REVIEW: Oriflame Skin Dream BB Cream

Official description:

All-in-one solution fusing make-up, skincare and SPF protection. At once conceals all types of pigmentation, blemishes, discoloration and reduces appearance of pores. Hydrates and creates a perfect, lustrous skin tone. Use everyday for a dewy, flawless-look. Oil-free. SPF 30. 

Packaging: Tube containing 30 ml.

Texture: Similar to a liquid foundation.
What it does: Because the essence BB cream I recently bought is a shade too dark for my skin, I bought this one from Oriflame in the shade Fair because I'm white like a ghost when I'm not tanned. For me, it's like a light to medium coverage foundation, but I like how you can't tell I'm wearing any make-up and it's also good in the transfer department because I hardly see any traces on my phone (that's for me the ultimate transfer test). I like to use BB creams because I don't have severe acne, just some redness, so I usually go with concealer on any acne or blemishes and BB cream to even out my skin color. This BB cream has SPF 30 (another thing I care for) and it's oil free. For me, it's as good as the Garnier one, and it's actually better in the shininess department.

Ingredient List:

AQUA, CYCLOPENTASILOXANE, PEG-10 DIMETHICONE, TITANIUM DIOXIDE, ISONONYL ISONONANOATE, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, GLYCERIN, CYCLOHEXASILOXANE, CAPRYLYL METHICONE, ETHYLHEXYL METHOXYCINNAMATE, SODIUM CHLORIDE, DIMETHICONE/VINYL DIMETHICONE CROSSPOLYMER, STEARIC ACID, POLYGLYCERYL-4 ISOSTEARATE, CETYL PEG/PPG-10/1 DIMETHICONE, HEXYL LAURATE, ALUMINUM HYDROXIDE, IMIDAZOLIDINYL UREA, METHYLPARABEN, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, PROPYLPARABEN, DISODIUM EDTA, TRIETHOXYCAPRYLYLSILANE, ALUMINA, SILICA, BHT

Price: 23 lei (5.5 euros)
Re-buy or pass: Definitely re-buy!

REVIEW: Oriflame Optimals Skin Energy Night Cream

Official description:

Hydrating night cream with minerals that deeply moisturise and restore skin’s energy so you wake-up to fresh-looking, glowing skin. Also contains softening, protecting vitamin C.

Packaging: Glass jar containing 50 ml.

Texture: The cream is very light, has a light pink color and a subtle citrus scent.

 What it does: I must say, this is finally a face cream from Oriflame I really like. I'm cheating a little bit because I use it as a day cream also, but it's very light so I'm not too shiny. And believe it or not, it does work! It makes my face look rested and glowing and I love products like that because of my very chaotic lifestyle. I must say though, if you have dull AND dry skin it's not going to give you enough hydration.

Ingredient List:

AQUA, GLYCERIN, HYDROGENATED POLYISOBUTENE, CYCLOPENTASILOXANE, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, DIMETHICONE, OCTYLDODECANOL, CETEARYL ETHYLHEXANOATE, POLYACRYLATE-13, CYCLOHEXASILOXANE, SORBITAN STEARATE, TETRAHYDROXYPROPYL ETHYLENEDIAMINE, GLYCERYL STEARATE, PEG-100 STEARATE, NYLON-12, POLYISOBUTENE, ORYZA SATIVA CERA, BUTYROSPERMUM PARKII BUTTER, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, LACTIC ACID, PARFUM, IMIDAZOLIDINYL UREA, ISOPROPYL MYRISTATE, METHYLPARABEN, PROPYLPARABEN, MICA, POLYSORBATE 20, SORBITAN ISOSTEARATE, DISODIUM EDTA, PHENOXYETHANOL, LAMINARIA DIGITATA, BIOSACCHARIDE GUM-1, ASCORBYL METHYLSILANOL PECTINATE, SODIUM METHYLPARABEN, SODIUM METABISULFITE, SODIUM SULFITE, CI 77891, CI 15510, CI 19140

Price: 18 lei (4.5 euros)
Re-buy or pass: I want to buy it again, but for the last campaigns I found it only in the clearance section.

Affordable Holiday Gift Guide

Hi,kitties!
I know I haven't wrote in a while here, I was just very busy and my camera broke and....excuses,excuses. So, since December is around the corner and also Black Friday (here, in Romania, some retailers had sales last Friday too) and I know many people do some of the Christmas shopping now (myself included). Because,as we all know, I have a small budget, I thought about sharing some ideas I have and I'll give you some examples. This are NOT affiliate links, I don't make any money, bonuses, points or what so ever if you use them, so it's completly up to you.
First of all, pajamas
Everybody needs pajamas right? Weather you get them flannel ones, satin ones, long sleeve or short sleeve, it's up to you. This is definitely a gift suited for someone close to you: someone from the family or your best friend because you have to know how they sleep. My husband, for example, sleeps in t-shirts during winter too, so there's no use I'd buy him a long sleeve pajama.

My favorite one is available on bobomoda.ro at the price of 79.9 lei (about 20 euros)
Next up, wallets
Another thing almost everyone has. I keep putting off buying a new wallet and I would love it if someone would give one for Christmas. This can be an expensive gift also if you chose a leather one.

My favorite wallet is form Meli Melo and it costs 39.9 lei (almost 10 euros)
Scented candles
Every woman I know loves scented candles, so these would also make a great gift. Christmas scents are best for this season.Since we don't have Bath & Body here, I chose some Yankee Candles.

Fireside Treats

Merry Marshmallow

Christmas Memories

There are many more available on yankeeland.ro, but they are pricey too, the big jars are almost 30 euros each!
T-shirts
This is also a gift you can get for almost everyone. From basic shirts to funny ones, you can chose accordingly to each person's character.

I really love the shirts from letrico.ro. They have very cute and funny designs and the shirts are much cheaper than on other sites. I got a shirt for a friend of mine last year and he wears it very often, so he naturally washes it often and the writing didn't came off. One of my favorites is this Grumpy Cat shirt, for only 25 lei (about 6 euros).
 Notebooks
For the avid old fashioned writer, a notebook is always a good idea. I myself still carry a notebook in my bag so I can write down important meetings, bills to be paid, blog ideas, or even phone numbers. Electronic devices are nice, but sometimes you lose all your data, so it's good to have a copy on paper. Or you can use the notebook as a diary, why not?

I found this cute Paris themed notebook on miniprix.ro at the price of 16 lei (about 4 euros).
DVDs
A boxset of a someone's favorite tv show or movies is always a good choice. Here in Romania even more so if you orther them online, because very few tv shows are sold here on the market.

Small gadgets
Ok, so you can't afford to give everybody tablets and e-book readers and stuff like that, but you can always get accesories such as earphones, headphones, a mouse, speakers and small things like that.

I always ahe to replace my earphones for my mp3 player because I lose them or sometimes I even break them (don't ask). These are form emag.ro and I like them because they're pink and cute.
Show tickets
Sometimes people don't want to splurge on show tickets or maybe they don't even know about an event and you can give them tickets to a show you know they'll like.

For example, I have some Smiley fans in my circle of friends and I know they would like to see him live.

Bags
For the fashionistas in your life, a bag or a clutch is always a good choice because women love bags and shoes. I suggest you get this gift only if you know their preferences though.

For now, I crave for this purple gold studed bag from ilovebijoux.ro
Beauty subscription
many times, those beauty subscription boxes are somewhat disappointing for what they have to offer, but I think it would still be a great gift because the person who is going to get it will have a surprise  each month and they get to try new products, so it should be fun.

From what we have in Romania, I would recommend the Pink Box. It's not great, but the others are too expensive for what they offer.

Gift sets
Many cosmetics company have gifts sets for holidays, so you have a large variety to chose from, according to budget.

My personal favorites form the drugstore are the ones from Dove and Nivea, two brand I love.
Books
Yes, old fashioned books. Now is the time to get those pricy art albums or foreign language books one wouldn't normally buy and offer them as a gift.

I got this book last Christmas and let me tell you I quite enjoyed it. It has everything Christmas related from traditions around the world, decorations and related holidays to Christmas books, movies and songs.

Final tip: visit your local Christmas fairs (I suppose everyone has those) and get some handmade decorations, cosmetics, candles or pieces of clothing.
So, that's all I have in mind for these holidays and remember, any gift will be welcomed if you offer it from the heart and you put some thought in it.

New signature

Hello, kitties!
Got nothing interesting to share with you for now, but check out my new signature!
Kissez!

REVIEW: Oriflame Optimals Skin Energy Eye Cream

Official description:

Specially formulated cream for eyes, with hydrating, protecting vitamin C, light reflecting particles to add glow, and minerals for a healthy appearance. Brings a natural radiant look to your eye area. 

Packaging: The cream comes in a yellow tube containing 15 ml.

Texture: It is a very light cream, with a slight yellow shade. Fragrance free (or at least I didn't sense anything).

What it does: Although this isn't some sort of wonder cream, it feels very nice on the eye area, I had no bad reactions (my eyes are pretty sensitive), it's very moisturizing without being too greasy. I didn't see any improvements with my dark circles (I'm starting to believe I just have to live with them), but the skin does look brighter and more "awake". I'm guessing it's from the caffeine found on the ingredients list. Speaking of, I know the pics are blurry, so here is the complete list of ingredients:

AQUA, GLYCERIN, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, CYCLOPENTASILOXANE, ISONONYL ISONONANOATE, DIMETHICONE, HYDROGENATED COCO-GLYCERIDES, CYCLOHEXASILOXANE, GLYCERYL STEARATE, PEG-100 STEARATE, CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE, STEARYL ALCOHOL, CAFFEINE, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, IMIDAZOLIDINYL UREA, METHYLPARABEN, PROPYLPARABEN, MICA, ACRYLATES/C10-30 ALKYL ACRYLATE CROSSPOLYMER, DISODIUM EDTA, SODIUM HYDROXIDE, XANTHAN GUM, LAMINARIA DIGITATA, ASCORBYL METHYLSILANOL PECTINATE, PHENOXYETHANOL, SODIUM METHYLPARABEN, SODIUM METABISULFITE, SODIUM SULFITE, CI 77891, CI 15510, CI 19140

Price: 10 lei ( about 2 euros)
Re-buy or pass: I like it and I'm a sucker for vitamin C products, but I don't know if it's going to be available because it was in the clearance section and I think they don't make it anymore.Maybe if I stumble upon it I'll repurchase it.

Random favorites I

Hi, kitties!
I thought I would share with you some of the things I like, even though they can't be inserted in a specific category on the blog. I told myself as soon as I have at least 5 random things I like, I would make a post.That way, you can also know me better,right?

First of all, these is my current favorite snack. This are basically baked bread rolls with cheese flavor. I won a contest sponsored by Maretti Romania (thank you!) and they gave me a box full of these. I ate 14 bags in about 5 days. Don't do what I did, because one bag has over 460 calories, so... I just couldn't help myself. In my defence, I didn't feel hungry so I only ate fruit besides these.

I didn't know if I should be ashamed of showing you pantyliners, but I figured this blog is meant for girls, and we all use them so why not? I recently discovered these Bella pantyliners because I was intrigued by the "green tea" scent. And now I love them. They are very thin, I don't feel them when I wear them, they are made out of cotton and they help with keeping that area fresh.

This is how they look like. They also have a very affordable price.

These are my new favorite socks. I love wearing cozy socks when it's cold outside and I found these in a little store. I bought 4 pairs and I think I'm going to stock up on them. They are so incredibly soft and they keep my feet warm.

Now we're entering a bit the beauty area. These is my new favorite nail polish remover. I didn't do a whole review on it because there's not much to say about it. It's from Farmasi, it's acetone free, has a slight strawberry scent and the most important thing of all, it removes the nail polish quick and my nails don't get damaged in the process.

This is a facial sponge I bought in my latest order from Oriflame. It's the first time I'm using a sponge to wash my face and I just wonder why the heck didn't I do this earlier. The sponge was 3 or 4 lei (about 1 euro).

And finally, this foot file is part of a Christmas set from Oriflame. It's like a regular file, so it gets the job done, but look how cute the design is. I love having Christmas related things during winter time.The file was 6 lei (about 1.5 euros).
So, that's all folks, for now at least. Stay tuned for some upcomming reviews on my latest Oriflame purchases.

TESTED: Egyptian Magic Cream

Hi, kitties!

So, for almost a year now we have Egyptian Magic in Romania too. I mean the real thing, not the fake ones, and lately they had a free testing campaign, so I requested a free sample.I got it very quick with a 15% off coupon on my next order. I got only one 1 ml sample, but it was enough for 4 uses, meaning twice the use I usually get out of that kind of sample.
This is an organic cream made of olive oil, beeswax, honey, bee pollen, royal jelly and propolis extract. It's supposed to be good for about anything: face, lips, hands, skin, scars, hair, baby's skin, helps heal bruises and it's a good lubricant.
Now, because I only had a small sample I used it on my face. I read online that it's not that good for oily skin, but I tried it anyway and...I hate it. It's very thick, looks like Vaseline and feels the same too.

I have combination skin, but with this cream on my face I looked very oily. It didn't break me out or something, but I just don't like the feel of it and I didn't see any special effects and I know I shouldn't expect to see something after only two days, but considering this cream has a 25 euros price tag I expect to see something amazing from the first use.
So, if your money's tight like mine, don't waste it on this expecting a miracle, but if you can afford it give it a try, I hear many people swear by it. I guess, like with every cosmetic product, it's a matter of what's good for you, not what the commercials or others say it's good.

Celebrity crushes

I'll admit it, I'm one of those girls who gets crushes on actors, singers, athletes, you name it. If they're cute I'll stay through a boring movie or I'll buy their music album. Kinda lame you say? Well, a girl can dream, can't she?
That's why I'm looking forward to the Fifty Shades of Grey movie. I'm not so much into the books. I didn't hate them but I didn't love them either. For the movie I'm just curious how the moody Mr. Grey will turn out. And I have to say, that Jamie Dornan guy is kinda hot.

And speaking of hot guys. You know how there are some men who look better with the age? I think Justin Timberlake is one of them. When he was younger I didn't really care for his curly hair or for that goofy smile of his, but now...to put it  bluntly, I'd hit that ;)

REVIEW: Farmec Obsesie Fantasy Deodorant

Official description:
Obsesie Fantasy Deodorant is addressed to women who desire a deodorant that would offer them protection against perspiration and veil them in a charming perfume. Having and extended action duration (48 hours), Obsesie Fantasy Deodorant offers protection against the bad smell of perspiration, and the hair inhibiting complex, Rar- Epil, slows down armpit hair growth, reducing the frequency of depilations. Aluminium chlorohydrate free. Packaging: Green tube containing 75 ml.Texture: This deodorant seems more like a liquid and it's not your typical foamy formula you usually find in spray deodorants. What it does: Farmec is a well known and much loved cosmetics brand so I wanted to try one of their deodorants because I'm tired of my Cien ones. The Cien ones smell nice and they do the job, but the spray ones (I like spray deodorants best) leave a cloud of product behind and sometimes I'm coughing like crazy when I apply them and I imagine that can't be healthy. Also, I was intrigued by the fact that Obsesie (which translates Obsession) is aluminium chlorohydrate free. I don't know about that Rar-Epil complex, but what I can tell you for sure is that this deodorant smells almost as strong as a perfume does, so I don't think it's suited for those who don't want the deodorant to mix with the perfume scent. I personally don't mind because I'm double assured I'll smell nice all day. There are 4 other versions of this deodorant and I'll most definitely try them all.Price: 6 lei (about 1.5 euro) at a local supermarketRe-buy or pass: It's on my shopping list. P.S. Sorry for not using my own photo. Blogger had some issues while posting these and my picture got lost somehow. 

BOOK BITS: Young Adult books

This is going to be a new type of post on my blog, when I read some books who are plain boring and don't even deserve a negative review.
So, after reading Hopeless, I jumped on the YA train (again) and I started to read some recommendations on goodreads. Well, unfortunately, I found 3 books who were not entertaining for me, so now I'm on a reading break again. Let's do the in order, shall we?

The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski
I thought this was going to be sensitive and touching like Hopeless. Well, not. It's about this girl, Camryn whos' going on a bus without having a destination in mind because of he problems she has. She meets a weird boy named Andrew and they both start a road trip together. I didn't like the fact that Camryn and Andrew were just two horny teenagers and I didn't buy their love story for some reason. Also, the ending is written like in a rush. You have the dramatic point and then about 2 pages where the author wraps everything up. There's also a second book, but I don't even care to read it.

There is No Light in Darkness by Claire Contreras
This also had great reviews online and I don't know why. The story is about Blake, Cole and a group of friends, all orphans who grew up together. Blake and Cole were a couple in high school and they broke up when he left for college, but Blake still loves him and they are supposed to be best friends although Cole says all the time that Blake is more important to him than all his short term girlfriends. I just didn't get it why they weren't together from the beginning because they had no real reason to stay apart. Anyways, the story gets more tangled because there are many secrets in their past, secrets involving their real families. Honestly, I found everything to be so over the top like the author wanted to write about The Godfather or something. Too much unneeded drama and unlikeable characters. I don't care about the other books in this series either.

Love Unscripted by Tina Reber
This one is just too cheesy and cliche. It's about this girl Taryn who owns a bar and a hot shot movie star, Ryan Christensen and they fall in love because she's the only one who loves him for what he is, not for his movie characters. Bla,bla,bla. Sooooo many boring scenes with lame jokes and movie quotes I didn't even understood. I never finished this one and I don't care for the second book.
So, these are the YA books didn't impress me. I know I'm 27 years old, but there are other people too who read YA although they're older. These were just too immature and many teenage girls wouldn't be happy with them either.

REVIEW: Beauty UK Naill Gift Set in Midnight Minx

Official description:

We thought we'd take a selection of our best selling, utterly fabulous nail polish colours, turn them in to mini versions (that actually aren't that mini!) and put them into three themed collections in a pretty package....then someone in the office had a hot flush and decided we should sell them at less than a fiver!

Packaging: The nail polishes are not really mini size because they have 8 ml each, and that's how sometimes normal size nail polishes come.
Texture: Some of the colors are more liquid than the others (the blue and the lilac shade). Only the black one is matte and the others are all a little bit sparkly.
What it does: Beauty UK Romania were having a 50% off sale, so I decided to buy a nail polish gift set because I don't have that many colors. And since it was just the beginning of fall (it was October) I decided to go for this color combination because they seemed to be fall colors. Oddly enough, the darker colors (black, blue and the lilac I first thought was purple) were not that pigmented and I had to apply 3 coats for the true color to show up. The black is matte, but still shiny and that's something I like because I don't like matte nail polishes at all. If you're a fan though, this gift set is not for you because the colors are mostly on the sparkly side. The nail polishes stay on my nails for about 3-4 days because I do many house chores like washing dishes by hand or scrubbing my oven or things like that, but I'm pretty happy with the staying power.

The black shade in 3 coats

The blue shade, also in 3 coats.

The dark red shade

This is a silver grey shade.It's very nice

The lilac shade seems to be purple in the bottle but it's lighter on the nails.

The last nail polish I thought it was going to be a boring yellow shade (I hate yellow in general), but it's a beautiful golden color. I think it will look great together with the the dark red for Christmas.

Price: 18 lei (about 4 euros)
Re-buy or pass: I would buy other gift sets too, asides the Urban Girl one because they seem like pastel shades and I'm afraid they're not that pigmented.