Nail of the Day // Astor

Astor Quick & Shine Nail Polish 204 Life in Pink

Astor does quite a few amazig nail polishes. This is the newest addition to my collection and I do not have any other color like this. The color in the bottle looks exactly like the polish on the nails. To me this is the perfect pink for everyday wear because it is not too bright but still vibrant. You could get away with only one coat of color with this nail polish but I applied two. I also wore a base and a top coat and the nail polish lasted few days on my nails without chipping.

What is your favorite pink nail polish?

Beauty Haul // March

Apparently I am really into pink right now ;) This month I did not actually repurchase a lot of products but decided to give some new ones a try.

Balea Hand Soap Soft Touch Elder & Cherry: I am obsessed with this scent! Balea hand soaps can actually be quite drying to the skin but I just always fall victim to their packaging and scent combination. 

Balea Limited Edition Creme & Oil Shower Scrub Berries & Magnolia: The scent of this body scrub is lovely. It has been a long time since I used a Balea body scrub and I am looking forward to using this. I tend to like scrubs with oil so I am excited to see if I found a cheaper alternative to the more expensive oil scrubs I used before.

Astor Quick & Shine Nail Polish 204 Life in Pink: It is pretty ridiculous how long I have been debating about buying this nail polish. I have set a goal for myself to not buy anymore than three nail polishes in 2017 and this is the first one on that list. The color is just beautiful and I am generally a big fan of Astor nail polishes.

wellaflex Curls & Waves Hair Styling Mousse: This kind of product was very popular when I was a teenager. Nowadays people talk more about how mousse is not the best for your hair because it can make it look crispy and stiff and so I have not used a hair styling mousse in years. Then why did I buy this? I was looking through old pictures of me and I actually really liked my hair from back then. I am trying to use less heat on my hair and since my hair is naturally wavy I thought I would try a styling mousse to make it more curly without using heat on it.

alverde Anti-Spot-SOS-Serum: This spot treatment is not a holy grail to me but I repurchased it because I feel like it did help and worked just as fine as all the other anti spot treatments I tried before. Do you have any recommendations?

Merz Spezial Perfect Skin Face Mask with Silkproteins & Riceoil: Can you tell I have skin problems? Right now my skin is actually pretty good but that is probably not going to stay that way for too long (at least it usually doesn't) and I want to have products that help quickly ready to be used when my skin does act up again.

What did you products did you try this month?

New Valentine's Day Products // February

Last year right before Valentine's Day I did four posts about products that make me excited for the holiday (if you can call it that). Valentine's Day is looked down upon by many people because it can seem ridiculously materialistic. That is why I wanted to look at my collection of products that I already owned that reminded me of the holiday. I divided the posts up by color last year. I did one about purple, berry, pink and last but not least the obvious red ones since these are the colors typically marketed for Valentine's Day. I did not add nearly enough new products to my collection over the last year to do four posts again but I thought I would do one big post about the same topic again.

These are some of the products that I did not talk about last year but I did not buy any of these especially for this post. I generally try to be more mindful of what products I buy and so it only makes sense to look into my own collection before even thinking about getting anything new. I often rediscover old favorites or even find products I once bought but never really used before.

KIKO Mirror Nail Lacquer 629 & Astor Perfect Stay Gel Shine Nail Polish 502/302 Crème Brulée: I love both of these colors all year round but they feel especially appropriate right now. Crème Brulée is an exciting alternative to wearing baby pink (a Valentine's Day classic) by wearing a deep pinky nude instead. Another great new interpretation of pink is simply wearing rose gold on your nails.

Catrice Glam & Doll False Lash Mascara: Usually I prefer waterproof to non-waterproof mascara but when I want to wear non-waterproof mascara this is the one I go for. I just wrote an entire post about this mascara last weak, so I am not going to talk too much about it hear again.

Fleur de Force Eye Shadow Quad 020 Lunar Rose & Inglot Freedom System Eye Shadow 397: Can you tell I am really into rose gold? I know it has been a trend for a long time now but I am still very much in into it. The top right color in the Fleur de Force eye shadow quad is a true, deep rose gold shimmer color that translates perfectly to the eye. It pairs amazingly with all the other colors in the palette and the quality is great, the Inglot eye shadow is still a bit better when it comes to quality (it is also a lot more expensive). This is wonderful peachy-pink, shimmery eye shadow perfect for everyday wear. It is very close in color to All that Glitters by MAC but the Inglot eyeshadow is a lot more cool toned.

Astor Soft Sensation Lipcolor Butter Matte 027 Elegant Nude & 018 Pretty in Fuchsia: Even though these lip products are from the same range by the same brand they apply and wear very differently. Elegant nude has a mat finish and can be a little drying on the lips. Whereas Pretty in Fuchsia has a more moisturizing formula and a shiny finish. It also stains your lips quite a bit which Elegant nude does not do at all. They are both long lasting and I wear them both a lot.

Tom Tailor Eau de Toilette East Coast Club Women: Perfume is the one 'beauty product' I don't really get. I like the 'idea' of wearing perfume but in reality I hardly wear it. I am in my early twenties now and sometimes I feel like I should start wearing 'grown-up' perfume but I just like the cheaper perfumes better. I honestly never smelled a high end perfume I really loved but I do like a lot of the cheaper perfumes. (I also do not think buying an expensive perfume would be worth it for me because it would probably go bad before I would ever use it up.) East Coast Club is one of those perfumes that I feel is marketed towards younger girls than me but I still really like that. It has a fresh, fruity scents that I love to wear in the spring / summer time (if I ever wear perfume).

What is your favorite Valentine's Day perfume?

Favorites // January

When I put together the collage at the top I actually thought about excluding a product or two from this post just so the collage would look better. Pretty pictures are undeniably a big part of a blog but to include or exclude products because of the way they look seems hypocritical because I do want to talk about the products I actually like. That whole concept just seems a little messed up...

DoveNutritive Solutions Oil Care Spray: This is a wonderful new discovery of mine. I have written a review about this product already so I do not want to talk about it for too long but if you struggle with brushing your hair after washing it maybe you should give this product a try.

Astor Perfect Stay Gel Shine Nail Polish 502/503 Crème Brulée & Catrice Ultimate Nail Lacquer Effect Coat 41 Two Million Dollar Baby: I have been posting a lot about this Astor nail polish over the past few months but I just keep coming back to it. I have worn this combination of nude and golden glitter twice in January - which is a lot for me. I hardly wear the same nail polish on my nails two times in a row.

batiste Dry Shampoo For Brunettes: About two months ago I got a hair cut - which is nothing that special but this time I finally did it: I got bangs! Now they are pretty much grown out and I am going to have to get them re-cut but when I still had full on bangs I had to change my hair care routine. With that my biggest rediscovery was dry shampoo. I generally like using dry shampoo whenever I want to avoid washing my hair for another day. With bangs it was the most practical product ever. I wash my hair about every other day and there was nothing better for my second-day-bangs than this product. I love the look and texture it gives to my hair and especially my bangs.

alverde Limited Edition Winter Love Body Butter: It is no secret that I am a big fan of alverde body butters. This is one that has a thicker texture and I do prefer a 'softer' texture when it comes to body butters but I still like this one. It still sinks in quicker than any other body butter or lotion and it moisturizes my skin wonderfully. This is a rare limited edition version of the alverde body butter but I hope that in the future they keep coming out with special editions because to be quite frank I do not like the 'original' scent that much.

H&M  Little Black Handbag:  This is the bag I bought on Black Friday last year and is one of the best 'fashion investments' I have made in a long time. I use this bag almost everyday. It s small but still fits a lot of stuff and it looks good with any outfit I wear. This is basically the little back bag of my dreams.

Shape of You by Ed Sheeran: When there is a new song that I really like I just listen to it on repeat and any other musics tends to get neglected. This is one of those songs. It has been so long since Ed Sheeran's last release and I am so happy he is back.

What were you favorites in January?

Nail of the Day // Two Million Dollar Crème Brulée

I have posted about both of these nail polishes before. The Astor Perfect Stay Gel Shine Nail Polish in the color 502/302 Crème Brulée is definitely one of my most worn nail polishes of the year - if not the most worn.

I am wearing my usual base coat Perfect Nail Hardener by p2 and two coats of the Astor nail polish. On top of that I applied one thick coat of the Catrice Ultimate Nail Lacquer Effect Coat in 41 Two Million Dollar Baby. This top coat is a beautiful glittery polish that mainly gold but in certain light it appears silver. I adore this combination of the darker nude and the metallic glitter.

What are you favorite nail polish combinations right now?

Best Products of 2016 // Favorites

Happy New Year!

Hello 2017! I am very excited about the new year and everything that will come with it. At the end of the old year and the beginning of the new it is always fun to look back on what happened in the past 365 days. On my blog I like to look back on my favorite products of the year.

My boyfriend got me the Fleur de Force Eyeshadow Quad 020 Lunar Rose as a gift and I just love this quad. They are by far my most used eye shadows of the year. The qualit is brlliant and the color combination is simply wondeful.

The other make up product I discovered in the 2016 that I wouldo not want to miss anymore is the Catrice Liquid Camouflage Concealer 010 Porcelain. I use concealer everytime I do my make up (like I guess everyone does) so it is an essential product in my routine. I am as pale as a vampire which means that it is hard to find products in the drugstore that actually fit my skin tone. To be honest I would like this concealer to be even lighter than it already is but so far it is still the best match I ever found.

On of my resolutions for 2016 was not to by more than five nail polishes - I only bought three and two of those three are now part of my yearly favorites! Both Astor nail polishes and the Maybelline polish are great quality. The color is opaque and they last as long as I want my nail polish to last. All of these things are good but what I ike the most about this polishes are the colors. The Astor Perfect Stay Gel Shine Nail Polish 502/302 Crème Brulée is the perfect darker nude with rose undertones. The Astor Quick & Shine Nail Polish in 502 Hot Chocolate Season has a really unsual shimmer to it. The dark metallic polish is a mix between gold and silver and the name actually describes it perfectly. The Maybelline Forever Strong Professional Rouge Couture 287 Midnight Red is the only nail polish I ever repurchased. It is a deep, dark red shade that can last over a week on my nails and it definitely deserved a spot in this list.

One of the biggest rediscoveries of the year for me was the Alverde Wid Rose Facial Oil. I have generally dry skin but it gets even worse in the winter time and this is the best day time moisturizer to help with that. At night I still use the Weleda Skin Food moisturizer but the oil sinks in quicker so I use the Alverde facial oil in the morning.

What are your favorite products of 2016?

What's in my Travel Make-Up Bag // Autumn

Even though it is not quite December yet the holiday season is close. While most people will be traveling home to see their family and friends closer to Christmas (or whatever it is you're celebrating) I usually tend to travel a lot even before that. I like to visit friends when the holiday spirit is already in the air and the Christmas markets start to pop up but the stressful, hectic part of the holiday season has not quite taken over yet.

Catrice Liquid Liner Waterproof 010 Don't Leave Me: This is a product I have been wanting to write a review about for a long time. I do like it and it is by far the best eyeliner I have ever used but it still is not the perfect liner I would want. I love liquid liner, especially when I am traveling because it is such a quick and simple yet effective look - especially on pictures.

Maybelline Color Tattoo 35 On and on Bronze: Most of the people that use this eye shadow seem to use it as a base. It does not work like that for me. I do use the Urban Decay Primer Potion as a base and this as a normal creme eye shadow on top. The color is a beautiful, deep bronze that is perfect for this time of the year.

Fleur de Forcen Lip Gloss 020 Written in the Stars: This is another one of those products that I will write a review about soon. There are pros and cons to this lip gloss but I generally like it and I like taking a lot of lip products with me when I travel. Switching out the lip product can quickly change the whole look you are going for. When traveling that is an easy way to have lots of options without carrying a whole suitcase of eye shadow palettes with you.

essence Lipliner 15 Honey Berry: This is a great color to wear on a night out. Putting on some liquid liner and this bright purple on the lips and your look is done.

Catrice Ultimate Stay Lip Liner 030 Boysenberry, Precision Lip Liner & 080 Read My Lips!: These are three of my favorite and most worn lip liners ever. Catrice lip liners can be a little drying on the lips but the color pay off is amazing and they stay on a long time.

KIKO Skinny Fit Kajal 05: Black liner is great but sometimes brown is just a better fit for a look. This was a limited edition eye liner but it is my favorite brown kajal I ever used.

essence Lash & Brow Gel Mascara: Brow gel is part of my everyday make up routine and of course I will take it with me when I travel.

benefit the POREfessional: This is a relatively new addition to my make up routine but I already would not want to miss it. This is a rather expensive primer and there are other pore minimizers out there. While this is my favorite pore minimizer I have tried it is also by far the most expensive and I am not quite sure whether I will repurchase it again because of that.

Catrice Ultimate Color Lip Stick 260 It's A Mat World: This is one of my favorite lip sticks of all time. A classic bright red lip is pretty much always a good idea so of course I take one with me when I travel.

essence bloom me up! Limited Edition Eyelash Curler 01 Lovely Lavender: Eyelash curlers are something I use almost every day but when it comes to packing for a trip I tend to forget to pack these. I have no idea why that is but this time I will make sure to take them along.

Sleek i Divine Eye Shadow Palette Au Naturel 601: Whenever I travel for longer than just a few days I always bring one of my Sleek eye shadow palettes. There are mat, shiny, glittery and metallic eye shadows in here and - this is important - a simple black mat shadow you can always use as an eye liner. Sleek palettes are amazing value for money and there is a palette for everyone (nope, not sponsored).

Catrice Glam & Doll Volume Mascara Waterproof: This is my favorite mascara of all time. The fact that it is waterproof makes it even better for traveling because no matter what the weather will be like this mascara will stay put.

Urban Decay Primer Potion: If there is one high end make up product in my collection that is worth the hype and price it is this one. This eye primer does not only make your eye shadow stay all day it also keeps your eyeliner from smudging and helps colors pop on the lid.

MNY Blush: This make up brand has been out of business for years now. I never liked their packaging but their products weren't that bad. This is my most used everyday blush but it is a color I would say most brands sell. When I travel I usually only take one blush and that one should be one that goes with pretty much everything. This is such a color to me. It is well pigmented, there is a slight shimmer to it and is neither too cool nor too warm toned.

Catrice Eye Shadow Duo 070 Double Espresso Macchiato, Please!: The dark shade on the left hand side is what I use as a brow powder to do my eyebrows. My eyebrows are black but when I use straight up black products to fill them in they just end up looking strange. What I need is a dark, cool toned powder or pencil to fill them in with that has no warmth or redness to it. Since that can be quite hard to find this is the best I have right now.

Fleur de Force Eye Shadow Quad Lunar Rose: I love these eye shadows. There is no need for me to take these along when I already packed my Sleek eye shadow palette but I am just so into this quad right now I would not want to travel without it.

Astor Soft Sensation Lipcolor Butter Matte 027 Elegant Nude: This is a lip color I love to wear in my everyday life but it only looks good when your lips are in close to prefect condition. It is convenient to trave with because it goes with pretty much anything but at the same time you should bring alternatives in case your lips are a little bit dry that day.

Catrice Liquid Camouflage High Coverage Concealer 010 Porcelain: Of course I also take concealer with me when I travel. My skin usually starts to act out when I travel so I use more concealer when I travel than when I am at home.

I am very well aware that I probably pack more make up than 'necessary'. I just like having options with me and this is honestly what I will be taking when I go home to visit my family in the next weeks. Other make up products I pack - that I did not take about in this post - are brushes. I take a lot of them but I leave my 'good' brushes at home. I also leave my more expensive make up products like the Urban Decay Naked 2 eye shadow palette or my highlighters at home because I am just too worried they will shatter during transportation. It has not happened to me yet - knock on wood - but since I own other products I can take I do not mind leaving them at home.

What is in your Travel Make-Up Bag?

Nail of the Day // Hot Chocolate Season

Last May I already posted about this Astor Quick & Shine Nail Polish in 502 Hot Chocolate Season. I loved wearing it solo for a night out all year round but now that autumn is here I have been wearing it lots in the day time as well. The color is just so wonderful - it is the perfect mix of gold and silver. Since I have been wearing it so much lately I wanted to give a little twist to it this time. That is why I put a glitter top coat on top. (I am wearing the glitter top coat in both pictures).

This flormar Super Shine Shine & Hot Prfect Nail Polish 39 is by far my most worn glitter top coat and I love how it brings out the silver tones in the Astor nail polish. It also gives just the right amount of texture to the nail. I always wear a base and a top coat so the actual surface of the nail is smooth and shiny but it still looks slightly textured.

I have pledged not to buy more than five new nail polishes this year and while I still have a two more left I can buy this cut down on new additions to my collection makes me try new combinations and revisit older colors I almost forgot about.

What are you wearing on your nails today?

Favorite Top 10 Autumn Nail Polishes // Septemder

After talking about my Top 10 Favorite Lip Products for Autumn on Friday I want to talk about nail polishes next. This top 10 was hard to narrow down because my collection consists mostly of deep dark colors that I love even more in the colder seasons. Again their is no significant order to this list and there are a lot of nail polishes included that are no longer available. This is not a shopping guide but hopefully makes you want to look through your own collection and rediscover old loves before going out and buying new ones you might not even need (as much as you can need nail polish^^).

OPI Nail Lacquer What Wizzardry is This?: OPI nail polishes can be very expensive, so when they do their mini collections I would highly recommend you check those out. This is a limited edition color that is no longer available but there are similar shades out there. The special thing about this one in specific is the texture of the polish when it drys which is rather unique.

Catrice Ultimate Nail Lacquer 60 Out of the Dark: This is a rather special color especially considering it is a regularly available nail polish from Catrice's regular line of nail polishes. It is a cool toned, purple-brown nail polish with fine shimmer that paints on wonderfully.

Maybelline Super Stay Forever Strong Gel Nail Color Rouge Couture 287 Midnight Red: This is by far my most used nail polish of all time. I love the whole Super Stay Forever Strong Gel Nail Color range and I have yet to try one that I did not like. It is a long lasting, easy to apply polish in a beautiful deep, dark red that is perfect for any season.

Rival de Loop High Gloss Nail Colour 52: One of my first posts ever on this blog was about this nail polish. The quality is of course awful but it does make me a little bit nostalgic. This is a really simple rose color that you can find in almost every brand's regular nail polish range but I love classics like this. Light pinks make me think of spring and summer but this slightly darker version makes it more appropriate for the autumn and winter time.

essence Nail Polish Limited Edition Cherry Blossom 02 My Little Kimono: I have not worn this nail polish in forever! - I even forgot I had this. Now I am even more excited to try it again.

Manhattan Bonnie Strange 006: This is a beautiful shimmery nail polish with a little twist to it. The base color is actually pruple not red but because the color is so dark you can hardly see it. The shimmer particals are gold and red which is very autumnal or festive.

alessandro Nail Polish Russian Roulette: I have had this nail polish in my collection for ages and I am not even sure alessandro is a brand that is still around? I do not think I have ever tried any other product by them. This is an interesting nail polish because the base color is cool toned, light brown while the shimmer itself is a rather warm toned gold shimmer.

Astor Perfect Stay Gel Shine Nail Polish 502/503 Crème Brulée: This must be one of my favorite new beauty discoveries of the year and I am pretty much sure it will be included in my favorite products of 2016 post at the end of the year.

Astor Quick & Shine Nail Polish 502 Hot Chocolate Season: Next time you are in the drugstore take a look at this nail polish. It is a gorgeous color and a really special finish - it almost looks like liquid metal. The quality of Astor nail polishes is wonderful and I have yet to try one that I do not like. They also have an amazing color selection and there are more than a few that I have my eye on right now.

Catrice Ultimate Nail Lacquer Limited Edition Match Point C03 Rockby: I do not like this packaging but the nail polish color is really pretty. Autumn is the perfect time of the year to bring back the berry tones into your beauty routine and this is a wonderful everyday berry shade.

What is are your favorite autumn nail polishes?