items to make them look Christmassy. 

And here is what they looked like in the end :

And here is a close-up look :

I'm really glad with how they turned out, especially on the top. I wanted the topping to look like snow, and I just added the little gold sugar because it was nice haha. I don't think I need to write the recipe here, I basically just took one from the Internet and changed it a bit eventually. 

This part of my post doesn't have any relevance at all haha, but I just wanted to show this to you :)

And as this post is long enough already, I'm just gonna wish you a happy new year again, and I'll see you next time !

Lots of love,

Julia xx