Hello lovelies, I’m here to talk about all my hits and misses for the month. I can’t believe I’m writing my May hits & misses. I know I say it in every monthly hits & misses post, but the time is going by so quickly! It will be Christmas before we know it!
I don’t have a huge amount to talk about in this post because a lot of what I spoke about in my April Hits & Misses I’m still using & loving so I won’t talk about them in this post, but if you would like to read about them then make sure to check my April Hits & Misses (linked above).
As always I’ll talk about my favourites first and then my misses.
Oskia Micro Exfoliating Balm
Oskia Micro Exfoliating Balm
This brand I discovered late last year when I started trying their products. I had heard about them before, in particular their Renaissance Cleansing Gel was the product I’d heard about the most.
I love a good facial scrub, however some of them can be quite harsh especially if you have sensitive skin and my skin is slightly sensitive and it can be awful when a product disagrees with it.
Oskia’s products are definitely on the pricier side with this balm coming in at £49.50. I was hesitant to buy it because £49.50 is a lot to pay for something especially something I had never tried or seen in person, but I bought it and luckily, I love it.
It’s become my favourite exfoliator. I absolutely love it.
It is exactly as the name suggests – it’s a micro exfoliating balm. It has tiny little scrubby bits that gently exfoliate my skin but don’t strip it and they’re not scratchy or harsh on my skin.
The balm is lovely and it’s a nice change from other facial scrubs, this one is more gently and I feel suits my skin better. It feels luxurious and expensive.
As I said I love it and it’s something I will repurchase even though it’s expensive. Because it’s a balm you only need a little per use because it goes a long way so the jar will last ages.
You can purchase this on Cult Beauty, Space NK, Look Fantastic, Beauty Bay or from Oskia directly.
If ordering from Cult Beauty you can get 15% off with the code YOU15 once you register (must be a new account for the code to work) and fill out a short questionnaire.
Catrice Priming Serum – Candlelight
This is something I’ve been using for around two months now and it’s probably one of my all time favourite products and best of all? It’s only €4.95. Bargain.
I love anything that gives my skin a glow or some luminosity and this product does that. It has a gorgeous creamy consistency that absorbs quickly and just gives my skin a beautiful radiant glow.
My foundation applies really nicely over it and has a gorgeous glow. Even on days where I don’t wear foundation or if I’m wearing a light coverage foundation I will apply this to my skin and it looks lovely and quite natural too.
You can buy this from Inish Pharmacy and in the US it’s available in Ulta.
JLOXINGLOT Lipglossy Lip Gloss – Soft Rose
This lip gloss is one that I cannot put down. I have quite a few lip products but this is the only one I’ve really been using pretty much since I got it.
It’s a beautiful nude colour that’s not too nude. It does lean more towards the peachy nude side but it’s not a straight up peach by any means. I would describe it as a rosy peach shade. It’s beautiful and it goes with pretty much any makeup look.
It has great opacity so one swipe is enough, I’ve never had to use two to get good opacity. The gloss is ever so slightly sticky but it’s nothing major. NARS lip glosses are more sticky than this is.
It has a sweet scent which I quite like, normally I wouldn’t be a fan of sweet scents but this is lovely and it’s not strong or over powering.
This looks great over another lipstick or worn on its own, I wear it both ways and love it. The glosses in JLO X Inglot range are €24, so they are on the pricier end, but they are worth it.
You can purchase the gloss here and you can view the full JLO collection here.
Beauty Blender Royal
Ah the good ol’ beautyblender. This little gem is one that just cannot be beaten for foundation application. It’s the bees knees for applying foundation. It does take a little more work than a brush, but it is so worth it.
I absolutely adore my Bobbi Brown Face Blender brush, it’s my favourite foundation brush, but there is something about the beauty blender that makes it just that bit better.
It does a darn good job of blending out foundation seamlessly, giving it a lovely finish but without looking heavy or cakey. I have dry skin so I can’t stand when a foundation makes my skin look even more dry.
I absolutely hate it when that happens but when I use the beautyblender it’s never an issue, and if it is, it’s the foundation, I am sure of it.
This little gem is €17.50 from Beauty Bay which is a pretty good price considering how long they last. I have had a nude one for over a year now and its lasted so well and still works amazingly.
They do stain though so, do be wary of that. Once used it is incredibly hard to fully get any staining out of them. I wash mine every week and still the stains won’t come out, they do fade when washed obviously but they are visible.
Maybelline Lash Sensational Waterproof Mascara
This gives volume, length and separation, it fans out my lashes nicely, it doesn’t make my lashes look clumpy or spidery. It doesn’t flake, smudge or transfer.
It’s waterproof too, a few times I got caught in the rain and this mascara was probably the only bit of makeup left on my face after it.
It has a lovely wand that has a soft flex, is curved slightly and applies just the right amount of product. It gets better the longer the tube is open.
It’s basically everything I look for in a mascara. It’s €11.99 in Boots and €10.79 on Feel Unique. It is regularly on offer too in various places.
NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer
This is a concealer that I wanted to try for a long time but never did because the price always put me off. In Brown Thomas it is €30.
€30 for a concealer. I couldn’t bring myself to spend that on it so when ASOS had 20% off for St Patrick’s Day I ordered it and have been trying it out for the past 6-7 weeks and I have to say, it’s a close call between this and my MAC Pro Longwear concealer.
For years MAC’s Pro Longwear has been my favourite, my go-to, my old reliable and no matter what concealer I tried or how much I liked them they never came close to Pro Longwear.
Pro Longwear is everything I want in a concealer. It offers good coverage, creamy, blends out nicely, doesn’t look dry, heavy or cakey and minimal creasing.
This NARS one though is pretty similar, the main difference being the price and packaging really. Pro Longwear comes in a little hard plastic bottle with a pump and the NARS concealer comes in a tube with a doe foot applicator.
The NARS concealer is creamy, offers good coverage, blends out nicely, creases minimally and doesn’t look heavy, cakey or dry.
As I mentioned above this is €30 here in Ireland and Pro Longwear is €23.50 and Pro Longwear is more widely available but NARS is only sold in Brown Thomas so those differences are what it comes down to really: price, packaging and availability.
Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Intensive Lip Repair Balm
The drugstore, or here in Ireland, pharmacy brands make some really amazing mascaras that won’t break the bank. Now, I rarely hold loyalty to any beauty item, when I finish something.
My lips were softer, smoother, plumper and more hydrated. I have severely dry lips so I was amazed that this made such a difference and in such a short time too. As I said I’ve been using it for about two weeks now and my lips are just getting better as time goes on.
I love the Eight Hour hand cream too and it’s one I use every winter, it’s incredible for dry hands, it works miracles for them so it’s perhaps unsurprising that I’m a lover of this lip balm too.
This is expensive, it’s £20, but it is so worth picking up, especially if like me you suffer from severely dry lips which are helped by very few products.
Misses
Organic Surge Perfecting Face Polish
This brand I regularly see gracing the shelves of my local TK Maxx so I picked up two products to try out. I got their Perfecting Face Polish and their Cleansing Lotion (which I’ll talk about next).
Their Perfecting Face Polish is a creamy facial scrub and honestly, I don’t feel it did anything for my skin, literally nothing. After I rinsed it off I was left with a greasy film on my skin that required another scrub to get off.
I had to use a second scrub to remove the film. I’ve never had to do that before and I hope I never do again.
I ended up with a small breakout as a result, thankfully it cleared up quickly and I had no further issues.
It was only around €4 so very inexpensive, but still, I wouldn’t recommend it. I couldn’t recommend it.
My next miss is also from Organic Surge. I didn’t have much luck with this brand or with cleansers in general this month, did I?
Organic Surge Daily Care Gentle Cleansing Lotion
This cleansing lotion, also by Organic Surge, was for me, another miss.
I know cleansing lotions only take off some of your makeup, not all and you will need to use another cleanser to remove the remnants of your makeup, however, this cleansing lotion removed barely any of my foundation. I wasn’t wearing a lot of foundation, just a light layer.
It left a greasy film on my skin just like the face polish did. I needed to use a scrub to remove it.
Both times it only barely removed my makeup.
After trying both of those items I don’t think Organic Surge is a brand I would lean towards in future.
Sephora Collection Rose Cleansing & Exfoliating Cleansing Cream
I ordered this last Christmas and when it arrived immediately I was put off it for some reason. I found it recently during a declutter and tried it out.
Immediately I disliked it. It left my face SO greasy and didn’t exfoliate or cleanse my skin in any way, shape or form.
It has put me off this range so I don’t think I’d try any others from it.
If you would like to try this you can purchase it from Sephora.com or Sephora.fr.
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