3 honey beauty recipes

When I was a little girl and I had a sore throat, my grandma always used to give me a spoonful of honey to soothe it. Well, honey isn't only good for curing sore throats - it's very beneficial for the skin, as well! Honey has moisturizing and antibacterial properties so it's great for acneic skin. Today I wanted to share with you 3 quick honey beauty recipes I've been enjoying recently!

♥ Honey mask

When I feel like pampering my skin, I'll do a quick mask using honey. All you need to do is literally cover your face in honey, leave it for 15 to 20 minutes and wash it off using lukewarm water! Your skin will feel soft, smooth and hydrated and not at all tight like some masks can often do. This little at-home treatment is great for people with dry skin, but it's perfect for blemish prone-skin too. I have acne myself and I find my face feeling much less irritated and soft after this mask! 

PS: don't be scared of putting honey on your skin - unlike olive oil which can also be used in at-home beauty treatments, honey rinses off super quickly. :) 

♥ Honey and sugar scrub

I haven't bought a body scrub in months - you want to know why? I've been making my own honey and sugar scrub for the past few months, and it's been working wonders! First of all, it's much more gentle than most scrubs on the market, it exfoliates and nourishes at the same time; and second of all, it's cheap as chips and it lasts for ages! All you need to do to make your own honey and sugar scrub is pour some honey in a jar, then add some sugar and mix them until they reach a 'scrubby' texture. You can make a harsher scrub by adding more sugar (great to use on feet!), or a more gentle one by adding just a bit. Also, you can use it not only on your body, but on your face as well! 

♥ Honey bath cream 

When I really want to relax, I take a bath mixing a few spoonfuls of honey in the water. When I go out of the bath, not only my skin smells amazing, but it feels silky smooth and hydrated too! I will definitely be sure to do this in the warmer months too :)

Guest post: Hair Heaven With A Halo For All

Halo hair extensions are taking the market by storm. Like all the best ideas, it’s very simple and has brought genuine speed and convenience to the hair extension process – which we all know can be time consuming if you want a great finish. It’s award-winning and Glamour magazine called it revolutionary, the miracle wire at the heart of the product is patent-pending – this is a genuine breakthrough in hair extensions for everyone.

Tokyo Milk wishlist

♥ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ♥

Help. I think I may pass out from one moment to another! I have just discovered the brand Tokyo Milk and I'm absolutely in love with everything on their website! I have picked out a few favourites from their huge selection - sooner or later these six products will end in my cart! The packaging on all of their items is to die for. What is your favourite Tokyo Milk product? 

Kiko Ultra Glossy Stylo #804

I was in Sephora a few days ago, looking at the new Fall collections and crying over the fact that everything was, as always, unbelievably expensive. I completely fell in love with the new Dior Addict Extreme lipstick in Diablotine and I was about to head to the register with it, but then I thought, 'There must be something like it for less than half the price'. And indeed there was. Kiko Ultra Glossy Stylo #804 is a lovely peachy pink with subtle golden shimmer - it is not an identical dupe for Dior Diablotine, but still, it's quite similar. The photo below definitely doesn't do it justice! The Dior lipstick is a little bit more orange, but formula-wise they are very alike: they both have the lightweight texture of a lipbalm. I find that the best way to apply the Kiko Ultra Glossy Stylo is to dab it on the lips to achieve a beautiful, natural finish. It's so pretty for daywear! I am definitely going to try out more from the Ultra Glossy Stylo line :)

Dolled Up

Outfit post! I think it's the first one that I do on this blog. It's just because the lighting in my room is very hit or miss, otherwise I think I'd do more. I love reading them on other people's blog - I feel like my style is so boring in comparison to all the other fashion bloggers I admire! Anyway, I got this sleeveless chiffon dress from Chicnova a few days ago - shipping was super fast considering they're based in Hong Kong! 

I absolutely love the floral print and I think it's a very easy dress to accessorize as there are many different colours going on it. The only downside to it is that it's very short! I thought it'd fit me but it barely covers my derrière... checking the measurements is one thing you have to be careful about when ordering from Asian websites. Anyway, it's gonna be perfect with leggings :)

Have you ever bought from Chicnova? What do you think about their selection? 

Where have I been?

Hello, everyone. ♡ I know I haven't posted here in a long time, and I'm sorry. The past two weeks have been quite busy and boring at the same time: we've had the air conditioning installed in our house last week, so I had to help my parents clean the whole apartment up - it was a mess! Then I spent this week at my grandma's house who lives in a very small mountain town and I only had access to a super slow internet connection there, so I spent my time watching Hugh Grant movies (I might be developing an insane addiction to that man) and buying overpriced stuff I don't need. 

My lack of posts is also due -believe it or not- to the fact that I have nothing to post about! I haven't been shopping in quite a long time and I seriously cannot wait to go to the mall on Tuesday and get my hands on some new beauty products. If you have any requests or ideas on posts I could write, please let me know! Regular reviews are hopefully coming next week. I've missed blogging so much!

Maybelline Color Whisper in Lust for Blush

I know, I know. The Maybelline Color Whispers have been out for months now, but hey - better late than never! I got mine, which is in the shade Lust for Blush, a couple months ago. The packaging looks so pretty, almost prettier than the Revlon Lip Butters (the Color Whispers are supposed to be dupes for those): the cursive font looks lovely, and I like the fact that the tube matches the actual shade of the lipstick. Unfortunately, the packaging is all I love about this product. Why? First of all, the shade is not the right one for me, but I guess that's my mistake. After all, there are 20 shades in the Color Whisper range, so I may have picked the only one that doesn't suit me! That's the bad side of shopping online. However, 'Lust for Blush' is a cool toned light pink and it reminds me of Topshop Innocent a bit - both don't suit me at all! All cool toned pinks make my teeth look yellower than they are, and I hate that. 

Moreover, I don't like the formula and finish. It has a creamy texture which settles in the fine lines of my lips, it's more opaque than my Revlon Lip Butters and L'Oreal Colour Riche Balm which I absolutely love, although it doesn't have any shimmer in it (which is nice). I feel like the product is sitting on the top of my lips - it's suffocating! 

I haven't tested this lipstick outside the house, so unfortunately I can't tell you about the lasting power. 

Maybe it's the fact that I picked the wrong shade that ruined the whole thing for me, but I don't like this product very much. What do you think about the Maybelline Color Whispers?

My Empties #2

I think I have accumulated enough rubbish since my previous empties post, so here I am with another collective review of the products I've recently used up!

I don't think I have reviewed the Lycia Micellar Water with Lotus Flower because it's not sold outside of Italy - however I think it's a very nice micellar water. It's gentle on the skin and it has a very pleasant scent. I like to use it on a cotton pad after removing my make-up, just to be sure that every residue of make-up is gone. The next product is the Avon Advance Techniques Moroccan Argan Oil mask, which you've heard me rave about in this post - I have loved it so much, but unfortunately I can't get my hands on it anymore unless I order it online. I would absolutely recommend it if you have dry or damaged hair in need of some extra hydration, and I would definitely purchase it again. The third product is the Avène Eau Thermale which I've reviewed a few months ago, and which I've already repurchased. It's a miracle product if you have irritated, sore skin - it will soothe it in minutes. I absolutely love it!

I've managed to get my hands on some Soap & Glory products, namely the Scrub of Your Life and the Clean, Girls body wash. The first product is a very nice scrub; I like it because it really exfoliates the skin and it ladders pretty well, unlike some exfoliators I've tried in the past; same thing for the body wash. 

Since I've reviewed the Avon Supershock mascara here, I've changed my mind about it. As most mascara, it got better with time and after a month or so of using it, I started liking it a lot. 

I use a nail wheel for  my nail polish posts - that must mean something about my actual nails! I have a very little nail bed but I don't like my nails to be long, so I always end up with having super short nails. I decided to try fake nails for once and I've posted the result on Instagram here and here. I absolutely loved the effect, but I'm not used to having long nails, so I removed them the day after :( I would definitely recommend the Essence French Click & Go Nails, applying them is foolproof!

My last empty product is a packet of Dove Beauty Cleansing wipes. I always like to try new types of make-up removing wipes - I think they all do the job pretty much the same way. These were nice, but didn't blow me off! 

Essence 'Always in my mint'

About two weeks ago I picked up a nail polish from the new Essence 'Me & my ice cream' collection, which is all about the pastel shades. Always in my mint is a lovely mint green colour, or a white with a tinge of mint green in it, I should say. It also has a light shimmer to it and although I've never tried it, the shade reminds me a lot of & Other Stories' Moire Green. 

I have seen other people's swatches of this nail polish and I don't know why, but it performs super sheer on me, so sheer that I can still see my nails underneath after three coats. I guess I could apply a white base underneath, but I simply don't want to - a good nail polish should be pigmented enough to be opaque in two coats. Moreover, the first two coats were kinda splotchy and the nail polish was hard to apply. I guess I can't ask a lot from a €3,29 product, but I've tried other nail polishes from Essence and they were way better than this one. 

I really wanted to like this nail polish, but I guess my quest to find a good pale mint green has to continue :( Have you tried Essence Always in my mint? What do you think about it?