January Beauty Favorites 2013

As you can see, there's not too many beauty products this month for multiple reasons. First up, I've been sick pretty much throughout the entire month and the least thing I can be bothered with when feeling awful is makeup. Also school started again for me which means I take very little risk and tend to rely on the beauty bits that I know work for me. I feel an everyday makeup post coming soon...

Anyway, here's what made the cut this month:

August Favorites

Hi lovelies!

First of all, let me excuse myself for my little absence from blogger, of course I haven't given up and everything, but school started again for me and so I wanted to get settled and adapt to my routine before starting to blog again. I'm a senior now and so school is really important to me, I hope you understand!

Anyway, on to the main topic of this (not so) little post, my favorites for the month of August...

essence Ready For Boarding lip & cheek creme

Hey everyone!

I hope you are all doing well. I am surely, I finished my junior year today and and am now officially on my six weeks of summer break! My certificate was a very good one, so I treated myself to some bits and pieces in my favorite stores after school (you can see a photo on my instagram).

I picked up this cream blusher from essence's Ready for Boarding LE, a limited edition full of travel- or respectively airplane-friendly products. This blush is actually my first splunge into the wide ozean of cream blushes and so far I would say I might really get into this texture!

The Daily Nail: Fuchsia Madness

essence Eclipse LE "Don't bite me - kiss me"

So I know that Tangerine Tango actually was chosen color of the year by the guys from Pantone, but let's be clear: for a pale and cool skin-toned lady orange is not really the preferred color when it comes to buying clothes, lipsticks or nail polishes. In my opinion, there are way better colors for ladies like me and fuschia is one of them.

Shown above is essence "Don't bite me, kiss me" from the Eclipse LE (Summer 2010). I've obviously had this varnish forever and when I was going through my collection, this caught my eye again. I'm not going to rave about this color too much because as much as I love it, it's not sold anymore. What I would like to point out though is that it does have a fine blue-ish purple shimmer to it which is quite unusual and makes the polish even more pretty.

So for those of you who are interested in a similar color, here you have some other polishes that I think are at least equally beautiful:

Photo is from here

Essie "Big Spender"

Photo is from here

OPI "Miami Beet"

Are you going to try this color on your nails?

Love,

Nathalie xx

February Favorites: Makeup, TV, Apps and more!

My first monthly favorites post ever! Hope you all have been doing well this past month, I know I'm a little late with this post, but better late than never, haha. I didn't have too many beauty favorites as I usually follow my routine using the same products, but I thought I'd mention a few of them and try to incorporate other favorites that are not so much related with makeup or beauty.

MAKEUP

Starting with makeup, I'd love to mention these three products that I have been using a lot lately:

Rimmel Powder Blush Pink Sugar
I like to switch up my blushes so that I will make use of each of them and I recently digged this out of my container again and loved it! Gives me a nice flush with a bit of shimmer to it.

Rimmel Match Perfection Concealer Classic Beige
Brilliant for undereye circles, especially for the heavy ones I suffer from due to a lack of sleep (yep, school is hard). It covers them and also brightenes my undereye area and overall makes me look like I just slept for 12 hours!

Maybelline Moisture Extreme Pinky Beige
I've been raving about this and wearing it a zillion times (see my blogpost here). The perfect nude that doesn't wash you out and adds a bit of color to your lips. Love!

NAIL POLISHES

Whooops...

I've bought a couple of these essnce nail poilshes in Feb because the colors really appealed to me and for €1.29 you can't say know I guess! I even got the two left ones on sale for €0.99! The lasting power of these is nothing to rave about, but with a decent top coat, they survive a good 3-4 days.
Colors from top to bottom: Dress for a moment, No more drama (both discontinued), Walk on air

CELL PHONE

I don't wanna portrait my actual phone, but here you have the packaging, I think that should be enough. I got this 2 or 3 days ago ("Why the hell is she featuring this in her february favorites then?!"), but I absolutely love this, so I just have to feature it :)

APP

The picture is from here

Of course: WHAT'S APP! How can you not love that feeling of being with your friends all the time and being able to chat about silly things?! Not to mention the smileys! I'm officially addicted.

SHOES

I don't feel like wearing Converse all the time, and when it's getting warmer, I like to switch to ballet flats as they're a little more romantic and so comfy and light! I got these lavender flats in a german department store on sale last year (10 bucks, ain't that a bargain?) and now that they're a little worn, I wanna wear them all the time.

CLOTHING

I got this scarf at H&M at the end of January and nearly wore this every single day in February. I love that it's feeling so silky and flowy and plus, it makes the simple t-shirt, jeans and flats outfit look more polished and girly.

TV SHOW

The picture is from here

That has to be "The City" for this month, I watched both seasons during my 1-week holiday in the middle of February and I'm kinda sad that there isn't a third season actually! The mix of love, intrigues and fashion is so addictive!

What are your favorites this month? Leave them in the comments if you want to!

Love,
Nathalie xx

The Daily Nail: essence "Walk On Air"

Shown: 1x base coat, 2x essence colour & go, 1x top coat

essence Colour & Go Walk On Air

I haven't done a Daily Nail post for ages, but as I'm in a hurry right now, this is going to be a very quick post. I found this nail polish on my last shopping trip: essence recently added some new colors to their collection and this royal, electric blue totally got me that I just had to buy it.
Colour & Go nail polishes go on quite sheer, so they absolutely require a second coat as well as a good top coat to protect them from chipping (which they LOVE doing!).

What are you wearing on your nails right now?

Love,
Nathalie x

Finished Product #2: essence hand cream

YAY! I finally managed it to use up a product which I absolutely love (and have been loving for years!):

essence 24h hand protection balm

This cream absorbs in seconds, smells incredibly nice and really smoothes my hands. I think it's the perfect cream to keep in your hand bag (I also got a mini travel size of this). And it's such a bargain, guys! 0.99€ is really not the world.
Around christmas time, these come out in various christmassy scents of which I also own 1 or 2.

Are you in 2012 Project Pan?

Love,
Nathalie

The Daily Nail: 2 Holiday Nail Ideas (+ Tutorials!)

1.) Golden-Red Half-Moon Nails

I love the combination of red and golden nail polish: so festive! Especially when worn as half-moon nails which are -really- super easy to do!

TUTORIAL:
• Apply a base coat on to your nails.
• Add one coat of an opaque golden nail polish (you may want to go over it in case it doesn't cover perfectly).
• Let COMPLETELY dry.
• Put one reinforcement ring on each of your nail, creating a half-moon shape.
• Use an opaque (bloody) red nail polish and paint the rest of your nails.
• Let dry properly.
• Carefully remove the reinforcement rings and apply a clear top coat.

2.) Easy Peasy Candy Cane Nails

These cute candy cane nails look very special, but are in fact easy to make (if you have a steady hand!).

TUTORIAL:
• Apply a base coat.
• Add one coat of an opaque, solid red nail polish on to your nails.
• Use a white striper or a french nails tip painter to create diagonal stripes on your nails. I painted 3 stripes on each of my fingers except for the thumbs: on those I added one more stripe. Do as many as you nail length lets you!
• Apply a glittery red nail polish on to your nails.

P.S.
- second look & tutorial borrowed from youtube.com/cutepolish, but tried and tested (and loved!) all by myself :)
- for the second look I used essence's nail polish duo in 'applause applause' from the Circus Circus LE


I hope that you liked this post!


HAPPY HOLIDAYS ♥

Love,
Nathalie x

Christmas Highlight: essence Highlighter Powder (Circus Circus LE)

So guys,

a beauty blogger can never say no to a highlighter, right?

So this is my newest shimmery addiction that makes my cheeks glow adorably.

I found thid at the drugstore yesterday and I bought without even thinking about it in less than a minute.

It's a compact, solid case that contains a buttery, deep golden highlighter. As you can see, a circus tent is impressed in the powder.

Bad quality...SORRY!

It's a pretty pigmented powder that's easily blendable. I works wonderfully for my cool-toned skin and it's just perfect to warm up the silvery holiday makeup I'm planning to do.

What's your favorite highlighter at the moment?

Love,

Nathalie x

New arrivals: L'Oréal, Maybelline, essence...

Last saturday was just perfect to hit the drugstore and pick up a few things, but I wasn't able to post this earlier, so here we go now:

MAKEUP

• Maybelline Color Sensational High Shine in 360 Plum Perfection

Had been staring at this color for weeks and finally manages to purchase it. I'm going through a dark-red lip phase right now, and this one absolutely satisfies my craving for a glamorous, plum color.

• L'Oréal Paris Super Liner [Lineur Intense] Carbon Gloss [Carbon Black]

As you can see, this liner is called differently in Germany, but it's just as awesome. As everyone loves his liner, I decided to give it a try and buy it. Well, what to say...I love it!

BEAUTY

• Balea Aqua Hydrating Sheet Mask

I love sheet masks because they're so easy to use. And in the fall, even my oily skin needs some moisture and these masks are just amazing.

• essence 24h hand protection balm (mini size)

My love for the 24h hand balm + my love for travel-size hand creams = happy me.

NAIL POLISH

• p2 Perfect Nail Hardener

My nails are kinda brittle right now and so I wanna strengthen them, but as I hate formaldehyde-containing nail hardener, I decided to pick up this one that is free of it. And I works well!

• Catrice In The Bronx

Last week's nail polish purchase. I don't want to write to much about it, if you wanna know more about this gorgeous color, check out my Daily Nail post here.

I hope you enjoyed this post!

x, Nathalie

NEW Arrivals: Beauty

JK Jemma Kidd i-design eye colour in 08 must have

Everyone says that Jemma Kidd makeup is amazing, so I went to Zalando and noticed: it was on SALE! I just couldn't help myself and picked out this pretty shimmery, midnight blue color. Review coming soon!

 essence 24h protection balm Winter Edition 'Vanilla Apple Pie'

I love the 24 protection balm (I generelly love hand cream so much) that I just had to buy this. This year's winter colletion is called 'Little bakery', besides this scent, the scents 'Raspberry Chocolate Cake' and 'Strawberry Cupcake' are available.

 L'Oréal Studio Secrets Smoothing Eye Primer

I'm always looking for new eye primers (Oily lids, I'm looking at you!) and decided to give this one a try and I absolutely love the SS face primer.

What did you buy these days?

xoxo, Nathalie