Beauty

March Favorites + Shiro Cosmetics Haul

12:30 AM

Top Left to Bottom Right: Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream, Shiro Cosmetics Polyjuice Lip Gloss, Lush Sleepy Body Lotion, Klairs Supple Prep Facial Toner, Shiro Cosmetics Custom Lip Gloss 

IT'S FINALLY SPRING BREAK!!! Which means that I actually have some spare time to invest into this blog (even though I know that I don't have many visitors.) Since this blog is still very much a work in progress, I have decided to try my hand at monthly favorites! Although I can't guarantee that I'll post a favorites post every single month (especially since I am working during the summer and starting my first year of college this fall!!!), I promise that I'll try my best! So without further ado, here are my monthly favorites! 

I'm going to preface my skincare favorites with a little backstory on the condition/ general information about my skin type. I generally have a very normal skin type with some dryness around my mouth, cheeks, and forehead. Other than that, I have the very occasional breakout on my nose, chin, or forehead that will usually go away in a couple of days unless I pick at it (which I, unfortunately, do.) That said, my skin was a HUGE mess this month. I'm not sure if it was because of the pre-college stress, finals, or other problematic occurrences, but my skin was super dry and I even had some eczema flare ups around my mouth and chin area. Despite this unfortunate circumstance, it was a great time for me to switch up my skincare! I was already trying to switch over to more cruelty-free products (see my previous blog post for more information), and I've heard only great things about Klairs' skincare. 

I've used the Cosrx Advanced Snail 92 All in one cream for the last 3 months now and it was working really well for me until my recent eczema flare up. Since I was pretty much scraping the bottom of the jar I went ahead and ordered the Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream to use instead. 



It's BLUE! 

This cream isn't a conventional cream in the sense that it's super hydrating (nor does it claim to be),  but it's amazing for soothing any itchy, red, or otherwise irritated skin! In about a week and a half, my eczema was totally gone! Although I still have some dry patches around my mouth, it's not nearly as bad it was at the beginning of March. My eczema is notoriously difficult to get rid of, so it's absolutely amazing that this got rid of most of it! 

Another product (?) that I've been using to treat my eczema is washing my face with oatmeal in the morning. This sounds super weird but trust me, it works! Since I remove my makeup with a micellar water type product before washing my face with the Cosrx Low Ph Good Morning Gel Cleanser at night, I rarely have any makeup left on my face in the morning. I just grab a handful of oatmeal (plain rolled oats that I store in my [now] empty Cosrx Snail Cream container) and run it under some warm water and smush it around until it's fairly soft. The oatmeal is super gentle and (obviously) doesn't have any weird chemicals or ingredients that will dry out your skin— it also works great as a super gentle exfoliator! 

The next skincare item I've been loving this month is yet another Klairs product (seriously this brand is amazing). 

                                                                                                        Picture Credits: Wishtrend.com

 The Klairs Supple Prep Facial Toner is described as "Calming formula" meant to restore and balance "PH levels." Because of this, this toner is not meant to be a "cleansing" or astringent toner. Instead, it serves to hydrate your skin and prepare it for the layers of skincare you can put on top (ie: emulsions, ampules, creams, lotions, etc). I can honestly say that this toner has worked better than my old Cosrx toner (I believe it was a BHA or AHA one?). While that toner left my skin feeling slightly stripped and tight, this toner leaves my skin feeling soft and hydrated! I think this is more because I found a product that works better for my skin in this current weather than because the Cosrx toner is a bad product. In fact, the Cosrx toner worked fine for me throughout the summer! The Klairs toner smells very nice and herbally as well, which doesn't hurt :) The only complaint that I have about Klairs' is that their skincare is quite expensive for me. However, if it means that my skin won't freak out and make it impossible to apply makeup, I'm willing to spend a little extra. 

Moving away from my facial skincare, my favorite body lotion that I've been enjoying is the Sleepy Body Lotion from Lush! Yet another cruelty-free brand and beautifully colored product! Sleepy Body Lotion is limited edition product that was newly released last Christmas. It was also a lovely gift from one of my friends who visited me when she came back to suburbia during winter break!  Sleepy smells absolutely divine and I was trying to save it for special occasions, but I couldn't resist opening it this month as it's a bit warmer here in California and everyone has started wearing skirts/shorts without tights. The lotion isn't greasy or sticky at all and I don't feel gross even when I put it on right before bed. 

My next two products are going to be lumped into one category as they're both from the same brand and are both lip glosses! I've recently discovered the indie brand Shiro Cosmetics and they absolutely fill the growing fandom void in my heart. I'm absolutely obsessed with all things Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Series of Unfortunate Events, and Game of Thrones (among others), so this brand was absolutely perfect for me! I recently purchased some other products in addition to the lip glosses (I might've spoiled myself a bit this month) so I might do a haul/review after I use some of them some more. Anyhow, these two lipglosses have to be my favorites out of the bunch. 
Picture Credits: Shirocosmetics.com

Polyjuice is a very very sheer green tinted "jelly" lipgloss that can be used to give a glossy shine on top of other lip products and slightly make red lips (or lipsticks/tints/etc) look ever slightly more brown. I've mostly been using it as a topper for lipsticks that look too "bright" or "over the top". It smells slightly like pumpkin and mixed with honey and a herbally note that, once again, I can't get enough of. I think it's most likely an acquired taste (smell?) but I adore it! The company's website describes it as "Spicy and herbal, unexpectedly very pleasant! Honeyed pumpkin and a dash of pine trees." which I think is fairly accurate. Smells a bit like Christmas! 
                                                                                                    Picture Credits: Shirocosmetics.com

The other lipgloss that I received was actually a replacement gloss for the ever so popular, "Nic Cage Churning Butter One Crisp Thanksgiving Morn" (did I mention that the names are hilarious). The lipgloss that Caitlin (Shiro Cosmetic's founder and product creator!) made me didn't quite look the way I wanted it to (nor did it look like the swatches online that I've seen. Mine was far too pale and purpley) so she kindly made me a replacement gloss that looks exactly like what I was looking for when I decided to purchase it the first time! It's a bit more peachy/orange than the original (which is what I wanted based on the swatches I've seen online), although not quite as orange as in the photo in the beginning of the blog post. I think I may end up ordering more custom lip glosses once I get through some of my extensive collection of lip products as Caitlin is super amazing at matching colors that you may not be great at relaying. Both lip glosses are not sticky and very smooth as well as hydrating! 

And that's it! Hope you enjoyed this longer post as I tried to be as thorough in my reviews as possible! Next post will likely be a music recommendation + rambly post, so if you're into reading that kind of thing please keep an eye out! 



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