Hey everyone! Ashley here with an update! (FINALLY! I know!) Aside from the monthly vlogs, today I have conducted a current favourites post in order to balance out the videos to the blog posts! If you haven't watched F&X youtube videos (which you should totally check out anyways), Gelaine and I are in summer school as well as balancing out our part time jobs, so truth be told it's actually difficult for us to start any F&X projects. Therefore, with two more weeks of summer school to go we'll be able to be free and enjoy our break without having to worry about any due dates. 

Okay, so now that I've got out of the way, let's just go straight into the favourites shall we? A lot of these products were from my previous haul post and as you can tell I've tested them out and loved them. So, hopefully this in depth review will pique your interest and help you out in understanding particular products! Thank you so much for reading and much love! xo 

1. Vichy Aqualia Thermal 48h Moisturizer: Holy grail moisturizer! This thing does actual wonders on the skin, it's super hydrating and it did eliminate all my dry patches on my skin. It's formula is water based leaving the skin feeling refreshed and soothes any discomfort from redness or irritation. It's lightweight and it's a perfect base when applying make up, as well as a satisfying night cream in order to keep your skin hydrated while you sleep. The only downside to this product is that there is no SPF, so if you plan on using this as a day cream, please remember to have some sort of SPF or sun screen base onto your face to protect you from the sun's UV rays. 

2. The Body Shop's Tea Tree Line: Here I have the Tea Tree Pore Minimizer, Face Mask and their Cool & Creamy Wash. Having to use tea tree in my daily skin care routine absolutely helped my skin clear up and keeps my breakouts in control. I do suffer with acne prone skin, but with these products in my daily routine, it prevented major breakouts from happening, reduces redness, and keeps my oil in control. I use the Cool & Creamy cleanser during my day time skin care routine along with my Cetaphil cleanser for oily to combo skin. For the Tea Tree Face Mask, I use it twice a week or when I see major break outs starting to form (especially when it's the time of the month) in order to reduce it from going any further. Then I use the Tea Tree Pore Minimizer as a primer for my base make up. I used to use Benefit's Porefessional, which is a great product, but it did get flaky on my skin at times when I try to apply it. So when I used the Body Shop's primer, I became accustomed to it and fell in love with it. It not only minimizes my pores, but it controls my oils on my face and aids with any breakouts I have, especially when I apply make up over it. All three products are soothing and give off that cooling sensation that the tea tree and other significant ingredients provide to help fight acne and control oils. The consistency of the mask and cleanser are both creamy and smooth when it is being washed off, therefore it is not drying on the face. So to my oily-combo, acne babes—I definitely recommend this line to you! 

3. Vichy Dermafinish (Dermablend) Corrective 16H Corrective Foundation: A little goes a long way with this product and I mean it. I use this as a concealer right after I finished applying my moisturizer and primer. This is a heavy duty formula that provides medium to full coverage. Using this to cover up any acne scarring or blemishes before anything else helps with the fact that I can apply minimal foundation after. 

4. Maybelline Age Rewind Concealer in Light: This is an obvious product to conceal under eye dark circles, but I mostly use this as a highlighter on my face. I apply this down the bridge of my nose, above my cupids bow, my chin, and in an upside down triangle application onto my eyes. Therefore, whenever the light hits those spots it provides a natural highlighted effect. It's especially great for the summer time now that the sun's out and it does help you look less tired than you already are! 

5. Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Medium 2 Ginger: Worth the splurge for a concealer! It stays true to it's name as its formula is super creamy and it does provide great coverage underneath the eyes or any blemishes. It's not cakey and does not crease for a concealer that is medium to full coverage. You can easily blend it onto the skin and it gives you a natural finish. I know a lot of beauty gurus who use this by itself because of it's perfect coverage and so you can absolutely skip the foundation and use this if you don't have a lot of imperfections to cover onto your face. 

6. Real techniques Buffing Brush: The name speaks for itself! Real techniques brushes are great to use especially if you're a beginner with make up. I got this from their core kit and using the buffing brush helps blend my foundation onto my skin for that flawless finish. 

7. Cover Girl 3 in 1 Outlast Liquid Foundation with SPF 20 in Golden Tan: One of the two foundations that I've been using every day. It's a holy grail drug store foundation as it provides medium to full coverage and leaves my face looking matte, thus controlling minimal oils on my face. It's a 3 in 1 foundation because it primes, conceals and acts as a foundation in one easy step. However, I do recommend having a base if you're oily skinned like me, as well as setting it because no matter what the face will do wonders that you do not want. But on the upside it is affordable and worth spending on! I do advise to get a shade lighter, because the product does oxidize onto the skin making the shade go slightly darker. So if you get a shade lighter, it will adjust to your skin tone once it oxidizes. If you get a shade way too light, I recommend using a bronzer or a powder to give your skin back some colour. If you get a shade that's too dark, try using a little bit and mix it with your other shades of foundation. The colour ranges are tricky here and I used to use a different shade (honey) until I realized it was too light, thankfully golden tan was just the right shade for me. 

8. Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay in Place Foundation in 3N2 Wheat: I wanted a high end foundation that's worth the splurge on and so I decided to get this. The Estee Lauder counter at the Bay had a promotion giving out a little make up bag filled with goodies, so it was obvious that I had to get the foundation. I was already eyeing it for a few months, but I didn't have the heart to splurge on it until that promotion happened. A little goes a long way with the foundation because it is borderline medium to extremely full coverage. You don't want to cake your face with this stuff. Like the Cover Girl foundation, I do recommend having a base and setting it if you have a similar skin type as me. When it comes to oil control wise, it doesn't make my face become an oily mess and it stays on for a long time. Like I even slept with it (donotrecommenddoingomg!) and my make up still stayed in place, so that says a lot. 

9. Rimmel ScandalEyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal in Black: Creamy, pigmented, waterproof—perfect for lining my eyes with.

10. Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner: With this product, it helped me achieve my cat eye look with ease. I have a swatch of it in the next photo and how it looks when I have it on with a full face of make up at the bottom. It's pigmented and dries to a matte black  finish and so far it hasn't dried out on me, so I'm quite happy with that. The felt tip provides precision and provides different lines that you'd want on your eye (whether thick or thin). 

11. Tightline Full Lash Length Waterproof Black Primer Mascara: My mom got this off the shopping channel so to be honest, I no clue where else to get it. This is probably my fave mascara because I don't usually use a curler to curl my lashes, but with this it helps lengthen and gives volume to my lashes making it stand out when I do my eye make up. The brush has super thin bristles and the formula is waterproof. I don't know how this product does it, but it just holds my lashes together and makes them stand out completely. I like to mix this with my Maybelline Falsies Waterproof mascara for a full proof effect. 

12. Rimmel ScandalEyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal in Nude: Creamy, pigmented, waterproof—perfect for lining my water line and making my eyes look alive and awake.

13. L'Oréal Paris Infallible Silkissime Eyeliner in Highlighter: Creamy, pigmented, waterproof—I use this as a highlighter underneath my lash line and inner corners to make me look away and provide a highlighted glow onto my eyes. 

14. Sephora Natural Instincts Palette in the Shades Buff (bottom) & Wood (top): My brow routine is right here on this palette. I use the shade Wood to outline my brows and fill in the middle to outer half, while using the shade Buff on my inner brows in order to give them a natural look. You don't want to use a shade that's darker than your natural eye brows on the inner half because it won't look as natural and it'll look more drawn on (unless you were going for that look then props to you!). 

15. Essence Lash and Brow Gel Mascara in Clear: It's a cheap brow gel that sets and keeps my brows in place y'know?

SWATCHES

Up close shot of the mascara

16. NYC Smooth Skin Sunny Bronzer: Affordable matte bronzer that gives you that sun kissed glow finish! For my bronzing routine I use this all around my face, and I do the three E motion, from my temples to my cheek bones to my jaw line. 

17. Rimmel Sun Shimmer Bronzing Powder in Medium Matte: I use this specifically to contour the hollows of my cheeks as it adds definition and only there do I apply it because it is an orange toned brown and so it does not look flattering any where else on my face seeing as I'm already tan. 

18. Benefit Hoola Bronzer: I use this on top of the Rimmel bronzer to add more definition as well as making the contour less harsh. As much as I do like an obvious contour, this colour makes everything subtle and it's pigmented, as well as easy to blend 

19. Elf Blush Brush: I use this, not for blush, but for contouring and highlighting because it fits perfectly on the hollows of my cheeks and the size of it makes it versatile for applying highlight on the cheek bone. 

20. Urban Decay's Virgin in the Naked Palette: I use virgin as my highlighter because I don't find it as flattering as it should be on my eyes. It provides that perfect highlight in my opinion on the face and I'm using this until I can figure out what highlighter I'd like to splurge on. 

Physicians Formula Youthful Wear Youth-Boosting Powder in Translucent: I like to set my under eyes with this because it provides coverage and helps blend out the concealer with the rest of my skin. It helps prevent it from creasing and it does give a matte finish. It also has its benefits as it's lightweight, evens out complexion and skin tone giving it a smooth flawless finish.

Elizabeth and James: Nirvana White & Nest: Midnight Fleur

Hillary and I were trying to find our signature 'scent' in Sephora and welllll...Here they are! She got a Dolce and Gabbana one, while I opted for Elizabeth and James' Nirvana White. I've been eyeing this for months now and I do love the smell of their main ingredients which are peony, muguet and tender musk. It provides a subtle, but sophisticated, feminine smell. I then happened to smell Midnight Fleur just cause and it contained more of an exotic and sensual smell blending ingredients such as exotic wood, patchouli and black amber with night-blooming jasmine and vanilla orchid—from there I fell instantly in love with it too. So I ended up getting the Travel Set because it came with the smaller version of the perfume and a hand cream. I felt more committed to Nirvana White, that I just wanted a small portion of Midnight Fleur. So that's what I ended up splurging on and mixing these two together smells amazing! (Big ups to Sephora for letting me know what's in these perfumes!)

Nails inc. Nailpolish in Chelsea Physic Garden: It was my transitioning nail polish colour as it fits perfect for Spring and Summer. It's a cutesy pastel baby blue and I got a lot of compliments from customers, co-workers and friends whenever they saw me wear this. 

Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs Leg Make up in Light: This is probably my holy grail product for the summer! I haven't even out my tanned legs, so instead my legs are a pasty tan colour, along with the fact that I do have random bruises and scarring from previously having eczema, mosquito bites, etc. So Sally Hansen does make a spray for of this and I heard that it works wonders, but I found that to be messy so I opted for the liquified leg make up instead in Light and it helped so much! It just boosted my leg confidence y'know? It leaves your legs looking even and smooth so you can show it off whenever you wear your fave shorts, dress or skirt. 

Papermate Flair Pen: I've been doing a lot of journal writing in order to cope with my anxiety and this pen is what I use to write in my journal with. It's like a border line marker pen and the tip of it glides on smoothly as I write. I got this in the dollar store and so I do plan on raiding that place to get more of this. 

ANIME GOODIES :) 

BIG SHOUT OUT TO MICHELLE O. FOR BEING SUCH A SWEETHEART AND GETTING ME ALL THESE GOODIES AT ANIME NORTH! She surprised me one day at work and literally made my day by giving me these goodies. Guys, like I literally have to frame this poster because I had a Naruto one and that thing just got destroyed, so I learned from my mistakes and I can't wait to hang this up once I have a proper room! Anyways, that poster is from the anime K project, which is having a movie out soon! (FYI MIKOTO IS MY BF AND I AM SO NOT OVER IT) Michelle then got me Shingeki No Kyojin (aka Attack on Titans) buttons of the titan shifters and then a keychain with my babiesss ugh Mikoto from K project and Makoto from Free! Mega fan girling right now and I just can't believe she did this for me! So I really want to thank you Michelle from the bottom of my heart for treating my inner fan girl to these wonderful goodies! <33333 ARIGATOU MICHELLE-SENPAI! 

Here we have my face with majority of the products I've mentioned in this post. I just wanted to point out the contour and highlight especially in this picture, as well as the liquid eye liner. The only products I've probably used, but didn't mention are my eye shadows which are a mixture of different shades from different palettes. 

As you can tell I've finally reached the end of my current faves! Hopefully you all learned a thing or two from it or enjoyed reading it! Stay tuned for a vlog being edited in the works as we speak! Much love xo <3 — Ashley