Strangely enough, one of the most popular posts on my blog, according to Google Analytics, is the Incoming! one. Yes, I said ‘the incoming one‘, because indeed I only put up one post of such nature and then dropped the idea. But to satisfy the masses, I am bringing these posts back.
I buy a lot of beauty products for the average person. Soz. I also buy books and stationery, random home ware, clothes and jewellery, and stuff for cats, so I suppose that would be the extent of the subjects of these Incoming! posts.
Golden Rose Matte Lip Crayon
Pretty much love at first sight. I’ve been looking at these lipsticks on blogs for weeks now, and finally went and bought one. I chose an easy to wear every day shade, because I wanted to see how it performs throughout the day before getting a deeper colour. Let me tell ye – it performs extremely well. Soft, non-drying, very creamy for a matte lipstick formula – any lipstick formula, for that matter. Doesn’t bleed, doesn’t feather. Does wear off when eating, but stays put through tea, water, and light snacks. Very lightly scented (thank you, Golden Rose, for updating the scent of your lip products!!).
I love, love, love this crayon, and already have my eye on two other shades. My only gripe is that these are not automatic and you would have to sharpen them. It’s not that big of a deal, and sharpening pencils and crayons is something of a calming weekend ritual for me. However, it wastes much more product than the automatic ones do.
Two Serums
I continue exploring Delia products with these two serums. These are very decently priced. It’s hard for me to grade them for performance against their high-end counterparts – simply because I never had any. Matter of fact, I really only had one face serum ever in my life – the Shu Uemura one from the Depsea Hydrability kit. However, I’ve been pleased with results. My skin feels much more even and very soft to the touch.
Two Face Creams
Two cheap moisturises this month because I had an unexpected salary cut – one for oily skin, one for all skin types. I’ve been using these at night. Their price is ridiculously low – just over $1 each. In combination with the above serums, they’ve been doing a very decent job at keeping my skin hydrated. No breakouts. Pleasant scent. I might actually buy them again, we’ll see.
Garnier Ultra Deux Softening Conditioner with Aloe Vera and Vegetable Milk
There’s not much to say about this line, is there? It does leave my hair softer and shinier. The scent is non-offensive and even enjoyable.
Nivea In-Shower Body Milk Cocoa Indulging with Cocoa Butter
Been meaning to pick this one up for quite a while. I went for an option with Cocoa Butter for normal to dry skin. Although I still need additional hydration when using this in-shower body lotion, it performs much better than the AVON one I’ve tried some time ago. I’ll be buying more from this series.
Oriflame Nail Polishes
And my quest to collect all the Oriflame nail polishes continues. A tiny addition this month – another duochrome shade much like the Golden Rose one I already own (would you like a deeper comparison post?), a gorgeous deep purple with golden glitter – the one from their winter collection of yesteryear that I had thought I’d lost a chance to buy forever, and a green with golden glitter one – missing from the picture, because I have yet to pick up my order.
Oriflame Tender Care
I am not going to wax poetic about these balms. Okay, maybe I am – in a later post. Technically, though, they are just glorified petroleum jelly. But they’re so well made, and the formula has a really lovely almost-whipped texture, and the scents are so well selected, and the packaging so cute – I just buy every single scent they come out with.
This one is Gingerbread and it’s fricken amazing. I want to slather it all over my body and eat whatever is left, it just smells so good.
Bell Trio Eyeshadow
I have had the fondest memories of Bell Cosmetics. It’s one of the first brands I’ve ever used, and their products were one of the first I’d bought on my own. They are marketed as ‘hypoallergenic’. On that I cannot comment, because I have, thankfully, never been allergic to any makeup item to date.
I picked up this eye shadow trio because the colour selection is lightly (very lightly) reminiscent of the Mary Kay Autumn Leaves set. It’s nowhere near being a dupe, but the idea is there – a green, a purple, and a gold/ neutral. So far I’ve only really used the neutral shade. The others have only been swatched. I might report with a full review later, but for now: Rather pigmented for the product of its caliber; powdery; the two brighter colours seem to stain; use a primer; wear period is medium, but not atrocious; packaging very hard to open.
Oriflame Lip Sensation Matte Mousse
I picked up one of Oriflame’s recent releases – their matte liquid lipstick. I had thought it would be a good every day pink for me, but… meh.
I’m currently working on an overview post of all the Oriflame lipsticks I own from different lines, and will have an indepth review there, but in short: Unfortunately, unimpressed.
Chernii Zhemchug Mousse-Foam Face Washer with Precious Oils
I needed a new face washer because the Bourjois one has failed me. Read a lot of good things about this Precious Oils series from Chernii Zhemchug, so decided to give it a go. It’s not as harsh as the Bourjois one and the scent is much more… I guess you can even call it comforting. One pump is plenty, which is always a huge plus in my book. However, I do think this is more of a quick morning face washer rather than a step in a night time skin routine. But it’ll do for now. Next time I’m going to try an Eveline gel wash with hyaluronic acid that’s been on my list for a couple of months now.
Some Tools
I picked up a brush for the purposes of dry brushing and an angled eyeliner brush that’s been long overdue in my collection.
The angled eyeliner brush is very good, especially for its price. There are, perhaps, better brushes out there, but for the purpose of every-day non-precision gel eyeliner and for the price tag of $1 it does a great job.
The body brush is by Oriflame. When I ordered it from the catalogue, I had thought it would be bigger. In reality it is rather small, but still a good size. Aside from brushing bristles, it comes with massage uhh… thingies built in.
It’s hard to tell you about results just yet as I’ve only started my dry brushing routine, but so far, so good.
Some Books
My friend is a huge King fan, so I bought two books of his that aren’t horror to finally give the guy a go. Horror genre and I do not agree (I’m as surprised as you are, but that’s true – I am a complete chickenshit and find the Scary Movie franchise scary), so by Oxana’s recs I picked up Dolores Claiborne and by my own interest I picked up On Writing. On Writing I’ve skimmed through before in English, so it’s interesting to read the translated version. The photographs are missing, because the shelf with the new books has been obscured with the Wall of Boxes.
On Kindle I bought Fingersmith. I’ve been looking into Sarah Waters works for a couple of months now, and finally decided to go for Fingersmith first.
Not so much bought as exchanged – Night Call is a selection of stories about law enforcement agencies, and one of the stories in the volume is set in Kishinev. Now, let me tell ye – not many books are set in Kishinev, so I had to get this. The book itself is a typical detective story of the Soviet Era, but reading it was exciting because I really enjoyed recognising the city I live in on the pages. You big city dwellers are lucky bastards, you get to recognise your Londons and Moscows and New Yorks in nearly every other work. Finding a book set in my country – my city! – is refreshing, to say the least.
If you’re keen, take a look at the Kishinev category on my other project, Inner Moldova.
Also bought the first volume of Murakami Haruki’s 1Q84, which I have lovingly nicknamed “IQ84”. I mean no harm; I love Mr Murakami’s works. The photo, too, is missing, because the book is behind the Great Wall of Boxes.
And finally, a couple of Spanish readers. One is a shameful Beauty and the Beast with literally like 10 paragraphs of text in it, but since it’s Disney and all colour, it actually cost more than the others. The other four are readers with exercises. Three of them are still too high of a level for me (I’m currently somewhere between 1 and 2), but I bought them to ensure that I would have them. I had thought that Spanish study material would be easier to come by here, but boy was I wrong.
Sidenote: Would you like me to write about books more? I’ll never be able to write deep thoughtful reviews of what I read – I am not a deep and thoughtful reader – but if you’d like a few notes here and there, I’m sure it can be done. 😉
That’s it for November! Man, it adds up. I was sure I didn’t buy anything this month, ahahah.
