Maša M blog
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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. View Post

Holiday Giveaway!

My dear ladies, I really don’t see the point in holding back. I mean, I know it’s still a week until December, but I the lucky winners to be able to enjoy their gifts during the Holiday season and that can only happen if we start the giveaway… NOW!

DISCLAIMER:

This time I prepared three rewards. The giveaway is open to my European readers only (so not only EU, all of Europe). You must be 18 to enter or have consent from your parent or legal guardian. The giveaway will end on 11th of December and the winners will be announced on my Facebook profile. The winners must send me a message with their name and address in 5 days (no later than on 16th of December), otherwise another winner will be chosen. The entire giveaway will be run through the Rafflecopter. Each participant can earn one or more entries to the giveaway. All the items were purchased by me unless otherwise mentioned. I am not in any way affiliated with the company mentioned below.

And now for the fun part. The FIRST package I nicknamed PARTY DIVA.

The lucky winner of this Party Diva package will receive the following products:

  • NPW Retox Pamper pack (hair mask, face mask, eye pads and foot cream) for a perfect pampering day after a wild night out
  • Essence Special Effect Toper nail polish in The bees and the birds
  • Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquer in Nova which I also own and love
  • e.l.f. Eyelid Primer in Pearl
  • L’Oreal Le nail art in Poudre D’or – these are so awesome I had to get myself a pack as well 🙂
  • L’Oreal Color Infallible in Bronze divine – I actually prefer the Color Infallible to Color Tatoos and own quite a few of them. This one is definitely one of my favorites.
  • Sleek Eyeshadow Palette Arabian Nights – this is a present for you beauties from Licila.si so let’s all say a big THANK YOU 🙂 The packaging on these Sleek palettes is absolutely adorable and they really are sleek enough (but very sturdy!) that you can take them anywhere with you.


The second package is called the ROMANTIC BEAUTY.


The winner of this Romantic Beauty package will receive:

  • Dvorec Trebnik Bath Salt Orange which just featured in my empties. I love this stuff and I hope you will, too.
  • Batiste Dry Shampoo in Light & Blonde
  • Konad Metal Stickers in Pink. This would also be great for a wild night out, to be honest 🙂
  • Essence 24hr hand protection balm in the vanilla & cinnamon scent. Perfect winter scent, if you ask me.
  • Glade Roasted Chestnut & Macaroon Candle. I’m on my fifth right now and I just love the way they smell. The throw of the candle is so wide that it covers the entire apartment. For me, the best one of all the Glade christmas edition candles this year.
  • Essence Special Effect Sparkling Sugar (Heart Explosion) and
  • I heart Makeup lip gloss The Wow (Double Wow!). I own this myself and it’s the my-lips-but-better color that every girl needs in her life.
Last up is the MAKE-UP JUNKIE package.

The winner of the Make-up Junkie package will enjoy the following products:

  • e.l.f. High Definition Powder. I also own this and if you can get over the mess it makes, it is probably one of the best mattifying powders out there. It also keeps your make-up where it’s supposed to be all day long.
  • Glade Roasted Chestnut & Macaroon Candle. Yes, another one, just because they are awesome.
  • L’Oreal Le nail art in Chic Phyton. I would love to see these on the nails of the winner, because to me they look pretty spectacular.
  • Two L’Oreal Glam Shine lip glosses in Fresh Fuchsia and Fresh Grenadine. I just could not decide on just one.
  • Essence 24hr hand protection balm in the cookies & almond scent. Anyone getting hungry yet?
  • L’Oreal Color Infallible in Flashback silver. Beautiful lilac color, perfect for enhancing a purple smokey eye.
  • I Heart Makeup Contour Palette – I Heart Definition. This is something I am definitely getting for myself if I still have any money when the holidays are over. Again – courtesy of
    Licila.si so another thank you is in order 🙂
I hope you beauties are as excited as I am. I love nothing more than shopping for others and making people happy 🙂

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Product empties

I can’t believe how time flies. It’s less than 2 weeks until December and less than a week until my first ever Christmas giveaway 🙂 Are you excited? I know I am.

Anyhow, I’ve again gathered a whole bunch of empty products which I have more or less firm opinions on already. I think that these particular empties are much more random than the first ones, so I tried to put them into categories to make things easier on all of us. As usual, I will also answer the »would I repurchase« question with each of them, since it’s what really counts in my opinion.

First up, four random products that I really don’t know where to put. First are the Dvorec Trebnik bath salt and Biodent mouthwash.


I picked up this Dvorec Trebnik salt on a whim in Mercator one day. I don’t really have the time to take long baths on a regular basis, but I must admit I’ve taken a lot more since I’ve bought this product. It gives the water a smell of a luxury spa. The granules are a bit slow to disintegrate so I usually put them in the bath before I start running the water. I’ve used up the bottle in about 2 months, but then again, I probably use way too much of the product, to be honest. I repurchased itin the Vanilla scent but I actually prefer the orange one.

The Biodent mouthwash perhaps doesn’t exactly fall in the beauty category, but I think that beauty is also hidden in a pretty smile. I think we have tried every mouthwash out there in our household and while I didn’t mind most of them, my hubby hated all except for this Biodent brand (which, incidentally, is the cheapest one out there). So it’s become a staple in our home and I will continue to repurchase it.

Next up, we have my even favourite deodorant – Axe Anarchy for her. This is a budget alternative to buying a really luxury product that you match to your perfume – Axe Anarchy costs about 4 € (I’ve only seen in in Mercator and Müller). It’s not an antiperspirant which is great and it really lasts for 12+ hours of furious pace, which is even better (or a must, to be honest). This was my fourth bottle and I will continue to purchase these in bulk because I’m scared they will stop producing it. It was already included in my first empties and I expect it to make another appearance soon 🙂 View Post

Holiday wishlist

Yes, I know, December and Christmas are still far, far away, but somehow the Christmas spirit always catches me unprepared way before it is supposed to – and once I get overall excited about something, it’s hard for me to stop obsessing.

In the past weeks, I have seen some Youtube videos and read some blogs about the Christmas or »Holiday« editions from several high-end companies like Urban Decay, Benefit, Stila and so forth. These are normally value sets tricking you into buying them by saying you’re only going to pay something like $45 for $200 value. Now i KNOW it’s not true, but that reasonable part of my brain somehow goes on vacation in December. I did not care last year, but I definitely do care this year. And since I’ve just booked some plane tickets to visit a country that has Sephora stores in December, I know that I’m not going to be able to resist picking up at least a few products. Hence the wishlist. But this wishlist also includes some items that can be bought over here or in EU stores (hinting heavily to my most loyal reader of all). 🙂

Number one on my list is definitely the Sephora Favorites – Superstars. It contains many of the items I have been wanting to try for sooo long and some that I have tried and absolutely love.

It is priced at $75 and apparently worth $225. I did my own calculations based on the number of full-size products and deluxe samples and came to $222 so yes, the calculation is legit. It contains the Anastasia Brow Wiz (full size – 21 $), Benefit POREfessional (deluxe sample – about 10 $), Benefit They’re real mascara (deluxe sample – about $5), Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray (travel size, about $15), Chloe Rollerball (full size – $25), Formula X Nail color in Ignite (full size – about $11), Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted lip treatment (deluxe sample – about $12), Josie Maran 100 % Pure Argan oil (travel size, about $16), Nars blush in Orgasm (full size – $30), Smashbox Camera ready BB Cream (full size – $40), Stila Stay All Day liquid eye liner (full size – $20) and Urban Decay eyeshadow in Sin (full size – $18). I am excited about just about everything in this package, I think the colors would all work for me and I am getting my hands on this one! There are so many brands in this set that I haven’t even tried yet that I’m sure it is well worth the money.

Another set I really, I really want is the Josie Maran Winter Dream Argan Skincare Collection. This is not a steal as the Superstars, it’s priced at $39 with $68 value so I’m not even going to calculate this one to extensively.

 

 

It contains everything you could possibly need for your skincare routine – cleansing oil, hydrating treatment, pure argan oil (which I use and is absolutely fabulous), intensive creamy oil, daily moisturizer with SPF of 47 and as a special bonus, a hand creams. This brand is all natural and I would love to try the products.

The third set that I will most likely be tempted to snatch in Sephora is the First Aid Beauty – Cheers to fab skin set, priced at $48 for $100 value. I did my calculations on this one and again came to a very similar number, so I am satisfied 🙂 I have purhcased a few items from this brand on my last USA trip for my mother and she absolutely loves them so I really want to give them a go as well. View Post

Too many opened mascaras…

Fact #1 – I love mascaras. Fact #2 – when I buy a mascara, I really, really want to open and try it straight away. And fact #3 – this means that I always have at least 3 mascaras opened at the same time, consequently waisting them. Oh well, I’ll do better in the future.

These past 2 months have been particularly bad in this sense – I have no less than 5 mascaras that I have been using and most of them I need to get rid of because they’ve gone dry. But before throwing them away I can do a quick post about them. I will go from the worst to the best one by my personal opinion. The fact is that the likeability of mascara depends on what you want from it. I personally have quite long lashes to start with and am consequently looking for mascara that will add volume. So it really is a personal preference all around, as it is with most mascaras. There are two photos for you – one with the product closed and one with them opened so you can see each of the wands.

#5 : GREAT LASH by MAYBELLINE

You know, how drier mascaras have the tendency to flake? Well this mascara is so wet that I can feel this wetness for several minutes after applying it, but it still somehow manages to leave my undereye area looking like the Halloween came early It clumps the lashes into long, spider like legs. I’m not a fan of either the wand shape or the packaging itself – it really looks quite juvenile. Even though it’s drugstore, it could still be a bit classier.

If you’re looking for length, are willing to comb through your lashes and you don’t mind the panda look, go for it. Otherwise, run away as fast as you can. Would I repurhcase: no way!


#4 : BETTER THAN SEX by TOO FACED

I’m usually a fan of Too Faced products, but this one left me cold. Thankfully I didn’t purchase the whole size but got a deluxe sample in one of their trial kits. Also, what’s with the name? I know that Too Faced isn’t exactly a PG rated brand, but let me just say that this statement is not true 😉

Anyhow, when I opened this mascara I was expecting a hell of a lot from it. The wand has super dense fibers of different lenghts which looked like they will hug every single lash and give it length and volume. Well, the mascara is not bad, but it’s not great either. Completely opposite of the Great Lash it has a very dense formula which tends to flake a lot. So while it does give you long and bold lashes, especially if you apply more than one coat of it, you will have to check under your eyes every hour or so. Would I repurchase: no – it costs more than $20 and I think there are better mascaras out there for that price.



#3 –Voluminous Waterproof mascara by L’OREAL

This again is a mascara with quite wet formula but it dries much faster than the Great Lash so it’s not too much of a problem. It has a very standard wand which many of us have probably used with this or that mascara so that’s not really what’s appealing. But trust me – go out and buy it, if you can. It leaves you with long and dense lashes, it doesn’t clump, smudge or flake and it holds to its promises. I’m putting it in 3rd place only because I bought the Waterproof version which is such a pain to remove that I have to brace myself before starting the process every evening. Would I repurchase: yes, but the regular one, not the waterproof.

#2 – Volum’ Express Colossal Cat Eyes – MAYBELLINE

Probably the mascara with the longest name out there 🙂 It wasn’t an instant love affair with me and this mascara – I had a hard time getting used to the curved wand and I didn’t find it that impressive. But when I took my time and really tried out what different parts of the wand to to the eyelashes, I fell inlove. When using this mascara I don’t even curl my eyelashes before – the wand does the trick by itself. So it curls, lengthens (to the point when I need to stop applying it because my lashes are touching my browbone and leaving tiny black dots) and adds volume when adding one or two layers to the primary one. Would I repurchase: absolutely, especially for this price. View Post