Beauty

A year ago…

A year ago, today, we started this blog with a review on one of our travel experiences in Romania. That was the first blog post and our first attempt at putting together a blog/diary of our life. This blog has become so much more than that for us in this past year, it is our go-to place when we want to look back on our experiences, on the way we (gracefully) age and it is a good reminder that life is wonderful, especially in those ‘down’ moments – everyone has those. It also motivates us to stay in shape, eat healthy and it forces us to actively review places and write down memories from our trips while also pinpointing some of our best experiences both abroad as well as in Romania.

Nowadays, looking back on our old posts, I realized that if we did not have this blog, there was no chance in hell we would’ve took so many photos throughout the pregnancy, nor would I have written down in such detail my personal feelings that I experienced during this amazing time.
Today we decided to celebrate by not putting together a slideshow of our past year, but by sharing with you (and also marking on our calendar) the first swimming experience (in our bath tub) baby-Leia had this Friday (the 17th of March). Since I am on active mommy watch, I will not spend more time writing about it but I will just let you enjoy our home-made video of Leia.

Yes, life changes a lot during one year, this blog helped us fully appreciate just how much, and we have come to the conclusion that our lives really evolved for the better and there is only going up from this point on. I truly hope that you enjoyed this past year with us and we hope that there will be many more years to come for our little blog!
Happy Birthday evenlymatched.eu!!!
L.

March 19, 2017

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Baby Preparations: Going BRONDE!

With about five weeks to go until the bundle of joy will join our household, I decided to make a change in my appearance that hopefully will make both my life and D‘s life easier in terms of leaving the house. I strongly believe that everyone on this planet has a soft spot for long blonde locks and I make no exception from that rule. That said, having blonde hair – even though mine is not the lightest shade, I’m more of a 9A lover – is a pain in the ass as you need to re-do your roots every four weeks tops otherwise you just look terrible no matter what your natural hair colour is. Yes, I am well aware of the fact that today dark roots are ok, however, not grown-in dark roots but rather perfectly calculated darker roots.

My hair before the colour process

With a new baby on the way, I’ve come to the conclusion that going religiously to the salon every four weeks for root touch-ups will be impossible in the beginning at least until we get into a routine, so I decided to try the much-coveted bronde-colour melt hair colour. This is kinda the compromise between having long blonde locks, bun not really having to go to the salon quicker than six-eight weeks (for me at least). My good friend and colour-guru, Maria and I decided on 7A roots because that matches my natural colour almost perfectly and that means that if I manage to squeeze in another colour appointment until the baby comes, the colour will actually catch on nicely – note: on chemically processed blonde, darker colours tend to require more than one try for the shade to actually last.

Tools used in the process

This whole bronde trend is quite lovely in a sense that it allows blonde-lovers like myself to still have lovely light locks while also having naturally coloured roots and therefore if you are a low-maintainance kinda gal and hate going to the salon monthly for about two-three hours for you colour service this is the way to go! I must admit that at first I was very skeptical as I am a blonde-all-the-way kinda gal and I was afraid that going darker plus being hormonal will result in a catastrophe, but, to be completely honest with you, I have never left Maria’s Hair Studio sad or unsatisfied. Plus, I do love a change from time to time! Here’s what my colour-master used to get this amazing, natural, trendy colour:

Joico K-Pak Color in 7A (Dark Ash Blonde) and 7N (Dark Blonde)
Joico K-Pak Chrome in V9 (Platinum)
Joico Vero K-Pak Peroxide in 6% (this is what we usually use for my roots)
Joico Vero K-Pak Chrome Activator
Olaplex Complex

Technique

Now, do not ask me how much of each she put into the magic mix that got me this amazing colour, all I can say is that she used nothing on the tips and only blended the colouring cream for about a minute before rinsing it all out. Not really touching the tips is one of my obsessions as I try and protect them as much as possible. And no, pregnancy has not helped with my hair nor with my skin and as I’ve stated in an earlier post I am not complaining as I have not experimented the bad side of pregnancy either. The process has a bit out of the box in my opinion as she knew she did not necessarily need to colour my tips in order to get this perfect bronde shade so she used foil for this natural sun kissed-highlights effect which I must confess I had serious doubts at the beginning.

The result

I now regret all those moments of doubt as I am way beyond in love with my new hair colour and if you really want to try this or any other colour trend with minimal damage to your hair you have to visit Maria’s Hair Studio as Maria’s first concern always is for the health of your natural hair and trying to do as little damage as possible while still giving you the desired result. The reason I am writing about this is because I was simply stunned yet again at how she managed to protect my natural fine hair while still giving me the desired result that most hairstylists give you with a full-length chemical colour. She amazes me and my hair with every single visit! I hope you love the end-result as much as I do!

December 16, 2016

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Hair greatness – L’Oreal Pro Fiber

You know how when you are pregnant you are supposed to have dream hair, skin and nails? But you are also supposed to feel nauseated 90% of the time and your rings are not supposed to fit you anymore and nor are your shoes? Well none of that happened to me thus far… nor the good or the bad! The jury is still out on whether I should be happy or not about all that, but I guess that feeling normal is a good thing, and by normal I mean brassy hair, a few zits, weak nails but topped by an overall good feeling about myself with rings and shoes that still fit despite being 32 weeks pregnant.That said, during my pregnancy I did not feel the need to ignore all my hair treatments and even tried a few new ones. You know how hair treatments work: you feel a slight improvement but not really that much – and right now I am talking about the really expensive ones as the ones that are mid-ranged from a price point of view do no more than a quick fix of your issues that usually lasts five minutes into the late autumn humidity. Well, not the one I am going to talk about in this post! This one, despite being a medium priced salon treatment was very impressive and three days later it still is very impressive despite the humidity levels hitting 85% in the past few days!

I am talking about the L’Oreal Professionel Pro Fiber Reconstruct treatment. While I always avoided L’Oreal because of the high silicone content, I thought I’d give this one a try because it is receiving quite the rave online. As I stated this one is a reasonably priced salon treatment (about 35 $) but it promises big results. And it does just that! Now, I have no idea if the other treatments in the line work, I can say that this one did miracles on my blonde-damaged hair despite me being quite the skeptic at first and hence not thinking about taking any before of after pics of my hair. You are just going to have to take my word for it and go ahead and try it yourself. My hair before the actual treatment was a mess. By mess I mean 90% of my top crown was brassy and it lacked shine, especially when it was not styled properly – yes, throughout the years I learned a few tips and tricks on how to style it so that it does not look like a hay stack. Going in with the mindset that I should not expect much, I totally skipped the photo/video phase of the treatment but did take a few snaps of the actual products, mainly so that I know what to buy for home if I thought the products were ok-ish (I recently ran out of shampoo and hair mask) – so this post will have to work solely on those pics.

The procedure in itself is very easy and quick and right now, given my current situation I was happy with that because I can not sit in one place for more than two hours and I dreaded the thought of having a long and complicated treatment done. Basically, the stylist washed my hair twice with the shampoo, applied a full vial of the treatment (I currently have a lot of hair with my extensions and all – otherwise you only need half) and on top of the vial applied the activation mask and all I had to do was wait 15 minutes before she gave me a good rinse and the treatment was over – all in all, about 20-25 minutes. This is so easy to do at home and the thing that impressed me the most thus far is the smell – this is perfect for the winter months – spiced vanilla, but a very intense and comforting spiced vanilla! That alone helped me decide on my next at-home haircare!Then it was off to drying but not before applying the line’s serum on wet hair (no pic unfortunately!). This is when I really started to believe that this treatment actually works wonders as you know when your hair is in a bad place it’s always complicated to style it because the brush keeps getting tangled in the damaged parts of the hair no matter how much oil or serums you put into it? Well that never happened during the drying part after this treatment and by the end my hair looked and felt healthier and stronger than ever. I was hooked! especially since, even today, three days later my hair feel amazing, looks amazing despite wearing a beanie twice a day – for the dog walks – and still smells divine!

Obviously that made me buy the at-home products instantly and I even bought the vials just to see if I can fully re-create the results at home. I will keep you posted on that in a later post as I really feel that this new treatment line deserves all the praising it can get especially since it is on the cheaper side and actually delivers the promised results. I really hope that all you ladies out there that, like me, have damaged hair and a skeptical approach to hair treatment will be convinced to give this treatment a try as it really and unexpectedly delivers great results for half the price compared to other ‘luxury’ in-salon treatments.

November 28, 2016

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(NOT) Another Make-up Tutorial!!!

Nope, this is not a make-up tutorial as I know almost nothing on the subject… I do however want to share with you some amazing newly discovered make-up products as I feel that a bit of a review is always nice. As always, I am doing this review with only praise in mind as I hate the negative energy I get after writing a bad review. On that note… these are the best products I found this autumn! Naturally they are not all newly launched products as I am not a beauty blogger, but they are my most recent finds as I had to overhaul my make-up bag.

I always like to buy new stuff at the beginning of the season as I feel that both my skin colour and my texture tend to go through some changes – and I do not want to even start on the changes my skin went through during this pregnancy! This post comes after a long period of hits and misses in the make-up department simply because my skin is chaotic these days and finding something that works well with it is rather hard. Most of these products here were tried for at least two weeks just to be sure that they work well with my skin and, to be honest, not being the make-up expert that some people are, it always takes me a while to learn how to apply each one depending on the texture.

Here are this autumn’s heroes:

Giorgio Armani Maestro Fusion Make-up in shade 5.5
Giorgio Armani Liquid Sheer in shade 2
Chanel Eclat Lumiere in shade 20
Dior Diorblush Light & Contour in shade 002
Benefit They’re Real Mascara in Black
Chanel Rouge Allure Ink in shade 140 Amoureaux
My besties – BeautyBlender The Original and the Micro

How I apply them:

First, I would like to clear the air on one thing: I do not use any primer! Yes, I know that is a make-up felony, but I just hate the way most (or at leat the ones I’ve tried) of them feel on my skin. Therefore I just apply my foundation on bare moisturised skin. This Giorgio Armani fluid foundation was a bit tricky at first given that it has a very runny texture and it wasn’t tricky from a skin application point to view but rather because it took me a while to figure out how to get it onto my skin. In my opinion, the best way to go about it is to put small drops of the products on your fingers and pat it in key areas of the face. While I do love my BeutyBlender, this foundation works best for my skin when I apply it wth my fingers – no, a brush did not work as well either!

Then it is off to correcting whatever spots and dark areas I have on my face (mostly dark under-eyes). For this I use the Chanel Eclat Lumiere. I have used this product for a few years now and I love the way it seamlessly blend with any foundation. Yes, I know, it is about time to try the YSL Touche Eclat, but somehow I always end up buying this one.I just brush the product in the areas that I feel I need some extra coverage and pat it with my BeautyBlender Micro.

Now for a bit of contour. I must confess that mastering this step took me quite a while…And I always needed up looking like I had dark spots, but with the new Dior stick this has become quite easy. No, I am not yet a ‘strobing specialist’ and honestly I have no idea what that is. For this step I just put on my ‘war lines’ – as D calls them – and blend them really well with my BeautyBlender.

A bit of highlighting is always much needed after the contour step and I do not use the lighter part of my Dior stick simply because I feel that it contains a bit of glitter as opposed to the pearly texture that captures the light perfectly that I found in Giorgio Armani’s Fluid Sheer. I have tried applying this miracle worker both underneath my foundation as well as mixing it into the foundation, but I feel that it looks best when applied in key ares over the foundation. So I apply it on my upper cheekbones, my upper eyelids and on top of my upper lip.

What’s left? A generous layer of jet black mascara. I am currently using They’re Real from Benefit and I have to say that I am quite happy with it. I confess that it is not as good as the G by Guerlain but hey, it is less than half the price and it does the job nicely!

As for the newest favourite in my make-up bag, the Chanel Rouge Allure Ink, I only have great things to say! First of all, I am that annoying person that only wears nudes or very light pinks and hates matte lipsticks. I bought this because a good friend that actually nows make-up secrets at a way more advanced level than me recommended it and naturally I bought the lighter shade available (which is darker than what I normally wear). I love everything about it! Yes, even the colour as I feel it perfectly mimics my natural lip colour! The texture is to die for, you do not really feel like you are wearing a matte lip as your lips do not get dehydrated for one minute and it lasts for about 5-6 hours which is amazing! I seriously think this is the best beauty product of this autumn and I feel that it is rather hard to be topped by anyone else when it comes to matte lipsticks.

That’s it! That is my autumn no-make-up make-up routine! I hope it has been helpful, not from a make-up point of view necessarily, but rather from a review standpoint. Keep in mind that these are all products that work very well for my pregnant skin, but I have a feeling they are great for any skin. Again, I would like to add that all the products here are bought by me, so this is not a promotional post!

November 12, 2016

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The Lash Room…or how to get perfect brows!

Strike two at writing this beauty post – hopefully there will be no more glitches from WordPress and YES, I am writing this on the Notepad first just to be sure that it will not get deleted again. I just hate doing things twice!

Anyway… Today’s post, as the title suggests is all about getting those perfectly shaped eyebrows, and not having to re-do them every single morning, like I had to for almost a decade of my life. In order to get you accommodated with the subject I have to tell you first about my life with my natural eyebrows. First of all, I was born with bushy wild eyebrows (yes, no sign of that in my recent years), but was unlucky enough to reach my critical age (adolescence) in the 90s when thing eyebrows were the thing. Naturally, being 13 and quite stupid, I over-plucked them – NEVER EVER DO THAT – and some of the hairs did not grow back, most of the hairs actually. As opposed to most other female body parts that don’t necessarily need hair but where hair grows like you give it fertiliser every day, the important hair of the brows is very stubborn when it comes to growing back. This left me with no other choice than to pencil and powder my eyebrows until 2013 when it came to me: I should get them tattooed (semi-permanent make-up). Since back then I was younger, stupider and had fewer financial resources (I was actually lacking in the brain cells department rather than financial come to think of it), I looked online for the cheapest option available and booked it right away. Yes this was two or three months before our wedding day. I figured that I will just tell the lady doing them what I wanted and give her points every step of the way because in my head I knew better than anybody what was aesthetically correct. I have to say that a diploma in Architecture gave me that confidence, but to be honest, that has nothing to do with human aesthetics. My confidence combined with the fact that the lady doing my eyebrows was not the most talented in the world left me with having to put on more make-up every morning than before. Please keep in mind that when it comes to someone tattooing your face, there is absolutely no way of you actually seeing live what she/he is doing and therefore you have no control of the result. I did not take this into consideration then and I did not do my research where her talent was concerned.

These were my ‘before’ – brows (aka my wedding brows – first tattoo)

A year later, still not at my wisest, but getting there, I discovered THE LASH ROOM. I think this is the first place that actually had the wonderful technique of micro-blading in Romania, if I am wrong than this is definitely the best place where you can get your eyebrows micro-bladed – just take a look at their portfolio as opposed to others. Why did I say that I wasn’t at my wisest? Because I still had this fixed idea in my mind that I knew best and did not let the very talented Cristina Delcaru to do her job properly, still wanting thinner brows than she suggested. They did turn out a lot better than my first attempt at getting my brows done and in my head, back then they were perfect and I was hooked on the place. I tend to be the type of person that is very loyal to beauty places if they make me feel good and safe.

First attempt at THE LASH ROOM – freshly done

First attempt at THE LASH ROOM – healed

Fast forward to another year later when I wanted to refresh my brows again, here I was back at THE LASH ROOM. By now, both me and Cristina realised that the first time I had them tattooed it was with permanent ink because a) it just won’t fade and b) it changed into a horrible carrot hue. Because I was a bit older, I was also a bit wiser and allowed Cristina to make them a bit thicker, but not as much as she would’ve liked for them to frame my face properly. Needless to say that I left the place walking on clouds and I just kept staring in the mirror in awe, the entire drive back home. I was simply in love with my thicker, more natural brows! Did I mention that each time Cristina custom made my brow colour just to make sure it perfectly matched both my hair colour as well as my skin tone. Yes they do that at THE LASH ROOM, you do not have to chose just between brown, black or red, the possibilities are endless!

Second time at THE LASH ROOM

And here we are… Two and a half weeks ago I needed to have them re-done because I got to the point where I feel the wisest – might be hormonal. Yes, I re-pigmented my brown in my fifth month of pregnancy and it is totally safe as THE LASH ROOM uses bio-organic fruit inks that are more natural that most of the moisturisers I use these days. As opposed to the last few times, this time it did hurt a bit, but nothing to get my heart-rate up or anything. Why I considered myself to be at my wisest? Because right form the start I told Cristina that she should do what she felt framed my face best and I only wanted to see the end result – I trusted her 100% which I rarely ever do, and I am so glad I did! My brows turned our perfectly, even better that what I remember my natural brows to be, actually a lot better than that! The shade is perfect, the thickness is perfect and overall way they look is absolutely amazing! I seriously recommend this place and Cristina, but I am sure that all the girls working there are extremely talented.

About the procedure:

First of all, your brow designer will do a mock-up of how the brows will turn out and, from my experience, they are extremely patient and considerate with your opinion as they really put your happiness first. After the shape is settled the designer will start mixing a custom colour just for you. She will then start tattooing and this can be done here in multiple ways depending on your skin: either micro-blading, powdered or plain tattooing or a mixture between the three. The first two times Cristina decided on micro-blading for me, but the last time she decided to use the tattooing machine because I do have a bit of scar tissue on my right brow (adolescence zit) and the horrible reddish hue from my first attempt is still visible and this technique is supposed to be better for these issues. After the first lines are drawn, she applies a bit of local anaesthetic and normally from this point onward you just have to sit back and relax for about an hour. Afterwards, you’ll end up with the perfect eyebrows! The aftercare is quite easy but it will take about two weeks during which time, as opposed to a normal tattoo that needs to be washed daily, you are not allowed to get this one in contact with anything apart from the cream you will receive before leaving the place. This makes make-up not really an option therefore you have to plan this procedure ahead. As I said, you have to apply the cream twice per day which will make you look a bit weird (see the healing photos attached). On top of everything, be prepared to have very dark eyebrows for those two weeks until the heal. This is no problem whatsoever if you are a brunette but it can be one if you have lighter coloured hair. Two weeks later you will guaranteed looked a lot better than before!

Before the third procedure at THE LASH ROOM

Right after the procedure

During the healing process

The healing cream

A bit about Cristina:
She is one of the nicest people I’ve met and despite her immense talent, she is very down-to-earth. The thing that shocked me most the second time I saw her is that she perfectly remembered both me and what she used on my brows the first time. This is extremely rare as she must’ve done hundreds of eyebrows during that year, but apparently she has amazing memory when it comes to her work. Despite not being in agreement with me the first two time (where brows are concerned) she still gave me her best and I left the place every time feeling amazing! I am sure that all the girls working there are very talented, but I fell very lucky to have met her and have my eyebrows done by her.

Healed result

About THE LASH ROOM:
This place is amazing, it make you feel right at home. I am very sorry that D couldn’t join me during my procedure as I would’ve liked to have more photos of both the procedure itself as well as the interior of the place, but you can find a few photos online. The staff always made my feel welcome and everything appears to be in pristine and hygienic condition therefore you feel relaxed right from the beginning. They also offer various lash treatments, that I tried at some point. That service is amazing as well, but unfortunately I am the type of person that need to throughly rub her eyes every time I take my make-up off and therefore I could not have a full set of eyelashes and feel comfortable. But those of you that can live without rubbing your eyes, should know that this is an amazing service that should be tried at least once.
As you can see from the ‘after’ photos, Cristina’s works needs no more praising and you should really trust her from the first moment as she will do what is absolutely best for your face!
L.

September 23, 2016

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Hair Update!

Remember when I got hair extensions? You can read all about it here… Anyway, today is all about updating you on how that is going for me. Because I am on prenatal supplements, my hair grown like crazy so I had to re-position them after just two months, normally, you will need this after three to four months of wearing them depending on how well you take care for them. The thing that is really dangerous – well, as dangerous as hair extensions can be – is the fact that the more your hair grows the more prone the roots are to get tangled. That is why, if you have fine wavy hair like mine, you should have you stylist check them out monthly (trust me, I have seen some tangled roots and they are not a lovely picture). However, if you manage to squeeze in a monthly salon visit, which let’s be honest, for us in our 30s is not so hard as we do have to colour our hair regularly, there is absolutely no danger of that happening.

After two months of wearing my hair extensions

Let me tell you a bit about the last two months with my lovely hair extensions. First of all, despite the fact that you might think it is peculiar to wash and style you hair, it is actually not. True, you do have to be a bit more gentle when wash your roots, but aside from that, the whole styling process is way more comfortable and easy to do because you have to deal with mainly healthy hair and it tends to influence the way your damaged hair styles because it is heavier and thicker. For example, I could not leave the house with my hair naturally air dried, but with those extensions on, after an hour of naturally leaving it to air dry it styled itself and looked like one of the best summer waves I’ve ever had (see it here). Throughout these two months, I’ve shed three or four extensions, but fear not, it was seamless and I did not have to have an emergency appointment to get it fixed, on the contrary, I actually waited a week or two before going at the salon, as it was 100% seamless. I suspect those tresses fell of because I religiously have my Olaplex home treatment and moisturising treatments tend to loosen the microring, but that was where the inconveniences stopped. I’d have to say that after two months of wearing these beauties I am hooked!

After the re-positioning

The end-result

Back to today’s post subject… Last Friday I went to the salon to get them re-positioned, as they did grow quite a lot – as you can see from the photos – and I was at the point where the microrings kept popping out from underneath my hair, so keeping them a secret became somewhat of a mission impossible. My very talented friend, Maria (find her at her salon, Maria’s Hair Studio, here), carefully repositioned all 90 of them in about 1 hour. Even though my hair looks a bit shorter, scissors were not involved and the shorter do I am sporting is due to the fact that my extensions were moved up the whole 2,5 cm that my natural hair has grown. So, no scissors involved and I looked like a new person! As you can see from the photos, my rings were changed for a darker shade of brown because I tend to colour my hair a bit darker during the autumn months. My natural hair had absolutely no damage done to it thanks to the silicone lining of the microrings, so be very careful when you choose the type of rings used as the ones without the silicone lining tend to be way harsher on your natural tresses – true they are smaller, but it simply is not worth it!

Happy mama-to-be

Overall, my experience with hair extensions has been wonderful so far, but I intend to keep you updated on the matter!

September 11, 2016

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Skin Issues…

Here we are again…a new beauty post! This is not actually a beauty post as my skin right now is anything but beautiful but these miracle products help keep it under control, and being the honest bunny that I am, I wanted to keep you updated on the downsides of my pregnancy. I do agree that ‘downsides’ is a big word taking into consideration that I’ve been feeling great so far, but there is no other way of describing my not-so-cool face right now.

I am not among those lucky ones that get glowing, magnificent clear skin during pregnancy, quite on the opposite end, actually, meaning that my face is either oily and my chin is filled with zits – nightmare for my foundation, either it develops extremely (really!) dry patches around my mouth and nose and still has a few zits here and there to brag about – again, nightmare for my foundation. This did not really occur during the first trimester of the pregnancy, only maybe mildly, but it has gone wild the moment I started my forth month – right about the time I was trying to enjoy myself at Untold festival. Needless to say that I was in denial as I really loved my former beauty routine (read about it here) and I could not accept the fact that those beloved products that have done an ocean of good for my face are now making my skin so horrible. As a matter of fact, the hormones were the big contributors to horrible skin.

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Current skin heroes: La Roche Posay : Effaclar Cleansing Gel; Effaclar Micellar Water; Effaclar H Face Cream; Uriage : Hyseak K Face Cream; Bio Oil; Clarisonic Mia 2 Face Brush

The situation got so bad that my face actually felt like it was terribly sunburnt, itching and hurting and all… Luckily for me, a very good friend of mine is a great dermatologist and the moment we got back to Bucharest I asked for her opinion on the matter at hand. The downside with this period is the fact that I can’t really treat my skin with chemical-infused treatments, but rather have to go with over-the-counter dermatological products. Which got me in the current situation where, to D‘s surprise, my entire beauty routine doesn’t reach the cost of one of my three formerly used serums. Not that I am complaining, I am actually glad that by the end of the pregnancy, I will probably put away enough money solely form this beauty change to buy a new pair of Louboutins. Who knows, I might not change my beauty routine ever…

On to the products… The facial cleansing gel is lovely, both in texture and smell! Dare I say that I love it more than my usual Chanel foaming cream? The jury is still out on that verdict! I love the pump bottle as it gives you just the perfect amount of product to throughly cleanse your entire face and neck. The foam is soft and delicate and leaves your face feeling fresh as a cucumber! I use it morning and evening with my Clarisonic brush set to level 2 (the stronger vibrations). You can find this La Roche Posay Effaclar cleansing gel in any pharmacy, but I have to warn you that finding the pump bottle is a real struggle as most pharmacies tend to sell the tube version.

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La Roche Posay – Effaclar Cleansing Gel

Not that my face needs much cleansing after the gel, but I like the fresh feeling on my skin that a tonic water or a micellar water (in this case) leaves behind. For some reason, no mater how good my cleanser is, ever since I can remember, I’ve always used some kind of tonic water. Right now I opted for this very gentle micellar water from La Roche Posay because, at the moment I switched products my skin was extremely dry and irritated and I do not think it could’ve handled anything harsher. This just feels so amazing both while using it as well as afterwards, your skin just feels squeaky clean and ready for whatever cream comes next. I also use this product morning and evening using a cotton pad to distribute it evenly.

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La Roche Posay – Micellar Water

As opposed to a few months ago, when this was the moment for the serum in my beauty routine, nowadays it is time for the face cream. I use two different face creams one in the evening and one in the morning. Despite the fact that they are not specifically made for the two different times of day, they each address a different problem and help me look rather normal under the circumstances – read – my foundation can make me look normal! For day I use the Effaclar H from La Roche Posay witch helps my skin maintain normal levels of moisture while protecting it from unwanted zits. This one feels amazing on my skin, seriously, I think it feels better than my Chanel cream. It’s delicate, it hydrates without leaving a greasy after-feel, it protects it from getting dry-pats and smells divine, I think it smells like tulips. The nigh cream is a bit more hardcore and this is actually the one that fights zits and needs a more moisturising partner during the day. It is the Hyseac K from Uriage and I honestly have to give this one credit for being able to not wear foundation from time to time and not scare D away! You can really see the difference in the appearance of your skin from the first two uses, it diminishes pimples, helps you get a better skin texture and, as much as a cream can, keeps new zits at bay. It had a divine light texture, that is not really drying and smells like fresh-cut grass. To be honest, I can’t wait to put it on every single night.

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La Roche Posay – Effaclar H Face Cream

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Uriage – Hyseac K

That’s it! That is my entire beauty routine for my face. I think it has diminished in time by about 5 minutes and where the cash is concerned, the difference is colossal. I am really happy with these face products and I waited an entire month before I shared them with you simply because I really wanted to give you my true and honest opinion and see if they really work on the long term. They do! You can seriously trust these products as they will change your perception on cosmetics! I can’t promise you that I will not go back to my expensive creams after the pregnancy, but I can promise you that before I do that I will try the pharmacy sold wrinkle solutions as I have a feeling I will be impressed by those as well – I will keep you updated on that!

I’m sure you are wondering by now what is the bottle of Bio Oil doing in the photos… Well, this is yet another product that I am currently using for my skin – my body skin, that is – that I love and want to share with you. I have been using Bio Oil for a while now, even before I got pregnant and loved it a lot. The thing about using it before I got pregnant means that I used it during my first two months of pregnancy as well because I wasn’t paying attention to the finely written instructions on the back, apparently it is ok to use it after the first trimester. Thankfully, and I really want to put this out there, nothing bad happened and I came to the conclusion that most of the stuff is not really tested on pregnant women and therefore you have no way of actually knowing if it is good for the baby or not. I have used it during the first two months and nothing bad happened, so there you have it, Bio Oil is safe! I did switch to coconut oil once I read that Bio Oil might not be good and had a terrible experience with it. Well, not dramatic, but I did develop some sort of allergy to it, which did not happen before (I used coconut oil numerous time during my life and loved it), meaning that my skin was itching a lot even though there weren’t any actual irritation on the skin. I also noticed that it sank into my skin a lot slower than before and overall I hated it. Once my first three months ended I happily went back to my beloved Bio Oil that in my opinion is a miracle worker for skin: it does not feel greasy, it hydrates wonderfully, it diminishes spots and scars, it smells amazing and it is yet to be decided if it prevents stretch marks – currently I do not have any new ones, but I will keep you updated. I apply this twice per day, in the morning and in the evening and my skin feels and looks amazing. I am very meticulous about applying this oil twice daily as I have a really big tattoo on my right ribs and I really hope that it will not get ruined during pregnancy.

Processed with Snapseed.

Bio Oil

This is it! This is my entire beauty routine during pregnancy! Nothing more! I can say that I’ve switched Sephora for my local Pharmacy and that my bank account is rather happy about the change right now! My skin seems to dig the changes also therefore I am one happy mama-to-be! I will keep you updated in case any changes appear!

September 7, 2016September 7, 2016

evenlymatched1 Comment

Face brush battle – Philips vs Clarisonic

Getting down to the nitty gritty… I’ve decided to review the two most popular face brushes on the market:

Clarisonic Mia2
Phlips VisaPure

I’ve been using a face brush for the last three years and, when my first brush (Philips VisaPure) stopped working without any warning, I decided to try and cleanse my face without one, just to remind myself of the difference. The result was that the next day, during my lunch break I was off to get the other ‘best face brush’ contender on the market : Clarisonic Mia2. It’s not that I wasn’t happy with my Philips, on the contrary, I loved it, but I’m not the type to actually buy the same beauty gizmo twice, especially since I’ve had my VisaPure for more than two and a half years. I just needed a change and I really wanted to see which one was better.

To be honest, after a lot of online research, I concluded that both products promise more or less the same things:

Deeper, better cleansing of the face
Better control of clogged pores
Less zits
Fine lines reduction
Beauty products are supposed to work better on perfectly cleansed skin
An overall better appearance of the skin

After more than two years of being addicted to my VisaPure, I can tell you that it ticks most of the above mentioned benefits. I say most, because I haven’t really seen any improvement of my fine lines, at least not thanks to the face brush – I’ve got Chanel to praise in that department. Maybe that was what actually convinced me to switch to the Clarisonic. I really wanted to believe that the much appraised sonic vibrations will be able to make me switch to a cheaper face cream, cos Chanel ain’t cheap, my friends. So here I was, back home, excited about my new acquisition. I waited patiently for what seemed like forever for my new Mia2 to charge and I started jotting down my first impressions of the new gizmo.

Upon unpacking and comparing the two, I have to say that none of the companies missed a single detail where quality of craftsmanship is concerned. Both products feel very nice and sturdy, and in my opinion, the VisaPure charger looks a bit better and is a bit more comfortable than the Mia2 charger. But, again, that’s my opinion only. The Mia2 charger is magnetic and quite easy to carry around when you go away on vacation, but the one from Philips looks way better. Another aspect about the battery-life that I’ve noticed in the past few months (this is why I’ve postponed this review so much) is that the VisaPure battery lasts a bit longer and charges a bit faster than the Mia2.

When it comes to the quality of the cleansing I think that both brushes score equally even though the two brushes use completely different motions and timers. What I mean by that is that motion wise, the Mia2 offers a sonic vibration of the bristles, without any rotation at all, therefore you have to do the rotating part by hand, while the VisaPure offers a rotating motion as well as a bit of a vibration but that’s very different from the VisaPure. Timer wise, the Mia2 divides one minute into two 20 second parts, each for your nose and chin and another for your forehead, and two 10 second parts for each cheek. The VisaPure divides one minute into three equal 20 second parts, one for the T-area and two for each cheek. For my needs, the Mia2 is better, simply because my problem area is my T-zone and therefore it needs better and deeper cleaning. That aspect is entirely up to the user and her needs.

There is a very obvious difference where the two brushes are concerned. The Mia2 offers a bigger brush head than the VisaPure and that again, is an aspect that is up to the user. Some may argue that a smaller brush reaches more spots o the face – not true in my experience as both brushes reach every single inch of my face, while others might argue that a bigger brush covers a larger area. This again is a matter of preference because there is virtually no difference in the texture of both brushes. I was happy with my VisaPure and I am just as happy with my Mia2 brush.

I’ve said something earlier about the VisaPure not delivering where fine lines are concerned, and after two moths of using the Mia2, I can honestly say that this one doesn’t deliver either. The only viable solution to fine lines is either a good face cream – but that doesn’t necessarily stop them, it maybe postpones them, or fillers. These brushes will not be as efficient as fillers, so do not get your hopes up. The good thing about them is that it actually helps face creams work a bit better because your face is cleaner than ever. So yeah, if you are an optimist, you could say that they help, but there is no real difference between the two.

Price wise, these two products cost basically the same, the brushes cost basically the same and you need to change them every three months for both of the products. To reach a conclusion, I’d say that choosing between the two is simply a matter of brand and design preference and nothing else. But I do have to say that ever since I’ve started using a face brush I’ve become an addict and can’t really stand cleansing my face without one, so be careful as they are addictive!

August 2, 2016

evenlymatched3 Comments

New Hair!!!

I’ve got new hair!!!! Literally!!! You didn’t believe that I just drank a magic potion and woke up with Rapuntzel hair, did you? If you look back on the latest posts, you’ll realise that in Milan I had medium fine hair, while in Paris I seem to have grown long thick hair. considering that the two mini vacations were two weeks apart, that would’ve been impossible to do naturally. So… I finally did it! I got hair extensions! I’ve been thinking about this since forever, but there was always something stopping me. I’ve seen quite a few that look fake even from a considerable distance, I always thought that they were uncomfortable to care for, and the reasons for my scepticism may go on forever.

Hair after colour process. Current result!

Hair before extensions. Right before Milan!

Finally, the day before we were off on a plane to Paris, I went to my usual hair salon (Maria’s Hair Studio) for a wash and a blow-dry and I ended up with a whole new set of natural hair extensions. Now, make no mistake, I wouldn’t have let my precious, but fine strands into anyone else’s hands but my good friend Maria because I trust no one else when it comes to complicated things like hair extensions. And was I glad at the end, as not even D could spot a fake looking strand of hair, and he is a perfectionist when it comes to fake-anything!

Before the hair colour process – on the day of the application.

The process lasted almost two extra hours than what I had planned (for a wash and blow-dry) so I had to leave the professional hands of Maria without actually colouring my new hair, but because she skilfully cut them, one could say that I looked like I had a nicely done balayage. I did come back a week later, upon returning from Paris, to get my much loved ash blonde (as you can see from the featured image). But, before you judge, take a look at the Paris photos and see if the whole thing doesn’t look natural af!

Hair before all the madness – extensions, colour!

Before the colour process – I went like this to Paris!

As said before, I chose the micro-ring method because let’s be honest, I am way to low-maintenance to not wear permanent hair extensions. I think that the ones that you just put on with a hair clip are just too high-maintenance for me, and I am lazy, but I haven’t really gave them a try so far so I can’t really give you my opinion on that. I just took a leap of faith with these more permanent ones. First of all, they are natural healthy hair, from a good source (not from corpses) and my dear friend was patient enough to fill my head with 90 different strands carefully placed for a natural finish no matter if I wear my hair down or in a pony-tail.

After my usual colour treatment!

The aftermath: The first night I felt that there was something different, but by the second night I just slept like a baby, not feeling them at all. I suggest that brush your hair starting from the tips and moving upwards towards the roots and, as for washing, not much changes. The styling now takes me double the time, but taking into consideration the fact that it is natural, healthy, thick hair, the hairstyle tends to last a lot longer than it did before, on my fine hair. Overall, I love it! I have no idea why I waited and hesitated for so long to get them. Be careful though, as there are a lot of places that can offer you this service, but you can end up looking very fake. Take great care when choosing you stylist!

July 25, 2016

evenlymatched1 Comment

Summer must-have!!!

You know how everyone looks way better with a nice tan, be it summer or winter? True, during winter, too much tan looks stupid, but just a tad of colour makes everyone look better. Also, sunbathing is very bad for your skin and right now you can’t have a decent online search without a skin cancer advertisement popping up when you least expect it. Some people are just born lucky with a nice natural colour, but I’m sad to say that I am definitely not among those (D is one of those annoying people), so every time the temps start to rise I am on a constant search for a perfect alternative to the traditional sunbathing.

This is how I came across the Vita Liberata luxury fake tan range. I have to admit that all my previous experiences with fake tan have been on the horrific side rather than on the nice and healthy side, meaning there were a lot of streaks and spots when I least needed them. So far, the classic colouring creams have done the job, but summer is here and it’s not like I am a superhuman and don’t sweat, so those coloured cream/foam/gels will not do the trick anymore. This means that I will have to venture in the fake tan experiments yet again. You’ll probably say that there’s always the airbrush tan alternative that is both foul-proof, safe and comfortable. You might be right, but at the rate my skin is naturally exfoliating, I’ll just be left with doing that once per week and that will mean less shoes per year overall. Basically, the at-home fake tan is supposed to be my saviour.

This is the first time I’ve tried the Vita Liberata range, and based on the fact that there are very few online reviews, it was kind of like playing at the lottery at this point. I went to Sephora to buy the pHenomenal tanning mouse in medium, mainly because it is very hard to believe that an at-home fake tan could last up to three weeks and I needed to try it out. To be honest, the longevity of my tan is my last concern as I was more concerned about colour, wear, streaks and basically sweating the colour on my clothes.

I bought the entire pHenomenal kit that includes the mouse tube, a mini exfoliator and a tanning mitt. Right when I was about to leave, I realised that I needed something for my face as well because no matter how skilled one might be in the art of make-up, you can never fake a tanned face if the base is milky white, so I left Sephora with the Anti-Ageing Tanning Serum as well. I started by scrubbing like there was no tomorrow and all the while I was thinking that I do not want any dry patches to turn into tanning streaks. I even used the scrubbing cream on my face and I was really happy at how well it both hydrated and cleaned it. I continued by putting two-three pumps on the mitt for every body part and distributed it evenly with a circling motion. Because the foam is coloured it’s really easy to see where you applied and where you need to apply some more, making the whole experience very pleasant. For the back I need D, so we can say that he put in the work for my great tan.

I waited for about 15 minutes, but to be honest, the mouse dried in about 5mins, but you can never take any risks. For my face I poured a pump into my hand and distributed it evenly on my face, neck and ears (do not forget about the ears!). After all that, I just put on a black t-shirt and went to bed praying that everything will be ok in the morning. I did wake up with a classic self-tan smell on my skin, that I did not notice the night before, and hopped into the shower. Because the mouse is coloured, you will see a lot of colour running out, but you will be left with a subtle medium bronze colour that is absolutely gorgeous! No orange undertones and very, very even. The same nice surprise I had for the face that had a lovely 5 days at the beach colour.

I did feel the need to reapply the mouse one more time, but I did that two days later as you need to do this in the evening and we went out. The colour did intensify a lot, but is looked just as good. Let’s just say that it looked like I was away for a week on the beach, which is what everyone wants, right? Now, about the lasting powers of this mouse, I’m not sure about the two-three week claim, but I can say that 9 days after the first application and the colour still looks great, not as intense, but you can still see it, so I do not think it will last two weeks and I’ll need to reapply it, but so far there are no streaks or spots in sight. I have to say, that this will be my go-to tanning system this summer and overall I am very happy with it. The sad part is that I can not find the exfoliator anywhere in stores in Romania, so I will have to search for an alternative. So far, it hasn’t rubbed off on my clothes and at this point I don’t think it will either. So there you have it, my absolute summer essential!