HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!


I hope you have a wonderful evening and I'll see you next year.

A small sale haul. I did find a bargain (at least I think so).

I went bargain hunting the other day to see if there were any makeup and skincare bargains to find during the sale. There is always a big sale here in Sweden between Christmas and New Year and if you are lucky you can find some good deals.
I didn't find any nice makeup on sale but I wasn't in the mood for buying makeup anyway since I got some really nice things for Christmas. I did however find a couple of skincare items from Clarins on sale, the Cleansing Trio Gift Set for normal to dry skin and the Beauty Flash Balm.


The Cleansing trio did cost 95 SEK and for this I got a 100ml bottle of Cleansing Milk, 100 ml bottle of Toning Lotion and a 30 ml bottle of Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover Lotion. I think this is a great way to try their cleansing products for a reasonable price and the bottles were quite large as well. I am especially excited about the toner since it is alcohol free. Alcohol in toners are one thing that my skin hates since it is very drying.

The Beauty Flash Balm was 195SEK instead of 365SEk so it was a good price but still a little bit expensive for what you get since the tube is quite small, only 50 ml.

To be honest I don't really know what the Beauty Flash Balm is good for. It says on the packaging that it is supposed to be a instant radiance booster and it is supposed to give you a softer, smoother healthier looking complexion. It does however feel like a rather thick moisturizer so I am excited to see if it keeps what it promises.
Have you tried the Beauty Flash Balm from Clarins? If so please leave a comment and tell me what you think about it and how you use it. I am really lost here :)

I didn't buy anything else during the sale but I am happy with the things that I got.
I have been a rather good girl in December and haven't bought a lot of makeup. I do think this will change in January since the Love Lace and the Warm & Cozy Collections from MAC will be released here in Sweden . There are definitively some things from these two collections that I have my eyes on.

LOTD: Chanel

Here is a picture of the lipgloss from Chanel that I got this Christmas from my brother. It is an Aqualumiére Gloss in the color 67 Diamond Rose.


I have to say that I love this gloss. It is a very wearable pink with shimmer in it. It looks like it is packed with lots of small glitters. The shimmer stays put on the lips and gives them a nice sheen.
As far as stickiness goes, it isn't sticky at all. It feels very soft on the lips. It doesn't have a scent, which for me is a good thing. I hate when lip products have strong scents since it can be rather distracting to have a strong scent near the nose.

I think that this may be the start on a small Chanel obsession.

A Beautiful Christmas

I hope you had a great Christmas with lots of joy and good food. I had a great Christmas and celebrated it with my family.

I have a wonderful family who always seems to know what I want for Christmas. They gave me some beauty related things this Christmas. It is always nice when your family understands your interest in beauty and cosmetics.

My brother ventured to the Chanel counter and gave me a lipgloss and a nail polish. I have never tried Chanel before and I really loved the colors and the quality. I received a Aqualumière Gloss in 67 Diamond Rose and a nail color in 495 Mica Rose.

My mom and dad went to the Estée Lauder counter and I received two Christmas gift pack. It was a kit from Estée Lauder that started my little obsession in cosmetics a couple of years ago. I like this brand a lot because they always put together great kits with very wearable colors.
The first kit included a evening clutch and of course makeup.


The second kit was a perfume gift pack in a really nice makeup bag. The gift set contains four perfumes; Beautiful, Sensuous, Pleasures and Pure White Linen. I haven't had time to try them out properly but I have already fallen for one of the perfumes, Pure White Linen.

I did get some other presents as well and I loved them all. So a big thank you and hugs to my wonderful family who brings me so much love and happiness in my life.

Frost and Daylight Madonna

Saturday was a beautiful day. It has been raining a lot lately and the weather has been quite awful but this day was a winter day. It was below zero degrees Celsius and there was night frost on the trees. I was going Christmas shopping and on the bus the window was covered with ice crystals. I managed to take a photo of it with my cell phone.


I was in a great Christmas mood and first I wanted to wear holiday colors like gold and cranberry on my eyes. But the cold inspired me to bring out the Ready-To-Wear Makeup Clutch For Eyes And Lips in 001 Daylight Madonna from Christian Dior (long name there). It contains light pastel colors in pink and gray and the colors are on the cold side, almost like the colors an ice queen would wear.


I think that this is the most luxurious palette that I own. I bought the palette this summer at a sale in NK, a luxury department store here in Sweden. I got it for 50% off so I got it for a reasonable price.
I am glad though that I got it on sale and didn't pay full price for it. The colors are light and for me a little bit on the chalky side. The thing that I don't like is that it's hard to distinguish between the colors when they are on the lid. For an expensive line like Christian Dior I expect more that this to be honest.

Here is a picture of the eye makeup that I wore. You can't see the colors that well and that's my point. I used three colors on the lid but it is impossible to see. I mixed the color on the far left of the palette with Wedge e/s from MAC and used it in the crease so that there would be somewhat more of a difference in color from the lid.

This is what I used:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance as a base
MUS eye pencil in Snowflake to brighten the inner corner of the eye.
Christian Dior palette mention above on lid and in the crease
Wedge e/s from MAC in the crease
Brulé e/s from MAC as a highlight on the browbone
Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in 1999 as an eyeliner.
Imju Fiberwig Mascara

Christmas Party Bath Bomb from LUSH

I have started to work through my LUSH stash and I decided it was time to review the Christmas Party Bath Bomb from LUSH. This bath bomb contains orange, lime and cognac oil and LUSH describes this as a Mimosa (the Champagne drink not the flower) scented bath bomb. I don't know how a Mimosa smells but I like the scent of this one. It is a citrus scent not in your face citrus like Whoosh Shower Jelly but a nice sweet citrus scent. So the scent gets a plus from me.
But here's the thing that I don't like about this bath bomb, it has glitter stars and confetti in it. I thought it would float nicely on top of the water but most of them end up on the bottom of the tub. For me it took more time to drain the tub and avoid letting the stars out of the tub and into the pipes (I was afraid that the stars would cause a stop).
The bath bomb turns the water a into a light yellow color and it stained my bathtub. I ended up with a light yellow line around the inside of the tub, but it wasn't hard to remove, so I can live with that.

Would I buy this again? No, I liked the scent but I hated the stars. I don't think they contribute much to the bath since they end up on the bottom of the tub. It was also hard to drain the tub without letting the stars out.

Redken Real Control

Review time! As I mentioned in the previous post I have been testing a shampoo and conditioner from Redken for two weeks. I bought the products by myself from the UK website HQhair.com. It has been almost two weeks now and I did my last wash for the test yesterday and I am now ready for the review.
The shampoo and conditioner that I have used belong to the Real Control line from Redken and according to the text on the bottle it is supposed to give nourishing care for dense/dry/sensitized hair. The shampoo and conditioner contain Shea Butter and is safe for color treated hair.

This is the description on the back of the bottle:
Real Control shampoo gently cleanses and moisturizes dense, dry, sensitized hair. Formulated with Redken's exclusive Interbond Conditioning System and Care Adjust Complex, it provides nourishing, smoothing control and strengthening care. Hair texture feels transformed with increased manageability and shine....

The important thing to me is that a product lives up to its description. Does it really do all the things that the text promises? Yes and no in this case but more on that later.

First things first, the description of my hair type. My hair is dry, wavy to curly (depending on the hair cut) and color treated (right now dark brown). It is very hard to control and style since my hair consists of rather thick strands of hair and I have lots of flyaway hairs that form a halo around my hair. It has a tendency to become static and ends up in the face and I usually keep my hair pulled back in a ponytail.

The shampoo and conditioner makes my hair feel soft to the touch and gives it shine. It is not a lot of shine but enough to keep it looking healthy. After I have washed my hair it is easy to comb through and detangle. But it feels like it is hard to rinse out the conditioner, it sort of sticks to the hands and to my hair. However once my hair has dried I can't feel any residue from the conditioner in my hair. It also leaves my hair feeling clean longer than other products that I have used recently and I can't feel any build up of product in my hair.
The one thing that I feel is a negative with the shampoo and conditioner is that my hair feels very light and airy. This gives the hair a tendency to become a little bit poofy at times. It hasn't affected me much since I have it in a ponytail but could become a problem if it wasn't pulled back.

As far as adding moisture to the hair I don't think these products compare to the Hydratherapie line from the Matrix Biolage range. This line really adds moisture to the hair but I have to use it sparingly since long use can make the hair feel a little bit greasy. The Real Control product do give the hair enough moisture to make it feel soft.

Do the product live up to what they claim. Yes and No. I think that they make the hair easy to control in the way they make it easy to comb through and detangle. But the fact that it makes my hair feel very light and airy may cause a problem when not wearing it in a ponytail.

Would I buy this again? Yes I would, but I think that it is way to expensive here in Sweden for what you get. The shampoo costs about 280 SEK and the conditioner 310 SEK at Bellbox. I bought mine from the UK and so I didn't spend that much.

One last note, I think that these products are aimed for thicker/coarse hair so if you have fine hair you should be careful. I don't know how finer hair reacts to these products.