February Favourites

My skin and hair have been super dry this month, because of the central heating and all. Orofluido Sahara is a miracle in a bottle. I didn't really appreciate is as much before this month, but now it became one of my HG's for treating dry hair. My hair was so dry, even my trusted Joico treatment failed to moisturise my dried up mop, but as soon as I spritzed some Sahara on my hair, it immediately restored it to a normal state. You know what, I dismissed their claim about the product being tested in Sahara as extravagant marketing, but there may actually be some truth to that. I think it is protecting from extreme dryness, as I find that since I applied it generously, my hair hasn't felt as dry as usual even on later days.

Nuxe Prodigieuse Or is another product I used on my hair to give it some shine, but lately I've been using it as an illuminating base under foundation and it works brilliantly. The shimmer is quite discreet, so it gives that Victoria Secret bronze glow to the skin almost every girl is after.

I featured Omnia Botanica Argan oil in my product of the week post and I've been using it every day. It has been saving my poor parched skin. It leaves it supple, moisturised and helps with dry patches. A great oil for dry skin.

I had my tin of The Body Shop's Coconut oil close to me all the time. Right now, it's next to my computer so that tells something. I put a small amount on my ends whenever they're feeling dry. I'm normally not a fan of it, but it is the greasiest thing I own for the ends, making it perfect for this time of the year.

I came across a small tin of the long discontinued L'occitane eau des Vanilliers in one of my drawers and it brought back a lot of memories. I loved that fragrance. Feeling all nostalgic, I went to L'Occitane and I purchased/added to my wishlist a few things, but more about that in some other post. 

I was very tan (fake of course) in the beginning of the month, so I sported some coral lips, most often L'Oreal's Rouge Carress in Dating Coral, which looks so much prettier on me when I tan.
Revlon's Lip Butter in Berry Smoothie is such an easy colour to wear, it just goes with everything (btw some info for Slovene readers: lip butters are sold in Müller on Čopova. Lollistick wrote about it here).
For darker lips I loved Essence Berry Me Home from Home, Sweet Home TE. Essence (or Cosnova) should really bring this formula into permanent range.

Holika Holika Peach Girl BB is my current choice of BB, because it is the only moisturising enough BB/foundation I have. It works so well on dry, flaky skin and creates a nice, dewy base that looks very natural. It was in my products of the week post.

Catrice Mr.Brightside from NeoNaturals LE is a very interesting shade. It looks bright, close to neon, pure pink in the bottle, however, on my nails it turns more coral pink. It's a brighter cousin of Barry M's Pink Flamingo and truly a wonderful shade. Too bad it's LE.

I'm ending this post with a short summary of this year's February: Snow. Snow everywhere. We have over 90 cm of snow here. Unfreakingbelievable. I don't like Winter. If anyone is interested how much snow we have, click here. Thanks for reading!

Preview: Hello Petite Bunnies!

Look what landed in my post today. Aren't they cute? These are called Petite Gloss Bar by a Korean brand TonyMoly. There is a big selection of colours, but I just got two: Juicy Peach, or as I call it Mr. Happy, and Juicy Orange, or my Mr. Grumpy. I just got them, so I have to test them, do proper pictures and all the rest, but fret not there will be a detailed post about them sometime in March. I got them on eBay for 6$ each (4.6€) from this seller. I think Mr.Grumpy (Juicy Orange) is the cutest thing I've seen, it reminds me of grumpy kitty one of my favourite memes.

I'm writing February favourites now and it will be up sometime today or tomorrow, but for now thanks for reading.

New Essence Goodies Part 2

I reviewed the Match2Cover cream concealer and get big lashes waterproof mascara in the first part. Now it's time for all the lip stuff.

As soon as I saw these in the promo pictures, I put them on my wishlist. I have matte lip creams from Manhattan and Nyx, and I have often gushed over them here. I could hardly wait to get them and I wasn't disappointed because these are amazing! There are four colours, I got the two darker ones: Smooth Berry and Silky Red. The other two are neutral shades, but too dark for me and I didn't get them because I find dark nudes look ridiculous on me.

Packaging is the same as at Stay with Me lip gloss, nothing fancy and with a standard doe foot applicator.
These babies are sooo pigmented. I got one dot on the back of my hand and the colour got everywhere, so beware of that plus keep in mind that it stains you skin. If I go straight to the comparison with other matte lip creams I have from Manhattan and Nyx, I'd say they are more like cousins than dupes. The Essence ones are creamier, have a stronger pigment and don't set as those do.  Due to the creaminess they feel very comfortable on the lips and even slightly moisturising, they don't dry out the lips like Manhattan's or Nyx's can sometimes. Because they don't set, they do transfer, like on a drinking glass and they do smudge if you're not careful. The finish is creamy and slightly shiny, it gets more matte with time. I think liquid lipstick or something similar would be a more appropriate name than matt lip cream.

They have a strong scent, stronger than Manhattan's or Nyx, but it's a different scent. I can't point it out, but it's similar to strawberry yoghurt.

Smooth berry is a warm fuchsia shade and it's more rosy or pink than on my swatch. A more accurate swatch is in my full face photo. Surprisingly, I have no dupes for it. (Magi did a more accurate swatch on her blog, this is exactly how it looks on me) 

Silky Red is a bright, pure red, but it leans more to orange undertones.

Here are swatches of all the lip products in this post and on the second picture I did a comparison of some  other red shades I own. Compared to Silky Red, Manhattan Soft Mat Lip Cream 45H is much darker and less bright, the same goes for Russian Red. Ruby Woo is close, but still less bright and blue toned. MUA 13 is lighter and brighter.

Apologies for looking so utterly plain, it was Sunday morning after all. This is more of my I'm-testing-stuff-face, but yeah, I could have put a little bit more effort into it. For the rest of the make up I'm wearing Healthy Mix 51, essence Match2Cover concealer, Catrice Madame Butterfly on the cheeks and essence get big lashes mascara.

Staying power is excellent. It survives eating and drinking with almost no fading, and it lasts over 8 hours. The original swatch was taken at 11 AM and these three bellow where taken later. The first was at 3 P.M. after eating and drinking, the second at 5 PM and the last at 7 PM when I took it off. It stays vibrant even after hours and it fades slowly, but evenly. 

If you're a lipstick addict like me, run and get them. These really are so lovely and long-lasting, but you have to be more careful with them because they do smudge and transfer. Price: 2.19€

Because I love the colour changing lip balm from the Miami Roller Girl, I patiently awaited Oz the Great and Powerful TE which has two new shades. In my experience with the orange one I have, these aren't much colour changing in terms of adapting to you pH, but more like tinted moisturisers. I got the red one called Glinda the Good and honesty, I hoped it'd be redder. Meh. Maybe it will leave more colour when I use it up a bit. It's a nice moisturising lip balm though, but the scent is sooo strong. It smells to me like Ospen syrup for children (a medicine when I was little), a sickly sweet artificial candy scent. Price: 2.19€.

Catrice Neo Geisha Cheek and Lip Colour C03 Madame Butterfly looks very bright red in the pan, but it doesn't have a particularly strong pigment. It looks lovely as a cheek colour as it gives that nice subtle I-just-came-from-the-cold flush, similar to a red cheek stain I have (a dupe for Benetint btw), but much easier to apply and blend. It's not as creamy as I wish it would be. It works as a lip colour, however, you have to build it up quite a lot. It's more of a rosy shade on the lips rather than red. Price: 4.19€.

Thanks for reading.

New Essence Goodies Part 1

And again essence released a bunch of new makeup as they do so often. I got three things that are new in the permanent range, a colour changing lip balm from the newest Oz The Great and Powerful TE and a mascara that has been in the permanent range for a while. That little red pot from Catrice is a part of the Neo Geisha LE. I'll do this in two parts, the second will feature lip products and I'll post it very soon (I have the pictures already, I just have to write the reviews). 

First up is the Match2Cover cream concealer: 

The idea here is that you have two shades of concealer in one product and you either use one, or mix the two to get the perfect match for your skin. It is a great idea, I'll give them that, but the product leaves much to be desired. 

Starting with the packaging. It's simple, plastic, the lid stays shut and doesn't feel flimsy. It is small, compact and good for travelling. 

The texture is what left me disappointed. It feels creamy in the pot, but so dry on my skin and I wore a moisturiser underneath (La Roche Posay Cicaplast if you're wondering). You can see on the picture where I'm wearing it that it looks cakey and dry. I had difficulties blending it nicely as it didn't melt in my skin at all. I also didn't like it for pinpoint concealing. For some reason it didn't cover the redness I have from old blemishes and it just caked up. Maybe it would perform better on oiler skins, I don't know. I find it almost a complete dupe of theBalm's Time Balm concealer in terms of texture. Essence feels a bit more creamy to the touch, however, on the skin both feel dry and very similar.

I'd say coverage is medium to full. Perhaps I'm just spoiled from Estee Lauder Maximum Cover, but I find that though it covers my circles well, it doesn't cover blemishes or red marks effectively.

Shades are a pleasant surprise, though. The light shade is the lightest I own. It's even lighter than theBalm's Time Balm Lighter than Light and even on my Snow White skin, it works wonderful as an illuminator. Just for reference, Maybelline's the Eraser in Fair is my perfect match right now. The darker shade is a smidgen darker than Maybelline's the Eraser in Light and I think it will match a lot of people. Unfortunately, this is the only combination of shades available, so people with darker skintones won't find a match here.

Here is a comparison of all concealers I have plus Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation in 51 (it's swatched on my forearm, which is milky white right now):

I'm wearing the concealer on the right. As you can see it looks dry and obvious. Perhaps if I used a super greasy moisturiser it would work better. However, it creased even without it, so I think it would be even worse with it. Included here is the effect of essence get BIG lashes mascara:

All in all, I'm not too impressed. I was looking forward to this concealer, but it left me disappointed. If your skin is dry avoid it. Perhaps, it performs better on oilier skin. It costs 2.69€.

Essence get BIG lashes volume boost waterproof mascara is not a new addition in the essence range, but Sara from Passing Fancy said it's her favourite, so I gave it a go. You can see the effect in the picture above, honestly the lashes look a bit bigger in person than on the pic (I have no idea why my lashes always look so blah in pictures and so much nicer in person). In my experience, it gives you more length than volume. You get big lashes all right, but it looks a bit too clumpy for my taste. I prefer the look of natural volume, I mean big lashes that still look like there is nothing or much on them. I get that with the Maybelline one, though this one is not bad at all. I think it looks better a few minutes after application. I find the brush clumsy, because it's big and the bristles could be more defined. It looks just like an old school brush. The formula is dry as with most waterproof mascaras. It is a very good waterproof mascara, better than the Maybelline one. The latter smudges in contact with water and this one doesn't. It crumbles under a shower, but to a much lesser degree than I expected. In that respect I give a nod to essence. Because it's a good waterproof mascara is holds curl well. It's a nice mascara for the price, but not my favourite drugstore one. I like how it's waterproof, holds curl and lengthens, but the brush could be nicer and I'm not too excited about the clumps either. It costs 2.69 €.

Second part will be up soon. Thanks for reading!

Product of the Week #4

I found this little gem, while searching for something else. I probably shouldn't put something that has been so long discontinued in my Product of the Week post, but it just enraptured me and brought back so many memories. I've been a L'occitane costumer for a long time and they had this amazing vanilla fragrance called Eau des Vanilliers. It is the best vanilla fragrance I ever smelled and I wore it throughout my high school years, all up to the point when they discontinued it. By the time I discovered it's not sold anymore, all the bottles were gone from the shelves and I couldn't buy one last bottle. 

I've completely forgotten that I have the solid perfume somewhere and I was so happy when I found it hidden in some drawer. I dab a small amount on my wrists and I keep sniffing them. It is such a comforting scent of oriental vanilla with some flowery notes (predominantly orchid). I wish they would still sell it, or at least do a LE with some of their discontinued products.

If you are familiar with L'Occitane and you shop there, you mostly likely noticed their tendency to discontinue products. I get the whole deal with their shops being small and they need to discontinue a line to make room for a new one. But do they have to stop selling all their best products? Apart from that vanilla fragrance, I also loved their Sweet Honey Lip Gloss (which was a LE, but one of the best lip glosses ever), Foaming Jelly Shower Gel (amazing honey scent), Honey Creamy Lip Balm, Lavender Matte Face Lotion (the best mattifier I ever used and didn't dry out the skin) and Red Rice Ultra Matte Face Fluid (similar to and a replacement for the Lavender one). I might be the only one that feels this way, but I just had to get this off my chest. Well, at least they still sell the Almond Shower Oil, which one of my favourite products ever.

Ok, enough with my lament. Do you have a favourite vanilla fragrance? 

My Everyday Brushes

I've only done one post about brushes and even that was two years ago. I think it's time for a well overdue updated version. I don't own a massive collection of brushes and 90% of them are very affordable or drugstore brushes. I use most, but these are the ones I rely on the most on a day to day basis.

I use one brush for more than one job, mainly because I find it too excessive to use a different brush for each thing and I'm too lazy to clean them often. Starting with foundation I use one of these three:

Real Techniques Expert Face brush - My favourite brush for foundation. It's denser than the rest I own and it blends foundation perfectly, leaving no streaks, just an even flawless base. Healthy Mix foundation in particular works just fabulous in conjunction with this brush. I'm pretty much in love with it. It's more narrow from the side, making it a good choice for contouring, but you have to use a light hand because it grabs a lot of colour and the same goes for when using it for cream blushes. Price 9$ - 15.50€.

Real Techniques Stippling brush - This one is somewhere in between the dense expert brush and fluffy buffing brush, though it's not as soft as the two. The black bristles are dense, but if you are familiar with stippling brushes you know that the top white bristles are more sparse and gentle. It's nice for foundation and because it is the smallest of the three, also very good at blending around the nose and eyes. It's great for highlighter, cream or more pigmented blushes because it doesn't pick up as much pigment. Price 10$ - 14.20€.

Real Techniques Buffing brush - Comes as a part of the Core Collection set. It is the fluffiest and biggest of the three. I prefer to use it for powders rather than foundation or creams, however, this doesn't mean it doesn't work with those formulas. In fact, this is the first choice of many bloggers for foundation, but I favour denser brushes. Because it's fluffy it works with bronzer, but if you like bigger brushes for that try Ecotools Bamboo bronzer brush. 

All three are fantastic for foundation and obviously you don't need to have all. It's just a matter of how dense you like the brush to be. I like to have a choice, because I find that different foundation formulas work best with different brushes. These are synthetic brushes which are super soft and don't shed. I got the Core Collection on iHerb (use code NHN198 for 5$ off your first purchase, I paid 6$ for shipping) and the other two from HqHair, which offers free shipping. Price of the Core Collection is around 18$-27€.

Real Techniques Contour brush - Another brush that is part of the Core Collection. It is quite small, however, I have a small face and it fits me. I use it for powder and cream blushes. I love it for contouring because it is fluffy, blends nicely and the perfect size for me. 

E.L.F. Studio Flawless Concealer brush - This one, on the other hand, does look a bit big for blending concealer under the eyes, however, it works great. It's is very dense, soft and blends like a dream. I use it for so many things from blending concealer, applying setting powder under the eyes and around the nose, applying a base eyeshadow colour all-over the lid, blending and even contouring. Truly a versatile brush. Price £3.75.

Mac 217 - I think it's safe to say that this is the most popular blending brush and it's for a reason. Although it's too big for applying colour in the crease since I have a type of hooded eyes (you can see my eye shape in mascara posts click, or better in some foundation posts click), it's fantastic for blending, applying colour on the lid, applying highlighter and even concealer. The negative is that it's expensive and not that widely available. I got mine from eBay over four years ago. I paid 20€ for each Mac brush.

Mac 239 - Nothing beats 239 for packing the colour on the lid. I have other flat brushes, but this one is so much better than cheaper versions. I got it at the same time as 217 and has been well used over the years.

Essence Smokey Eyes brush - My recent discovery and most used eyeshadow brush. It replaced my old Italian Round Crease brush that I got from Coastal Scents. It was the perfect size, but it felt scratchy. Smokey Eyes brush is synthetic and a lot softer. As I said, I have small hooded eyes and I use it for everything : applying eyeshadow, blending, highlighting the inner corner, blending on the lower lash line, basically the entire eye makeup with one brush. I don't have a proper crease, but I can make it work with this brush. It costs a mere 1.5€ in almost every drugstore here.

Coastal Scents Black on Black Taklon Angle Liner - My absolutely most used brush. I use it everyday to create the so called invisible liner, which means applying a black or dark colour very close to the lashline, between the roots of eyelashes and on the upper waterline. This gives you an illusion of thicker lashes. It is the only brush that is small and precise enough for the job and it picks up a lot of colour. It's also fantastic for applying eyeshadow on the waterline to get maximum intensity and staying power.Whilst researching for this post, I discovered it's not sold anymore. I am gutted about this and I have no idea where I'll get a replacement. I bought it four years ago for 2$.

Essence Gel Eyeliner brush - It's wider and a touch thicker than the Coastal Scents one. I like it for applying eyeshadow close to the lashline, but it's more difficult to do the invisible liner. It's good with a gel eyeliner, but I have trouble applying it nicely with a brush that is such a shape. Costs about 1.5€.

Ecotools Angled Eyeliner brush - It's the thickest angled eyeliner brush I have and it doesn't work that well with gel eyeliners, however, it is the perfect size for eyeshadow on the lower lashline close to the lashes as well as on the top. I use it a lot with L'Oreal's Infailible eyeshadows when I want to use them as liners. I got it in a local supermarket Tuš. I can't recall the price because I bought it three years ago, but I don't think it cost more that 4€.

Alverde Gel Eyeliner brush - My favourite brush for gel eyeliner. It's small, super precise and slightly bent. I don't like a thick line on my top lashline, nor can I have a flick due to my eye shape and this is a perfect brush for a thin, crisp and precise line. I'm not sure whether it was LE, but it was super cheap, less than 2€. I bought one two years ago (the dirty one) and the second one last year.

The Body Shop Lipstick / Concealer brush - It's stiffer than the detailer brush, which means you can get a really precise lipstick application and since I wear bright colours a lot that is essential. I don't like it for pinpoint concealing though because it is so stiff. I got it in London five years ago for about 9£.

Real Techniques Detailer brush - Part of the Core Collection. It's small and soft, I like it for precision work like pinpoint concealing. It works great as a lip brush as well. Sorry it is dirty, but I use it with EL Maximum Cover and it's a pain to remove it.

As you can tell I have some of my brushes for over four years, so don't be afraid to spend more on a brush, however, there are a lot of great drugstore and cheap brushes. If you take care of them, they can last you a long time. By washing them regularly with a gentle shampoo you can really make them last.

Thanks for reading.

Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Or

It's no secret that I love the original Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse. I've been using it every day for almost two years as a face moisturiser. I gives my skin that extra bust of radiance and most importantly it makes it incredibly soft. I tell you, it's a cult product for a reason. In my review, I stated that I will probably never get the shimmery version as it would most likely look ridiculous on my milky skin. I admit I was wrong, read on to find out why.

Ever since I saw it on Passing Fancy's favourites of 2012 list, I wanted it too. She's very fair and I reasoned that if it works for her, than it should work for me as well. I finally got my hands on a 50ml version, which was given to me as a very generous birthday gift by my cousin.

It is a bronze shimmery dry oil. It feels much drier than the normal version and it's not as moisturising. I thought that either there isn't going to be any colour and just shimmer, or perhaps it will be too orange. Well I was wrong. It is a fantastic colour that actually gives my milky skin a subtle believable tan. Who would have though? I doubt though that it would show on anyone darker than me. The shimmer is more discreet and  softer than I expected. You don't end up looking like a disco ball that's for sure. It's a dry oil, so it doesn't leave your skin greasy, but it does give you that Victoria Secret sexy glow. This works fantastic with a tan, especially if you use it to highlight your collar bone and down the center of your legs.

The scent is the same as at regular version. It's such a nice soft sweet beachy-summery scent. Oh, I love it so much.

I mostly use it for my hair to give it shine and a touch of shimmer. I took it with me to the pool and applied it generously on my hair. I swear it helped enormously to protect it from drying out because of the chlorine. I usually come from the pool with the worst dried up curly mess on my head, but this time they actually looked presentable and the curls looked really nice. Even my fringe wasn't as unruly as usual. It is dry enough not to make your hair greasy. I think you could use it even on oilier hair, but don't hold me to that. My hair is very dry and I have no experience with oily hair.

Subtle tan on my Snow White skin (NC15, Healthy Mix 51). Shimmer is a bit more pronounced than is visible in the picture:

The packaging is the same as at non-shimmery version, a classy glass bottle. 50ml version has just a hole for dispensing the product, which is too small and I have to shake the bottle a lot to get the product out. Now that I had both versions, I prefer the spray applicator, but it's only on 100ml bottle.

50ml bottle cost 24.60€ in a local pharmacy and UK customers can also get it here online.

Thanks for reading!

Valentine's Mani

Inspired by some pins on Pinterest. It's quite simple really. Well obviously, since even I was able to do it -  I'm no nail art genius. Link to the tutorial: click. I just saw on Pinterest that Katja did the same thing, just better than me on her blog: click.

The red polish is Depend 036 and the gold heart is made from S-He 317, Alessandro 297 and Essence 67 Make it Golden.

Changes

If you are a regular on my blog, you will notice some changes. The most obvious one is, of course, the colour of the template. As much as I loved the dark background, I just felt it needed a fresh look. Also the width of the blog is expanded, the reason being that the average monitor size has gone up in the last three years since I started this blog. So let me know what you think, comment bellow if you think it's too wide now or you preferred the dark version. I kept the banner and just expanded it.

Thought this is the most recent change, I have in fact been doing a lot more gradual changes in the past months. The page list on the top is probably the most obvious and I have pointed it out before. I added a list of all Slovene beauty bloggers I know under Blogs I heart. If you ever commented on this blog and you have a beauty blog, then you are on list (sorry if I missed anyone). Those who are Slovene beauty bloggers and are not yet on the list can comment bellow that list with a link and I will add you. But please no "I follow you, follow me back" comments, it just makes you sound desperate and it's not cool. Whoever wishes to copy it and post it on their blog can do so. You know sharing is caring. 

You can find some basic things about me under About, the list of favourite products and important links are under All-Time favourites, and I've already talked about Swatch Gallery, but basically it's a collection of all lipsticks, lipgloss and lipliners ever posted on this blog (updated regularly). Disclaimer is pretty basic, though even though it is there, I found several of my pictures on eBay and absent of my watermark. The nerve of some people.

Follow options are is the sidebar. Under the basic GFC is also RSS feed, Bloglovin', Pinterest (which I love and pin regularly), Hellocotton (haven't really bonded with it) and follow by email. The last round icon with a letter is a direct link to my email address (which is my personally address, so please don't abuse it).

So that's it. I hope you like it and thanks for taking an interest in my little blog.

Product of the Week #3

Ok, I'm cheating here because it's not a single product but a product line. Balea (brand sold in DM's) always manages make some super cool products and they did it again. Sweet Wonderland is their current LE that smells like a cup of Nesquick cocoa. Yummy! Unfortunately, for some reason they don't sell the shower gel in Slovenia  (I got mine in Austria), but mini deodorant and lip balm are available in our DMs. If you love chocolate scented products this will be right up your alley. Too bad it's LE. By the way, it is the same scent as at Balea's Bademomente Sinnesfroh bath salt in Kakao.