Guest post: Freshen Up With Fashion

Hello my dear people! It's been a hell of a week, I tell you, but it was worth it, today I passed an exam with a nice mark. :) And imagine my surprise when I check this little corner of internet of mine to find there is 1000 of you here! Thank you for all your support, darlings. This calls for a giveaway as soon as i find the time to fetch a couple of beauties for you. Perhaps I shall wait for my trip to Spain, to get you some international beauties too!

But here is one of guest posts I've been mentioning before. When Jackie Clark contacted me with a suggestion of doing a fashion post dedicated for women battling a cancer I was immediately for it. Few of you know that in the beginning of the year my family went through hell and agony of waiting for positive or negative results on breast cancer diagnosis for my mum. No words can describe the fear that threat brings. And no words can describe the burden these women carry with them to the doctors office as they walk in. And when they walk out, looking as they have the weight of the world on their shoulders, you feel an instant urge to hug them, even if you are a complete stranger to them. We were lucky, after two nerve wrecking examinations the results came back negative. But I feel every single person that struggles with the threat or the actual beast of the cancer is a warrior and we should honour and respect them for the battle they are in, I most certainly do. 

The guest post of today concerns the fashion tips for these ladies and the point behind it is wonderful. Bottom line that is important - cancer or not, you're beautiful. And if you love make up half as much as I do, dig in, play with colours, explore the options of it, go out shopping, spend that money on the shoes you want ... I think all of us that read this blog can agree - shopping can make you so happy, and so does make up. It's the little things. Even the things you dislike on you can be so nicely hidden or wrapped in a beautiful accessory. I googled a bit the fashion and just look at all the options here, all the choices for scarfs, hats etc. From my experience the hair loss with chemotherapy is one of the hardest thing our warriors cope with. Well, I always say, give the enemy the finger and make the weakness your strong point. 

I feel inadequate to the theme, since it's impossible to know what these people need to go through. But I feel enormous respect for your battle. Keep fighting, keep winning! 

And now for the article. The author is doing an outreach for the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance, a leading web resource for mesothelioma cancer.  I'd also like to point out another thing she said in her email, that really is the point of my previous words and I liked it a lot so I'm going to copy it to this post too. She wants all the women that are struggling with the disease to think “YES I have cancer--but I am no less beautiful than I was before my diagnosis.” And that's the very important point that these ladies have to remember, in case they've forgotten it!

Freshen Up With Fashion

by Jackie Clark

Cancer shouldn’t have control over a woman’s confidence. With a creative wardrobe enhancement, cancer patients can retain their confidence. You don’t have to be a runway fashion model or even overhaul your closet to enjoy the latest trends.

A trendy blouse with shorts or capris in the spring can do the trick. Maybe try a stylin’ sweater with leggings in the fall to give you a leg up. Don’t forget jewelry either! Whether your style is subtle and understated or bold and wild, a woman can feel powerful and confident in how they dress.

“Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative” with fashion. Every woman deserves to feel like her best, no matter the circumstances. Every figure can be dressed up and enhanced with the latest fashion. The right styles can eliminate focus on unwanted parts of the body and make anyone appear beautiful. Emphasize positive attributes with the right style and no one will be the wiser!

A splash of makeup may also boost a woman’s confidence. A little face powder to even out skin tone and a sprinkle of bronzer can brighten up any look, giving your confidence an extra boost. Finish it off with a touch of lip gloss. By keeping your makeup light and natural, you won’t feel as if you have a mask on. Let your natural beauty shine through!

Whether you are undergoing chemotherapy or need to consult with mesothelioma doctors, you can stand strong despite your diagnosis and treatment. If anyone deserves a little pampering, it’s a woman juggling cancer treatment and her normal, every day life. Incorporating fashion and makeup tips into your daily routine boost your confidence, making you feel like yourself again.

Anyone who is battling cancer is obviously very strong on the inside. Dressing up, hair styling, and make up application simply show the world your inner strength on the outside.  Beauty and confidence empower cancer patients to continue the fight.

Thank you, Jackie, for the article, and thank you everyone for reading it!

sources of pictures from top to bottom: 
americanbedu.com
wilmingtonparent.com
pauldapper.com

SpaRitual - Sacred Ground and a short break

Hello my dear people! It's been 10 days again since I've posted something and even that one was a scheduled post so it's been even longer since i've actually been blogging or checking your wonderful works of art you're doing with the varnish and the nail. My older (and regular) readers probably know this from last year, May and June are months when I really need to shift into fifth gear when it comes to studying. This year the stakes are even higher, thanks to my ambition to get the highest marks and the fact that I'll be leaving for Spain in the middle of June for one week. Thus I have to pass the planned exams before I departure. 

The stress has hit my nails too and twice now I had to cut them completely off, right to the meat. It hurts like hell for three days, even doing just simple work with your hands. You understand what I'm talking about. But most importantly, with all the work and other stuff in my life, I'm neglecting my nails. Not proud of it, but hey, it happens. That's why I'll do what I planned (and kinda succeeded) to do last year during this time of year. I'm taking a short break from blogging. A couple of weeks, I dare say, with dropping in every once in a while. Somewhat like my blogging is now, but now i'm making it 'official', if you will. If I'll have a spare moment to edit the billion photos I have and write about it, I'll definitively do that - like today, as I'm resting from the exam I had in the morning. I'm also hoping to post a couple of guest posts, if all will go as planned.

But until then, I want to show you another beauty. My first SpaRitual! Yes, I've shown you a couple, but they weren't mine, but this baby is! And it's beautiful! And so cute, a mini bottle, argh, adorable!

SpaRitual's brush isn't in my good books. Usually I had problems with the application. Here, on my shorter nails I didn't, the application was a breeze, actually. I guess my longer nails gave it troubles. Or I just got better at applying nail polish? Anyway. This was three coats of the beautiful, complex polish Sacred Ground is. Just look at all the details. Amazing, I love it. It's also a part of a rather strong collection, SpaRitual Wilde Collection for fall 2011. With quick glance over the swatches I wouldn't say no to another three shades! But Sacred Ground is by far the best in the collection. I love it. 

Any thoughts on this SpaRitual baby? Do you have it? 

Have a great next couple of weeks and if you're studying too - may it be successful!

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Paket Petek

Heya people! How are you doing? This is a scheduled post, ATM I'm up north, studying my ass off away from the computer, television and so on. But I didn't want to miss this week's Paket Petek, since the package I received is special for me because of one reason: it contains my first, very first Illamasqua eyeshadow. 

A lovely lady was giving some items away, and among them was also Illamasqua Angst. My jaw hit the floor when I saw it, and I was sure I already missed my opportunity to get it. But I didn't and so I received this lovely package on Monday.

I also got Catrice eyebrow pencil in Date with Ash-ton. I'm trying to get a perfect filler for my eyebrows, and I planned to try this one anyway. :) 

But Illamasqua Angst made me squeak as I opened it. My eyeshadow WL with Illamasqua is very long, with my biggest lemming being  Daemon, but Angst is so so close to it I was immensely happy to get it, finally one is off the WL! It's a gorgeous, gorgeous colour and I can't wait to play with it. And don't ask me how many items from Illamasqua I have on the WL, it's far too long for me to tell and you not to question my sanity. :P

Anyway. Thanks to the lovely lady for sending me these beauties! 

What was in the latest package you got? :) Are you a fan of eyeshadows and eye make up too? Any good blogs on eye make up you know and can recommend?

Thank you for reading, have a nice weekend!

Nubar - Earth and complete Going Green collection

Heya people! Late hour again. My biorhythm has changed again with all the studying, I see. I get up after noon, and am wide awake after two a.m. Well, I've always been more of a night bird anyway. Tonight I want to show you the very last beauty from Going Green collection, Earth. I could have been cool and post it on Earth day but decided I'm going to miss that opportunity.

Going Green as a whole is a big big lemming killed. And I'm wondering. Do you have collection lemmings too? When entire collection is so perfect, you really want them all? When I got the Going Green collection with major help of my amazing swap buddy (thanks again for that!!), I started to think what makes the collection perfect for me. And I realised it's about my favourite things in nail polish world. Nubar Going Green is obviously singing to my huge green obsession. It also has a duo/multichrome, a holo, a rich creme, an insanely rich green shimmer and insanely rich teal shimmer. You basically cover everything, Nubar.

The two collections I want as a whole (although they're not that big lemmings as GG was) cover my love for glass flecked finish and sexy rich dark shimmers. I'm talking about China Glaze Summer Days (noone does glass fleck like China Glaze!) and Misa Poisoned Passion. So basically, a collection covers one of my loves in polish world so well, I can't say no to a colour. Do you get like that too? :)

But to the pictures! Earth is gorgeous! No matter how you take that sentence, it's true to the core. :) And although it looks quite close to Conserve in the bottle, you'll see they're really different.

Two easiest coats, this formula was pure perfection. No clean up, no nothing, one of those polishes you grab if you're in an insane hurry because they'll work fast for you. Just beauty on the nail, and I simply adore how rich and heavy the shimmer is on this polish (heavy in a good way, naturally!)

And just for fun, let's have Earth's brothers here in this post too. Since seeing them all together makes me happy and all. :)

 Nubar Conserve

 Nubar Forest

 Nubar Greener

 Nubar Reclaim

Nubar Wildlife

And just because it's 1:30 a.m. here and I can't stop listening to this gorgeous song:

Fates Warning - The Roads Goes On Forever

Thank you for reading! Have a good night (or a lovely day, if you're reading this with Sun already up :))!

Essence - Mojito Green (Soul Sista LE)

Heya people!  How are ya? It's really late here in Slovenia and I feel like crap, so I decided to spend my zombie time in front of the computer. Blogging kinda makes me feel productive, hehe. I've been reading until now but I started to feel dizzy. So warm tea and Blogger for me, thank you! 

I'd also like to show you one LE polish while it's still available. I buy my share of LE polishes that Essence is throwing at us on regular basis, but I'm very strict about it, I do not want to get all 'it's LE, that's why I HAVE to have it'. No, my dear ladies, I really don't, certainly not only because it's frakking limited edition. Limited editions in shapes that Essence does them annoy me more than not, all the hype is ridiculous. Still, they do make some awesome polish. Vampire's Love was an amazing collection, I bet you remember that one. I also thought Fruity was rather cute, but of course missed it entirely. Well, I wanted the green one, it was cute and had 'Kiwi' word in the name, which I find quite adorable. 

So ... where was I? Oh yes, yes. My point is, normally I'm really really late with showing you my LE purchases, also because I rarely wear them right away. For instance, I'm wearing True Love from already mentioned Vampire's Love now. For the first time. Yay me! It's a cool one too. :) But Mojito Green from Essence Soul Sista LE was a surprise for me. I actually got to a full counter, not even wanting to buy anything, but, as always, I checked it out, a habit a nail polish fanatic knows and has. Mojito Green caught my eye immediately because of the golden shimmer. It was gentle in the bottle so I walked around in Müller, trying to convince myself I don't need it, because the shimmer won't show on the nails anyway. I'm glad I bought it. While shimmer really isn't obvious, you can catch it with your naked eye, even off direct sunlight. On direct sunlight it gets quite beautiful. Plus the aqua green colour is simply awesome and no, I don't have it in my stash yet. FTW!

 Sadly my camera wasn't able to capture the tiny shimmer in the shade, it's so subtle. Like I said, I could see it, but it's a shy one and apparently it's too shy for my camera.

This is how horribly inaccurate the colour gets in lightbox. I'm only showing you this picture so you can see the shimmer more clearly.

Nothing else interested me in the Soul Sista LE. Well, the brushes were gone anyway. My second favourite from the varnish bunch was actually the pinkish one, because of the same shimmer it contains. But I decided to pass on it, I'm trying to clear my stash a bit right now, no point in buying a 'maybe' polish then. 

I'm not that crazy about the application. Actually, it really surprised me, since Essence normally has an excellent formula. This one was very, very thick and that's why the application wasn't really all that well. Not extremely bad - two careful coats were enough - but Essence can certainly do better. Still, this bright aqua green polish is very vibrant and a very happy colour, I loved wearing it and I'm glad I took it off the counter. :)

Did you get anything from Soul Sista edition? Any thoughts on constant LE done by Essence?

Thank you for reading!