I Heart Makeup – I Heart passion palette review

I received this I Heart Makeup – I Heart passion palette a while ago from Licila.si but I was sort of saving it for when I had more time and more opportunities to create a bolder look. Some photos were taken a while back, so I must say that the palette doesn't look as nice anymore, but considering the pigmentation and the number of different shadows I could probably use this for years to come, if it doesn't go bad on me. 

The packaging is gorgeous – I have no other word for it despite the fact that I hate this particular description for just about anything. It's a shiny black palette with a single pink heart on top. BTW, the photo is from the internet, since it's impossible to shoot a good one without reflections. 

From the inside, the palette is absolutely fabulous and offers so many different options. The shades are very different from one another, but I am sad to report that as much as this variation is true for the colors, it is also true for the pigmentation. There are a couple of shadows in here that could as well be missing and as far as I am concerned, I wouldn't shed a single tear about it. On the other hand, we have quite a few colors that are crazy pigmented and quite unique: Dangerous Liaisons looks like something one could perhaps find a Naked 3 palette, and I also love the We are going home, Never Never and Catch your eye. By the way, I also like the names quite a lot, although many of them imply an unhappy romance. 

Anyway, this palette consists of 2 highlight shadows, 5 matte shadows and a whole bunch of shimmers, 10 to be exact. Here are the swatches, first the upper row. 

The first few colors are really nice and most are of reasonable pigmentation. Love is the drug is obviously a highlighter and I love the fact that it is bigger than the other shadows (as is also true for Easier Affair below) since we probably all use those highlighting shades up a bit faster than the others. The only shadow I am not too impressed about is the Rumba Down – it's a must-have shadow for many of us, but it is not pigmented at all – this swatch took about 5 swipes up and down. I appreciate the matte black shadow though  -this one is missing from many palettes I own.

 In the middle row, the only real disappointment is the first shadow – I Believe. It is almost identical to Rumba Down and it is also lacking in pigmentation. The same could be said for In my heart, but it would probably still look nice in the inner corner. Dangerous Liaisons and Takes Over look a bit similar in the photo, but the latter is actually a much colder shade. 

 In the bottom row, Missing a beat is actually quite similar to Dangerous Liaisons from the middle row, which is a shame. My favorite shade in this row is definitely the Catch your Eye, which is a nice emerald green but goes a bit bluish under a certain color. I appreciate an iridescent color when I see one and I was very impressed. 

The palette also has some pretty decent dupes for almost eight times more expensive Naked palette.

 

In all, I would say that this palette is definitely worth the money (it's currently only 6,95 € at Licila.si) since you'll be getting a ton of product for your money, but I could not create an everyday look with this palette so it's probably the not the best option if you are looking for your everyday go-to palette. It's lacking some basic colors for that purpose in my opinion. 

That's it for today, I hope you are all having a lovely weekend! Until next time, stay beautiful, stay awesome!

Holiday nails

I had a great weekend which ended with a little manicure. I just received the nail art pen from Licila.si a couple of days ago and let's just say that I just had to try it out right away :)

  

Anyway, I started with a base coat of Barry M 3-1 (basecoat, topcoat and nail hardener all in one) which has been my recent favorite. I do have a feeling that it makes my nails a bit stronger. I followed up with Zoya Noel, which is a real wintery color, as the name alone suggests. 

I did two accent nails with the Beauty UK nail polish in 09 – Frozen kingdom. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed with the formula, but after 2 quite massive coats (and after chipping it right away on the first try) it finally did the job. The color is just right, though. 

Next, I really got a lot of use from the nail art pen, doing different patterns on both hands. I even managed a relatively nice snowflake on one of the nails while this little chocolate dude was controlling my work.  

Regarding the Konad nail art pen, I must say that I am quite a fan. It comes with a dotter (which needs to be squeezed to produce more or less nail polish) and a thin pointed brush, which are both placed on each side. The brush is really, really fine and you'll be able to do really nice patterns with this. My only complaint would be that the base (so the tube holding the actual nail polish) does not stand on its own when the brush is removed, so you either have to lean it against something or find another way to set it upright. It's currently on sale on Licila.si. 

So to recap, I only really used 5 different product counting the base coat and my long time favorite Essie Good to go top coat to finish the look. 

 Have a great pre-christmas week and, as always – until next time, stay beautiful, stay awesome!

The CHRISTMAS Tag

I really, really, really love Christmas and the whole month of December in general. Things have been quite busy in the last two weeks but I think that I will really be able to start enjoying this wonderful time of the year from this week on.

I recently watched this tag video on Youtube and it was super funny, so I thought I'd give it a go. Have you done any Christmas related tags or do you have any suggestions for other tags you'd like me to do? Comment below!

1. What is your favourite holiday movie?

Probably Home alone. I was about the same age as Macaulay Culkin when the movie came out and I had a huge crush on him. I have seen the movie countless times and can probably quote the whole thing by heart. But I always, always only watch it during the Christmas season. 

2. What are your favourite Christmas colours?

Gold and dark green. My whole house basically looks like a very festive forest around this time of the year. 

3. Do you like to stay in your PJ’s or dress up for Christmas?

I never like to stay in my PJ’s so the same goes for Christmas. We have a huge Christmas dinner on 24th each year with my family and we all dress up for the occasion. 

4. Favorite Christmas song?

From the carols, definitely Deck the halls – I sing this all year long. From pop hits, probably Santa baby by Madonna. 

5. Do you open your presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

Most of the presents I open together with my family on Christmas Eve, but my hubby and I usually give each other our presents on Christmas morning. Well, to be honest, we never get up very early on Christmas, so it would be fairer to say we open the presents on Christmas noon.

6. Have you ever built a gingerbread house?

Nope. But apparently you can now get them already pre-packaged and just put them together like Lego. That I could probably manage. 

7. What do you like to do on Christmas holiday?

I don’t really have any holiday to speak of, but on the days off, I will probably have friends over for dinners or go to city center to take in some Christmas spirit. 

8. Any Christmas wishes?

Health – for me and my family. Enough prosperity to enable us with a normal life. Stabilisation of economy and improvement in social structures in Slovenia – I really wish that the country would start existing for the people, not because of them. 

9. Favourite Christmas smell?

Anything with cinnamon or vanilla. 

10. Favourite Christmas meal or treat?

My grandfather makes a mean potica with poppy seeds. But as far as things go that you can buy in stores, I have developed an obsession with Milka Christmas almonds – I only found them in Müller this year and bought 5 packs to make sure I won’t run out of them before December ends :)

 11. Is your Christmas tree real or fake?

Fake. I don't care much for real trees – it's not very kind to the environement and apparently also leaves a huge mess. I would love to get a more modern tree sometime in the future. I saw one I liked in Merkur this year and I had real hard time deciding that I don't need it that bad. 

12. Are you a pro-present wrapper, or do you fail miserably?

I am quite good at wrapping small things but really, really bad at wrapping larger presents (as the giveaway winners are soon to find out). 

13. Have you ever had a White Christmas?

Luckily, we almost always have some snow in Slovenia during the winter holidays, but considering it’s 15 degrees Celsius outside today, I am not very optimistic.

And that’s it! Hope you guys enjoyed finding out something new about me :)

Until next time, stay beautiful, stay awesome.

Lifestyle favorites

It's been a really hard week last week and has not improved a great deal by now. A lot of my co-workers and my family got ill and I've had to sort out a lot of additional things, while at the same time running around my clients and generally being busy as I always am. 

As I already mentioned, November is my least favorite month of the entire year and it is really hard to be excited about anything when being down. But there are some things in my life that brought smile to my face in the previous month and I would like to share them with you.

I know I've talked about these already and they are also included in my giveaway. But it gives me real comfort to come home and light a candle that brings a touch of warmth to your life. I generally like all of the Christmas collection and I will be burning it well into January.

  

I also got this last week... a bit of bragging never hurt anyone, right? I must admit it feels good that it's finally over. 

Below are some of the presents I bought for "my" children in the Santa for a day project. I am a firm believer in giving back since I count myself very lucky to have all the things I need in my life. If you missed your opportunity to participate this year, follow them on FB and make sure you sign up next year. 

What is this, you ask? Why, it's a PILE of felt :)

I always like to do some DIY presents during the Christmas season for the people who appreciate them. I am looking forward to actually finding the time to do them, but for now, just looking at these wonderful colors puts a smile on my face. 

Next, my all time favorite scent, which I supersized on this month. I know, you can't see it clearly - it's Chloe by Chloe. Very original, I know, but to me, this smells of warm kisses, fuzzy socks, orchids and the feeling of a roasted chestnut bag in your hands.

 

Meet my favorite purse. I've had this for several years but it's quite... different, so I usually only wear it in the winter when I can easily match it with a black, grey or beige coat. Each year, I splurge on one bag from Marjeta Grošelj (or I receive it as a gift, depends) and I've never regretted a single € spent. I think that while her bags are unusual, they are timeless and worth the spend. 

Last but not least, the one thing that made me smile is the Rafflecopter counter climbing up and up and up. I'm soo excited to announce the winners on Thursday! Make sure to enter if you haven't yet!

Until next time, stay beautiful, stay awesome.

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!