Polish empties

 Hello,

I haven't done one of these is a long time and even this post is long overdue since I finished them up a while ago. During this Summer I liked to wear barely there shades or muted blue with a spark of lavender thrown in the mix.

I'm still on the cream and blue kick so you can expect some more empty nail polish bottles in these colors.

First is this lovely bottle of L.O.V. nail polish in the shade Pure Expression. I remember when I first tried it out I complained this to be too sheer... now I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I didn't shake it enough and the pigment settled on the bottom so I wasn't getting the right results? With me anything is possible but with each use I liked it more until it become my favorite. It is a creamy and milky color which was super easy to apply (wide brush which hugged my nail beds perfectly), the formula was smooth and fast drying. No chipping or tip wear for a week and the color was super flattering on me. It was an all and all perfect nail polish but sadly this brand is no longer available here so now I will have to find another perfect cream color to replace this beauty.

Next is super duper old Essence Nail Candy varnish in the shade Soda Pop & Candy Shop (I bought a bunch of these years ago and now I have two full bottles left). This is similar to the first one except I need three coats at least for an even application with a hint of slight pink hue. It is less pigmented and looks more natural than the first one. Mostly I used it as a base coat under other nail polishes.

One of my favorite shades to wear on my nails is Lavender and this one was that perfect shade for me. It is Avon gel finish in the shade Lavender Sky. This is one of my favorite polish ranges and it applied smooth as butter. I will miss it but I have another lavender shade to go through.

The very last one is from H&M Beauty and it is called Slate. Lovely dusty blue color for whenever I felt moody :) I personally like shades like that (give me lavender, blue or gray or any kind of mishmash of these colors and I'm happy, especially if they are on the lighter, pastel range of color). It had super flat and wide brush, a bit too big for my pinky but for the other fingers  it was great, it made application super fast. 

Thank you for reading and have a nice day

All I Need and Mojave

Hello,

this post is long overdue because in the mean time they already discontinued one of the shadows but since I found a really close dupe I think it is still relevant to show them both.

They both have pretty recognizable packaging but still: Essence my must haves eye shadow in the shade All I Need (discontinued) and H&M Beauty single in Mojave (as far as I know it is still available).

I bough the Essence one first and then the one from H&M and I didn't though that they will be so close. I just liked the color and I thought that it will look pretty. I used Mojave for a week or two until it hit me that it might look similar to something I already have...

They are so darn close that I'm seriously thinking of passing one along but which one?
First swatch is Essence All I Need and second is Mojave from H&M.

All I Need is a bit lighter and shinier while Mojave has a bit more brown base so it looks more pigmented and more noticeable.

They both are so great as all over the lid shades because of the sheen which makes them look more dimensional. Whenever I use them it looks like I have used at least three different shades while in fact there is only one. I personally love this finish and such taupe-y browns that are so easy to use but they look like I have spent way more time doing my make-up.

Would you give one of them away or would you selfishly keep both? I think I will keep All I Need (regardless of the name) and Mojave for myself  ;)



Thank you for reading and have a nice day

Iconic Indigo & Clean Slate

Hello,

I wanted to do something fun and using two different nail polishes within the same color family seemed just what I was looking for.

L.O.V. Iconic Indigo is a deep blue which can look black in certain light and H&M Clean Slate looked like the 'perfect' dusty periwinkle blue that I was looking for.

I have already removed both and they wore lovely, even removing them wasn't too messy. Sometimes blues can be tricky like that but fortunately these two weren't. Clean Slate might look like a Spring shade and Iconic Indigo might gives you Winter vibes but I'm always in the mood for something blue no matter the season.



Thank you for reading and have a nice day

Chestnut and Shirocco

Hello,

I was at the H&M and ventured into their make-up aisle to find some beauties on sale. After checking that they weren't touched I picked up two products (I had my eye one on beautiful shadow but all of them were swatched and ruined so I didn't picked them up).

I grabbed face powder in the shade Chestnut and cream eye shadow in Shirocco.

The face powder in the Chestnut coloring is way too dark for me but I wanted to use it as a bronzer. They had some lighter shades but the sample that I tried showed me that they are somehow powdery and the color appears lighter on the skin than in the palette (later I realized that the brush picks up the powder nicely and the product itself is very pigmented).

Shirocco (also a breed of horses) cream shade is quite warm and a little out of my comfort zone but the one I initially wanted was already tried so I opted for second best.

The texture is pudding like and very different from all of my potted shadows (Maybelline Tattoos and Avon Mark ones are harder). It is very easy to get too much on the fingertips because a little touch is enough to cover both lids.

Chestnut is deep but as mentioned a light swatch with a finger didn't really showed up that much that is why I went for a really deep shade. On the swatch below I did a couple of swipes but my bronzer brush is very good at picking the pigment and I have to be extra careful not to apply too much.

Here the first swatch is cream shadow which shows the rich color (one swipe) and some golden shimmer that adds even more warmth and some extra life to the game.

Second is face powder which I'm using to warm up my cheeks but only with a light hand and some serious brush tapping.

Shirocco cream shadow applies nicely and it is easy to blend out with my fingers. The only 'problem' is heavy pigmentation so I have to be careful not to have too much on my fingers but other than that it is great. It sets nicely and doesn't budge even on my greasy lids but it still gives you enough time to work with it before it completely sets.

And one closeup to see the shimmer, sometimes I add a golden shadow on top to lighten it up or just pat something glittery to get even more sparkles.

All in all the 'bronzer' takes me a little more time to blend but it is matte and I don't think I have a matte bronzer. I still prefer shimmery or sateen finish but sometimes I still want to go all matte and this will be handy.
For the cream shadow I have only great things to say about. The most impressive is the staying power. I like this formula even more that the slightly harder Maybelline tattoos which also have a great staying power (only the matte versions work for me). I'm almost done with one of them, the most neutral and instead of repurchasing it I will check the H&M beauty to see if they have a light neutral, everyday shade and I will rather get that one over the Maybelline one.



Thank you for reading and have a nice day

Empties

Hello,

this time I took some more time off from blogging. It is not that I don't have products to talk about, it's just me being lazy and enjoying in the first Spring rays. What about you?

This time around I have really a lot to cover so I will try to be as short as possible.
First product is nothing special, just a body wash but the scent is so charming that I keep buying it. It is Avon Senses Heaven Harmony with Lily of the Valley and Apple scent (I even have it in the hand wash version). I usually just get the big bottle of it (there is even bigger bottle, 720 ml, but it is too big to fit in my shower shelf but I get that one for washing my hands  ;) because I know I won't get sick of it.

Next are too Avon Care hand creams. First is the new with Coconut oil and second is older with Olive oil. Coconut has a slight scent that isn't too overpowering, the texture and ingredients are very similar to the standard/regular Care cream in the blue tube which happens to be my favorite hand cream. This is just the slightly scented version of it and I really like the scent so I already repurchased it. The olive one is creamier and almost a little heavier. It doesn't absorb that well into my skin and also when my skin is super dry it just doesn't help much, the scent is barely there but I won't buy it again because it is not providing my hands with enough moisture. I will rather get the regular Glycerin or the Coconut one.

This used to be my favorite shampoo and conditioner ever. It is Avon naturals Mango and Ginger. I remember when I still lived with my sister we would share it and keep repurchasing it. After a couple of years I bought it again and while I love the scent I don't think it did much for my hair. It is not bad, it doesn't make my hair dry or fizzy but it also doesn't make them silkier or smoother. I don't know, it just isn't outstanding but my sister still loves it. I guess our hair types aren't as similar as they used to be.

The last tube is slightly hiding in there but it is a lotion for Avon from the Cherish the moment line. I used the first one called Cherish and I really liked the scent so much that when they came out with the second version Cherish the moment I knew I had to get it. I liked this one a little better, it is more fruity opposed to floral and they both have something fresh to it. It is the perfect scent for the Spring and maybe someday in the future I will repurchase it again but first I have to go through some lotions that I already have.

I finally finished up this Mavala nail polish thinner. It is not that I was sick of it it is just that I had it for so long but recently I am trying to revive so many nail polishes and my sister is giving me hers to fix so no wonder it got empty. I don't know what would I do without this little miracle wonder, I guess I would have to toss so many beautiful colors :(  I already bought new bottle but this time it is from ArtDeco because they had some discount and it was cheaper, I also tried it and it works so I'm good.

This next bottle is also very old and I don't even know if they make it anymore, probably not but back in the days I used this one constantly. It is Essence gel-look clear top coat. I would apply a thin coat on fresh manicure and at least once during the following days until I would remove it completely and use something else. I used up so many bottles but I don't know when I stopped using top coat because now I rarely use it unless it is some kind of a shimmery or glittery top coat. I still have one bottle of clear top coat and I will try to use it more often if not to make my manicure glossier or to help it last longer then at least to use it up before it dries out completely.

First lip product form the bunch is L'occitane Zesty Lime lip balm. It smelled really nice and the product itself was a bit thicker which is not my favorite thing. At first it looked almost white but when I spread it over my lips it got clear and slightly glossy. It wasn't very moisturizing but the worst thing about it was how gunky it become after a while. I'm always rubbing my lips together and whenever I wore this balm I had to remind myself not to do it because if I did I would push the product on the sides of my lips where it would gather and turn white again, almost as if the sides of my lips aren't warm enough and it got a little thicker. The end result was product buildup especially on my thinner upper lip and to me that looks nasty so I would only use it around my apartment and I was so glad when it was done. For the hefty price tag these just aren't worth it even though I liked the scent.

The next lip balm is from Burt's Bees and it is the already discontinued Tiger Lily, peach shade. I had the pink one as well and both weren't nourishing enough but the color was nice on the lips, nothing too much but if I used it all day long the color could build up and it looked like a little too much (whenever I took it with me I also brought another clear balm and I would alternate, not just because of the color but also to actually moisturize my lips). On the photo below you can see that there is still a little left but I decided to toss it anyways. My lips are getting dry and this non nourishing balm did nothing so why keep it? This was my last lip product for them (I had five in total) and I wasn't happy with any of them so I really don't think I will buy more form BB.

The very- last item is from H&M Beauty and it is one of their cream blushes. Mine is in the Peachy Rose shade that was given to me by my sister. I used it quite a lot but I could use it even more, the shade was beautiful and the formula was very pigmented so I should ether use it every single day or I should have a deeper complexion in order to use it up completely. My heart breaks because it was a gift but it has been with me for two and a half years, the texture is getting more mousse-y and that tells me that it is not safe to use it anymore. I was thinking that I will clean it up and keep the packaging but it doesn't really have any sense. if the compact would have a mirror...
I hear a lot of good things about their powder blushes but the last time I was in the store and I walked through the beauty counters I picked up two more products which will be reviewed soon.



Thank you for reading and have a nice day

H&M cosmetics

Hello,

today it was a lovely Saturday and I visited the closest H&M store simply because I needed some smart clothes for work but I didn't stop there. I wandered into the make-up section to see what hidden gems could be found. I only have one cream blush from them which was a gift from my sister (I looked over for some cream products and they were absolutely disgusting, so much fuzz and dust was in there, I have a feeling no one cleans the samples or cares about them, do they manage to sell any? The new products are stored in a sealed boxes so they aren't contaminated but doesn't your stomach turn inside out when you see something so nasty?) However, I picked two powder eye shadows and two blue nail polishes (in my recent Catrice haul I also bought two blue paints and I swear they aren't exactly the same, they are close but not the same).

The lightest varnish is Clean Slate. I hoped that it would be a dupe for my beloved Essence Forget me not shade but this one seems a little dustier but it also has a cream finish. I will have to see if I will love it as much once it will be on my nails.
The second and darker color looks very intense in the bottle and it is called Inky Ink and I will probably give it to my mom because she like to paint her toenails with dark blue shades and she just used up her last bottle. If I will give it to her I will make sure I will try it on my nails as well so we can be nail polish twins ;)

When H&M came out with this revamped beauty line everyone was buying and testing it but now the craze calmed down I rarely hear anyone talking about it. Does that mean that people aren't as impressed by it or the higher price point just turns people off? I decided to get the two singles but I also had the neutral eye shadow palette on my wishlist. If I will like these two I might go back and pick the palette and some more.
The top and more golden is Baci di Dama and the more neutral, taupe like is Mojave. They are both shimmery and neutral, just how I like my shadows.



Thank you for reading and have a nice day

Project polish

Hello,

I'm really on a roll when it comes to nail polishes. This month I emptied two more bottles and that means 19 bottles less in my collection (I did purchase some but not that many this year).

First is H&M Dark Purple in a tiny bottle. I absolutely love this medium, cream color. It was dark and vibrant at the same time and if I could repurchase it I definitely would. Now I'm on a hunt to find similar shade.

Next to it is Essence Very Cherry from the Fruity limited edition. I still don't know why I picked up this shade because peach is not my favorite color to wear on my nails but I did liked the little pink dots which added some dimension and honestly, they were the reason why I didn't pass it on to someone else.

I now have three more bottles to finish till the end of the year and I have a felling it won't be too hard.



Thank you for reading and have a nice day

40. NOTD

Hello,

my project polish is going really well so I decided to include another nail polish and I think I will be able to finish it up this year.

For today's manicure I picked something fun and sparkly. Avon Silver Pleated is a silver glitter nail varnish and little H&M bottle is in the shade Dark Purple.

This is the end result. I like how glitter looks like jewels on my raspberry painted nails. With this combination I really nailed it, I can't stop starring, especially on the sun when it gets a bit blinding.



Thank you for reading and have a nice day

Peachy Rose swatch

Hello,

today I'm also skipping NOTD post simply because I don't have time to switch my nail polish color. I started with a new job and I'm adjusting to the new timeline. Still I have super exciting product for you. I wanted to try something from the new H&M beauty line and my sister surprised me with a blush. I've been wearing it a lot and now I feel I can share my thoughts about it.

H&M beauty Pure velvet cream blusher Peachy Rose

This is how the box looks like and I think I don't need to explain to much that I kept the box. It looks luxurious and makes me happy to open up the drawl and see it even though I don't keep the product inside.

H&M beauty Pure velvet cream blusher Peachy Rose

This is the actual packaging. White hexagonal with golden logo (it is my favorite color combo on make-up products). All of the cream blushers comes in white and the powder blushes are housed in black packaging.

H&M beauty Pure velvet cream blusher Peachy Rose

I have to give my sister a high five to choose probably the best shade that exist for my skin type. It is called Peachy Rose and it is definitely rosy with just a hint of peach undertones (my favorite are actually peachy or coral blushes but this dusty color totally got me). It is crazy pigmented but so easy to blend out, even a total beginner could do it (I'm a total rookie when it comes to blushes and I find it super easy to work with it). 

H&M beauty Pure velvet cream blusher Peachy Rose swatch

This is rather heavy swatch on the back of my hand, you can see the beautiful color better. It doesn't have any glitter or shimmer particles but it has this glow, probably because of its structure-creaminess. I swirl my finger in it and dot it on my cheeks than blend them out with patting. I only use my fingers because I'm just used to do most of my make-up like that. My fingers are my personal brushes. 

I got into blushes a month or two ago, before I never wore it. I even didn't know where exactly to apply it but now I got so much joy and bought or got 6 different blushes on a whim. This one sky rocked to the top pretty much the first time I used it. Partially because of the color and second even bigger reason is because it is so damn easy to use it and it blends so effortlessly plus it does last all day long.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day 

Gift from my sister

Hello,

I have the best sister in the whole world. She just came back from vacation and brought little something for me. I was expecting post card or some keychain but instead she gave me full bag of goodies that I like or I wanted for some time.

Zara Home fragrance Dark Amber

First is Zara Home fragrance, she has one and it is very subtle jet noticeable when you enter the room. What I'm trying to say is that it is not invasive but lingers in the air very naturally. She got me Dark Amber scent and it is lovely, I will probably put it in my living room but since my apartment is small it will fragrance the whole place.

Tabaiba aloe cream

Next is Tabaiba Aloe face and body cream. I use a lot of aloe on my face, body, I spray it on my hair, massage it on sun burns or mosquito bites. For me it is irreplaceable, usually I buy aloe gel but this one is more like a cream and has added different ingredients plus it is scented. I can't figure it out but it smells sweet like some candies, I like it a lot. I just put it on on my hands and it it nourishes the skin and the scent is to die for.

H&M beauty Pure Velvet Cream Blusher in Peach Rose

Lastly is the product I'm probably the most excited about. We have been talking to hunt down where in Slovenia they sell H&M beauty products but till now we still haven't. So she found one store abroad and got lost in aisles full of beauty products apparently it is overwhelming. So she brought me one Pure Velvet Cream Blusher in Peach Rose. So far I only wore it once but I think it will get a thumb up from me.  

Thank you for reading and have a nice day