Feeling good in your own skin! DIY face mask/body scrub for dry skin (and not only!)

How could I forget about this??

What is this? This is the BEST remed for dry and dull skin! I did not invent it, I actually saw this is an old book my mom had, called *90 minutes for your beauty*, that she apparently lost :(( But I do remember certain things from there and one of them was this miraculous scrub made of Olive oil, sugar and honey. I was surprised to see this in one of Michelle Phan's videos, too, so is not a Russian receipe as I thought (mom's book was wrote by a Russian lady)!
Since a few weeks ago I was feeling my skin really dry and I didnt like how it looked anymore, I was getting small breakouts too and since like 3 days ago the skin on my face had started to feel very dry especially around my eyes. Whoever has got dry skin knows how uncomfortable that can feel! I used all the moisturizers I had even the samples layin around my house, drunk gallons of water, but nothing!! Untill I remembered of this!
To make this, you just grab some Extra Virgin Olive oil, some honey (organic is always best, of course) and some sugar (brown sugar is great, or anyways, unrefined one..) and you mix them. I know that in the book, and also Michelle, were recommending certain quantities (I am too lazy and too tired to look now for her video) but that is irrelevant anyways becase I am gonna tell you how I do it, as this is MY blog! lol. I just take the ingredients and a cup and splash in there the oil and the honey, by eye, I mix them and then add the sugar to get to a scruby-paste consistency, which I put as a face mask and then the rest I rub all over my body in the shower. Then I rinse both my face and my body and there, the magic happens! The skin is smooth and soft and feels AMAAAZING!! Talk about feeling good in your own skin!
If you didn't try it yet, do it, you will love it! Oh and, I used it even when I was having breakouts on my face, and it didnt make them worse, nor caused new ones. Actually when you have pimples or breakouts you should make sure your face is hydrated because of the products you might be using against acne, the skin tends to get very dry. Just make sure you don't scrub your face with the sugar on the breakout areas, or on the sensitive eye areas!
Happy scrubbing!
oxox
Roxana

New YT Video uploaded: Concealers - which ones are the best, imo

I hope you find this helpful! Enjoy!

oxox
Roxana

How to get back in shape after pregnancy

Disclaimer: Noone is paying me to write about these products, they just helped me and I am sharing my experience with you!

So, as you probably know, I just had a baby! If you look back in my blog, I have many Pregnant OOTD's :) I gave birth in June and I can say that now I am 90% back into my pre-pregnancy shape.  I would have been 100% by now if I would have been doing some sports too, but I just can't manage to fit a gym routine into my crazy schedule yet... My poor cross-trainer (elyptical) is sittin alone and bored on the balcony. I only think I visited it 3 times since I gave birth... By the way, if you ask me, the cross trainer is a fabulous way of getting and staying in shape, and a very pleasant way, compared to the others cardio devices! I personally really enjoy using it and it doesn't get me tired and out of breath as the bike and the treadmill do. And I always see results after a few training sessions on it. Yes, I am trying to motivate myself to get back to riding it, at least 3 times a week!

Okay so, if I did not do any sports, then what helped me? Well, first and foremost, starting around the 25th week of pregnancy I have been using this stuff, when my belly was starting to get really huge:

and this was amazing, I am 100% stretch mark free thanks to it! Okay Ive been using some anti-stretch mark produvts before too but this one was the best!
Then, I used these:

Note: If you are breastfeeding, these Elancyl products are not recommended, I heared, because they contain coffeine, especially the anti-cellulite one. I am not sure about the others, as I started using them when I stopped breastfeeding (I only was able to do it for 2 months, which I was very sad about but, hey, long live the HIP milk formula! lol). The Elancyl products I've been using forever now, they are the only anti-cellulite products that ever really worked for me, because my celulite is really weird, the more I am rubbing it with anti-cellulite creams and gels, the more visible it becomes! I guess those only were making my skin thinner and as the cellulite layer was deep, it was becoming more visible thanks to that... But Elancyl does not do that, it really helps thinning my thighs, well, don't imagine now that I go from size 42 to 38 in a month but... the results are visible. So this time I decided to buy not only the Offensive Cellulite 14 days gel, but also to try the Bust and Tummy firming gels.

The abdominal cellulite gel is good, but I can't say that Ive noticed amazing results. Maybe because I don't have abdominal cellulite but some pure genuine fat! LOL. It did help a bit with the skin appearance tho, it looks a bit tighter. The damage was not too big to start with, but I do have a bit of a tummy left :(
This one tho, was gooood!

This I've been using for a month and seen real results. Again, the damage was not too big after only 2 months of breastfeeding but it was some... This thing helped to get my *thingies* back to their prior-pregnancy shape. Oh, I've been using cold water too :-p 
One more thing that I like about these Elancyl products is that their texture is very fine and the skin doesn't remain sticky or oily after using them, nor has that heavy smell that some anti-cellulite products have, that gets on your clothes and is just gross. They smell sooo nice!!
And one more thing Ive been using, because I had a c-section, is this scar fading cream, from La Roche Posay, called Cicaplast. It is not meant for real scars actually, is meant to be used after dermatologic treatments, but the lady at the store said it will help and it actually did. Not dramatically but it did show results :)
Also, dry brushing is very very good against cellulite, but I am not gonna talk too much about that here because I am guilty of being too lazy to do that lately...

So that's about it, I hope this helped someone, because I know I've been searching for such things the moment I got pregnant...I was looking for ways to get back in shape afterwards! lol

oxoxox
Roxana

OOTD - sunny Autumn days

The weather is still fine, although it started to get colder, so made my hubby take some pics for me!
This is what I wore today:

Jacket: Victoria's secret Utility jacket. I checked the website and they still have it! Ive got mine a couple of years ago and worn it a billion times since, is one of my absolute wardrobe favs!
Top: New Yorker - black strapless ruched tube top
Distress tie-dyed jeans: Zara (if you have curvy hips, thicker thighs and small waist, try Zara for jeans, it's the only place I can actually find jeans that REALLLY fit me!)
Orthopedic sole sandals
Ray-Ban sunnies
Earrings from Deichmann (they carry jewelery too, at some of their shops)

Hoping for more sunny Autumn days...
oxoxox
Roxana

Great quote!

Untill I manage to eventually organize my new mommy and workin girl time and be able to post again on a regular basis, I thought I would share a great quote that I just found:

"Whoever said that money can't buy happiness didn't know where to shop"- Blair Waldorf
:))


oxoxox
Roxana

Face Serums: Lancome Genifique and La Roche Posay Derm AOX review

This stuff, is FAB! I don't know if it works the same for evrerybody but I guess it wouldn't be so famous if it didn't! I have combination skin, with the T zone getting really oily during the day. Right now I don't have problems with the acne anymore, but before pregnancy I used to have really pimple-prone skin, with tendency for black heads and cystic acne! And this stuff used to work for me back then too! It does NOT clog pores, does NOT get your face greasy, does not dry it, it really gives you a nice glow after only a few days of use, the fine lines are visibly reduced and, in my case, I noticed the pimpes were fading and drying faster, when I was having those! I am using it alone at night, not under some other face cream (as they recommend), because I think it is enough for me, I don't like to put too much stuff on my face at night because I am paranoid about clogged pores and greasiness. I only use it at night, because in the morning I am using my Effaclar DUO under the foundation, and it still works great, even if on the box it's recommended that you use it twice a day. Indeed, it IS a bit expensive but I bought the big 50ml bottle and spared some money. 

In Germany, the 30 ml bottle is around 69 euros and the 50 ml one is around 102 euros.

Funny fact: I was looking at the wand that the bottle comes with and I was like...wtf is this? How do you use this, you just hold it above your face and wait for the drop to fall? LOL Actually it is a little pump wand, you press the button on top of the lid and the serum comes out, all you gotta be careful about is to actually land it on your face...or in your hand. I personally prefer pump bottles not pump wands.

 (please disregard my exfoliated polish-less thumb nail!)
 If you can't afford or do not want to pay so much for the Genifique serum, then a great replacement for it would be the La Roche Posay Derm AOX face serum.
 Compared to the Genifique, as consitency is the same only that it comes in a pump lil tube and is brown colored (The Genifique is white/colorless actually). Oh and the LRP has a smell to it that some might not like. I like it because it's clear that no perfume was used so it's only the smell of the ingredients. It is known that perfume can cause allergic reactions to sensitive skin types. I didnt't see a huge difference in results from using both serums, all I could see was that the Genifique is giving a more glowy aspect to your face, but the difference is not dramatic. The LRP costs only 26.50 euros for 30 ml, which is alot less than the Genifique. This is my used and abused tube:

  If you read my blog/watch my YT videos you know that I love the LRP products and the thermal water-based products in general, I think they are awesome and they work just great for my skin.

I wanna add that the serums last you quite a long time because they are practically liquid so 2-3 drops are enough to spread all over face and neck! I think they are alot more worthy than actual face creams. Of course, they say is best to use serums AND the cream, but here I am sharing my experience and my way of using these :)
Hope this post was helpful to some of you!
Thanks for reading my blog!
oxoxox
Roxana

formspring.me

Ask me anything, I will answer if I consider myself able to help in the matter :-p http://formspring.me/Muzette

My baby boy

This little face makes me happy every day! Happier than I've ever been!

OOTD

Whew, finally, back to posting Outfits of the Day! This is the first time I post an OOTD after the birth of my lil Mathias, and is not because I would have been too fat to wear any of my clothes, but because I was toooo busy and tired!! OMG, it IS tiresome to be a new mommy! But is the best job I ever had or wanted, I always thought it was cheesy to say this but now I arrived to the point where I say it myself and to MEAN it! Anyways, these days are unbelievably hot here in Germany, I never thought I would get to see such hot weather here in September! Usually the weather would start to become ugly by the end of August or even earlier! I even saw sparrows flyin around, and they usually go away much earlier! If I mention the invasion of bees too, that are now carnivore (they come sit on your steak if you are on a terrace), I get to agree that this global warming is actually happening! Anyways, enough rambling, here is what I wore today!

Top: No idea where that is from, Ive had it for a while now...lol, sorry I cant give details on this

Skirt: from Victoria's Secret (I absolutely LOVE its cut, and knee-length skirts are back in trend this season!)

Shoes: not a known brand, but cute and comfy

Lather bag: from Barney's New York

Shades: Ray Ban

Watch: Swatch gold

Big red stone ring: Bijou Brigitte

Pearl Earrings: Tschibo

The necklaces are not looking good together but I really wanted to wear this new bracelet-necklace set that I got from my beautiful friend Maggie, and that I love! I did not take off my Virgin Mary medal necklace tho, lately I became superstitious about that. I should have taken it off for the pictures tho :-p Silly me!

Here is a closer pic of the necklace and bracelet I got from my dear Maggie:

She also sent a bunch of nice things for my little bunny :)
Well, that's it for now, hope I inspired someone with this post,
oxoxox
Roxana