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?

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 // Mirror

 

KIKO Mirror Nail Lacquer 629

Rosegold has been a trend for a while now and I still love to wear it. My boyfriend usually does not care what color nail polish I wear but even he really liked this one (which is a first!). I applied two coats but if you want you could probably get away with applying only one. The downside to this polish is that every brushstroke and every little bump on your nails is very visible. Applying a second layer and a top coat on top helps with that but you can still see the irregularities. If you do not want to apply a top coat the finish of the polish is already shiny. Usually I do not wear simply metallic nail polish with no shimmer or glitter but this color itself is so pretty I love it on my nails. I did a post in September about my TOP 10 Autumn Nail Polishes and I should have included this one - I must have forgotten this nail polish in my collection.

What are you wearing on your nails today?

Favorites // September 2016

September has been a great month for beauty products. I have tried a lot of new things and rediscovered old favorites. In fact there have been a lot more products I liked to use this month but because there were so many I only included the once I used the most and have formed a well thought-out opinion on already.

Nivea Anti-Age Handcreme: I am not good with hand creme. I forget to use it most of the time and so it takes a long time for me to use one up. That also means I hardly ever try new ones. I want my hand creme sink in quickly and moisturize well. I do not really believe in the anti-age effect this product claims to have but I do like the added UV-protection. This hand creme works well for me and the price is fine as well.

KIKO Mirror Nail Lacquer 629: I wrote a post in September about my Top 10 Autumn Nail Polishes where I talked about the nail polishes I was looking forward to wear again now that autumn was about to arrive. My nails were painted in those colors the majority of the past month but one nail polish I also wore that was not included in that post was this one by KIKO. I could have included either one of the nail polishes I wore but because this is the only one I did not talk about in the post I wanted to included here in my September favorites. There will be a Nail of the Day post coming up soon where you can see what it looks like exactly on the nails and I will talk about it some more there.

Fleur De Force Eyeshadow Quad 020 Lunar Rose: I have worn these eye shadows at least every other day that I wore make up. I love this. My favorite colors are all of the shimmering ones. They are very pigmented, easy to blend and there is no fallout. The quality is amazing and so is the color selection. The colors also remind me of Fleur herself and I think they were a perfect choice for her collection. The only problem is - now I want the other one!

alverde Body Butter Macadamia: The fact that this made it into my monthly favorites even though I do not like the scent should mean something to you. It sinks in quicker than anything else I have ever used to moisturize and it works like a dream. The scent is not too strong so I can ignore that. I have dry skin and moisturize every day. This might be one of the products that makes it into my favorites of 2016...

What were you favorite products of last September? 

Nail of the Day // Sparkle

Catrice Ultimate Nail Lacquer 300 Be My Millionaire

KIKO Fancy Top Coat nail lacquer 657

Both of these nail polishes are really special. The base polish is a perfect balance between gold and silver which is rather hard to find. The KIKO top coat is one of my favorite glitter polishes of all time. It is actually so sparkly it almost makes your nails glow. I just love the effect.

What are you wearing on your nails today?

Nail of the Day - blue ombré nail art

Esprit, nail polish 815 The big blue

Revlon colorstay, nail polish 170 coastal surf

Manhattan, lotus effect nail polish 78D

essence Trend Edition Snow White nail polish 06 Sleepy

Maybelline Super Stay Forever Strong Gel Nail Color 615 Mint for Life

Basecoat: p2, Intensive Nail! Hardener

Topcoat: KIKO Fancy Topcoat nail lacquer 657

This is the closest thing to nail art I can do. I applied three coats of each base color and topped it of with one coat of silver glitter. To me glitter nail polish is usually something I would wear in the colder moths but in combination with different shades of blue it reminds me of water in a swimming pool.

What are you wearing on your nails this week?

Beauty & Random Favorites February 2015

 tetesept bubble bath

If you ever wanted to take a real bubble bath you need to try this! It looks just like in the movies. You only need one cap full of product for one bath. The only thing it is missing would be a scent. It is labeled as scented but once you put it in your bath tub it is basically lost. I still love this and cannot wait to get my hands on some of the many other bath products by tetesept!

Maybelline FIT me! Concealer 15

I have talked about this product a lot before, so why include it here again? - Well, because I got a back-up and when I compared my new and my old one I was quite surprised to find to completely different colors! They both were in the shade 15 which is the lightest one you can get in Germany but my old one had gotten a lot darker over time. I have not used it up quite yet but right now I think I won't do that. When a concealer goes that dark it is time to say goodbye, isn't it?

KIKO Skinny Fit Kajal 05

I do not think I have worn liquid liner even once this month. Right now I am really into kajal, especially this one. It has the perfect color and texture: link to swatches here. I do not own a lot of KIKO products but I the ones I do have are great. I do not have a KIKO store near where I live (at least I do not think so) but when I see one I will definitely check it out.

p2 Color Victim nail polish 130 passion

This is a very old nail polish of mine.  Maybe even one of the first I ever got. I have not worn it in forever but now that I reapplied it I am falling in love with classic colors like this all over again. I planned not to buy any more nail polishes in the next few months but maybe I could just buy one more classic red one...?

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Reviews for all three books Cinder, Scarlet and Cress will be up soon - I already wrote them. The Lunar Chronicles are the best book series I have read in a long time. They might even be my favorite ever but I do not want to label them that yet since I have only read the first three books in the series. Endings can really ruin a series but with this one I liked them so far and I like the direction the story is taking. Both thumbs up for Marissa Meyer.

The Walking Dead

I got really into this show lately. I like that with this show I am not on anybodies side. Of course I am on 'the main characters' side' but there is not one particular character I support. There are good and bad sides to everyone and so this is not a good vs evil kind of show which I think is great. Go watch it!

What are your favorites this month? Please do not leave spoilers in the comments!

Nail of the Day - October 2014

 

Manhattan & Buffalo: Nail Polish 96E

Tip: Kiko Fancy Top Coat nail laquer

Basecoat: p2, Intensive Nail! Hardener

Topcoat: essence, studio nails, better than gel nails, top sealer

I love a good french manicure - but it is so hard to do it yourself! So how do you do it? You use glitter for the tips of your nails! The great thing about doing this with a glitter nail polish is that there is no harsh line to it that you could mess up. Here I applied two coats of the base color and two coats of the glitter polish.  I really like the way it turned out and I will probably wear this on my nails again :P

What are you wearing on your nails this week?

Thanks for reading,

   Myra

Nail of the day - After Eight

Catrice Ultimate Nail Lacquer 600 After Eight

Top Coat: Kiko Fancy Top Coat nail laquer

Basecoat: p2, Intensive Nail! Hardener

I put on two coats of After Eight before putting on a single coat of the Fancy Top Coat by Kiko. The glitter top coat is overpowering the green base big time. I had not intended for it to be like that and now that I know how this polish applies I would prefer to pair it with other base colours. Nevertheless I like the effect it gives because you can still tell it is definitely silver glitter and it does not appear too be colourful. 

What are you wearing on your nails right now?

- Myra

Summer Beauty Haul

I went shopping way too much yet again! - But I did not actually buy a lot of beauty stuff this summer which I am almost proud of ;)

alverde body butter in Vanilla & Mandarin 
I am hoping it is the same product that I showed you here - please! Let's hope they only switched up the packaging!

The Body Shop Tea Tree Squeaky-Clean Scrub
I am in love <3 I have had this product for a while now and I think I will do a Skin Care Routine soon. I loved the The Body Shop Body Scrub and wanted the same amazing experience for my face. I read reviews online suggesting this product for dry but blemished skin - which is exactly what I have - and when I saw it was only 8 Euros (you can buy a lot more expensive The Body Shop products) I had to try it.

Weleda Skin Food
This is a repurchase - my skin would be a mess without this product. SInce I am about to run out of this I had to make sure I had a backup.

Pantene Pro-V Conditioner for dry hair
Again this is a repurchase. I had a giant bottle of this before (that literally lasted for over a year) and I am still loving it. Somehow my hair just does not like to be straight and this product is the only way I know that gets it to be straight (well almost). I love this stuff.

L'oréal Paris Nude Magique Eau De Teint 120 Ivoire / Pure Ivory
This foundation sounded so amazing and when I swatched it it seemed to be a perfect match - but it is not. It is the lightest shade they sell but it is still too dark for me. :(

Manhattan Glowing Goddess Shimmer Powder Pink Paradise
This is the newest addition to my make up collection. I have been eyeing this product for the last few weeks and had to remind myself constantly that I had set a goal of not buying any more blushes because I already own a ridiculous amount. Then they started selling out everywhere and after wanting it for this long I finally caved in and got it! I have not used it yet but I will just after finishing this blogpost when I get ready for the rest of the day ;)

alverde baked Duo-Bronzer 10 Light Bronze
It already broke! I just tilted it to the side a little - and the whole product fell out! I had to collect the broken pieces from the ground before ven using it once :( Other than that I really like it (besides the smell - why do alverde products have to smell like that?!).

KIKO Fancy Top Coat nail lacquer 657
KIKO nail lacquer386
I don't have a KIKO near where I live so when I visited my parents in July I had to stop by their store! I have been looking for a crazy shimmer & glitter top coat from the drugstore for a while now but never found one I really liked. KIKO is not a drugstore brand - but the prices are drugstore level. I was also looking for the perfect light, creamy blue for my nails and thought I had finally found it - just to come home to find that I own the exact same color from Revlon. Well, fail.

KIKO Skinny Fit Kajal 05
Is that not the prettiest packaging you have ever seen? I do not want to throw it away :( I have only used the pencil once and I like it so far. I just wish it had the the same print as the packaging...

Catrice Limited Edition Le Grand Bleu - Matt Lip Cream C01 Never Leave Coral Reef
This was kind of a stupid purchase. Don't get me wrong - I like the product - I simply own way to many red lip products. Well, good thing it was on sale :P

from left to right:
Catrice Limited Edition Le Grand Bleu - Matt Lip Cream C01 Never Leave Coral Reef
KIKO Skinny Fit Kajal 05

That is all I got! - Puh, that was a long post. I hope you enjoyed and you are having a fantastic summer! Tell me what products I should check out in the drugstore the next time I go shopping there :P

Bye,
   - Myra