venerdì 24 ottobre 2014

Autumn Leaves





Despite being busy, I still wanted to do some nail art. I though that the base polish, Kiko 436 from the old Dark Heroine LE was at my parents' home (to be used by mom), but I actually have it here. So I put it on because it's a goddamn beautiful polish.
Inspiration struck and I used my favorite stamping plate design ever, with Kiko 629, to create this autumn-like design. I really love it, it feels elegant and nice.
I had forgotten how much I love stamping, I should do it more often..

mercoledì 15 ottobre 2014

Color Spotlight: Black

This month is an insane month in terms of stuff to do. So I haven't created any special nail art, which gives me an excuse to continue with the Color Spotlight series.
I don't have much to offer in terms of polishes. I usually use Pupa 209 as a standard black, and that's it. In terms of makeup, however...






I don't wear that much black, but I have a few essentials. The Kiko gel eyeliner was part of the Bad Girl LE, now they also have one in their standard line. At the beginning it was a bit hard to work with, too liquid, but after a month or so it has reached a much more gel-like consistency that makes it great to use.
It has a good lasting power and I tend to use it for my more graphic looks.
The Sehora black liquid eyeliner is a very good product, my other standard eyeliner. Works nicely, I have no complaints, I love the small tip brush that allows me to make thin and precise lines.
I don't use black eye pencils a lot, but those two (Pupa Multiplay and a Revlon one) deserve a spotlight. The Pupa one can be used as a kajal too, and while many pencils have a weird effect (meaning tears and pain and oh god I need to remove this) on my waterline, this works very nicely. I also own UD's Perversion black eye pencil. And it hurts, I can't use it on my waterline.
The other eyeliner pen is by Essence, the one I received with their new Princess mascara. I had a few doubts about it but it works well and is quite long lasting. I keep it in my travel beauty case for quick, nice looks when I don't want to use the Sephora one.
The black eyeshadow in UD's Naked Basics is my go-to black eyeshadow. I have nothing as pigmented, it's really, really awesome.
I am a firm believer that black lips are not for halloween only.
The black lipstick, Kiko 523, is a creme, which means it needs a pencil underneath to stay (and with such a bold color you've got to have flawless lips). And good look finding a lipsafe black pencil! I usually use the Revlon one, but I know it's not the best option. I've seen tutorials for black lips that were made using liquid eyeliner, meh, for some reason I can't bring myself to put black eyeliner on my lips... (maybe because you'd need a lot of it, while pencils are easier to work with).
The other product is by Topshop and is a Velvet Lips liquid matte lipstick in Black Velvet.
You probably have heard of Lime Crime's liquid matte lipsticks and how, in general, liquid matte lipsticks are a trend that is going to stay (also check Pretty Zombie Cosmetics lipsticks).
This one was a surprise gift from my boyfriend, and it's a great product. It has some micro sparkle if you look close to it, so if you don't want a 100% gothic look it may be your choice. Especially if you want to try something like LC's Velvetines but disagree with the company's shady past.
I've been wearing it quite a lot lately, usually paired with graphic blue eyeliner, and it looks very nice. Once it's dried, it stays on your lips forever. Definitely recommended
So, do you like black? Wear it a lot or not at all? Would you go for black lips on your average day?

domenica 5 ottobre 2014

Essence Hello Autumn LE 02 & 03 Nail Polishes






I have a confession to make: I have yet to learn how to take pics of thermo polishes properly.
I still want to show you 02 Meet My Pumpkin and 03 Charlie Seen in Green, because they're two beautiful polishes with a great autumn feel.
02 is my personal favorite: in the bottle it looks like a cool dark chocolate brown (exemplified by my ring finger, but it can get even colder and darker than that), exposed to warmness it becomes a brick/rusty orange that is absolutely perfect for the season. You can see it better on my index. The quality is also great, it needs 2 coats for full opacity but it's almost a crelly, veeery shiny. A pleasure to wear.
03 goes from cool pistachio green (a bit like OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me) from warm pastel yellow. And it was very very hard to capture for my camera. I am sorry that you can barely see it.

 This is very blurry but at least it captures the orange nicely but, as you can see, 02 has a far more visible and bigger chromatic change compared to 03. Which is still a beautiful polish, since it's a warm light green that could look great with autumn themed nail arts.. If you can pick only one of them and want to see a strong thermo effect, go for 02.
Some people complained about the thermo effect for the polish from the Road Trip LE to be too subtle, and 02 will leave even those people satisfied (but 03 probably wont).
Ultimately, it's up to you: to me they are both beautiful and purchase-worth.
Also, my mom got the 01 Beauti-FALL red for herself and I will review it soon.
It will be a month filled with thermo polishes! I also got the colour adapting blush from this LE: I mistook it for a highlighter at first, but I tried it and damn, it works really nicely. Reviews soon!

giovedì 2 ottobre 2014

Essence Haul


A mini Essence haul! Reviews of the single products coming soon.
For now I can show you I what I got. There were many Essence products that were tempting, but I ended up only getting the Lash Princess mascara, since I'm almost out of mascare and it came with a free eyeliner. Who am I to say no to a free eyeliner? The Lash Princess packaging is super cool.
I found the Hello Autumn display almost already ravaged, but there were still a couple of palettes. And these two polishes, which I took. So far, I've been loving them-the termo effect is far more visible on the brown one, and I suggest you don't miss it.
My boyfriend went on a small trip abroad (Slovenia) and I asked him to get me some thermo polishes. This was the only one left! I haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
The liquid sand effect top coat was tempting, and I will probably get it someday. And the striping tape too.

Did you get anything new from Essence?