Time for some Excuses.....

...and an update.

First the excuse:
There isn't much action here on this blog at the moment. This is caused by me working rather long days at work. I have some new responsibilities at work and therefore a new schedule. When I am finally at home I am so tired and there is much energy left for blogging. I hope to be back in action soon. I just have to get used to the new schedule and make a new routine.

Then the update:

I have started a small change in my hair routine. I am going to review a shampoo and conditioner from Redken. So I have a small experiment going on. For two weeks the only things that I will use on my hair are the shampoo and conditioner, I will not use any other product. I am hoping that this will give me an idea of how the products work on my hair. So no styling product in my hair for two weeks.

I am also on a little break from shopping more makeup. No more MAC for 2009. I think that my collection is growing faster than I use the products so this is going to be a time for rediscovering forgotten products. Hopefully I will hit the pan on some products too.

I am also on a break from LUSH, this will probably be a rather long break though. I hope to finish up the products that I own, and that's a lot. But I will review the products that I have used. So look out for those.

I hope it won't be too long before I have some more energy and can start posting here again. I have a few ideas on some posts and some more attempts on EOTDs coming up.

Sand Storm and Aura

The lip pencil in the color Sand Storm from Make Up Store is one of my favorite items in my lip product collection. It is a nude beige color with a small amount of shimmer in it. It works very well when it comes to toning down the natural lip color and I use it under lip glosses that are light pink ore more nude in color.

The consistency is very creamy and you can paint the whole lip in this color just as I have on the picture above.


One of my favorite combinations is Sand Storm and Aura a Lip Enhancing Gloss (Full Color) from Smashbox. This is close in color to Sand Storm just a bit more pink. Aura is a nude pink color with lots of shimmer. I wonder if it is the shimmer in this gloss that is supposed to be the Lip Enhancing effect? It probably is...

Together these two make a nice nude lip.

Young Punk and Black Greasepaint EOTD

The picture was taken without flash.

I haven't put on much eye makeup lately due to very early mornings and to be honest I prefer to sleep in the mornings rather than get up and put on makeup. So I have been sporting a natural look all week until now that is. I decided to try out my MAC Greasepaint in Black and the eye shadow Young Punk from MAC to see if I could make a glittery eyeliner out of them. These two was released in the Style Black collection.

Picture taken with flash.

For this I used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance as a base
MAC e/s in Wedge applied lightly in the crease and up towards the brow bone.
Make Up Store (MUS) Microshadow (m/s) in Moscow on the lid.
MUS m/s in Sibiria on the inner part of the lid and on the inner and under part of the lower lashline.
MAC e/s in Brulé as a highlight.

MAC Greasepaint stick in Black was used as a liner on the upper lid.
MAC Mineralize e/s in Young Punk on top of the Greasepaint applied with a wet thin brush. I also used Young Punk dry under the lower lash line.
MAC Fix+ to wet the brush.

Mascara: Imju Fiberwig, Paint-on False Lashes

Isadora Eye Brow Lift and Define (dual pencil) to fill in the brows and highlight the brow bone. The last thing didn't work well at all, which can be seen on the picture taken with flash. It was impossible to blend out.

Santas Rice Porridge, a small ramble.

I have just tried it had felt so excited that I felt like writing a post about it. This is not a full review since I used it about an hour ago. So this is my initial reaction to it.

The first thing I have to say to you is that I have never used a fresh face mask from LUSH before so I didn't know what to expect.

The first thing I did was that I ventured in to my kitchen and pulled out the mask from the fridge. Then what? I have no idea how to use this thing and there are no instructions on the jar. The sales person in the store said to leave it on my face for five minutes and that's all I know.

So I cleaned my face first and left my face a little damp so that the mask could adhere to my skin. Here's where I ran in to trouble. The face mask is very thick and has large chunks of dried cranberries in it. I couldn't spread it out evenly on my skin so I ended up with chunks of mask on my face and in my sink. I tried to wet it a little and this seemed to help.
I left it on my face for five minutes and then as I was washing it off, I massaged my skin to get the exfoliating effect of the ground almonds in the mask. After this I used a toner, the Breath of Fresh Air one from LUSH and then applied my moisturizer, Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief from Clinique.

Now my face feels so smooth and it is glowing. My face looks a lot smoother and I have to say that I like it. I looked a little red from the exfoliation at first but it is now settling and I am left with smooth and nice looking skin.
Since I have just tried it and this is my initial reactions to it, I don't know how my skin will react to it and if the effect will last or if it will break me out. Time will tell though. Of course I will tell you if this happens.

One last thing, as with some of the products that LUSH makes this one is very messy to use. I also think that you should be careful so that you that you don't clog the sink.

For ingredients and more information and prices go to the LUSH website and check it out.

Christmas at LUSH: The Haul

The Christmas collection at LUSH has arrived here in Sweden and since I am a huge fan of LUSH I had to check it out. For me personally I think it is way to early to start selling Christmas products in the beginning of November but I couldn't resist and I picked up a couple of things. Since I own so many LUSH things now I will not visit a LUSH store for some time. I want to finish using up the things that I have now.

So here's the rundown of what I got. All the things belong to the Christmas collection.

Bubble Bars:
I bought all of the three available bubble bars.
Tomteskum: This one has a different name in different countries. In the UK it is known as Wee Harry and in the US it is called Gnome Name.
Christams Eve: A blue bubble bar with a floral scent.
Ruby Red Slippers: A sparkling red bubble bar. I think this one was inspired by the Wizars of Oz.

Bath Bombs:I bought four of the bath bombs:
So White: This one contains pieces of bubble bars in it and it smells of apple. I liked this one so much that I bought two.
Cinders: This yellow bath bomb has more of a spicy and orange scent and it contains fizzy candy. I have to admit that I fell for the candy part.
Christmas Party: A Mimosa (the Champagne drink not the flower) scented bath bomb. I loved the smell of this one. It has some glitter stars and confetti in it, this isn't something that I love in bath bombs though.


Satsuma Santa: A giant bath bomb shaped like Santa. This one has a citrus scent and it smells so good.

Soaps:


There was only two of the soaps available in the store. It was missing the Angels Delight soap.
Snowcake: The LUSH Classic. This one has been raved about so much that I had to get it to see what all the hype was about. I think it looks boring, just a plain white but it smell quite good, a sweet and almond kind of scent.
Father Frost: A beautiful blue soap with a fruity floral scent.

Santas Porridge
The Sales Assistant in the store showed me this one. I haven't tried any of the fresh masks from LUSH, but I have been very curious about them. I couldn't resist this one it smells good and it was inspired by the Swedish porridge "risgrynsgrot". It contains almonds and dried cranberries and lots of other good stuff .


Sources: LUSH Sweden, LUSH UK and LUSH USA

On my lips: Smashbox Doubletake Lip Color in Sugar Spice

This was actually on my lips yesterday so I decided to drop the LOTD in the title. The Doubletake Lip Color from Smashbox comes in the form of a pen. The pen has two sides and it contains a lip liner and a lip color. This is in the color "Sugar Spice"and according to Beuty411 this is the color that "Sookie Stackhouse" wears in True Blood Season 2. They call it the Smashbox Reign Doubletake Lip Color but "Sugar Spice" is not available in this line, so it can be a different color that the makeup artist uses.

The color of the liner is described as a spiced brown on the Smashbox website and the color part as a soft rosy brown. I can't see much of a difference in the two colors.
I am not to fond of this one. It is a nice neutral color but too dark for me. I have taken a photo with half of my lips painted to give you a better idea of how much darker it is than my lip color.

I also think it emphasizes the dryness of my lips and all the lines show up. I don't think you can see this on the picture but it doesn't apply evenly. Small flakes of color ends up on my lips. Of the two sides I prefer the lip liner color. It is a nice color and easy to apply and it works with some of the lipsticks that I own.

After I had taken this pictures I actually decided that my lips were way to dark so I blotted some of the color off with a tissue and applied my Korres Lip Butter in "Jasmine" over it. This made it in to a nice neutral color and a softer look.

Christmas has arrived at LUSH

I just wanted to let you now that the Christmas products is available at LUSH here in Sweden. Well, I guess it is time to do some serious shopping (again).