Latest purchases

I can finally show you pictures! Yay! And what's better than showing you what I bought lately?
It's not properly a haul, since not everything was bought on the same shopping trip, but still...

The Catrice nail polish is 04 Artful Red, from the Viennart LE. I'm gonna try it this evening, so be ready for a review! The silver one of this LE was also promising, but I only got the red for now.
The foundation is Pupa Made To Last in Ivory (lightest shade) and I got it with the special 10 euros coupon (so I paid 10 euros something that costed almost 20, a real bargain) and I am absolutely loving it, it feels wonderful, lighweight despite the very good coverage and it's really great. I'm not a foundation expert but I could post a review of it as well.
The brush is from H&M, and I am loving it, I use it to apply the Pupa foundation and it works perfectly.
The two Kiko products were the result of an afteroon with my boyfriend, the 30% discount coupon and a lot of patience and help from him xD I ended getting only two products, even if I initally had four of them in my hands. I have chosen the eyeliner in the colour 107, because it was (and is) an important element in my makeup routine and I used it so much that I finished one (I never finished a black eyeliner, for comparison). Whenever I don't know what to wear I choose it, maybe paired with a blue mascara as well. I think it compliments my eyes fairly well and it's really long lasting.
The eye pencil is from the Daring Game LE, I've been craving it since the first time I saw this LE, which was in august, so I waited quite a lot! The shade is 29, Irresistible teal. I can't wait to wear it, since I've been rediscovering the beauty of a dark eye makeup.
I don't have much makeup here yet, I plan on bringing more of it when I go back at my parents' next weekend. I am definitely in need of some brushes!
That's all for now!
Bought anything interesting recently?

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?

Kiko Daring Game first impressions and swatches

It's not a change of season if I don't come up with a post about Kiko's latest LE. This autumn's theme is, according to Kiko, the exciting game of seduction. Or something like that.

Personally, I really dig the Casino Royale theme, and the packaging is really pretty. Can't say the same for the prices, 6,90 for the nail polishes is a bit too much.. polishes have always been the cheapest element of a LE, now there are eye pencils that cost less...
And it's not the only complaint I have for the nail polishes:

From L to R: 02 Irresistible Orchid, 01 Prestigious Taupe, 03 Suggestive Red, 04 Intuition Wine, 05 Exclusive Blue, 06 Slick Bluenoir.

Look at the colors, there is nothing groundbreaking there. The finish is probably a crelly, they're slick but not so much pigmented. Oh and there is nothing blue in 06, I've tried looking at it in various angles and to me it's just a plain black. Oh and yeah, surely, the packaging with the dice effect is nice but you have to remove it, it only covers the cap, it's not part of it. Sorry but for me this is a downside, it makes everything a bit less practical.

 From L to R: 24 Majestic Dove Grey, 29 Irresistible Teal, 20Mysterious Acai, 10 Bold Rosy Taupe, 22 Fine Jade, 11 Charming Champagne, 8 Sinuous Shell, 33 Likable Blackberry
 What I really liked were the Color-Up Long Lasting Eyeshadows (aka the big chubby eye pencils). I hope I got the identification of the colors right beacuse the numbers had faded on all the pencils and some colors are really similar. I also realized right now I am missing the swatches of 31 Tasteful Indigo, but I could swear it wasn't among the testers.
The quality seems very promising because once you wear them, they don't seem to smudge or fade, I've worn a couple of them on my hand yesterday and I had to wash them off at the endo of the day because they were still perfectly there. 29 Irresistible Teal is the most interesting color of the bunch for me (a shimmery teal with cold undertones? hell yeah). 11 Charming champagne seems like a bunch of glitter on a transparent base, 20 Mysterious Acai looks like a glittery nail polish turned eyeshadow and 33 Likable Blackberry is the only matte of the bunch. What a weird assortment of colors.. but they make me wish it were already autumn, sigh! I might be tempted to get the 29, but I will see and wait, for the moment.

You can also see something of the eye pencils: 02 Extraordinary Sapphire, 04 Gritty Ivy, 06 Powerful Burgundy and 13 Wily Bright Wood. 
02 and 13 are glittery, 4 is shimmery and 6 seems matte again. Pretty colors but nothing we haven't seen before.

What do you think of this LE? Tried anything?

Kiko Life In Rio first impressions and swatches

The nail polishes for Kiko's Summer LE, Life in Rio, called Sun Show Nail Lacquers, are ten and all shimmer-packed. I'm sure they're lovely under the sun, but of course today it's clouded.

No, it's not identical to the other pic, look at the green..

They're 476 Joyful Emerald, 475 Tropical Blue, 474 Luxurious Indigo, 473 Precious Amethyst, 472 Tasty Grapes, 471 Juicy Pitaya, 470 Dainty Passion Fruit, 469 Delicious Mango, 468 Samba Pink, 467 Quindim Gold.

 They all at least will require 2 coats, since I had to put big drops of polish to get a nice result.
Color descriptions are quite faithful, so I'll just give you some indications. 476 is a bit lighter irl. 474, 472 and 468 all have beautiful undertones, lavender, pink and orange respectively. 468 is already a personal favourite, a beautiful warm pink with orange/gold undertones. 467 too has a pink shimmer but less visible, under artificial light it feels almost bronze. But I bet 470 will be quite successful, because it doesn't just have undertones, no, its shimmerness is packed with gold. Fuchsia and gold shimmer, it kinda says summer aloud! Overall they're very pretty, nothing groundbreaking but after the "meh" polishes of the Boulevard Rock, they look awesome. By the way, the polishes of the aforementioned LE are now 1,90 in Kiko shops, sign that I wasn't the only one that was disappointed...

When it comes to the rest of this LE, I didn't see anything groundbreaking in eye or lip products, but the blushes look quite nice (similar to the ones of last summer's LE in a certains sense, bronzers are practically identical). This LE also includes colored eyeliners and I guess I'll have a look at them too.

Kiko Boulevard Rock swatches and first impressions

my hand looks very graceful here

 When I first saw the preview of the Boulevard Rock LE I was honestly disappointed. As much as I loved the Dark Heroine and the Digital Emotion, this one, as it often happens with spring and summer LEs, left me a bit meh. Some of the products look identical to the ones of the Fierce Spirit of last year ( the cream blushes/ lipglosses), and I really dislike the overall design. The rock theme could be interesting, but I have the problem that I dislike denim and never wear it, so the whole denim-themed packaging and inspiration is for me a turn off. It also feels old, and not in a funny '80s way, in a '90s way that reminds me of my childhood.
The nail polishes seemed a huge disappointment too: on the website they look like boring cremes with a hint of shimmer.

Is this true? Well, yes and no.
On my hand you see: 464 Essential Sky Blue, 463 Evasion Lawn Green, 465 British Jeans, 466 French Charcoal, 462 Tribal Purple, 461 Art Poppy Red, 460 Ink Pink, 459 Woodstock Cream.
They aren't mere shimmers, but have a suede/demi-matte finish. I'm thankful for this, at least Kiko put some effort in it, even if given the rock theme I would have appreciated something with a leather effect.
466 is the prettiest one, under sunlight its shimmer is the most visible, and I appreciate 459 too, which is almost a nude. 460 is more salmon than pink and 462 is way lighter irl compared to the website colors.
My opinion: The quality seems good, over the tape they were all one coaters and dried very quickly, however there's nothing to die for here. No groundbreaking color or finish. I doubt I'll get anyone of these.
You could achieve similar effects by simply adding a matte top coat to polishes you already own.

I had planned on trying the mint green cream eyeshadow, but it didn't seem so pretty and minty irl, so I tried 102 Revolutionary Burgundy and 105 Adrenaline Lime: 102 is very pretty and has brown-to-burgundy shimmer similar to UD's Delinquent pencil. 102 looks more like a banana than a lime, and here is unfortunately a bit smudged, but it could be very nice to highlight and to be worn alone too. It's the only thing of this collection I'd like to get, but I'd probably wait for the sales.

And you, did you see this LE? Opinions?

My picks from Kiko's Dark Heroine LE

Since it's sales time, I decided to do a small post about what I have ended up buying from the Dark Heroine LE-my favourite of this winter editions.

You've already seen the Laser Nail Lacquer, Venom Teal, and today I introduce you to his fellow, Strong Chocolate, bought today on sale and not yet tested. Seems very promising!

Surprise surprise, I got the Loud Night Bronzer! It's my very first bronzer, and I am very satisfied with it. I purchased the matte one, Silky Mat Tan. It's quite subtle and can be used satisfyingly even on pale skin, especially if blended with the "blush" part, the pink one. I can make some contouring experiments now!

The Latex Like Lipstick in 04 Plastic Red is quite gorgeous and insanely pigmented. It dries to a demi-matte finish (which I wasn't expecting, since when is latex matte?), but it's gorgeous so who cares. It's also nicely long lasting too, it almost survived the whole Christmas lunch...

The Velvet Stick Blush in 04 Cadillac Pink was purchased today, for little more than 3 euros. I didn't want to get it for the full price, but I'm glad I found it of the color I wanted and on full sale. Ah, shopping malls hide wonderful surprises. The shade I chose is matte and of a beautiful delicate pink. I'm glad I've got this because I needed a stick blush. I'm constantly on the move and stick blushes are practical (no brush, and far more practical than powder blushes).

And that's all! I would have liked to get the highlighting drops, since they were on sale, but there was only the pink drops left and I wanted the silver ones, so nope. Did you get anything? Are you waiting for something to have an even lower price?

Mini haul Kiko & China Glaze

Hello everybody, feelin' the Christmas spirit? I hope so because Christmas is very near!
And there is 30% off-on-everything sale at Kiko. Now, could I go there and not buy anything? Of course not. I was extremely tempted by the stick blush, I'd love to try the format, but I'd wait for the after holiday sale. I got the Digital Nail Lacquer in green and a red lipstick. The Latex Like lipstick line is very beautiful, I mostly use matte colors and something shiny will be a nice change. I tried one that could be a "My Lips But Better"... and that's why I didn't buy it. I still don't see the point of something that's the exact same color of my lips. Should I need an office friendly shade I'd go for something wearable but visible.

And in the same shopping mall there's also the shop where i go for all my China Glaze needs, they've the limited editions too and the polish are always on sale. I had There's Snow One Like You in my wishlist and I didn't need to think twice: I can't resist special textured polishes. I also bought another thing that I won't show because I bought the same for a relative, and I don't want spoilers :P

Did you get anything in the Kiko sale? Do you plan to get somehing?

Kiko Digital Emotion first swatches

When I saw the preview of the Kiko holiday collection I had a "wow this is keeps getting more and more 80s!" moment. I went to patrol a Kiko store today, not hoping to find it already but since it was there, well, it was swatching time!

I swatched the polishes and the pencils, who seemed fairly interesting. Sorry for the low quality of the photo, it was taken with a cell phone instead of the regular camera. And yes, I took it in the Kiko store so to preserve the pencil swatches intact.

All of these need at least  2 coats for full opacity.
437 Intuitive Pink is made of small pink and holo glitter in a clear base.The effect is very much holo-ish.
438 Fascinating Burgundy is made of small round purple and silver glitter in a purple base.
439 Cyber Red is red and dark red microglitter in a red base. I had quite high expectations for this but it wasn't as awesome as I would have wanted.
440 Electron Blue is small blue/light blue/navy (and it seems, gold) glitter in a blue base. It looks like a city landscape at night. The glitter are very much shinier than 438 and 439.
441 Illusion Green is one of my personal fave: so unique! Green, gold and light blue microglitter. Some glitters have a rectangular shape. The whole effect is almost a holo!
442 Techno Black is quite different from the others: very small holo glitter in a dark base with what looks a lot like a sand finish. Or it's meant to be black glitter, but the effect is quite sand-like.

After many indecisions I bought the blue one. I was afraid the green one was too "Christmas Tree"-like, but perhaps I'll purchaes it at sales. Reviews of Electron Blue will be here soon!

The pencils (Double Glam Eyeliner) are, from L to R: 100 Light Gold and Ebony, 105 Steel and Black,  103 Turquoise and Electric Blue, 104 Misty Green and Blue Teal.
100 was a pleasant surprise, since the ebony part is actually matte. Out of all of these, 104 was my favourite, dark green and teal? Wow! I didn't get any of those, but they're all very pretty.

P.s. My arm is covered in glitter due to the silver drops. Man, they're extremely glitter packed!

Tag: 11 Questions

The lovely Ky of Il Mio Beauty Case mentioned me among the 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers after receiving the Liebster Award. That was really cute of her ^_^! Being tagged, I have to answer to 11 questions:


1· How did your nail obsession start?

Mmmh, I don't remember a single episode, when I was a kid I always asked my sister to paint my nails and had a small collection of drugstore polishes of all colors. I remember struggling for finding a nice green one.
At the uni I started doing more nail art and buying more polishes after seeing an image of an art deco chevron nail art... I wanted to recreate it, and I found myself in the nail polish mania!

  2· More or less, how many nail polish bottles are there in your helmer?

 I think around 100, but I don't dare to count them.

  3· Just nail lacquer, accent manicure or nail art?

It depends, I usually wear plain polish for a day and add details later. Accent manicures are perfect because they don't require much time.


  4· What was the oddest/stupidest comment to your nails?

 ...damn, I don't remember any!

  5· Are you jealous about your bottles?

 Uh, yes. There are some I would lend only to my sister or mom, some others I could lend to people but only if I get one of their polishes as hostage,erhm, to try.

  6· What is your most desired brand (NOT indie) which you would love to find in your perfumery?

 I imagine A England is considered indie, so I'm going for OCC. They did an entire limited edition based on the atmospheres of the Weimar Berlin, how cool is that?!

  7· What do you like less about nail blogging?

 Not managing to take good pics of my nails, haha. When it comes to the nail blogging world in general, I'd say people who post pictures of their nails without even a comment...did you like the color? is it a good polish? we may never know.

  8· What is your favourite nail polish brand?

 Considering  price/quality criteria, I'd say Kiko and Shaka.

  9· What is your all-time-favourite nail lacquer (I know, this is hard)?

How am I even expected to choose? Perhaps Lucky Red by Pupa, but I love them all! *hugs all the bottles*

  10· What is your least favourite nail lacquer?

A glittery apple green by Debby. Too sheer and stains the nails.


  11· What is your least favourite nail polish brand?

I have 3 polishes by B by Limoni and they all suck ( sheer, almost watery, no coverage, endless drying time..) so perhaps that's the brand.


02/10 Edit: Also, I forgot to add the 7 facts about me, so here they are:

1) I always get angry at movies that make no sense, even if they're a pleasure to watch (Pacific Rim, I'm talking to you) especially if they have flaws that could have been easily corrected. Or, worse, when people say "it's just made to entertain, duh". Yeah I know, but I don't see why it can't be nicely done.

2)I don't have the constance to follow tv series anymore. I only watch Castle every saturday on tv, but that's it. I tried the Walking Dead (first season, a bit of the second), Breaking Bad (first 2 episodes), but didn't find them so great.

3) I used to listen mostly to extreme metal when I was a teenager, now I listen to pretty much everything that catches my fancy, from Lady Gaga to new swing.

4) I love making playlists for my moods and for the stories I'm writing, my favourite ones are the Cyberpunk, the Postapocalyptic and the Dieselpunk playlist.

5) I usually play videogames when I paint my nails. Just got killed? Add a coat of polish. Too scary part/don't know how to go on? Add nail art.

6) I have studied many historical eras and figures just for fun...history books can be better than novels.

7) I love salty food more than sweet food. A lot. I used to steal salt from the kitchen cupboard when I was little.

 

Pupa Cosmic Beauty

In this sea of new fall LEs, Pupa comes out with a ... cyber/cosmic LE. They make direct references to cyberpunk in their website, talking about a "visionary, cybernetic future [...] inspired by an imaginary metropolis of the future, a city with a surprising charme, where the borders between real and surreal disappear: Cosmic Beauty. The girls of this town with an exceptional lifestyle dress with cybersexy clothes and use a psychedelic make up. The aesthetic charme of a new era."
Now, if this was an ad found in Night City, or the great metropolis that appear in Gibson's novels, I wouldn't be surprised. And I love anything cyberpunk, so if course I am enthusiastic about it
But:
1) if it's so cyber-inspired, why do they talk about space and the products have space-inspired names? First you tell me it's inspired by the colors of the galaxies then you give me a cyberpunk femme fatale. These are two different kinds of sci-fi, my dear.
2) I have now a headcanon: that the creative teams at Kiko and Pupa are best friends and regularly meet together to watch movies. Last year they both created China/East inspired LEs, almost identical in their inspiration. This year they must have gathered to watch Blade Runner all together, or something like that.
3) The collection has only a few products ( I get it's a preview, but I suppose they've shown everyhting), and there's nothing groundbreaking and futuristic for me. Let's see:

An eyeshadow/eyeliner. Comes in taupe, black, peacock green, blue and violet.

Pigments! This one looks cool, I'd admit it. Comes in blue and green as well.

Lip pencils are nothing new. Comes in red and pink too.

There' s a highlighter..

And the polishes. Two duochromes, two more "normal" shades. The burgundy one is great, even if not groundbreaking. The first duochrome reminds me of Catrice's Iron Mermaiden (now discontinued) and the second one..well, I'm interested in that.

Don't you notice something? No powder, no blush, nothing. Apparently in the future there'll be no need for healty and radiant complexions, we will all be cyborgs. Or have biosculpted faces.

Kiko Dark Heroine first impressions and swatches

Dark Heroine has arrived. I don't have photos of the display, but you can find plenty of them online.

So, let's start with the swatches. I tried all the nail polishes and some other things. There were some surprises, definitely!

Laser Nail Lacquer in: Venom Teal, Strong Chocolate, Fluent Red, Psychedelic Blue, Sensual Candy, Gothic Purple.

Gothic Purple is very similar to Essence's Chic Reloaded, the others aren't anything special, except for Venom Teal, the other duochrome that goes from teal to violet/blue. Fluent Red and Psychedelic blue are very pigmented and could probably be one coaters.

Twinkle Eye Pencil in Elastic Teal (above the polishes).

I wasn't very impressed by those eye pencils on the website, but they're much better irl. The one I tried is of a beautiful teal with small blue glitter, and I have completely fallen in love with it. The glitters aren't exaggerate, and I bet they have a great effect once worn.

Smoky Look Eyeshadow in Heroic Brown and Inspiration Blue.

They're both pretty great, but I expected the blue one to be, well, lighter and brighter.
I made a comparison with the Sephora pencil in Azur Blue I own, and they're almost identical:

As you can guess, the Sephora one is the one on the right. I don't think I'll buy this eyeshadow right now, maybe when it goes on sale, since there's more product than the Sephora pencil, also considering the prices.

I also tried three lipstick. They're a bit smudgy now because of my watch...

Latex Like Lipstick in Pulpy Plum, Iconic Magenta (on the left), Glare Fuchsia (under Pulpy Plum).

As I was expecting, Pulpy Plum is gorgeous and I am probably going to buy it. Applying it was nice, and for once the name is well merited, it kinda feels like latex/plastic in a good way. Guaranteed to give you the perfect android lips!

I have no swatches of the eyeshadow palettes because the one I liked, the number 2, was a bit disappointing. TOO. MUCH. GLITTER. Maybe when it goes on sale... but certainly not now. The blushes seemed nice, and the highlighters have good pigmentation too.

Summary: Right now I'm interested in the teal eye pencil, the plum lipstick and the teal nail polish. They would look great together.

Matchpoint, Tribal Summer and Me & My Ice Cream

My sister was kind enough to phone me a week ago when she was in a Coin store, and for a good reasons: they had just put out the latest Catrice and Essence LEs and she asked me if I wanted something. Of course I did!

I remembered well that I wanted the shimmer pearls and the tip painters, then I added the lip balm because it seemed gorgeous. First impressions: the shimmer pearls smell like candy and the tiny box is so pretty, if I finish them I'm gonna keep it; the tip painters are going to be super useful, the lip balm also smells nicely and the color is very promising.


I'm not surprised Catrice went straight from Candy Shock to Matchpoint, but I really hope I find some Glamazona stuff, I definitely want the crocodile gold top coat and perhaps something else. Anyway, I'm so glad my sister found this stuff, especielly considering how many people wanted the shimmer pearls, I wasn't even hoping anymore to find them!