Eyshadow comparison: Lumene vs. Bobbi Brown

I thought it might be useful to compare some of my eyeshadows to each other. This time around I'm going to compare two shadows I thought would turn out quite similar, but are quite different after all.

Blueberry crystal eyeshadow from lumene in 20 Frosted forrest

vs.

Bobbi Brown Metallic eye shadow in 23 Java (photo with flash)

Swatched in natural light - Bobbi Brown 23 java and Lumene 20 frosted forrest

Swatched with flash - Bobbi Brown 23 java and Lumene 20 frosted forrest

I had a bit of a problem with the lighting, due to extreme clouds in Reykjavik these days, and short time of daylight in general.

Both of them are very soft and very blendable shadows with minimum fallout, but they turned out quite different, the Lumene shadow is a pinky-purple shade - with a frosted look, and the Bobby Brown is a light brown with a hint of purple tone in it - more of a satin look. But when I use a brush both of them mute a bit out..
My first try at the Bobbi Brown was a big disappointment, as I had such great expectations for the brand, and I thought the shadow was kind of a blahh.. not so special, but after playing around with it more, and using a primer, it's a totally different story. A beautiful everyday shade I can use all over my lid and I'm ready to go.
The Lumne shade is also good for daytime, if applied lightly with a brush, a beautiful pink-purple shade which also can be used all over the lid and you are ready to go.

What is your favorite Bobbi Brown shade?

Thank you for reading,
Ella

Empties September - December 2013

I haven't finished a lot of products in these last few months, but wanted to post all the items I finished in this year. There are actually only two products:

Athena beauty exfoliating facial scrub and

Lumene waterproof eye makeup remover

The scrub is nothing special, just an below average facial scrub, not bad but not outstandingly good either.

The makeup remover from Lumene was a big disapointment, I just love the brand, but this perticular item is not so good. My makeup is not particularly waterproof, but my non-waterproof mascara was a pain to get off my lashes. Still prefer my old one wich was from Lancomè.

Thank you for reading and see you in the new year,
Ella

The 13th item

As I stated in the rules of the 12 beauty budget items of 2013 - I would reward myself with the 13th product if I would be able to stick to the 12 beauty purchases of 2013 in Iceland. I managed to stick to the rules (even though I bought a lot in the states - but I put a disclaimer in the rules that abroad purchaes would not count).

So the 13th product is actually a christmas-gift from a friend of mine: Bourjois smokey eyes trio in 09 lady vert de gris.

Bourjois Smokey eyes trio - 09 lady vert de gris

Swatched in natural light

As you can see from the swatch there is really little colour payoff - except from the highlight colour, which is very glittery, and has a lot of  fallout.  The medium colour is very powdery and has somewhat of a fallout. This is a bit of a disappointment, and I hate that it's not a better quality, especially as it was gifted to me from a friend. When I applied the colours to my eyelids, there was hardly any visable colour payoff, and I had to dig into the shadows with my brush, and tried time and time again to build the colour up, which didn't seem to happen. I put the darkest colour in the crease, yes that one was visable, but very difficult to blend...

I definetly do not have the most quality products, and high-end makeup so I wouldn't say I'm used to very good quality stuff, but sadly I have to say this is one of the worst eyeshadows I have ever tried :( I don't know if this is because my skintone or the elf primer I primed my lids with, or if this is just a flawed trio, but I will continue to play around with it, and I will see if I can make it work and I'll keep you posted.

Thank you for stopping by,
and merry christmas,

Ella

December beauty budget

The December beauty budget is a Maybelline nail-polish from the color show line in the colour 159 Mauve Kiss:

Maybelline Color Show by Colorrama in 159 Mauve kiss

It's a beautiful light mauve colour, can even be considered a light brown - and reminds me of the mushroom colour that everyone and their sister were wearing a few years ago (apart from me). The colour is light enough for me to wear at work (where we can wear light and not loud colours). The best thing was though, I got it from heimkaup.is which is one of the biggest online stores in Iceland, and they carry everything. As it's a fairly new web-site and I had bought something from their sister-website in the past they gave me a 500 ISK credit with them, and the nail-polish being on a 20% discount, I ended up paying 92 ISK (less than 1 USD) for the bottle and they gave me a free home delivery. Plus the bottle is not too big - so the chance of the polish drying out or me getting tired of the colour is fairly slim ;)

I love the colour (not a very christmasy though), this is one coat on the photo, and that is enough most of the time! Longevity? I experienced some chipping on day 3, with base coat, only one coat and no top coat, so I'm sure you can get longer ware with 2 coats, or a top coat.

Thank you for reading,
Ella

Seattle Haul

So I went on a long weekend trip to Seattle, USA in November and this is what I managed to pick up in Target, Sephora, Ulta, MAC and online at Amazon:

The haul

The shopping list:

Target:
Revlon just bitten kissabe balm stain in romantic
Elf blush in mellow mauve
Almay eyeliner in 207 brown
Rimmel scandal eyes in 005 nude
Maybelline instant age rewind concealer
Maybelline falsies flare mascara in black
Physicians formula organic wear mascara in black
Nicole by opi in kissed at midnight - from the Selena Gomez line (missing in photo see here)

Sephora;
Tarte blush in exposed
Formula X for Sephora nailpolish in light my fire (missing in photo see here)
Kat von D eyeshdow trio in dreamer
Korres lip butter in pomegranate (missing in photo see here)

Ulta:
Revlon just bitten kissabe balm stain in honey
Revlon just bitten kissabe balm stain in adore
 
Mac;
Mac amplified lipstick in dark side
Mac lip pencil in vino

Amazon online:
Real techniques powder brush
Real techniques expert face brush
Real techniques travel set with essential foundation brush, domed shadow brush and multi task brush
Almay intense i-color satin-i kit for blue eyes
Nicole by opi moisture plus (missing in photo see here)

I also ordered one parfum from Amazon: So Cal by Hollister - which is a discontinued scent - so I couldn't resist.

Regrets:

I wish I had picked up a neautral every day lipstick colour from Mac, and would like to swap one of the Revlon red just bitten kissable balm stains for a more neutral one. Wish I would have had more time in Ulta, even though my purse would probably not like it - I'm now craving an essence eyeliner in 08 Teddy (which is supposed to be a dupe for Mac Teddy) and it's only 0.99 USD. Then I'm almost regretting not to have bought the Naked 1 palette from Urban Decay - nr. 3 was not out yet when I was there... then again I try to convince myself Naked 1 contains parabens, and I have a lot of the colours in my collection already (even though they are not from Urban Decay).

Otherwise there is nothing standing in the way of me looking gorgeous in the near future..

Thank you for reading,
Ella

November beauty budget

This is bit delayed post, but I didn't actually pick this up in November.. but it will be registered as November beauty budget. Also it's my first ever Bobbi Brown product, but I got sucked into buyin it on sale earlier this fall.

Bobbi Brown metalic eye shadow in Java 23

Java 23 swatched

And what do I think of it, sad to say I'm a bit under-impressed... it's a bit duller and colour-less on my eyes than I thought it would be. Have to try it a bit better with a primer.


Another post to come soon, as I did some serious shopping in the states in November,
Ella

Sample slaying

I've been on a bit of a rampage, going through my closets, and finding a lot of sample sizes of the various products. Went on a bit of a mission to finish those samples up, and here is the result:

So what I slayed:

YSL Manifesto eau de parfum - a very sophisticated scent, in some way it reminds me of She by Armani

Lumene Arctic touch purifying peat-facial mask - I really liked this, it cleaned my skin without stripping it completely dry

Anna Sui, Sui dreams - a smell that i find a bit young, probably nice for those who are just starting to wear scents.

Elizabeth Arden, After five - this tester had deffinetly gone bad, but I remember that it smelled nice when I got it..

The body shop, White musk eau de toilette - this just reminds me of high-school, as everyone was wearing a white musk scented oil by The body shop, and I did to, I'm just over this scent and not even sure I can finish it.

Nivea, Cellular anti-age Day cream + Skin-refining serum -  these are really good, usually I don't have big expectations for Nivea products, as the seem so mainstreem to me. But these are excelent, the scent reminds me of the blue original Nivea cream in the metal jar. This I would deffinetly purchase, but I'm trying to post-pone using products titled anti-aging, as my skin is still fairly young-looking.. but a few years down the line deffinetly.

So now all this (except the white musk toilette from The body shop) is going to the bin and out of my bathroom. De-clutter is a good thing.

Thank you for reading,
Ella