April Favorites & Chit Chat

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My Clean Beauty Month is officially over, but the feedback I received from you guys was so overwhelmingly positive, that I decided to continue featuring green and clean beauty brands on this blog alongside more conventional products. I made a separate menu at the top of this page for easy access to all previous entries, if you are only interested in organic and non-toxic beauty.

Anyhow…

Considering that natural and non-toxic products are all I’ve been using this past month, my April favorites are basically a list of standouts from the Clean Beauty Month. Now, before we begin, I want to make it clear that most of the products I had a chance to try turned out to be fantastic, and it was very hard to narrow down this list. I also omitted a couple products that I just can’t even rave about any more than I already have [hello, IDUN Minerals Norrsken foundation!]. If you read this blog or follow me on Instagram, you already know that this is currently my favorite foundation, hands down. Perfect formula, perfect shade match, perfect coverage, perfectly clean ingredients…

Oops, there I go again! OK, let’s move on already.

I never tried a facial toner that is more unique than Chidoriya Peach Moon Herbal Face Water, which I discovered at Mills Pharmacy. It has literally two ingredients, – Getto Alpinia Zerumbet Herbal Water and Grapefruit Seed Extract, – but on the skin it feels like the formula is complex, sophisticated, and loaded with various plant extracts. It’s refreshing, moisturizing, plumping, and anti-bacterial at the same time. This is a really great toner for all skin types, and if you remember, it made my March favorites list, too.

Elemental Herbology Purify and Soothe Facial Cleansing Balm is a lovely balm cleanser that comes with the biggest muslin cloth ever – I could probably wear it like a bandana on my head, haha! I’ve been using this balm to remove makeup and sunscreen every night, and I love how soft is always makes my skin feel.

Here’s another product that you have seen me raving about lately on this blog and on Instagram. Erin’s Faces Peptide SPF30 is the perfect combination of a daily anti-aging moisturizer and a nice broad-spectrum sunscreen. It has a thin, lightweight consistency that sinks into the skin without leaving your face with that dreaded white cast. The formula is 86% organic, vegan, free of fragrance, petrochemicals and synthetics, parabens, and Retinyl Palmitate. Just the good stuff!

I also happened to fall in love with both of my current eye creams. I use Eminence Bearberry Eye Repair Cream in the evening, because it has richer, oilier formula, and LabGrab by Silk Therapeutics Cream-Eye Renewal in the morning, since it’s more lightweight and doesn’t budge under makeup. They are so different, but both make the skin around my eyes feel soothed, comforted, and smooth immediately. After one month I am also seeing a slight reduction to the fine lines in the outer corners of my eyes, which is huge.

As for makeup, there were a lot of products I could have picked for my April favorites list, but there are five that I can see myself repurchasing in the future.

First of all, Hush + Dotti Organic Concealer in Jane was the first natural concealer that I truly loved. It has medium coverage, balmy consistency, and it actually stays on my skin all day after I dust it with a little bit of setting powder. It’s very versatile, too, and I even used it as a full-face foundation once. Worked like a charm!

I also loved two products that I used on my brows. First of all, I wore NU Evolution Eyeshadow in Chocolate Mousse as both my eyeliner and eyebrow powder, because it has the most perfect neutral-toned matte finish and crazy pigmentation. I also used 100% Green Tea Fiber Brow Builder in Medium Brown to make my brows look fuller and darker. It’s a great all-natural dupe for benefit Gimme Brow, and other similar brow gels.

Benecos Natural Eyeshadow in Choco Cookie turned out to be my most used eyeshadow in April. This is one of those versatile neutral shades that I loved wearing as a single wash of color because looks fancy and complex just on its own. The color reminds me of Burberry Pale Barley, it’s a very similar shade [maybe slightly warmer], and has about the same amount of sheen. It’s not really shimmer or glitter, it really is more of a satiny sheen that looks very flattering and doesn’t emphasize lines or crepey skin.

My final favorite product pick belongs to 100% Pure Gemmed Luminizer in Moonstone Glow. Truth be told, I didn’t love it immediately. At first I thought it was dry and chalky, and didn’t really compare to my non-clean go to theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer [which by the way is my most favorite highlighter of all time, and I still haven’t found anything better, not even the Becca’s]. However, every day I found myself reaching for it again and again. How do I describe the finish? It’s not quite the #highlightonfleek that Instagram gurus are sporting these days; it’sa subtler version of that. Think healthy illuminating glow, with a hint of shimmer. Anyhow, it happens to be a very pretty look on me, and I am glad that I gave it another chance.

Here are some swatches for reference.

Left to Right: Benecos Natural Eyeshadow in Choco Cookie, NU Evolution Eyeshadow in Chocolate Mousse, 100% Pure Gemmed Luminizer in Moonstone Glow, Hush + Dotti Organic Concealer in Jane.

Kind of offtopic, but lately I’ve been thinking about going back to doing daily vlogs, just little bits of what I’m up to, random swatches, LOTDs, daily mail hauls, outfit try-ons and such. I used to be active on Snapchat until about a year ago or so, then somehow my account became popular with the middle school crowd and I ended up getting bombarded with just all kinds of stupid stuff from those kids on the daily. I know I could have turned off the comments, but I didn’t want to alienate other followers whom I actually loved to interact with. Now that Instagram has their own version of stories, I wanted to ask if you guys would be interested in seeing my daily snaps, like the ones I used to do on Snapchat? Either way, let me know if you prefer Instagram or Snapchat stories, I’d love to hear your thoughs.

What was your favorite beauty product that you used in April? Who does stories better: Snapchat or Instagram? Let me know in the comments below!