Bare faced

On a good day this is what goes on may face.... and it's just the beginning. We're still missing blush, bronzer, eye pencil, mascara, brow gel and what have you... No wonder I always feel like I need to catch an early flight when I wake up in the morning. Putting on a decent face takes time and in my case it's something that comes with age(ing). Gone are the days of the blue Nivea cream that lasted a whole year.

1. Embryolisse cream and lip gloss. I am not very faithful when it comes to moisturizers but I tend to rotate. Embryolisse is a good and inexpensive one and I really like this travel size with the lip gloss attached to it.

2. This eye cream is a splurge! I probably won't be buying it again even though I love it. The price-tag is just too much.

3. Sensai foundation. I just got this and I quite like it. It doesn't leave my (completeley dry) skin matte (it acts as a moisturizer) and it has SPF. 

4. Mac strobe cream. Well now I'm realizing that the products are not in the correct order in the picture ;) This one comes on last. Just a little dab on the cheek-bones,  and it gives a nice dewy glow.

5. This should have come before the foundation... as it says..Step 1. Right on top of the moisturizer. This thin green fluid primer is meant to even out red and it might just be doing the job. I've only used it for about two weeks so I'm still deciding if it's a keeper.

6. This is my all time favorite product. It is a heavy thick concealer that goes underneath the nostrils and on other red areas. I've got it in both 8 and 10 and both are good on me.

7. I should have started using this brush a looong time ago under my eyes to conceal dark circles. I have the lightest shade and it works, even though I thought it would be much too light.

x Eva

Skin and scents

These products look so delicious and would make the perfect holiday gifts

1  Create a soothing atmosphere in your bedroom with L'Occitane relaxing pillow mist, containing essential oils from lavender, bergamot, mandarin, sweet orange and geranium.

Links: Iceland / Outside Iceland

2  MAD et LEN hand poured scented candles come from the south of France. The candles contain essential oils and come in a beautiful rustic brushed black steel vessel. I adore scented candles and would love to add this one to my home.

Links: Iceland / Outside Iceland

3 Crema Al Polline from Florence's Santa Maria Novella 400 year old stunning Apothecary. Who can resist that? Florence is one of my favorite cities and I cannot believe that I only discovered this gem recently!

Links: Iceland / Outside Iceland

4  For luminous skin this facial serum from Icelandic company Purity herbs is worth trying. It contains sea buckthorne oil and avocado oil.

Links: Iceland / Outside Iceland

5  Mojave Ghost is a new addition to Byredo's family of perfumes, with top notes of ambrette and Jamaican nesberry. I love the name and can't wait to try this fragrance.

Links: Iceland / Outside Iceland

xxx Eva

Miracle rescue face mask

English below

Ég þurfti að fara í smá boð beint eftir flug í síðustu viku. Ég var sérstaklega þreytuleg og andlitið á mér þrútið eftir flugið svo ég var staðráðin í að finna mér eitthvað í Fríhöfninni til að redda því. Af einskærri tilviljun sá ég andlitsmaska frá Dr. Bragi - húðlína sem ég þekki ekkert og hef aldrei prófað neinar vörur frá. Húðlínan er þróuð af Dr. Jóni Braga heitnum sem var prófessor í lífefnafræði við Háskóla Íslands , einum af helstu sérfræðingum heims á sviði ensíma. Hann gerði mikið af rannsóknum á sjávarensímum og jákvæðar niðurstöður þeirra leiddu af sér þróun á húðlínunni. Mér fannst 1.500 kr. heldur dýrt fyrir einn andlitsmaska en ég keypti hann nú samt. Maskinn er blautur klútur sem maður setur á andlitið meðan maður slakar á í korter. Í maskanum eru sjávarensím sem eiga að vinna á roða, þurrki, þrota og fínum línum. Það var mjög notalegt að vera með maskann og andlitið á mér tók vel við sér. Ég fékk nokkur komment á hvað ég liti vel út þetta kvöld og það er án efa algjörlega þessum maska að þakka. Mig langar alveg svakalega að prófa meira frá þessu merki, ekki spillir að vörurnar innihalda engin, rotvarnarefni, paraben eða ilmefni. Ég sá litla túpu af rakakremi í fríhöfninni, við hliðina á maskanum sem ég væri til í að prófa en ég finn ekki þetta krem á netinu. Smellið hér til að skoða meira um þessa línu.

I  had to go to this event straight after a flight last week. My face looked bloated and tired and I was determined to get something in duty free to save it. I accidentally past by this Dr. Bragi face mask. I have never tried anything from this Icelandic brand before. It is created by the late Dr. Jón Bragi, a professor in biochemistry at the University of Iceland, who did extensive research on the effectiveness of marine enzymes from Iceland's sea waters. The products are paraben, artificial additives and perfume free. I thought that for one face mask the price was a little high but decided to give it a go anyway. It's a wet fabric cloth mask that you cover your face with for 15 minutes while lying down and relaxing. The mask contains marine enzymes and is supposed to target redness, dehydration, loss of firmness and signs of ageing. The face mask felt really good against the skin and after only one use my face had this nice glow. I got a lot of comments on "looking good" that night and I definitely credit that to this face mask. I really want to try some of the other products from this line. Especially a small bottle of moisturizer that was sitting on the shelf besides the face mask but I don't see that in the webshop. Must go look elsewhere :) Check out the Dr. Bragi webshop

Xx Eva

I tried - Going to bed without make-up...

Since I've been going to the gym 4-7 times a week my waterproof mascara has been my best friend. However it's a pain to take off and I really, really want to minimize the time that I stay in the bathroom removing make-up and cleansing my face - The longer it takes the chance is bigger that I go to bed with make-up on and leave it there until I have no choice the next morning. I have bought a few make-up removers for waterproof mascara but they are either expensive or not doing the job - or both. So I have turned to cold pressed coconut oil. The best make-up remover ever. I slather it on my eyes, rub it in and remove the make up with a wet cotton pad. It does not sting or burn, it just feels great and removes every trace of make up. I guess most of you have heard of this genius (!) advice before - so I will include a little twist. I have stopped using eye cream....! I have been using all kinds of eye creams for years because I tend to have very puffy eyes especially when travelling, so on my last trip I brought the coconut oil with me and there was not a puff in sight. I love this! Another cheap product that I'm loving is Cetaphil gentle skin cleanser. I put a little drop on the clarisonic brush and it feels great against my skin. Added bonus, these products are available at the drugstore or supermarket (online check f.ex. here)!

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Eftir að ég fór að fara á æfingar 4-7 sinnum í viku hef ég þurft að fjárfesta í vatnsheldum maskara sem er snilld en það óþolandi að taka hann af. Ég nenni ekki að vera lengi inni á baðherbergi á kvöldin og þegar það er eitthvað svona vesen er auðveldara að fara bara að sofa með allt framan í sér og ráðast í þetta morguninn eftir þegar maður hefur svosem ekkert val hvort sem er. Ég er búin að kaupa margar mismunandi gerðir dýrar og ódýrar til að fjarlækja augnfarða en hef ekki fundið neitt sem mér líkar nógu vel. Ég prófaði því að nota kaldpressaða kókosolíu sem hefur reynst það besta hingað til! Ég nudda henni á augun og þurrka með votri bómullarskífu. Ég finn ekki fyrir neinum sviða undan olíunni og þetta er eitthvað svo auðvelt og þægilegt. Líklega hafið þið heyrt um þetta ráð áður þar sem kókosolía hefur verið mikið í umræðunni  - svo ég er með smá aukavinning hérna. Ég er hætt að nota augnkrem...! Ég hef notað alls konar augnkrem í mörg ár, aðallega af því ég er oft bólgin í kringum augun, sérstaklega á ferðalögum. Ég tók kókosolíuna með mér í síðustu ferð og varð ekkert bólgin, hvorki eftir flug né lítinn svefn. Önnur svona ódýr snilld er Cetaphil "gentle skin cleanser" sem ég set á clarisonic burstann til að þrífa á mér andlitið. Rosalega mjúkt og þægilegt hreinsiefni. Það besta við þetta er að þetta fæst í næstu matvöruverslun! (Cetaphil fæst í Kosti).

Xx Eva

Oh la la...

My obsession with Paris France continues. The laid back chic look of  the Parisienne is admirable yet totally unattainable unless you're born and bred... Even though I'm posting pictures of the elite few with fascinating last names like Poesy, Frisbey and Paradis the funny thing is, that the whole lot actually looks like this! On my last night, when I was in Paris, I had the best pizza ever at Les Débats on Place Victor Hugo. A group of friends sat at the next table and almost made me forget to eat (doesn't really happen). The Parisian ladies sure know how to dress, impress and carry themselves - without looking made-up or overdone. I stumbled upon this hilarious blog-post on 'how to...' Even though we all know it's impossible... something might rub off :)
- I regretted not buying two things when I was in Paris, 1) Mur et musc, the perfume they all wear (which I tried a couple of times and couldn't decide if I liked until I was on the plane), Garance talks about it here. Now a friend of mine is in Paris and she sent me an e-mail asking for advice on what to do in the city and I sent her an e-mail back that was so long it could be published as a book... at the end of it I asked her, if she'd see a L'Artisan Parfumeur somewhere, could she buy the perfume for me? She obviously read the whole thing because my new scent is on it's way :) And oh... I'll tell you about the other regret later...

Xx Eva

Images Top to bottom: Julia Restoin Roitfeld/Caputcauda.com,Caroline de Maigret/harpersbazaar.com, Marine vacth/zimbio.com, Vanessa Paradis/zimbio.com,Charlotte Gainsbourg/forums.thefashionspot.com, Unknown/Pinterest, Clemence Poesy/Les nouvelles,Jeanne Damas/Jeanne Damas, Lou Doillon/nawalrmili.wordpress.com,.Astrid Berges Frisbey/mode.glamourparis.com

PARIS BEAUTY BUYS

I ended up buying the cheaper version of the BB cream from Lab. Garnier. It's not worse than the Estee Lauder one, just different. What I like about it is that I don´t need to apply additional sunscreen (note the Estee Lauder one has a higher factor) and I don't need to apply concealer! Also there is no need for extra moisturizer, I just apply a little serum underneath. I think I will use this in the summertime as there is no point applying anything with sunscreen in it during winter here in Iceland. My other Paris beauty buys include Huile Prodigieuse (dry oil) from Nuxe. I love the smell - they also have it as perfume, but I like the oil, I have had it before. In addition I got  argan oil for dry/mature (!) skin for dry patches on my cheeks. I think I can blend it with the Nuxe one. There was a pharmacy right outside my hotel and I spent at least an hour in there. Parisian pharmacies are almost as good as U.S. drugstores :)

Xx Eva

Pure skin

My 16 year old daughter just came home from a  vacation in the south of Spain. Before she went I made sure to stock up on sunscreen - SPF 50 for her fair skin and also some aloe vera after sun lotion. She came home with some freckles and a hint of a tan but she brought back the bottle of after sun and told me it contained "unhealthy stuff" -meaning parabens. In my eagerness to educate her about the dangers of sun rays I had forgotten about parabens. I usually go for cosmetics that are claimed to have no parabens - one of the reasons being that they might irritate my sensitive skin. When my daughter brought the parabens to my attention I decided to do some online research and realised that there are so many ingredients besides  parabens to look out for and try to avoid. My goal now is to consciously look for pure cosmetics and read the label before I hand out my credit card. One of the brands I came across while  researching was Sóley Organics. An Icelandic brand free from parabens amongst other things and the packaging is pretty. I haven't tried any of the products yet but I'm quite tempted.

Xx Eva                                       

Clarins event

Claude DeFresne from Clarins working wonders

We love the maxi skirt and ballet flats



Please live up to our expectations!
Advanced Extra-Firming Neck Cream
sounds so promising :)

We went to this Clarins event Thursday night. Luckily it was held at a beautiful museum 2 minutes from Begga's house. We had cocktails and got instructions on how to apply make-up correctly and realised that we are doing everything wrong! The best part was the pretty goodie-bags we got which contained, among other less important things, a neck cream! Highly appreciated. We had a great night and have already applied rich amounts of the neck cream. The results should appear soon :)

Xx from Dusty-Reykjavik



Sniff sniff

Ingredients:

Top: Bergamot, lemon, pepper, juniper berries
Heart: Incense, pine needles, orris
Base: Amber, vanilla, sandalwood

My first perfume love was Ysatis by Givenchy. I was young and my heart soon drifted to another love: La nuit by Paco Rabanne. I whiffed La nuit for the first time in Italian Vogue and had to wait a while to get the bottle to be able to actually spray it on my skin. This was a short affair, we were not meant to be. 
I have sniffed, tried and purchased many scents since, but never actually gone through a whole bottle, finding most scents to be too complicated. Four scores and seven years after La nuit, there was Gypsy water.

This fragrance is from the Stockholm based perfume house Byredo, founded in 2006 by Ben Gorham. I tried Gypsy water when it first came out, at Storm in Copenhagen and oddly enough.. the smell kind of reminded me of an old suitcase!(?) Slightly off-putting I might say. I nevertheless decided to give it another try while visiting NYC in January this year. I spotted a bottle while taking a quick stroll through Barneys, tried it and instantly liked it. I hesitantly bought the bottle thinking of my elaborate perfume collection and knowing that I would never finish this one either. I was wrong.

Gypsy water is a very delicate scent on my skin and it doesn't last very long. It is like a hint of a scent which is what I like about it. I don't use it every day. For the moment I also use Hanae Mori # 2 and La Chasse aux papillon by L'Artisan Parfumeur, both eau de toilette, but most days I use Gypsy water. I love the minimalistic design of the bottle, the ethereal sweet, powdery yet fresh fragrance and the bohémien name. Gypsy water comes in 50 ml and 100 ml bottles and also a small box of 3x4 ml (purse size bottles). I think Gypsy water is supposed to be uni-sex, which might explain the ol´ suitcase smell :)

Xx Eva