First Impression:Samples Edition #1 |Urban Decay,Benefit,Lanvin,Sephora,Clean,Vichy,Lilly| (EN)

Hello everyone ♥

Since today there is a new rubric on the blog, called “First Impressions”, where I’m going to post short reviews on some new products that I’ve tried.

Here is what I have tested lately:

Makeup:

Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation in the shade 5.0

This foundation has surprisingly light consistency – it feels like I’m applying water with a few drops of oil on my face. It applies evenly which I didn’t expected from a foundation that has such a watery consistency. 10 minutes after application the product sets and has semi matte finish which looks super natural. Coverage is buildable as well. My skin felt super soft and the foundation didn’t stain my white shirt I was wearing, but it looks nice for around 8 hours after application, although I set it with mattifying powder. After that I was super oily which is always meeh. I have oily skin and I expect from a high end foundation to has better longevity on my skin compared to the drugstore ones – well, 8 hours are a standard work day longevity and I want to look good while I’m working, right? I really like the way this foundation looks, its finish is really “naked skin” but longevity is a miss here. I won’t buy it at this point, I think it suit better girls with normal to dry skin.

Benefit Air Patrol BB cream & eyeshadow primer

I like the concept of this product – eye cream that is colored and acts as an eyeshadow primer. As I said I have oily skin and I always need to apply my eyeshadows over a base so they can stay longer on my lids. Air Patrol applies evenly, it’s doesn’t have thick concsistency, colour is adaptable to the skin, it elongates the longevity of the eyeshadows but it doesn’t act quite like a base. It’s nice to apply in the mornings when you’re in a hurry so you can use just 1 product to hydrate your skin and even out you eye area.

Sephora руж #5 Sweet on you

Sweet on you is part of Sephora’s last collection of blushes that has range of 18 colors with different finishes. This blush looks so promising from the packaging and I was really excited to give it a try but it left me disappointed. The shade looks like a nice peachy shade with subtle shimmer, but when applied on my skin appears as Barbie pink which surprised me so much – I never had tried a blush that looks so much different applied compared to what it looks in the packaging. Plus, Barbie pink isn’t my shade when it comes to makeup – not only blushes, but lipsticks and eyeshadows as well. I really don’t like the way this applies – it looks so blotchy, stuck to certain areas and it’s so hard to blend! And it’s extremely pigmented, like I barely touch the blush with my brush and I already add way to much color to my cheeks so I have to add some powder on top to tone it down a little bit. As a top of my negative experience, this blush has no longevity at all – on the 3^rd hour after I applied it I looked like I wasn’t wearing blush that day at all. This is definitely a disappointing product that I’m not going to buy full size (I won’t use the sample again anymore – I already gave it to my mother), although the color wasn’t the right for me i’m not planning to test any other shades, no matter how pretty they look.

Perfumes:

Lanvin Jeanne Couture EDP

I already wrote about this perfume in my review for Lanvin Jeanne Scandal EDP here: http://preslavasbeautydiary.blogspot.bg/2016/07/scented-reviewlanvin-jeanne-scandal_6.html. I purchased my sample at http://www.enzo.bg/ and it contains 1ml, which is enough to test the scent and wear it 2 to 3 times. I was looking for a new perfume to wear in the spring & summer and I thought that Lanvin Jeanne Couture would be the perfect choice. During the spring this is amazing, cool and humid weather suit Jeanne Couture extremely well! I loved it so much that I went to Douglas & Beauty Zone for a last test before buy and that’s where things changed oppositely. It was end of May which is already summer where I live and this perfume smells so different from when I tested it before. Hot and dry weather makes it sharp and almost plain magnolia-ish. So I give up on this and I bought Lanvin Jeanne Scandal, which turned out to be my perfume signature for summer 2016 ♥.

Top notes: violet leaf, raspberry, water notes

Middle notes: magnolia, peony

Base notes: musk, cedar

At first when applied I feel the green notes from the violet leaf, which have slightly violet touch and give the scent the green freshness that stays till the end. Water notes are surprisingly realistic, actually this is the first perfume I’ve ever tried that has so strong and thick water notes and I love that feeling. Raspberry here is fresh and quite delicate, just to give the scent some sweetness, but the perfume is definitely not sweet at all. 5 minutes after applying I feel clear peony, which scent pairs perfect with the rest of the notes. The feeling that I get whenever I wear this perfume is freshness, calmness and spring on the riverside, surrounded by greenness, blooming peonies and raspberry bush after rain ♥ 

This is how I feel the perfume during the spring, complemented in the base by some cedar and if it stays like this during the summer I would love to add it into my perfume collection. During the summer is something completely different – hot and dry weather is what changes the perfumes so much so water notes and raspberry are gone, but magnolia appears so much that almost turns the fragrance into a mono magnolia scent. I don’t like magnolia at all, it gives me headache. Cedar is almost gone too. But musk appears which I also don’t like at all since I found it too cloying. In hot and dry weather Jeanne Couture is completely floral, it’s fresh, but it’s too sharp for my taste as well, while in cool and humid weather the sharpness is gone, replaced by the water notes and the slightly sweetness of the raspberry. For my liking this perfume is absolutely a springtime scent, it’s too sharp for the summer, because of the magnolia note, too fresh for the autumn and too floral for the winter. Longevity is good – around 6 hours, after that is lighter but it’s still noticeable till the end of the day. It doesn’t have strong sillage, it’s more skin close, so it’s perfect for office, school, etc. It’s definitely a daytime appropriate scent. It kind of reminds me of http://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Oriflame/Muse-11590.html, maybe because of the mutual notes water, cedar and violet leaf. I like Muse but I don’t think I need 2 similar fragrances at the same time. Maybe when I finish Muse (I’ll write a review about it too) I’ll buy one 30ml bottle of Jeanne Couture to wear during the spring. This perfume is definitely beautiful, especially if you like floral fragrances. I suggest a good test before buy, because this perfume changes a lot depending on the meteorological conditions, and magnolia is also a tricky note – it turns out really sour on some skins. The bottle is a piece of jewelry ♥

Clean – Clean Warm Cotton EDP

The perfume Clean Warm Cotton it’s my first touch with the brand  „Clean”, which conception is launching of perfumes that have smell of „clean” and fresh. My sample is “Warm Cotton” which is categorized as floral-woody-musk fragrance.

Top notes: citruses, lemon verbena

Middle notes: orange blossom, sea notes, fruits

Base notes: amber, musk, fern

At first the scent is quite sharp and on my skin I feel strong lemon verbena, I can barely detect citruses the first 2-3 minutes and after that they’re gone. I adore lemon notes when it comes to perfumes and a lot of my perfumes have lemon in their pyramids, but here the lemon verbena appears on my skin as toothpaste scent – strongly fresh, mint isn’t listed in the notes, but on me this fragrance has detectable mint feeling. Sea notes are really noticeable here – quite realistic sea scent, not too salty, fresh and summery, combined with orange blossom which make the fragrance a bit more floral. I can’t detect any fruits in here – on me this perfume hasn’t any fruit sweetness. Amber doesn’t appear as well, only a lot of musk and a tiny bit of fern.  I don’t like musk, because I find it too soapy, here musk is quite noticeable so if you don’t like musk stay away from this scent. This perfume hasn’t intense development, all I got is sea notes and musk so I can say this perfume is quite linear. Longevity is 6 hours, after that it becomes less noticeable but I feel it on my skin till the end of the day. Sillage is good as well – around an arm length.

If you read my previous scented review here on my blog you’ll know that I wear mainly fruity-woody perfumes with sour sweetness, but my second love are crystal and feminine scents like Bvlgari Omnia Crystalline, Green Tea by Elizabeth Arden and other, but Warm Cotton isn’t perfume that I feel in love with. Whenever I’m wearing I have the feeling of clean skin right after shower that has the leftover scent of soap and shampoo, wrapped in clean towel that smell like fabric wash and fabric softener. This perfume is absolutely unisex but I prefer it on men – somehow I feel like this type of super clean and soapy scents suit them better.  I miss some sweetness or at least some floral note to enjoy it. It’s perfect for summer, I don’t feel like it would suit any other season and it’s only a daytime fragrance as well. I wore it on my sea vacation and it suit the sea breeze perfect. This fragrance is definitely a must if you’re into this type of “clean” scents. I personally would wear it only on summer vacation at the sea and only at the day. I wouldn’t buy this perfume since I’m not really impressed with it – I can achieve similar scent by using the combination of shower cream and lotion by Cottage - Ocean Blossom, which scent I like even better since is more salty and floral at the same time.

Skincare:

Sephora express eye makeup removing wipes

Lately I read a lot of good reviews on the Sephora’s skincare products and this makeup removing wipes are my first touch with Sephora’s product that isn’t makeup related. I have to say that I’m definitely not impressed – at all. Those wipes have terrible, really strong and sharp alcoholic scent that on my opinion shouldn’t be in any product that you’re supposed to put on your face. Sephora’s wipes are thin and not soaked in makeup remover – I personally prefer wipes that are soaked, not just wet – so I don’t have to scrub my skin to remove the makeup. What I like about these wipes is the fact that they don’t leave any excess film on the skin, as well as the fabric that they are made of is stretchy and high quality. I used them to remove what’s left after I wash my face – both times I had light makeup (mascara, foundation, blush and lipstick) and it remove it but it’s ridiculous to think that I can remove my whole makeup or even my mascara just by using this wipe. I don’t recommend this product and I won’t repurchase it.

Vichy Normaderm anti imperfection hydration cream

Vichy’s products are highly overrated on my opinion, there isn’t a single product that impressed me enough to go and buy it (except 1 foundation, but their color selection it’s so pink based!) and I can’t understand why Vichy is so popular here in Bulgaria. I always pass by Vichy’s stand and whenever I have sample I try it just to convince myself that there isn’t something that I want to try again or buy. Here we go with this cream – light with delicate scent, but didn’t do anything to make my skin feel or look better, beside the light dose hydration. I’m not impressed and I won’t but it full size.

Hair:

Lilly Drogerie hair conditioner for colored hair

At one of my last trips I forgot my hair conditioner and I went to Lilly Drogerie to pick a sample sized conditioner to use 1-2 times. At this particular Lilly there were available only their own Lilly brand hair product samples so I have to choose one of them. Usually I wouldn’t go for Lilly’s hair products but I didn’t have choice so I picked the option for colored hair. Packaging is 50ml which I used for 2 times (but normally I’ll use this amount for 1.5 times on my super long hair). This hair conditioner is pretty good – it softened my hair and it made it easier to comb. I didn’t like the scent. If I have to, I would buy this product again, but I wouldn’t go for the full size.

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What is the last cosmetic product you have tested?

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Have a nice evening ♥