I can't stop sniffing myself: Philosykos EDT by Diptyque

Close your eyes and visualize that you 're on the beach. Now, I'm not talking about a filled with people and 4 SPF oil "sunscreen" type of beach, under an umbrella on a chaise longue with a frappe on hand and the latest hits pouring out of the speaker over your head. Not that there is anything wrong with this picture, it 's just a different thing than what I have in mind right now.

So, the beach. I choose my most favorite, secluded little spot of sand and sea, where I lay under the shade of a tamarix tree (not sure about the translation, I'm talking about the lovely almyrikia or armyrikia tree that can be found on many Greek beaches).

The sand is golden beige, the sea is a gradient of blue green to ultramarine, far off, where a tiny speck of a ferry is going towards its joyfull destination. The sky is a blinding cobalt blue and the sun is the king on his high throne.

The only sound that comes to my ears is the rhythmical caress of the sea on the sand in the form of lazy but repetitive tiny waves. Somewhere in the back is a company of cicadas that sing the classic August hit of sweet idleness.

There is also a refreshing breeze coming from the sea, soothing and comforting, despite the blazing hot sun.

I feel relaxed, tranquil, one with the elements around me, safe in the embrace of nature, with no worries or anxieties, my mind is a white sheet of paper.

This, my friends, is Philosykos to me.

Fear not for my mental health, (lol!) it 's just that I haven't been so head over heels about a fragrance for a long time now (well, not since last May when I discovered the, alas LE, Sweet Milk by Jo Malone).

First of all, let's get professional-like and review this heavenly fragrance.

I got a 12ml, travel sample spray bottle of the eau de toilette, a few days ago, in the first Cherrybox box that I bought. It was a lovely surprise because Diptyque is such a niche brand and very expensive so I was not familiar with its products.

Philosykos as a word is actually a joint of two Greek words:

• Philos, that means friend
• Syko, that means the fruit of the fig

So, Philosykos means friend of the fig (I know, translated it sounds a little weird and not so posh, lol!)

Diptyque describes this fragrance as an ode to the fig tree and was created after the memories of one of the founders of the brand, when, "in the heat of Greek summer he had to walk through an orchard of wild fig trees in order to get to the sea".

Technically speaking the notes are:

• Top: fig leaf and fig
  
• Middle: coconut and green notes
• Base: cedar, wood and fig

Not technically speaking (lol!) I find that it opens up crisp, fresh and green but without being sour or tart, as it happens some times with green scents.

Instead, there is a sweet, milky quality, not at all pungent and offending but quite the contrary, that manages to balance wonderfully the fig. It 's - my oh so dear - coconut that does it, standing on a base of delicate woods.

It's a tight and wonderful ensemble that can be worn by women and men alike (well, that was a strange way to put it...!). It 's definitely a summer scent but I can probably wear it all year round. Also, to me it stands out of the group of summer-y perfumes because it 's more refined, more polished, in a good - not elitist - way.

The part that I like the most is that, as time goes by, the scent doesn't become loose, disheveled. It retains its integrity but the harmony becomes deeper, richer not meaning heavier but like as more in unison with my skin.

I also love the fact that it 's not a screaming type of perfume, meaning that it doesn't fill a room as soon as I enter it, but it does leave a faint but distinguishable trail.

The only part that I wasn't excited about is the average longevity, I would be thrilled with a bit more, but, it's not bad.

So, the premiere of Cherrybox service was quite impressive to me but I 'm going to talk about it in a following post. I am so in love with the fragrance that I couldn't hold myself, I just had to tell you about it!

I 'm definitely going to buy the full size, we 're just 84€ apart, (sigh) for the 100ml bottle.

That 's it for now, I hope you 're all well and thriving (off to sniff my wrist a little more!).

 

Δημοσιεύτηκε με το Blogsy

Da Glove (but not from Sigma!)

I 'm sure you 've all seen the Brush Cleaning Glove by Sigma. It is a little wonder, an innovation itself, in many eye catching colors, that makes brush washing a breeze.

I wanted it. Desperately. Passionately. I was set on buying it. I mean, I don't have as many brushes as a makeup artist (by any means) but, I 'm quite adamant about washing my brushes once a week and it is undeniably a chore. Depending on the brush, I may have to wash some of them repeatedly 3-4 times to remove all product (Sigmax I 'm looking at you!) and taking into consideration that I spot clean them every time I use them, it says a lot about how much gunk a brush can collect.

What the Sigma Brush Cleaning Glove is supposed to do (and I don't doubt a bit that it does deliver) is that it makes washing, rinsing and shaping your brushes a joy, something that sounds at first like a retro add where the happy and oh so pretty and polished housewife manages a whole household without loosing a curl from her hairdo (seriously???).

So, I watched a few videos and I saw that it actually does what it promises, with flying colors.

But there was a huge boulder between us...

The glove of gloves, the promised land of all dirty brushes waiting anxiously to be fresh and clean, costs $39!!! Plus twenty something bucks for shipping to Greece, we 're talking over $60 in total!!!

No, it doesn't make coffe as well. No it doesn't give you directions when you 're in the car, lost in another space and time dimension (like, next block from your house, lol!). No it doesn't wake you up in the morning. It just sits there, waiting for you to cover it in soap and water and clean your brushes on it.

But it has groves or should I say "variety of textures and surfaces" and did I mention it comes in all sorts of fun colors? Yeah.

Now, here's a hot topic: how much do your brushes cost? Depending on the total cost - money invested - on your brushes, maybe $40 + shipping isn't that absurd.

To me, it's not that I don't value my brushes but this price point seems completely exuberant, for something that costs 2-3 dollars to manufacture. It's plain (and ineffective) marketing tactic that says that consumers are sheep and will buy everything as long as it is in a pretty package. Well, sometimes at least we 're not sheep, surprise!

The results were that even famous beauty gurus, that got it for free, raved about how practical it is but also admitted that they probably would never buy it, because of the unreasonable price.

So, after deciding that I didn't want to throw $60+ on a rubber glove, I decided to improvise a bit and did an eBay research on rubber glove, rubber mitt, etc.

And guess what? I found a decent priced one, at $8 with free shipping.

Don't get me wrong, it 's not the same product but it does more or less the same thing.

Here it is!

Isn't it prettttyyyyyy? It even has little hearts, awwwwwww (no, I 'm not brain damaged....)

What I looked for was substantial groves, because most of them have really shallow ones. This was one of the cheapest that has some decent texture, so I decided to get it.

Bottom line: Is it effective?

Well, yes! I can't say how it works in comparison to the real thing but it does clean my brushes thoroughly at a fraction of the time I had to spend when I cleaned them by hand.

I 've used it in order to wash my Mac brushes, Real Techniques brushes, even the oh so hard to clean Sigma Sigmax brushes. Most of them need only one wash, whereas the Sigma ones need two washes.

So, all in all I'm very pleased with it because it's definitely effective and a great value for money, I do have a reservation though: I don' t know how (and if) it will affect the brushes in the long run, because my hand is obviously a softer surface than the glove. I try to be gentle and not rub them viciously on the glove, but, some times, when I 'm in a hurry, I do tend to be a little slack and rub them a little too vigorously.

I 'm not so concerned about the synthetic bristles because I do think they 're more durable but the "regular" brushes (made from animal hair) need extra care. So far though (I 've been using it for over a month now) I haven't notice any hair loss, so, maybe that 's a good sign!

Now, that 's a lot of ink over an oven glove but it does deserve it and I wanted to share with you an alternative to - the much debated of - Sigma glove. It 's not the same thing but it does the job, at a fraction of the price.

That 's it for now, I hope you 're all well and thriving!

Χρόνια Πολλά, εύχομαι να γυρίσετε ασφαλείς όλοι σπίτια σας με τις μπαταρίες γεμάτες!

 

Δημοσιεύτηκε με το Blogsy

Go Tropicoral kit by Benefit

Well, many times intentions do not translate to actual actions, at least the way we plan them, especially if you are a Gemini that weights pros and cons and alternatives from day to night, and then decides to improvise, lol!

So, I intended to buy Benefit's Coralista blush (30€).

Instead, I got the Go Tropicoral kit (it includes a mini Coralista) (29€).

High Beam, Cha Cha, Coralista blush and the lipgloss underneath

The reasons I didn't get the blush are:

• I can not see myself hit pan on a blush, so I didn't want to commit to it for a life time.
• I don't like the packaging of Benefit's blushes, I find them bulky and a pain to store.
• I could depot it in a palette but my previous experiment with Bella Bamba didn't go very well, meaning that it cracked a tiny bit. It didn't crack all the way to the bottom, just a chip on the upper right corner but it scared the %#%$£ out of me and I swore, never again!

On the other and, the kit offered me more options for the same money:

• A deluxe sample version of Coralista, that even if I wore it daily it would probably take months to hit pan.
• A deluxe sample o High Beam illuminator
• A deluxe sample of Cha Cha tint
• A deluxe sample of the Coralista lipgloss

The truth is that I was never drawn towards kits. I don't know why, the idea never seemed appealing to me.

So, when I went to Sephora with a 25% coupon off, I went straight to Coralista. A young SA was standing a few meters away and when she saw me lingering over Benefit's stand, asked if she could help.

Most of the times I don't ask for help from SAs because i usually buy stuff on a plan, meaning that I already know what I want and what it does so I don't need somebody to inform me about the product.

This time, I don't know why, (probably because it was early on a Saturday morning and I didn't function on full throttle, lol!) I told her that I wanted Coralsta but I was not so sure anymore. She asked me if I had any more blushes (well, duh!) or if I would solely wear this (do you imagine having to wear Coralista - or an blush for that matter - for months without end? And then I would toss it disgusted in the garbage, and then it would magically reappear on my vanity and then I would call a priest to perform exorcism, and the blush would speak to me in a tiny voice but totally scaring, saying "no, you have to wear only me, with rain or sun, winter or summer, day or night, I'm the only blush you'll wear until there's no more left of me in the pan! )

Are you still reading? If yes, let's get back to the Sephora SA. I told here I have other blushes as well and then she suggested buying the kit instead because it was almost the same price as the blush but I could try more products and if, in the end, I totally loved Coralista I could come back and buy the full product.

It made total sense and at almost 21€ (after the 25% off) it was not that expensive considering that the "deluxe sample" actually contains a considerable amount of product.

So, do I like it?

I love it!

• Coralista blush: I can totally understand why it is so popular. It's a lovely peachy coral shimmery shade (to me it seems like something in between Nars's Orgasm and Benefit's Bella Bamba), very easy to wear and the shimmer actually gives a gorgeous sheen to the cheeks.
• High Beam illuminator: a cult favorite as well and now that I have it I love it too! It's the first liquid highlighter I buy and I find it easier to wear than powders because it melts into the skin and it can be as natural as you want it. The color is lovely as well, it's a pinky white that looks very flattering.
• Cha Cha tint: well, in the past I had some not so happy experience with Benefit's tints. I had purchased a mini version of Benetint but the first times I used it I was left with red blotches on my cheeks, because the product sets in too quickly and I didn't have time to blend it properly. And it goes without saying that i burried it in a drawer and never reached for it again. So, when I saw the deluxe sample of the Cha Cha in the kit I was very intrigued by the lovely color but at the same time I was very sceptical if I could make it work. And I did! What I do is that as soon as I have applied my foundation I put two stripes on my cheek and with a larger brush (like the Real Techniques Multitasking Brush) I pat it on my cheeks. This way, it sort of spreads and mingles seamlessly with my foundation and the result is a beautiful, semi transparent tint on my cheek. If I want it a little more saturated, I repeat the process with a dot or two more and after blending it's flawless. I don't swirl the brush, I just pat pat pat. Also, I do one cheek at a time. And it lasts on my cheeks for hours.
• Coralista lipgloss: it does give a pretty shine and a bit of tint on my lips, but, as most lip products, it does't stay on my lips for more than a few minutes. I keep it in my purse, just in case I want to ump it up a bit.
• I already removed them from the box (I put the blush in my blush palette) and as a bonus I can use the pretty box to store jewelry or other bits and bobs.

So, that's my opinion on the Go Tropicoral kit, I'm so pleased with it because they arevlovely products and I got the chance to try more products before committing to a full sized one.

That's it for now, I hope you're all well and thriving!

 

Δημοσιεύτηκε με το Blogsy

Naked Basics palette by Urban Decay

I know that flowers are blooming, birds are singing, everything gradually becomes saturated with color since spring is almost here, but I feel the need to share with you my thoughts on a very much hyped, relatively new, product that doesn't scream spring.

I 'm always sceptical about products that receive too many raves because, more often than not, I 'm left somewhat dissapointed. Maybe it 's because I have too many expectations when everyone says how great, amazing, formidable the xxx item is and when I actually buy it... well, maybe that's another post.

This one though is really a little gem, purchased on a whim. And I 'm so glad I got it!

The Naked Basics palette by Urban Decay was not on my radar at first. I mean, I read about it, saw it in many bloggers' favorites, but, I was not interested in it at all. It seemed too plain to me, too ordinary, not exciting, not fun.

Until one day when I went to Sephora with a 25% off coupon. I got a couple of things and on my way to the cashier, I spotted it sitting lonely on a stand. I wasn't planning on buying it but I thought a little swatching wouldn't hurt...and I swatched it. And I loved it. On the spot.

I don't know if it was the softness, the creaminess of the texture, the subtle transition from the lightest to the darkest shade, the size of it, but I wanted to take it home with me! The fact is also that the 25% off helped a lot, lol!

Since I got it I use it every single day, either by itself, to achieve a nude look or to tone down, or enhance a more colorful look. Either way it has become indispensable to me and although I do have one or two similar shades, this is the one I constantly reach for.

As for swatches, I would suggest taking a look at Temptalia's post here , although if you're fair the colors will show up more on you.

All in all, I'm very happy I got it and it became an everyday tool in my stash.

 

That's it for now, I hope you're all well and thriving!

 

Δημοσιεύτηκε με το Blogsy

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Spring 2013: Collective Fashion Haul!

First of all, Happy Spring!

Some of the following items are recent purchases and others were purchased far back in December or January, but being cold and all, I was not in the mood to show them to you.

So, after the weather changed to a more spring like temperature (hopefully for good!) I thought it was the perfect time.

Enough talk, let's get started!

Zara flat sandals. These have a sort of oriental vibe to me (I don't know why!) but the combination of shiny little things on nude was sending off messages to my unconscious "you need us, you need us" ...

H&M stone beige boots, I got them half price (20€) last Saturday. I have no idea how I'm gonna style them but I couldn't resist!

H&M grey scarf 8€. I'm not a huge fan of animal prints, snake prints, etc but I liked the color combination.

Blanco scarf about the same price. I love the colors, I think that it will be perfect with blue jeans and a plain white top.

River West Emily rose gold watch 25€ on sale. I 've been stalking this watch for a long time on asos but it was never in stock, so I was very surprised when I saw it available during the sales, last January. I get compliments every time I wear it and when I tell them the price they can't believe it!

Accessorize outlet necklace 3€. Such prices do make me reconsider purchasing stuff full price and every time I go to the Factory Outlet I always check out the Accessorize stand. I love how pretty and dainty it is.

Mac Archie's coin purse 29€ (I think). Long story short: I went on the first day the collection launched. I swatched. A lot. I left with the coin purse only because I loved the cuteness of the design!

Now the "collector" in me bangs my head on to the wall yelling at me "you must get a pearlmatte! You must get a pearlmatte!"

On another note, does any one else hears voices or it's just me? LOL!

Blanco black and white scarf. I love it so much because it's simple yet tasteful.

H&M animal print scarf. I've already worn this to shreds. I just love it!

Zara anorak 59€. I didn't plan on paying 59€ for a basic beige anorak but this one filled a hole in my closet, meaning that I was looking for something like that. This one appealed to me a lot because it's sporty but in a chic, urban way and it can be worn with a lot different styles. I also liked the fact that the upper part is cotton and the lower part synthetic, the difference in texture adds a nice detail.

Zara shirt. I found this little gem during the winter sales and I snatched it up on the spot!

Sprider shirt. This one was also purchased during the winter sales and it was very affordable (5€ I think). I love not only the color but the fabric as well, it's buttery soft.

Spider shirt. Purchased at the same time with the above, I think 5€ as well. I'm getting a retro 50's aura here!

Zara trafaluc peach burnished tee 9€. Just a basic t-shirt with an interesting fabric pattern. I liked it so much I got a black one as well.

H&M khaki t-shirt, 8€. I do wear a lot of beige and khaki during spring and summer and this one appealed to me because of the see through upper part.

H&M shirt from the conscious collection, 15€. I love the pattern, the cut, everything!

Zara shirt. One more item I got during the winter sales (15€ I think). I just love it, the background is a lovely dusty mint almost green.

Zara shirt. Purchased with the above, I think at the same price. No paisley fan here but the color combination is very subtle and tasteful and almost bohemian.

Zara blouse. Also purchased with the above but it was from the spring collection, I can't remember the price but I found irresistible the texture and color combo.

Any must haves this spring? Do share your thoughts!

That's it for now, I hope you're all well and thriving!

 

Δημοσιεύτηκε με το Blogsy

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains

It is a fact that I'm a sucker for anything gimmicky.

It is also a fact that I mostly buy lip stuff that is proven to be long wearing, because my lips tend to melt away any regular lip product in a few mimutes, leaving me with bare lips.

So, the Revlon Kissables seemed very fascinating to me being gimmicky and long wearing. I started by buying a couple of shades, really liked them, purchased some more, and making a long story short, I currently own 8 of them and I love each and everyone!

Here they are

The reasons I like them so much are:

• They do survive quite a few hours on my lips
• Even when they fade, they leave a nice stain behind
• They have a nice shine
• They feel supple and moisturizing
• They're pigmented
• Easy to apply
• Pretty color selection
• Affordable
• They don't need any sharpening

Shades I own:

001 Honey,

010 Darling,

040 Rendezvous,

025 Sweetheart,

020 Lovesick

045 Romantic

055 Adore

005 Crush

Swatches in the same order

After a rigorous wash with soap and water you can still see the stain.

In comparison to Revlon's famous lip butters:

• the lip butters feel more emollient and rich
• on the other side, my lip butters melted in their tubes last summer. I mean, I still use them but they look a little messed up (lol!)
• Color wise, there are similar shades. For example, the Tutti Frutti lip butter is similar to Rendezvous.

 

 

That's all for now, I hope you're all well and thriving!

Δημοσιεύτηκε με το Blogsy