Tennis inspired

Things I'm digging lately:

1. Nivea A Kiss of Care & Color in Sheer Coral (~$4.49): I can't live without my Nivea A Kiss of Milk & Honey Lip Balm. So luckily, this Care & Color formula is similar to my Milk & Honey. It has the same baby-powder smell but with an added minty menthol kick (which I don't care for too much). The good thing is that it does give a nice coral color to my lips and a bit of a sheen. The texture feels exactly like my beloved Milk & Honey, except the cooling effect from the menthol, and I find myself having to apply more of it throughout the day to maintain the color and moisturizing effect. Despite all that, I've been using this more than any of my lipsticks because the sheer color looks much more natural on me. I'm all for no fuss, natural lips right now!

2. The Tennis Sweater: speaking of clothing items that "look good on camera", the tennis sweater is definitely one of them. The white knit with the bold navy V-neck as seen on Olivia Wilde on the cover of Lucky May 2014 issue was gorgeous! I've also seen this same sweater on the stylish Atlantic-Pacific several times. Here's some interesting tidbits about the tennis sweater on The Gentleman's Gazette. 

Summer Beauty Favorites

For the Face:

Just thought I'd share some of my favorite beauty products I've been using all summer....

I have sensitive, prone-to-breakout, combo-oily-dry skin with huge pores, so I'm usually minimal and picky when it comes to beauty products. I'm happy these products work for me:

• Best Facial Moisturizer: Garnier Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel-cream ($7.99): still using the same jar since last review, it really does make my skin feel refreshed and moisturized, without ever being heavy, oily or shiny. I love dabbing this on my face every morning before I start my day! I don't want to go back to regular creams after using this "gel" formula.

• Best Foundation (to use as a concealer): Revlon ColorStay Makeup for Combo/Oily skin in Sand Beige ($11.99): since my skin is so sensitive, I cannot stand foundation on my entire face, so I only use this sparingly to cover-up some redness around my nose, chin, and random acne spots. The color blends well with my skin tone with good coverage and lasts all day!

• Best Bronzer: Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzing Powder ($30): I think I deleted my original review on this, but I bought this way more than a year ago (the packaging seems to have changed in-store now), it's a bit pricey, but definitely worth it since it's hard to find a "matte" bronzer without shimmer, and there's tons of product in the container...I probably can keep using this stuff for 5 more years! I use this to contour my cheekbones with the Sonia Kashuk Multipurpose Brush No. 16 ($18.39).

• Best Blush: The Balm Fratboy ($21): talc-free, paraben-free, and with great color payoff with just one brush stroke! The matte Fratboy peachy-pink is so pretty on the skin, definitely worth the money! I use the EcoTools Blush Brush ($6.99) with a light-hand to apply this. 

• Best Lip Balm: Nivea A Kiss of Milk & Honey Lip Balm ($2.99): previously raved about it here, I cannot live without this. Best lip balm on the market ever!

• Best Lipstick: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Rendezvous ($8.99): I've been a fan of the moisturizing Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters (see previous review) but found the colors fade too quickly throughout the day. After reading countless positive testimonials on this balm stain, I caved in. I picked up the orange Rendezvous color, and it turned out to be the perfect pop of "sheer red" for my complexion. It's not as moisturizing as the lip butters, but still comfortable to wear compared to most other lip products I've tried. Since the long-wearing staining effect works, I also use this underneath my other lip butters. Here's how the Rendezvous color looks on me...

• Best Eyebrow Pencil: NYX Auto Eyebrow Pencil in Charcoal ($4.50): previously reviewed here. I normally don't wear eye-makeup due to extremely oily eye lids...and I cry too much, haha...but I can't go a day without filling my sparse eyebrows with this pencil. Love it so much!

For the Hair:

• Best Shampoo (for oily thin hair): Organix Nourishing Coconut Milk Shampoo ($7.99): this now beats my previous favorite (2Chic Ultra-Sleek Shampoo). The 2Chic shampoo left my hair shiny and silky, but did nothing for volume. The Organix Coconut Milk leaves my hair clean, shiny and fuller in volume. Every time I'm having a nice hair day, I realized I had washed my hair with the Organix shampoo the night before. Of all the shampoo's I've been using, I find myself reaching for this one more often!

• Best Hair Product: Tresemme Thermal Creations Heat Tamer Spray ($4.99): I bought this due to the plethora of Youtube rave reviews and have stuck to this brand for almost 4 years now and continuing. I'm actually not sure if this really protects my hair form heat, but it definitely helps smooth out my hair and holds my curl better without the gunky, oily, or heavy-feeling of most other hair products. I use this everyday before I style my hair with the Hana Professional 1" Flat Iron. 
  
  
  Share/link me to your favorites!

Summer drugstore products that work!

I know, summer is over, but I want to share 3 drugstore products that I've tried over the summer that works wonders! These are now included in my beauty regimen:

1. FX Moroccan Moisture Healing Argan Oil Spray (4 fl oz.) $5.99
Ever since I discovered the flat iron, I've been hot-ironing my hair everyday because it's fast at putting in volume and shaping my hair in the right place. Of course the consequence of daily ironing is brittle hair. My tresses have been dried out even more by living in the hot, dry heat of the desert, and maybe "aging" has something to do with brittle hair also. I use to have naturally silky hair (when it was not permed) back in my tweens and have not had hair like that ever since. Until now! I feel like an infomercial, haha. But it's true, this spray is like a miracle. I've tried random oils before that always left the hair feeling more dirty and greasy. This FX Argan Oil actually does what it claims. After I flat-iron my hair, I spray this stuff on my palms and rub in my hair or mist it directly into my hair depending on how I feel that day.....and my hair instantly feels and looks shinier and softer without any grease or weight. The oil seems to absorb right into each hair strands. There's no greasy residue left on my palms after I apply this stuff...so the hair really absorbs it. My thin hair is usually prone to clumping with most hair products....but this actually seems to prevent the clumpy kind of greasiness too. My only complaint is that it does have a perfumey-scent, but luckily it goes away after half an hour or so.  Other than that, this product is HOLY-GRAIL status. I highly recommend this product if you are a daily flat-iron user or have dull dry hair. It's only $5.99 or cheaper with sale, so go get it!

2. Nivea A Kiss of Milk & Honey Lip Balm (0.17 oz) $2.99
I learned about this lip balm from this review by Ella Pretty. Remember my previous lip balm hunt/review? Forget all of that. This lip balm is better than all of them! It moisturizes longer than all the other ones, feels great on the lips, and no peeling or annoying residues. This is now my favorite lip balm and the only one I use. My only complaint again is the weird scent...it's a sweet scent..almost like baby-powder...but I got used to it. I'm just happy that it works!  Please note though that only this Milk & Honey flavor seams to work. I've tried the Nivea Cherry, Strawberry and Berry Swirl version and they were horrible and icky. I would stay away from the "tinted" ones. I wonder if the new Olive Oil & Lemon one is any good...anyone tried that one?

3. Garnier Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel-cream (1.7 oz) $7.99
I purchased this product after seeing a magazine ad about it and rave reviews from Musings of a Muse. This is my first time hearing about "gel-cream" so I had to try it out. Truthfully, I don't think this can replace the usual creams for major dry skin. This gel just makes for a great "morning/day" moisturizer on hot summer days, because it feels cool on application and does not grease-up the face as with regular creams. I'm usually picky about scent, but this scent is nice...like refreshing cucumbers and it doesn't linger. My skin does not break-out with it. It helps sooth some dry patches on my cheeks. I recommend this for morning or throughout the day moisturizing if you don't want the grease or heavy-feel of a cream, especially on hot days. But when the cold winter comes, I'm sticking to my old creams, since I don't think this gel-cream will cut it for super dry, peeling, wrinkling skin. Yet, I recommend this gel-cream especially if you have oily skin and want a light moisturizer that doesn't make the face shiny.

What are your recent drugstore beauty-miracle finds?