Hi everyone!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas with lots of joy and love.

I had a great Christmas and I spent it with my family. I cooked the food for the Christmas dinner this year and it was my first time. I had help and together we made way too much food so we are probably going to eat the same food for a couple of days in a row.
Hopefully today we will change it up and eat some turkey that my mother made for us.

I had to work on Christmas Day so I was away from home and my computer for most of the day so I am taking the opportunity to give you all my best wishes and I hope that you are happy and feeling well.

The end of the year is coming up and I hope that 2010 was a great year for you. But there are still some days left of the year so lets make them happy ones.

I want to thank you all for taking the time to read my blog so Thank You and lots of Happy Hugs from me to all of you.

On my eyes: Smokey Purrfect Eye

I have fallen in love with the black liner color in the Purrfect Cat Eye Talking Palette from Stila. I think that this color is called Black Cat and this is not completely black but more a grayish black with shimmer. I think this is a perfect black for a dark smokey eye because it gives the eye a little more dimension than a matte black such as Carbon from MAC.

I have run out of my good eyeshadow bases and decided to try to use the High Tech Lighter by Make Up Store and this one creases a bit. So there is some creasing going on on the eye, but I am going to pretend that it's supposed to look like that. Lets pretend that it is a little bit more Rock 'n' Roll.

To add some sparkle to the eyes I added false lashes with some bling. This makes this look more fun than a traditional false eyelash.


For this eyemakeup I used the following products:

Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch
Make Up Store High Tech Lighter in Platina as a base.
Stila Purrfect Cat Eye Talking palette, Line Color and Base Color.
MAC Kohl Power Eye Pencil in Feline.
Lancôme Hypnôse Mascara
Make Up Factory Eye Brow Styler no 3.
Ardell Lashes called Pretty

On my lips: Crème Cup from MAC

During the winter time of the year I get really pale. The suntan that I acquired on my vacation is long gone and I am starting to look a little ghost like. During this time of year I love to wear lipsticks that are more cold tone and my favorite is a light cool pink color on my lips.

Right now my favorite lipstick is a Cremesheen lipstick from MAC called Crème Cup. This is a creamy well pigmented lipstick and this is a color that I would like to call a cool toned nude pink.

I like to layer this over Sharp Rose lip Pencil from Make Up Store to make it a little more bright pink. I think these two work very well and for now they create the perfect pink for my pale skin.

Christmas at LUSH

I have had a cold all week and I therefore beauty has not been on my mind this week. I hate colds since you do not feel that great and you definitely don't look that good. Your nose gets all red (at least mine) and your eyes water and there is nothing that will make you look good.
But I am better now and I am no longer sporting the "Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer" look and I am now enjoying makeup and beauty again.

It is December now and we are in the Holiday Season and one thing that I look forward to every year is the Christmas Products from LUSH. I love the imagination that LUSH has and I am always excited to see what they have come up with.

I focused on the bath products this year and I managed to not buy to much stuff and I am rather happy with my small haul.

The things that I picked up this year are:



Cinders Bath Ballistic: This was my favorite last year and I actually bought two this year. This Bath Ballistic has a warm spicy scent and it has Pop Candy in it. This makes a crackling sound that reminds me of a crackling fire in an open fire place. This is perfect when you want to warm yourself up on a cold winter evening.

Li'l Lush Pud Bath Ballistic: I passed on this last year and I am curious about this one and I am especially curious about the color of the bath water. This is a brown bath ballistic and I think it is supposed to look like a Christmas Pudding. It has a spicy scent as well with lemon and clove notes. According to LUSH it is a soothing Bath Ballistic that contains Aloe Vera, which is good for dry skin.

The Böögg Bath Ballistic: This is inspired by a Swiss tradition involving Fire Works and a Snowman. This Bath Ballistic is white but it as colorful pieces in it which will release when the Bath Bomb melts making a colorful pattern in the water. I hope this one will do a better job than the Dragon's Egg Bath Ballistic, which didn't impress me at all. This one has a green and herbal scent.

The Bearded Lady Bubble Bar: The thing that got me all excited about this one is that it contains bananas and avocado. This sounds like a great product for dry skin since both bananas and avocado is very moisturizing.

The Gingerbread House: what can I say? It's a Gingerbread House and it is enough for me. This is a spicy Bubble Bar with Ginger as the main note. I love the look of this one but sadly my Bubble Bar has lost its cinnamon chimney.

I definitely recommend that you check out the Christmas products from LUSH this year. There is something for everyone. If you prefer more sweet and Candy like scents I recommend that you check out the Snow Fairy Shower Gel and Candy Cane Bubble Bar.


Source: LUSH UK

These products were bought with my own money and this is my own opinion. I am not affiliated with LUSH.

Review: Lily Lolo Mineral blushes

I am continuing my reviews on the products that I have tried from Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics and I am now taking a look at the blushes.

I have two blushes, one matte called Clementine (on the left side of the picture) and one shimmery called Candy Girl (on the right side of the picture).


Clementine belongs to the matte category of blushes and is a beautiful peachy pink blush. It isn't completely matte and it has a small amount of sheen to it. This blush is beautiful on the cheeks and it gives you a nice healthy glow. This is definitely my favorite of the two blushes and I am thinking of buying a full size jar of this.

Candy Girl is a pale pink blush with shimmer. The color is beautiful, a pale pink color but there is too much shimmer in the blush. I am not a huge fan of shimmer in blushes and this amount of shimmer isn't a look that suites me because it might look a little unnatural and also emphasize pores on the cheeks.
I have used a small amount of this on a large fluffy powder brush as a highlight on the cheekbones and it looks beautiful that way.

When you buy samples of the blushers on the Lily Lolo website you receive the samples in small zip lock bags. This makes it a little tricky to use the blush and I wish they would provide the blush samples in small jars like they do with the foundations and bronzers.

On my eyes; The True Romance palette in True Love from Kat Von D for Sephora

For this eye makeup I used my new palette that I bought at Sephora when I was on vacation in Hawaii. The palette is called True Love and comes from the Kat Von D line at Sephora.

I was very impressed with the pigmentation of the shadows in this palette and how easy they are to work with.
The palette comes with 7 powder eyeshadows and one gold cream shadow called Benji. I haven't used the cream shadow yet so I cannot tell you if it is good or not.

The shadow names from left to right: Peanut, Benji, Rebekah, Lucifer, Cholita, Shiba, Babe and Missy

For this eye makeup I used the following products:

MAC Paint in Bare Study as a base.
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk also as a base on the lid from lashes to crease.
Kat Von D Palette in True Love and I used the following shades, Missy, Babe, Shiba and Lucifer.
Make up Store Cake Eyeliner in Black
Make Up Factory Eye Brow Styler 3
Lancõme Hypnõse Mascara in Black

Review: Lily Lolo Mineral Bronzers

I am continuing my reviews on the products from Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics and this time I will write about the Bronzers that I purchased a while ago.

I have two samples of the bronzer, South Beach a matte bronzer for Light skin tones and Waikiki a shimmery bronzer for light skin tones.

On the left is the South Beach Bronzer and on the right is
the Waikiki Bronzer.

My favorite of the two is the South Beach Bronzer. I didn't like this when I first swatched it on my hand. I thought it had a orange tint to it and I had my doubts on how it would look on my face. But when I tried it on my face I changed my opinion.
This is a light bronzer and it warms up the skin in a natural looking way. It isn't as orange as I first thought but more peach toned and this prevents the bronzer from looking muddy on your skin.

The Waikiki Bronzer is more golden toned and it has shimmer in it. Personally I prefer a matte bronzer and therefore I am not a big fan of this. This is lighter in color that the South Beach Bronzer and I think it will suit more pale complexions.
I don't reach for this very often but sometimes I like this as a warm highlight on my cheekbones.

The South Beach Bronzer has become my favorite bronzer at the moment and I think I will order a full size jar of this.


I purchased these products with my own money and it is my own opinion.

On my nails: Mermaid To Order from Sephora by O.P.I

I love this color and looking at my nails make me happy. My nails look like small jewels on my fingers.

Review: Lily Lolo Mineral Foundation

I have been using the Lily Lolo Mineral Foundation for quite some time now and I think it is time that I told you what I think about it.

Well, I love it.

The foundation is free from talc, parabens, bismuth oxychloride, synthetic dyes and fragrances. This is always a good thing since these ingredients can irritate the skin and we don't want that.

I am a NC20 in MAC foundations and this means that I have yellow undertones and that I am quite fair. I ordered three samples, two light shades, Warm Peach (for warm skin tones) and Blondie (for neutral skin tones) and one light-medium shade, In the Buff( for neutral skin tones). I started using the two lighter shades at first but after my vacation I started to use In the Buff and I like how this warms up the skin

As I mentioned I love this mineral foundation and the reason for this is that it gives my skin a nice glow and it doesn't irritate it or dry it out. I have very dry skin with lots of texture to it and I am surprised how well this works on me. Normally powder foundations tend to look very powdery and dry on me but this blends nicely with my skin.

I think that the coverage for this foundation is light to medium. You can build up the coverage by applying more but there is a limit on how much you can apply before it looks powdery and cakey.

I have taken photos of my skin to show you before and after pictures. I haven't used anything but the foundation to show you how the foundation looks on the skin. Normally I would use concealer and sometimes also primer before I apply the foundation. I also use Fix+ from MAC as a finishing spray to make it blend into the skin better.

The picture on the left is with no foundation and the picture to the right is after I have applied the foundation.

The foundation has a limited staying power and it does start to disappear after a while and your imperfections start to show through. For me this isn't a problem since I wear concealer underneath but it can be a problem if you have oily skin.

There is one thing you should think about before you buy the mineral foundation from Lily Lolo and that is the glow factor. The foundation contains mica and this gives the skin a nice glow without any glitter. Because my skin is very dry it is also very matte and dull looking so for me this is a plus. But if you are oily this might make you look very shiny and this might not be the look you are looking for.

Overall grade: I love it and I will definitely buy this in full size. But if you have oily skin you should invest in a sample and see if it will make you look shiny because of the glow.

Source: Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics


I bought this with my own money and it is my own opinion.

Review: Dragon's Egg Bath Ballistic by LUSH

This Bath Ballistic from LUSH comes with a very festive description and LUSH describes it as "cracking sherbert-scented fireball". I was so excited when I bought this because I could picture it before me, a festive explosion of color and glitter in my bathtub.

When I dropped this Bath Ballistic in my tub the only thing that happened was that it started to make a fizzing sound and released some orange color. I can imaging that this orange burst of color is supposed to represent a flame from a Dragon's Egg or something like that, but for me it wasn' very festive.


The Dragon's Egg Bath Ballistic also filled my bath water with glitter and this ended up sticking to my skin and making me look very sparkly, which in fact isn't really my thing.

Even though this sounds like a very negative review I actually liked the Dragon's Egg Bath Ballistic.
I really liked the scent of this one, it has a sweet and soft citrus and Bergamot scent and it felt moisturizing as well. My skin felt soft after I had bathed and that is always a good thing.

Overall grade: The Dragon's Egg Bath Ballistic has a great scent but it isn't as festive as the description on LUSH' website makes it out to be.

Source: LUSH UK Website


I paid for this product myself and it is my own opinion. I am not affiliated with LUSH.

On my eyes: Stila Purrfect Cat Eye

The Stila Purrfect Cat Eye belong to the talking palettes from Stila in fact the full name of this palette is the Purrfect Cat Eye- The Talking Kitten Palette. This palette may look boring when you look at it but it is amazing and perfect when you want a more toned down and neutral everyday look.
The palette contains the popular shade Kitten, a shimmery pink champagne color. I like this palette a lot and it surprised me because the quality of the shadows is really good, the shadows are soft and pigmented and apply like a dream.


For this eye makeup I used the following products:

MAC Paint in Bare Canvas as a base
Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch as a base under the eye and under the brow bone.
Stila Purrfect Cat Eye Palette, I used all the colors in the palette and instead of eyeliner I used the shimmery black color called Black Cat as a liner.
Kiss Me Heroine Make Volume & Curl Mascara
YSL Touche Éclat Radiant Touch in 2 under the eyes to conceal dark areas.

Halloween Nails

A little late but better late than never, right?


I didn't dress up for Halloween, but I decided to do something fun. I picked up Waikiki Color (1133) by Island Girl Hawaii when I was on vacation in Honolulu, Hawaii, but I didn't know what to do with it. Waikiki Color is a very bright neon orange color, and it is way to bright to wear to work and much, much brighter than the colors that I normally wear on my nails. I thought I might wear it as a fun color in the summer, but it's fall now and summer is far away.

This weekend I realized that this is the perfect Halloween color. Put on some spooky nail stickers and it is the perfect Halloween manicure. I ended up with only two stickers on the nail, one on each hand, because these were really hard to apply and I simply gave up after a while.

This color is super bright and it looks like it's glowing on the nails. This nail polish surprised me because it dried to a matte finish and I like it, so much that I can see myself wearing this in the summer.

Review: Heroine Make Volume & Curl Mascara by Kiss Me

I bought this mascara early in the spring this year when I was on vacation in Hong Kong. But I started using it this fall, and I have used it for some time now and I am impressed with this mascara. It gives long and full lashes and it is very easy to apply. It looks almost perfect at once and I do not need to comb through my lashes after I have applied it. This is a very good thing since I am a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to mascara application and I hate it when the lashes clump together.

This mascara stays on all day and it doesn't smudge and there are no flakes of mascara under the eye in the evening. In fact it still looks as good after twelve hours of wear as it did after I just applied it.
But it is not the easiest mascara to remove and there is only one thing that works, the Bi-facil eye makeup remover from Lancôme, and even then it is hard work. I have lost a couple of lashes trying to remove this stuff.

One thing that is on the negative side with this mascara is that it doesn't dry at once so if you are not careful it will transfer on to the upper lid right after you have applied it. So you have to remember to look down a short time after you have applied the mascara. It is not a big deal but something to think about.


Overall grade: I like this mascara,it stays on all day and it doesn't cost a lot, only 59 HKD (approx. 51 SEK).


I bought this product with my own money and it is my own opinion, I am not affiliated with this company.

Halloween at LUSH

This year LUSH is celebrating Halloween the Mexican way and has taken inspiration from the Day Of The Dead festival in Mexico.

LUSH has come up with three limited edition products, a Bath Ballistic, Shower Jelllies and a soap. The scent of these products are all inspired by Mexico and all of the products have a variation of a fruity lime scent.

I picked up two of the products at LUSH

The Calavera Bath Ballistic


I liked the look of this Ballistic, it is white with areas that are pink, blue and orange.changes color in the bath and is supposed to look like a "magical, eerie celebration in the water", and it contains neroli, lime and marigold petals. I am excited to try this one and see how it behaves in the water.

Lady Catrina Soap
This soap is formed like a purple hat decorated with colorful fruits. It smells like fruit pastilles and lime and contains Agave nectar. I love the scent of this soap and I am a little sad that it is a limited edition soap. I use this to wash my hands and the scent of this soap fills my bathroom and make it smell like fruit pastilles.

I didn't pick up the third product, the Calacas Shower Jelly since I am not a big fan of Shower Jellies. I rarely use the one I have bought in the past and therefore decided to skip this one. The Calacas Shower Jelly is shaped like a skull and come in three different colors, yellow, green and orange and it has the scent of lime and Jelly Beans.

I picked up one of their newer products as well, the Dragon's Egg Bath Ballistic.
This is also a color chaning bath Ballistic and LUSH descibes this ones as a "Cracking Sherbert-Scented Fireball".


It has a fresh citrus scent and contains lime and bergamot. I fell head over heels for the description of this one. It contains glitter and cracking candy and changes color, what more can a girl want in a bath bomb. Oh and the scent is wonderful also.

Source: The LUSH UK Website

On my nails: Metro Chic from Sephora by O.P.I

This is a nail color that has been on my "Most Wanted List" for a long time.

This is a purple smoky taupe and it was an unusual color when it was first released and it was talked about a lot in the beauty community. These days there are many similar shades being released by nail polish brands so it isn't the unique color it used to be.

At first I didn't like this on my nails at all. I felt it was to dark and just not my color, but after a while I got used to it and it grew on me.

I am impressed with the formula of this one, it applies evenly and opaque and two coats is enough to get a good result.

I am back

I have been on a little break. I lost some of my inspiration and I also went on vacation. Before I went on my vacation my mind was very focused on the trip and I felt that my interest in makeup had to step aside a little.
But now I am back and I feel that I am ready to start writing posts on my blog again.

I have been to the United States and of course you cannot go to the States without buying some makeup, right?

Here is a sneak peak on the things that I picked up on my vacation. I tried to focus on brands that I cannot buy here in Sweden. This is just a little sneak peak and I will write more about the things that I bought later on the blog and maybe focus more on the individual things.


I am putting myself on a little shopping ban until the end of 2010. I think that it is the right time to do this, because at the moment I have so many new things that I like to try out before I buy something new. Also I don't want to end up owning a lot of things that I don't use. I look forward to this and to see if I am able to rediscover some things that I have forgotten about.

There is only one thing that I am allowed to buy for myself makeup and beauty wise and it is the Holiday collection from LUSH. This I cannot resist.

Sometimes you just need a break.

If you follow my blog you might have noticed that there isn't a lot of action here at the moment. This is caused by a lack of inspiration. I don't know why exactly but sometimes life just gets in the way.

My lack of inspiration has also been reflected in my makeup and I haven't worn a lot of makeup lately. Most of the time I have worked on my base trying to look as flawless as possible. The only things that I have been wearing lately are concealer and powder foundation. I have been using my samples of Lily Lolo foundation that I bought a while ago and so far I love this stuff. I am definitely buying a full size jar of this when I run out of my samples. I just have to decide which color to buy.

This is just a temporary phase that I am going through and I plan to be active here again in October. I want to take some time to find my inspiration again and sometimes it's best to just take a break.

I want to take the time to thank everyone that reads my blog. This is still a very small blog and I write this blog because I love to share my love for makeup and beauty with you. Therefore I am grateful that you take the time to read my blog.

Thank you

Graffiti Nails

The Graffiti Nails Polishes from Isadora has definitely been talked about on the Swedish Beauty Blogs. It almost seems that everyone who has a beauty blog here in Sweden has talked about this. Well, I couldn't resist doing the same. At first I thought that they weren't that special and I didn't like the look. But of course I came around and got myself one polish in 803 Masterpiece Pink.

So what are a Graffiti Nail Polish? This is a polish that is meant to be worn on top of another polish. When it dries cracks are formed in the polish and you can see the polish underneath. I have to admit that it makes a fun manicure but it isn't very good looking.

I did this on one finger with another polish called 65 Smoky Grey underneath . I picked this up the same day that I got the Grafitti nails polish and this is definitely a winner. The application is perfect and you get almost a perfect nail on the first coat. The color is a dark creme gray and this will be perfect for fall.


I only used the Graffiti Nails on one finger because I wasn't sure that I would like it and to be honest I didn't. I had this image of a perfect manicure in my head and this wasn't the look that I was going for.

On the other fingers I am wearing Maple Street by Nails Inc. London.

I love coupons......

...especially coupons that give you discounts on beauty products. For me this means that I can buy something that I normally wouldn't buy because I think it's too expensive.

This time I had a coupon that gave me 20% off on a beauty product of my choice so I decided to go to the luxury brand counters in the department store. At first I didn't find anything that I wanted and I also got very annoyed when there wasn't any staff in many of the counters. But after a while I found this at the Lancôme counter:

This is a kit that contains a mascara and to mini products to try. This one contains the Hypnôse mascara, Bi-Facil Sensitive Eyes Instant Cleanser and a Long-Lasting Softening Concealer.

I have wanted to try the Bi-Facil Cleanser for a while now because I have heard lots of good thing about it. I haven't bought it because of the price and the fact that my eyes can become very irritated by make up removers. It isn't very fun to spend a lot of money on something just to find out that you can't use it.

I have tried a sample of the mascara a couple of years ago and I remembered that I liked it and it will be fun to compare it to the cheaper brands to see if the price tag is justified, for 305 SEK (without the coupon) it should be something very special.

on my lips: Make Up Store Sharp Rose

I am only wearing one thing on my lips today and it's a lip pencil from Make Up Store called Sharp Rose. This is a nice warm pink with some shimmer in it and it works perfectly on its own instead of a lipstick.

On my nails: Olé by Orly

Note: I used a quick dry product on top of the nail polish making

the nail polish look more shiny.

This is my first nail polish from Orly and I so far I like it. This is a bright coral color that is perfect for summer. It is a creme and surprisingly it is quite thin. I have purchased some creme polishes during this summer and all of them have been thick, so thick in fact that they have been a pain to apply. This is so much easier to apply and I applied two coats of the nail polish to make it even. I could have used one ore coat though to make it more opaque.

I picked up the polish at Åhléns (a department store here in Sweden) and as a bonus it came with a small bottle of Orly Top 2 Bottom. I don't remember what I paid for and I threw away the receipt but I think it was about 135 SEK.

I used the following products on my nails:


Orly Top 2 Bottom
Orly Olé Nail Lacquer
Yves Rocher Quick Dry Fluid

On my nails: French Manicure with silver glitter

For this I used the following products:


French Manicure Base in Pink from a Depend French Manicure Kit
Kiss Brush-On Nail Art Paint in PA10 Silver Glitter
Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamond Shine Top + Base Coat

The Nail Art Nail Polish works very well for painting the tips of your nails. But I think this might look a little better on longer finger nails but I am very pleased with the result.

I also picked up a bottle of white Nail Art Polish so I can do a more classic French Manicure. I am thinking of investing in some more colors and I have my eyes on the gold glitter polish.

On my Lips: Ambre Rose and Mellow Gold

This is a lip combo that I am liking at the moment, pale pink lips with a touch of gold. I have used a pale golden gloss from Shiseido on top of Ambre Rose Color Sensational lipstick from Maybelline.
The lip gloss from Shiseido is quite sheer and very subtle on the lips and works best when it is layered over a lipstick.

Products used on the lips:


Korres Lip Butter in Jasmine
Make Up Store Lip Pencil in Sand Storm
Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in 112 Ambre Rose
Shiseido The Makeup Lip Gloss in G29 Mellow Gold

Swatches: Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics Blushes & Bronzers

I did some swatches of the blushers and bronzers that I ordered samples of from Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics. I did the swatches on my hand because I wanted a more textured surface to be able to really show you the shimmer in some of the products.

From left to right: Clementine Blush, Candy Girl Blush,
South Beach Bronzer and Waikiki Bronzer.

Both Candy Girl and Waikiki have shimmer in them, in fact they are so shimmery that I think that they are almost metallic looking. Because of this I do not use them on the cheeks since shimmery products tend to emphasize an uneven surface and therefore make the pores that I have on my cheeks look even more noticeable.
They are great as highlighters though if you use them with a big fluffy brush.

Both the Clementine Blush and the South Beach Bronzer are matte, but they aren't chalky looking at all but very soft in texture and also very pigmented. I do think that the South Beach bronzer has an orange tint to it, but I haven't used it enough to be able to tell you how it behaves on the skin.

My favorite so far out of the four is the Clementine Blush. I love the texture and the color of this. It is a very beautiful pink peach color and it looks very nice on the cheeks.


Update: I have used these products for some time now and I have written a review on the Bronzers.
superficialityblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/review-lily-lolo-mineral-bronzers.html

A quick sniff: Britney Spears Fantasy

When I am in town shopping I always seem to end up in the perfume departmente. I love to spray perfumes on small paper strips and to be able to smell a perfume that people are talking about and to see what all the hype is all about.

I have been watching some perfume collection videos on YouTube and did notice that many of the beauty gurus on YouTube have Britney Spears Fantasy in their perfume collection.
This made me curious and I decided that I needed to take a closer look at this perfume and I make a stop at my nearest perfume department and put some perfume on my wrist.

The first thing that I noticed was that this is a very sweet and powdery scent. The top notes include kiwi and red litchi but I couldn't sense the fruit in this perfume. The scent reminds me of caramel and I can definitely sense a powdery musc developing.

This perfume lasts a long time on my skin and it is very potent. I applied a very small amount but I could feel it for several hours after I had applied it.

This perfume wasn't for me it was way to sweet for me and it actually made me sneeze a couple of times. I so wanted to like this but I can't see myself buying this perfume in the future.

I do recommend this perfume to people who like sweet perfumes. It is a nice perfume and it last a long time on the skin so you don't have to reapply it during the day, so you do get a lot for your money.

The notes in this perfume are:
Top: kiwi and red litchi
Middle: white chocolate, jasmine and orchid
Base: musc, orris root and woodsy notes.

source: Frangrantica



This review is based on first impression made from a test spray on one of my wrists. I am not affiliated with the company and it is my own opinion.

Trying some new mineral makeup, a small haul from Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics

I have decided that it is time for me to try mineral makeup again. My experience with mineral makeup is minimal. I did try some samples from Everday Minerals but I wasn't super impressed. I think that I picked out the wrong colors and the wrong finish and the result wasn't very impressing.

I recently discovered a UK based brand called Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics. This company offers mineral makeup without chemicals and synthetic dyes. Their makeup is also Bismuth Oxychloride free which is always a plus since Bismuth Oxychloride can irritate the skin. I was also glad to see that the ingredient list for the foundation is talc free.

I ordered some samples and three of the samples where foundation shades. I have to say that the most negative thing with ordering makeup online is that it is very hard to find the right color for your foundation. I like that companies like Lily Lolo understands this and offers samples on their site.



These are the things that I picked up (all are samples)

Foundation
Warm Peach (light and warm undertones) this was a good match to my NC20 skin tone
Blondie (light and balanced undertones) this was also a good match
In The Buff (light-medium and balanced undertones) this was too dark for me.

Flawless Silk Finishing Powder
Stardust Shimmer Powder
Waikiki, a light shimmery bronzer for light complexions
South Beach, a matte bronzer

Blush
Candy Girl, a shimmery pale pink color
Clementine, a matte peachy pink color.

All of the samples except for the blushes came in small jars, the blushes came in small Zip Lock bags. I thought that the sample jars were quite messy to use since they don't have a sifter. When you open the lid you get powder everywhere.
The shimmery products are very finely milled so there is no chunky glitter in any of them. Both the Candy Girl Blush and the Waikiki Bronzer are very shimmery but there is no glitter in them.

I liked the online store, it was easy to order from and all of the products have good descriptions accompanying them and you get a good idea about the colors just by reading the descriptions.
It took a week from the day I ordered it until I received the package and the company shipped my order the day after I had ordered.


I paid for these products with my own money and it is my own opinion. I am not affiliated with Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics.

Review: Aqua Mirabilis Body Butter from LUSH

The Body Butters from LUSH are basically solid moisturizers that you use in the shower. They usually contain solid cocoa butter and sheah butters and most of them also contain exfoliating ingredients such as ground almonds. You can also find non-exfoliating ones such as King of Skin.

The Body Butters should often be used on damp skin. You use them in the shower after you have used your soap or shower gel. After I have used mine I rinse my body to remove the exfoliating bits and any excess of the body butter. Be careful not to rub your body with the towel when you are drying yourself. This will remove the moisturizing body butters from your body, instead gently pat yourself dry to ensure that you don't remove too much of the Body Butter.

So what do I think of Aqua Mirabilis?

Aqua Mirabilis contains cocoa and almond butter to moisturize and ground almonds to exfoliate your body. It works great as an exfoliator but I find that it is a little bit harsh on the skin. I usually use this on my legs and gently on my arms but it is way too abrasive to be used on the chest area and the stomach area.

I have previously used Buffy an other exfoliating Body Butter from LUSH and found that it left a greasy residue on the skin after I used it. I am glad to say that Aqua Mirabilis doesn't do this and after I have used it my skin feels very soft.

Aqua Mirabilis also contains sandalwood and rose oil which gives this Body Butter a dry and woody kind of scent. I cannot make out any rose in the scent but there is also a nutty note in the scent that I think comes from the cocoa butter since I can feel this in almost every solid moisturizer from LUSH.

Overall Grade: This is so far my favorite Body Butter from LUSH. I think that this is more of an exfoliator than a moisturizer and a little too abrasive on the skin. It makes my skin feel soft after I used it and I will definitely buy this again.

Source: LUSH UK


I paid for this product with my own money and it is my own opinion. I am not affiliated with this company.

On my lips: Chanel Rouge Allure in 59 Nude

Here is a picture of the Chanel lipstick I found on sale. It is called 59 Nude but I don't think that this classifies as a nude. I would describe the color as a terracotta with fine glitter particle in it and not as a nude color.

I love this color it isn't too strong and it works great with a tan. It looks a little bit pink in the picture but I think that it is my natural lip color that shines through, making it look more pink toned.

The formula of the lipstick resembles the Lustre lipsticks from MAC and it gives the lips some shine. It isn't drying at all and it is possible to build up the color so you can decide if you want bold lips or just a hint of color.

A little Tip on how to use the Lustre Drops from MAC

The Lustre Drops from MAC are basically liquid highlighters in a small bottle. They were first released with the Style Warriors collection that came out during spring 2009, but they made a comeback in the To The Beach collection released this spring/summer. I own one bottle of Lustre Drops in the color Sun Rush, a peachy bronze color with lots of gold pearl, and I picked mine up when it came out with the Style Warriors collection.

The Lustre Drops are a multipurpose product and when I first bought mine I didn't exactly know what to do with it. So I thought that it would be a good idea to list some different ways you can use this product and also do a little mini review at the same time.

1. Highlighter: You can use this as a highlighter, however I find that Sun Rush is way to metallic and pigmented for my fair skin. It may look better on people that have a darker skin tone, but be careful because there is a lot of shimmer in this one. I think that Pink Rebel, a pink color with gold pearl, would look better as a highlighter on fair skin tones .
If I am using this as a highlighter I dilute it by mixing it with a foundation or a face cream.

2. Mix it with products to give the skin some glow. You can mix your Lustre Drops with your foundation if you want to give your face an all over glow. You can also mix it with your moisturizer if you don't like to wear foundation in the summer.
Another great way to use this is to mix it with your body lotion. This will give your body a nice golden glow.

3. As a cream shadow on your lids. This is my favorite way to use the Lustre Drops. I apply it to my lids and it looks really nice. It gives the lids a subtle peach color but a lot of golden sheen. This is a favorite on hot summer days when I don't like to wear a lot of eyeshadow.

This is three examples on how to use the Lustre Drops. They are a multipurpose products so there is probably more ways to use them than the ones that I have listed, just use you imagination.

So what do I think of the Lustre Drops?

It is a nice product but It isn't a must have product. If you missed it when it was released you don't have to be upset because you can live without it.
It is a product that can be used in many ways but I think that Sun Rush is much too dark and much too shimmery to work as a highlighter. If you don't use it lightly you will end up with a very metallic looking cheekbones and that isn't really I look that you should go for.

I paid for this product with my own money and it is my own opinion.

Some new things: Hitting the sales

A I mentioned in my earlier post I have been on a little shopping spree and I got some new stuff. My main goal was to check out the summer sales but I also went to the local MAC counter.

From Left to Right: Beautiful Iris, Amber Lights and Steamy

The first place I went to was MAC and I picked up three eyeshadows, Amber Lights (Frost), Beautiful Iris ( Veluxe Pearl) and Steamy (Frost). There wasn't any sales at MAC at least I don't think so.
Steamy was an impulse buy because I loved the way it looked when I swatched it on my hands. When I came home I felt that it was similar to Parrot a MAC eyeshadow that I already own, but there is more green in Steamy.


After my visit to the MAC counter I saw that the Smashbox counter had a little sale going on and amongst the small number of items I found the Self Adjusting Powder Foundation for 50% off.
I have been looking at this before but I felt it was a little bit too expensive for what you get so I never picked it up. The SA mentioned that it was on sale because they were discontinuing it. I picked up the shade Light L3-L4 and for reference I have the shade NC20 at MAC.



My last stop was NK a luxury department store here in Sweden. They always have great sales in their beauty department and you can find high-end brands for 40-50% off. I picked up two things at the department store, a Shiseido lip gloss for 40% off and a great bargain, a Chanel Rouge Allure lipstick for 50% off.

The lipgloss from Shiseido is a white golden shimmer gloss and it is called G29 Mellow Gold. This doesn't give much color on the lips but I think it will look nice layered on top of lipsticks and too give the lips some sparkle.

Finding the Rouge Allure lipstick for 50 % off completely made my day. The lipstick is gorgeous and it is in the color 59 Nude. It looks great on the lips and feels great to it feels like a better version of the Lustre lipsticks from MAC.

If you happen to have a NK department store near you I definitely recommend that you check out their sales. There are some great items in the stores right now.

A small update

I am currently spending a lot of time outdoors enjoying the warm summer weather that has arrived to Sweden. I haven't felt very inspired when it comes to writing posts on this blog so there hasn't been a lot of action on this blog.

But there will be posts coming up this week. I have been shopping a little, hitting the summer sales. and I did find a great bargain so stay tuned.

That's it for now. I going to enjoy the sun now.

On my nails: Devonshire Row by Nails Inc.

Here is a picture of an other of the nail polishes from the Ice Cream Collection from Nails Inc.

This nail polish is also quite thick and hard to apply hence a rather messy manicure as you probably can see in the picture. The color is really nice though a creamy purple that is not to bright but very easy to wear.

On my eyes: NARS Lola Lola again.

This is a quick makeup that I did the other day and I experimented using a Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil as a base. I used Bourbon with Lola Lola eyeshadow from NARS on top and the two colors compliment each other very well.



For this I used:

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Bourbon
NARS eyeshadow in Lola Lola
MAC eyeshadow in Brulé
Make Up Store Microshadow in Muffin
The Body Shop Divide & Multiply Mascara (received as a sample with a magazine).

On my nails: Maple Street by Nails Inc.

I received Maple Street by Nails Inc in the Ice Cream Collection box that I mentioned in the earlier post.



This is a light warm pink cream nail polish without any shimmer or glitter.

The formula of this nail polish is rather thick and it is a little bit difficult to get an even application. However the nail polish dries quite fast and it lasts a long time on the nails. I wore it for work today and my work is pretty though on the nails and there is only on small chip in the nail polish on one finger.

Oh no not an other obsession.....

I started this spring with a perfume obsession, which is still going strong by the way. Now I have started a nail polish obsession as well resulting in a little nail polish haul.

I am pretty safe girl when it comes to nail colors I prefer pinks and neutral pinks on my nails. But now I am definitely feeling a little bit bolder and I have been enjoying some more adventurous colors such as the mint green color, Spring Mews from Nails Inc.

While I was ordering some hair products from HQhair I discovered the Ice Cream collection kit from Nails Inc. It contains four cream colors and it costs £20. I liked the colors and thought it was a very good deal since the individual colors are sold for about £9.50 each.

Nail polishes from left to right: Spring Mews, Strawberry Hill,
Devonshire Row and Maple Street.

I have tried the Spring Mews polish and the Maple Street polish and my initial thoughts are that they are difficult to apply. They are on the thick side and they dry quite fast so it is hard to get the nail polish even on the nail. But the colors are great and you only need two coats for an opaque coverage.

While I was in the city running some errands I also picked up three polishes from Depend. I think that the colors are part of the summer collection that was released in the spring. The Depend polishes are rather small, 5 ml but I think that they are great when you want to try more unique colors without spending a lot of money, they cost 25 SEK each.

Polishes from left to right: 196, 197 and 198.
Very exciting names, right?

I am on a nail polish high right now and knowing me I will probably buy some more in the near future. I am missing a great coral color for summer.....

Review: Renewal Lash Serum from L'Oréal.

I finally did it. I managed to use the L'Oréal Renewal Lash Serum for a month so I could review it for you. I guess the third time is the charm. Yes it is true I have started this test three times and always stopped after a while.
This is probably my main dislike with this serum, you have to use it every day and make it a routine. This is where I fail. I use this in the evenings before I go to bed and during this time I am very tired and want to go to bed as fast as possible. So I often skip things that aren't an absolute must or simply forget to use it. But this time I succeeded and managed to keep it up for a month.

The left picture is day one and the right picture was taken after one month.

I have to admit that I can't see a huge difference between before I started and after but I think that I have more volume to my lashes. I do think that my lash line looks fuller and it looks like there is more lashes now. It might just be wishful thinking on my part and I can't be 100 % sure that there is a difference.

The mascara I used for this picture is Divide & Multiply Mascara from The Body Shop

But when I put on mascara I can see that something has happened to my lashes. My lashes look nicer to put it simply. There is more volume and my lashes look really good after application.

I have noticed that the serum has a tendency to clump the lashes together and that this has a negative effect on how the mascara behaves on the lashes. So I never use this in the morning but apply it in the evenings and let the serum do its magic during the night.

The Renewal Lash Serum dries on your lashes after you have applied it and in the mornings you have to pick white flakes of serum from your lashes. I have forgotten this at some occasions and when I look at myself in the mirror it looks like I have giant flakes of dandruff or something on my lashes. So definitely take a good look at your lashes before you leave your house because it isn't an attractive look.

Final thoughts: I think the Renewal Lash Serum is worth a try since it doesn't hurt your wallet. It is much cheaper than many of the lash serums on the market. But if you decide to try it don't expect any miracles.


I bought the Renewal Lash Serum with my own money but I received The Body Shop Divide & Multiply Mascara as a sample when I bought a magazine. This is my own opinion and I am not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned in this review.