Things I Love #4

Happy Sunday everyone! How was your week? Mine wasn’t all that good as I spent most of it home sick. One thing that is never a good thing to happen to you if you’re a teacher is lose your voice and guess what happened last week? Yep, I lost my voice. I went to work and taught a few classes, but since my condition only worsened, I decided to pay my doctor a visit. He told me to rest my voice, so the second half of the week was spent at home. Luckily, things improved and I am doing much better now. But enough rambling, let’s have a look at a few beauty and non-beauty favorites that I have been enjoying these past few weeks.

I like combining my beauty and non-beauty favorites. I also don’t do these monthly anymore, but whenever I feel I have gathered enough favorites to write about. I just don’t think that restricting myself to a certain period in time will help me to tell about what I truly like. There have been times, months, when I struggled finding enough to talk about. So I figured I’d change things up, rename my monthly favorites ‘Things I love’, and just go with the flow. And since it’s been nearly 2 months since I last showed you some of my favorite products, I have had plenty of time to gather some new ones.

Balenciaga Florabotanica

An oldie but a goodie. This perfume has been in a favorites post before, but I have rediscovered it in my perfume collection. I bought this almost 2 years ago, with a gift voucher some of my mentor students gifted me after a year of hard work together. I think of them whenever I spritz this on, but it has also become a staple perfume for me. For years I did not have a ‘signature scent’ and then I found this. I only bought a small bottle at the time, and I’ve started to run out. The next time I’m flying I’m going to check out how much this is in duty free and purchase the biggest size I can find!

Harper’s Bazaar

I have added a new magazine subscription to the list: Harper’s Bazaar. It launched in The Netherlands last September and I liked what I had seen so far. However, the decision to buy a subscription did not come until I found a great offer. The subscription at a 50% discount and a Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery serum worth 40 euros for free. I have been wanting to try the Kiehl’s serum for ages, but thought it too pricy to just give it a whirl. So now, I not only have a subscription to a great fashion magazine that has some interesting articles, but I also have a beauty product worth trying.

Catrice Liquid Metal Satina van der Woodsen

This eyeshadow has been popping up quite a bit lately and I have been using it a lot. One of the newly added shades for spring/ summer 2015, this color has been one of my go-to eyeshadows since the minute I purchased it. Its champagne-gold color make it perfect for every day, but also works great as an inner corner highlight for more daring looks. Absolutely love it. And don’t worry if it looks like the shine is an overspray: it is not, on the lid this baby is a shimmery as in the pan.

SIGG Hot & Cold Classic White 0.5L

Meet my new on-the-go tea mug. I bought this sturdy thermos bottle when I dropped and cracked my Starbucks one that I had had for 2 years. That one was plastic and I have been trying to use fewer plastic containers for my on the go foods and beverages. I already purchased a Klean Kanteen bottle for water, weck jars for my morning yoghurt and I have been eating salads from mason jars. I had been looking for a mug to carry tea for some time, just in case my plastic Starbucks one needed replacement. I had not found the perfect one, but then I dropped the old one, walked into my local outdoor supply store and found this, which is perfect. It is not only free of BPA plastics and mainly made of stainless steel, it is also a thermos bottle that keeps my tea warm for up to 6 hours.

NYX HD High Definition Eyeshadow Base

My favorite eyeshadow base, Too Faced Shadow Insurance ran out, as I showed you in my latest Empty Products video. I already have 3 potential replacements lined up and the first one I tried was this NYX one. And I love it! It is almost as good as the Too Faced one. There is a small difference, as this doesn’t make my eyelooks last through sweaty work outs, but this will last on a long day that starts at 6AM and doesn’t end until 11 PM. And I guess that’s what makes this a great eyeshadow base. I’ve been loving it so much that I haven’t even thought twice about cracking open the other two to give them a try.

Vivaldi Four Seasons recomposed by Max Richter

Yes, I know, I know… I still buy CDs, don’t shoot me, or call me crazy. It’s something I like doing, and with a good record store in my street, it is one means in which I find plenty of the music I listen to. One gem that I took home recently is this CD. Yes, it’s Vivaldi. Yes, it’s classical music. Yes, it’s Four Seasons. But: there’s a twist. This is the modernized version of this classics of classics. It has been recomposed to include synthesizer sounds, which makes for a very different and dare I say, unique listening experience. This is quite possibly one of the favorite CDs I’ve purchased in a long time.

Phyto 7 Hydrating day cream for dry hair

A day cream for hair? Yep, that’s what this is. I was looking for interesting products to try when I was in London last October and ran into this at Space NK. I apply this to the ends of my hair after a shower and I have found this works much better for me than most hair oils that promise to do similar things. Where hair oils make my hair look greasy and streaky, this nourishes my hair, but without the greaseball effect. Win-win!

Baby blue nail polish

If you saw my drugstore nail polish haul last Thursday, you will have seen I have developed quite the love for all things baby blue. Nail polish wise in any case. For this picture I brought out a few more by Barry M and Catrice that I already owned. I’m sure this will be a blue spring in my case.

Bio Today Wheat Free Muesli

I found a new staple food and not in some specialist store or a farmer’s market. No, I found this at my good ole supermarket. They have an aisle filled with organic foods and suddenly, one day, this product popped up. It is a wheat free and refined sugar free muesli. And this is what I’ve been putting in my yoghurt every day since I bought it. It is based on barley, rice and rye flakes. This contains no oats and hence this has been my new favorite way of adding some fiber into my daily diet.

Catrice Ultimate Colour lipstick On the Pink Side of Life

If there is one lipstick that has gotten a ton of wear these past few weeks, it’s been this one. The coral shade is perfect for spring/ summer and has quickly become a favorite. Like the eyeshadow above, it is part of the renewal of Catrice’s make up line for spring/ summer 2015, so get it while you still can.

What are some of your favorite products at the moment?