I just had a small holiday break for a midweek and spent two days exploring the city of Rotterdam with my boyfriend, which was an amazing trip! Rotterdam is such a beautiful city and I can thoroughly advise you to spend a weekend there. The rest of my long weekend was dramatically different - I didn't really do much but sit in my sofa and think about all the love I have for everyone in this world and how heartbreaking it is to realise that not everyone in the world lets love rule. I don't know what more to say, so I'll just go on with the article I had planned to publish this weekend. It's been really long since I've published a favourites article and while I've tried to make this a weekly thing, I have seriously failed at that attempt.. Apologies! So let me make a new promise: from now on I'll now and then do these favourites posts, whenever I feel like there's enough to show you that I'm enthusiastic about.
1/ For my foundation I've really been loving mixing Chanel's Le Blanc Illuminating Base in with EstΓ©e Lauder's Double Wear Foundation. I have two shades of this foundation of which one is a little too dark - when I use that darkest one I also like to add a drop of Bourjois' Healthy Mix which works beautifully. The addition of Le Blanc is great for more luminosity, making your base a little lighter and just making it feel more comfortable on your skin in general.
2/ I dyed my hair darker about a month and a half ago, and while I insisted on a cool dark brown colour I feel like I ended up with a warmer type of brown anyway. After the initial two weeks of having hair that looked more black than dark brown, I ended up with my ideal colour. Sadly though, after about a month the red hues started taking over again. I have been using Aveda's Black Malva Conditioner to battle these hues - it's a strong colour conditioner that darkens brown and black hair again, and also adds more cool tones. Thoroughly recommended for anyone who shares this struggle!
3/ I've also been enjoying using Redken's new Diamond Oil Glow Dry. I was a little frightened at first as it only seems to contain silicones (and no precious nutritive ingredients), but I learned to use it alongside nourishing leave-in treatments and oils. This one adds a beautiful shine to my hair along with a sleekness, which is exactly why I use it. If you're against products containing silicones though, you'll have to skip this one.
4/ After a tricky first few times using NARS's Creamy Concealer, I have finally learned how to use it properly! I don't use any brushes with this one anymore and just blend in the concealer with my ring finger. The finish is absolutely beautiful - I haven't been using anything else for a few weeks now!
5/ Urban Decay's Eyeshadow Primer Potion is definitely a product I didn't know I missed until now. I really like this as a base for powder eyeshadow - it makes any eyeshadow look so much more pigmented and vidid and on top of that it extends the wear very noticeably as well.
6/ Apart from cursing the red hues in my new 'do, I've also been slightly panicking as I've been finding more hair in my Tangle Teezer than before. Now I've been told that this might just be the transition into Winter, but I'm not having it.. That's why I've finally started taking hair and nail supplements again. Right now I'm using Yves Rocher's Hair & Nails supplement with bamboo extract, biotin & vitamin B and have noticed a huge change in my nails and for the past few days also my hair. I'll be extending the treatment for another month when I finish my last tablets (only 3 left now..) as I'm so excited about the results.
7/ After a flareup of my acne two weeks ago I've religiously used Clinique's Anti-Blemish Solutions Clinical Clearing Gel at night to dry out the active patches of acne and I keep being surprised about how good this one works without being too aggressive. Definitely a treatment to look into if you're on the lookout for a good acne routine!
8/ Straight from the Chanel Christmas collection comes this beautiful Le Vernis in shade #18 Rouge Noir. It's a classic that deserves to be so: this shade is magnificent! The formula is really good too, especially compared to some other Chanel shades. This one lasted five days on my nails, which is a small miracle since usually I need to take my mani off after just two days.
9/ Belweder sent me some of their cute round shaped lip balms (think Eos size and shape) and I fell right in love with the 'skin conditioning & protective balm' that comes in the mint green packaging. It's formulated with cotton seed oil, soybean oil, lanolin, aloe leaves extract, D-panthenol & vitamin E. The texture is much softer than similar shaped lip balms I've tried, which actually feels really great on the lips. Read more about the exact features of this particular balm here. I haven't tried the other ones yet - I'll report back when I do!
10/ I've been spending more time in nature lately and it's really been giving me some peace and quiet that I've been craving. From weekend walks in our local nature reserve to a weekend escape to Durbuy with friends in an amazing house that had an outdoor wood-fired hot tub overlooking the trees, it's been good to disconnect from the daily fast paced life and connect with nature when feeling stressed. It's really the best remedy..
11/ And last but very certainly not least I'm super stoked with having conquered second place during the Weekend Blog & Digital Awards '15. This was my third time being nominated for these awards, the second time I ended up in the top three, but the very first time I made it as the runner-up for the winner. It means a lot to me that you've submitted my blog in order to be considered for nomination, and then afterwards I'm so grateful for your votes that got me this far. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!
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