While I LOVE trying out new makeup releases and get excited every time I get my hands on a new lippie or the latest must-have palette, when it comes to skincare, I’m a bit of a one trick pony - sticking to the same old favourites year after year. However, when a Slovenian brand Hemptouch reached out to me, I just knew I have to give their products a go and put my test bunny hat on. Not only only do I have a soft spot for amazing business from my homeland, but they also bring something new to the table. Their products, most of which are vegan, are completely natural and locally produced from an extremely versatile and healing industrial hemp, also known as cannabis sativa. If you’re not familiar with the science behind the CBD oil and its benefits, I suggest you to check out this page. They explain it far better than I ever would. 

Medtem ko sem pri preizkušanju najnovejših šmink in paletk vedno v nizkem štartu, pri negi kože zadnje čase redkokdaj eksperimentiram. Vsake toliko pa tudi mene premami kakšen nov produkt oziroma meni še neznana znamka, kot je naša slovenska Hemptouch (očitno sem živela pod skalo). V testnega zajčka sem se bila pripravljena preleviti takoj, ko sem izvedela, da so njihovi izdelki poplnoma naravni, v večini veganski in narejeni iz lokalno pridelane industrijske konoplje. Če slučajno še niste seznanjeni z delovanjem in pozitivnimi konoljine smole CBD, hitro odklikajte semle. 

As my skin is quite sensitive and dry, I’ve tried out three of their products targeted towards irritated skin. Let’s start with the Oinment for Irritated Skin, the consistency of which was a complete surprise to me - it’s rock solid, much like coconut oil in its solid state, but melts upon touch, so you can easily apply it with your fingers. It doesn’t sink in completely, though, as it’s quite thick and oily, so wearing it under makeup or throughout the day in general is a no-go for me. Instead, I’ve been using it before bed, mostly focusing on my cheek area to nourish my skin and keep my dry patches at bay. It can also be used on the rest of the body, and after two months, I’ve barely even made a dent in it, so 50 ml goes a long way.

Izdelki, ki sem jih preizkušala, so namenjeni predvsem suhi in občutljivi koži, kakršna je tudi moja. Konopljino mazilo za razdraženo kožo me je presenetilo s strukturo, ki ni kot navadna krema ampak bolj kot kokosovo olje v trdnem stanju, vendar se ob dotiku stopi in lepo razmaže. Uporabljam ga pred spanjem, saj je precej gost, se ne vpije popolnoma in pusti malce lepljiv finiš, ki ni idealen kot podlaga za makeup, je pa super za suhe predele na obrazu oziroma telesu. 50 ml produkta je v obeh primerih več kot dovolj, saj sama izdelek nanašam na obraz že dva meseca, pa se komaj vidi, da je kaj uporabljen.

Hemptouch Nurturing Face Cream is also suitable for dry, sensitive skin, but unlike the oinment, it’s very much like your ‘regular’ face cream with a creamy consistency that sinks in straight away but still keeps your skin nourished. For my dry patches, I prefer the oinment, but I’ve been using the nurturing face cream as a day cream when my skin isn’t in need of extra special TLC. Before I forget (because I got so used to it), your nose will probably need some time to adjust to the scent of these hemp oil products, especially if you haven’t dabbled into the world of all natural skincare yet, but it isn’t intolerable or unpleasant at all. 

Negovalna krema za obraz je prav tako primernejša za suho kožo, vendar je za razliko od mazila ‘običajno’ kremasta, ter se hitro vpije. Za targetiranje ekstremno luskastih suhih predelov obraza bi prej priporočala mazilo, kremo pa za vsakodnevni, jutranji nanos - jaz jo uporaljam kot dnevno kremo. Preden pozabim, moram izpostaviti tudi konopljin vonj produktov, ki ni smrdljiv ali neznosen, ampak traja nekaj časa, da se ga navadiš. Na začetku me je po pravici povedano malce odbijal, zdaj pa me niti ne gane.

The Intensive Lip Care lip balm is my absolute favourite of the bunch, and one that never leaves my side anymore. It’s by far the best lip balm I’ve ever tried - beyond buttery, and has even passed the ultimate test of keeping my lips soft in extreme weather conditions. A week of hitting the slopes at an altitude where the sun is scorching, the wind is strong enough to move you up the hill, and the icy snow being thrown in your face is not such a rare occurrence normally leaves my lips in havoc, but this year, there wasn’t a single crack in sight. Thanks Hemptouch! 

Izdelek v katerega sem se naravnost zaljubila je njihov balzam za ustnice - vsepovsod gre z menoj! Zame je res najboljši balzam, kar sem jih kdaj imela, pa sem jih res preizkusila že nešteto. Všeč mi je, da je tako ‘putrast’ pa tudi učinkovit. Da ga res stestiram, sem ga zanalašč s seboj vzela na mojo tradicionalno prvomajsko smuko, saj so moje ustnice po enem tednu močnih vetrov, babje jeze in žgočega sonca na visoki nadmorski višini vedno v popolnem razsulu, letos pa sem jih odnesla brez ene same razpoke. Hemptouch, najlepša hvala!

In Slovenia, you can find their products over here on Zeleni dotik, but fear not, they’re also available in the UK on this website and even at Planet Organic! I already have an Intensive Lip Care backup in my shopping cart, and as an anxiety sufferer, I’m also intrigued by their new CBD sprays.

V Sloveniji so izdelki Hemptouch na voljo v spletni trgovini Zeleni dotik, v Veliki Britaniji pa na tejle spletni strani in v trgovinah Planet Organic. Rezerven balzam za ustnice je že v moji nakupovalni košarici, mikajo pa me tudi nova CBD pršila, saj naj bi pomagala pri anksioznosti, s katero se borim že leta. Poročam! 

I bought my first konjac sponge in 2012. Back then it was super hard to get them in Europe, so I ordered it on ebay for a couple of bucks and excitedly waited for it to arrive. For about a month, as you do. Unfortunately, my initial excitement soon got replaced with the 'face with rolling eyes' emoji expression, as the 'next big thing in beauty' did NOTHING to my skin. I was so disappointed I refused to try any others, but when The Konjac Sponge Company got in touch with me a couple of months ago, offering to send me one, I thought why the hell not, and finally gave it another go. They say everyone deserves a second chance after all. 

My expectations weren't high this time around, as you can imagine, but I'm happy to report this one turned out to be a winner. I went with the red french clay version, which is supposed to be perfect for dry, damaged and mature skin, as well as skin problems such as eczema and rosacea. I've been using it either once or twice a day along with my La Roche-Posay Cleansing Cream over the last few months and one thing I've noticed is that it really helps to keep my dry patches at bay. I haven't had any problems with dry skin recently, all thanks to its awesome exfoliating properties. I used to use the slightly abrasive Cattier White Clay Scrub at least twice a week to scrub away my flaky skin, but I haven't had to use it once since this konjac sponge came into my life. I still love that scrub and will probably have to start using it again with winter coming in, but for now, the konjac sponge is doing the job better than expected. It's very gentle in comparison and always leaves my skin silky soft. Double yay! Are you using konjac sponges? What are your thoughts on this Korean phenomenon?

I have two more products that I got from bodizenska.si to share with you. I already talked about their Ingrid eyeliner here, but today I'll be reviewing two of their eyeshadow palettes. The first one's called 'Pret-a-Porter Number 3'. It includes five matte eye shadows that are not extremely pigmented with one swipe, but you can definitely build them up and make them work by using a primer underneath. Generally, matte drugstore eye shadows are not great at all, so I wasn't expecting much when in comes to this palette, which by the way costs 5€, but I would like to point out the middle shade and the one on the right. I'm not too bothered by the other three, but the pigmentation of these two seems pretty amazing for the price! 

The eye shadows itself feel a bit powdery and I wouldn't agree that they last 16 hours on your eyelids. Since they are rather sheer, they tend to blend into one another rather quickly and slowly start looking softer and lighter. If you're a fan of light, neutral everyday looks and are not looking for super pigmented shades, I would definitely recommend you to check this palette out, since it really is cheap and you have nothing to lose.

The second palette I got for the review is also from Ingrid Cosmetics. It's called Beauty Five Number 5 and has five shimmery shades. Again, the eye shadows are not particularly long lasting, but they are less powdery and the pigmentation is definitely better. 

The two eye shadows on the right are great in terms of quality and colour payoff, and that redish shade isn't bad either, but I personally am not fond of the lighter two. They contain some glitters and are shimmery in that weird hooker cheap way, if you know what I mean. Having said that, this is another 5€ palette, so if you don't already have similar colours in your make-up collection, I would get it just for the last two shades, which are definitely worth the money.  

Are any of you familiar with Ingrid products or have maybe even tried some? I would love to hear your opinions about them! 

A few weeks ago I got some goodies sent from bodizenska.si for review purposes,  and the first one I started trying out is this Ingrid Cosmetics' Eye Liner in a pen form. So far, I've only used liquid, cake and gel eyeliners, so I was really excited to try it out. You might have noticed from my recent videos that I started wearing a winged eyeliner a lot more in the past month, because it is one of things that I feel nervous about when it comes to doing makeup, so I decided to start practising it in hopes of improving my shaky application. This eyeliner seemed to have a perfect tiny tip for creating such winged out looks, but unfortunatelly, it didn't turn out to be overly impressive. 

When I swatched it on my hand, it seemed perfect and even when I used it on my eyes for the first time, it performed rather good, but every other application turned out to be a big and long hassle. I think the problem is that the tip pretty much dried up after one application, so it became impossible to create a precise, thin line. The only way I could make it work is if I tilted the tip a bit and pressed harder, but of course the line then turned out to be much thicker and I had to used some q-tips soaked in a make-up remover to correct the wing. Another thing I noticed is that an eyeliner started going on patchy, which is probably another result of the eyeliner drying out. Whenever I drew the line, there were some blank spots left, so I had to go over and over again with the eyeliner, which was not particularly pleasant. Because the eyeliner that was already on my eyes turned sticky, since it already started drying, the application of an additional layer didn't go on smoothy at all. 

Unfortunatelly, as you can see,  my experience with this eyeliner hasn't been the most pleasant one, just because of the drying out incident. If the tip hasn't dried out, I think this eyeliner would be amazing. It is pigmented enough; the packaging is thin, so it's very easy to hold it in your hands; and the tip looked very promising as well, as you could easily create very thin or very thick lines. And also, the staying power was great. It lasted all day without moving on my eyelids, but at the same time, it was also very easy to remove it with my make-up remover. It really is a shame that the tip wore out so quickly...

Do you have any experience with pen eyeliners? Are there any out there that work better and are worth a try?

The two products that impressed me most are their Rejuvenating Hot Cloth Cleanser and Skin Refining Dermabrasion. The Hot Cloth Cleanser is seriously amazing! After only one use, my skin was feeling soft and looking super lovely, so I'll definitely buy this product as soon as I use up my mini Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. I haven't tried it yet, but from what I've read, I have a feeling that these two products are pretty much identical. The only difference is that the Skintruth one is quite cheaper, as it costs €18,90 for 200ml, while Liz Earle's 200 ml tube will cost you €10 more. As for the Skin Refining Dermabration goes, I just love the consistency. I've always been struggling to find the right face pilling, because they are either too harsh for me or have those tiny balls in them that do nothing for my skin. This one, however, is very fine and I really feel like it is doing something without damaging my skin. 

Skintruth also carries many hand products, so I decided to give myself a little treatment before applying my nail polish. I never do anything to my hands besides using a hand cream in the winter, but after testing out these products, I feel like I need to invest in some cuticle oil. And that Replenishing Hand Mask wasn't that bad either... Oh god, I already see where this is going. I'll be broke again as soon as I am no longer broke. If that even makes sense... I'm sure you know what I mean. :D

Lastly, I decided to ditch my beloved Bioderma for the weekend and tried out some Skintruth's make-up removers instead. I don't see myself using a Cleansing Oil any time soon, even though it perfectly removed my face makeup, but I kind of developed a crush on the Eye Make-up Remover, which was very unexpected. I remember using cream-type make-up removers when I was little and was trying to remove my carnival face paint (think Halloween make-up), and let me tell you, I hated them. They always stung my eyes and made my eyes all blurry. But this one is completely different. It did not irritate my eyes at all, and removed my eye makeup like nobody's business, without any dragging or pulling. Overall, I am quite impressed with Skintruth products and as you can see, I have my eye on quite a few of them. Have you heard of this brand before or maybe even tried some of their products?

I've already shown you this nail polish in the last week's 'Mini Haul' post, but I haven't shown you how it looks on nails yet. As you can see, the color looks exactly the same as in the bottle - very pretty creamy, opaque nude. Application, on the other hand, is downright horrible. You need four coats to get it look like this, and because of so many coats, the polish just doesn't dry. I painted my nails two hours before I went to bed, and when I woke up, my nails were completely smudged. This is such a shame because I really love the color! Does anyone know any great nude nail polishes similar to this one?