Nails: Mint and Turquoise

I like accent nails. I usually either choose the nails of my ring finger and thumb or index and small finger.

I love this color combination of mint and turquoise. This picture is actually from last year but I haven't blogged about it yet.

I used p2 #560 "who cares" and manhattan & buffalo LE #19 "pepper in my mint" nail polish.

I can't recommend the manhattan LE polish, although it's such a pretty color. It transferred to my nail and made it green even though I used a base. Big no go. Haven't worn it since...

 

Elephantastic pink

Hey everyone,

Long time no see... I'm really not good at keeping up with my blog. I don't know how others are able to work fulltime, workout, cook and blog on a normal day to day basis.

Anyway, here are some old pictures. It's been a year or so.

I'm not typically wearing pink all the time but sometimes it's just nice.

I'm wearing Catrice #210 Pinkadilly Circus lipstick and Elephantastic Pink by OPI, the latter is from Taiwan. See the Chinese below ;-)

The lipstick is a matte pink which is a little drying but very pretty if the lips are soft and even.

Now that I started working in an office, I don't wear anything bright on my nails anymore. What a pity for this polish. Now it's only something for my toes or for vacation.

Speaking of vacation - I'm on my way to the Dominican Republic again.

Have a great Sunday!

 

Nail Art: Cherry Blossoms

I know, it's not really the season for cherry blossoms but somehow I wanted to try out this little nail design.

 

 

I used the following products:

1. As the base: Essie - Grow Richer
2. Main Color: Catrice Ultimate Nudes - 01 Karl says très chic
3. Black branches: Essence Colour & Go - 21 Fabuless
4. Essence dotting tool
5. White blossoms: P2 color victim - 030 virgin
6. Red dots: Catrice ultimate nail lacquer - C01 Red Butler
7. Top coat: Essence studio nails - better than gel nails

I think the main color from Catrice is a little thick which I don't like too much but it looks nice once it's on the nails. One coat is quite opaque but I used two nonetheless because it wasn't the same on all my nails.

 

How do you like my little flowers? Somehow I think it's still fall appropriate because of the rosewood nude polish which is a great color.

 

 

P2 volume gloss gel look nail polish #080 grande dame

I'm in love with these strawberry raspberry colors. Thus, seeing this new volume gloss nail polish by P2 (080 grande dame), I just couldn't resist...

Here you see only one coat of polish, using clear base and top coats. It is long wearing as well - holding up for 5 days without tip wear.

Day light

 

At night using flash

 

It actually quite reminds me of Essie - too too hot. In the bottle it looks similar.

 

 

But on white paper and also on my nails, you can see the difference. Essie is much darker and a bit more raspberry-like.

 

 

I just don't look the new P2 brush not because it's wide but because it's irregular which makes it a little challenging to paint.

 

 

Nail polish: Essie Too Too Hot

Finally, it's summer time, the perfect time to wear bright nail polish. Good that I went shopping and bought Essie - Too Too Hot. It's a beautiful red with slightly pink undertone. Jettie from cholate-bit.ch calls it raspstrawberry - a mix of raspberry and strawberry. The perfect description I think...

 

I only needed one coat for this result but I had to repaint my nails after only 3 days, which is quite low for Essie. But maybe it will be more durable if I paint two coats. I haven't tried that yet...

 

Japanese Nail Art

I barely ever do anything fancy with my nails but since I've had a couple salsa events recently, I thought, I'll try out something new.

I bought some Japanese 3D nail art stickers a couple years ago and I didn't use them. I don't actually know why. It's some inner voice that tells me not to waste anything that pretty. I love these Hawaiian hibiscus flowers.

I'm actually quite surprised that the stickers last that long. It's my 4th day of wearing them and they haven't vanished yet. The petals aren't as white as before but they still look okay.

The only issue I have is that the stickers are 3D... The petals are made of some kind of jelly or silicon, giving my nails structure which I really don't quite appreciate because I like to have smooth nails... So I guess I won't be a big fan of these new fancy sand materials in nail polish.

The red nail polish is "fever" from P2 with a glossy top coat from P2 as well. After everything dried, I applied the silver stickers which are flat. It should be quite easy to recreate... Followed by the hibiscus flowers.

Edit: Here are some close-ups.

Recent Haul

Since this week was the glamour shopping week, I just couldn't resist, although I've had a ton of work to do at the university as a tutor for the freshmen weeks... I'm not too sure I've exploit the card to my total advantage because I went to lots of other stores as well but I got 5€ off at Douglas and also 5€ off at The BodyShop.

So anyhow, let's get started.

At Douglas I found these two cute little Clinique bags. I'm most interested in the eye cream. I've heard only good things about it. So we'll see how it works. At the left there's the moisture surge extended thirst relief, the moisture surge tinted moisturizer and the all about eyes cream. At the right hand side there's the great skin starts here 3 step skin care set for combination to oily skin. I'm very curious if it really is all that great. I will let you know, when I finished all the bottles.

I also went to The BodyShop to buy a Mango scrub and Mango body lotion... I love mango.

 

Here's my DM drugstore haul.

• I liked the Florena mattifying day and night face cream. Since it worked so well, I also bought the toner as well.
• Gloves for washing dishes
• Persil laundry tabs - I haven't used them but I'm curious if they are better than the usual powder.
• Contact lenses and solution
• Balea professional volumizing shampoo and conditioner - I use the one for shiny hair right now but it seems to be a little too heavy after they changed the formula. So I want to give this a try. Balea professional has really great shampoo, I think. Without silicon... Better than many expensive shampoos. I started using them, when Jettie from Give the bitch her chocolate blogged about it and I can only agree.
• Ebelin professional nail polish remover. I haven't tried it yet but I read good things about it. I normally use the green bottle and it's not bad either.
• Balea shaving gel... I switch up the scents like all the time. It works but isn't anything too special.
• Catrice Cucuba Limited Edition - loose eye shadow C04 Havana Drum
• P2 transparent lip liner
• Wick cough drops with lemon taste - my favorite cough drops. I still can't get rid of my cold...
• DM bag - you can give it back to the store and exchange it for another one or return it - like those returnable bottles to help saving the environment.

 

So an extended view on all the makeup items from several stores.

I ordered Sigma brushes from amazon.de recently. For almost 10€ for each brush, it was rather expensive but I love those four brushes. I just couldn't find any tapered blending brushes in normal stores and I wasn't willing to pay for Mac brushes... Now that I even got two (E35 and E40), I can't imagine my makeup life without it. E35 is slightly smaller than E40. I also got an eyeliner brush E05 and a tightline liner E16. They're great!

I've got several colored lip liners but this one from P2 is transparent. Actually quite genius. We only need one for all lipsticks...

I adore this Catrice loose eye shadow. It's from the cucuba limited edition - C04 Havana Drum. Beautiful color! Here's a swatch next to the Essence Nateventurista Limited Edition - 02 Mother earth is watching you, which I don't use as an eyeliner as it is supposed to be but as a creamy eye shadow.

Finally, I've bought my very first Mac blush - Love Joy. Isn't it adorable... Such a pretty fall color. It's shimmery, coppery and simply beautiful. Soo pigmented as well. I'm so sick of all the cheap plastic that breaks... I hope this will last for a long time... And it's probably just the start. I feel like I need more...

 

Of course, I've got some swatches as well.

Here it is next to Rimmel Coral which was soo hard to swatch because it didn't wanna give up any color to my wrist... As you can see, Mac's Love Joy is much more pigmented... ELF's Berry Merry is rather pinkish, plum-colored than the Mac blush.

Since my new Mac blush looked so brownish, I swatched it next to my other bronzers from Essence (02 Love to be Matt) and P2 (030 Bali Heat). Next to these more yellow-undertoned bronzers it shows off its reddish undertone. It lasted more than 12 hours... I'm impressed by so much quality...

And I haven't shown you how the OPI - Makes men blush looks like on my nails. Perfect pink for French nails... I made those last Saturday and now it's Friday and it just chipped. The lady at the counter told me to buy the top coat from OPI so that it'll last two weeks... Who the hell wants to have the same nail polish for two weeks?! I'm fine with these 6 days and now I'm glad I can paint another color on my nails...

Unfortunately, I can't capture the holo effect of the polish... It's too bad because it's so pretty!!!

 

So anyway, how do you like my haul?

Nail Design: Flowers

This is one of the very few nail design that I can actually do... ˆ.ˆ It is very easy and I love how it accentuates the nails in a cute but nonetheless very femine way. Just find some nice matching colors and start practicing. I learnt this from my Japanese friend whom I met in the US - she's so cute, she's done the nails for a couple girls back then... Nail art in Japan is huge! You can buy sooo many things over there...

Anyway...  You can take any colors you like. I just happen to take the following nail polishes for this nail design:

1. Manhattan Crazy Colours LE #1304
2. Essence Nail Art #05 purple magic
3. Essence Colour&Go #02 White Secret (but with the cleaned brush of purple magic)

Then you can follow these instructions:

1. Start with the base color. 
2. After it's dry, paint the blossoms with a very thin brush - basically they are made of 6 slightly curved lines, starting at the middle of one side of the nail and spreading out to the other side.
3. Fill in those blossoms with another nailpolish, after they are dry.

Of course, you can always add a top coat but I'm just not as patient to wait for another coat to dry. Also, your nail polish with the design on top has to be absolutely dry, otherwise there will be streaks and then you might have wasted your time doing this nail art and have to start all over again... 

Outfit #11 + Make-Up: Greek Lunch with friends

So this was my casual lunch outfit. I went to a Greek restaurant with my friends. I love teal and turquoise colors but sometimes it can easily look tacky - like ugly bridesmaid dresses with puff sleeves - just as bad as pink puffy dresses that make you look like Miss Piggy. Anyway, I try to avoid that ^.^

The tank top is from H&M (~5€), the pants from Amisu, sandals from the Dominican Republic (3€), the necklace is from Forever 21 from my Chicago haul << click >> and the coconut belt was a present from my boyfriend. The nail polish is from P2, a drugstore brand from Germany (#590 who cares?).

I thought it would be nice to pair the outfit with a turquoise eye makeup. Btw, I absolutely adore the Maybelline Color Tattoos. I've got three different colors and they are long lasting, beautiful, pigmented, everything I could ask for... I would just love to have a cream matte color, there's only a white sparkly one. When my Essence eye soufflé in #01 dance the swan lake is used up, I'll buy it anyway because the Essence one was from a limited edition.

So here are my makeup products.

1. Essence Ballerina Backstage LE - Eye Soufflé #01 dance the swan lake - as a base all over the lid and under the brow bow.
2. Maybelline Color Tattoo #40 Permanent Taupe (#35 Tough as Taupe in the US) in the outer corner of the eyes to deepen the area.
3. Astor Anti Shine Mattitude #005 to set the cream eye shadows.
4. Maybelline Color Tattos #20 Turqoise Forever (#40 Tenacious Teal in the US) as an eyeliner on the upper and lower lash line, also on the lower water line.
5. P2 eye dream #030 morning blues to set the Turqoise eye liner.
6. Milani Liquif'eye metallic eye liner pencil #01 black to tightline the upper and lower lash line to make the lash lines appear thicker than they actually are.
7. P2 matte dream eye shadow #010 black attitude to set the black liner.
8. Carrie All Round Mascara #010 blackest black.
9. Rival de Loop eye brow pencil in dark brown.
10. P2 Sunshine Powder #030 Bali Heat as a bronzer.
11. Wet'n'Wild #832E Heather Silk as a blush.
12. Maybelline Colorsensational Lipstick #235 Warm Me Up

Tip for Asian eyes:
I always set my eye liners with eye shadow or powder because of my Asian eye form. It's not really monolid but still the crease is quite close to the eye which smears out every eye liner without additional help.

Nailpolish - MNY #342

I've got a gorgeous new nailpolish - the MNY #342. Wow, great name, isn't it?! Who's working on those names? But anyway, coral colors are just my new thing for 2012. It just reminds me of the summer and lifts my mood...

I needed two coats to make it opaque. I don't use topcoats if there's no nailart because I'm lazy ;-) Anyway, it's very long lasting - 3 days and no chipping, not even tip wear...

Sorry for my hands. As much as I use hand cream and try to eat enough veggies and fruits, it doesn't help too much... But the color in this picture is quite realistic.

Edit:
MNY is a sub-brand of Maybelline. It is sold in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Norway, Sweden and Netherlands.
http://www.mny.com/

ELF: Eyes, Lips, Face

I ordered the following products on the e.l.f. cosmetics homepage.
I originally bought the Mineral Eyeshadow Primer, the contour brush, the natural radiance blush (innocence), the mineral blush (berry merry), the waterproof eyeliner pen (black) and two nailpolishes (light pink and white).

Unfortunately, the white nailpolish leaked out and wasn't very good either, so I threw it away. The innocence blush wasn't very satisfying either because the pigmentation is quite weak, especially for my dark skin - I use it as an eyeshadow now. But the other products that I've bought are quite great. The contour brush is soooo smooth and soft. I need to buy a couple more, besides the powder brush from the studio line (it was sold out the last time). Because of my Asian eyes, eyeshadow normally doesn't last on my eyelids but this mineral eyeshadow primer works wonders... it's better than the Manhattan base that I used before (dried out very fast). The waterproof eyeliner pen is empty now but I used it very often and I will buy a new one.

ELF light pink (2 coats)

pure nails

Sorry for the change of lightning... Somehow the sun came out, when my nailpolish finally dried. I'm not sure yet, if I'd buy any other nailpolish from E.L.F. anymore. The white nailpolish was a big disappointment but the light pink is just great. Two coats are enough for my perfect rosé.