[Review] TheFaceShop Clean Face Oil Free Sun Cream SPF 35 PA++

Hello beauties!!

I am here today with a review of a face sunscreen, the Clean Face Oil Free Sun Cream, by TheFaceShop. Since spring is right around the corner I thought it is the right time to review this sun cream that I have been using the last two months. It is essential to use sunscreen all year round, because sun rays are damaging even during winter, but during spring and summer facial suscreens are a must-have, especially for those that are on the fair skin side :)

As some of you might already know, I have combination/oily/acne prone skin, which gets even worse during summer due to high temperatures. And even though I live in Greece, where we have sunshine 357/365 days a year, I was avoiding sunscreens, because all of them were too oily, sticky, heavy and they were causing me breakouts. I doubt it was solely the ingredients, I suppose it was a mixture of pore cloging due to the concistency and the high temperature. Not to mention that I sweat pretty easily, so everything got messed up if I decided to put makeup on top of the sunscreen. 

I have experimented with a lot of sunscreen all these years and all I really wanted was one that wouldn't be oily. I thought I was asking much, but I was mistaken. After I got introduced to Korean skincare products, I found out that they have a bigger range for all skin types and all concerns, so I knew that I would find something suitable for my needs if I searched enough. After extensive research on the web and blogs, I decided to buy this specific sun cream. Like with any other product, I didn't have any high expectations, but I was happily surprised.

The tube contains 50ml and its concistency is thick and creamy. I bought it for 5euros (~7$) on Ebay with free shipping. It contains aloe vera gel and tea tree oil, which as you know minimizes any existing breakout and prevents the appearance of new ones. It claims to have a formula that leaves the skin fresh and matte. I guarantee that this is absolutely true! It smells really nice, it doesn't really smell like a sunscreen if you close your eyes. For all my Greek readers, it smells like Caroten Botanicals sunscreen, which I use and I love. It has SPF 35, which is an ok SPF in my opinion, especially if you combine it with other products that have SPF too. I wouldn't mind it if it was higher, since it's facial, but really I won't complain about it.

It has a thick concistensy and it may be a little hard to apply. You definitelly don't need much of the product, a little goas a long way. I was really expecting it to leave a white cast, like all sunscreens but OMG it didn't leave any. I know some of you might not believe me, but I swear guys, I left my skin looking like I had nothing on!! It also mattified my skin exceptionally! I was really curious about it, so I applied my BB cream right on top of it, set it with a little powder and went out. Damn, it is like a primer! Nothing sinked in, my skin stayed matte and fresh and I really didn't feel like I had any sunscreen beneath my BB cream. Never in my life did I expect a sunscreen to leave my face matte. Of course, it didn't break me out, and I noticed that the few breakouts I already had were minimized! 

I would definitelly recommend this for people with "problematic" skin that look for matte products. It leaves your skin matte and it doesn't get oily throughout the day, at least not more than your BB/foundation goes. It primes the skin really well, so all you have to do is wait a little for it to sit on your skin before you apply anything else, and you are good to go! Sometimes I don't even use a primer because I find that I don't need it. My BB stays intact and my makeup holds really well. I wouldn't recommend this for people with dry skin though, because it will "dry" the skin out completelly. It has a "drying" formula, obviously especially made for people with oily skin, so you will feel uncomfortable wearing this if your skin isn't moistfull on its own. The are so many good korean sunscreens out there, you might wanna search for something less drying.

I hope I have covered everything! If you still have any questions or you want to share your experience with sunscreens and products you have used and you know that will help others, please don't hesitate to leave a comment below! ^__^

[Extended Review] Avon Eyeshadow Primer (+ info and tips!)

Hello ladies (and maybe gentlemen)!

I am here today with a review about a product that I consider essential in my makeup routine. It's the eyeshadow primer from Avon. Before I start, I would like to apologise about the lack of pictures, my camera is not really good, and the product itself is kinda small and almost empty as I write this, so I took the picture from Avon directly.

I bought this primer more than a year ago when it was first launched in the greek catalogue. Back then it costed 4,50E (~6.50$) which was a really affordable price for me, considering I had never tried an eye primer before. Now it retails at 7,50E (~9$)-(Avon holds offers now and then so check the catalogues every now and then to hit the offer). I don't know how much exactly it contains, but it is a lot and it will last you for a long time, judging from mine at least. I remember myself complaining about my eyeshadows creasing too fast and not staying on my eyes for long. Haha, I am so glad I discovered eye primer :P

This product comes in two shades everywhere I looked, light beige and dark beige, but in the greek catalogue (as far as I know looking at the last catalogue I was sent) it comes only in the light shade. I do not think that this will be a problem though, and I will explain why:

The primer has a very thick creamy concistency. It doesn't smell anything in particular.The ligh beige one has a beige colour with a pinkish/salmon-y undertone, which is great for covering the lid's blue-ness (Seems like I make up words today). This kind of colour is exceptional, cause it negates blue so it makes your eyes look fresh and awake instantly!! One thing I discovered is that you have to be light handed with it and not use too much, because apart from the fact that it is really thick and therefore hard to work with in big quantity, it also gets a lil patchy if you use more than what is needed. Just dab your finger lightly in the pot and work your way with it. Be a bit fast cause it tends to set kinda quickly. Also, personal tip, try to have as cold finger as possible. Unlike with other products that need to be applied with the warmth of the finger, this one works better when it's kinda colder in my opinion. Feel free to disagree though, cause we are all different, so we don't operate the same way :) In any case, experiment with it a lil bit and see what works better for you ^^. I find it applies better with the finger and I wouldn't recommend a brush, since it could make your life difficult.

It's very potent as a prduct, it makes my eyeshadows pop, even those that are kinda chalky and it definitelly makes them stay on for a looooong time. No kidding, I have experimented with it so much, I have even made it go through a crash test. It started creasing after 6 hours, but it wasn't anything too dramatic, so +2h was also okay. This number will obviously vary for everyone, but I think that you could easily go out and forget about your touching up your eyes :)

 I would definitelly recommend this for people with oily eyelids like me, honestly it will make your day!! It dries and leaves your eyelid smooth and soft and it will prevent creasing (under normal temperatures) for at least 4,5 hours (according to my experience).

Q & A

* Do I really need an eyeshadow primer?

I would definitelly recommend you to buy one, especially if you have oily eyelids, since it will help your eyeshadows stay on for longer. Even if you don't have oily lids, it will help your eyeshadow colours pop and look more vibrant. To me, this is an essential product to any eyeshadow lover out there! If you never wear eyeshadows then you will probably not need it, since you can cover any blue hues on your lid with a concealer.

*Can I use it under my eyes, where I get blue hues and dark circles?

No, eye primers are formulated to hold the eyeshadow on your lids, not to cover ant darkness. The fact that this one does cover darkness on the lid is another story and it just adds to its value as a primer. You can use it on your lower lashline though, especially if you are gonna use eyeshadows there as well and try to smoke out things. I tell you, whatever falls on this primer stays there and won't transfer.

*Will it change the colours of my eyeshadows?

Nope! Think of it as a "magnetic base" for your shadows. It doesn't interfere with the colours whatsoever.

*I don't have oily lids, should I buy it?

To be honest, I have no idea how it will work. I assume that since you have dry eyelids, you would want to use something less dry than that, there are a lot eye primers out there with less heavy texture. From my experience, adding dry on dry will end up looking kinda bad.

I hope I helped with this review, for any more questions or opinions about this product, don't hesitate to leave a comment down below ^__^

[Review] Benton Snail Bee High Content Essence

Hello everyone!

I will be reviewing the Snail Bee High Content Essence from Benton, which as I saw in several blogs was really promising and quite cheap. Using the Mizon Snail Gel (for which I have a review on my blog) for several months, I already knew the benefits of the snail mucus for the skin, and since I didn't own any essence type product and my mom also wanted to try this, we decided to buy it. After reading a ton of reviews about it, I was ensured that this was a good investment...or wasn't it? 

I bought this from cosmetic.jolse.com, since it was on offer back then if I remember correctly. Now it costs 19.98$ everywhere I search (~ 15E) which to me is a real bargain!! Especially with the promises it comes with. It holds 60ml which fascinated me cause that's the double amount of the ordinary essences and serums and it is unscented. It has a runny gel concistency very light and easily absorbed. The ingredients also excited me to no end, I had never seen such pure product in terms of ingredients:

Snail Secretion Filtrate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Glycerin, Arbutin, Human Ogliopeptide-1, Bee Venom, Plantago Asiatica Extract, Laminana Digita Extract, Dios Pyros Kaki Leaf Extract, Salix Alba (Willow) Bark Extract, Ulmus Campestris (Elm) Extract, Bacilus Ferment, Azelaic Acid, Althaea Rosea Flower Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Butylene Glycol, Beta-Glucan, Betaine, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Cross Polymer, Adenosine, Panthenol, Allantoin, Zanthoxylum Piperitum Fruit Extract, Usnea Barbata (Lichen) Extract, Pulsatilla Koreana Extract, Arginine

 The container is plastic, with a pump and a cap. The pump performs really well and although I was expecting the bottle to be made of glass, I wasn't all that disappointed with the plastic one :)

The essence itself is really light and absorbs instantly, no need to wait to put your moisturizer on top. For those of you not familiar with korean products, essences are used right after the face cleansing and before any other moisturizer. This is not a serum (which goes last onto the skin). I used 3-4 pumps of it every morning and night after my cleansing routine for a couple of weeks and this is my conclusion:

First of all, this isn't moisturizing at all. If you have dry skin and you are looking for a moisturizing essence, this is probably not for you. It feels like gel-water, it absorbs really fast and it doesn't leave any residue whatsoever, like you had never put anything on your skin. It really tightened my skin, so I had to put a moisturizer on top immediatelly, and I didn't really like that feeling. And, to the burning subject, no, it didn't do anything for my skin. From what I had read, I was expecting my acne to get better, I had some red zits which I was hoping that they would stop being that red. But to add to my disappointment, I started breaking out even more. I kept using this for a week more, just because I always give time to my skin to adjust to new products and ingredients, but I decided that if I kept using this essence I would break out for the rest of my life. After some weeks of having stopped using it, my skin started to feel better, but this was a huge shock for me.

On the other side, my mom said that this product was okay. She didn't break out and she keeps using it till it's empty. She said that it was nothing really WOW, so she won't buy it again.

Overall, I don't think that this product worths the hype. People are raving about it, but I was deeply disappointed by it. Personally, I wouldn't recommend this essence to you guys, since it broke me out and I don't really know to what kind of skin it would fit well. I, really, have no advice whatsoever to give you if you really wanna try it out. What I know, is that I won't be buying from that line again, since to me, the Mizon Snail line is far more superior and actually do what it says. I will be reviewing this line on my next post probably so stay tuned  :)

If you still have any questions, recommendations or you simply want to share some thoughts, don't hesitate to leave a comment below ^___^