France Haul: Makeup & Skincare | Kiko, Sephora, Yves Rocher.

Although I personally like to watch/read haul type posts, I know they're not for everyone. That being said, I thought I would lump all the things I purchased on my trip here, because a lot of these are brands and items you can't necessarily get easily in Ireland. I always think it's interesting to see the makeup and skincare bits people pick up when they're abroad and gives me an idea of things I might want to purchase on future trips! I picked up quite a few things from Kiko and included swatches because Kiko is something that's a little easier to get if you live in England or are travelling around Italy, Portugal, France, Spain. In addition to that, I think a haul is the only real way to show you these things... I'd be here for years reviewing everything singularly! ;) You'll all be happy to know that my french makeup vocabulary has improved significantly!

The bottomless pit of makeup and skin care goodness!

Let's start off with the slightly more boring, but adorable stuff! This isn't makeup related at all, but I picked up a few bits of stationary and accessories while I was away. I rarely buy clothes when I'm in France, because it's not often I see something that I really like. I actually bought 3 tops in H&M (including the mustard top vaguely featured in the picture) but decided against showing ye because they've already been worn out and don't look too great crumpled in my suitcase! I did, however, get a beautiful rose gold u-bar (is that even the name for that style? I have no idea...) necklace in H&M for a fiver. It's very simple but I think it goes with a lot of different things, you could pair it with a simple t shirt or a little black dress just as easily.

So, Dijon apparently has a Penneys now?! Craziness... anyway, I didn't bother spending too much time in it seeing as I can get everything there at home, but I couldn't leave the shop without the cute floral bear makeup bag and, because I'm of the mature age of 18, this adorable elephant water bottle. It wasn't in the kids section, so I don't feel a smidge guilty... LOOK HOW CUTE AND HAPPY THEY LOOK!

Finally, I got a cute little floral notebook for blogging ideas and schedules in Hema (never heard of it either, but it seems to be similar to Tiger!) and some pretty pens from Penneys. All about the cute stationary life.

All very practical back to school/college items, particularly the water bottle ;)

Then I went into Yves Rocher, which is a shop I really enjoy going to whenever I'm in France. It seems to be very Body Shop-esque, with skincase, some makeup, and a lot of different fruity scents in different lotions/shower gels/bubble baths etc. I have a few of their perfumes which I love using as body sprays. This year I got 2 of their exfoliating shower gels, in Yellow Peach and Raspberry. I hadn't tried any of their skincare before so I decided to buy 2 of their small and travel friendly face masks; an apricot scrub (which smells beautiful) and a cooling cranberry mask. Finally, smelled their grapefruit vitamin face mist (super teeny and also travel friendly) and thought it would be nice to spritz on the before makeup application or as a light freshing toner.

I honestly didn't get too many bits from Sephora this year (shocking for me!) but I'm really happy with the stuff I did get. Obviously my big purchase of the trip with the Urban Decay Electric Palette which was one of the first things I bought. I have an entire review of the palette including swatches here and a face of the day/tutorial using the palette here :)

Then, I picked up some of their skincare items. I never hear much about their skincase/makeup removal products but they have a bunch of them, they're not all that expensive and the ones that I've tried before have been great! I repurchased their Supreme Cleansing Oil which I LOVE. It comes with a pump and dissolves my makeup into a milky foam in seconds. I also picked up a mini version of one of their eye makeup removers. They offer travel sized minis of most of their skincare items so it's a great way to try lots of their bits for the price one 1 or 2 full sized things.

This trip was a big one for brushes, apparently. I keep getting more and more into brushes lately and I bought quite a lot of them whilst in France. The first one I purchased was from Sephora, the #73 crease shadow brush. I really like Sephora brushes and have mentioned them on my blog before! This one is very similar to the likes of the 6ss from Inglot, but slightly more tapered. It's really, really soft... I'm a big fan.

Next up is a slightly bigger and domed version of a pencil brush, or a very small and dense crease brush. This is a precision crease brush from the range Artist by Nocibé. I won't lie, I know nothing about this brand. I saw it in a shop that sold some high end makeup, Butter London polishes, etc and was drawn to their display. They have the most amazing colour changing shadows that I'm kicking myself I didn't buy. Nocibé have a couple of different ranges/stands and the Arist one seems to be of really high quality for Inglot prices. This brush is nice and soft and I can't wait to use it in cut crease looks, or for inner corner and lower lashline work. I'm pretty sure it's only available in certain parts of France, but if you ever see it around then I'd definitely suggest taking a look at their products!

I picked up another brush from Sephora, #59 PRO precision powder brush. I had been lusting after the 138 MAC brush for ages, a tapered egg shapes face brush. I'd heard it was great for contour and I'm constantly on the hunt for a good contour brush. However, any MAC store in Ireland and London were always sold out of it whenever I looked for it. Now, the Sephora one is not identical to the MAC brush, it isn't as tapered (but is still tapered, more so than it appears in the photo, actually) but it does have that slightly egg shape. It's also smaller than the MAC one, so I wanted to give it a go for contouring. Oh.My.GOD. This brush is so good. It's incredibly soft and works perfect for contour. I absolutely love it and am so happy I picked this up.

Next, I actually bought some art/painting brushes with the full intentions of using them as makeup brushes. The only thing I paint is my face, but I actually already own quite a few brushes from art supply shops that I use all the time for makeup application! I generally look for synthetic brushes, because they work exactly the same way a synthetic eye brush would work, they're normally a lot cheaper too ;) Anyway, I bought these in a no-name art shop in Dijon, but I know you can get these brands in Easons etc too! I definitely don't use all painting brushes for my makeup, but particularly for liner etc, they can be really great and something I'd suggest looking into to expand your brush collection!

I bought the Graduate (Daler Rowney) 3/4 round mop brush to use as a small blush brush, but this would also work as a contour brush (similar to the 109 by MAC) or precision powder application.

The 1/2 oval wash Graduate brush is slightly smaller, perfect for setting undereye concealer or precision highlighting. These brushes are soft and really nice quality, and the handles aren't obnoxiously large either!

The #10 System 3 (Daler Rowney) brush is your basic flat rounded concealer type brush that almost every makeup company sells, but for half the price. 

Finally, I bought the #1 brush too for gel liner. If you consider buying one brush from an art store, buy one for your gel liner. They are the exact same as cosmetic company ones, and come in a whole range of lengths and sizes, so you can choose one that you're most comfortable working with in order to achieve a perfect wing. I already own 2 similar brushes purchased from an art shop and decided to pick up another one because they work so well for liner and precision work.

Onto the really exciting stuff - Kiko. I did 2 seprate blog posts relating to Kiko stuff I got in Rome back in June and I've been itching to get back to a store ever since! 

Okay, maybe not the most exciting thing to start with - but necessary! I lost my MAC eyelash curlers whilst in France (don't ask me how, I still have no idea and it was very traumatic) so I decided to buy some Kiko ones to replace them. I tried them in the shop and they were really great quality so I'm happy I don't have to repurchase the MAC ones! 

Then, I actually just bought a pair of their nail scissors for cutting lashes etc in my kit. I have 2 makeup jobs at the end of August and lost my kit scissors a month or 2 ago (why am I always losing things?). Anyway, not the most exciting, but a must.

I narrowed myself down to 2 Kiko polishes. Both are super reflective and duo-chromey and basically my camera won't do them justice. The first (#497) is a blackened purple with a green and amber/orange duochrome. This one showed up the least on my camera, but you can sort of see it on the left side of the bottle... sort of? maybe? no? okay. Then is the most perfect mermaid manicure I ever did. Unfortunately, my particular bottle didn't come with a number and the Kiko site is a little useless with colours. From looking at the site, I'm almost 100% sure it's #532 but you'd recognize it instantly in person either way, it really pops out among the many colours on the shelf!

Lastly, I picked up a Model's Own polish in Bluberry Muffin which is a really pale pastel blue. Super preeeeetty... almost as pretty as the dots of polish on the bottle... I'm a disaster, really.

Kiko #497, Kiko #532 (I think?), Model's Own Blueberry Muffin

Next up is quite possibly the most stunning highlighter I've ever seen, cream or powder. This is the Kiko Radiant Touch Creamy Stick Highlight and my god it is beautiful. It's the perfect creamy champagne colour. It has the right balance of silver and gold. The base colour is more pink/silver with gold shimmer running through. It's very reflective but not chunky or glittery in any way shape or form. Definitely a dramatic highlight, but the beauty of it being a cream means you can sheer it out easily or apply it under makeup. I've only swatched this on my hand a few times, but the texture is beautiful and just ugh LOOK AT IT. The shimmer gives that perfect candlelight/blur look to the skin. I've never used The Balm Mary Loumanizer but from swatches the colour looks quite similar!

Kiko Radiant Touch  Highlighter #100

Keeping in theme with cheeks, I bought this really lovely blush duo in Desert Sand and Rose Coral (#01). These duos are part of their beautiful new limited edition Poker range and ugh I'm in love with this collection - I'm raging I didn't buy more products but tis life. There are 2 bronzer/highlight duos, 3 blush duos and 2-3 eyeshadow quads in the collection, all with the ace, spade, diamond and heart pattern on the front. The packaging is gorgeous and I love the embossing on the powders. Each blush duo comes with 1 matte and 1 shimmer shade. I picked up this one because it was the more coral of the 3. Desert Sand is a slightly cool toned rose plum and Rose Coral is very similar Orgasm-esque colour, gold shimmer included.

Kiko Desert Sand and Coral Rose #01

I'm a massive fan of Kiko's eye shadow products. I picked up one of their eyeshadows in #118. It's a really standard but lovely reflective champagne colour. It works really well on the lid of inner corner. It's also really similar to the cream highlight I bought, almost identical, so I'm going to set it with the eyeshadow for a super glowy and dramatic highlight!

Then, I'd heard a lot about their Long Lasting Eyeshadow Sticks from Lovely Girlie Bits (aka the beauty bible in online form) and I knew I had to get one. They have some amazingly bright shades, shades I'll definitely be picking up in the future. I couldn't for the life of me remember the specific one I'd heard mentioned from Lovely Girlie Bits, I'm pretty sure it was a chocolate brown. They really remind me of MAC Shade Sticks from back in the day. I haven't tested this on my eyes but I hope the wear time is good! Anyway, I decided to pick up a very Autumnal cranberry colour and I can't wait to use this in a future FOTD... I love those sort of berry bitten red toned colours on the eyes with bronze, golds and oranges.

Kiko Eyeshadow #118, Long Lasting Eyeshadow Stick #37

Finally, we have lips. I didn't go too crazy with lip products at all to be honest. I have a bunch of my favourite dark lip colours at home that I can't wait to get stuck into. That being say, I obviously had to (HAAAAD to) pick up a few lip products while I was there... sure wouldn't it be rude not to?! I got the #19 Ace of Diamond lip pencil and the #32 Ace of Diamond lipstick (both from their new collection). I really wanted the matching lipstick and pencil, but they were sold out of #19 lipstick and #32 pencil - typical! They were both really similar shades anyway, though, and I don't have a lip pencil in this colour so I thought they'd both still work well together. Don'tcha just love the look of a brand new untouched lipstick? Just me? Alrighty...

While I was in Sephora I also bought one of their lipsticks.. I have quite a few of these already and really like them, a lot of them remind me of creme sheens and amplified from MAC! This one is in the shade Mr Lover and is a really pigmented and creamy red toned fuchsia.

And, in true Dijon style, the most important purchase of the trip was... Dijon mustard! ;) To see some pictures of my trip, and the beautiful little French towns I visited in Burgundy, please check out my Instagram (@LongHairAndLashes) 

So, that is everything! I hope this post wasn't too long, but I found some really nice bits whilst away and thought I'd show ye. Have you bought anything from these brands whilst abroad? Also, would you guys be interested in a post decided to my experience doing language trips/a french exchange? This is my 3rd year doing so, in the same place with the same family, so I reckon I could give a pretty well rounded opinion on it. I know it's not makeup related, but I did say I wanted to expand into lifestyle etc more and my trips to France are a massive part of my life, especially with it being my chosen subject of choice in college! If you're a secondary school student or studying a language in college and are considering doing a language exchange to improve your skills, would you like to know more about the pro's and cons? I think I would have found a post like that helpful when doing my exchange, tips and tricks to know, things to be aware of etc... If anyone would be interested at all in hearing my experience and how I manage ordering my McDonald's order in a foreign language then please let me know. I can do it as a general language trip for those not studying French, and then also focus on France in particular if that would be helpful. If you have any questions or areas you'd like addressed in the post, please do comment below or tweet me @GraceyOConnell so I can gather them for the post. Merci beaucoup ;) x