April is the cruellest month? I always wondered about that sentiment. Can there be a crueller month than January? It’s cold, we had to put the Christmas decoration away and I don’t know about you, but I’m totally broke after the Christmas and sale extravaganza that was December. So, what’s better than an infusion of cheap, colourful and blingy makeup into your life? While this works for me, Astrid is more about the feel-good vibes of amazing skincare and a good perfume. Which camp do you belong to?

Dorit’s January beauty favourites

Favourites of the month and definitely my most-used products – MAC’s Extra Dimension Skinfinish in Double-Gleam, ColourPop’s blush in Cruel Intentions and Makeup Revolution’s eyeshadow palette in Fortune Favours the Brave.

Makeup Revolution Fortune Favours the Brave

I picked up another eyeshadow palette from Makeup Revolution when I was back home in December. I loved the New-trals vs Neutrals Palette so much, what could go wrong with buying one that was a blogger collaboration (with British Beauty Blogger) no less? Fortune Favours the Brave houses 30 eyeshadows in a thin palette with a mirror. The individual pans are small, and the colour scheme leans on neutrals and muted jewel tones like blues, greens and purples. There a lot of different finishes – some work better than others.

Fortune Favours the Brave palette review
Upper rows of the Makeup Revolution ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’ palette without a base product.

Although I’ve worn it for the better part of the month I’m not blind to the palette’s shortcomings – while mattes and shimmer shades work great, the glitter infused matte shades are hard to work with without a base, and the swirly ‘baked’ shades are fallout central. Nevertheless, with a base it’s a very easy palette to use, with a lot of different options. I like it for nude neutral looks, smokey eyes in green, purple and blue and the taupe shades are gorgeous. For about 13€ it’s a very good palette indeed. Get it at various drugstores.

Makeup Revolution Fortune Favours the Brave review and swatches
Swatches of the lower rows of the Makeup Revolution ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’ palette

 

ColourPop matte blush ‘Cruel Intentions’

When I got my last ColourPop order, I doubted my sanity for a second when I looked at terracotta red matte blush in Cruel Intentions. Why did I order that scary looking thing? Picture my relief when Cruel Intentions swatched a nice muted pink. Score! My first blush from ColourPop didn’t disappoint – it’s super easy to apply either with your fingers or brush, stays on the whole day without any fading issues, and plays nicely with any base products. All in all, a nice pop of colour that goes with anything and any look. Also, 8$! Win. (Features also in my long ColourPop review you can find here.)

ColourPop Cruel Intentions swatch and review
ColourPop Cruel Intentions and MAC’s Extra Dimension Skinfinish in Double-Gleam

 

MAC Extra Dimension Skinfinish in Double-Gleam

Okay, MAC’s Extra Dimension Skinfinish in Double-Gleam isn’t exactly cheap, but it’s just the thing to literally brighten your face when the clouds are low and the sky is grey. It’s one in a series of duochrome highlighters MAC has come out with and thankfully, they’re all permanent. I’m a fan of the ED finish anyway, and I wasn’t disappointed.Double-Gleam is admittedly the tamest of them all, a light gold that might appear silvery on your skin in certain angles. (The others flash purple, red and pink.) But then, while it’s decidedly visible, it’s not a highlight that’s visible from outer space. It also doesn’t overly emphazise my pores and very easy to apply and blend. I like it for winter days, when the sun is low and my angles need more highlighting than during the heights of summer when the sun naturally does that for me. I recently compored it to Becca’s Opal, you can find that post here.

 

Astrid’s January beauty favourites

makeup skincare and perfume favourites
Astrid’s January beauty favourites: Clarins Multi-Active Jour Moisturizer, coloured mascara (this one is BeYu Colorplay in Paradise) and Chloé Eau de Parfum. The Aesop moisturizer though is more of an un-favourite!

Coloured mascara – BeYu Colorplay In Paradise

Cheerful and green, In Paradise recently featured in our post about the Colour of the Year, Greenery. Over a (white) lash primer, it pops – especially nice on brown and hazel eyes. Generally, coloured mascara is a great way to give your daily eye makeup a bit of oomph – try a burgundy or dark blue sometimes and see the impact it has. Oh, btw – did you know that MAC will come out with a collection of 16 (!) coloured mascaras, called Color Rocker? It’s said to release in Spring. Anyways, BeYu mascaras retail for 8€ and are available at drugstores and at Douglas. Nice way to inject some colour into grey weather days!

 

Moisturizer – Clarins Multi-Active Jour

Targeted to 30-somethings, this moisturizer is supposed to fight fine lines and ‘the effect of daytime stress’. Hah! Just what everybody needs, right?! The teasel extract is supposed to help with that. I don’t know about teasels, but a version of this creme consists of SPF 20, which is definitely doing something for the protection against fine lines (sun is the main culprit for skin aging, after all). Just don’t rely on it for your sole protection, definitely layer some additional sunscreen over it as well. Anyways, love for this moisturizer! It makes skin smooth and soft, diminishing any dry patches and yet not making the skin feel greasy or oily. No mean feat. It also comes in a night version, but given that this is around 55$/60€, we’ll see. Ingredients look good – no alcohol or parabenes, but with some perfume high up on the inci-list (I actually like the smell of it, rather refreshing but not too flowery), silicones (which make it work well under foundation, just saying!) and chemical sunscreen.

 

Perfume – Chloé Eau de Perfume

Holy Grail material here! A rose fragrance that is neither old lady-ish nor cloying nor heavy, this is a fragrance that will appeal to a lot of women as it’s not the ‘bam! ROSE!’ scent many rose fragrances have. Top notes are lychee, peony and freesia (do you need to catch up on the fragrance lingo? Don’t worry, have a look at our guide here!), heart notes are rose, magnolia and lily-of-the-valley, base notes are cedar and amber. All of that makes it a powdery, light floral rose scent with light woody base. You can wear that to all occasions and during all seasons – it’s very easy to wear. 30ml are around 75$/60€.