Greek pharmacies!

On my recent trip to Crete, I realised just how underrated Greek pharmacy products are! I indulged in a little haul, and will be reviewing them all soon!

Haul video featuring Froïka, Korres (oh, Korres!), Olivia and Pure Greek Olive!

Skincare, Korean style.

As the lot of following me on Twitter or/and on Instagram would know, I’ve had a skin debacle earlier this year dabbling with the Sunday Riley Power Couple combo. My skin was an itchy, acne filled mess, and I do not usually have to deal with acne unless I’ve been eating past 10 or sleeping poorly. I have had to invest a massive portion of the summer trying to get my ‘normal’ skin back and thanks to Peach and Lily, I did!

Now all you know about the Korean way of skincare is most probably true and here’s why it works for me. I adore fussing over my skin and the process of applying multiple layers of different consistencies of serums and creams make the entire process so… pamper-ey and great.

Now, my task was to keep the combination of 10+ products under 100 euros and do my best in assuring they are cruelty free. A lot of Korean products retail in China so this was an elephantine task, but I had a week off of work and was raring to go!

Thankfully amazon.de is a babe and I had all my products in 25 days – from Korea!

Started off with good ol’ double cleansing, ampoule, essence, eye cream, emulsion, cream and sunscreen!

Awkward family photo. Photographed in order of usage.

The winners of this set are the cleansing duo of DHC oil and Su:m 37 rose cleansing stick – they are great for makeup removal and cleansing dry skin, and since I am still on the lookout for the right toner (on the move for Be the Skin Botanical Power Toner), I follow it up quickly with Mizons Snail repair Intensive Ampoule. Here is where it got tricky for me because whilst I can live with products that don’t ‘do much’ for me, I loathe products that set my skin in reverse. Bentons Snail Bee High Content Essence made me break out into red inflamed acne and so now, I skip over directly to the eye cream. Not Korean, but still the best I’ve used. Institud Arnauds Youth Eclat Eye Contour cream is a fantastic product that I first bought it in India a couple of years back when it was still available there, and it has magically lasted me until now! Also makes for a dope lip moisturiser.

But my true star, my true love from this set is the Skinfood Sake and Peach emulsion. As the name suggests, it has the consistency of emulsion and smells like slightly boozy peach. Perfect! This product has singlehandedly changed my mind about ‘runny’ moisturisers, and my skin! I love love love it. I got the Mizon Snail Recover gel for a double whammy of moisture for nighttime but unfortunately, it only works well solo. It is a great moisturiser on it’s own, but along with everything, it’s another inflame-ey nightmare, so with a heavy heart, it rests on the shelf with the Benton essence.

I use the Korres Emulsion Yoghurt with SPF 30 for sun protection. It smells of mango lassi to me and with that, and I am good to go!

I am very happy with my current routine, it’s 15 mins every night and every morning and with the right toner and essence, I think I’d be gold!

Winners.

Not so much.

Just water cleansing phase post Sunday Riley.

Only Mizon recovery and ampoule phase.

With Benton snail bee in the routine phase.

With everything but Benton and Mizon snail recovery. Ignore the deviated septum. Tadaaaa!

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Lips.

My favourite piece of makeup. Lip colour!

Which are your favourites?

I have been *a fan of makeup since I was little. Thankfully my mum, who even though, is not a big make up wearer, would always have amazing amazing lipsticks in her bag. Which then I would happily “borrow” following it up with dancing to loud 90s Bollywood music in the house.

Cut to adolescence and now, **adulthood, and my only true loves in the make up bag, are my lip colours. I don’t refer to them as lipsticks now because they aren’t really just sticks anymore. There are wands, and sticks and powders and pigments. I still swear by a couple of shades by a couple of companies that do not test on animals and they’ve slowly but surely become my everyday staples. My absolute favourites are still NYX and their matte cream shades. Stunning colours and so pigmented, so accessible and they care about animals! Perfection.

What I would love to try next, are lipcolours by MDMflow (cause they all look FANTASTIC), Kylie Cosmetics (those mattes… ah!) and of course, more stuff by Lipstick Queen! The cruelty free status of the latter two are still unknown but hoping for the best? And even though I am a sucker for matte shades, Lipstick Queens Velvet Rope has got me leaning to the glossy side just a wee bit…

Lipcolour selfie strip. From left to right, NYX’s Amsterdam, Morocco, Lipstick Queen’s Velvet Rope and again, NYX’s Antwerp.

Let me know in the comments or on Instagram what cruelty free lipshades you guys love, I would love to know!

*obsessed with.

**eugh.

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