REVITALE Salicylic Acid Scrub Soap | The Amazon best seller against acne

Personally -- and thankfully -- I don't suffer from acne. Never did. Not even on my teen years. But I know that many of you do, and I hope this post can be helpful to you. I saw this product and I immediately thought that I need to do some research on it!  This product is all the rage right now and I've heard it absolutely does wonders for acne prone skin! The only reason I haven't ordered it and tried it for my self is because, well, I don't have acne prone skin or a lot of blemishes, but I thought you might all enjoy reading about it and maybe try it!

It's known that one of the things that helps with blemishes are products rich in Salicylic Acid and Sulfur. And today we can find all kinds of products marketed for acne prone skin. Products that claim to get rid of all your blemishes, from pills to pomades, but not all of them actually do what they promise. And some of them can be extremely aggressive for you skin -- and for your wallet as well!

But one product that I've been reading more and more about is this Salicylic Acid Scrub Soap, from the English company Revitale. It's very cheap and from the reviews I've red on Amazon UK, it really makes a difference! It's currently the #2 best seller in Face Scrubs on it has a 4+ star rating! 

But what makes this soap so special?

The magic of this soap starts with the abundant exfoliating almond and walnut shell particles, that can be very abrasive but work wonders in deep cleansing pores and stimulating cell renewal. Then you have Salicylic Acid (2%) that unclogs your pores and removes dead cells, revealing a clearer, renewed complexion. And to help removing any bacteria and absorbing any excess oil we have the Sulfur. But the treatment doesn't finish here. This soap is also enriched with Vitamine E1 that leaves your skin feeling incredibly soft, nourished and ready to face the world!

It's pink and beautiful and really easy to use, according to the amazon reviews. It ladders up really easily but I did find some complaints about the smell, but hey, it's sort of a medicinal product I wasn't expecting it to smell extremely good. 

I think you can only get it from Amazon -- and unfortunately for Portugal you have to pay shipping -- but from what I've seen it's worth every cent! If you find it somewhere else, please let me know so I can update this post!

Do you have acne? What do you do to control your break outs? 

Have you ever tried a soap like this? 

⇝ This is NOT a sponsored post, I just found out about it and decided to write about it. Just because it's not useful to me, it doesn't mean that I shouldn't share it with you! ⇜

NEW IN MY CLOSET | MANGO

-- I'm not the biggest fan of shopping during sales season. The stores are crowded, the clothes are all pilled up and I can never find my size. But what I've been doing is: whenever I'm shopping around and I find something that I like but that I feel it's too expensive, I add it to my wishlist on the store's app (Mango's and Zara's even allow you to scan the bar code on the and it will open the product right on the app). When the sales arrive, I look trough my wishlist, I check the new prices, and I buy what I still like and still want!

Oh and I payed of these using a 25€ Mango gift card that I bought for 12€ trough SixthContinent ! -- 

New In My Closet | My Furla Play

I absolutely love My Furla Play Metropolis with the super ornamented and intricate pink suede flap. It's just so beautiful, and detailed and I loved. These jewels were placed one-by-one by hand in Italy and they are just so stunning! However, I'm so scared that they might come off that I don't wear this bag as much as I would love to. I'm so scared to ruin it that I barley take it out of the house. You can see in the next picture how intricate the placement of this jewels are, and you can also see the little thingy that holds one of the big gems sticking out -- It got caught on my jacket and it just opened! Thankfully, I was able to push it down and it's like nothing ever happen!

So I decided to buy the plain flap, that matches the rest of my bag, because I thought that this way I would get more uses out of it... And yep, I've been using my pink bag all the time and I am so happy. Best decision ever! I only spent 60€ on the flap and basically now I have two bags. I can wear the simple one to work, or just going out with friend, and the very ornamented one whenever I'm feeling more fancy.

-- Bag -- Suede flap with the Jewelry -- Simple Flap -- 

BerryLook | Bodycon dresses

A few years ago I thought that buying clothes online was insane. Not being able to touch the clothes, try them on, see how it feels, freaked me out. But now, I'm so used to it that it's just completely part of my routine now. This because there are so many great online stores that sell really stylish pieces at a much more affordable price!

This the case of BerryLook. 

BerryLook is an online store that sells cheap clothes that are super trendy. And for me this type of stores are great for when you need to buy a dress for some event that you know you are only going to wear once. They have really beautiful sexy bodycon dresses perfect for any occasion, really classy and beautiful!

Here are three of my favorites but I totally invite you to browse the website and find all the amazing stuff they have.

 -- 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 

How to become Belle

Over the years, Disney hasn't always been known for creating strong female role models. In part, that’s been down to the era their movies have been made in; films such as Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, reflect the attitudes toward women at the time - which is to say that the girl stays at home, happy to perform chores while waiting for a Prince to come and sweep her off her feet.

But in Beauty and the Beast we have Belle. She is the girl that everyone wants to be. She is beautiful, graceful, strong and smart! There are undeniable aspects of strength to this character: Belle loved books while other girls in the village only focused on their appearances in order to land a man. She fought back hard against Gaston’s advances, and wasn’t afraid to tell the Beast that he was rude. And even though she may have suffered from Stockholm Syndrome, she is indisputably one of the strongest classic Disney characters. Who doesn't want to be like Belle?

-- Please be nice and supportive and click on at least one of the pictures! I'd do the same for you. Thank you! --

For the first time in my damn life I've finished a whole bottle of perfume. Yep. I used up every single drop of my Chanel Chance. I wanted to try a new one but I have this crazy thing with smells, so it's hard for me to make a decision and it took me a while to find another perfume that I like on me. Eventually I got this one -- Coco Mademoiselle. It’s also Chanel, of course— because I always love anything Chanel. And it’s waaay more expensive than my old perfume. WAY more. But I got it anyway. It has a more mature smell, I’d say. It’s a little bit sweeter, a bit more intense. It has some sort of oriental and exotic feeling about it. More sensual. I like it. I really like it.

Kitchen Makeup Boutique

If there's one makeup store that just sucks all my money away, is this one -- Kitchen Makeup Boutique. It's not common anymore to have like small makeup stores. People always go to big chains. But I love the girls that work there -- they are always so nice and so helpful! And the space is just stunning! They don't have a shit tone of stuff, but the products they sell are always amazing and super high quality! I got both of my Zoeva pallets from here, and now I went back to get something more! Curious?

Did you know that Parfois now has sterling sliver jewelry? I sure didn't!

-- Yes, I know that my thumb-nail looks weirdly short. I had a couple of stressful weeks, and my old nail biting habit kicked in and I completely wrecked my nails -- 

I don't wear fake jewelry, things made of plastic, or cheap metals. I just don't like it. I always end up with a blue mark around my finger or neck and I hate that. And I never ever go into stores like Parfois. But I went there to buy a scarf and I noticed that they now carry a small collection of sterling silver pieces. Everything very simple and clean and it seams to be a rather small collection. But the pieces are very elegant and beautiful. 

Review | FLORMAR Trio Contour Palette

When I went to Flormar, the guy that did my make up there, did some light contouring on me, and I actually liked the result. Contouring is not something I do often -- it's just to much trouble for me -- BUT I liked the result, and what he did was rather simple, so I decided to get the pallet he used and play around with it.

This is the Trio Contour Pallet in shade 02 Medium to Dark. And it's just beautiful! You know I'm a sucker for cute packing, and this really hits the spot. It's so cool! You can feel the quality of the plastic of the pallet -- it's hard and shinny, and just so beautiful. Yeah, I starting to become that person that buys shit just because the box is adorable!

Anyhoo, this little pallet comes with 2 different contouring shades and one highlighter. The darker shade, is an ashy-brown completely matte shade. Very earthy, very natural. It works really well with my completion. I think it mimics really well the my natural shading. The second pan has a more bronzy shade. It is much more reddish. While the other shade creates the feeling of a shadow on your face, this one gives you a more *sun-kissed* look. I particularly like this on the sides of my nose. It gives me such a nice beachy summer bronzed glow that I really love. The third pan is a gold highlighter. It’s not glittery, just very shimmery and reflective. And although it looks really muted in the pan, it looks really beautiful on. Much like the bronzer, it gives a very natural, healthy glow to the skin. It’s really really pretty. And it is also very beautiful to wear *solo*. Just the highlighter, on your bare skin. It gives you a super natural glow, like you were just out in the sun. It’s so nice.

I try to use these very lightly, mainly because I don’t like a very defined contouring. And also because I never go full glam with my make up. I apply the darker shade right bellow my cheeks bones, temples, and forehead -- close to my hair line and I try to blend it as best as I can. A apply little bit on my jaw line and just a little bit under the tip of my nose. Very lightly, I use the bronzer shade to blend my cheeks. I apply it just a little bit above the other shade. I also apply a little bit to the sides of my nose. And blend, blend, blend! If I feel like it's just too intense -- it happens, i'm just to heavy handed sometimes -- I use the same brush that I applied my foundation with, and I just buff it out, to try and dim it a little bit.

That's pretty much it. It's much more work than what I was used to but I actually like the outcome. I don't do it for everyday, of course. But for when I go out or to a party -- which to be honest is not that often, I have a boring social life. But I do like how I look in pictures, so I think I'm doing a good job.

Flormar Haul

One of these days, after work, I went for a walk at a small shopping mall right in the center of Lisbon – Campo Pequeno Shopping Mall. I like to go there. It’s under the gorgeous Lisbon’s Bull Fighting Arena, and it is really a super small shopping place. But, it has really good stores! And it happens to have a Flormar store. I've walk through it so many times and I had never even got inside. But on that particular day, I was walking around and I remembered that I’ve thinking about buying a Gel Eyeliner, and so I went inside. There was this super nice boy that immateriality came to help me. Frankly, I like to be on my own, and just walk around, do a bunch of swatches, and only ask for help if I need it. But you know, I told him what I was looking for. And he pointed me out immediately to the display. I asked him a couple of questions, like if the product was good, easy to apply, and he end up showing me some other products. Since I was in the need of a new foundation, I asked him what would he recommend. I had never tried anything from Flormar before, but I’m always reading great things about it and I thought that since I was already in there I might just give it a shot.

--

Smooth Touch Foundation, shade 7 Golden Neutral 

Invisible Loose Powder, Silver Sand

Gel Eyeliner, Gel Black

Trio Contour Palette

Mascara Spider Lash

--

I told the guy what I like in a foundation – natural looking, medium coverage, oil free, easy to blend. The guy garbed a bottle and told me to sit in the make up chair to color match me. We tested out two shades, and we settled for the lighter one. He said, since I was already there, that we would do the rest of my make up. Cool right? So, I sat down, he applied the foundation on my face, while giving me some general tips on how to do it – nothing that I didn’t knew already. He applied foundation, then loose powder, and because I was unsure about the shade --  and just looking way too pale, he applied some blush, some contouring and some highlight. I liked the result. It’s pretty similar to what I often do on my own. But I ended up buying pretty much what he used. I went there to buy a cheap black gel eyeliner, and I left with a bag full of products that I’m excited to try out. He even throw in a mascara. 

Well done Flormar, you are hiring good professionals!

 -- Oh, and Flormar, feel free to invite me to one of those cool PR events I've seen you trowing! I would love to go!  --

How to take care of an expensive bag

Recently I bought my first expensive leather handbag. It's something that I've wanted for a while, finally I felt like it was the time to splurge. It's a Furla Like S in Onix. I spent a lot of money on this bag. And I want to give it the best care possible. I've done some research to see how I can ensure this handbag will last me a long time, and always look good. 

Here go some general tips.

The first tip is really basic: Be extra careful! Not that I'm not careful with my other handbags, but just try to avoid careless mistakes! To be more specific: 

1. Avoid handling your bag if your hands are dirty or if you have lotion on them.

2. Avoid squishing your bag or stuffing it with too much stuff, avoiding stretching it out. 

3. Avoid -- at any cost -- getting your bag wet. Apply regularly an water-repellent spray.

3. Keep your bag out of direct sunlight, or heat sources.

4. Rotate which handbag you carry regularly so that they don’t wear out too quickly.

5. Use a suede brush to clean and revive suede.

6. Regular use of a leather moisturizer will keep the leather supple and free of cracks.

7. Wipe your bag down on a weekly basis (when in use) with a soft cloth.

Keep the inside gunk free: Use pouches to store cosmetics and liquids, which will protect the handbag lining from spills. Avoid click pens at all cost, go for pens with caps instead. Better yet, put those in your pouch too, in case of dreaded ink leaks. And candy! Don't put candy in your bag. Just don't. 

Store them properly: up right position inside the cotton dust bag they normally come in. Good substitute: cotton pillow case. Never, NEVER, store them in plastic bags, because it this traps moisture. Cross the handles over each other to avoid wear on the bag and unclip any removable straps. If the bag needs something to keep it's shape up, stuff it with scarfs, or a t-shirt, or acid-free tissue paper -- it's really inexpensive on eBay, and you can keep using it over and over. I asked for some in the store where I bought my handbag and they were super kind and gave me enough to stuff my bag.

Products that were recommended to me:
- BÚFALO Leather Protection Spay. This spray nurtures and protects the leather and it can be used on anything that's made of leather around your house. It's cheap and It really helps keeping your bag smooth and beautiful. I got it a local supermarket.
- Waterproof spray for leathers. I've gone thought many cans of this -- from may different brands, I always get at my local supermarket... I apply it on shoes all the time too. It's perfect for suede!
- Magic Eraser (also known as melanine sponge). Bought a bunch of them off of eBay, really cheap. It's great for cleaning hardware and little decorations. Also works really good on shoes btw. You don't need any product, just a tiny but of water and it just makes everything shinny and lovely again.

How do you take care of you bags? Let me know your tips and what works for you in the comments!

My Cien Favorite Products

A while back, I ranted about the Heidi Klum's Collection with Lidl. And, yes, it's true, I prefer expensive products to supermarket brands, but there are from Lidl's in-house-brand Cien that I
find to be super good and just amazing for their prices!

- from left to right -

Eye Contour Cream with Caviar Extract

Aqua Rich Daily Exfoliating Facial Wash

Make up Removal Disks

Professional Heat Protection Spray
-

The eye cream is really good! It really helps me in those mornings that I have extra puffy eyes. It has a very gel-like consistency, slightly serum-y. I like it.

The exfoliating facial wash is very well known already. It's cheap, smells good, and does what it claims. I use it to wash my face in the shower. 

The face disks -- I've talked about them before. These are my favorite. For me, these are the best in the market and they are the cheapest. 

But the big surprise is this Heat Protection Spray. Fist of all, I was so surprised to see that Cien had a Professional line! And this works super super good. It's super cheap as well, and so far I feel like it does it job perfectly. 

Heidi Klum #LETSWOW

As you’ve probably heard by now, Heidi Klum lunched a small fashion collection with Lidl. When I heard about his I was excited! I thought that this could be great! Heidi is such a fashion icon, she is stunning and always looks amazing! But this collection for me personally was very disappointing. The clothes look and feel cheap, they look poorly constructed, the patterns are tacky and the pictures online and on the box are really deceiving. I had my mind set on this blue long cardigan.. I had seen it online and. I thought that that shade of blue was stunning and perfect for my life. But I guess I misguided by the pictures and I really really don’t like this shade of blue — you can see from the picture how different the color from the box from the actual fabric... I was really sad and disappointed...

Quick Tip # 7 | Ask for a sample

I don't know if any of you do this or not, but this is something that I've started doing and that I think is really clever.

Whenever I buy a perfume to give as a gift -- for Christmas or birthdays or whatever -- I always ask for a sample of that same perfume and I add it to the gift.  Most stores will fill up one of those sample spray baby bottles for free or for a really small price. This way the person to whom you give the perfume can smell it and try it out before opening the big expensive packaging. And if they don't like it, they can easily take it back to the store and exchange it. Perfume is a super personal thing, and unless you  are buying a fragrance that you know the person likes, you might be wasting your money. I'm weird about smells and I can't tell you how many times I've received bottles of perfume that I hated the smell.

NEW IN MY CLOSET | Massimo Dutti

HERE

-- I love to shop at Massimo Dutti. The stores are always so neat, everything is in it's rightful place, it is such an elegant and exclusive experience... The customer service there is always excellent! Yes, their stuff is more expensive. But you feel so fancy when they hand you over an nice quality bag with your stuff inside... and when you buy shoes or bags they even give you a cotton bag to protect them ! So good! --

FEELBRIDAL | Prom Dresses

It's funny to see how my taste in fancy dresses has changed throughout the years...

I used to prefer short dresses, don't really know why. Maybe because I think they're more jovial and fun. But lately I've been more drawn to for form fitting, classic with a twist, dresses. I still like simple dresses. With not that many embellishments. I still like soft colors... but I'm no longer attracted to dresses with a sweat hear neckline. It used to be my favorite style!

Since apparently my taste in dresses keeps changing, if I had to buy a fancy Homecoming Dress, for example, I would definitely opt to buy it online, to avoid wasting a huge amount of money.

Feelbridal offers so many dress options at really good price points. And they have a huge selection for their Prom Dress 2018 collection... so many styles, colors, fabrics! Take a look, they're all really beautiful!

-- Please be nice and supportive and click on at least one of the links! I'd do the same for you. Thank you! --

Wells is having a 2-for-the-price-of-1 sale on a bunch of sun products...from expensive brands! You pay for the most expensive, and they offer you the cheapest. 

And off course I had to take advantage this sale! I bought a bunch of Vichy sunscreen because they're my favorite (but you can actually mix around the brands!) To get my money worth I bought two kits. And I have been dying to try this Bronze line. The big kit was 28€ and the smaller one costed 20€ but it was free! It's an awesome deal!

Primark thoughts

I am not a big fan of Primark. I don't like shopping there. I don't know what it is but I could never understand the crazy hype about it. But I've been seeing all the great stuff you people buy there -- make up, accessories, shoes, cloths, cute home stuff... So, once again I've decided to give it another shot. OK, so I went to Primark. I spent almost three hours there. And yes, my conclusion is the same. Although everything is super cheap, I don't think it's worth the money. Yes, somethings are cute, some patterns are just super adorable, but the fabrics feel and look cheap. I like to buy stuff that I know are going to last. I like to know that I can wash a shirt several times and that it's not going to look weird. And that's the feeling that I get with Primark cloths. They feel like disposable clothes. Like you'd wear it two or three times and than when it starts to look weird and worn out, you could just trow it way. And it wouldn't weight on you conscience because it was super cheap. I don't like living like this. I feel like this is super wasteful. It's a waste of money and a waste of resources. I understand buying there stuff for kids -- OK, they ruin so much clothing that buying expensive stuff is pointless.

While I was canvasing the store, I saw a lot of people with those huge baskets completely full, buying those crappy things, crappy plastic accessories, toys... And I think this is the perfect example how consumerism works: I feel like some people buy all that shit because it's just so cheap. "Oh, it's only two euros" "Oh a dress for 10 euros, so cheap". And they end-up buying too much crap that they don't really need. 

I ended up buying only two things: a pack o socks and this cute pink toothbrush because I found it cute and I needed a new toothbrush to carry around (and who can resist a pink toothbrush with a pink case? )

It took me almost two months to get my hands on my Coloupop order. But it's was so worth it! All the products are awesome, and the packaging super cute! And look at this cute card they sent me! 

GLAMOUROSA | High End Products With Awesome Prices + Discount Code

You know I love to shop online... I'm honestly starting to hate going to physical stores, to wait in lines to pay or to try out stuff.  Including make up and beauty products... Recently I've come into this super cool store, called GLAMOUROSA, with the most awesome prices and great discounts! If you are like me and you like expensive brands, you know the struggle of managing expensive prices.

GLAMOUROSA is a portuguese online store that sells the most awesome, trendy, high-end brands, at really really good prices! They have all type of products, from make-up, skin-care, fragrances, hair... From what I've seen, almost every product has at least a 15% discount over their regular price, which is pretty awesome!    They guaranteed me that all their products are genuine!

Another cool thing -- they offer FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING for orders over 60€, which honestly is not hard to reach. And they always, ALWAYS, send you some samples of cool new products for you to try! 

Here are some products that currently on my wishlist. I know their prices at Sephora and so, and I can't guarantee you that they are way cheaper here.

And because they are super super awesome, they gave me a 5% discount code to share with you! I know, 5% isn't a lot, but don't forget that all their products have already pretty good discounts! Just use the code 'thenotsogirlygirl' at the end of your purchase!