Essie Mezmerised with Bourjois accent nail

Hey everyone! How is it going? It seems it is going to be a beautiful Autumn here in Slovenia. Other than that my schedule has not found any sanity yet and I am starting to think about cloning being a really good and legit work, if that means that my consciousness will take it all to the mother source - me. That, or a crash course at Hogwarts to get a wand and start mutitasking wizard-mode. 

I am still playing with my Essies that L'Oreal Slovenia so nicely provided for me. Next was Mezmerised, I combined it with Bourjois Turquoise Block beauty. 

I absolutely adore the colour. Rich blue creme. And the turquoise colour of Bourjois fits so perfect with it. However, Mezmerised has less than good brush as its fault. I actually took a photo of both brushes, because, in theory, they are practically the same. Both a bit too wide for my nail, and both quite thick as well. But, the Bourjois bristles seem less yielding, and thus the brush is a lot more manageable, while Essie has such a soft brush it is very difficult to control it. I was really surprised by that, considering that Essie always had pretty good brushes.

Both colours were two coats, plus topcoat. They lasted forever on my nails, so no complaints there. I love the combo, I just wish the brush on Mezmerised would be better.

Did you have the same experience with the Essie brushes, is this a new thing?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

New In ~ A haul post

New month, new haul post! This month I was a good girl and wore the nail polish I already have. However, I finally, finally put my hair treatment to a full circle, meaning, I bought new shampoos and conditioners. Naturally now comes the testing phase. But, honestly, I do not think it can get worse than what my scalp looks and feels like now.

Like always, a group photo. A bit of make up (a very nice surprise there as well), mostly stuff for hair and a bit for my skin as well.

Hair and skin

oh look, you can see my lightbox lamp here! say hi, lamp!

Let's do the big haul first. It was actually gradual, but it happened in this month. I mentioned several times before that I need new products for my hair and I ran out of toner and night cream, so I guess it was the month to really buy the stuff I actually needed. Which is good!

Paul Mitchell Spring Loaded Fizz-Fighting Conditioner

Ok, so my first encounter with Paul Mitchell was not the best. But I went to my awesome hairdresser again and I checked her stash again and I checked the ingredient list REALLY WELL and decided to pamper myself with another expensive-as-hell (24 EUR and do not dare to judge me) conditioner. I used it twice now and it is pure magic. Hair like silk, especially when combined with Redken Anti-snap leave in treatment. Ah yes. I will let you know after I am at least down to one third of the bottle, how it worked in the long run, ok?

John Frieda Brilliant Brunette Shampoo

I got this in Germany, it was on sale for 4,99€ , an extra big tube and I remembered Mateja praising the thing, so I bought it on a whim. Later on I realised she was talking about the conditioner of the same line, not shampoo, but hey, I already have it, might as well use it. And so far so good. I use it on my lenght, not scalp and it is a good shampoo. I have it for about a month, so I'll get back to you after a while on the decent review.

Derma E Scalp Relief Shampoo 

You have no idea how happy I was when I saw this new thingie on Iherb. I adore Derma E. It is the brand that works for my skin best, and not just mine, but my mother's as well, which is probably the biggest test you can give to a cosmetics line. It is awesome, and this is their brand new shampoo for fighting dandruff. I have no idea how it works, I got it today and I am washing my hair after I post this. It cannot possibly be a bigger disappointment than La Roche Posay Kerium. Cost an arm and a leg and was worse for me than washing my hair with ... well, anything, really, anti-dandruff or no. My scalp and my dandruff at this point are in the worst state of the past two years and I thought at the end of the year 2014 that I cannot get any worse. 

So I am keeping my fingers crossed for this one! It actually a good price, I got it for 9,40 USD or little under 8,50€ EUR, of course I need to add the shipping and the customs, but it is still a good price for a higher range shampoo. Let us hope it works as well.

Omnia Botanica Argan Oil

DM had 50% off coupon for this baby, so I gave it a go, otherwise I deem it too expensive. I use this for everything, dry spots on my face (although these will probably disappear now that I bought the face toner), for my hair ends and whenever I need some high end oil. I love the package, it comes with a dropper, for a really precise usage. I got it for 7,00€.

Derma E Soothing Toner

Like I said, huge fan of Derma E. This is my third toner I am trying from their line, and I am excited about it. Iherb had 20% off beauty products and naturally my favourite one got sold out, so I had perfect excuse to try this one (got it for about 9 €). If my previous experiences with Derma E are any indication, this will rock my world. Or skin, at least.

Derma E Visibly Clear Moisturiser

I am planning to use this at night. You could say my facial skin is demanding. I say it is a little diva bitch. It is dry on some areas, but if I use anything too moisturising, I get spots on other areas of my skin, not to mention the constant struggle with black spots. So I will give this a go during night. For 11,20€ is is actually one of the more affordable facial creams I bought in the past few years.

iHerb file for nails. I realised as I updated the photos it really looks like a free advertisement for the page, when I put it on like this. I like that it is green though. And I really like iHerb, I order there all the time. 

Makeeee uppp!

Bourjois Volume Glamour MAX definition

So. IsaDora Big Bold Lashes is crap. Do not buy it, it smudges like crazy, and nothing EVER smudges under my eyes. Very disappointed. When Müller had its 20% off make up, I bought my favourite mascara so far, the monster-pink Bourjois and I am happy again. I think it is around 12€ normally, I got it for under 10€.

Essence Love & Sound black eyeliner with three points I bought because I thought it can be either really weird and bad or phenomenal. It is actually a good eyeliner! And I love the three lines. It doesn't actually show on my eyelid, but on the outer line it shows nicely. It was really cheap, especially with the 20% off it was under 2€.

And now for the biggest surprise I got from licila.si. TODAY! I never expected it, and they wanted it that way. I <3 MAKE UP I <3 obsession eyeshadow palette. JUST LOOK AT EEEET! Utterly gorgeous everyday colour set, that can be turned also in a nice soft smokey eyes for night (especially with a bold red/purple lip!), I cannot imagine a girl that would hate wearing these. I cannot wait to play with them, I will do a decent review ASAP. And another picture of I <3 obsession, because I lahv it.

Thanks, licila.si team!:)

Drage moje bralke, ličila.si pa podarjajo tudi kodo za 15% popust na neznižane izdelke (z izjemo Sigma Beauty, Kardashian Beauty in Anastasia Beverly Hills) s kodo BRALKABLOGA15. Izkoristite jo! :)

So yeah, looks like May is going to be a fun month, with all the new gems and toys!


Why gorgeous thingies have you gotten for yourselves lately?


Have a wonderful week and thank you for reading and commenting!

New In ~ A Haul Post

Heya everyone! Time to show you what I have gotten in March. Now, my birthday is in March, so what you are looking at are my birthday presents. :) Most of the time my friends just take me to a store and let me choose my gift, as they know my wishlists are endless. Which is quite a great solution, I would say, for both sides.:)

Here is what I have gotten, and if you are wondering why the 'loud' background, it is the fabulous FC Barcelona blanket my girls gave me and I need to show it off. <3

I got a little bit of everything, most of the jewelry I got from Born Pretty Store because I got a lot of points on their page that I just needed to change into money for some goodies. :)

Something for the lips ...

When I first found out that my beloved Bourjois is making a matte lip creme line, Rouge Edition Velvet, I felt almost giddy. My favourite finish by my favourite brand!? Yes please! After checking out the colours, I saw that two were a must (on the photo), with other two being utterly gorgeous (both red, number 1 and number 8), but I lack the excuse to buy them, as I already have so many reds in my stash. A good friend of mine surprised me with both shades I wanted to have, 02, Frambourjoise and 07, Nude-ist. J'adore. :) Bourjois did not disappoint with Rouge Edition Velvet. Then again, every lipstick line I have from them was a great, great experience. 

The lip liner is from Maybelline Moisture Extreme line, called Rose and is perfect for a natural lip. I got it as a part of a product exchange on butik.si, and I am really happy with it, it lasts forever on the lips!

Something for the face ...

I am running low on my foundation and it was a perfect coincidence that my birthday was now and I could 'order' it as gift. :) I love Bourjois Healthy mix foundation, and as I read the new version is even better than the old one. Win win!

The egg-y sponge applicator for foundation I ordered from Born Pretty Store, just to try it. It was quite cheap and I had my points to pay with so why not. I need to watch some videos on how to apply the foundation with it, I tried it once, and felt like it was just soaking my foundation in. So perhaps I am doing something wrong. Or I do not know how to apply foundation with it. Either way, I read so much good stuff about this applicator, that I wanted to have it and now I do. 

Aaaand something for the eyes ...

Bourjois Twist up the Volume mascara in black, as I am running low on my hot pink Bourjois Volume something mascara. It was again 'ordered' for my bday, and I admit, I love the twisting applicator. I tried it once and I also like the effect. It is still a bit wet, but in the beginning they all are, what matters most to me is that it makes my eyelashes pop, and that is an achievement with my short excuse for an eyelash. 

Essence Blow my Mint eyeshadow from Bloom me Up! LE is an attempt at my mint eyeshadow lemming. It is the perfect shade for all the combinations I want to try out. Alas it is not as pigmented as I wanted it to be, on my eye it just appears silver-y. 

And some bling-bling

The ring, the bracelet and the necklace I got from Born Pretty Store and the Deathly Hallows pendant was a gift from my girls. The ring is a leaf and I absolutely love the pattern, plus it is a bigger ring, that I prefer. The bracelet has the Mockingjay sign and for all Hunger Games fans I needn't say more. The octopus is for my Ulmiel costume, I am planing to upgrade it a bit, thus the small investment in accessorising. ;)

In case you are wondering how it looks like in action ...

Can you feel my love for Bourjois in this post? Major fan, really. :D 

And that is it! Good month! :D Thank you all for the wonderful gifts, you know who you are. :* 

What did you get in the previous weeks for yourself? Any FC Barcelona/Hunger Games/Harry Potter/Bourjois fans out there? :D

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Essence Into The Dark vs. Bourjois 10 Days 18 comparison

Heya people! First post this year, woohoo! Hope you had a wonderful entrance and start of the year 2012. I know I said I'll be back on the 4th, but I feel like posting this now. Lovely MissDoll asked me in my last entry how close does Bourjois 18 get to Essence Into The Dark. I haven't worn Into The Dark yet, but luckily I did get my greedy little fingers on it. And you know how much I love to do a comparison for ya, so I did it today while changing the polish on my nails, because the one I put on yesterday seriously wasn't working for me.

 A big close up of the bottles, to see the difference in the shade of blue and size of the shimmer more clearly.

 The only half decent picture of the nails outside. Dead gloomy weather, bah.

The difference in colour is quite obvious, Into The Dark is darker, with bigger silver shimmer - it's seen also on weak light, while Bourjois' silver shimmer is so fine it almost gets lost in weaker lightning. They are both beautiful, although I prefer Into The Dark, it's fantastic, can't wait to wear it as a full mani!

Other stuff: application of Essence one is good, the formula is a bit thicker, but nicely manageable, two coats are more than enough. Bourjois has more watery formula, but I prefer that in general. The big fault of Bourjois is the brush. What. The. Hell. I did manage to get it on better this time, I guess there is a learning curve here too, but it's such an unnecessary experiment with the brush. Essence has a great, flatter brush, I love it. 

I did three coats of Bourjois, because I had bald spots, also the shimmer is more obvious with three (if you check my other entry where I had only two you'll see it). Essence is insanely pigmented, I did two coats, but if you're careful enough and use thicker coats, you can get away with one.

Into the Dark is a part of Essence limited edition Vampire's Love and is no longer available, but it costed under 2€. Bourjois 10 Days 18 is still available, here it costs around 5€. 

I love both colours, but if I have to pick a winner, it would be Essence Into The Dark. If you have it, don't let go of it!

Which one do you prefer?

Thank you for reading!

Essence - Blue Addicted over Bourjois 18

How about I show you a mani I really loved while I'm stuffing my face with pancakes? 

I started with Bourjois 10 days number 18, a really cool blue colour with a less than good brush. It's cut inclined and it gave me quite a lot of troubles. I know it's supposed to make the application easier, but for me it didn't. I prefer the classic brush. But the colour is beautiful. Although I liked it, i wanted something more on my nails. I'm into layering lately, and Blue Addicted was in my untrieds box for far far too long. Magic happened. 

And Borujois 18, as you can see, a lovely shade of blue with silver shimmer.

Nothing could prepare me for the awesomeness that is Essence Blue Addicted. I loved it so so so freakishly much. The application is good, you have to search for the hexagonal glitter a bit, but it works with you, so it's not too much trouble. Two coats, over two coats of Bourjois. And it was a perfect mani, that comes with a heavy removal, just like all Essence glitters. Well worth the trouble though.

You can build Blue Addicted too, but I prefer to layer it. Definitively on my top 10 for this year. Fantastic polish, truly a must-have in Essence department. Yes, I know it's a dupe of Across the Universe, and I really love Essence for doing a dupe of this marvellous polish that I shall never have due to the price. 

Do you have Blue Addicted? Do you like hexagonal glitter or does the hype around it baffle you? 

Thank you for reading & have a great NY celebration!

Lipstick Tag

Heya people! I'm still sick and what better way to get distracted than doing a tag? This is something you don't see often on my blog, doing any other type of make up. Although I love make up in general, especially eye shadows and eye make up, I decided I will dedicate the blog only to nails. Well, there is also the fact I find it extremely hard to capture well the colours of the eye make up (the lighter shades usually just fade away on pictures) and the fact I'm still trying to perfect my eye make up.

But I also love lip stick and other lip products. And Jacie from You've Got Nail (I'm sure you know her, if not, RUN to her blog, it's awesome!! I can never get over how insanely beautiful and crisp her photos are, plus she's tons fun to read) made this Lipstick Tag looks so awesome and fun (just look at her lipstick pictures *sigh* Makes me want to wear them all) I said, why not! It's not like I have many of them to decide from. ;)

Although I'm a total make up lover, I am quite good at holding back when buying lip and eye products. It's the nail polish where I break totally. Still, the student budget is also an important factor when I go shopping. I wonder what will happen when I get a job ... hehe. So there is not many lip products on my make up shelf, but I love them dearly. I hope you'll find this fun and refreshing. I do have nails for you too later on. 

I'll bend the rules to this tag, because well ... why not? It's a lipstick tag, but I'll include all my lip products. As you'll see, I have miles to go before I'll be able to do a decent lipstick shot. I redid a few pictures while writing the tag, simply because the pictures I did before starting to write this sucked so badly.

How many lipsticks do you have?

I have altogether 11 lip products, 8 of them are lipsticks, one is lipcream and two are glosses. I'm a total lipstick/lipcream fan, glosses not so much. When I wear a colour, I like it to be shown. :)

 Yup, that's really it!

When you were a child, did you use your mother's lipsticks?

No, my mother isn't a make up fan, I've only seen her wear make up once in my lifetime. It's not an addiction I inherited. 

How old were you when you bought your first lipstick and what was it?

I have *no* idea. But I'm pretty sure it was lipgloss before lipsticks (they were relatively new back then and cheaper than lipstick) and I guess I was about 13 years old. Later years of primary school for sure, and I'm pretty sure it was one of the strong artifical candy smelling sheer pinkish deal. Yuck. 

What is your newest lipstick?

Eyeko Liptastik Glossy Lip Pen in Lip Lover. A gift from Daltonista Polish blogger, thank you!! 

The most expensive lipstick I have ever bought ...
was Dior Addict Red Interference (649). I don't remember the exact price, but it was around 30 euros. Totally worth it though, still one of my favourites ever.

And the cheapest?

Well, I got a few of them for free (like the already mentioned Eyeko, I got the Alessandro one as a gift and The Body Shop one too), but the cheapest that I actually payed for is Essence Femme Fatale (41). I love the colour, but the thing lasts for about 15 minutes, if you hold really still, then *poof* it disappears. It costed me little over 2 euros.

What's the most bizarre thing you have ever done with a lipstick?

I remember once, when I only started to buy them (or were bought for me) I had one really dark that mother didn't let me wear in public. So since it felt really creamy, I squished it with my fingers and played with the colour on a piece of paper. Weirdo.

If you had to recommend a lipstick, which brand would you recommend and why? 

I'd recommend Dior and Bourjois. I love them both, Dior is still my number one after all these years - yes, I have only one, but that one is perfect for so many occasions I don't really need more. Bourjois feels to me like Dior's cheaper sister. I love the lipsticks, although they aren't so moisturizing as Dior, they don't dry my lips and cost about a third of Dior price.

Pink or red lipstick?

Red!! Red all the way! My all time favourite reds, beside Dior that I've already shown are Eyeko one and Manhattan Soft Mat Lip Cream. They last unbelievably long and look AWESOME, sexy reds!

Favourite pink?

I don't own a pink lipstick. The closest I get to pink lipstick is my everyday lipstick that I love for my everyday look Bourjois Sweet Kiss Natural Framboise Exquise. It doesn't feel pink to me though, I love it for the subtlety of it. Then again, lipstick experts might call this a pink one, so here you go.

Favourite nude?

Again, I don't own a nude lipstick. So I shall cheat and show you my only transparent gloss, also because it's a really fun one! It's called Lips To Love Instant Lip Plumper (from AminoGenesisTM) and I won it in a giveaway wonderful Kim from Overall Beauty held on her blog called Thoughts of Beauty. If you don't know her blog (i'm sure you know her site that gives us BB Couture, Glitter Gal, Cult and totally awesome mineral eyeshadows!!), i do recommend it, it's tons of fun with variety of themes. So, the story. My lips aren't as full as I'd like them to be. Fact, can't to anything about it. I'm lucky enough to love the shape of them, I'd just prefer them a bit fuller. I tried the Cattier push up gloss but didn't do anything of the sort, and when Kim did a post on Lips To Love, I was really curious about it. And got lucky enough to win it! 

To tell you the truth, I didn't expect results. Come on, lip gloss that can make my lips fuller? Sure. Well, hold on to your hats, ladies, this baby works!! I actually did a before and after shots when I first tried it on, so I would see if there is an actual difference and there is! What I love about it is that the difference is of course subtle and natural, I don't go all Pamela Anderson on you. And it makes my lips redder, so the end result is like I wear a lip stain. I love it, I really do! You can feel the gloss working because it warms up your lips. You can read more about it in her post. The thing that totally amused me when I first tried it on was the vibrating applicator. It has three speeds too. Haha. It has a rather strong smell of cinnamon too, that I ADORE so it's an extra plus for me.

Favourite unusual shade?

Hm ... I don't have them. The most unusal I get is the Cattier Gloss in Griotte, it's a dark violet one, but it's a gloss so it only stains my lips. You can see it on the second picture. I totally want to have the green gloss from Illamasqua though!

Favourite dark shade?

Two of them, Bourjois Sweet Kiss Natural Prune Caresse (05) and Essence Femme Fatale (41), although I prefer Bourjois since it lasts longer. I added a swatch of them both, because they look far more darker than what they really look like on the lips. Bourjois is the lower swatch. 

And an extra one, that I want to hear from you too: Your biggest lipstick lemming?

Illamasqua Atomic. Want it so badly. Plus some of their glosses, naturally. *dreamy sigh*

This was fun! Now, ladies, I'd love to see the set from you too! I'll name just a few that I really want to see doing this, but basically all of you that have fun in lipsticks department, I'd love to see this tag done!

Biba

Mateja

Parokeets (the more the merrier!) 

And the rest of you who like lip products! If you don't have time for a post or don't own a blog, write me a comment on your favourite shade of lipstick and the number of them you have. :)

Thank you for reading!