Review: Bourjois Express Eye Makeup Remover

Hello Ladies,

For years I've been using Almay's Moisturizing Eye Makeup Remover Pads but after starting this blog I decided to give a chance to an actual liquid eye makeup removers. I didn't want to try them before because I'm very weird about my eyes and what I put next to them (it took me literally 20 minutes to work up enough courage to put my first contact in lol) so I was afraid that liquid eye makeup removers will somehow irritate my eyes. Don't ask how that logic makes sense, since I use the moisturizing formula (meaning it's not oil free) for Almay's makeup remover pads.

Since starting this blog tried Simple Kind to Eyes Eye-Makeup Remover and Botanics Soothing Eye Makeup Remover but as you read in my most recent empties post, I wasn't that impressed with them. After reading about Bourjois Express Eye Makeup Remover on several blogs I follow I decided to give it a try and I LOVE it!

Here is what they say: 
BOURJOIS’ EXPRESS EYE MAKE-UP REMOVER removes all types of eye make-up, whether heavily pigmented or waterproof, with a single wipe!

Its fresh, non-greasy, two-phase formula gently cleans with the first wipe of the cotton pad.

- 1st phase: oils concentrated with cleansing agents to remove all make-up effortlessly, even waterproof!
- 2nd phase: the water phase leaves the skin feeling fresh, without any unpleasant greasy sensations
Tested under ophthalmological control, this formula protects the lashes, the delicate skin of the eyelids and the fragile rim around the eye.

Here is what I say: 
First the packaging is really cute. It is a bottle, but it's such a cute bottle!  And I like that the liquid is blue, which really has nothing to do with anything other than it's being blue.

I don't wear waterproof makeup much so waterproof makeup properties mean nothing to me other than hopefully helping remove makeup better. I do wear Collection 2000 Extreme 24 Hour Felt Tip Liners which are known for staining the eyelids quite heavily. I guess that makes them waterproof, so then I do wear waterproof makeup pretty often? This eye makeup remover removed 95% of the eyeliner and that's when I knew I had to write a review!

Bourjois claims that this eye makeup remover will remove all types of eye makeup with the first swipe. I would say it's a little far fetched. I can't get my eye makeup removed with just one swipe no matter how long I keep the moistened eye pad on my eyes before. I have to do several swipes in order to get all makeup removed, but I guess it's not a big deal if it accomplishes the task at the end?

I love how non-oily it is, even if the dark blue liquid contains oil. My eyes don't get 'cloudy' like with Almay's pads. I am a little annoyed that I have to shake the bottle like crazy before each use though, and I feel like the top blue liquid will be gone way before the clear liquid. But I won't know until I finish the bottle right?

As I said, Bourjois Eye Makeup remover removed 95% of Collection 2000 Extreme Wear Felt Liners, leaving only a faint purple tint (that's why it got a 95% instead of 100%). With the other eye makeup removers that I tried, I still had a very prominent eyeliner line left. That is pretty impressive considering how much trouble people been having with removing these eyeliners. I think it will work just as great on other waterproof makeup. 

Overall I'm very impressed with this eye makeup remover. It removes my makeup, doesn't irritate my eyes and doesn't leave them feeling oily and 'cloudy'. The price is pretty good too, at £4.99 it makes it a bargain in UK (not some much for me lol because of the exchange rate), especially if it's on offer like it is right now at Boots. Boots is having 3 for 2 sale going on right now, and I'm thinking of stocking up on this eye makeup remover.

What do you think about Bourjois Express Eye Makeup Remover? Have you tried it yet?

~ Lyuba

Update: e.l.f Luscious Liquid Lipstick in Raspberry

Hello Ladies,

Remember my raving review of e.l.f. Luscious Liquid Lipstick in Raspberry? Well today I got an update for you, and I'm not sure that I will ever buy these again. I still love the color and the moisturizing qualities, actually I still love everything I talked about in my review. My problem is the packaging. See for yourself:

The first hint I got that something was wrong was when yesterday I tried to use the lip gloss and no matter how many times I twisted it, nothing came out. So I twisted it more and more until I noticed that something just wasn't looking right. I tugged at the white part and:

It completely came off!!!! No wonder I had no lip gloss coming out! I tried to stick the white part back in and push on it, but I didn't work so I just ended up throwing the lipgloss away. BUMMER!

e.l.f. design your packages better! Have any of you had the same problem, or am I the only "lucky" one lol?

~ Lyuba

My Evening Beauty Routine

Hello Everyone,

My husband got home a few days ago, which means my beauty routine is back! Here is what I use every night:

1. I start off with Bourjois Express Eye Makeup Remover to remove the eye makeup. I wet/soak 2 cotton pads and press them to my eyes for few seconds to get the makeup dissolved. This stuff is so great I'm considering stocking up on it since Boots is running 3 for 2 deal right now.

2. I follow up with Simple Kind to Skin Purifying Cleansing Lotion to remove the rest of my makeup. I have mixed feeling about this makeup remover, but it's probably because I experienced the greatness of Vichy makeup remover.

3. I finish up the makeup removing routine with Simple Kind to Skin Soothing Facial Toner. This is my what, third bottle of it? It removes all the traces of makeup that the lotion didn't remove, and leaves my skin feeling fresh and clean. I know that there is a debate about whether the toner is actually necessary, and while I don't know the answer to that I like using it.

4. I apply Simple Repair Anti-Wrinkle Eye Cream to the eye area. My skin is definitely feeling smooth and hydrated, however I can't comment on the anti-wrinkle properties yet. I think it diminished the fine lines that I have on my lower eyelid, but nothing crazy noticeable.

5. Finally I moisturize my whole face and neck area with Simple Kind to Skin Vital Vitamin Night Cream. Just a small amount is enough for me because it is so rich, and I have to wait at least 30 minutes for it to fully absorb but that's not a problem since I'm going to sleep soon anyway.

Can you see a trend here? I love Simple stuff, and most of the time they work great for me. And for those not-so-great times, Simple has a lot of other products to offer that I haven't tried yet.

What is your evening beauty routine? I would love to know :)

On a side note, this is what I was doing while my husband was hanging out with his friends in our house.

I look rather goofy, but I can deal with it because the picture is so CUUUUUTE overall! :) That's my Mittens cuddled up next to me. Sometimes I wake up in the morning with her cradled in my arms just like that.

~ Lyuba

Makeup Storage

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk about my makeup storage. I don't have a lot of space in my house, so I have to work with what have, which is not much. As a result, I completely took over the master bathroom in our house lol. My poor husband will have a heart attack when he comes home, because the amount of my makeup literally quadrupled since I started beauty blogging. Well.... maybe it's not as bad as I think, because I did have a lot of makeup before but it wasn't all nice and organized like it is now so it seemed like I had less.

My main storage place is my bathroom window. I don't have a before photo, but lets just say it looked pretty similar but without the cool storage units. In other words it was crowded the same way it is crowded right now, but now I can fit more stuff on!

On the left I have two Muji storage units/things, one is completely filled with mineral eyeshadows (but still has a little space left for more!), another is filled with lipsticks and eyeliners. Originally I bought it for lipsticks but I don't have as many, so I filled it up with whatever will fit and stay put since it is pretty low.

Next to Muji's containers I have 2 big brush holders and 4 smaller ones, one of them is from e.l.f. and the rest are plastic cups from a very cute UK store PaperChase. (Not all of them are the same, but I can't find any others on their website) My brushes are organized by big face brushes, small brushes and the rest of brushes. I do not use all of them, but I don't have any other place to put them so I have all on display. Actually, having my brushes in these cups helped with my cats trying to steal them. For some reason my kitties don't bother brushes that are in containers. Go figure.

In  other 3 cups I have my mascaras, eyeliners, lip glosses and lip pencils, as well as eye primers and concealers. You can't see it in the photo above, but there is a cup hidden behind the blinds.You can catch a glimpse of it in photo below.

The place in between, which is currently filled with the Naked Palette and stuff on top of it are my every day use items. Once I get tired of Naked Palette I will put another palette there, and pile up whichever foundation, powder, primer, etc.. that I use at the time.

Here you can see a glimpse of my bathroom mirror, and this is where I stand when I put makeup on. I've been doing it this way for years because I've never had space for a vanity or a makeup table. At this point I don't even know if I would like a vanity, since I'm so used to putting makeup on while standing.

The rest of my makeup stuff are stashed away in pretty white storage towers that I got from Argos. I have the Slimline 4 Drawer storage tower and 2 Piece Rattan Effect storage set. I actually thought they were both the same make, but they are not. Slimline is slightly longer in depth, 24cm vs. 20cm  but I get more units with the Rattan Effect. Not a big deal overall, but a lot of longer items (like hair sprays and dry shampoos) will not fit in the Rattan Effect.

How do you store your makeup? Are you pressed for space too, or do you have a luxury of having a vanity table? :)

~ Lyuba

My Two Absolute Favorite Makeup Brushes

Hello Ladies,

I'm on the roll after I discovered the greatness of scheduled posting on Blogger. Now I can write several posts when I feel inspired and schedule them instead of forcing myself to write every day. And I'm a bad writer because I don't like to write.

I am not sure if I said that before, but I am absolutely in LOVE with EcoTools brushes. At this point I think I have almost all of the ones they released, save some individual ones. Having said that, there are two brushes that I can't live without now and use them every time I apply makeup. Unfortunately these two brushes are not yet available in UK, and on the whole UK selection looks really sad compared to US selection. 

Both of these brushes came from different sets. I have to confess that I bought EcoTools Alicia 5 Piece Brush set only for the duo fibre brush, because I've never seen it anywhere else and I WANTED it. I have no idea who Alicia Silverstone is, nor do I really care, (although her face seems familiar) and I haven't even touched the rest of the brushes in this set. Or the bag for that matter, although it is pretty nice bag.

EcoTools 5-Piece Mineral Brush set gets a little big more love from me because I use the whole 2 brushes from there! I use the Baby Kabuki brush as my primary blush brush, and Mineral Powder brush to apply primer.

Both sets are amazing value for the money, especially if you don't have many brushes. Alicia Silverstone one is $15.99 (but I believe it is a limited edition, and the only place I was able find it online is Amazon.com so get it while you can!!!) and the Mineral 5-Piece set is$12.99 at Ulta.com or $10.49 currently on Amazon. Both sets are probably readily available in stores in US, but I don't live there right now so can't comment on that.

Duo Fibre brush: 
I have two other brushes in this type, one by Sigma and another by e.l.f. I can't comment on the e.l.f. Stipple Brush because I just got in the mail, but I have been using Sigma Duo Fibre F50 for several weeks now so I can tell the difference between them. I think I will do a comparison post between all 3 of them once I get some use from e.l.f. Stipple Brush.

As I said, I've been using Sigma's Duo Firbre brush for several weeks now and it worked well. Or so I thought, because I never used a brush like that and simply didn't know better. Then I got the EcoTools one and immediately can tell that it works better for me.  It almost seems like I have to use less foundation with it too, and it blends so WELL. My nose is my problem area when it comes to foundation, because I can never get it to look natural there. With this brush I can. I used this brush to apply the foundation in this post, and I love how my skin looks. Natural but smooth and flawless.

Mineral Powder brush: 
Originally I used this brush to apply my foundation because it is just dense enough to blend very well, but after I started using Duo Fibre brush I designated it to being my primer brush.  I dip this brush in the primer (like with Maybelline The Smoother) or deposit a little primer on my hand and blend from there (like with any tube or pump primers). It's a breeze to blend foundation or primer with it, and I feel it gives me an even coverage all over my face.

Another thing that I like about these brushes is how small they are. I apply makeup in my bathroom, standing in front of the mirror so longer brushes usually get in the way as I like to get up close and personal with my mirror. I would probably have less trouble with longer brushes if I used an actual makeup mirror (which I have), but I have no space for it right now. So shorter brushes work much better for me.

See how small they are compared to my hand? Obviously this is not a good measurement since none of you know how big my hands are, but you just have to trust me when I say I don't have large hands. :)

Overall, I can't live without these two brushes now. What are your favorite face brushes?

~ Lyuba