Maša M blog
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BEAUTIFUL PINK OCTOBER (Slovenian beauty bloggers collaboration)

Why pink, you might ask? Sure, there is nothing pink about it if you look at the nature – all golds and greens and yellows everywhere you look. But the color pink is tied to the month of October in a different way.

In the month of October, me and my fellow Slovenian beauty bloggers want to remind every girl, mother, woman, sister out there that none of us are safe from the danger of breast cancer that is commonly connected to the pink bow, like the one in the photo below.

I want to remind you that self-checking is important. Early detection is key to successful treatments! Ideally, you would check your breasts every month, about 7-10 days into your monthly cycle. On this webpage (click!) you can read more about how to check yourself and can also download an app that will remind you to check your breasts and show you exactly how you do it.

Remember that not every change in the breasts means malignant cancer, so if you feel something, there is no reason to panic! Talk to your doctor and together you will choose the right way to proceed. I am knocking on wood, though, that none of us will ever have to go through that!
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My top 10 make-up brushes

I often get asked which brushes are my favorites – do I prefer drugstore brands or is it worth investing into more expensive brushes. I also get asked about fake brushes that you can purchase from various websites – if you want to know about my experience with those, let me know in the comments below!

Anyway, I own both drugstore and high-end brushes – too many of both, to be quite honest with you, since I love buying and trying new ones. As you will see, my favorites consist of both. These are the brushes I use on a regular day when doing my go to make-up look. I listed some prices below, but to find the best deal, check out *this post* I wrote about my favorite online stores and their offers!

Let’s start with the bigger brushes I use for my face.

I always apply foundation with a blending sponge and practically never use a brush. Then, I use the ELF Powder Brush to apply face powder and/or setting powder. I like this brush since the bristles are quite tightly packed and pick up the product really well. I bought this from iHerb for about 7 $ about two years ago and although I use it every day, it’s still in great shape.
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Midyear favorites 2015

You may have noticed that I stopped doing monthly favorites about 6 months ago. The reason is quite simple – I don’t have many new favorites every month, so I prefer not to talk about products until I have a firm opinion about them. With that in mind, I give you my mid-year favorites for 2015 – the products I used and loved in the first six months of this year.


Let’s start with body products. I’ve talked about both of these before.


My first favorite is Nivea In-Shower Body Milk with shea butter. I love the idea of moisturizing while taking a shower and it really saves me a lot of time. I prefer this formula for dry skin to the one for normal skin – the shea butter really gives it the additional *umph*.

Secondly, I’ve really been enjoying my Stenders Salt Scrub in Rose and it’s not long before I’ll completely run out. It’s a fine scrub with some rose petals in it – it gets rid of the old epidermis and also moisturizes, since it’s oil based. The only downside is the amount of time you’ll need to scrub your shower clean after using it.

For hair, I haven’t found my new favorite shampoo&conditioner combo just yet. The only thing I am including here is my Kerastase Elixir Ultime. I apply this to my roots and about 10 cm up after each wash and I feel I’ve had lot less split and dry hair in the past few months. This product is quite expensive, but the bottle will last you ages, since you need the smallest amount per day / per wash.


I was the last beauty blogger on the planet to get something from the L’Oreal Micellar line, but I now understand why everyone is so excited about it. I really, really like this micellar gel – the tiniest amount removes my daily make-up without any problems. It also does quite a good job at removing waterproof mascara, although I must admit that I usually tackle that with other products.

After L’Oreal Micellar gel, I tend to use the Ole Henriksen African Red Tea Foaming Cleanser. I have talked about this great product before – it’s really easy to use (massaged into the skin and rinsed off), smells wonderfully and leaves my face clean and fresh.

For moisturizer, I am almost done with the Afrodita Hydra Thermal 24h Ultra Moisturizing Cream. I really like this product – it’s a simple, no fuss moisturizer and it does its job. Also, from all of the products in these favorites, I would guess that it has the best price: number of uses ratio. View Post

Products I regret buying – 2014 recap

 

Let’s start with face products.

The L’Oreal Mat Magique foundation I already talked about here. It is supposed to be a really mattifying foundation but it only lasted a couple of hours on my face before it started melting away and my face got oily again. I’ve tried it since with several different primers and fixing fluids, to no success.

All-around concealer by Catrice seemed like a good, inexpensive option for the days when I actually take the time to color correct my face before I apply foundation. I chose this particular palette because I thought that it would be a good learning tool, but I find that the product is really difficult to blend (with fingers, beauty blender or with brush) and cakes on my face where I apply it.

Bahama Mama was a big, big disappointment because I’ve heard so many bloggers go on and on about how it’s a great contouring bronzer. I somehow managed to make it work when I had some tan from summer (read about thathere) but now I just look like I’ve been rolling in the mud every time I attempt to use it. I am afraid that it is not meant for us fair-skinned folk, unless you are going for the Kardashian look on an everyday basis.

As far as eye shadows go, I made two rather unsuccessful purchases this year, but the one that really left me down was the Maybelline Nudes palette.

You can find the entire review over here, but if you don’t feel like reading it, let me just say that half of the shadows in the palette are so bland and have such low pigmentation that they are useless and the other half are nothing special, really. You can find better palettes at Essence, Barry M or BH Cosmetics for half the price. View Post

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