New in ~ A haul post

A haul post in the middle of the month? Why not. Lately I have been buying and already testing some things and I want to point them out. This is going to be a bit random, or, rather connected with the stores where I bought or got the items.

Let's start with Ilirija and Click2Chic. As the latter is their web store I always connect them.

In Ilirija (it is a drug store we have in Slovenia, and it is also a brand that does cosmetic lines, such as Subrina, hair, body and face products and I really like them) I found two LE by Essence and Catrice and I grabbed two brushes by Essence, since I have good experience with them, plus I am always short on brushes. I haven't even tried them yet, will do so this week.

Catrice Transparent Mattifying powder from Sense of simplicity LE I bought on a whim, because my Bourjois "to go" powder got crushed right before I finished it off. I am really happy that I bought it because it is fantastic powder, it really mattefies the skin and yet you do not look half dead. Wonderful product for really affordable price (I think it was around 4 euros, not sure anymore). The smell is gentle and really pleasant and it lasts on the skin. I do recommend it. 

Sabrina Juicy Jasmine shower gel

I also got it in Ilirija, it is a new smell and although I usually do not put shower gels in my blogposts, I need to tell you that this smell is simply fantastic. If you have a chance, and you are a fan of jasmine and white peach, just get three bottles, this stuff is fantastic. I am a freak for jasmine smell, so I gave it a go, but what they did is mix the white peach smell with it and it just rocks my world. Great, great stuff. 

Darling Granny Gentle Touch Body lotion with chamomile oil

I got this one on Click2Chic, it had a good price and I love chamomile smell, plus I always like to try new brands - I have never heard of Darling Granny before. When I first tried it I actually thought the smell was a bit too gentle, but what is great about it, is, that it lingers. It is not artificial at all and is quite soothing. And I haven't had skin so soft in ages, not with The Body Shop, not with the Afrodita. I am getting it in lavender scent as well, they convinced me with chamomile, I think lavender will be just as natural and subtle, yet with a decent silage.

Sleek Dip-it  Eyeliner in Pink

Those of you who know me know also that pink is really not my colour. :) And yet, eyeshadow combinations and general eye make up with pink and black I always find beyond awesome. So when Click2Chic had the pink eyeliner on sale, I said I will risk the 3+ EUR for it, as I know that Sleek has kick ass make up quality. When I opened it, I unfortunately say it wasn't closed well and some of the product got out. I sent the photos to Click2Chic and they immediately replied with a solution. As this was the last eyeliner they had, they wanted to give me the money back and asked me to send the product back on their expenses. I was very pleasantly surprised at how quickly they reacted, kudos to Click2Chic. Since I had my fiasco with najlonke.si, I am a bit on the fence with the service of online stores when there is a problem, but with Click2Chic I had no troubles whatsoever. I decided to keep the eyeliner, I got it for a really good price and I love its quality, it lasts for ages. 

Let's continue to licila.si surprise package I got a while ago:

There is a new brand in town, called Freedom Makeup. I have not heard of it in my life, so naturally I am curious about it. Honestly, it reminds me so much of Makeup Revolution it feels as if they just changed the name and the logo. The blush is called Banish and although I haven't tried it yet, it looks like the perfect wearable shade for me, and I am keeping my fingers crossed it is as good as the Make up Revolution blushers are, as I am running out of a similar shade that I adore. The eyeshadow is called Nude 208 and when swatched looks like a very lovely milk chocolate shimmer. It is also very pigmented. I will try to get a decent swatch ASAP. 

The liquid lipstick Freedom Make up Pro Melts liquid lipstick in shade Jammy Dodger I had to try immediately and, oh dear lord of the Rings, is the colour just perfect. Blue toned red, bold and beautiful. Really nicely pigmented, albeit a bit sticky, but that means it also sticks to your lips! :) It leaves trails like crazy, on the glass and cups, but try to wear it as a stain, it looks fantastic that way. I adore it. 

Me and my Mum are huge fans of Derma E cosmetics. I usually order it via iHerb, but lately I was trying to find another solution, because the customs are a bitch. Luckily BB Natura had a lot of Derma E products on sale, so I got two toners and a creme for my mother. Derma E is not exactly the cheapest, but their ingredients are really awesome. If you have a troublesome skin or you are just looking for a better quality in your skincare, I recommend you check their lines up, they have quite a few, to cover the many types of skin we have.

That leaves us with my dear Leposana of E.Leclerc. I already ran out of my Bourjois make up remover I bought in France and since it was the thing for my mascara and heavier make up, I wanted to give another one a chance (and we do not have the Bourjois make up remover in Slovenia, sadly). Uriage Waterproof Eye Make-up Remover  seemed like a brand that would actually meet the expectation of these two-phase MU removers not to be too oily. We'll see how it goes, but for that price (over 11 EUR for 100 ml) I want it to work.


A long post! I hope you find anything useful and if you want a more detailed post on any of the products, just let me know!

Have a lovely start of the week tomorrow!

~Ulmiel

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!

Essence Love & Sound LE ~ Glastonberry

Heya my lovelies! Today I have another new polish for you from the LE you already met on the  

shelves, probably, Love & sound LE. I am loving the matte and I am still on the fence about the sand finish, but this shade kind of called for me from the stand and I gave it a go. It is this fleshy-nude colour and desert-matt finish sounded interested enough to give it a go. I do not regret it, as I really loved wearing this colour.

The sand finish on this particular shade is not as sharp as it can be on some of them - I am wearing Sandhopper by Catrice ATM and I could file my nails with it - probably because it is not a glittery polish. The colour I love. No idea why, I can imagine a lot of people hating it, and it was more of a boring colour comparing to others in the collection, but it intrigued me. And I loved wearing it. Plus, it lasted for a long time for a nail polish sans top coat, especially considering I had longer nails on this photo, I think it went 5 days without a single chip. Very nice! 

On photos I have two to three coats on my bigger nails, the formula and brush were good. Actually the brush is major improvement from the last Essence nail polish I tried out. If this is their new brush, I am starting to buy Essence again! 

Did you get anything from LOVE & Sound LE? Do you recommend anything I should try and find on the shelves?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

New In ~ A haul post

Hey everyone! This is a haul post I planned to do a couple of days ago - in between I already bought three new varnishes and an eyeshadow. I need help. In the next New in post! 

I split this one in nail polish, hair care and "other". 

Group photo! I forgot the Manglaze on the group picture.

I already showed you the ManGlaze Mayonnaise in my previous post. 

Catrice is from LE Doll's Collection, shade Playing in Lavender Heaven and I bought it on a whim, because it has this awesome shimmer in it. I already wore it, swatches will follow, but I am most impressed by its staying power - I wore it for 7 days and it didn't chip.

Another LE, Essence Hidden Stories, shade Enchanted by Hint of Mint. I saw it on a friend of mine and had to have it. Haven't worn it yet though. 

And Essence sandy, Me & My Lover, which I took primarily because of the glitter in it.

IsaDora face primer Under Cover. I took it because I ran out of my primer from Max Factor (All day primer, I think), and in the last 5-6 months of usage I am pretty sure it clogged my pores, so I decided to try something else. IsaDora primer was really well received on blosphere and even though it costs a lot, I gave it a go. So far I love it. More about it when I use it for a couple of months. :)

Ebeline lip brush, because I lack them in my collection, hopefully it will be good, haven't tried it yet. 

Jane Carter Solution Wrap And Roll hair foam I got on a whim in January, I think. I bought it on IHerb, and I have no idea why I got it, I was just convinced by the article. It is actually a decent foam, what bothers me most is how fast it is going, this thing won't last me two months. 

Redken Extreme Anti-snap. When I got back to blogging and my hair really went to hell in the beginning of the year, I decided to really follow my hair guru on just about everything concerning hair. Redken was my first purchase and so far I have used it a couple of times and I cannot believe how good my hair feels after this. I am saving it now for after my visit to hairdresser, because my ends need to go, and then is Redken all the way.

Le Petit Marseillais Hule Elixir and Le Petit soin, Karité & Argan line. The oil again bought after reading about it on Mateja's blog, as a pre-shampooing treatment. Love it, although the packaging is a bit of a fail.

The LE Petit soin leave-in treatment is a bit older, a friend of mine got it for me from Paris, but I wanted to show it to ya as it is from the same line. It is a really awesome leave in conditioner, considering it is an affordable drugstore brand. If you see it, I recommend it, it doesn't make hair greasy, but it tames them. Love it. 

In the corner you can see the Ebelin brush I got. Mateja, I swear you can read mind. Like two weeks ago I decided that my old brush is too disgusting and it needs to go, and I googled good brushes but I either wasn't convinced by them or they were too expensive. And I decided I'll just ask on Mateja's blog once I find the time. And I swear, a couple of days later Best Beauty Tools post pops up on her blog. I got the Ebelin brush, the bigger one, and I love it, with the Tangle Teezer they are a perfect match. 

What's new in your beauty world, any recommendation? 

Have a nice week!

New In ~ A Haul Post pt. 2

Heya darlings! I usually post New In posts in the end of the month or the very beginning of the second one, but July was a bit busy with all the packages. I already showed you what I bought and gotten here, but just after I left Ljubljana for about a week, three packages came into my mail box and for these I am super excited. If any of you already thought I forgot about nail polish - I sure as hell did not. It's just that I got a bit pickier. :)

Nail polish!! I did a swap with a lovely lady at Moj butik and well, killed some lemmings. Barielle Mryza's Meadow was on my WL now for about three years. One of the rare shades I wanted since the beginning of my nail polish obsession and until now. And now I finally have it and the best part is, it did not disappoint on the nails.

Second lemming killed - a good yellow creme, again Barielle, shade Lemondrops. I love it and it is perfect in two coats!

Color Club Glitter Envy is amazing neonish green with glitter, a unique neon I put on my WL the moment I saw it at Scrangie's. 

O.P.I. mini Take the Stage looks like a perfect reddish copper and Essence Fruity LE One Kiwi A Day is probably the only LE Essence I have on my WL, because I love the combo of greens and glitter and because I adore the name, with the Kiwi in it. 

Buying a topcoat was loooong overdue. Everything I had at home applied like a toothpaste, it was a nightmare. Invincible Dry Fast Top Coat is, so say the gals online, everything Seche Vite is without all the cons SV has - shrinkage, smell and fast drying in the bottle. We shall see. Right now I of course adore it, I swear my mani was dry under 2 minutes. And I mean stone dry! Awesomeness. We'll see how it goes when I'm down to half the bottle. 

Ah yes, another gorgeous package from ličila.si. I <3 Makeup is a sub-brand of Makeup Revolution and it appeals to me somewhat more, I don't know why. Maybe the effect of the two products I got, the Brows set in Fairest of Them All is really awesome, I already tried it. But the lipstick. Ah, the lipstick. I am ridiculously in love with the shade. I heart makeup, line I heart my lips, shade Racing Heart, a perfection. <3

And I almost forgot: free shipping until end of August at ličila.si! Skorajda sem pozabila, zastonj poštnina do konca avgusta za vse bralke! KODA: BLOG-POSTNINA


Finally, a small purchase:

Essence Eye Blender Brush. I found it in our local Müller. You can't have too many brushes anyway and this one was a bargain. And before that my outcome of Essence brushes was 50:50, let's see how this one will turn out.

These packages made my week, really, I love what I've gotten. Reviews will follow, if you have any extra wishes what should come first, as always, let me know in the comments.

What did you get in your mailbox lately?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Butterflies on nails pt. 1 ~ Born Pretty Store review

Hey guys. This review is long overdue. So let's get this show on the road. Born Pretty Store, as you all know, has all sorts of great products for all kinds of occasion, but I still think their offer in nail polish and nail art exceeds expectations, they have everything! In my latest review I got water decals as well, I chose the pattern of butterflies [4pcs Nail Water Decals Stickers Colorful Butterfly Flower Fruit, item ID: 5625], just because I prefer them over fruit and large flowers. 

You get one sheet of butterflies, divided in four squares, that indicate different sets or kinds of butterflies. They are different sizes as well. And well, that is basically it, you cut the butterflies you want on your mani, put them into water, wait a couple of seconds and put the butterfly on the nail. Never forget to peel off the protective layer of plastic, because that will ruin your water decal, it will not stick to the nail. Yes, I learned that the hard way, I just forgot all about it. 

 

Some observations:

• The water decals are extremely easy to use. It takes like 30 seconds for the entire procedure.
• It is best to use tweezers to pick up the decal after it separates from the paper.
• Do not soak it for too long, if the butterfly floats from the paper entirely it is very hard to save it, since it scrolls up or around tweezers. 
• The decals are not bothered by fast drying top coat, they do not wrinkle at all. In fact, I think the decal somewhat protects the polish so the mani lasts longer.
• The large butterflies are really big, with my short nails they were basically too big for me to use them, so they can be used either on very wide nail or a long one. 
• The foil of water decal is not just on the butterfly picture, keep that in mind, if you have shorter nails and trim the edges around the butterfly. 
• The base colours should not be too dark or intense, or the butterflies will darken into a black shape. I like that, actually, but if you want to preserve the colours of butterflies, keep that in mind as well.

My first mani with them:

So yeah. I really liked this mani, I think it was cute. If you want to buy the water decals, they are on sale right now: click! Also, here is my code for 10% off at your purchase:

Thank you for reading and commenting!


*Product sent for reviewing purposes, you can read my disclosure here.

Midnight layering

Lately I am wearing 'older' shades in my stash. The one that is getting a lot of love lately is Essie Bobbing for Baubles. Yesterday I put it on again. Today, as I returned home around midnight, I noticed my layering polish on the desk and grabbed two that looked neat. And used them both too. Because I still cannot decide which is the winner for me, flakies or glitter. So I am wearing both now.

Forgive my cuticles, here in Ljubljana cold cuts like razor blade, and I was on the phone while walking home without my gloves. Epic win!

What do you think, glitter or flakies?

Have a good day tomorrow and sweet dreams tonight!

Glittering Garland with silver drops

Hello people! How are you? I hope you are having a great holiday week, whether you celebrate Christmas or not! :) I already feel much much better, thank you all for your kind thoughts! 

I redid my mani yesterday, as my previous one got pretty tired. I adore Glittering Garland, it has to be one of the best greens I own. You know I love greens and glass flecks, so GG was pretty much meant for me. Lately, with having little time for taking pictures and the gloomy weather that kills all chances for natural daylight photos (that is especially important for multichromes and holos), I'm enjoying discovering the beauties in my stash all over again. Glittering Garland seems perfect for this season. 

Because I really like the effect of drops some bloggers do on their manicures, I decided to try something like that as an accent finger. It did not came out as I wanted, my drops are too shaky and just not right. And this is a dotting tool, for crying out loud. One would think a monkey can use a dotting tool, but honestly, I always screw up my dots. I like how it looks if you don't pay too much attention to the details at least.

I think silver and green go well together. I just thought of Slytherin though ... not a fan of Slytherin, really, but their colour and animal choice are superb. :)

What is on your nails today?

Thank you for reading!

China Glaze ~ Fast Track mattefied

Hello mah peeps! Whoa, I think this is the weirdest hello so far on this blog. :D I am full as a hobbit, and that's saying something! But I have a dance practise in the evening and I'm also happy as a hobbit for it. Sure, after that I'm working my butt off the entire night, but details details! No matter. It is a good day! :) 

Today we continue with China Glaze and the seriously spectacular collection that is The Hunger Games Capitol Colors. Fast Track wasn't really my first choice in this collection but I was very happy when I saw it in the package. The golden glass flecks looked ah-mazing! I thought it will be an excellent neutral work-college-appropriate colour and I was right. Plus, the golden twist is very nice and does bring a bit of bling to the whole look. The next day I mattefied it and I loved the result even more.

A friend of mine told me that Essence Matt top coat isn't available anymore. And I'm using mine surprisingly often! :/ Sucks, really, I love how strong the matte effect is with this one. Oh, on Fast Track it looks even more yummy because the golden flecks keep a bit of glow even when mattefied. I think it looks awesome. :) 

The original finish:

The golden glassflecks are quite strongly visible, they give a very nice twist to the nude base colour. I think it looks beautiful. Still, I prefer the matte version. :)

Do you have any suggestion on wallet-friendly substitute for Essence matt top coat? 

Thank you for reading & have a great week!

Essence Open Water Dive or "Challenge accepted!"

Hey everybody! How are you doing? I'm having my cup of tea that I spoke of yesterday so I decided this is the perfect excuse to write little something here too. :) A week or two ago I wore this mani with Essence Open Water Dive and as it rekindled my obsession with the 'completely the same mani as it is in my head', I have to give it the special attention.

The thing is, in the beginning of my nail polish discovering I had so much energy, patience (and time, as it seems), that I was able to do infinite amount of coats for a mani I wanted, or even change one polish up to three times a day, because I got fed up with the colour I was wearing. Naturally, that didn't happen often, but it did happen. It seems so weird now, hehe. The phase luckily passed and I enjoy polish on a normal scale now. ;) Thus enters Open Water Dive. This is an oldie, Essence Into the Ocean LE came out in 2009 and I got it from a friend,  not even trying it on. It was always on my 'give away' pile and few weeks ago, when I did a large selection of polish in my stash, this little thing got the number again. As I watched the swatches though, Nail Junkie had such an amazing swatch of it, I decided to put it on. I love it over black polish but I really wanted to have its real bottle colour on my nails. Knowing Open Water Dive is sheer as hell (you can see that just by turning the bottle in your hand) I prepared for massive coat number, but Lyra's beautiful swatch convinced me it could be done. 

After putting 4 coats on my nails and still having very clear VNL on my short nails, I went back to the post and actually read it. Of course Lyra layered it over white and wrote that that clearly too. Facepalm for Ulmiel, yes. But here's when I got stubborn. I wanted the mani to look like that on my nails too! So I removed the 4 effing coats, put 2 coats of H&M White and two coats of Essence Open Water Dive and was a happy hobbit. 

Naturally it was a bitch to photograph. It is in fact a very complex shimmer, creating this soft minty-seafoamy colour, appearing to have only silver particles, but contains also green and purple specks of glassflecks, that are acutally visible to the naked eye, especially in the artificial light. And I needed all together 56 pictures taken, before I could semi-capture that on the 50th picture. Ho-ly crap! So here it is, set of my best pictures, plus a video to show how sparkly this is.

 This is direct sunlight, my camera barley handled all the sparkle.

The only picture where I actually captured the colours of sparkles. You may need to enlarge it. The artificial light makes my skin really yellow, but it's the best one to show all the sparkles.

Naturally I loved the result. It's an amazing shade, I love it. White with a twist, I guess (or, as my BF calls them, water-pipes-in-hospitals colour), I really like the greenish hue it has. And the glassflecks really make a difference. So yes, worth the troubles, at least for me. It also stayed on my nails for quite a few days. Next layering will be over dark blue, I think, Biba's mani looks amazing!

What is your 'Challenge Accepted' varnish/finish/colour? :)

Thank you for reading!