Six things I hate about make-up

Never thought you’d see the day, right? Me – hate make-up? Well, it’s not the actual make-up I hate, it’s the occasional issues I have it. I’m sure you’ll be able to relate, so keep on reading.

#1: Hitting the pan

The Balm: Mary Lou-Manizer

One day, you have this perfect product, and the next day, there is a HOLE in it, making it far less desirable. And why, oh why does the hole always appear in the middle???
 
#2: Not using the entire product equally

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette

I’m sure this happens to everyone. Some colors in palettes are just more wearable than others. I still have a ton of product in each of the three shades that I’ve hit pan on in the palette above, but just looking at it makes me sad.

#3: Make-up brushes leaving their mark

Nars Ita brush (most likely a fake one)

It’s quite simple, really. When using a brush, I want the bristles to stay in the brush, not on my face. I love nothing more than noticing a random bristle somewhere near my ear hours after I’ve left the house. View Post

My monthly make-up basket – July 2016

Originally, I was planning on doing two make-up baskets per month, but let’s face it, even I don’t have that much make-up to constantly swap items, so I am afraid that it would become rather boring. Instead, I’ll be doing this once a month and doing some additional reviews on the Monday I now have free to post whatever I like 🙂

So here are some of the products that I’ll be using and hopefully loving for the next few weeks.

Starting with the face, I’ll still be using the L’Oreal Infallible primer, but I actually bought the foundation to go along with it – the L’Oreal Infallible 24h-matte (in shade Sand). I hear that the combination works well together so I’m excited to give it a go. The shade of foundation is perhaps a tad too dark at the moment, but as I’m typing this from my seaside vacation, I’m sure that will probably change in a couple of days or so.

I’m going to give another go with the Freedom Pro Conceal and Correct palette. While the shade selection in this palette is really great, I find that the concealers are quite hard to blend and tend to crease on me. Perhaps a good primer will make a difference.

I’ll also be reaching for my Essence lights of the orient bronzer that has a hint of highlight in the middle. I fear this will be a bit too orange for me but we’ll see. To be on the safe side, I also brought my beloved Sleek palette (Fair) that includes a nice bronzer, a lovely coral blush and a decent highlighter.

I’ll also be trying out some new Ardeco goodies – a strobing fluid and contouring powders (lighter 12 – vanilla chocolate and darker 21 – dark chocolate). View Post

Best of 2015: Make-up


Yes, I know, I know – doing 2015 favorites in May isn’t exactly current. But nevertheless, I wanted to share the make-up products that impressed me the most in 2015 with you. It was difficult to choose the best of the best, but here are the ones that I enjoyed the most. I suggest you get a cup of coffee and a snack, since it’s going to be a looooong post!

Let’s start with the face. As I mentioned in my Friday Superstarts post about Melvita, my skin has really been acting up during pregnancy, so I used a very heavy-duty foundation – the Estee Lauder Double wear in 1W2 (Sand). It’s not the easiest foundation to apply since it’s very heavy and you definitely feel it on the skin, but it conceals imperfections perfectly. It’s also not the cheapest foundation on the market but a definite must from now on in my make-up drawer.

The problem with using such heavy foundation is that the fact ends up looking flat, two-dimensional. For that reason, I enjoyed using the Gerard Cosmetics BB Illumination Facial Cream and mixed a couple of drops in with the foundation on days when I wanted to give my face a bit more life. The cream comes in a tan shade so it doesn’t change your foundation color if used sparingly. At about 22 € per 50 ml, it’s not exactly a cheap product, but I think it will last me at least two years, so I think it’s a good purchase.

In 2015 I’ve been loving two concealers. The first is the Coleur Caramel concealer (n. 12) which is a creamy concealer in a salmon shade – I already wrote about it here. I use it to cover up my dark circles and it does the job beautifully. I bought mine in Muller. The second concealer I used all the time is the Maybelline Fit me concealer in n.10 – it is a good match for my skin so I use it to cover any imperfections. Since it’s a liquid concealer, I use a Beauty Blender to really blend it in and the results are more than satisfying. I am not sure if these are available in Slovenia yet since I bought mine in Austria, but you can order them from various online stores.

I am a big believer in setting the foundation and the product I used the most in 2015 and the months leading to this post is the Avon Ideal Flawless pressed powder in light medium.


Yes, I know, I know – doing 2015 favorites in May isn’t exactly current. But nevertheless, I wanted to share the make-up products that impressed me the most in 2015 with you. It was difficult to choose the best of the best, but here are the ones that I enjoyed the most. I suggest you get a cup of coffee and a snack, since it’s going to be a looooong post!

Let’s start with the face. As I mentioned in my Friday Superstarts post about Melvita, my skin has really been acting up during pregnancy, so I used a very heavy-duty foundation – the Estee Lauder Double wear in 1W2 (Sand). It’s not the easiest foundation to apply since it’s very heavy and you definitely feel it on the skin, but it conceals imperfections perfectly. It’s also not the cheapest foundation on the market but a definite must from now on in my make-up drawer.

The problem with using such heavy foundation is that the fact ends up looking flat, two-dimensional. For that reason, I enjoyed using the Gerard Cosmetics BB Illumination Facial Cream and mixed a couple of drops in with the foundation on days when I wanted to give my face a bit more life. The cream comes in a tan shade so it doesn’t change your foundation color if used sparingly. At about 22 € per 50 ml, it’s not exactly a cheap product, but I think it will last me at least two years, so I think it’s a good purchase.

In 2015 I’ve been loving two concealers. The first is the Coleur Caramel concealer (n. 12) which is a creamy concealer in a salmon shade – I already wrote about it here. I use it to cover up my dark circles and it does the job beautifully. I bought mine in Muller. The second concealer I used all the time is the Maybelline Fit me concealer in n.10 – it is a good match for my skin so I use it to cover any imperfections. Since it’s a liquid concealer, I use a Beauty Blender to really blend it in and the results are more than satisfying. I am not sure if these are available in Slovenia yet since I bought mine in Austria, but you can order them from various online stores. View Post

Best of 2014 – #1 Make-up

The end of the year is always the best time to look back at all the good and the bad that happened and the same goes for our beauty world. It’s taken me ages to go through everything and really gather my thoughts, but I’ve picked out the best of the best and I’m ready to share them with you. To stay organized, I’ve picked only one product from each general category (well, I cheated in a couple of them, but I really TRIED, so don’t hate me). Let’s start with make-up. And let me just say in advance that I’ve tried to keep it short, so the reviews are really minor. If you want to read more about these products, check out my monthly favorites and the reviews by categories I’ve done in the past months.

First up are the basic tools. I’ve accumulated a bunch of new brushes and applicators this year (obviously, since I did not own any before) and I must say that considering my inexperience in the field, I’ve done quite well.


A couple of my favorites are to be found on the picture above. We have the Real Techniques blush brush – an amazingly soft brush which is just large enough to hit the apples of my cheeks perfectly. I included two of my Ecotools blushes – the powder brush which I actually use for bronzing but is a great all-around brush, and the Ecotools large eye brush which I use for simple application all over the lid and is just big enough to make my job a lot quicker in the morning. I was considering including my Sigma e40 as a blending brush, but to be honest, this Essence blender does the job just as well – I just can’t seem to find them anywhere anymore. Let me know if you know where I could get my hands on some more of these!

For face products, I’ve picked some I’ve loved recently as well as those I could not live without during the summer months. I won’t go into a long rant about the face primer – I’ve talked about the Maybelline Baby Skin instant pore eraser so much already that if you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I absolutely adore it. For foundation, I’m going to go with the Rimmel Match Perfection which is not a heavy duty foundation but not exactly lightweight, either. It covers up most of the blemishes but does not look unnatural. View Post

September favorites

September rolled by so fast that I was actually stopped dead in my tracks when I glanced at the calendar. Oh well, another month older, and only 2 months to go until December which is my absolute favorite month of the year. But anyway, here are my favorites for this month and you can tell from the background that I’m really going to miss the summer as well.

First up, let’s talk about the Philip Kingsley products. I got these trial sizes from Look Fantastic website for a couple of € – the Body and Shine try me kit included 20ml of an elasticizer, 20ml of shampoo and 20ml of conditioner. Now supposedly this should be enough for only one use, but I was able two scrape out two from the bottles and there’s still some left. I didn’t care much for the elasticizer, but the shampoo and condition left my hair bouncy and silky the way they usually only look when I leave the hairdresser. The full size is very expensive, but I think they will be my Christmas gift to myself this year.

Next up – again from Look Fantastic – I got the Ambiance Volumizing Dry Shampoo in Blonde, which is the color I dye my hair. I would normally never buy this because it regularly costs about 15 €, but it was on sale for about 5 € and it even came with a free refill.

It claims to clean and refresh hair without water, and maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, I can’t really tell. But I haven’t had the time to go to the hairdressers in over a month (don’t judge – it takes over 4 hours) and my roots are starting to show, so I’ve been using this dry shampoo as some sort of fake everyday color. It applies with a brush which is great for even application. The only downside with this is that it’s really difficult to stuff the brush back in when finished, but I can live with that. View Post