DIY Idea: Strawberry Lemonade

You might not know this but I have a bit of a fascination for sour beverages, which just makes lemonade the perfect drink. Sometimes it gets a bit too sour though, so it's time to add some sweetness to it. That's where strawberry comes in. And the combination of lemon and strawberry results in a great spring/summer treat.

                           
Not to mention that it's super easy to make. You of course need strawberries, lemons and/or limes, brown sugar and water.
To make it easier, just cut the peel of the lemon and remove the seeds, then throw it in the blender as it is. You get more of the lemon's vitamins and don't have to squeeze it trying to get all the juice out.
Add your berries and some brown sugar ( I prefer brown sugar but regular one works just fine also), top it off with water and blend that mix.

You'll be left with a yummy fresh drink for warm days or for a delicious breakfast!




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Making THE Best Smoothie Out There

A while ago, I went to my favorite smoothie makers and saw a very interestingly named smoothie: The Strudel Smoothie.
I was also confused as to how a smoothie was going to become a strudel but the ingredients looked magnificent: muesli, apple, cinnamon and honey.

The bigger surprise came when I tasted it and it was incredible! It had that familiarly delicious taste that I don't necessarily associate with a strudel but definitely with baked goods from when I was small.It was pretty magical and I was surprised that somebody had managed to create such a thing.

So you can imagine I tried to recreate it, the great part about it was, it was incredibly easy to recreate spot on. So here's how you can do it too:

Step 1 : Gather up your ingredients. Muesli (I picked oats because they give it a delicious thickness), some cinnamon, milk and an apple

Step 2: Cut and slice whatever needs to be sliced. I actually use an apple and a glass of milk per portion and it works out great. I also suggest using as much oats as you want, you will want it of a thicker consistency.

Step 3: Throw everything in a blender and add some honey. Again, the quantity is completely up to you.

Step 4: Pour it and enjoy it!

I am pretty sure you will experience the same kind of love at first taste that I did! 

                             





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Rainbow Eye(Liner)

I've realized that this is the first time I've posted a make-up look. Well, eye look in any case.
It's true, you've met my eye before, when it was staring at you with mascara or concealer,but never when it was prettified.
I've concluded I have to fix that!

I've been seeing a lot of rainbow eyes around and they all looked so fun, but I'm not necessarily one to go for really bright colors when doing a look. Also because most don't look that amazing on me, but since this was more or less an eyeliner and it was colorful, I figured it could work well. And it did!

Looks fresh, doesn't it? 
I decided to just do 3 colors, as I wasn't so keen on red and orange, but I like it! I have a feeling I might be even wearing it to work, wonder how that will go.

Here's how I did it:

1.Picked up my handy dandy 120 color magic palette and chose the right colors

 
2. Picked up my angled eyeliner brush and made it wet. The color is much more intense when wet so it will really pop!

3. Worked my way around the upper lid starting from the inside ( so with the color blue)

And voila' !

You should absolutely give it a try, as it's really fun to do and to look at!

What do you think?




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Crunchy Autumn Nails Tutorial

The thing with nails is, you can do pretty much anything with them and can play with colors, textures, moods and so much more. To me, they mostly stand for a mood or the way I feel. Could also explain why I change them up every other day.
Since autumn has hit full on, and so has the autumn mood, I decided to create a bit of autumn on my nails. I usually don't stick leafs on my nails, but this time I found it to be necessary. You can only do so much with colors. In the end, browns and golds can be used at any time of the year, but the dry leafs only come around once.

So, without further ado, here’s what you too can do:

First Up:  Collect your leafs and tear them into little pieces. I admit there's not that many dead leafs lying around just yet, so I just got one type. But I highly recommend getting all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors, it makes for a much cooler manicure!
Secondly:  Pick your polish. I went with Catrice - In the Bronx because it's all autumny and gives a really nice bronze effect
Thirdly: As your polish is still wet, carefully place pieces of your leafs on your nails. You need the polish to be wet so that they can stick properly. Push them down with a toothpick or something else that has a small tip

Then:  If you have some matching glitter, dab it on the sides of each piece of foliage so that it looks like that's what's keeping them in place. In fact, it will indeed also keep them better in place and it looks very pretty.

And Lastly:  Top Coat It! I suggest a thicker top coat if you have one, if not, just put two layers of a normal one on top for everything to come together and shine.

And Voila! This is what you will end up with!

I actually like the fact that it looks like has some texture, even if you don't feel it because of the top coat.
It's a great autumn manicure and I’ve had many people stare at it and ask how I managed to do it. Well folks, hope you're reading this!

Have you tried any autumn manicure yet?


                          
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Matte on Shiny Nails

This is still Nail Week and since it is, I decided to show you a little twist on a manicure you might have seen in my post about Nails on my To Do List .
There were so many pretty things in that post, some of which I've managed to pull off, like the Swirl Nails and the Swirl Nails Tutorial that went with it.

Well, now it's the time for some matte on shiny action.
Looking at those names, I'm starting to think it could be the name of an adult film so let's keep an innocent mind and proceed to the actual manicure.

I took a black polish, then used a matte top coat on the entire nail and then added some shiny strips I already had.
Now of course, these were strips, but you can also just use tape to make your actual strips.

What you have to do is:

• paint your nail with a normal black polish
• let it dry completely. I recommend 30 mins to 1h
• cover the desired areas with tape 
• use a top coat on the areas that are not covered with tape
• remove tape and end up with shiny stripes from what the tape covered and where the matte top coat didn't get to.

My Tip: 

If you're using really sticky duct tape, stick it on the palm of your hand a couple of times so it loses a bit of its stickiness and won't come off with half of your polish when you pull it off.

ALSO

Don't pull it off like there is no tomorrow. Do it gently or else you might again end up with the base polish moving right along too.


If you're having any tape trouble let me know, because I can easily make a tutorial on both getting the strips I used and on getting the manicure without the strips.

Hope you liked!




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The Perfect Ginger Tea

It's autumn, have you noticed? I do believe you have.

That means there's a big chance you started overdosing on hot beverages, much like myself. In my quest for awesome teas, I've come across a ginger root and while staring at it, I started thinking "You could go in my cup,couldn't you?". And it did.

Ginger in a Cup I called it, later realized it wasn't the most appropriate name and renamed it Ginger Tea. Lack of originality galore right there, but we can't be all cannibalistic with gingers in cups, can we?

In any case, I wish to share my new discovery with you, because not only does it taste good, but it's also healthy and might save your life in case of colds.

You will need:

The Ginger: preferably a root, not a human
Lemon: can't really be mistaken for a human, so I think that one's a safe description
Honey
Boiling Water

What to do with it:

• First up,cut some ginger root slices. You can slice, dice or whatever other shape you wish to give it, just try to cut it relatively thin so that the flavor comes out easier. I put about 3 slices in the cup
• Pour some boiling water over the ginger slices and let it sit for at least 3 minutes
• Add your lemon first and then the honey. There's no right or wrong here, add as much or as little of both as you wish.
• ENJOY!

I've been overdosing on this tea for the past couple of days and I've only toned the consumption down because I'm slowly running out of ginger. But it's definitely one of my favorites now and I think it's going to be a staple drink this winter!

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Making Nail Polish!

It would seem that I'm in  DIY fever, wouldn't it?

Well the thing is, I gave making  nail polish a shot and seem to have created the color I had been looking for most of the year and that I'm sure I'll be wearing a lot this autumn!
Couldn't believe it worked out so well and have been staring at it ever since.
What I was also surprised by was how easy it was to make!

It takes a couple of super easy steps and you can create the shade that you've always wanted and could maybe never find or get your hands on!

Step 1

Get a transparent nail polish, the colors you want to mix and a toothpick to mix it with.The color should be in powder form; either get a pigment or pick some eyeshadows and scrape them off on a piece of paper. If you've scraped your eyeshadow dust off, make it as fine as possible by pounding it a bit more so that it breaks up in smaller pieces and ends up being like fine dust.

You can pick ONE or MORE colors to play with and mix around.

Step 2

Pous the powder into the polish bottle either with a small funnel or with an improvised funnel by bending a piece of paper in the middle and using it as a slide.

Step 3

Use the toothpick to mix it in the beginning and then shake it. It's much easier to mix it by shaking, especially with just pigments.

Step 4

In step 4 you can just sit back and admire the gorgeous shade you have created

Have you ever tried making your own polish? How did it work out?

Also, make sure you've entered my First International Giveaway to win some of my favorite products!

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Swirl Nails Tutorial

Last week, I posted these Swirl Nails I had made, after first seeing them Here, and everyone was curious about how they were done. To be honest, even I needed a couple of attempts before finding an easy and pretty looking way to get them done.
And because everyone wanted to make them and didn't know how, it's time to post the Tutorial on how you can make Swirl Nails.

You Will Need:

- Two polishes of your choice

- Toothpick

- A plastic surface ( saran wrap or a plastic bag)

Step 1.
Pick your polishes and get a toothpick ready
Step 2.  
Spread out saran wrap or a plastic bag over a hard surface. I suggest you duct tape it in place so it doesn't move and ruin your polish while it's drying. Put a dab of the base polish and then a dab of the tip polish on top of it. You should make the whole dab more or less the size of your nails.
Step 3.  
Take your toothpick and swirl away! 
Step 4.
Well this is the part you need patience for : Let your swirl dry overnight, then using a toothpick or your nail, detach it from your plastic.
Step 5.
Put a base coat on your nail and BEFORE IT DRIES put the swirl on your nail. It will probably not fit perfectly so you can cut and bend it into shape. It also might be too small on the sides but that doesn't matter, it's really easy to fix!
Step 6.
After you've cut and formed your swirl transfer into shape, correct the edges with polish. Like you can see in the picture, the bottom ended up being uncovered, so I just put some extra pink polish where needed.

Clean it up, put a Top Coat on to hold it in place and you're ready to go!

I rally like that you're basically getting dry nails and all you have to do is wait for the top coat to dry, which, if you have a quick dry one, might just give you the fastest manicure you've ever had!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and I'd love if you let me know when you try it and show me the result!

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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.

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Monday Blues: Gold Leaf Nail Art

This is very exciting, because starting today, I'll be taking part in the Monday Blues, which is a manicure challenge, where every Monday, you post about the newest blue color that has been on your nails.

Since this is my first time,I wanted to be all cool and not keep it simple, so I decided to do something I had seen,wanted to but had not tried yet. In blue of course :)

Here's what I did

Yes, I normally don't use Photoshop for any of my nail posts,unless the true color doesn't come out in photos and I need to twitch it to make it look like the real deal. But in this case, it wasn't a post about the color, it was about the pattern, and since the lighting was awful for some reason, I went all Vogue on the picture. Looks pretty neat though, if I may say so.


If you're wondering HOW I did it, have no fear, tutorial is here!

The Quick and Easy HOW-TO

Despite what it looks like, it's easier to do than you might think.
You only need one thing: 
A plastic wrapper. Like a sandwich wrapper. I personally used the plastic bag the bread was in. You need one that is quite stiff, so that it holds its shape.



What do to:

Step 1. Paint your nails in the color of your choice. Monday Blues meant blue for me, but next time I am definitely doing black.

Step 2. Crinkle the plastic wrapper. Hold it in your hand and try to make a petal-like shape,like so

Step 3. Apply some gold polish on the crinkled wrapper with the brush. Try not to put too much polish on it. If you feel you have,then just dab the excess off on a paper or a paper towel.
Should look like this, just more crinkled, I let it loose when I was taking the photo.

Step 4. The Awesome Step!
Dab the gold polish filled foil on your nails. If you see there's not enough polish on your foil anymore, brush some more on.


And there you have it!


Make sure you check out the other ladies taking part in the Monday Blues Challenge to see what blues they used today:

Gosia from Life in Color!

Mihaela from Lacquerbuzz

Mandy from Chameleon Stampede

Marisa from Polish Obsession

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Nails On My To Do List

I've been getting more and more into nail art recently, and not the kind where you put 3D mushrooms on them, or draw smurfs, but the kind that is wearable and chic. In my opinion of course.

If you're still stuck on the 3D mushrooms, yes, I have seen nails where champignons were literally growing out of them.It sadly was not really my cup of tea but I'm sure they took a lot of effort to make.

What I want to show you are a couple of designs I'll be trying out on myself  in the immediate future, so stay tuned!
The images are from Pinterest, and you can find me and the pins I've used in this post there under LeTreasureChest .

I will start with this gorgeous matte and shiny combination.

I used to do stripes like this. Use a matte coat over the black base color and then do black stripes with the same base polish, just without it being mattified. It looks great,gives it a lovely velvety look and I'll admit, I've been eyeing this for a while.


Another beautiful thing are these framed nails with a twist.

The nude base is gorgeous, and this particular combination looks so chic! Now, if you don't have a dotting tool, here's what you can use as a substitute .




This beautiful thing I've discovered yesterday.

I am pretty sure that the way to do this is with a needle and too much polish on the tips but I'm drying to try it out and will let you know exactly how to do it once do, so stay tuned!


Yes,I'm a bit of a sucker for glitter.

It's nothing too unusual but I love the color combination and how fine the glitter is on the tips. This particular one might actually have been done with loose glitter or a glitter eyeshadow.Yes, you can do it with eyeshadow too, would you want to know how? Let me know!

What I also love  are almost gradient nails, which consist pretty much is a base color and a popping color on the tips. For example: neon yellow on a grey base. Or metallic green on black.



Yesterday,I discovered Louboutin Nails.

You heard right! Black on top, and always red underneath. I might give them a try, when my nails grow long enough. It seems Adele wore them at the Grammys this year and it all took off from there.


A design I really want to try are Map Nails.

  

They are just Newspaper Nails but then, with a map instead.As a matter of fact, you can pretty much put anything that's been printed on paper, on your nails. If you don't know how newspaper nails are done, let me know and I will do a tutorial for you, as they are super fun to do!


One thing I'm not keen on trying, unless you really want to see what they look like, are the apparent trend of the fall : Spice Nails

And no, sadly you don't get to put the Spice Girls on your nails.You put salt, pepper and any other spice of your choice on them.How? Just like caviar nails work. Wet polish, sprinkle of pepper, salt or the BBQ mix you have at hand.

Another gruesome one are the soil nails.
Just what you might think it is, but hope it isn't: Putting soil (aka ground from your garden) on your nails.




Would you like to know more about these? Should I demonstrate? Let me know.

What would you like to try out on your nails? Any designs you haven't tried but want to? I'm really curious about it!


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Galaxy/ Starry Sky Nails: A Guide.

The whole thing started because I decided to give Galaxy Nails a try. I knew it was just a matter of sponging the Milky Way on but I just never felt like attempting it before.

So last night I did.
It was looking very promising until about step 3,when I decided to be less Milky Way and more like the pretty sky I could see outside.
It just took one move to confuse the galaxy that was in the making. I realized it only takes some well placed dark blue polish to ruin,in this case transform, this particular mani.

Here's what happened

Step 1 :  Apply black nail polish. This really can be any black polish,as long as it doesn't take forever to dry. Because as you will be sponging other polishes on it,if it hasn't dried,you will end up with black all over the place.

Step 2 :  Pick a white polish of your choice and sponge diagonally on the black nail,like so:
You can use any sponge,from make-up sponge,to cutting off a little piece of the kitchen sponge.

Step 3 : Apply the first color polish to the upper and lower edges of the white polish line. I used Catrice Iron Mermaiden, whose metallic multi chrome shimmer you can see. It's a bit messy,but I figured I'll clean it up at the end all together and not after each step.Would have been a bit useless to spend more time cleaning.

Step 4 : This is where Galaxy became Night Sky. If you want to keep the galaxy,you should sponge at the edges of the white line,keep some white visible,and create a nebula pattern. Well, I did no such thing.
I took the Catrice Blues Brothers Vol II and the W7 Metallic Mercury  and did some major cover-up work.
The blue is really effective in covering up,so if you're doing galaxy nails,use it sparsely or else it might ruin the galaxy. Also,make sure you use a small sponge when applying the blue,it can easily become too much.
I then put some glitter on it, a purple Saffron  in this case,and voila!


The End Result : 

As far as night skies go,I'm liking the result quite a lot. Next time I will do a proper Galaxy Nail post and not get distracted by pretty stars shining outside.


What I used:

From left to right:

*Saffron Glitter*Catrice Iron Mermaiden*Catrice Blues Brothers Vol II*W7 Metallic Mercury*




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How To Make Your Perfect Shampoo

Couple of weeks ago I was traveling and didn’t have my shampoo with me. For a few nights, we ended up staying with relatives and obviously showering/washing hair there.

This also meant, using the available shampoo.

My luck was, that there were two shampoos there and both of them sounded pretty well separately.
But they sounded much better together, which  made me think: Why not mix them?

Yep, mixing shampoo. Sounds funny but works great!

The two shampoos were  

GUHL Prachtvoll Lang  ( “Beautiful Long” thus for long hair) and

GUHL Kopfhaut Sensitiv  (“Sensitive Scalp Skin” which pretty much meant it keeps the skin on your head from drying out )

Together, they’d make a pretty great couple, wouldn’t they?
Caring for long hair and keeping your scalp from drying out. Not a lot of shampoos can pride themselves with offering that combination. Most just focus on one. Not because it would be hard to focus on more, but from a marketing perspective, keeping things simple and offering a variety of products is good for business.

This is why I did the following:

 Held out my hand, one drop of one, one drop of the other and voila ! 

The new shampoo was born!

 

 

And I must say, I was satisfied with the result!

So why not combine a couple of shampoos that fulfill your needs separately and make it into one big super awesome, all-need fulfilling shampoo ?

I encourage you to try some out if you have them at hand or go out and get the ones you always wanted to try but that weren’t  “just right”.

For example, anti dandruff shampoos only have one purpose. But if your hair is also dry, you’ll need a product to help with moisturizing ( hair masks will cause dandruff, simply because of the mask residue they leave behind). Which means, dandruff shampoo and moisturizing shampoo make perfect shampoo! 

Test and try and you might end up with a perfect hair loving wash!

And also let me know if you do or plan on doing it, I’m super curious what you’d mix!

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Polka Dot Nails and What To Do When You Own No Dotting Tool

Couple days ago I got two very cute polishes. One was THIS the other one was a pretty pastel pink. Obviously I had to try it on,and as I saw it on my nails I knew it needed little polka dots to make it perfect.

The problem was,I own no dotting tool and was wondering what I can use instead.And then,I saw what was going to be the life saving device. I'm gonna get back to it in a sec,but first I'll show you the finished product:

Mi-Ny in Dali

I like to stare at them,they make me feel so pretty 

And now,I want to ask : do you wish to know what made these polka dots happen? Here you go:

 

That's right,my eyebrow brush!

The bottom of it is perfectly rounded and serves its purpose very well.Just dip it in some nail polish you put on a paper and then tap it on your nails.It will leave a lovely dot. I suggest you do it with the brush slightly inclined and not exactly with the tip of the bottom as it will give you more security in maneuvering it.

So in case you want dots and have no tools,I recommend it! :)

My First Time Doing Water Marble Nails and What I've Learned

Here's the story of me trying out this lovely thing called "Water Marbling". Tutorials have been around for ages now and  a search for it on Youtube gets you a ton of pretty results.
So I decided to give it a shot. What I've learned from this experiment is:
1. Use polishes that are really liquid or else they won't spread around in the water.Ideally you should test the ones you want to use before you use them,it's not fun to have one color that doesn't want to move ruin the pattern.
2. Never use water that is warmer than room temperature.
3. Move fast when you're using a toothpick or any sharp tool to make the patterns. Especially the outer layers will dry fast and might break the design.
4. Depending on colors you use,always have a layer of polish on your nails already (preferably white). The colors in the water tend to be a bit transparent and won't show on your bare nail too much.
5. Make sure your base color is dry,or you might end up with smudges.
6. Bubbles will appear if you don't stick your finger in the water in a very decisive manner.
and one more updated tip
7.Make sure you drop the polish in the water fast,because if it gets a bit dry hanging on the tip of the brush,it won't spread in the water

The result could be better,but since I've learned the 5 things above,I think it's a wonderful thing it doesn't look worse. I'll keep doing them,and I'll show you some more soon,which I'm sure will look better.

And here is the great unveil:

I used China Glaze Hang-Ten Toes from their Summer Neons and Golden Rose No.53