Back to minimal

Recently I've bought way too many skincare products and incorporated all of them in my morning and night skincare routines all at once, since I was so curious to try them and report back to you. Some of them are true skincare gems on me, others actually aren't as loved by my skin and I blame them for some bad breakouts as I didn't see for a while on my face. This is why I decided to detox and purify my skincare routine and going back to basics and minimal, and for basics and minimal I mean only four products I blindly trust for morning and night to stick to, hoping I'll last at least one week.

I had to choose between serum, tonic, acne treatments, SPF and a lot more, and I decided the number one three things I can't survive without are eyecreams, an eczema treatment and moisturizer, and as I had to pick only four products I thought I could definitely have all of them and give my skin a little rest a few times a day. Eyecreams are never been my go to products before but I'm recently discovering a lot of benefits from them and I and my skin really enjoy the results as well, and as I'm troubling with some eczema and dry patches all around the eye area, I need my eyecreams to keep it at bay, so I went for my super reliable Botanics 80% Organic Hydrating Eye Cream (£5,99), which I mentioned a lot of times recently but which is really helping in getting rid of those eczema issues, and the Caudalie Polyphenols C15 Anti-Wrinkle Eye and Lip Cream* (£26), which is actually a new entry in my stash but which I'm really liking recently. The former I use in the moring as it's always very lightweight and perfect to go under makeup, the latter is better in the evening as it's a bit thicker and richer but very hydrating and soothing at the same time, and also has a lot of anti-aging properties which is always good. I use it only around my eyes and not next to my lips as I don't need it there and because I apply something different in that area.

If in the morning I can go for simply eyecream, in the evening my skin really craves a little bit of extra moist, so moisturizer is definitely needed and the one I adore and blindly trust is the Antipodes Vanilla Pod Hydrating Day Cream (£26,99), actually a day cream but which I love in the evening better, which not only is super rich and smells amazing, but is also natural, very hydrating and soothing and my skin loves it a lot as in the morning always look so pumped up and reinvigorated. I find shea butter and avocado are the way to go for my skin when if comes to hydration, and this contains them both.

Lastly to keep my dry patches and eczema issue at bay I can't live without the A-Derma Exomega Emolient Cream (£9,45), a very thick emolient cream that features oat meal and omega 6 fatty acids, which is thought to sooth atopic and very dry skins and can be applied on the face or any other body area that need a little treatment. This truely is a lifesaver and I apply it literally several times a day when my skin feels too tight and I want some rest.

I probably will go for a little bit of organic aloe vera gel onto those pimples and breakouts I now have on my face to try helping them heal faster, but otherwise I'm going to try sticking to only these four products everyday for a week at least, and I will for sure report back any result. I feel sometimes going back to basic and drain a too complex and overdone skincare routine can be good, expecially when you need to figure out which products do what and which are causing you some skin troubles. Of course I will reintegrate all the products I used gradually and little by little to really see what effects they have on me, but for now this will be the way to go for at least one week.

What do you think about the 'overdone' skincare routine topic?

Monthly Favorites: March 2014.

March was the month when my life had a huge change, so many things have happened and it really is flown by this time, but beauty-wise I feel very satisfied with things and products I discovered. It's time to go back and pick my monthly favorites again, and this time I feel like they are seriously super foregone as I talked about these products all the time. But this is how favorites work, right?

Marzo è stato il mese in cui la mia vita ha visto i più grandi cambiamenti, sono successe moltissime cose e il mese è seriamente volato questa volta, ma per quanto riguarda il mondo della bellezza sono molto soddisfatta dei prodotti che ho potuto scoprire. E' tempo di tornare indietro e scegliere tutti i miei preferiti del mese, che questa volta sono veramente scontati visto che ne ho parlato tutto il mese. Ma è così che funziona, no?

Beauty in a pot

I've always been a fan of pretty packagings when it comes to beauty, and there's nothing cuter than tiny pots and jars which look lovely all piled up on my vanity table and that come pretty handy when I'm on the go. Even though a lot of people don't love pots for travelling or on the go as things can get a bit unhygienic, I love having them around in my bag for any emergency but I always remember to wash my hands first. So these are my most loved beauty products in a pot...

Sono sempre stata una grande fan dei bei packaging quando si tratta dei prodotti di bellezza, e non c'è niente di più adorabile secondo me di piccole jar e contenitori tutti impilati sul mio vanity e che tornano parecchio utili anche quando sono in viaggio. Anche se parecchie persone non amano i prodotti nelle jar per viaggiare o per quando si è fuori casa perchè può essere poco igienico, io adoro averli in borsa per le emergenze, sempre ricordandomi di lavare le mani prima di usarli. Questi sono quelli che preferisco...

Spring Morning Skincare Routine

I never properly updated my skincare routine before now on this blog, but recently I added some new products I'm loving to my routine and my skin is definitely benefiting from it as it looks everyday more cleaner, brighter and healthy. So I thought I could share my new morning skincare routine very spring appropriate, underlining as always that my skin type is combination maily on the oilier side, but at this time of the year with winter weather just left behind, I suffer of some bad eczema and dry patches concerns on my face I need to take care of. With my skincare routine I try to look for either something that helps me in staying on top of my acne and spots issues, but also very hydrating products for those areas where my skin suffers of dryness and dehydration; plus my skin is very sensitive so I also try to stay away from anything agressive preferring gentle products over anything else.

Non ho mai propriamente aggiornato la mia skincare routine su questo blog, ma di recente ho aggiunto qualche nuovo prodotto che sto amando alla mia routine e la mia pelle ne sta decisamente beneficiando e ha un aspetto migliore, più pulito, salutare e radioso ogni giorno. Così ho pensato di condividere la mia nuova skincare routine che è tra l'altro anche molto appropriata per il periodo primaverile, ricordandovi sempre che la mia pelle è mista ma prevalentemente tendente al grasso, ma in questo preciso momento con il clima invernale appena lasciato alle spalle, soffro ancora di eczema e zone molto secche sul viso che devo tenere a bada. Nella mia skincare routine cerco sia qualcosa che possa aiutarmi a combattere l'acne e i brufoletti, ma anche prodotti molto idratanti per quelle aree in cui la mia pelle soffre di secchezza e disidratazione; in più la mia pelle è molto sensibile quindi devo anche stare alla larga dai prodotti aggressivi preferendo quelli delicati a qualsiasi altra cosa.

Fighting Dehydration

Winter is (finally) over but my skin is still dealing with the residues of dehydration due to the cold weather and it's really nothing nice. I'm struggling with finding some good products to help me and my skin with this dehydration concern for a while, and even though the problem isn't completely solved yet and though I know drinking a lot of water is the way to go, there are a few products that are really helping in making things a lot better.

L'inverno è (finalmente) finito ma la mia pelle se la sta ancora vedendo con i residui della disidratazione dovuti al clima freddo dei mesi scorsi, e vi assicuro che non è nulla di troppo carino. Ero da tempo alla ricerca di buoni prodotti che possano aiutare la mia pelle a risolvere questo problema, e anche se non è ancora del tutto risolto e se so che bere molta acqua fa la maggior parte del lavoro, ci sono alcuni prodotti che mi stanno aiutando a migliorare la situazione.

London Beauty Haul Part 2

Last week I blogged about some of my most recent beauty purchases in the London Beauty Haul Part 1 all dedicated to makeup and haircare products, now it's time for the second part of the haul which regards skincare and bodycare products, and as you can see from the pictures above, I got a bit too excited when in London and purchased a lot of things I didn't plan to buy.

La scorsa settimana ho scritto dei miei acquisti più recenti nel post London Beauty Haul Part 1 tutto dedicato ai prodotti di makeup e per capelli, ora è tempo della seconda parte del haul che riguarderà prodotti di skincare e per il corpo, e come potete vedere dalle fotografie qui sopra, mi sono un po' lasciata trascinare dall'entusiasmo a Londra e ho comprato un bel po' di cose non in programma.

London Beauty Wishlist.

First things first, for the ones of you who don't already know, I'm italian and I obv live in Italy, and unfortunately here we don't have access to a lot of brands that are sold in the UK or in the USA. Secondly by the time this post will go online, I'll be on a plane to London and I'll be there five days, and of course I need to do some beauty shopping after years and years of growing my wishlist while reading UK based bloggers praising about beauty brands I can only dream about. I passed these past two months writing down what I always wanted to try out, and let me tell you this, my wishlist was GINORMOUS. I managed to drain it a bit considering which products I can still buy online and which are more difficult to get that way, and finally I came out with this not that short list of items I really want to come home with me. We'll see if it'll be possible (unfortunately, even if I saved some money for this trip, I have a very limited budget, plus I only have a hand luggage with all the restrictions that come with it) and, if not, which products I'm going to leave there. But for now, please let me dream.

Dunque, nel momento in cui questo post andrà online sarò su un aereo direzione Londra e sarò lì per cinque giorni, e chiaramente, essendo italiana e vivendo in Italia dove certi beauty brand ce li sogniamo, non mancherà dello shopping di makeup e prodotti di bellezza in generale per colmare quei vuoti dovuti alle blogger inglesi e alle loro contagiose parole. Ho passato questi due mesi a scrivere una lista di prodotti che ho sempre voluto provare e che vorrei acquistare, e lasciatemelo dire, era ENORME. Ho cercato di snellirla il più possibile considerando quali prodotti posso sempre comprare online e quali no, e infine ne è uscita una lista non troppo corta di prodotti che vorrei far tornare a casa con me. Vedremo se sarà possibile (sfortunatamente, sebbene abbia risparmiato per questo viaggio, ho un budget molto limitato, e in più viaggio con un bagaglio a mano con tutte le restrizioni sui liquidi che ne conseguono), o altrimenti, quali prodotti dovrò lasciar lì. Ma per il momento lasciatemi sognare.