Red

There is nothing more iconic than a red pout and while I love my Manhattan Soft Mat Lip Cream in 45H, I wanted a really bright matte red. I had my mind set on finding a drugstore shade similar to Mac's Ruby Woo and some internet research pointed me into direction of Bourjois lip pencils. The shade is called 20 Rouge Soyeux - a matte blue toned true red. Another red I purchased along the way is Essence's Stay with me lipgloss in 07 Kiss Kiss Kiss.

Bourjois pencils are not the softest pencils in the world, but the colour does stay put for hours. It survives eating and drinking with no problems and most importantly it doesn't transfer (that is of course if you don't put any lipgloss or lip balm on top). It leaves a matte finish, this unfortunately does mean it's quite dry and your lips have to be perfect or it will emphasize every dry patch.

Here is a swatch of the combination of pencil plus Lip Smacker Coca-Cola Cherry.

And here is my growing collection of Stay with me lipglosses by Essence. I'm not a fan of lipgloss, I almost never wear it, but these are my favourite because they are very pigmented, smell really nice like fruity and candy, aren't too sticky and of course they are cheap. Here is a link to previous swatches and review click. 07 Kiss Kiss Kiss is a nicely pigmented bright red. It a nice way of wearing red without being too much. 

Thanks for reading!

Chocolate Craving

Every now and then I get this craving for products with the same scent. A couple of months ago I couldn't get enough of coconut and a few weeks ago it was peach (I'll do posts about those products too), this time it's chocolate and cocoa. While I'm aware I'm probably completely bonkers, this never stopped me to get all crazy with searching the internet and drugstores to find what I'm looking for. So this is my current selection of products with chocolate and cocoa scent.

I guess the blame for my current obsession with chocolate scented product can be attributed to Balea's Bademomente Sinnesfroh bath salt in Kakao. I've already raved about it a couple of months ago and I actually bought four more packets since. It's a limited edition product available only in DM drugstores and it's really cheap, less then a €. In short it smells just like a cup of cocoa. I love the scent, though the salt itself is nothing special. If you like cocoa scented products give it a go.

Next is Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula lotion which I got online, because I believe it not sold around here. It's one of the most popular lotions with great reviews and it quite cheap, so I thought why not. It smells like chocolate cake, quite strong but I find the scent doesn't last that long on me. The formula is thick (exactly how I like it) and it sinks in fast, all in all a great lotion. The only gripe I have is the packaging, I can see it being quite hard to get the lotion out when nearing it's end. I bought it on feelunique.com.

My exploration of Müller bore fruit as I stumbled upon this little gem - Pajoma Pärfümöl Schokolade a scented oil for one of those oil diffuser thingies. It smells like melted chocolate for cooking. Well actually like a mix of chocolate and margarine (if you ever made cake frosting you'll know what I mean). It makes my rooms smell like a chocolate factory and there's only one word good enough to describe it - awesome! It was around 2 € in Müller.

Ziaja is a Polish brand sold in DM's and they a have a selection of coconut, orange and cocoa scented products. I bought the 500ml bottle of cocoa scented shower gel for around 4€. The scent is lovely, but the formula is a bit too thin for my liking. Still a nice product. 

And, of course there's more. I actually have a wishlist of products I still hope to get someday. TBS's Chocomania line is obviously at the top of the list, especially the beautifying oil and scrub. Essence will offer a collection of LE scented hand creams from October and I have my eye on the caramel hot chocolate. Balea also announced a new LE of shower gels and bodylotions, the almond-cherry one and more importantly figs-chocolate.  

Do you have any chocolate scented favourite products? As always thanks for reading my rambles!

Quick Review: Catrice Lashes to Kill Ultra Black Mascara

I'm back with another mascara review (I did a comparison of drugstore mascaras a couple of months back), this time it's Catrice's Lashes to Kill in ultra black formula. I generally prefer waterproof formulas, because they hold the curl better, but I always have a regular mascara in my make up stash. I bought Lashes to Kill on a recommendation and after reading some favourable reviews. Since it's one of the cheaper mascaras available here, I decided to give it a go.

If I use just one word to describe my response after using it for the first time is boring. Really nothing special. Sure, it lengthens and is quite dark (though not the blackest mascara I've owned), but it just made my lashes look "blah". I much prefer my other mascara I currently own the Colossal Volum' Express by Maybelline. I think the problem is that the formula is too runny. However, now that is about a month old and the formula is getting drier, the results are much better: Still it's far from the big, voluminous lashes I get from my Colossal plus I don't want to wait for more than a month for the mascara to really start working it's magic.

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I can't find any more suitable description of the brush than normal. It's just your average mascara wand with no special flashy design, though the name of the mascara does suggest almost miraculous lashes. I mean Lashes to Kill that's quite promising. If only it were so.

I got mine for about 4 € in Müller. It's an ok mascara if you're on a budget, but it is similar to Multi Action mascara by Essence which is about a € cheaper. I won't be repurchasing.

Thanks for reading!

August Favourites 2012

Time for a new favourites post, as usual the coloured text are links to swatches and original reviews. 

This August has been seriously hot and products like dusting powders from Lush come in really handy at such times. I have two: the lighter jasmine scented Silky Underwear and a more heavily scented Vanilla Puff Powder. I already raved about these powders last Summer as they are really multitasking. They are great at absorbing extra moisture, you can sprinkle it on the bedding so it smells nice and I even use it sometimes as a setting powder (it is very white though, so don't use it too much. Also wear lighter clothes if you use it on your body). I actually prefer the scent of Silky Underwear, it is truly one of the nicest scents out there. 

I took a trip to Refan again which sells imitation fragrances. This time I picked up Bruno Banani's Magic Woman and Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle. The first one is a very sweet scent, I get strawberries and other berries with some musk. The second is again a sweet but a very sophisticated scent. I get mostly patchouli with oranges and a touch of vanilla, simply a gorgeous scent! I find that Refan's fragrances last very long on me and are actually very good imitations of the originals. 

Balea released a LE deodorant called Hawaii and it's a very candy-tropical scent (papaya and frangipani). I love the scent, it's right up my alley and I will repurchase if I'm lucky enough to still find it in DM. 

I wanted a peach smelling fragrance and after consulting fragrantica.com (being a bit obsessed with fragrances, I just love this site) I decided to try Victoria's Secret Love Spell. I bought a 250ml body spray on eBay for an exaggerated price (a result of high shipping costs). I looove the scent. It's very tropical, like a tropical fizzy drink, for Slovene readers I can compare it to the old Bibita smell (dark blue label) and very similar to Escada's Marine Groove, other reviewers described it as a Hawaiian Punch smell. Sadly it doesn't last long, about an hour, so I'm planning to get the body butter as well to intensify the scent.

Phyto Phytopolléine universal elixir is my mini super expensive miracle worker. I've been suffering from dandruff for more than 10 years, used almost every shampoo on the planet and nothing really worked. Now I use La Roche Posay Kerium for dry hair, just repurchased my third bottle in a row and I also use Alpencin Forte treatment which works fantastic for getting rid of the itching. But Phytopolléine is the product that really made a massive difference. It's a heavily scented oil (it smells of rosemary and lavender) that you massage on your scalp before washing your hair. It completely purifies my scalp, no other product I've tried was that effective. However, it costs an arm an a leg - over 20€ for a small 25ml bottle, but it did last me six treatments already and there is still about 1/5 left. I'll will repurchase it once it runs out, despite the insane price. I've been planning to write a post about my hair care for about a month (the pictures are already ready), but I'm simply too lazy. And I think I'll have to write it in three parts, because I use a lot of things on my hair.

My current favourite everyday eye look consist of a Max Factor eyeliner in Glaze (a nude shade) on the waterline and of a shade Brown blaze (dark brown) on the top lash line and a bit smudged under the lower lashes. It's simple and it just defines your eyes. For a darker look I use L'Oreal's Color Infaillible eyeshadow in Endless Chocolate all over the lid. 

Still in the spirit of Summer I've been wearing brighter coral and pink shades on my lips. My favourite this month have been Essence Miami Roller Girl TE Colour Changing lip balm in Miami Heat which is such a fantastic bright coral pink shade on me, Catrice Kiss Kiss Hibiskus and Shiseido PK 224 (the most perfect peachy pink shade! The texture is a let down though).

Thanks for reading!

My Favourite 5 Nail Polishes This Summer

These are the five nail polishes I've been wearing over and over again this Summer:

1. Ciate - Sugared Almonds (on my thumb, left top picture): a pink nude shade, needs 2-3 coats for an even application as it tends to go streaky. It's quite expensive for a nail polish, I bought it online on Ličila.si for almost 14€, but it is one of my most worn colours. Here is another swatch click. 

2. Depend - Holographic 2025 (index finger, top right picture): a silver holographic shade, needs 3 coats for full coverage. One of my absolute favourite shades. I got mine in DM for around 4€. Here is another swatch click. 

3. Essence - Season Extreme's TE in Bright Alert! (middle finger, bottom left picture): a super bright coral-pink shade (almost neon), needs 3 coats for full coverage. My other favourite shade this summer, but a colour that is incredibly unphotogenic. I tried every setting I could find on my camera to come close to the shade. It's very close in the first (intro) picture, just a more bright and coral. The same goes for the swatch picture on the bottom left and just ignore the other one's where it looks orange. This definitely my most worn colour this summer, too bad it limited edition.

4. Barry M - 305 Pink Flamingo (ring finger, bottom left picture): a pink with a hint of coral, needs 1 coat. Barry M has one of my favourite formulas, it's never streaky and very pigmented (one coat is enough, but I put one more just in case). Here is another swatch click.

5. Depend - 245 (little finger, bottom right picture): a pastel mint green shade, needs 2 coats. I adore mint green shades and I have quite a few of them already (even though some look just identical). It all started with Essie Mint Candy Apple, Depend 245 is actually quite a spot on dupe for it as is You Belong to Me from Essence, and I keep all of them on my vanity because I have the whole mint green theme going there. 

My collection of mint green shades: Essence 73 Replay (discontinued), Season of Extremes Did Someone Say Nude?, You Belong to Me, Essie Mint Candy Apple and Depend 245.

Thanks for reading!

July 2012 Favourites

This post includes all of the products that I took on my holiday. It's not all I took, obviously, but these are the product that stood out the most or I used them most. Btw I was in Vodice, Croatia, for a week and it was amazing.

Sun protection was obviously vital, so I stuck to using BB creams. I took both Skin79 (review) and Holika Holika (review here and here is a picture of me wearing it) with me. I absolutely hate the sticky, heavy feeling sun creams leave on the face and BB creams are such a step forward in that department. Mind you, they are still a bit sticky (especially Holika Holika Peach Girl), but nothing compared to regular sunscreens. It's also important to protect your hair, so I took with me Orofluido Sahara which has UVA and UVB filters, not to mention it smells gorgeous. 

Maybelline's Popstick in 020 Tropical pink (review), L'Oreal Rouge Carresse in 301 Dating Coral (review) and Essence colour changing lip balm in 01 Miami Heat (review, I'm also wearing it here) are great summer lip choices. All three are really moisturising, light and are lovely summery shades. 

On my nails I was wearing 04 Bright Alert! by Essence from Season Extreme TE, which is a bright pinky coral. 

I took Match Perfection concealer by Rimmel with me (review), because it offers a lot of coverage and I can use it on circles and spots. For mascara I went with my current one, Maybelline Collosal Volum' Express Waterproof (review), which is a great mascara just keep it away from water, because it falls short of it's claim of being waterproof. I used a touch of Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soft Mat bronzer (review) all over instead of powder and blush. 

My trusted Nuxe Huile Prodigueuse (review) also went with me. It's a great multi-purpose product, I used it on my face, body, lips and hair, so aside from shower oil by L'Occitane this was my only body care product, which also functioned as hair treatment and face moisturiser. It gives a lovely glow to the body on the beach or when you're going out. 

The last product I'm loving (still) is Fantasy by Britney (review). I just adore the sweet fruity-vanilla notes it has, also I received a lot of compliments. 

I've been playing with Picasa a bit to edit my pictures. They're not the best, but it was fun to play with different effects. Thanks for reading!

L'Oreal Rouge Carresse 301 Dating Coral and Essence Miami Roller Girl Lip Balm

Rouge Carresse are the L'Oreal's answer to the whole lipstick/lip balm/lip gloss all in one trend. I don't own any of the famous Chanel's Coco Shine, Dior or Revlon lip butters equivalents, so I can't compare them. I tend to like more matte, full coverage finishes and I did discard this trend of lighter, shinier shades as just paying more for a bit better tinted lip balm. 

I finally caved, but only because of the shade. 301 Dating Coral is a light peach shade, a great everyday shade that goes with almost everything. The texture is very light and it feels nice and moisturising. Of course due to the lighter texture it doesn't last that long on the lips. I was quite surprised how pigmented it is, two swipes is enough for full coverage. It gives a slight sheen to the lips, nothing special, it's like at any tinted lip balm. Rouge Carress cost 11€ in our drugstores.

Colour changing lip balm in 01 Miami heat is a part of Miami Roller Girl TE by Essence. The tube and the balm are bright orange, but on the lips it translates into a nice light peachy pink shade. It's one of those lip balms that adjust the colour to your pH, like for example Maybelline's Pop Sticks (review of Tropical Pink is here), so it does stain your lips. The texture is very soft, buttery and very moisturising. A nice product for a low price. 

Thanks for reading!

My Current Skin Care

It's been a year since my last skin care post (click) and I think it's time for an updated version. I haven't changed that many products actually, a lot stayed the same, nor have I experimented a lot in this year. I already found some great products last year and I kept using them. So I suppose I could even call them my holly grail products. My skin is combination to normal type with areas on my cheeks and forehead getting drier in colder months (I get dry patches there). I rarely get spots, in general I'd say about one every one or two months and even those tend to go away fast. However, some have left small red spots on my chin which are fading significantly slower. My skin had never looked better since I completely changed my routine last spring.

Starting with make up removers and cleansers. I still use Bioderma Sensibio H20, I'm on my fourth bottle in a row now. This might be the most recommended skin care product in the make up/beauty blogger community and for a good reason. It's very gentle, feels like water but removes all make up and does not irritate my skin or eyes. However, I do find it does not remove all of the waterproof mascara (actually it depends which one it is), so if I'm wearing waterproof mascara and I feel that Bioderma didn't get all off, I use Maybelline waterproof remover. It's oil based and I'm not really a fan of the oily residue is leaves, but it completely removes waterproof mascara. 

After make up removers I always use a cleanser and rinse my face with water. I just don't feel comfortable with just leaving all that remaining make up remover just sitting on my face. I need to feel that my skin is completely clean. I use different baby shower gels or soapless gels. Right now I'm using one of SauBär ones and I don't really like it. It's too thin and it's not a good shampoo either (it claims to be a 3 in 1, shower-shampoo-conditioner) as it really dries out the hair. Since they discontinued my HG Nivea Todddies gel, which I repurchased a dozen times in a row, I've used a lot of different cleansers. I didn't really like any of them, Neutrogena pink grapefruit one was particularly nasty, because it dried out my skin badly. But I got a sample of Skin79 O2 Bubbles BB cleanser and I loved it. It's on my wishlist already.

After cleanser I use Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair serum. I got it on eBay for half the price it's sold by our retailers, but it still cost an arm and a leg. I bought it sometime in Spring and I've got only about 20% left. My skin is definitely clearer, spots occur really rarely now (as I said before one per 1 or even 2 months) and if I get any they heal and disappear faster. In the first month using it, my forehead broke out like crazy. I almost stopped using it, but I pressed on and now my skin looks better than ever. It's meant to be used with a moisturiser as I find that itself is not moisturising at all. In fact if I use it on it's own my skin gets really tight after five minutes. Now that it's on it's last legs I really want to repurchase it, but it's so expensive. I'll probably repurchase it sometime, but for now I'll replace it with a much cheaper Eucerin Aquaporin light moisturiser (I got a few samples and I love how light, yet really moisturising it is).

I'm still using Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse dry oil as my moisturiser. I've been using it non-stop since last May and my skin looks so healthy, dewy, soft and all in all just really great. I had one 50 ml bottle for a year, because you only need a few drops. I recently repurchased a bigger 100 ml bottle that comes with a pump. Here is my original review. 

I've just recently written a review for self tanners which you can find here click. I use Clarins Liquid Bronze and Xen-Tan Transform light. The first is a light lotion and appropriate also for more oily skin types and the second one is really moisturising so I prefer it more for my skin type (it leaves my skin really soft even if I forget to use Nuxe oil). You can go really light with both, so to give your skin more of a glow than an actual deeper tan, or you can build it up by using it several days in a row.

As my exfoliator/anti-spot mask I use Dermalogica gentle cream exfoliant which has high percentages of salicylic and lactic acid. It's a brilliant product, you can find my rave review here. I bought it when my skin was acting up as a result of Estee Lauder Advance Night Repair's purging stage and it worked amazing. I still only have the small tube (I've been saving it like crazy) and I tend to use it as a spot treatment. It just dries those suckers right out. I'm saving for a full size tube.

My favourite spot treatment has been discontinued. It is PureSkin pure teint spot fighting duo by Essence. The concealer end is absolute rubbish, but the treatment end was amazing. It was a clear liquid and it didn't leave any dried gel type of things on top. It worked great and it dried the spots fast. Now I've been trying other ones (I'll advise you to stay clear of the new treatment from the same line by Essence as it's really bad) and nothing works the same (apart for the Dermalogica mask). I miss it, I've probably repurchased it a least half of dozen times. So far I purchased one from Balea and I hate it, and one from CadeaVera Young, which is just ok, I don't like the fact it's a gel that dries on the spot.

I occasionally make a home made mask when my skin is acting up a bit (but it been a while since that happened and I had to resort to it) made from either just honey (if my skin is dry) or adding a couple of crushed aspirins into the honey (if I get spots). It's a great cheap treatment that works like a charm. Honey works as an antiseptic and Aspirin has salicylic acid which is good for treating spots. You can also use honey  instead of a cleanser as an everyday wash, but beware that it doesn't wash of completely. Also I use to use Aspirin toner (instruction here, below the second picture) but it's become a bother to me make and use. Still if my skin got a bit crazy I'd definitely start using it again. Another nice treatment is using baking soda as an exfoliator.

I wear BB creams everyday now because of the high SPF they have (I count BB creams also as skin care products, not just make up). Here I'm wearing Holika Holika Peachy Girl BB cream (shade #2, review here), but only a small amount as I don't like too much coverage. I want my freckles to show through. On my lips I have color changing lip balm by Essence from the Miami Roller Girl TE in 01 Miami heat (the orange one) and nothing on my eyes.

So this is my updated skin care routine. I know it looks like I use a lot of products, but in fact on most days it's just three: cleanser, Estee Lauder serum and Nuxe oil. Thanks for reading!

Loving Now

There is a reason I love favourites posts, because I always find great products that lovely bloggers recommend. I her June favourites Evi from Lipstick Wardrobe mentioned Max Factor's Liquid Effect Pencil and how great it is. So I had to check it out and I discovered a dark brown shade that is a great replacement for black eyeliner. It's similar to Avon Supershock eyeliner and works well both on waterline and on the top lash line (once it dries, it doesn't budge). Another eyeliner I got recently is from Essence and it's their gel eyeliner in 02 London baby. It's a great dark taupe shade and is another nice everyday alternative to black. 

Taya from Taya- My Little Beauty World posted swatches of Depend's Holographic nail polishes. Before that post I didn't even know Depend had such a line. I wanted a silver holographic nail polish for so long and I finally got it in a local drugstore for a reasonable price. Yay! I need 3 layers for full coverage. It is one of my favourite nail polishes in my collection. I tried taking pictures of it, it's not the best swatch in the world and it's already a bit chipped (this is the fifth day I'm wearing it, I have Seche Vite on top) but it'll have to do.

I much prefer cream blushes to powder and my recent addition is by Essence from their Ready for Boarding collection shade 02 Beauty on Tour. I tried taking pictures of it, but my camera apparently hates that shade and refuses to take a nice picture of it. You can find nice swatches of it here: click. It's a very pigmented bright pinky coral shade that really brightens up the face and also looks nice on the lips.

Pulse by Beyonce (original review here) has been sitting relatively untouched on my vanity since I bought it, until a couple of weeks ago when I ''rediscovered'' it and started using it almost every day. It's just the perfect combination of sweet orange candy and powdery notes. I'm really loving it right now.

Balea Bademomente Sinnesfroh has been lying forgotten in one of my mini baskets for months, I had no idea what a nice product was hidding somewhere in my room. The product itself is nothing special, just a regular bath salt that turns your water brown (could of been some other colour), but the smell is fantastic. It smells like a hot cup of cocoa, so chocolatey and sweet. I'll definitely get some more if I can still find it, I know it was LE.