February Favorites

Today on the blog I'm sharing a few of my favorites for the month of February! I want to try to do a monthly favorites blog that includes beauty, entertainment and fashion because I love sharing things I love! (Also, can you believe it's already March!? What.) This month I'm featuring a few beauty faves and one fashion fave.

Beauty

I honestly only tried a handful of new beauty products this month so these definitely qualify as "tried and true" favorites from more than just the month of February. I feel like I should also preface this with my skin type; I have combination/oily and extremely sensitive skin that will break out in acne or hives if it doesn't like a product. Like, a feather could literally graze my face and I will get a massive red hive. It's horrible! So needless to say I'm really careful and choosey about what I put on my skin. I realize that everyone's skin reacts different to certain skin care products so I'm not claiming that these will work for everyone exactly the same or that everyone will fall in love with the products as much as I have, they're just what have worked for me! 

So here are all the beauty & skin care items I've been loving this month:

Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadow in Bella Chiffon

I've actually been using this to highlight my cheekbones and nose as well as an eyeshadow and I've really been loving it! My skin has yellow undertones so pink toned highlights just don't look right on me. This shade is a lovely gold toned ivory and is so shimmery and so pigmented that it's perfect as a highlight on your eyes or cheeks.

Ulta Beauty Mineral Blush in Sweet Pea

I honestly can't remember the last time I bought something from Ulta's beauty line but I decided to give some of their products a shot after my sister gave me a gift card to Ulta for my birthday. As far as blushes go, I usually gravitate more towards peachy, warm, bronzed tones so I was pleasantly surprised when I fell in love with this blush! It's more cool toned, like a dusty, rosy pink. What I really love about it is that, because it is a mineral blush, it's pigmented yet sheer so it's really easy to build the product to get the right amount of blush. 

Nivea Sensitive Cooling Post Shave Balm

Okay so this one I just had to try because I kept hearing rumors about how amazing it was as a primer and you know what? It really is as amazing as everyone says it is! As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I have combination/oily and very sensitive skin. On top of that, my t-zone tends to get pretty oily as the day goes on so I was definitely curious to see how this product would stand up to everything I have going on with my skin. It is the sensitive formula and it has a really nice cooling effect that gently wakes your skin up and feels really nice when doing your makeup in the morning. It does initially have a strong, spicy/manly cologne smell to it that does wear off after you start applying your makeup, but I honestly don't mind it at all because I prefer "manly" smells to flowery/powdery smells. As the day went on, I did get a little oily but I was really impressed with how it kept my makeup on my face even after an 8 hour shift at work. Even more impressive was that Josh could tell the difference! So needless to say, I highly recommend this as a primer. 

Mario Badescu A.H.A. & Ceramide Moisturizer

Part of my New Years resolution was to take better care of my skin because I turned 25 this year (hello quarter life crisis!) and I realized that now's the time for preventative maintenance on my skin, aka better to keep wrinkles and uneven texture away now than try to get rid of it later, ya know what I mean? We just started carrying a handful of skin care from the Mario Badescu brand in our store and I figured it was perfect timing for me to try it. I have only tried a few items in the range and even though I am so impressed with a number of them, this product has definitely been the MVP of the month. The formula has alpha hydroxy acids in it that gently exfoliate your skin and make even up your skin's texture. According to the bottle it's especially for combination and oily skin so it's very lightweight and doesn't leave me feeling greasy at all, even when I wear it under my makeup. I use as both my daytime and nighttime moisturizer and when I wake up in the morning after slathering a good amount of it on my face, my skin is so soft and so smooth and I can really tell that it was working even through the night. In fact, I find that even my fingertips/hands feel softer and smoother after I apply this moisturizer on my face. Another product I highly recommend!

The Artist Studio in Elderflower Petal Eau de Parfum

I used to only use one perfume, every single day until I ran out and that was my signature scent but I've recently been getting really into perfumes and fragrances. I love getting to choose the scent I wear that day based on where I'm going, my outfit or my mood. This perfume has notes of geranium and sandalwood and, because it is an eau de parfum, a few sprays will definitely last you all day. It's .5 oz, so not only is it great for traveling but it's double what you would get if you bought a rollerball perfume at a beauty store for basically half the price! Also, I'm a sucker for packaging and this packaging is just the cutest.

Fashion

photo credit: un-fancy.com

One of the things I've been obsessed with for the past month has been having a capsule wardrobe! If you've never heard of a capsule wardrobe, it's basically a system to keep your closet clean and keep you feeling good in your clothes. You choose a certain number of items in your closet and those are the only items that you wear that whole season. Not only does it make it so easy for me to get dressed in the morning, but it also saves me all the money I would've spent on retail therapy! It's a beautiful thing when you realize what you have is more than enough. And the best part of all this is that there's no rules that are set in stone, it's completely personalizable so you can choose what works best for you.

If you're curious to learn more about capsule wardrobes, check out this blog called Un-Fancy. She was one of my biggest inspirations in this whole thing and shows her past capsule wardrobes and outfits she built from those capsules. Even if you don't think a capsule wardrobe is for you, I definitely recommend checking out her blog!

That's all for now!

xo Kristina