NOTD: Essie - Need A Vacation

Here is Essie's Need A Vacation for you.

This shade is a bubblegum pink, but not too bright. It's a nice creme, and also applies like one. Very smooth, and rather easy to achieve great coverage with 2 coats.

In Germany this was available as part of a Spring 2014 Pastels Collection, but I don't think it was available anywhere else. The shade itself, is, though, so you can go and check it out. It's a lovely girly pink!

What do you think of it?
xoxo, M

New Sigma Brushes! E30 and F40

I'm kind of trying to post pictures of a couple of new things I got in the time of my blogging absence, so that's where all of these posts are coming from.

So quite some time ago I did some shopping at Sigma Beauty, and ordered the following two brushes:

The first brush I bought is an eye brush, called Sigma E25. It's a basic eyeshadow blending brush. It has white bristles and is a tiny bit flat. It is perfect for working with colours in your crease, because it is not too big so it can help you add definition to your eye. It does, at the same time, blend your eyeshadow, so you can achieve applying a colour to your crease and blending it out in one step.

The other brush I bought is a face brush, the Sigma F40. It's an angled blush or contour brush, nicely shaped for the cheek bone area. It's very fluffy but still helps to place your cheek products percisely and not all over the place. Blending with it is also very simple to do.




For every order over 30$, Sigma gives you a travel size of the E25 as a gift. I received one, and even though I'd also bought a full size version of it in this order, it's never wrong to have a variety of blending brushes. It's really a great gift! The brush is identical with the regular one, only that its handle is shorter. But it works equally well!

Sigma brushes are always my favourite to use and to buy, because they have great quality and don't cost a fortune. 
Do you guys have any brushes by them?

xoxo, M

EOTD: Urban Decay Naked 3

After showing you swatches of the Naked 3 Palette, it was time to share an eye make-up I did with it!

Products used:
Urban Decay Naked 3 shades:
Trick (lid), Buzz (crease), Strange (blending, highlight)
Maybelline Volum' Express Turbo Boost Mascara

It's rather simple, but has a nice shimmer to it that makes it special.

What do you think of it?
xoxo, M

NOTD: Essie - Strut Your Stuff

This is Strut Your Stuff by Essie.

It is of a medium blue shade, very much like a sky blue. It looks very creamy and doesn't contain any shimmer particles. Essie calls it a "compelling cobalt aqua", which I find to be a rather accurate description.
The formula is rather thin at first, looking a lot like a jelly. But with a second coat it builds up very nicely, making for a full, creamy coverage. I am, however, wearing 3 coats in these pictures.

Strut Your Stuff is part of Essie's Summer 2014 Collection, called Haute In The Heat. It should therefore still be available!

What do you think of it?
xoxo, M

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Soft & Gentle

A truly great birthday present is what I got from my best friends this year. They got me a MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in the colour Soft & Gentle.

It is a highlighting powder in a very pretty, golden and peach shade. It contains tons of shimmer particles, but they are very soft and not too big. I love how gorgeous this product is on its own, and how nice of a glow it creates on your cheeks!

The Mineralize Skinfinishes contain 10 g, and they retail for 31 €, at least here in Germany.

MAC has given their MSFs a new packaging recently, which is why mine might look a bit different from what you're used to. The colours, however, seem to have stayed the same.

There isn't really much more to say, I'm going to let the pictures do the talking  now. 

Does anyone of you also own Soft & Gentle?

xoxo, M

Catrice Beautifying Lip Smoother 030 Cake Pop

As part of the new permanent line for Autumn 2014, Catrice introduces a new lip product line called Beautifying Lip Smoother. They are also already part of the It Pieces Limited Edition, which was available starting July.

The Beautifying Lip Smoothers will be available in 3 shades, of which 2 were already to be bought in the aforementioned Limited Edition. The one I have to show you is of the colour 030 Cake Pop.

The main facts about the Beautifying Lip Smoothers are that they contain 9 ml and retail for 3,49 €. They promise shine as well as filling in of little wrinkles.
The scent is very sweet and somewhat like caramel, but it's not overwhelming.

The colour of 030 Cake Pop is a medium pink and it contains tiny shimmer particles. It's pigmentation somewhat sheer, but it's not meant to have a big colour pay-off. Instead, it is supposed to be like a lip balm with a bit of a tint to it.

It has a little flock applicator. Once you push the bottle, the product squeezes out and you can directly apply it to your lips. That makes for a very simple application.

The product is also very easy to spread on the lips. It's not too sticky, and feels very soft on. It adds some shine and makes your lips look fuller. The shimmer particles are not visible on the lips.

The wear is fine, but not very long lasting. As it's rather glossy it also wears off rather fast. But the smooth, cared feeling remains even when the actual product is gone.

The Beautifying Lip Smoother is said to be a dupe for the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector. It looks pretty much the same, and according to many reviews out there, also has the same attributes. And the Catrice version is definitely more inexpensive!

Has anyone tried this product?
xoxo, M



By the way: Check out my sidebar in order to get a discount code for bornprettystore.com with whom I´m going to be collaborating! Yay!

NOTD: Butterfly Wings Nail Art

Time for some more nail art!

This is actually a design I already did about two years ago, but I was in the mood of recreating it, and to be honest, I really love the result. It's supposed to depict the wings of a butterfly.

Products I used:
Kiko 279
OPI My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours
Essie Forever Yummy
p2 eternal
Essence Stampy White Nail Polish
make-up sponge for gradient
toothpick

It takes some time to do this, but it's not as hard to do as it looks. I can do a tutorial for it in case you're interested!

What do you think of it?
xoxo, M

Venice.

After I was done with all of my finals, I decided it was time for vacation. All the stress from the past weeks was to be compensated for by some time away from it all. Ultimately, I went on three trips. One to Rimini, Italy, with my family, one to Golden Sands, Bulgaria, with the people from my year, and one to Riva del Garda, Italy, with my best friends.
Those trips provided me with just what I needed: lots of fun and relaxation.

During my time in Italy with my best friends, we payed Venice a day's visit. Driving from Riva del Garda to Venice takes a little more than two hours, the distance being 200 km. So we got up somewhat early and arrived in Venice around 11 am.

Parking is a rather expensive affair in Venice. A regular daily fee is around 26€, no matter whether you park for 3 or for 20 hours. A car parks are located on the edge of the city, because you aren't allowed to go further inwards with a car. Instead, you can walk, like we did, or take a Vaporetto, which is basically a bus in the form of a ship.

a symbol typical for Venice: the winged lion*

*

I've already been to Venice once, when I was around 13, but it was lovely to completely rediscover the city. We of course wanted to see the main attractions such as the Piazza San Marco, the Ponte di Rialto and the Ponte dei Sospiri. But what I enjoyed most was looking through the little alleys which are called calle. There's just so much to see around every corner!

il Ponte di Rialto 

la Piazza di San Marco

il Ponte dei Sospiri
(did you know its name translates to "bridge of sighs", because it lead to Venice's prison, and it is said that people were able to hear the sighs of the prisoners from this bridge?)

We had a late lunch in a little restaurant a bit off the city centre, which is the best thing you can do. The closer you get to San Marco, the more expensive everything gets. So be clever and don't spend your money carelessly.

It was rather hot on that day, at least 30 degrees Celsius. And so crowded! We meant to have a look at the Basilica di San Marco from the inside, but the queue looked like it would reach three times around the block, so we unfortunately had to skip that. But it was a great trip nonetheless, because there are so many pretty places.

la Basilica di San Marco

part of the Palazzo Ducale to the left, seen from the Piazza di San Marco

After having spent a wonderful day in Venice, our drive back home was a bit more of an adventure. When we left Venice, the sky was full of thick, grey clouds, which soon made for a heavy thunderstorm. Even when it eased off a little, it still didn't provide us with the best driving conditions, which were getting to our driver, who was already quite pissed as she thought she'd been caught speeding.

There's a storm coming up, Mr. Wayne.
lots of rain clouds accompanying us on our way out of Venice*

We already had some trouble finding the motorway, but even more trouble then deciding which direction to go. Luckily, our geography knowledge went as far that we were able to say we needed to go north. But then the motorway parted, and let us choose between Milano (to the west) and Trieste (to the east). And none of us had any idea where to go. If you know Italian motorways, you can agree that there is never much information provided, and you don't have much time to choose which way to go. So our driver just said "fuck it!"and drove off in the direction of Trieste. Which was, as you might have guessed, wrong.
We didn't know about that yet, though, and kept driving for quite a couple of kilometres, me keeping my eyes open for any road signs with cities on it that sounded familiar. And when the first exit came, I was quite shocked. The road sign read something along the lines of Jesolo - Caorle. Both two lovely towns to which I've already been on vacation, and both located at the seaside. Our destination however, Riva del Garda, is far away from the sea. Obviously. Luckily we'd only been driving in the wrong direction for almost an hour, so off we went into the direction we came from, to then get back home.
But at some point we finally made it! And it was quite an educational experience to be honest :D

Hope I didn't bore you with my anecdotes!
Has anyone has a similiar trip to Venice?

xoxo, M


* pictures marked with a * are courtesy of a dear friend of mine. Thanks so much Mau for letting me use those, you're awesome!