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Top 10 Mani essentials

3/30/2014

Every girl needs a good manicure every once in a while. These products are my favorite essentials while doing my manicure. From base coat to top coat, from skin-nailcare to nail files and nail polish removal pens...
Have a look at all these little wonders I wouldn't want to miss :)

1. Repair & Grow

The repair and grow mask from Hema is a great routine after removing your old nail polish and before applying a new one. It strengthens your nails and makes them look more healthy. When you have dry nails because of your nail polish remover, this product will really feed your nails. It should help your nails grow faster, though I didn't actually see that happening :)

Just apply the mask, leave it on for 10 minutes and remove it with a cotton pad.

Product: Repair And Grow Simulator
Store: Hema

2. Cuticle Remover

Before apllying new nail polish, you should always move your cuticles as far as you can. This cuticle remover makes the whole process more easy. It doesn't hurt at all and your nails are being hydrated at the same time.

Just apply it on your nails and wait for 15 seconds. Push back the cuticles with a wooden nail stick. wash your hands afterwards to remove all the product leftovers. After that, you can start with applying your base coat.

Product: Essence Studio Nails Fast Cuticle Remover
Store: Kruidvat

3. A good basecoat

A good basecoat is necessary if you don't want yellow-ish nails because of your nail polish colour. It alse keeps your nail polish into place for a longer time in combination with your topcoat.

This basecoat also hardens the nails for a better effect and more long lasting result. It protects from staining and it fills up your ridges.

Product: Essence Studio Nails Hardening Nail Base
Store: Kruidvat

4. A good topcoat

Next to a good base coat, a good top coat is crucial if you want a high shine and a long lasting stay of your nail polish. This "good to go" top coat from Essie dries very fast and keeps your nails shiny.

Product: Good to go from Essie
Store: Kruidvat

5. Nail drying oil

This nail drying oil was part of my Deauty box of this month. I was totally shocked when I tried it out, because it really works!! And the good part of this product is, you don't need to add it on your nails very precisely. You can also use it to make your cuticles more soft and to hydrate the skin around your nails.

just apply the oil a few seconds after applying your nail polish (so your polish is still wet) and make sure you hold your brush as horizontal as possible (otherwise you can make stripes on your nail polish). In one minute your nails are already touch-dry.

Product: Mavala Nail polish drying oil
Store: Ici Paris XL, IU, Hair & Body Beauty

6. Nail drying spray

This spray has the same effect as the Mavala drying oil, except it's a spay and it's more dry. It doesn't hydrate your skin but it also does a good job. It's a spray that is very cold when you spray it on your nails. just spray it on your wet nail polish and your nails will be touch-dry!

Product: Nail Colour Dry Spray
Store: Bornprettystore

7. Nail polish thinner

We all have this one nail polish colour we only use once, when it's really matchy matchy with our outfit or because we just loved the colour and it doesn't match with anything :) Well, after one your of standing in your closet, it will be dried out. With this nail polish thinner, you can make your nail polish alive again :) just add a few drops of this product to your nail polish and shake well!

Product: Nail polish thinner
Store: Bornprettystore

8. Nail polish removal pen

As I am a pianist, I always have very short nails. Short nails are more hard to apply nail lacquer than longer nails and sometimes you're also polishing your finger skin a little bit. That's when these nail polish removal pens come very handy. Just remove the nail polish on your skin like you would remove ink with a ink killer pen :)

Product: Nail polish removal pen
Store: Bornprettystore

9. Hand & nails care

This L'Occitane hand cream can be used very easily to hydrate your hands, fingers and nails. It's a real smooth cream, not too thick, not too sticky :)

Product: L'occitane Flora hand cream
Store: L'occitane

10. Good file and skin equipment

Good nail equipment is necessary to do a good manicure. Always make sure you have a good nail file and a good cutter to remove some skin next to your nails. It will do wonders!

Product: Pronails Clinifile
Store: Pronails

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Four times a secret

3/23/2014

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4 years ago I fell in love with the "Secret Charm" body spray from Victoria's Secret. It goes together perfectly with my "basic perfume" which is Infusion d'Iris from Prada. Whenever I go to America or pass at an airport that sells Victoria's Secret, I always buy my stash of the Secret Charm fragrance. I always take some other fragrances with me to try them out :)

Victoria's Secret changes their body spray product range a lot. Some scents are replaced by others and they keep creating new fragrances. Though I really love all the new scentences, I am really glad the Secret Charm still exists!

Belgian visitors can buy them at Brussels Airport (within tax free zone), Visitors from the Netherlands can shop them at Schiphol Airport (before entering tax free zone, also interesting for Belgian people :D)

In America you can buy them at $ 12 each or 3 for $25 or 5 for $30. In Belgium and The Netherlands you just pay € 12 for each bottle.

These four scents are my favorites :))

Pear Glacé - Fresh and sweet all at once

Scent
- Fruity
- Sugared pear
- Luscious casaba melon

You'll love it when
- you do prefer a sweeter scent but not totally sweet
- you love the smell of pears because that's the superior scent
- you don't wear one specific perfume

Shop it here
Online shop Victoria's Secret, only ships to America

Secret Charm - number 1 all time favorite

Scent
- Fresh & Flowers
- Honeysuckle
- Soft Jasmine

You'll love it when
- You use Infusion D'Iris by Prada :))
- You like flowery scents
- You want a more neutral body spray

Shop it here
Online shop Victoria's Secret, only ships to America

True Escape - Tropical but not sweet

Scent
- Tropical fruity fresh scent
- Solar Jasmine
- Juicy Pomelo

You'll love it when
- You like the Barfly scent from Maison Scotch
- You want something very perfumed, without having to wear real perfume

Shop it here
Online shop Victoria's Secret, only ships to America

Aqua Kiss - Cool freshness

Scent
- Cool fresh masculin scent
- Rain-kissed Freesia
- Fresh Daisy

You'll love it when
- You like the scent of male perfumes
- You want a fresh scent with a flowery touch
- You want to refresh yourself quickly in the middle of the day

Shop it here
Online shop Victoria's Secret, only ships to America

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Sunkissed by Clarins

3/17/2014

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We have all been overwhelmed with the outside temperatures of this month. It's been around 20 degrees Celsius (around 68 degrees Fahrenheit). Which is very warm for this time of the year in Belgium. During the winter, I'm always quite pale, so this abrupt change to warm temperatures makes me want to have a sunkissed tan so I can start wearing my shorts, skirts and dresses :)

So what makes your skin look tanned the quickest? Self tanner of course. As I am not that familiar with those kind of products, I asked for advice with some friends and I was surprised when several friends said the Clarins bronzing mousse was that good, I didn't had to hesitate on buying the product.

I've been using it for 4 days in a row now and I must say the effect is quite surprising!

When you apply the mousse, you smell a good perfumed product, but underneath that scent, there is a hidden self-tanner scent, though it's not overwhelming.

I really love how hydrating this product is! I have the softest babyskin after using this product. It's really smooth.

It didn't give me breakouts, the effect I'm most afraid of after using a new product on my face. So that's a big + for me!

I went to Ici Paris XL, the local cosmetic store I always visit for some good advice when I need something I never used before.

They gave me great advice about how to use the product. They suggest the following steps:

1. Full body peeling
2. Apply Bodylotion and face hydration
3. apply the self-tanner

You should repeat these 3 steps everytime you want to apply the self-tanner.

It's not an intense self-tanner, but that's exactly what I was looking for. the effect is not extreme but it slightly differs every day until you're "sunkissed". So I would suggest this product to the girls with pale skintones.

I bought it at Ici Paris XL for € 31,20. It is a bit pricier than most of the other self-tanners, but the effect is definitely worth it! No worries about spots or stripes,... And you can use it at least 20 times.

Shop the Clarins self-tan range here.

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Bumble & Bumble's Prêt-à-Powder

3/10/2014

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The Bumble & Bumble Prêt-à-Powder is one of the beauty products I hope will never leave my life :)

I saw a lot of reviews on the internet about this hair product, but I didn't know where to buy it. In Belgium it is very hard to find a store that sells the whole Bumble & Bumble product range. There's one store in Antwerp that sells it all, though, before I left for New York, they didn't sell the Prêt-à-Powder. Now they do! You can have a look on their webshop here.

Now what's so amazing about this product?
- It's a dry shampoo
- It's also a voluminizer
- It isn't sticky
- No traces of white powder or other product parts
- It really holds longtime!
- It's pocket size so very easy to take with you
- It's a little bottle but you can use it for months

For light volume effect and a good dry shampoo effect, you should shake some powder into your handpalms and massage the powder into your hair with movements like washing your hair. Then make a "shampoo commercial swipe" with your hair from hanging upside down to normal again :)

If you really want a voluminized effect and a dry shampoo effect, It's better if you shake the powder directly on your hair roots. For the best volume effect, you can shake it over your hairline and also on the sides. Now, make the same massage moves like washing your hair and also do the "shampoo commercial swipe" to give your hair the extra volume it needs.

I really love this product because it's the only way I can make my hair look voluminous for hours!

It also looks a bit blonder afterwards, but I do have that effect with all of the dry shampoos I use.

Before

After

Other online shops:
Sephora
Bumble & Bumble
Boots

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Fight winter one last time!

3/4/2014

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Everyone can feel spring is in the air. During and after wintertime, we all have to conquer the battle against dry and sometimes irritated skin.

So now, we have to take good care of ourselves for one last time!
These are the products I love the most:
- Neutrogena deep moisture body lotion
- Neutrogena hydratation intense comfort cream
- Neutrogena Nourishing foot cream
- Neutrogena cracked heel foot cream
- Neutrogena foot scrub

The Neutrogena product range

I really love Neutrogena products for winter hydration. You can find them at your local pharmacy or online.

Deep Moisture Bodylotion

This deep moisturising body lotion really fights the dry winter skin like a body butter. I do prefer a lotion instead of a butter, so this is the perfect match!

It's as smoothing as a normal body lotion but it really hydrates as a body butter! It smells like babies, I love baby scents :)))

It promises to hydrate the skin during 24 hours starting from the first use and it really does! My skin stays hydrated the whole day and is very soft. The bottle says your skin will feel "as soft as velvet" and I must say it's true.

Ingredients:
Aqua - Glycerin - Paraffinum Liquidum - Isopropyl Palmitate - Stearyl Alcohol - Petrolatum - Dimethicone - Glyceryl Stearate - PEG-100 Stearate - Palmitic Acid - Stearic Acid - Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer - Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer - Disodium EDTA - Sodium Hydroxide - Tocopheryl Acetate - Phenoxyethanol - Propylparaben - Methylparaben - Parfum.

Foot care

Nourishing foot cream
I always use the nourishing footcream after I scrubbed my feet with the foot scrub. It's an intense hydrating cream which truly is the finishing touch for your feet after using the scrub!

When you massage your feet with the cream, they feel soft almost instantly. To me, it's a very relaxing and curing thing to do.

Foot scrub
Before I purchased this footscrub, I always used the Scholl foot scrub, which I also adored. I only use the scrub on spots that need it the most, the places where I find callosity. Like the side of my big toes and my heels.

A scrub never removes all of the callosity, but it removes all the waste skin.

Cracked heel foot cream
After scrubbing and hydrating with the footcream, I sometimes apply the cracked heel foot cream as an extra hydration. It's also practical to use it several times a week (2-3 times) during hard winter times to get rid of the callosity on your heels.

These three products are the perfect winter-feet-care-products!

Hydration intense comfort cream

This cream is comparable to the deep moisture body lotion. I didn't really recognize any difference.

I think it's made for people who prefer a pot over a pump...
I do like the texture, it feels more thick than the body lotion from the pump.

It has the same scent and promises the same hydration as the deep moisture body lotion.

Face care

The Body Shop Aloe Protective Restoring Mask

Face masks are always a delicate subject to me. It's very hard to find the matching product because I get breakouts very fast.

The lady at the Body Shop told me I should try out the Aloe protective restoring mask as it is a product from their sensitive skin range.

I must say I'm quite pleased about this mask! It really does what it promises. It gives the hydration needed during wintertime. No more dry spots on your face or the "draughty" feeling you get when your skin is dry.

This product is made to use during winter and to strengthen skin's natural barrier.

It's very easy to use:
- apply product on your face
- leave it on for about 20 minutes
- massage your face with it
- wipe off with a tissue
-Finito!

Repeat this once a week.

Hair care

And last but definitely as important, I always use these 2 hair products:
- Kérastase Ciment Thermique
- Garnier Fructis Miraculous Oi

I have split ends very fast so I have to take care of my hair everytime I washed it. I always use the Miraculous Oil after washing my hair. The Kérastase Ciment Thermique is a hair care product I use once a week or two weeks. It depends on how my hair looks :)

Kérastase Ciment Thermique

Heat-activated reconstructing milk for brittle, damaged hair.

After washing your hair, you just massage it with the milk and leave it in to dry or blow dry.

Garnier Fructis Miraculous Oil

This is also a leave in product. I just apply 5 pumps to my hair ends every time I wash my hair.

It can be used on every hairtype. It simplifies the brushing and gives a nive glow to your hair.

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