No make-up shopping until 2015?

I tried my best with this resolution dating back to October, I really did. But with all the sales and great deals, I was destined to fail before I even really attempted to succeed and not buy any make-up until 2015. So over the course of the last month, I picked up (or was sent) quite a few of the products and I am only showing you the ones I already have an opinion on or I am really excited about. I hope you won't mind the pictures terribly - it's obvious now that since I will never be home in time to shoot the pics in daylight, I will need to do something about my camera, but for now, we are stuck with what we have. 

Let's start with face products. This Chanel Vita Lumiere foundation (in beige) is my first ever Chanel foundation. I will have to give it a few more tries but so far I am less than impressed. It's quite sheer and tends to stick to the dry areas of my face although I am using a primer. For the price, I was really hoping that it would be a full coverage foundation that would still somehow make it look like I am wearing nothing on my face. That is what I was promised and I must say, that not only does the product not deliver on the promises; it fades in comparison to some of the drugstore foundations. I will try it with another primer, but I am disappointed so far. 

 I can only say completely the opposite about the Sleek blush palette (in Pink lemonade). This was sent to me by Licila.si and I absolutely love it. The packaging itself is beautiful (although I'll admit it's a bit hard to open with long nails) and the palette contains two powder blushes (Pink mint on far left and Icing sugar on far right – both have a very slight shimmer to them) and one cream blush (macaroon in the middle). Until this palette, I was sure that the only blush that would look good on me is light, almost neutral, pink, but I have been getting compliments from left and right wearing the darker Icing sugar. All three blushes are highly pigmented so they should last you forever. 

The only brush I recently picked up is the bhcosmetics duo fibre stippling brush. I was excited to try a new brush but the best I can say about this one is that it is very pretty. For me, the fibres are too long and it's difficult to get into every nook with them and besides that, it's already shedding on me after two weeks. Not impressed. 

Next, we have two palettes – one high end and one more reasonably priced. 

I've been wanting the Lorac palette probably since the first day I decided that I will learn to do make-up properly and I've finally picked it up. So far, I am pretty impressed. It's very pigmented and has a beautiful range of shimmery and matte shadows. The only downfall is the kick out, but that is perhaps also due to the brushes I use. 

I Hear Makeup – I Heart Passion palette I received a while back from Licila.si but at the first glance I immediately decided to keep it safe until the holiday season. I mean, just look at all these beautiful strong glitters. I am sure I will be creating many looks with this palette come December. And display the packaging proudly because it is absolutely stunning. Would you like a review of this palette? Comment below! By the way: is anyone else under the impression that the people at the branding department of I heart makeup did not think things through when naming the brand? I mean, the graphics with the heart are beautiful, but the name just seems wrong to me :)

Moving right along we again have two products that are priced very differently. I have heard so many bloggers rave about the Benefit They're real! push-up liner, how perfect and easy it's supposed to be and immediately decided I need it in my life. Well, I was in for a disappointment. I mean, it is easier to do a nice line that with a regular liquid liner, but it's far from easy and I still recorded some massive failures with this liner. For this price, it should jump out of the box and make a perfect winged line which would magically disappear at the end of the day by itself. Not impressed at all. 

The same goes for the I Heart Makeup lip combo named Yesterday's favourite. Well, it might have been someone’s favourite, but it's never been mine. On one side, we have a matte lipstick in a gorgeous red colour but it's so drying that I cannot wear it without  a gloss. The perfect solution would be the gloss on the other side, but it has so much shimmer in it that I was literally glowing like a Christmas tree. So the product was quite disappointing in my opinion. 

Last but not least, the nail polishes. I have quite recently cleaned out my polish collection and of course I needed to stock up on what I felt was missing from it. 

I have already talked about Zoya nail polishes and how much I love them. Yes, they are expensive, probably one of the most expensive brands out there (besides Chanel, Dior and all those premium brands), but I feel you really get a lot for your money. I picked up two colours – Noel, which is a sparkly blue colour and will be perfect for the holidays, and Yuna that is a silvery colour with glitter from their Fall Ignite collection. 

From Make-up Revolution line, I picked up the coppery No Good Waiting and the golden green Make Me. Both of these are fabulous colours and really inexpensive, but for some reason the glitter inside has already started to condense (I cannot find another word to describe it) and the chunks of glitter just sit on top of your nails, making the surface uneven. I am not sure of the reason why this is happening, does any of you have similar experiences with these polishes?

Last up, I knew I was in trouble yesterday when I spotted the Essence Christmas line in Müller. I managed to contain my excitement and only pick up one item, although it's technically three (but they are really small though) :) It's the Essence Come to Town (01 – Naughty or Nice?) polish collection. The polishes themselves don't have any names which I don't really like, but we have two regular polishes - one in red with bright pink undertones and the second one in a lovely plum shade which is a perfect dupe for the Essie Bahama Mama that I love. The set also contains one topper with smaller and larger pieces of gold glitter. I have not tested them out yet but I am expecting them to be reasonably good considering my past experience. Would anyone like to see them on my nails in all the combinations?

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Don't forget – my holiday giveaway is still up and running, so enter, if you haven’t yet!

Until next time, stay beautiful, stay awesome!

 

(Very Pink) October Favorites

I'm not a big fan of these autumn months. They bring bad weather and I'm constantly cold, clients start burning budgets which means long hours and a lot of traveling, and the Christmas time seems a million of years away. But I am trying not to be too depressed by all this and search for happiness in little things. And here are five products that made me smile in October – a very pink month, obviously. 

As I already mentioned, I dyed my hair brown a couple of weeks ago and the hairdresser was furious with me because of the condition of my hair. She suggested that I use some natural oil on my hair, which I am doing, but I still cannot my paws off my Syoss Glossing Shine Sealing Finish Fluid. It's a big name for a great product. I take a drop or two of this, rub it into the bottom half and the tips of my hair and it gets an instant healthier and shinier look to them, while also taking some frizz away as an extra bonus. I will say that since it is oil based, it will make your hair feel greasier after a couple of days. Still, I think it's a great product. I've picked it up in E. Leclerc for about 9 € and it will probably last me more than a year, so it's great value for money as well. 

Fall makes me want to dig into my stash and pull out some darker nail colors, while also tempting me to buy new ones. This month’s favorite is Bahama Mama by Essie, which doesn't sound very autumnal, but I personally love it for this time of year. It's a deep, dark plum color and would probably look fantastic with some brighter nail art on it as well. 

Bourjois Happy Light matte serum primer has been my recent substitute for the Maybelline Baby Skin. Since I'm wearing more and more heavy moisturizers as the days grow cold and the air gets dry from the heating, I need a mattifying primer to take the shine away. This primer is great at doing that. It does feel somewhat heavy and it's difficult to apply in small quantities since it dries so fast, but my face stays matte for about 12 hours without having to reapply any mattifying powder or use oil sheets. I got this at Asos on sale for about €12. 

I bought the beautiful pink Essence Studio Nails nail corrector pen a while back and since I'm not too clumsy with my nail polish I've barely gotten through the first tip (I think there are 2 or 3 extra still waiting for me). At this rate, the nail polish remover will probably dry up before I am done with the tips, but for this price (I think it was about €2?), it's absolutely worth it. For extra bonus, it nourishes your nails with jojoba oils and does not smell, probably since it is infused with Acai berry aroma.

Last up is the Make-up Revolution Anti-bacterial brush shampoo. I've loved this since the first time I've used it but I wanted to go through the paces and see if my brushes love it as much as I do. Now that I'm sure of that I can definitely declare it my favorite. It has been about 10 washes of 30 brushes now and I'm not even half way through the bottle which was about €7 at Licila.si. 

What were your October favorites? Link them down below!

Until next time, stay beautiful, stay awesome!