Summer Essentials Part II

For part II of my summer essentials series, I want to touch on skin/body products, I've never been a "spender" when it comes to body care products, just about any nice smelling, non drying body wash will do, my current favorite is the Aveeno White Peach & Ginger Antioxidant Body Wash, the smell of this epitomizes summer for me, and white peach, is my favorite fruit, ever. For body lotion I usually opt for a body oil, like coconut oil, or the Caudalie Divine oil if I'm feeling fancy.

1. Lavanilla The Healthy Deodorant in Vanilla Coconut: this is my favorite scented natural deodorant, it's light, it smells nice, and it works. There are other scents in the range as well, I want to try the grapefruit one next.  

2. Caudalie Divine Oil: I wouldn't want to be without this, ever. A friend of mine gifted me the divine oil set a couple of years ago and I have been hooked since. This is a light weight, DIVINE smelling body oil, I use this on my legs, arms and sometimes the ends of my hair, the sheen it leaves on your skin is beautiful, glowy, but not greasy, just perfect. 

3. Lucas Papaw Ointment: This Australian made ointment is a miracle worker for dry, chapped skin. I stocked up on these during our honeymoon to Australia, gave a few tubes to my girlfriends and they all swear by it now. You can find it on ebay, 25g for under $9 shipped. 

4. Paula's Choice Resist BHA 9: This contains 9% BHA aka Salicylic Acid, normally OTC BHAs only go up to 2%, so this is potent stuff, it works amazingly well for unclogging congestion and clearing up zits, while remaining gentle on the skin. This is my summer skin savior, when sweat and hyperactive oil glands set out to wreck some serious zitty havoc.

5. Mon Jasmin Noir L'Eau Exquise & Omnia Cystalline by Bvlgari: Two of my favorite summer fragrances. I love Bvlgari's approach to fragrances, it's always subtle, understated, simplistic, and never overdone. The Omnia Crytalline has been a staple since early college years, and still remains on frequent rotation in my collection. 

Summer Essentials Part I.

It's JULY! It's been a scorching week here in Los Angeles, wearing makeup in the summer heat definitely does not play nice with my oilier than usual summer skin, melty melty mess. These are my tried and true summer makeup essentials, combined with lighter application/proper priming, I usually do not need touch-ups unless I need to go out after dinner.

1. Biore Bright Face Milk SPF50 PA+++: my HG sunscreen for summer, I personally don't notice the brightening effect, but this sunscreen works wonders as a makeup primer/mattifier. And SPF50? definitely a must for SoCal. 

2. Shiseido Mascara Base: A coat of this before mascara, keeps my thin, straight asian lashes curled, smudgeprooof and flake-free, all day.

3. Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze: a lot of beauty bloggers swear by this, for good reasons, it's pigmented, lasts all day, never smudges, the color flatters any skintone, and the best part, 5 bucks.

4. MAKEUPFOREVER Aqua Brow in #25: Makeupforever's aqua range is great for long-wearing makeup, this brow gel is easy to use, stays like a magnet, and #25 is the perfect color for me.

5. Revlon Lip Butters in Juicy Papaya & Sweet Tart: another HGs here. I can't be bothered with heavy lipstick or sticky glosses, these are perfect, moisturizing, balmy texture, a peachy coral & a sheer pink are pretty much all I need.

6. Tarte Amazonian 24 hour blushes in Peaceful: Tarte Amazonian blushes are amazing, Peaceful is a shimmery peach color, very flattering, similar to nars O, but lasts much longer. (update: this might be clogging me, going back to my old faithful Chanel Reflex for now). 

7. Dior Matte Sunshine Water Resistant Bronzer in Honey Bronze SPF25: I'm not sure if this is still available, but this is the only matte bronzer that does not pull orange on me, though I haven't swam with this on, but on a 90+ degree day this stays put all day.

8. Lumene Time Freeze CC Cream SPF 20 in Light: I don't like wearing heavy foundation in the summer, so I picked this up at CVS for 75% off, a whopping $3 dollars, ran this through COSDNA, ingredients looks great, wore it for 3 days straight, and I love it! It's light-medium coverage, semi-matte finish, lasts 7+ hours with minimal blotting.