A Little Magic In A Pot!

Hello Beauty Lovers!

I hope everyone is hanging in there and staying healthy! We are slowly seeing things reopen in my state. Although Governor Newsom has left it to the counties to decide when it’s the best time to start reopening.

During this time, I have noticed that a lot more people who have quarantine at home have used this time to really work on their skincare. I think that is amazing! My philosophy is; your makeup will always look better when you have an amazing base specifically skincare. I love to pamper and make my on little cocktail of serums to help plump my skin. The better the skin looks, the less full coverage products you need!

One area that I am more conscious about is the under eye. I tend to have dark circles due to lack of sleep and it can sometimes get very dry.  It is a must that I add an under eye serum. My favorite is the one from “Good Molecules” (a blog post on all of their products coming soon) and follow it up with a nice hydrating eye cream.

I know there is a bit of a debate on whether eye cream is necessary; but given my needs, it is a step that I always like to incorporate into my skin care routine. For the past six months, I have been using Charlotte Tilbury Magic Eye Rescue. This product is promoted as being a “hydrating cream that is clinically proven to help the appearance of dark circles in just 8 weeks”. It cost about $60 dollars for 15 ml.  I ordered mine on the Beautylish website.

According to the website—this does have retinol which does help with the appearance of fine line and wrinkles. As well as Saccharide isomerate to add hydrating and firm and brighten. The consistency is quite thick. In fact, a little goes a long way. It’s a rich product without feeling greasy or too heavy.

The first thing I noticed is how bright my under-eye area looked. It felt nice and moisturized and really added a look of being awake. This cream adds a beautiful luminosity that just performs well underneath makeup. I didn’t notice my concealer bunching up or slipping at all. There is a slight fragrance that is not overpowering. In fact, I can’t smell it at all once it has been applied to the skin. I love how rich the consistency is! Although the price is quite up there, it is such a beautiful eye cream that will give you a bang for your buck! A little will be more than enough and will leave your under-eye feeling nice and most important, hydrated! I highly recommend it! For all of my mature beauty queens out there—this is a must have. It works that well on just all skin-types!

I can’t recommend this product enough! I think this is a beautifully designed cream that will last you for months! I am adding this to my list of products to repurchase because I just love it that much! In fact, I got my 70-year-old mother to start using it.

I hope you found this review useful! If you tried any this or any of her products, leave me a comment and let me know! I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy! I’ll be back next week with a makeup review on a Natasha Denona Product!

Stay beautiful!

-Kat

Product Review: Altilis Beauty

Hello My Dear Readers,

I have been on a roll when it comes to my skincare. Not because I am wearing less makeup— but I am loving how the skin looks on my makeup free days. I have been experimenting with a few products for some time. I like to really take my time when it comes to reviewing skin care items. It takes more than two weeks to effectively see if a certain moisturizer or serum is in fact working.

Today I am reviewing the indie brand Altilis Beauty Line. I bought the entire line a few months back and it is all I have been using on my face. I learned about the brand back when it was still owned and operated by Kenna Whitnell who does have her own YouTube channel. She did a video that provided viewers with an in depth look at her skincare line. She mentioned that her skincare line uses breadfruit and other sustainable ingredients proven to help your skin. I like that the line was created using a natural extract which was being sourced sustainably and given Kenna’s background as a chemist, I decided to give it try.

The entire line which is listed as Infloressence on the website. It comes with the cleanser, the serum and the moisturizer that can be used both day and night. At the time of my purchased, this cost me about $80. Since then, it seems that the price has gone up and it is currently listed on their website for around $90.99. Another big change, Kenna no longer owns the Altilis Beauty line. She made a YouTube video revealing why she parted ways with the line that she created.

I tried really hard to love this line… but the products somehow made my skin drier than normal. The cleanser worked fine, it doesn’t feel like it leaves my skin too stripped. The biggest issue that I had was with the serum and the moisturizer. The serum feels a little too emollient and almost greasy. I did not like the feeling of it at all on my skin. I would wait about a minute to let it absorb into my skin, but the greasy feeling was still there. I added the moisturizer and it didn’t feel like I was putting anything on my skin. Despite feeling greasy, it didn’t feel like I was adding the ingredients needed to really give my skin the much needed moisture. It felt greasy while and tight at the same time. I needed to add a little of my “Good Molecules Squalane Oil” to really feel like I was adding moisture.

Since, I spent $80 on this line, I kept using them while waiting for my skin to get used to the new ingredients. Sadly, it was a lot of the same thing. Greasy while also still managing to feel really dehydrated. I found this really bizarre because on the website, the products are promoted as helping to restore the skin’s natural moisture barrier. I imagine that my skin simply did not like the breadfruit ingredient or it just didn’t have what I needed for my dehydrated skin. For those who have a sensitivity to smells, there is a bit of a smell that is almost acidic. I can quite place my finger on it so I assume it’s simply a smell from the breadfruit flower.

I have used up all of products in this line—and I will definitely not be repurchasing. The ingredients just didn’t react well to my skin type. While I didn’t make me break out in any way—just the state of my skin took a turn for the worse and this line is all I have been using. My skin got so dry that I needed to find a sleeping mask to somehow add some moisture to my skin. This is how I found the Laneige sleeping mask and the toner that helped with my skin.

My advice to you, I would purchase the samples first to do a little trial run and see if it works for your particular skin type. Remember, just because it didn’t work for me doesn’t mean it will not work for you.

I hope you found this blog post useful. As always I hope you guys are staying healthy. If you guys have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment.

Much love as always,

-Kat

Product Review: Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare Alpha Beta Daily Glow Moisturizer

Hello Everyone,

Since I missed last week’s post I decided to do another post this week before the big one next Thursday.  We are currently having a super rainy day here in central valley but of course we need all the water we can get. I’m patiently hoping for a lightning storm and I am enjoying a delicious peppermint caffeine free green tea. It’s absolutely delicious and I am not much of a tea drinking gal.

As my makeup free trend continues, I am much more involve in making sure my bare face looks as best as it can. Plus, with all the rainy weather, the feeling of rain on my face mixed with makeup isn’t flattering to me. Now, I feel like my skin is changing once again and I think it’s because for one I am drinking much more water than I used and to and two, there is a lot more moisture in the air this time around than last year. So now, I have a bit of dry patches around my cheek area, but the rest of my face is pretty much normal.

What I am looking now is for something that has a bit of moisture but also will add a bit of glow since I am still going sans maquillage (or makeup free for all of my non francophone speakers). I also want something that uses all natural products and is paraben free. So at Sephora one of their workers recommended the Dr. Dennis Gross one.  It is the first time I am using this product, but the sephora gal said that many people enjoy it. Plus it does add a bit of luminosity to the face. It’s packed with vitamin D for anti aging. I may be 25 but I am always looking for anti aging ingredients. One can never start too early.

It comes in a nice pump format so just one pump is enough for my face. The consistency isn’t that thick and it has a nice cool feeling. It does have a slightly orange color with what looks like a bit of golden specks. It doesn’t feel thick it almost feels like it is a serum/cream consistency. This does have a bit of a citrus sweet smell that you can feel at first but once it is fully absorbed into the skin I can no longer tell it’s there.

This moisturizer is by far one of my favorites. It does add a nice and beautiful healthy glow to the skin without making it look shiny. My skin feels so smooth throughout the day and it’s packed with so much moisture I can’t see my dry patches at all.  This stuff seriously adds such a beautiful glow the skin that I just can’t even handle it. I am most definitely considering repurchasing this once I run out. This is a cruelty free and vegan friendly product and the price range goes for about $42 and it’s about 1.0 fl.oz. So it is a bit pricey. However if you have a chance to splurge a little I would definitely recommend this. This product would work best for all skin types. It’s oil free!

That’s all I have for this week, I hope you found this helpful and if you’ve tried this product let me know how you feel about it! Also, if you have any questions for me please feel free to leave me a comment below!

Until next time, much love as always,

-Kat