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My little cats! 

Happy Monday ! I had this post in mind for a while now and the other day I took the time to photograph and write it so I'm really happy about it! It's a beauty post because I have to admit that at the beginning of the blog, and actually well before that when I freshly arrived in the capital city, alone for the first time and barely an adult, I still had teenage beauty habits and I didn't put much effort into my vanity-case, Nivea and Clearasil had been part of my daily routine for a long time, until I met friends that were really into beauty and more importantly, until the blog arrived in my life. Let me be clear that no brand in behind this post, it simply is about sharing some tips together. To be completely honest I receive lots of products, I test them, I like them, I drop them, I don't understand them, I forget them, pretty much like everyone actually does, but today I'd like to tell you about those little revolutions in my life, yeah you read well, revolutions, there are products that I buy again right when I finish them... 
 
You'll see that they are my basics regarding care, complexion and eyes because if you think about it it's just like shoes, we never have enough of eye shadows and lipstick...

 

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To start with I'd like to talk about care and cleansing routine, I'm far from being a cleansing-freak but I do know that a beautiful skin starts with a good cleansing... It took me some time to get it but it really is the key! A few months ago I received this Clarisonic Mia 2 brush, I thought it was quite a crazy gadget and at first I used it at full blast morning and evening making large movements as if I was cleaning the parquet floor... Which is absolutely what you shouldn't do, the result was that my skin was very dry and I had little red patches. So I talked about it with my friends from Make my beauty who advised me to only use it on evenings anyways and to start with using it every other day. And it was a revolution, my skin texture went really smoother really fast and the shining T zone was just a dim memory. Now I carefully follow the several cleansing cycles (the length of the variations is different depending on the zones of your face) no need to make movements since the brush does a micro massage itself by making more than 300 backward and forward movements in a second: a supersonic cleansing with zero effort all in all. I've used it every evening for 5 months after removing my eye make-up with the incredibly soft Caudalie vine flower cleansing foam... (careful, you have to change the head of the brush every 3 months). And I use the foam alone every morning to clean my face, I am really fond of it because it is not aggressive, it doesn't rub down your skin but you still have this feeling of clean that I love after the cleansing. And I finish with a perfect gesture that I deeply love, applying the Nirvanesque de Nuxe light cream, the scent is crazy, completely addictive. And this scent is a way to sweeten the pill of using a "first wrinkle" cream... 

 

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And this little miracle product! Glam Glowokay this one isn't cheap but how efficient ! It's been recommended to me by my gorgeous friend Simone from the Simone Blog. I asked her, very impartially, if she knew a good product that could help me get rid of the little spots due to the bangs, don't look so disgusted, we are all in the same boat. I can use tricks for a week alternating between rockabilly quiff, headscarf and little braid pressed against my head and I have the forehead of a baby. But if I leave my Justin Bieber like side fringe on my forehead for more than 3 days, it dies, it's the apocalypse. And I was tired to have to choose between my hair or my skin so this Glam glow mask is magical. I use it once a week. It stings a lot at the beginning, I mean so much that it's hard to keep it on and then that stops, it dries and creates air bubbles around the imperfections and right after you rinse it your skin is already better. I use it on evening and the morning after it's like Christmas... Simone strongly advised me to take the black version and not the white one which is even more "corrosive" like you'd wash your face with soda. 

  

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Just a quick recap on hydration: when it starts to be very sunny outside I alternate between the Nirvanesque cream and the crème délicieuse de Nuxe SunI know you're going to think I'm crazy but I quickly turn orange instead of the nice caramel color, I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about. 

 

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My absolute quest of a perfect complexion sometimes turns into an obsession, I'm convinced I can have a post-photoshop skin with a few good products. Over time I discovered some little products that help me through my sacred quest... Before anything I apply thePore Minimizer de Dior, which is kind of a little miracle in a tube, it smoothes your skin, minimizes your pores, fills, mattifies and refines your little wrinkles while being very light and transparent. I apply a small amount and the perfect complexion it gives you in no time is quite crazy. Then it's time for my favorite, it's love in a tube, I'm currently using my third tube in 18 months... The she uemura BB creamI can't even find the words to describe it, it's light while covering, it's mattifying while very hydrating and "eyelash curler on top of the vanity case" it has a SPF 30. HURRAY! To conceal the rings under my eyes which have been my nightmare for two years now I use this genius Benefit Erase Pastethe lighter shade, I pat it with the tips of my fingers under my eyes and I fix it with the awesome Invisible Loose Powder by Laura Mercier. I discovered it with the girls from Make My BeautyAlexandra did my make-up for a shooting once and sang the praises of this powder, with it being her favorite. Laura Mercier is a brand hard to find in Paris and I imagine it's even worse elsewhere in France but you can find it on Birchbox. You apply it like a regular powder but it instantly becomes invisible, I mean there is no "powdered" aspect but it creates some sort of blur that catches the light... And I finish my complexion with a blush, I have two loves: the Glee shade from bareMineralsI love that its powered texture merges perfectly with my skin. And I have had my Madeleine de Proust for ever in my bag the boîte ronde de Bourjoisthe rose éclat shade, I'm a crazy about its smell... 

 

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And the other big work of my daily routine is the eyes... I can't get out without anything on my eyes but I try to, especially when I'm on holidays. Okay it only happens once a year but I like doing some 'slow beauty' from time to time. When I apply some mascara again I feel like I'm Mariah Carey. Anyway I'm not faithful to one mascara in particular, I test lots of them and once they're empty I never actually had a crush on one and told myself that I had to buy it again. I currently use the combo Dior show Maximizer and Dior Iconic in black, it clearly doesn't suit everybody's budget but after the flawless skin obsession I have a 10ft long, thick and natural eyelashes obsession. Let me have it okay, and the use of those two products is really efficient for a deep and long result, I haven't found better yet! For my eyeliner application which is a step I can't skip, I only use the Baby doll Yves Saint Laurent because it has a brush and it's become rare to find that kind of tool now that the crayon liner has come (which I don't know how to use). I like the precision of the brush and its clear-cut and not "plastic" finish. I end with a line of beige eye pencil inside the eye, I'm still looking for tips to get larger eyes, after years of black pencil inside the eye that shorten it, I got my revenge with my beige pencil, yes beige because it's more natural than white that'd be contrasting too much with the white of the eye, nobody has an optic white white of the eye. 

 

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And my last obsession, yes I know I have quite a lot of them when it comes to beauty, is to have large messy eyebrows, it's been on for years... And the other day I went to the Benefit shop to buy my love concealer and the quite talented saleswoman showed me this product: Gimme BROW. I'm only love, an eyebrows mascara that is very easy to apply with its mini bottle-brush. Et voilà I have XL eyebrows in 15 seconds... Well I'd like to thank my mom one more time for always forbidding me to bother with a pair of tweezers...

 

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Here are my favorites, I could also tell you about Visine, my savior when my nights are too short, I don't know where you can find it in France but on the internet you'll get lucky ici. Two drops in each eye and I don't look like an albino rabbit anymore, it really really is a very good product but don't overuse it. And my other favorite is Homéoplasmine by Boiron, my lips savior all year round...

 

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What about you, what are your miracle products ? Sweet kisses ! 

 

May 19, 2014