Let your senses dive in a wonderfully scented home with Rituals |Smugnificent

If you follow me since long on social media you already know that I am addicted to candles. I have a considerable stock of candles I love and I know for sure that my collection would be out of control if I lived in UK or US where I could find my favourite candles in more budget-friendly prices and most importantly a larger variety. But what you might not know is that I am obsessed with all scented products and I am always a bit sad that I cannot use candles in all rooms in my house.

Rituals, one of my favourite brands for care and home products, released a whole new collection of home scented products (additionally to the extensive line they already  have). I have tried several candles and fragrance sticks by Rituals but when I saw Melissa's video with the new releases I run to get the new wardrobe sachets and ended up getting some more things; naturally. So let's dive in!

Plumper skin with Revitalift Filler |Smugnificent

I have made numerous times clear my obsession with skincare both here and on my channel. So trying out skincare products is definitely my kind of thing. As you know I was away on vacation after the last few crazy months and soon after I got back home, I got a package in the post from Coolbrandz with L' Oreal' s latest skincare line.

I didn't had the chance to read a lot about the line beforehand but the moment I read that the L' Oreal Revitalift Filler [HA] has hyaluronic acid in I was immediately sold. I was very pleased with my current skincare routine but I have been always pleased with the results of hyaluronic on my skin so I was thrilled to test a more budget-friendly line.

Another insta-post: Autumn edition |Smugnificent

I am finally back after a looooong hiatus and what is better than a recap of what I have been doing during these last few months. Well to be honest that shouldn't be a difficult recap as most of this time I woke up, I worked and I slept; oh that fascinating lifestyle hahaha. And afterwards I went on vacation; my first vacation days of 2016, finally. Although the whole last year was very stressful for me and I had to make a lot of small or large "sacrifices", retrospectively I really think that I came out stronger and more confident and more determined that I can achieve anything I want to. So that is for sure a good thing. 

I think the most important thing for me during this period was submitting my Thesis and defending successfully my PhD. I am still working in the same field as a post-doctorate fellow so I continue doing things I love from another position. For all the fun not working moments I have included a ton of pictures, mainly food related I have to admit so be prepared as this might be the most photo-heavy and mouth-watering post ever on this blog!

Slowing signs of age: Vichy's new launch, Slow Âge |Smugnificent

Skincare products were always as equally interesting to me as makeup and as the years go by and I get older the balance tilts more in favour of skincare. And not only because good skin equals good makeup as many say, which is absolutely true to be honest. But most importantly because although makeup can be absolutely fun, artistic and amazing, skincare is actually an investment for your future. And the choices you make now about your skincare affect how your skin will look not only in a few months but also in the years to come. So although I was always into skincare, recently I am becoming more and more invested in my routine and I am finding products that suit my needs and prevent skin damage.

Vichy is a major player in the skincare game since many decades. It is a brand known for the variety of quality products for different skin needs at a reasonable price. Now Vichy is coming out with a new day cream, Slow Âge, focusing on slowing down signs of ageing. Coolbrandz launched a new campaign in Switzerland together with Vichy for the launching of Slow Âge so I received a testing version of the product and I have been using it since almost 3 weeks every morning.

My Insta-June/July 2016 |Smugnificent

I cannot even believe that it's been 2 whole months since my last post but to be honest, I cannot even believe how these months past. As I have explained you in this video (here in Greek) I am taking some time off from vlogging and blogging mainly for work reasons. And I really have passed every single day working my ass off but I am seeing great results so I will not complain.

 It was hard to not go back to Greece this summer or take any vacation days but I am now 4 years in Switzerland and I know that even the busier times are filled with wonderful little moments. I just have put together a selection of photos from June and July in this double insta-post to recap all the non-working moments of these months.

My Insta-May 2016 |Smugnificent

A couple weeks ago, I uploaded a video on my Youtube channel (here in Greek) explaining why I need to take some time off from vlogging and blogging. Since some time now and for the next months, my working schedule is plain crazy taking over all my free personal time. I needed to re-evaluate my priorities for a while in order to manage keeping these rhythms long term.

But as I promised, I will still try to post an occasional post or video whenever I find a bit time and I really want to try not miss my insta posts as they are always a great recap of my months especially for you who don't follow me on social media. I still try to keep in touch through insta, snapchat, facebook and twitter though, where you can always find me as smugnificent.

A Morphe 12S: a real stand-out palette |Smugnificent

I have recently reviewed my first Morphe palette, the 35D and although I found it a good choice for its price, I was still not completely head over heels with it. One of the main reasons was the size of these large 35 palettes, I find them impractical and I tend to forget them in the back of my makeup drawers.

That is why I went with a smaller 12-pan palette this time. I saw the 12S (Soul of Summer) palette at a Cosmetics Obsession event and my mind immediately went to the 35O palette which I have always been on the fence about. Could this be a smaller version of the 35O in all its shimmery goodness?

My Insta-April 2016 |Smugnificent

Time for a delayed insta-post but it's not the first time so I will not begin with excuses. April is my favourite month of the year as it is my birthday month. This April was absolutely crazy and it passed in a second. 

And yes I know that all my months are very busy but believe me, life is certainly going to be a roller-coaster the next months until September and it is quite possible to affect my blog and YouTube channel although I promise to try and do my best.

New releases by Kérastase: Discipline Curl Idéal, L' Incroyable Blowdry |Smugnificent

I am back today with a review of many recent releases from Kérastase, one of my favourite (if not my top favourite) hair brands. I was sent these packages by Paoletti Public relations to try them out and I was very excited especially since I was looking forward to one of these releases a lot!

If you follow me since some time you know that my absolute favourite Kérastase line is Discipline, a great line of products targeting my main problem: frizziness! So now Kérastase released some additional products in the line under the name Discipline Curl Idéal targeting specifically unruly curly hair. And as the original line has Diana Vishneva as her face, this one has another great dancer with beautiful rich curly hair, Linda Celeste Sims. But let's see the products a bit closer.

EBeauty and Care Korean skincare haul |Smugnificent

I realised that it is been ages since I posted a haul post on the blog. I know that people love my haul videos and most of the times I let things gather and then they end up being too many for a post. So this time when I was opening my order from eBeauty and Care I immediately decided; this is a good amount of stuff for a haul post.

eBeauty and Care is a Swiss online store which is ran by Laetitia, one of the sweetest and nicest bloggers I have met in Switzerland. I knew since long that we shared a love about Korean Beauty with her, talking about Memebox orders when they were still shipping in Europe and when she ended up opening an online store delivering Korean products to Switzerland, Germany, France and Belgium I was thrilled. The store recently celebrated its first year anniversary and I am here to show you the things I included in my latest order.

My Insta-March 2016 |Smugnificent

I was planning to post this insta monthly round-up a few days ago, but I have spent the last 3 days laying in bed because of horrible back pain. I am still far from fine but I manage to stay seated for a while now so I will try to put this up for you as a change to my continuous circle of sleeping and Netflix.

Similarly with February, maybe because I am getting more and more busy at work or perhaps because I am getting more into Snapchat (@smugnificent), I noticed that I posted a bit less during this month on instagram. Still I post quite often, it remains one of my favourite social media but maybe I am less obsessed compared to some time ago.

Zoeva En Taupe eyeshadow palette review |Smugnificent

Zoeva is a really well known German brand mostly famous for its high quality budget-friendly makeup brushes. I have quite a few Zoeva brushes in my collection as I have got the makeup artist Zoe bag set (here in Greek) in the past and I have fallen in love with many which I have shown you in my favourite eye brushes video (here in Greek). 

But one of the most common makeup related questions I am asked has to do with my opinion about the Zoeva eyeshadows. And until recently my only answer was " I am sorry, haven't tried them yet". It is not so easy to get Zoeva in Switzerland (in contrary with most other countries the official website doesn't deliver here) so I jumped to the opportunity of ordering one of their palettes during my last trip to Germany. There is a large selection to choose from mostly of their 10-pan palettes but they also released recently some larger 15-pan ones. In the end I went with a quite unexpected choice, the En Taupe palette, leaving the darker, richer colours for another time.

Morphe 35D palette breakdown review |Smugnificent

Morphe brushes is one of the most talked about makeup companies on the internet nowadays which is a fact attributed by many to the company's great PR policies and her strong relations with many known blogging and YouTube personas. Besides all this discussion the company has a lot of supporters who find their products to have a good quality for a great price, so I think it really worths to check if there are real reasons behind all this hype. I have already tried and reviewed (and here in Greek) for you some of their eyeshadows which I got as singles and they were a selection of shades from the Jaclyn Hill favourites palette and I found their quality very decent for the price. 

But even I first tried those shadows I had always in the back of my mind a doubt about how these stand alone eyeshadows, single-handedly selected by Jaclyn compare with the non named ones contained in the large 35 palettes. I admit that since I started getting into makeup I never felt attracted to these large multicoloured palettes everyone had and I have never owned something similar. But  a couple of these Morphe 35 palettes look quite attractive and have nice colour combinations so I decided to get the 35D (35 color dark smoky palette) and put it to the test.

Fighting blemishes without getting dry skin? Kiehl's has the answer |Smugnificent

Several weeks ago around the end of January I have visited my local Kiehl's counter in Globus Bern to use my coupon from December's advent calendar and after a nice discussion about my skin and its problems, the clerk suggested me quite a few products suited to my needs and prepared me a samples bag in exchange for the coupon. You can see these as well as a round up of the travel sized products my calendar had in and I am trying in a previous post.

From all the products she showed me there was one that caught my one as I have not until now used something similar; Kiehl's Blemish Control Daily Skin-Clearing Treatment. This product claims to be a treatment against imperfections caused by acne while helping blemishes clear quicker all in lightweight cream formula which can be used twice or even three times a day. There are a lot of interesting claims here so after using it indeed daily for almost 1.5 months I have some thoughts to share with you.

The product comes in a tube of 30ml and has a creamy but thin and quite fluid consistency which makes it easy to use up without it sticking in the walls of the packaging. It contains a trio of acids, idiotic acid, salicylic acid and lipo-hydroxy acid (LHA). With a bit of online research I found that it contains 1.5% salicylic acid but the product's pH is relatively high for the acids to be really effective as exfoliants. This certainly fits with my impression that this is not the miraculous product which will kill all your blemishes overnight. And it is also not one of these drying lotions or liquids which act like this either. What it is, is a mild, easy to use in your morning and night routine creamy product, quite effective in blemish control long-term. For me the most important thing is that although they warn you that you might experience dryness (cultivating the fear of acids) this product has not in any way dried my skin out. I am using it in combination with an exfoliating toner (the Clarins one currently), an oil or serum and under my moisturiser. As a precaution I chose to use a more hydrating cream at night (the Recifis Soothing restorating cream) but I feel that I don't necessarily need to as I have not experienced any dry patches or anything like that. I apply it all over my face in particular the areas I am more "spotty" and I have seen my blemishes as well as the marks they leave go away easier. I also believe that long term it helped preventing acne outburst although I still have of course the occasional hormonal or stress breakouts (I will never get rid of those I know). 

I think what make this special is not so much that it is super potent but that it is gentle to the skin while it does its job. I see it as one of those products working on the background, slowly and quietly helping you to get a better skin in the long term. What I fear is that after using it for quite some time its results seem to reach a limit and you cannot see much further improvement, but this also makes sense based on the ingredients. I will use this up with joy and try something else for a while afterwards, before repurchasing it which I certainly plan, just so that my skin doesn't get completely used to it. If you are serious with your acids (and you should) I advise you to combine it with other products but if you want to try out a mild and not drying solution which will help you to deal with imperfections you have definitely a good candidate in this one.

Overall I am quite pleased with this product, although it hasn't swept me off my feet or offered me any mouth-dropping moments. If you live in Switzerland you can get it in any of your local Kiehl's counters in Globus or Manor or at the Kiehl's store in Zurich or order it online from their online shop or Marionnaud. It retails for 49CHF. My Greek readers can find this at the Kiehl's counters inside Attica but I am sure Kiehl's products are available in other shops too.

Have you ever tried this product? Which is your go to anti-blemish clearing product?

My Insta-February 2016 |Smugnificent

February was overall a boring month and maybe one of the few months I posted so little on instagram. Still as always, there very quite a few fun moments that I would like to share with you as monthly-recap on this post.

I hope you are reading this post with a full stomach as I have to inform you it is highly delicious. Don't forget to write me about your favourite moments of the month in the comments!

New creations by Celdeconail: gifts and purchases |Smugnificent

In today's post we will not talk about makeup but about my latest additions in my accessories collection; all creations of my lovely Cel (celdeconail). On my latest haul video (here in Greek) where I showed you my makeup purchases but also gifts I had received for the holidays, I promised that I will upload a blog post showing you all my new purchases from Cel and also the things she gifted me. If you follow me for some time you know all about Cel who not only is an amazing friend, a nail and beauty blogger but also a super talented creator of jewelry and deco objects and accessories (plus she is a fantastic mum of the sweetest little girl).

I have shown multiple creations of her on my YouTube videos (her stuff is what I mainly wear; absolutely my style) and also posts. Going through her work bench, checking her new designs and techniques and finding new stuff for me and for presents is one of my favourite things when I visit her and I am always amazed by how she does it (especially for me with my 2 lefts hands, unable to create anything haha). But let's check all my new things and cut the prologue.

My Insta-January 2016 |Smugnificent

It is time again for my insta-month post and while choosing the photos one think became obvious, this month was delicious! Coming back from holidays is never easy and January was certainly really full with its ups and downs but I can certainly say it had some cool highlights.

  The only thing I could say I didn't really enjoyed this month was being away from my home for a big part of it. Traveling for work or even for vacation is cool and fun but overall wanderlust is not one of my traits, I love staying home too much hahaha.

Kiehl's advent calendar 2015 round-up |Smugnificent

If you follow me long here or on Youtube you know that the last few years I am literally obsessed with advent calendars. I try to find which ones will be released early on, always searching for new ones I have not gotten in the past. This year I focused on beauty calendars and I ended up getting not 1 but 3 of them! I was familiar with 2 of them, the Ciaté Mini Mani month and the L' Occitane Holiday advent calendar as I had gotten them previously. And I also really enjoyed them this year.

 

The third one I got though was a new addition by Kiehl's, a brand that I have tried a few things from, which I have fairly enjoyed so I found this an excellent opportunity to try a good variety of their line. 24 products for body, hair and skincare, most of them new to me in. I thought that it would be a good idea to show you what I found behind the doors as a quick overview because to my knowledge this is the first year Kiehl's launched a calendar and this can give you a taste of what you could expect for next year.

Kérastase Elixir Ultime hair oils |Smugnificent

Hair oils are among the most important products for my hair care since many years now and I they never miss my beauty stash. I have tried many different oils the last few years and I have quite a few favourites so I was intrigued to try out the new Elixir Ultime hair oils by Kérastase that Paoletti Public Relations sent to me. 

But before I jump in to the actual review I feel again the need to say how amazing I find Kate Moss in all the promo material of Kérastase since she became their muse. True hair inspiration.

My Insta-December 2015 |Smugnificent

I have been away from blogging from more than a month and I will avoid listing excuses but I am back and I will try to catch up on my post especially since I am incapable of filming since I have a hoarse voice from the moment I got back from vacation. December's insta-posts are among my favourites and it is always very difficult to chose pictures for them so this post will be indeed picture heavy. So before diving into my photo diary for the last month of 2015 I just have a small announcement concerning the blog.

 It is something that I am thinking since more than a year now and I decided to finally give it a go. From now on my posts (at least the majority of them) will be written only in English. Writing in 2 languages especially the crazy long posts I use to write is sometimes exhausting and often results in writing less and less. In an effort to try blogging a bit more often I will try keeping one language and see how it goes. That doesn't bring any change on my Youtube videos where I will keep filming them both in Greek and English as usual as I got a clear feedback from all of you that you prefer that. So I hope I will have your support in this effort and that I will compensate with more posts that you will all enjoy!