Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Comparing Lancome and Estee Lauder eye creams

So here is a review/comparison of two very famous eye creams, the Lancome Génifique and the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye. I had the chance to try them both I believe I have used each for 2-2 months. 
The Advanced Repair came out first (in my country at least) and they were selling them in sample sizes. I didn't plan to purchase it first because here comes a fun fact. In Hungary they don't really give you samples. I haven't tried asking for samples however, but I also haven't seen or heard anybody doing it. Never in my life. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong). Long story short I went to the Store to get maybe a concealer I don't remember, but I got sample Estee Lauder bag as a gift. It had the Advanced Repair eye cream, an Idealist serum and a Hydrationist moisturizer. So I started using them (or testing them). 

First of all, I wasn't ooooh aahhing from the results if there were any. It has a strong herbal smell which bothered me first but I was so convinced that it would do miracles to my horrible undereye circles that I used up the whole sample tube. Or what's that, a pot. I even ended up buying a gift set just because it contained another sample Advanced Repair cream. So I have gone through 2 sample pots alltogether. 
My opinion? Didn't see any results at all although I used it religiously morning and night.  Let me just say that my dark circles are pretty stubborn. I haven't yet found a cream that would make them go away. Heck I sleep 8 hours and drink water like crazy. I don't even go out or stay up late often. Whatever, I have learnt that they won't go away, I can only make them less visible. Which that product has failed to do. 
I don't really go into texture or packaging, what really matters to me is the effect. If they proved that mashed potatoes make dark circles disappear, I would put that under my eyes definitely. 
One thing I have to mention is the price. It is expensive! For me these two samples were fine I paid like 30 dollars alltogether for them, but I would have regretted buying the full size cream.I'm happy I didn't. 

Moving on to Lancome.

Now this experience was somewhat better, but still not enough for me. I'd say neutral.  I have used up one full size pot for about a month and a half. The cream itself doesn't have a distinguishable smell. At first I have noticed some fading and I was sooo happy. But then came the exam period and my dark circles got darker and this cream just made them more visible. I didn't stay up until 3am or whatnot, I didn't even change my lifestyle I guess I just stressed a little more. I don't have much to say about this product, I would definitely have tried to use it more, or even buy another bottle to keep testing. But the price. I didn't want to risk another failure so I moved to Avon's eye cream which looks like this.
I just state this first: I LOVE this product! It fades my dark circles just enough so I can cover them completely with concealer. It has a cream for under your eye, and a gel for your upper eye. How cool is that? Upper eye gel? For those of you who have oily lids, it's a perfect choice. It fixed my broken capillaries as well. 
So the conclusion is that I wouldn't buy either the Estee Lauder or the Lancome eye creams again. They are too expensive for me to just play around with them. I am fully satisfied with this Avon cream right now.
Have you ever tried any of these products? What do you think?

Coming up next

So I have planned a few reviews, here they are just in points.

-Chanel Éclat Lumiere concealer (My Holy Grail)
     compared with Clinique's Airbrush concealer and Lancome Teint Miracle concealer
-Lancome Génifique eye cream
     compared with Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye
-Nars Multiples
-MAC Pro Longwear foundation
-Lancome Hypnose Drama
-Armani Silk lipstick

Stay tuned for the rest! ;)

Random picture: Chinese marble art. Aren't they adorable? :)

Monday, June 27, 2011

Haul!

I just came home from a shopping trip! I haven't been buying anything lately, I was  busy with school but now schools's over, time for the summer holiday to begin!
I went to this outlet store where you can get brands like Mango, Gant, Replay, Adidas at discount prices. I found such great deals that I was literally jumping when I saw the price tags. Oh and I found the most amazing heels for summertime, I will post pictures lately because it's amazing. I believe it was around 30 dollars or 5900 HUF. It's black with super high combat like platforms and the straps remind me of the gladiator style. I also got 2 very casual shirts for summer. Then I saw that JPress had a huge sale, underwear was 4 dollars each, so I had to get some, right? :) I'm kind of on a budget so I didn't want to buy anymore, but then my friend suggested that we take a look at her favourite vintage slash second hand shop. Yes, I love these shops last time I was there I bought 10 shirts for like 20 dollars. Most people think that they can only find trash in these shops. Truth is, most of these clothes are old and out of fashion like woa. You really have to dig in to find the good pieces. But when you do, beware it is easy to get addicted. I have found my beloved Mango and H&M cardigans there which I wore all winter. Anyway I went there and and left with four handbags. Yikes. I bough one for my mom and two for my grandmothers so I didn't really feel guilty. They were 10 dollars each. 
God I love bargains so much <3
Is that how all of you feel after finding good deal? Well I did :)
Here's just a random picture of my dog Kiba. He was named after the Naruto manga character, Kiba the wolf herder. German shepherds are often associated with wolves that's why I chose this name. Plus I LOOOOOVE Naruto. It's my all time favourite anime besides Inuyasha and Full Metal Panic.
Well, the end went a little off topic, I usually tend to ramble a lot. Sorry about that :)

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Sleek Sunset Palette swatches

I have just discovered the British makeup line called Sleek. I have heard about them from one of DulceCandy's videos, but since they weren't available in my country I didn't really pay attention. Then, a few months later this site makeuplaza.com caught my attention. I was shocked that they carried Coastal Scents, Barry M and Sleek. They are Hungarian so I wouldn't have to worry about the online payments and the shipping time, I got the products the next day! How awesome is that?
Funny story I wasn't even planning to buy the Sleek palettes, but the site held a summer themed makeup competition and one of the criterias was to use at least one Sleek product. I wanted to enter so bad, and the palettes weren't expensive at all, so I figured why not. Actually, I just forgot to enter, I got so busy with school, but I ordered the Sunset palette anyway.
When I got it the first thing I realized that it was small. Then I swatched some of the colors and my mouth fell open. They are super super pigmented! Let's see some photos, shall we? 
 They are quite small and come with 12 super pigmented colors
 Here are the colors taken without flash. I have already used them please excuse the messy surface
 Top row swatches. I didn't use a primer, they are this bright on my bare arm. Crazy huh? Especially the orange color
Oh and this much color comes from only one swatch. Without primer. The pink shimmery kinda reminds me of allthatglitters from MAC...

I love the orange and shimmery yellow combination for a sunset look. I put the yellow on my entire lid, concentrating on the inner third, then apply the orange on my outer third, then blend them so you get this setting sun look. Then I use the blue to line my upper lashline. It kinda looks like a setting sun over the ocean. Haha sounds cheesy but it's actually not that extreme. I was actually planning to enter the contest with this look. They said that the entries can be wearable, and I'm not that creative when it comes to extremes. 

So what do you guys think? Would you give Sleek a chance? Have you used them before?

(I actually have three more palettes, but I didn't want to put them here yet since I made so many pictures, I didn't want a picture overload. I have to admit, I'm not so smart when it comes to computers, I didn't know how to insert these links that take you to another page to view more pictures... Haha I'm kind of embarassed :P )

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Intro

Welcome here! :)
So I've been thinking to start a makeup and beauty themed blog for ages... Something always kept me from doing so, mainly other people's reaction. In my country, beauty gurus are considered to be stupid, brainless chicks with nothing else to do than just buy makeup... That is the sad truth. Youtubers get a lot worse attention, they usually end up on failblog-like sites. That is the main reason I always refrained to start something like that, but I figured if I write in English, those stupid bullies won't understand anyway.
So much for that, that was just a little intro, I'll write more about Hungarian beauty gurus later. I am so happy to finally start my blog. If you dear reader are here somewhere, please don't hesitate to comment, or just let me know that you were here!
Julie :)