Wednesday 31 December 2014

Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015!


Happy New 2015 everyone!

Another year gone! I had some great times this year, such as getting the kind of job I wanted when I graduated a long time ago, but also some good holidays and of course, some great nail and beauty stuff! I also celebrated my 6th year of blogging, and posted my 900th post! :)

Below I will give you some of my personal  beauty highlights of the year below, and a top 5 of my most awesome nail polishes this year.

A late discovery this year was Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel foundation - what a cracker! A lot of reviewers say that they are disappointed with the light coverage, for me, that's what I was looking for. Others mention the poor shade selections - for me, again, 52 Vanilla was a near perfect match, but I realise that many will struggle to find a shade to suit them here. But personally I just love everything about this foundation - light, moisturising and makes my skin look great!

Another awesome product this year is Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water. I tried it once and have never looked back. Despite using it most of the year, I'm only on my second bottle so huge value for money here! I used to use towelettes as a pre-cleanse and would go through at least 5 packs of the No7 ones each year. No more! :)

What else was good? Oh, lets not forget the Vichy Idealia Life Serum! When Soap and Glory revamped their offerings, they changed the formulation of their 'For Daily Youth 6-in-1 moisturising lotion'. Grrrrr!!!! The new version gave me serious acne :( I haven't found a suitable moisturiser yet, but with Vichy Idealia Life Serum, I can now get away with just popping foundation/CC cream over it and off I go :)

And of course, eyebrows. I've become rather obsessed with eyebrows in the last year and I've now become rather hooked on Benefit's Brow Bar offerings and products!

My most outrageous beauty purchase of the year? It has to be Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura's Lip Palette from the Shupette collection... Cats, on beauty products - how can you go wrong?!

Shue Uemura Shupette BonBon Fantasy Lip Trio 'Parisienne Chic'
The cat even has shiny blue eyes like Karl's kitty Choupette :)

Lina-Elvira's Top 5 Nail Polishes
Seventeen Color Carnival "Gold Green Shimmer"
OPI "Green on the Runway"

Nicole by OPI Roughles "Sand in my shoe"

Maybelline Color Show Acid Wash "Mint Acid-ittude" 

Barry M Gelly "Mustard"
 and not forgetting ILNP "Electric Carnival" which I haven't actually worn yet!!

What am I looking forward to in 2015?
  • Wearing more nail polish! 
  • OPI Hawaii collection
  • MUFE (Makeup Forever) arriving at Debenhams!
  • Wearing my first Deborah Lippman nail polish for my birthday - it's "Happy Birthday!" actually!
  • And seeing what new things are coming out in the world of beauty and fashion... 
What are you looking forward to in 2015??

Tuesday 30 December 2014

Haul time!

So me and my Mum went shopping in Stockholm yesterday! We were on the 1st class express train which meant free breakfast :) I got my mum an eyebrow wax and tint at the Benefit stand in Sephora :) She was really pleased with the resultal though she wasn't too sure about the waxing part...

Of course, I scored some goodies, mostly in Sephora (OMG Formula X nail polishes!!) but also elsewhere such as a load of nice items from Gudrun Sjöden, one of my favourite designers :) I'm still suffering with this infernal cold so I've not tried ANY of my new stuff yet...







Sunday 28 December 2014

NOTD: Depend Advent Calendar "#4008"

It's very cold  (-15C) and snowy in Sweden just now and we've had an awesome Xmas so far :) I got the Depend Cosmetics advent calendar for my Xmas from my Mum and this was one of the polishes in it. It's a really cool white flakie with decent coverage if you dab it on like I did; it's rather thick. Love it! :)

Me and my Mum are going to Stockholm tomorrow for some shopping so expect to see haul photos! 

Monday 22 December 2014

Xmas NOTD: China Glaze "Ruby Pumps" with gold

Better photo to come...
I was dilly-dallying about what to wear on my nails for Xmas and after doing my friend's nails yesterday and playing about with "Ruby Pumps" I decided it was going to have to be that one... I wanted to bling it up a bit so I put some OPI "Goldeneye" / Sephora "Gold Fever" over it for a bit of a gold gradient. I really wish I had longer nails to really carry a gradient, but that's not practical so I have to live with short gradients, I suppose.

It sparkles like crazy, but of course I have already packed away my camera, and the closeup on the Samsung Galaxy S5 isn't very good at all... I will try and get another shot of it on Xmas eve for you :)

Sunday 21 December 2014

China Glaze "Emerald Sparkle"


Xmas nails has started! I did a friend's nails today - it was a close run between "Ruby Pumps" and this one but in the end the green won! :)

This is 2 coats with Seche Vite top coat, and then also a slick of cuticle oil - one can't use enough care products in the winter time!

Stay tuned for more Xmas nails tomorrow!

Thursday 18 December 2014

Benefit Brow Arch + Brow Tint

BEFORE Brow Arch + Brow Tint
AFTER Brow Arch + Brow Tint (medium brown)
So I went back to the Benefit Brow Bar for another go after the first visit went rather well. This time with my loyalty card I had a free brow tint... Turns out that's a fancy way of saying they will put semi-permanent hair colour on your brows. Since I'm rather gung-ho with trying new sh*t, I decided I would go for the freebie! Hey, what's the worst that can happen? Black caterpillars on my face for 4 weeks? Worth it in the interest of research :) The brow lady suggested a natural tint, and we went for 'medium brown'. Not having seen it in daylight, I still think it's quite a difference and probably too dark. Will have to see how it looks in daylight before I make a final judgement here.

But saying that, they look nicely shapen and glossy! I am definitely turning into a bit of an eyebrow geek... I did like the eyebrow gel I tried last time I went to the Benefit Brow Bar, Gimme Brow. I might invest in a product like that at some point. I seriously need to take a course in taking selfies though :(

Boosted by my flashy new eyebrows for Xmas, and the fact that The Man was out for his Xmas night out, I hit the late night shopping! I used some Boots vouchers and had a stroll around Superdrug.

I've been looking for a new foundation for winter as my 'Light Medium' Clinique Moisture Surge CC Cream is waaay too dark in the winter but I didn't want to buy a lighter version of it as it's a whopping £28. I'd read good things about Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel foundation so thought I'd give it a go. I picked up '52 Vanilla'. Doing research I also saw more videos of the use of the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge so I picked up one of them as well to experiment with over Xmas. I also got a lighter version, 'Cool Medium', of my fave concealer from Collection (I swear it's the best concealer I've ever had!).

I needed a new in-shower shaver and these were half price in Boots - score :) In Superdrug, the Nip+Fab Fix range is half price right now as well so I picked up this cleansing cream on a whim, I'm going to try it tonight to see if it can remove today's makeup from my face!



Speaking of hauls, the other day I happened to find myself in TK Maxx and picked up some exfoliating, stretchy wash cloths, a konjac sponge with red French clay from the Konjac Sponge Company and a Ciate polish, all at very reasonable prices. I will review this as I use them during my holidays :)

Saturday 13 December 2014

'Tis the season...


Yowser. It's almost Xmas! I've been so busy with work and other play that I've forgotten to blog. I've had some NOTDs including this one from Bourjois, the name is forgotten I'm afraid and now I can't find the bottle either, must've put it away "somewhere safe"... I added some Essie "Carnival" on top hap-hazardly, it's not my best work. I also had on a couple of other polishes - Seventeen Rock Hard Couture "Cameo Crush" and Barry M "Atlantis". I used a different peel off base coat with "Atlantis", from Miss Sporty. It works a bit better than the MUA one i.e. it doesn't ping off unexpectedly, but it is basically just a bottle of PVA glue... Oh well, no staining or damaged nails though.

I've got some cool stuff coming up, hopefully I'll get some time tomorrow to write it all up :)