The Spring Lips Selection

I seldom get the urge to use proper lip colour like I do when spring starts. It probably has something to do with wanting to be as bright as the sunshine and the blossoming flowers.
That is why I figured I'd show you some of my "most used" at this point.

Let's start with the more surprising addition to the collection, Golden Rose in Shade 40. It's an interesting sandy nude that, to my surprise looks quite nice on me. My lips are that colour that alter any lipstick shade to their liking, distorting it just enough for the lipstick to not look like in "the bottle"anymore, so when I find something that works ok with said distortion, I'm very very glad.

Then of course, my long time favourite, the Topshop Lip Bullet in There She Goes. You'll see in the swatches below that it's quite sheer, but it gives a lovely pinkish coral tint that makes me look quite healthy.
Still from Topshop, another old favourite, is the matte Lip Crayon in Coy. I just LOVE this shade and surprisingly, it looks nice even on my still pale skin. Not to mention the fact that it lasts until forever and beyond. 
I'm just sad that Topshop didn't come out with a wider range of colours for these Lip Crayons, as the deep fuchsia and the Morticia red they have to offer, among others, are not really my thing. But keeping my fingers crossed that more shades are on their way!

And as promised, here's some swatches for you.

Left to right: Golden Rose - Topshop Lip Bullet - Topshop Lip Crayon

                               You can also Follow on * Bloglovin *  Twitter * Facebook *  

Big in 2013 - The Major Beauty Trends

It's always fun to look back on the year and try to remember what the major trends in beauty have been, because we just kinda incorporate them into our everyday life and don't think about "ah yes, this color, definitely a trend I'm doing!". We just do it.
That's why I did a half memory exercise in remembering what the Big Deals of 2013 have been.

 Things went natural.

I love whenever this happens because I'm a big fan of keeping it as natural as possible. The three big ones have been The resurrection of natural oils in beauty, Honey as THE ingredient and Natural Beauty/DIY beauty. Especially for the last one, more and more people have started to make their own scrubs, body creams, and started using more friendly ingredients all together. Not to mention how happy I am for all the oils  that are out there, because my skin LOVES them!

LIPS, LIPS and more LIPS!

If last year it was oxblood, this year, the variation thereof has been burgundy. Can't say I mind it, as it is a glorious lip color and burgundy lips have been everywhere! Another big thing that I liked have been matte lips. While I'm not the biggest lipstick wearer, I am definitely a huge matte lipstick wearer.
Nude, natural lips paired with a more natural look have been dominating spring and summer and really accentuating that natural beauty everyone has. And of course, my favorite thing to have hit the nation: Lip Pencils! I prefer them matte, but I'll take them in any ole' way because they are the most practical alternative to lip color to date. 

  Nail power!

 You know me, the complete nail obsessive and while many nail related things happened, I summed up the biggest ones. Halfmoon nails  seemed to be on everybody and yes... even I have tried them. 

One of the things I just could not get on board with were texture polishes. That cottage cheese look is not for me, nor are little confetti like "feathers". I can appreciate that someone took the time to come up with them, but I really don't want it on my nails. Even if they look kinda cool, especially the sandy and cottage cheese texture feel really creepy to the touch. But at least we had that one, huge color: Emerald Green.

And I must say, the nail shades that have emerged from this have been quite nice.

Do you have any more beauty trends you wanna suggest or have I covered them all?

                          


                                  You can also Follow on * Bloglovin *  Twitter * Facebook *    

Autumn Lips

Lately, autumn has become a special kind of awesome for me. I have a new appreciation for the slightly frosty air, the single leafs floating in the wind and then landing on the damp ground. The colors, the sounds, the vibe. I truly like everything about it.
Now, summer was for neons and all sorts of "Kapow!" colors, but autumn brings back the flesh tones and the calmer shades that just make you go into a state of being blissfully content.

The Nude Tones:

You can't have autumn without flesh colors.It's the epitome of the season. That's why clear picks for this are the Revlon Lip Butter in Creme Brulee and Rimmel Apocalips in Nude Eclipse. Let's face it, I'm a big fan of the nude all year round, and autumn just gives me an extra seasonal excuse to use and overuse them.
The Apocalips is more on the lipstick side of things and has much more coverage, but the Revlon Lip Butter is well... a  lip butter and that means it may be a bit more sheer but it hydrates your lips much much more. They're basically the two extremes of the tone. 
I must admit, I did see an even more extreme sheer today tho, in the shape of a Maybelline lip butter dupe (I'd suppose that's what it was, I don't remember the description). And when I say sheer, I do mean sheer. You could only see something shining because no color was appearing. More on that if I ever give it a go in any case.

The Corals:

I find coral tones to look so beautiful in autumn! For the matte fans, we have the Topshop Lip Crayon in Coy which I've done a full review of Here. And again, for the more sheer version, Topshop is happy to oblige too with its Lip Bullet in There She Goes. That one also feels really hydrating on the lips and it has a summer nostalgic shimmer to it. It's really one of my favorite shades and I'll review it for you soon.

Those were my top picks for lip beautification this autumn, what are yours?                         





                            You can also Follow on * Bloglovin *  Twitter * Facebook *  

Recently On My Lips

                            

I don't know if you're aware yet, but beside nail polishes I'm a bit of a compulsive lip balm collector. I can never have enough and it recently turned out to come in handy because my lips have been going through a rebel phase where even after drinking more than 2 liters of water a day, they still look and feel dry. Still haven't gotten to the bottom of it, but like most things wrong with my skin, I can probably trace it back to the ventilation system in the office.

In any case, I have some of the golden oldies like the Rosebud Lip Salve  that might be petrolatum based but has done miracles for my lips throughout time, then some very new ones I'm somewhat undecided about. Those would be the Nivea Lip Butters. I have always liked Nivea, basically because we have all grown up with it but  I've read the ingredients of the lip butters and there's a bucketload of paraffin in there. Something I really don't want anywhere on me. And that brings me to my freakout in retrospect, is the Nivea classic cream also full of paraffin ? I'm afraid to Google that because paraffin is a side product of petroleum and it's one of those really badass mineral oils. But like I said, they are really new purchases so I have yet to try them out properly. But what I can tell you is free from any mineral oils is the MOA Green Balm . Only oils on the ingredient list makes it the most multifuntional balm I own.I can use it as a hand cream,face cream and lip balm. 

Then we have the Order of the Tube, starring Dr Organic Rose Otto Serum, which is ideal for the cold days where you want to make sure your lips don't get the full frost.It's a thick-ish balm that you really feel is doing something for your lips. Keeping is rosey, next on the list is Balance Me Rose Otto  Intensive Lip Salve. What I like most about this are the ingredients and the smell that really makes me feel there's no BS about it. No fake scents, it just lets the balm do all the talking. Now, I'm someone who tends to get anything off my lips in no time. Same goes for this and it's a pity because I have a feeling, would it have be able to reside more on there, it would have accomplished even more.

Last but not least we have Sportsgirl Smooth Operator Paw Paw Balm. In case you are like me and have no clue what Paw Paw is..... it's Papaya. Yep, it isn't the magical paw of an indigenous magical bunny like we all assumed.

This thing is awesome! Even thicker than the Dr Organic serum and even more long lasting. I can usually judge how desperate my lips are by the time it takes them to soak up this balm. Recently, it's been gone in no time.

What are some of your favorite lip case products? 

                                     You can also Follow on * Twitter * Facebook * Bloglovin *    

My First MUA Order

"Took you long enough" I hear you say. Well, because MakeUp Academy reached 35k Facebook fans and had free shipping plus a considerable discount, I decided to give them a go.
I'm usually somewhat skeptical about relatively cheap cosmetics, especially the kind you apply on your skin in sensitive areas such as eyes or lips. I've had less than jolly experiences with the likes of Elf and that kind of put me off.
Also, I would have had to order MUA online, since they don't really sell them outside the UK.
But I  had heard so much great things about them that I figured this would be the perfect time to stock up on some.                
I will tell you now, I was INCREDIBLY surprised! In a positive way.

Here's what I got:

MUA Heaven and Earth Palette

Lip Boom in Ok.com

Lip Boom in Cheeky

Lipstick Shade 14 Bare, but I got shade 15 Juicy.

Might have been a mix up but I don't mind at all,since I really like shade 15!

Love Hearts Lip Balm Great Lips

Eyebrow Pencil Brunette

I am someone who's hard to please in the lipstick department and don't work well with anything that's not the perfect combination of dry and moist.

To my surprise, the MUA lipsticks are just that! MAC for example is off my lips in no time, but it feels super moisturizing.Well, these stay on my lips and you get the feeling they really wanna stay there, while not drying out my lips. Not to mention they are matte and I'm mad about that!

As for the Heaven and Earth Palette, I'd been looking for these colors for as long as I can remember! I wanted to get that Addison Montgomery sheer, but naturally glowy California eye makeup look ( for those of you who watch Private Practice and know, for those who do not Here is a picture of the eye look I mean.)

Well, I got it! The first time I played around with this, I was a bit "meh", but the moment I tried it on and combined them, I was the happiest puppy ever! 

The eyebrow pencil is a bit too ginger for my eyebrows. My eyebrows have an interesting black-but-not-really-but-definitely-not-too-brown thing going on and it's an almost impossible task to find something that fits. That's why I'll probably stick to my gel liner residue technique that for some reason is the right color.

All in all I was very surprised by how great MUA is and I will be definitely be ordering some more soon as I'm not thinking of trying every single lipstick they have to offer. If the shades I was sure don't work on me, clearly work just great, I think everything is possible!

                                       You can also Follow on * Twitter * Facebook * Bloglovin *    

Favorite Lip Balms This Winter

Winter means cold and cold means not so happy lips, so here's my top picks on how to help your sensitive skin areas face the cold.

Let's start with the eldest, in other words, the one I've been using for the longest time.
The Rosebud Strawberry Lip Balm.

I had heard a lot of great things about this one but the issue was I didn't know where to get it exactly so when I saw it in the store I grabbed it right away.
I was incredibly impressed with it!
I think, to this day it's the lip balm that stays longest on my lips and has made a great difference last winter. I've really abused it and there still is plenty left, which is a serious plus. You use and use and still have a lot left.
Now on the other hand, if you're not into Petrolatum you won't want to use this,because that's one of 4 ingredients on offer.

All in all this one smells so delicious and gives your lips a whole new softness if you apply it at night and let it work until the morning.And even in daylight, it's equally great for your lips.

The Smooth Operator Paw Paw Balm I was lucky enough to get in a swap with Rebecca. It seems to be a very well known product Down Under and it really is impressive.
Paw Paw, also known as Papaya, is the main ingredient in here and compared to the Rosebud Balm it is much less thick...obviously ( it comes in a tube after all).
It doesn't stay on your lips as long as the Rosebud balm, but it does a ton of good! You can literally feel your lips liking what you put on them.
All in all , even if it's on the lighter side, consistency wise, it's still a great thing to have in your bag in winter.

I think I got the Dr Organic Rose Otto Lip Serum about a month ago, which was right before cold hit and I'm glad I did that!
The great thing about is that this balm has protecting and anti aging qualities to it, so it's perfect for winter, not to mention it's my kind of lip product, with ingredients you can count on one hand!

All in all, I find this to be the ideal balm for winter. It's full of great ingredients that really work. And you truly just need a drop to apply on your lips and still have some left.

Last but not least, my youngest addition to the collection:

The Apidermaliv Lip Balm which has my favorite things in it: honey, olive oil and royal jelly. And that's about it. There really is no preservative to it.
What impressed me about it was the fact that I had broken, cracked, beyond dry lips when I got this one at a beauty bloggers meeting to try. I took a quick look at the ingredients, liked what I saw and tried it.
By the next day, my half dead lips were almost as good as new! And that is a great accomplishment.

All in all this is one of my favorites, the problem is, after opening it, the beneficial properties of the royal jelly only last about a week, which I have noticed on my lips. The oilve oil and honey still stay great, but you can mix that in a bowl at home too and put it on your lips.
But what this balm has managed in terms of repairing my lips, no other has managed in such a short time.

What about you, do you have any lip favorites?




                                    You can also Follow on * Twitter * Facebook * Bloglovin *    

Smooth Operator Paw Paw Lip Balm

Today, I will show you the latest addition to my lip balm collection.

You might recall my excitement when I showed you the Swap Goodie Box arrived. In that awesome goodie box there was also the superbly australian Paw Paw Smooth Operator from Sportsgirl.
Can I just say how awesome the name is? Smooth Operator! Spot on!

As you can see from the tube, it says it's a multi-purpose lip balm. 
What is that? I hear you ask.
For that, we start by defining the Paw Paw. Any guesses? Well it's Papaya! Another awesome name given by the cool folks down under!
And papaya is a great little plant. So is its extract that you can find in this lip balm. It doesn't only go on lips, it goes on any dry skin you might have. 
Ellbows crackin up? Paw Paw it!
Did you just get sunburned? Stick the Paw Paw stick on it!

It's also super easy and clean to apply as you can see from the tube it comes in.
I was surprised how little of it I needed, for my lips to be all jolly about it. Sometimes I even just use what was left on the tip of the tube and its enough.

It really does a great job moisturizing your lips.
Sure, it's not of the thickest consistency, so you will have the urge to re apply it quite a bit, but truth be told...it is just an urge, not an actual need, because once you apply it, your lips will be good for a while.

You know I'm very much into natural extracts and papaya is right there on top of my list! So I'm super glad I got the chance to try this out! Hopefully I'm gonna be able to get hold of a refill once it runs out!


What lip balms do you use and what's your favorite?



                             You can also Follow on * Twitter * Facebook * Bloglovin *   

DIY Lip Scrub

I think each one of us has had someone tell them at least once that lipbalms, chapsticks and other lip moisturizers of the sort can cause addiction. It's true, if you constantly use them on your lips, you disrupt the natural cycle of your skin and then it ends up "asking" for them.

The natural circle consists in your skin being renewed and the dead skin cells being ditched and replaced by new ones. 

If you allow that to happen and stay hydrated, you will never feel your lips dry again. 

BUT we all know that today everyone uses something on their lips on a daily basis. This something forms a layer on them and prevents the dead skin cells from leaving the premisses. That in turn, makes your lips feel dry and as a normal reaction you moisturize some more. Talk about a shiny, lovely smelling vicious circle!

Here's what you CAN do:

If you are going to use balms anyway, then at least help the skin cycle a bit. You can do that by scrubbing.

The same way you use body scrubs, you can use lip scrubs.

The main difference is: lips are much more sensitive so don't go rubbing salt on them as that is very coarse and rugged and you will be cursing the day you've done so!

And why wait until you purchase a lip scrub if you already have all the ingredients at home and can make one yourself?

This is why, I will give you an easy breezy solution to stopping the dry sensation and making your lips love you even more.

What You Need:

1 Tablespoon of Sugar + 1 Tablespoon of Honey

Step 1.

Put you sugar in a little bowl where you will be able to mix it without it falling out. I used Muscovado Sugar because it's quite fine but you can pick any sugar you like. Because it melts quite easily, you don't need to worry about damaging your lips. Sugar is the ideal candidate for a lip scrub.

Step 2.

Get a tablespoon  of honey. You can add more if you like it more liquid, it's all up to you.

Step 3.

Mix sugar and honey together. Ideally with a toothpick or a chopstick, something thin in any case. Because it isn't a large quantity, it's unpractical to try and mix it with a spoon.

Step 4.

Rub it on your lips with circling movements. You should feel the sugar scrubbing your skin and once you've done that you can either eat your scrub ( it is just sugary sweets after all) or rise it off with lukewarm water.

You can also Follow on * Twitter * Facebook * Bloglovin * 

My Absolute Beauty NO-GOs

I think all of us have our pet peeves when it comes to beauty and beauty products. I'm sure each of you has at least one of those things that will make you go OH NO! and will result in making you less than happy.
Well,so do I.That's why I made a list of the things I really dislike, be it the attributes of a specific product, the frustration that some others give,or simply things that I cannot believe can happen to someone who says they like beauty and like to take care of themselves.

To the right, you can see my TOP 6 "Please don't!"s, starting with my personal frustration and obvious incapacity of applying mascara when you give me a rubber brush and ending with the cringing that always happens when I see people walking around with chipped nail polish, or even worse, just a bit of nail polish remaining on their nails!
I'm going to go into detail with each of them as we go along, and I'm going to be very curious what your pet peeves are, once I'm done.

Rubber Bristles on Mascaras and Plastic Hairs on Brushes

They wanna make me use all those things but I said No,No,No!

1. I mean it! Don't give me a mascara that has rubber bristles. I might not be good at applying it, or my eyelashes simply don't fully understand its good intentions, I really do not know, but I can tell you that my lashes never look good when such a mascara brush touches them. They end up clumpy, stuck together, and all in all not too pretty. I always get a feeling that they are super heavy and it's very uncomfortable. I've tried. I've tried time and time again to give it one more try, but it just doesn't apply right. Sorry rubber bristles, but I don't like you.

2.  I suspect I'm not the only one who isn't a fan of plastic hairs on brushes that you are supposed to apply your make-up up evenly with. It never works. The powder doesn't stick well, it does everything but apply it evenly and when you clean it, it's like cleaning saran wrap. Once again, I'm sorry but you are not touching me again.

Awful Smelling Lip Balms and The Sudden Shock in Your Hair

3. I'm a big fan of lip balms but when I opened this therapeutic little fellow I felt like I just entered a housewife's living space during spring cleaning. It smelled like orange toilet cleaner mixed with bleach and some other chemicals I can only imagine carpets are being cleaned with. This thing has never touched my lips simply because the smell put me off so bad that I couldn't even imagine letting it come in contact with any part of my body.
It's especially disappointing when you look forward to using a product and the smell is just so bad that it robs you of any and every joy you might have had. Not funny.

4. Has THAT ever happened to you? If you have long hair like me, then I'm pretty sure it has. You're just minding your own business, trying to get that hair in a pony tail as tight as possible so it doesn't move when you run to where you have to be in 5 minutes and BAM! your trusty hair elastic pops open and becomes double in size and close to breaking. Hair is not gonna sit well and you know it can and will break when you least need it to.
The imminent death of the elastic is one of those laws that Mr. Murphy would have mentioned if he would have been a woman, I am sure!

and last but not least

Inefficient Razors and Chipped Nails

5. We've all been there: jumping in the shower in the morning, grabbing the new razor we have just purchased and having high hopes that it will work with us as a perfect human-razor team, like the higher powers had intended it. Ah, but not so fast! Razor has other plans! You do a first shave just to find that half of what shouldn't be there is still there. You do another shave to find that the other half is now somewhat gone, but your skin is looking at you and asking why you've attempted to kill it. At this point, all you want to do is take the razor and throw it away, all the while wondering why can't you just do your job?

6. If you want to make me cringe, you just have to show me chipped nails and someone wearing them proudly. Still can't fully understand how someone can have no problem with the polish on the tips having  long left the building.
I intentionally chipped off my tips in the photo above and took the polish off immediately after, just in case you were wondering. The things we do for art, don't you think?

In my opinion, a manicure is done so that nails can look well-groomed and neat, not so hat they look even worse than before. I also have problems seeing nails with just a splat of color left somewhere in the middle of them. For me, it's just not pretty. Keep it tidy or take it off.

These have been my ultimate No-Gos when it comes to beauty, maybe you will agree with some and maybe you can tell me about yours! What are your pet peeves when it comes to beauty?

            You can also Follow on * Twitter * Facebook * Bloglovin *

Body America Lip Butter

As you may or may not know, I am a big fan of lip balms,lip butters,lip moisturizers of any kind for that matter.
I have recently discovered this little guy and was very happy to find that it was made with organic ingredients,contains no Prabens or BHT and was not tested on bunnies or any other cute animals.

It comes in a couple of yummy flavors (yes flavors) and smells, but the one that I got was New York Cheesecake with and Edge.

As you can see,it comes in a 8.5g ( 0.3 ounce) container and smells so, so good! The downside to it is that because it smells and tastes so good,you might end up licking it off your own lips before its time. I'll admit that I've done it quite a bit.

I'm also really liking the vintage look of the packages and the cute names that every scent combination has gotten.

The texture is super creamy and delicious and it feels amazing on my lips. I've only had one issue with it,but I suspect it was because of the insane heat that we've been having here:
The lip butter's top layer (about 3mm off the top) started becoming gooey and clumpy. I think it had something to do with the fact that its ingredients are pretty natural and it went from 40C to 20C and back in one day,so the top layer that had begun to melt a bit got a "freeze dry" shock. But after removing that top layer,the butter underneath was just as soft and awesome as usual.


Ingredients:

As you can see,it contains a lot of great oils as well as my favorite,the Shea butter! It was pretty much the ingredients that made me get this lip butter.


Here's what it looks like on my lips:

I have to tell you,this looks and feels much better than any transparent gloss I have had so far. You also get a bit of a white-ish undertone that I really like on my lips. It makes them look a bit more pastel and sweet.
It's pretty much the effect you'd try to achieve with a pink-ish lip gloss,in terms of subtlety.

All in all I really like this lip butter because it stays on your lips for a long, long time (unless you start eating it off), which is a very important thing when it comes to such products, and it feels and looks amazing in the process. This definitely is a favorite,along with the Rosebud Strawberry Lip Salve.

Do you have any favorite lip balm?


                                                You can also Follow on * Twitter * Facebook *