Easter Treats

Wether you are pretty orthodox or atheist, Easter is always the perfect time to spend a beautiful day with your closest people, eating way too much chocolate, and treating yourself a bit more. And so it was my Easter Sunday this year, with a lovely sun in the sky, my family visiting our place and bringing chocolate to celebrate. And after filling up that belly of mine, I actually treated myself to some beauty stuff, because, well, you know me...

Holiday to me is pampering time, so I had a lovely and relaxing shower with a good old homemade coffee scrub (sharing this later next week) and a face mask time immediately after. I went for two of my most loved face masks, the Antipodes Aura Manuka Honey Mask (£21,50) on the dry areas of my face, and the Soap and Glory No Cloggs Allowed Mask (£11,50) all over my chin, forehead and nose where I'm getting very spotty recently. Those two make the world of good for my skin and I always feel regenerated right after, with a fresh new skin replacing my usual dull one. And of course I went for the L'Oreal EverRiche Absolute Oil Precieux (£7,99) all over my hair, as this lovely product not only is amazing in giving a subtle shine and making your hair so soft, but it also smells heavenly with that jasmine aroma.

Throw on my favorite lace blouse, an oldie but a goodie which actually looks pretty similar to this Oasis top, and went for my minimal makeup routine for lazy days including only foundation, concealer (and I'm so happy I can now wear the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer again as my skin is a bit less pale) and eyeliner, I decided to go for my new favorite shimmery pink lip shade, the Maria Galland Color Pencil in 200 Pamplemousse Rosé*, which not only has the cutest name, but is also lovely as an everyday basic since it's the most flattering color on me with a tun of gorgeous golden shimmers in it, and you know how I feel about shimmers recently.

I actually decided to treat myself to some Cult Beauty products and placed a little order there as they are having one of their free worldwide shipping on every order until Tuesday. I'm not revealing what I purchased yet but I've just written a Mini Cult Beauty Wishlist, so you can definitely guess, and if not, I'm sure I'm going to talk about them super soon. But for the rest I just had a good time with my family and ate my chocolate eggs, and now I'm super excited for tonight's episode of Game of Thrones, my new addiction!

What about your Easter Sunday?

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?

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.

Bedside Beauty.

If you think my beauty routine ends when I go out of the bathroom after my usual evening skincare routine, well, you are totally wrong. Before going to bed I can't avoid to treat myself to some bedside beauty bits, which are the ones I always have next to my bed that I can reach whenever I'm in bed and I feel I need them - but mainly before going to sleep - and that totally help me in the falling asleep carefree process.

Se pensavate che la mia beauty routine finisse appena uscita dal bagno dopo la mia usuale skincare routine serale, be', vi sbagliavate. Prima di andare a dormire non posso evitare di concedermi qualche coccola in più con dei prodotti che tengo sempre affianco al letto ed a cui mi affido se ne ho bisogno in qualsiasi momento - ma principalmente prima di andare a letto - e che fanno sicuramente grandi cose nell'aiutarmi ad addormentarmi senza pensieri.

Monthly Favorites: February 2014.

February went away so quickly in fact it's already time for monthly beauty favorites again. This month I was home the majority of the time, and I was on a sort of spending ban - beauty version, that worked quite well (I only bought a self Valentine's Day gift and nothing else) and that means I went back in my makeup (and not only) drawers to give some oldies but goodies some love again. This was the month of second thoughts, old lovers and the lipstick return. Aren't you excited?!

Febbraio è passato in un batter d'occhio ed è già tempo di preferiti del mese. Questo mese sono stata a casa la maggior parte del tempo, ed ero inoltre in ban cosmetico, che ha funzionato alla grande (ho solo acquistato quello che è stato il mio auto-regalo di S. Valentino e nient'altro) che significa che sono andata a rovistare nei miei cassetti del makeup (e non solo) per ritornare a dare amore a qualche vecchio prodotto. E' stato il mese dei ripensamenti, degli amori passati e del ritorno del rossetto. Non siete impazienti?!

Skincare Additions #1

I've only recently found peace with my skincare routine (which I may share with you sometimes) and I mean to stick with it for a long time no matter what. It used to have a lot of lacks, like a decent night moisturizer, a natural makeup remover, or a good blemish treatment, but now, thanks to some new skincare addition, I'm definitely happy with it. My skin looks healthier, a lot more relaxed and softer, blemishes seem not a problem anymore, and in general I'm satisfied. My only trouble now is fighting eczema, but I may need to look somewhere else to solve this.

Solo di recente ho fatto pace con la mia skincare routine (che magari condividerò in futuro) e intendo rimanerle fedele per un lunghissimo periodo senza se né ma. Prima aveva parecchie carenze, come una crema notte idratante decente, uno struccante naturale, o anche semplicemente un buon trattamento per le imperfezioni, ma ora, grazie ad alcune aggiunte recenti, sono finalmente felice di come è venuta fuori. La mia pelle appare più sana, rilassata e morbida, le imperfezioni sembrano essere un problema risolto e in generale sono soddisfatta. Il mio unico cruccio ora come ora è l'eczema che non mi dà pace, ma per combatterlo ho idea che mi dovrò rivolgere altrove.

Winter Sales Beauty Haul.

Let me say this post was meant to be up on the blog just a few weeks ago, but due to some postage problems with the italian service, some of my winter sales purchases came to me just yesterday. As I already said once, winter sales are the perfect occasion to treat yourself to some picks you always wanted to try, and above all to do some good old online beauty shopping, filling up that baskets and checking-out thoughtlessly because you know you are in front of some amazing deals. Well, this time it wasn't exactly like that, discounts sometimes weren't that gorgeous, but you have to do what you have to do, and even with just little percentages off I managed to pick up some products that were in my wishlist for way too much time, and here they are.

Fatemi dire che questo post doveva essere online giusto qualche settimana fa, ma a causa di qualche problema con le poste italiane (e non spendiamo ulteriori parole), alcuni dei miei acquisti saldosi sono arrivati da me solo ieri. Come avevo già accennato, i saldi invernali per me sono un'ottima occasione per viziarsi un po' acquistando alcuni dei prodotti che si hanno sempre voluto provare, e soprattutto per fare del buon vecchio shopping online, riempiendo quei carrelli e cliccando sul tasto "check-out" senza troppi pensieri perchè si è coscienti di essere di fronte ad un buon affarone. Beh, questa volta non è andata essatamente così, alcuni sconti non erano così entusiasmanti, ma insomma, anche togliendo solo piccole percentuali dai prezzi originali sono riuscita a procurarmi alcuni dei prodotti che giacevano nella mia wishlist per ben troppo tempo, e sono quello di cui vi parlerò oggi.

Christmas Wishlist.

Christmas is behind the corner, and I know this is the second time I begin a post with this same phrase, but this will be a completely different thing. I've picked up all the beauty products a beauty junkie like me would like to receive as Christmas present, and you'll find them in this wishlist post. I don't actually know what this post can be useful to, but you know, you can always take some inspiration for your wishlists, or, if you have tried some of the products I mention, you can tell me what you think about them, if they're worth or not, since the ones I won't receive I will plan to buy them.

Il Natale è ormai dietro l'angolo, e lo so che è già la seconda volta che inizio un post con questa frase, ma questo sarà un post completamente diverso. Ho selezionato tutti i prodotti di bellezza che una beauty junkie come me sicuramente desidererebbe ricevere come regalo di Natale, e li troverete tutti raccolti in questo post wishlist. Non so in realtà quanto questo tipo di post possa essere utile, ma insomma, potete sempre prendere ispirazione per le vostre wishlist, o, se avete provato alcuni dei prodotti che menziono, potete farmi sapere se vi piacciono e cosa ne pensate, se valgono il prezzo che hanno o meno, dato che quelli che non riceverò prima o poi penserò di acquistarli ugualmente.