Empties October 2014 - March 2015

So these are my empties over the last few months:

October '14 - March ' 15 trash

Purity basics moisturizer from hampton - an average hotel body lotion- came in handy on travels.
Lady speed stick in shower fresh - love the scent, but will not repurchase as it contains aluminum.
Lumene sensitive touch gentle toner - love it will repurchase if I like this better than the other Lumene toner I am using currently.
Garnier micellar water - love this makeup remover will repurchase.
Garnier miracle skin cream - like it a lot, the colour matches me perfectly and it is easy to use when you are in a hurry (I am always in a hurry). Would like to try the Garnier BB cream next time (when I finish some foundations).
Nuxe paris micellar foam cleanser - would repurchase if it was available in Iceland. But it ran out faster than my Body shop nutriganics foaming clenser. Am now working on a one from Lumene.
The body shop Aloe protective serum for sensitive skin. Love this - a light and a creamy formula. Do I like it more than my Sothys serum? No, but I like the price better of the body shop one. Might repurchase.
Avon Moroccan argan oil shampoo - average shampoo. Will not repurchase.
Estée Lauder Emerald dream eau de parfum - my favorite summer scent, would repurchase if it was still on the market - do you know of a dupe?
The body shop Moringa body scrub - a decent one. Will probably not buy this scent again.
Physicians formula Organic wear in black. It became dry too fast - but maybe it was an old tube? But when it was good it was GREAT.
Lumene sensitive touch mascara. Ordered this one when I was having eye alergy problems. It was gentle on my eyes - a natural basic mascara.
Clinique chubby stick in 02 whole lotta honey- like the colour but hate how much product is left inside the bottom of the bullet - scooped it out - it will last for months.
YSL mascara in shocking, black - a deluxe sample. Love this mascara, too bad I had to throw it out before it went bad on me, as I got an eye-infection while using it. And didn't want to risk getting it again if the germs got into the tube. Would love to buy this, but not sure if I can justify buying such an expensive mascara. Maybe when I finish all the other mascaras I have, and have managed to finish some other products.
Clinique solour surge gloss in 21 azalea - too sticky - hated it. Will not buy EVER.

So some hits and misses,
will gladly throw all of this away

untill next time,
Ella

Empties March - April 2014

So these were the empties these two months:

Trash-goers

Versace Bright crystal eau de toilette - a light and feminine scent

Tommy Hilfiger True star Gold - a little bit spicy scent

Avon advance techniques moroccan argan oil - this thing worked wonders on my dry ends, and it's not that expensive either - a win win. Recommend 100% for dry ends, it will change your hair.

Lumene arctic aqua 24h balancing moisturizer -

Crabtree & Evelyn La Source relaxing body lotion - a light and quick absorbing body lotion, but I just hate the smell of it - never going to buy again.

Zara lip gloss - a pink lipgloss that goes on a bit clear, an average lip gloss, a bit on the sticky side, so take care and not put too mutch on - Buy again? No.

Olivelia by macrovita lip balm in vanilla -  a super soft and moisturizing lip gloss - would definetly buy again if I can get my hands on it (probably somewhere in Greece)

dr.organic organic pomengranate lip balm - this is a bit on the waxy side, but I love the fact it's organic and lasts a long time on the lips, I always put this on my lips before I go to bed. Buy again? Yes when I have made a dent on my stock of lip products.

Bodyfarm avocado nourishing night cream for all skin types (sample) - a bit thick cream, propably great for dry skin - as I have combination skin I would only use this once a week - as it's too rich for my skin.

And then this sucker:

Almay oil free gente eye makeup remover - worst makeup remover I have ever used - see video here

See you soon with more empties,
Ella

Empties January - February 2014

This time around I managed to finish four items:

Sothys Hydra-nourishing mask:
I just love this mask, it's thin enough to be able to put it on at night and sleep with it, not having to wash it of, and my skin is extra soft and moist the morning after. Will buy again, as soon as Sothys becomes a paraben free brand.

TRESemmé vitamin C&E natural for all ahir types conditioner:
A terrible conditioner for my hair, it's way too light for my dry ends - never going to pruchase this again.

Lumene bluberry curl mascara:
My abosolute favorite mascara - see review here and here. Will 100% buy again, when I finish my other mascaras.

L'oréal Elvital nutri-gloss shine shampoo:
Average shampoo, not good and not bad. Might buy again, when I'm on a budget.

Thank you for reading,
Ella

Lumene blueberry curl mascara - review

This is absoloutly my favorite mascara!

It has a plastic brush that has short bristles on 2 sides, and longer on the 2 other sides - so it makes mascara application on the bottom lashes super easy!
It is made with 100% organic blueberry, it's not blue though.. it claims to keep lashes perfectly curled and to be clump-free volume. I'm not sure if it makes the lashes extra curly, or if it keeps the curl better if you curl your lashes with an eye-lash curler. I don't have super straight lashes.. so I'm not a good judge of that.. but it is clump free :) And I just love the wand so so mutch!

Some pictures (clean wand):

Video review here

What is your favorite mascara?

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

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

UNA skincare

I got my hands on two samples form UNA skincare, which you can read all about here.

Cute sample jars

So I got a day and night cream samples. I sweat they both looked white when I got them, but by now the night cream has turned light pink. That might have something to do with the packaging, as the packaging for the full size is very different from anything I have ever seen before, it's kind of a pump, but the product comes out in the middle of the top... probably something to maintain the freshness of the cream.

The cream is very thick, but when you put it on your skin, it kind of gets oily and really melts into your skin. There is only one type of day cream, and one of night cream, so you can not get a spesific product for oily skin or dry skin. My skin is oily combination skin, and to be frank this cream is way too rich for me, especially on the t-zone, but as winter is around the corner I'm sure this will be good for my cheeks, but I will not be putting this onto my t-zone. I'm sure though that these creams will work perfectly for dry skin.

Thank you for reading,
Ella

Yet another nude eye-shadow palette

I'm such a sucker for palettes, even though I never buy them, but I'm always very tempted to cave in and buy a the hottest new palette at the time. This palette is yet another one I'm seriously tempted to buy, beautiful neutral browns by Bobby Brown, a brand that I have yet to try out.

Bobbi Brown eye palette in Rich choccolate

You can see swatches here, complimentary of reallyree.com

For a few minutes I really thought about getting this palette, it would be so versatile and good for everyday use. All beautiful brown and neutral shades, then when I really thought about it - I really have all these shades in one form or another from different brands.

So here is what I have:

My neutral collection

Swatched:

 Swatched in sunlight

1. Make up store - microshadow ghetto -  beautiful brown in the crease, outer v or lightly all over lid

2. Clinique stay matte sheer pressed powder for combination oily skin, this is a bit too dark for me - but now works as eyeshadow on me - come to think of it, was this the one that broke me out? I'd better throw this one out.

3. Kiko - 122 - a beutiful light taupe that works great all over the lid

4 - 6. Maybelline - Eyestudio natural impact - 05 glamour browns - a beautiful trio with light shimmer (used to be 4 shadows - but it shattered on me and this is left - the darkest brown is missing)

7. The body shop - 13 - a lightly yellow white - a good highligher on the brow or on inner corner

8. The body shop - 39 - not a very pigmented black - appears grey

9-10. Christian dior - juste duo symbole 741 - lightly shimmering highlighter and a beautiful brown

So as you can see I really don't need this palette, and I really do hate to have too much stuff, and as eye shadows go, it almost pisses me off to have more than one shadow in the same colour, or in a very close colour to each other - so you can hardly see the difference between the two.

Thank you for reading,

Ella

Empties July - September 2013

The empties of these months were:

The empties these months

John Frieda - Full repair, full body shampoo

A great shampoo for damaged hair, I still haven't tried this in a combination with the conditioner from the same range, I'm sure then I will be in love! Smells great as well as all the John Frieda products.

Lagerfeld - Sun Moon Stars eau de toilette

A very lady like, a bit mature scent. I have no idea why I bought this almost 10 years ago around 20 years old. And it ended up in my parents bathroom closet for years, I redescovered it about 2 years ago, the bottle was almost full, still in the box, and incredibly it hadn't gone bad in those 10 years in a warm bathroom closet. It's a bit heavy, and I definetly would not repurchase this (if it was awailable still). But it was the perfect scent for work as I work 12 hour shifts, it stays on for a long time, even though I was not able to smell it about 15 minutes after I applied it (as perfumes are supposed to work if the scent suits you). I just hate scents that you can smell all day on yourself, almost giving you a headacke. This is not one of them, big plus for that.

Yes to cucumbers - cool conditioning hand cream

A very light, and fast absorbing hand cream, which does not leave you oily on your hands. Still very moisturizing - this I would repurchase (if it was still awailable in Iceland). So now I'm on a hunt for a good hand cream, can you recommend one?

Thank you for reading,
Ella

August beauty budget

So this is what I picked up on a sale in The Body Shop in August;

The Body Shop - 17 eye definer shade: golden brown

Swatch - golden brown colour

Pros: beautiful medium golden brown colour, a bit buildable and very creamy. And it's paraben-free ;)

Cons: the product is a bit thick in the pencil, so you probably have to sharpen it more often than a regular pencil, and maybe waste more product than you would have to.

Thank you for reading,
Ella

July rediscoveries / July favorites

So last month rediscoveries or July favorites would be these 2 very summery products;

OPI nailpolish - My chihuahua bites!

Joli rouge lipstick from Clarins in 711 papaya

711 papaya swatched - it has no shimmer

Both of these I bought last summer, when the coral colour was so very mutch the colour of summer 2012. Happily for me it's still in fashion, and have been my go to items last month... just love the nail-polish as it's somewhere between pink, orange and coral. A very pretty and summery colour. The lipstick is an absoloute favorite, and was a bit neglected in June (mostly due to rainy weather in Iceland), but it looks lovely on the lips, not too much, but still a bit of a pop of colour. Plus it's very soft and moisturizing on the lips

Thank you for reading,

Ella

Empties May - July 2013

This time I'm posting pictures of products I found online, as these products I used up on holiday and threw the cointainers before taking a photo of them myself. But this section, or series,
"the empties", are really motivating me to use up products that are in my stash and review them afterwards :) Not that I'm using more of them or anything like that, but if I have a bottle that is almost empty, I'm rather going to use that one instead of reaching for the 1/3 finished one! And then I have one item less hanging around in my bathroom and taking up space. And I hate to have too mutch clutter around me - really less is more in that department, where I'm concearned.

The empties these months were;

The body shop olive oil body butter, Herbal essence hydralicious shampoo and conditioner, 

Neutral body lotion and herbal essence hello hydration shampoo

Body shop olive oil body butter: this is definetly good for dry skin, for me it was a bit too rich and thick, but came in very handy when I got sun-burned in Kos. Then it was an absolute favorite.

Herbal essence hydralicious shampoo and conditioner: this is labeled for dry and damaged hair, and no joke it works wonders! I bought it when my hair was at it's worst, very damaged and dry after bleaching, and this really saved my hair, I was at the point to cut a lot of it off as it was so dry.. but this turned it around. BIG LOVE for this one - best shampoo and conditioner for dry and damaged hair (and I really tried a lot of products after this bleaching episode). Plus it smells really good.

Neutral body lotion: this lotion is paraben and fragrance free, and after I got obsessed with parabens I wanted to try a paraben free lotion. This cream on the other hand is a bit thin, and makes you feel like it does nothing for the skin. The cream itself is a white milky colour, and almost see through when it's rubbed out thinly.. still on the hunt for a good paraben free lotion - this was ok, but I'm not craving for another bottle of this one.

Herbal essence hello hydration shampoo: after trying the hydralicious shampoo, I was hoping this would be similar to that one. It really isn't, the hydralicious is about 10 times better than hello hydration... at least for my hair. Not to be repurchased.

Thank you for reading,
Ella

Craving cuts

Last year I made a pact with myself not to buy any clothes in the year 2012, with a few expemtions though! I think I have never spent more time any year thinking about clothes and trying to bend the "rules" and wanting to buy items of clothing. This year it's makeup..

Ever since I relly became interested in makeup and started watching videos on youtube and reading beauty-blogs (probably about 3 years now) I have come across bloggers talking about an eyeshadow from Mac; Satin taupe.

Mac satin taupe - picture borrowed from Allure.com

After endless swatching images checks online, youtube ranting and dupe looking, going to Mac counters and searching for dupes from cheaper brands..  and they are endless - awailable in Iceland: burnt bark from Max Factor, silken taupe from Maybelline and velvet from Makeup store.

I decided to go tresaure digging in my collection, and see if I couldn't come up with something similar.. and guess what, I did: Bourjois loose eyeshadow powder in: 01 regard praline rose, which I bought quite a few years back.

Bourjois - 01 praline rose and L.A. colors in PE226 onyx

Swatches:

L.A. Colors in PE226 onyx and Bourjois - 01 praline rose in sunlight

L.A. Colors in PE226 onyx and Bourjois - 01 praline rose with flash

The pictures are a bit strange, the Bourjois color looks a bit too brown/taupe in the sunlight swatch, and very purple on the flash picture. 

And my eye-look with these two colors (Bourjois - 01 praline rose all over the lid and a bit over the crease, and L.A. colors PE226 onyx in the outer v):

This loose eyepowder from Bourjois is actually quite similar to satin taupe by Mac, still the Mac color is more difficult to define, the colour, is it golden, taupe with pink/purple undertones. The 01 praline rose from Bourjois is a more clear pinky/purple colour and less taupe.

Verdict:

Pros: it is close to Mac satin taupe, its smooth, blendable and very buildable, as you can use a little bit or a lot to intensify the colour, it comes with it's own brush and the packaging looks nice and sturdy.

Cons: a bit on the sparkly side for me, lot of fallout, and your undereye can look very sparkly if you are not super careful when applying. And it probably contains parabens :(

Do you have any dupes for Mac's satin taupe?

Thank you for reading,
Ella

July beauty budget

As I originally thought of this blog as a way to share my rediscoveries beauty-wise out of things I already own, it has turned out quite the opposite. My most recent posts have been about new purchases, this is the last one of those for now... and to justify this purchase - well it is used to use products I already have. Would I not have been able to live without it? Well that is debatable..

So what I bought;

Gosh xl flat eyeshadow brush 332 - about 2.500 ISK

The shaft is a little shorter than my other brushes, but still long enough and you get used to it's lenght. And wow it's so soft, so mutch softer than my elf and bodyshop eyeshadow brushes... got to love it for that!! Plus it's big so you can get the entire eye-lid in one sweep! So far I use it for hightlighting underneath the brow and for light colours all over the eyelid, and I love it!

Thank you for reading,
Ella

Greek haul

I went to Kos, Greece for my summer vacation in the end of May, and wow are there a lot of cosmetics brands from Greece. I had only heard about Korres before, but weird enough I only found that brand at the airport! In the small town there were a couple of stores that sold beuty products, and a whole lot in the city of Kos. So of course I managed to pick up a few items

The Greek haul

So what I got;

Korres - Yoghurt moisturising mask for normal to combination skin 16 ml (3.90 at the airport)

There were so many products from Korres at the airport, and I really wanted to buy more, but then again I have already too many bottles of cream, and I really get paranoid that somthing is going to go bad on me.. so I decided to limit myself only to this small tube of a mask - that I will 100% use up before anything else expires on me.

Olivelia by Macrovita - Body butter natural, olive oil and white tea (11.50 euros)

As I finished my body butter in Greece, it was just perfect to replace it. There were a couple of scents awailable, but this one is just to die for... definetly not too strong, but still the smell does linger for a while (a few hours that is) on your skin, so if that is something you do not like, I would not recommend this one.

Body Farm - Pomengranate 24 hour moisturizing cream (14.50 euros at the supermarket)

Again there were a few creams to choose from, and this was the one that appealed the most to me. I still haven't started to use this one, as I have a couple of tubes of facial cream still going around. So a rewiew to come.

Olivelia by Macrovita - Lip balm vanilla, oveiv oil and propolis with spf 10

This smells just like a vanilla ice cream, and relly moisturizes your lips, and is free of petroleum!

And did we get a great service in one of these little stores that sold beauty products, soaps, spices and greek liquers. The lady was so nice... and I ended up buying the lip balm from her, and a foot cream that I have already given as a gift. She told us about all this different Greek companies, and how some of them were more organic than the other ones..  you just about wanted to buy half of the store, and wow if you are going on a holiday to Greece, take a look at one of those stores - you will love it for sure.

Untill next time,
Ella

June beauty budget

Last months beauty purchase (June) was an eye shadow from MAC in the colour Blackberry.
First I had my eyes on the color Trax, which is a burgundy-plum color with shimmer. In the store I decided though to buy Blackberry, as I found Trax to have too mutch shimmer, and Blackberry would be a more versitle colour. As it turnes out Blackberry is described on MAC's website as a matte muted burgundy-plum brown colour.

When I came home I figured though, that I actually own a colour very close to Blackberry, a colour from a brand called Trucco in the colour Eden, see the resemblence (picture with flash);

On the left is MAC Blackberry and on the right is Trucco Eden.

And swatched in daylight;

MAC Blackberry on the left and Trucco Eden on the left.

As you can see on the swatch the Trucco Eden colour has more hint of brown, it's really strange really that it looks so purple-pink in the pan and then more like a  taupe-brown when I put it on my eyes. But still that's a good thing, as then the colours are not 100% the same. And I who thought I would have to give someone one of the shadows as they were so similar..

As of today Eden by Trucco is my favorite eyeshadow and I use it almost every day.. hehe hard to imagine I had to buy another similar colour to start using what I already have in my stash!

Question of the hour; how long time will it take me to use up 2 g of an eyeshadow when I use it on average 5 days a week?

Thank you for reading,
Ella