YSL Rouge Volupté No. 8 // Review & Swatches

Hi dolls!

I hope your christmas was amazing and you found some time to relax over the holidays.

Today I want to show you the new member of my pink lipstick parade, the Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupté No. 8 "Fetish Pink" (what a daring name!).

The color itself is fantastic. It has everything a great pink lippie needs. 

It is pretty bright, so maybe a spring to summer color but who cares. No one said you can't wear those pinks in winter. Especially on Wednesdays, just go ahead!

 

This lipstick is, like most of the YSL I tried, very moisturizing. I usually like to wear some lip balm or the MAC prep and prime for lips underneath, but it's really not necessary with this one.

It has a great opaque finish and looks beautiful and glossy on the lips but (yep, we don't only have positive sides here) it doesn't last long. It doesn't even last medium-long. I needed a touch-up after about an hour or two and that's not funny. Lipsticks should last - remember that, YSL! This one doesn't. I tried other lippies from that brand and made the same experience so I wasn't too shocked. But still.

 

So, if you're searching for a bright pink Summer lippie - this one is great. But personally I think, lasting time is super important, so this lippie is maybe a bit pricey.

 

Stay beautiful! xx

Love,

Alina

Houndstooth Nails // Black, White & Pink

Hi dolls!

Since I finally found some time to do nail art again, I had to share it with you.

I was inspired by my new houndstooth patterned cape to do a matching manicure. Yep, I got a cape. It's cool, I feel like Superman. Or Catwoman. Maybe more like Catwoman because cats are super cool. Even if Catwoman doesn't have a cape. Oh well.

Back to the mani, as I love pastel pink more than anything else in life, that color has to jump in as well. That happens pretty often, when I look back, there are about 98% pink manicures I did.

 

The nail polishes I used are Essie "Romper Room" (pink) which was limited, "Licorice" (black), OPI "Alpine Snow" (white) and Essie "Good To Go" as my top coat.

I'll be so happy when I have my HK Girl Top Coat back, the Essie smudged the houndstooth design and it was a pain to save it!

 

To be honest, this wasn't easy. I did it free hand and it took Ages! I wasn't in the mood of doing it on my right hand as well, so I did a simple dotticure there. Yay for polka dots! There always there for you if you need something easy and pretty.

I draw the houndstooth pattern with a thin brush and the dots with a dotting tool, you'll find these items on eBay here and here.

I hope you liked that mani as much as I do!

 

Much love and merry Christmas,

Alina

The Benefits Of Coconut Oil

Hi dolls!

Many many girls are raving about coconut oil and today I want to tell you what I love about it.

I got my pot of coconut oil a few month ago and fell in love immediately. 

By now, it's my holy grail beauty product and I can't imagine a life without it.

It has a firm consistency but when it's getting warm (if you put it on your skin, rub it between your hands) it melts! Magic.

Of course you can use coconut oil for cooking and baking, you'll find bunches of great recipes online, but I want to focus on the beauty related benefits of it and the ways I love to use it.

• Hair Treatment - Take a good bit of coconut oil and massage it in your hair, mostly in the lengths and tips. Leave it there for as long as possible, I recommend to leave it over night. You can pull your hair up and lay a towl over your pillow while you sleep, otherwise you'll have it everywhere. But well, if this is what you want, just go ahead. Just my little advice here. Wash your hair as you always do. When you leave the house with the oil still in your hair, you may earn weird looks from other people. If it's washed out, your hair will feel super soft and look amazingly shiny in a healthy and natural way! Especially in the colder days, my scalp is really itchy and dry, so I put it there as well. But it can easily be too much and make your hair oily even when it's completely washed out, so be super careful with this!

• Make Up Removing - The most amazing thing about coconut oil, I discovered just a few days ago.  Hold your breath. Coconut oil is amazing for make up removing! Seriously!  My skin is super sensitive and I hate all these chemical make up removers so I tried it the other day and stand in my bathroom for about ten minutes looking at my cleaned face. I could not believe that. It is such a great, refreshing and soft feeling! Well, if you use waterproof mascara and/ or eyeliner, you should use a "real" make up remover for that, but for foundation, powder, blush and contour stuff, this is amaaazing! 

• Face Balm - After I removed all my make up and washed my face, I take a bit of coconut oil and put it all over my face, like I would normally do it with a night cream. It's the best feeling in the world when the coconut oil is melting directly on your face, it's like heaven. Massage it in very gently and go to sleep. You'll wake up with beautiful and soft skin. I guess that why they call it beauty sleep. It even removes blemishes and I don't break out that much any more. Amazing. Did I say that before? I don't know. It's just so amazing.

• Body Moisturizer - Before or while you take a shower, cover your whole body with a thin layer of the coconut oil and let it soak in for a few minutes. Wash it off with clear water and maybe rub it in with a soft sponge. Your skin will feel amazing! Favorite word today. Your skin won't soak it in completely in that little amount of time so you really should wash it off to not get weird oil spots all over your clothes.

Make sure the coconut oil you get is 100% natural!

You get it for little money and it will change your life - trust me.

Love,

Alina

Bobbi Brown Brow Kit // First Impression

Hi dolls!

Since the world finally has discovered how amazing brows are, it was time for me to jump on the bandwagon.
Well, I did my brows before, of course. I used the More Brows browgel from ModelCo but I feel like gel is just great to color your actual brows and not to fill them. So it was time for something new.

Yesterday I went to the city to get the MAC Fix+ spray but it was out of stock so I suddenly found myself sitting on the chair at the Bobbi Brown counter. Weird how that always happens.
The lady there tried different brow products on me and we both though, the kit, which contains two different brow powders, would be the best choice for me. Of course it was the most expensive product. Yay. But I got a gift card, so I told myself it's basically for free.

Let's start with the packaging. I just love Bobbi Brown's packagings, they look so classy!
It's not too big and closes very well - great for taking it in your handbag without ruining the kit and everything else you carry with you! Nobody wants brow powder anywhere else than on the brows. Obviously.

 

And tadaa! Here it is in all it's beauty.
I chose the color "Cement" what's a more cool toned one and matches my natural brow color the most.
As you see, there's a lighter shade on the left and a darker one at the right. I love using the lighter one on the outer half of my brow. I mean, I loved it when I tried it at the counter and today at home. As this is a first impression post, I haven't used it more often yet. But I guess I'll stick to it. I really love it.

 

The kit also comes with a mirror, a tiny brush and a little tweezer. Please, how amazing is this?! To be honest, this was one of the main reasons I got this kit. When I first saw it I was like "Oh yay! And they're so cute!". Yep, sometimes it's easy to impress me. Mostly when it comes to mini sized stuff. But seriously, how adorable is this mini brush? And the mini tweezer?! I'm sure they'll become best friends with my mini nail polishes.
The brush is not only adorable though. It's pretty hard and amazing for really getting the product into your brows and getting them in shape at the same time.
The tweezer is the best one I've tried so far. It was so easy to remove even the tiniest little hair with it!

 

Quick swatch of both shades!
The colors are definitely buildable but I wouldn't really recommend it if you have super thin or light brows. My brows are pretty dark and full all by themselves so this one works great on me, but you really should try it before you buy it (crazy rhyme) mostly because it's this expensive. For my fellow German girls and guys: I got it at Douglas for 50,95€.
I know, this is much. It is awesome though but honestly... not everyone of us owns a pot of gold, Bobbi! Well, this is why they call it high end make up. But as Christmas is just around the corner, maybe it's somthing you could remember when you're writing down your wish list. It's really worth having it, as I can say so far. Not only because of the mini brush. Really, the brow kit is amazing. Love at first sight.


What are your favorite brow products? I'd love to know!


Love,

Alina

Kate Spade Agenda 2015

Hi dolls!

2015 is just around the corner and it's about time for us to get our new agendas!

Well, maybe it's already a bit late, when I was searching for one, many many agendas were already sold out. Crazy world.

Anyway, I got my hands on a beautiful Kate Spade agenda which I want to show you today.
I just love this one. It's gorgeous and practical and has everything an agenda needs.

First, I said it before, it looks so beautiful. White with gold polka dots. Perfect. I could look at it all day.

 

When you open it, the first thing you see is the owners name and phone number. You can't see it here though. I covered it super pretty, because not everything belongs on the internet.

But it's really useful, especially if you tend to loose things - the people who find it will get it back to you. Hopefully.

 

 

Inside, it basically looks like every other calendar, there are note pages, a birthday calendar and a monthly overview ahead of every new month.

 

 

One special thing I really like about the Kate Spade agendas is, that you can read a little quote every month. I love how simple yet wonderful this idea is. When I first saw it, it really brought a smile on my face.

 

 

 

You can get the Kate Spade agendas in shops and on their website as well as on Ebay and Amazon, but beware of fakes there!

 

Stay beautiful!

 

 

Love,

 

Alina







How To... Take A Great Picture Of Your Nails

Hi dolls!

Today's post is about photographing your nails and manicures, one more important part when it comes to nail art!

Nail polish was always a passion of mine and when I joined Instagram and saw all those amazing nail artists there, I wanted to be a part of it. The wild painting began.

Over the time, I discovered how important it is, to take a good picture of your mani if you want to post it on any social media. It's just so sad if you spent so much time on a design and the photo won't show the real beauty of it!
I'm going to share a few tips and tricks with you today, so nobody will ever question the gorgeousness of your nails!

• Lightening is everything - Don't ever take your pics when it's dark (unless you have a super good light box!) and with just your room light on. The pictures will appear yellow because of the warm, orange light and may be super blurry. Daylight is the best you can get, try to take your pics outside or directly infront of a big window. Plus, it's always better not to step in direct sunlight, so you won't get weird shadows on your photo.
• The focus is on your nails! - Take a plain background, best white or black. If there's too much going on in the background of the picture, those things will take the attention away from your mani and that's not what you want!
• Quality, quality, quality! - I know, not everyone can afford a great camera. But phone cameras made a huge step forward as well, so it's totally fine to use these. Just make sure the camera is focusing, maybe you have to try a few times which angle works best for it. You can get objectives for your phones from stores and online, if you want to improve your pictures but don't want to spend a lot of money on an expensive camera. If you have a good camera, make sure you read the manual - it really helps to get the right setting for the pic you want to take. If you neither have a camera or phone with a good quality one, maybe you have some lovely people around you who can borrow you theirs for a few minutes!
• It's not just the nails - The best nail design ever will not look as good if you don't keep your cuticles and hands pretty as well! Clean up around your nails and moistorize your cuticles before taking the pic - read more about that on my nail care post here.
• Not too close, not too far - As I said before, the focus should be on your nails, so try to take the picture not from too far away. But if you go too close to them, it'll look weird as well. Just take a second and figure out what distance works best for you.
• Stay natural - This is just my personal opinion, but I feel like manicure pictures are the prettiest if you don't edit them too much. Of course, you can lighten them up, correct the color and play around a bit, but don't use too many filters on them. Especially when you want to show the true colors (whoops, Phil Collins in my head now) of the polishes, it's better to stick to the original photo.
• Relax - Nothing ruins a photo of your manicure more than a cramped hand pose. You don't have to include all five fingers, if you can't get a relaxed looking pose, don't do it. I always just photograph my nails without the thumb, because I can't get it to look good - and I'm happy with it. Just find a pose that's comfortable for you, there's nothing like THE hand pose, everyone's different.

Here are just some examples I shot for you. I prefer the first pose, I do this on most of my photos.
I like my mani pics square, mostly because I almost always post them on my Instagram. Side note: If you do this, add a watermark. There are many many nail art thieves out there!

The polishes I used here are both from the OPI Muppets Most Wanted collection, the light pink base is "I Love Applause" topped with "Let's Do Anything We Want". I love those names by the way. Sometimes I buy a bottle of nail polish just because of the name. Shame on me, but that's my weakness.

I hope this was a little helpful!


Love,

Alina


         

Cuticle Tattoo Trend // Extended Nail Art

Hi dolls!

Today's post is about the cuticle tattoo trend.

Maybe you've already heard about it.
The nail art game is getting bigger and bigger and the world always comes up with new trends and ideas.
You may remember Lorde's nails at the Grammy's this year? Well, to be honest, that was a little little bit too much for me. But there was a great idea behind it: extend your nail art. Do not only restrict it to your nails. Go further. And that's what I liked.

The following weeks, I saw more and more amazingly talented girls on Instagram wearing cuticle tattoos as you can get them from Ciaté and other known brands. Some of them even created designs all by themselfes with eyeliner or nail polish.

I don't follow every trend, but this one really catched my eye.
So I thought about giving it a try. I was a bit afraid, because it happens pretty often that I see something on other girls and find it awesome and then I try something like that myself and I'm like "Nah Girl, that's not your thing." and then I'm really dissapointed. Life is just hard sometimes.

Yesterday, a typical Friday night, I painted one of my favorite pastel pinks - Essie "Fiji" - on my nails. I felt like just doing a swatch for the weekend, nothing too outstanding.
But when I woke up this morning, things had changed. I looked into Princess Sparkles eyes (that's my kitten, for everyone who doesn't know) and we both knew: Today is the day. Today is the day for extended nail art.

I applied another layer of "Fiji" because I got weird sleeping lines on my nails and took my bottle of "Licorice", a thin nail art brush and a dotting tool and sat down on my couch.
I just thought the cuticle art would show off the most with fierce black nail polish.
So I painted some tribal inspired lines and dots around my cuticles and wow. I was so super duper happy with how it turned out. It was so easy and for me, it looks amazing.

 

 

My thoughts on cuticle tattoos / extended nail art:

I love it. I really really really love it. So much.

It's amazing how it gives a fancy twist to a simple manicure.

 

I'm not actually sure how healthy it is to wear nail polish on your cuticles, but for a few days it might be okay.

 

Please remember, this is art. If you don't like it, don't do it. I know, this trend is special. But if you like it, go for it and don't mind what others say. It's your nails, your cuticles and you can be as creative if you want!

 

 

Stay beautiful!

 

Love,

 

Alina



Nail Care Routine // Turn Your Nails Into Jewels

Hi dolls!

Today I want to share my nail care routine with you.

I'm slightly obsessed with nails, there are just so many ways to express yourself by simply adding a bold color or a fancy design! It's amazing.
But beware, the best manicure is nothing when you have unhealthy nails, so it's super important to take care of them.
I won't say healthy and beautiful natural nails will change your life completely, but I'm sure, once you've discovered what beautiful jewels you have there, you'll feel like you're running on sunshine (or walking, if you're as lazy as I am).

So, let's take each other by the hand and go on a little nail care adventure.
Aren't you exited? I am.

First, I'll share with you my holy grail nail care products. These are the things I'm loving for months and highly recommend.

 

 

Starting with the polishes from left to right

• OPI "Nail Envy" Nail Strengthener
• Essie "Grow Stronger" Base Coat
• Glisten & Glow "HK Girl" Top Coat
• OPI "Miami Beet" Nail Polish (just my color choice today, so not really part of the nail care)

The funny thing on the left, what looks like a little tooth pick with a rubber side, is a cuticle pusher and (surprise!) you use it to push back your cuticles.

Then we have a sand nail file in the background, I'm sure you recognized it, didn't you?

And right next to it we have my favorite skin care products ever, the Lush Lemony Flutter and Helping Hands.

 

 

So. If you want to start, make sure you already removed all of the nail polish you may have worn before. I recommend an acetone free nail polish remover, because the acetone can be quite damaging for your nails and cuticles.

When you've done that, look at your naked nails. What do you notice? Do they tend to break? Do they appear a bit yellow? Or do you have white spots on them?

Your nails want to tell you how they feel, it's important to listen to them.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to contact me - I'll help where I can.

Before you start to put anything on your nails, you have to push back your cuticles. It's not super important, but it will look more aesthetic plus, the skin around your nails won't burst open or get lacerated that easily.

It can help to hold your hands under warm water for a minute or two to soften the cuticles. They will be easier to push back.

And please, don't ever cut you cuticles. Never ever ever ever cut them. You'll just hurt yourself and I promise, they'll come back.

 

So now, we'll move on to the base coats.

 

Base coats are super duper important, they keep your nails strong and healthy and the polish you apply on top will glide on way better!

If you've got weak nails, the perfect base coat couple is OPI "Nail Envy" and Essie "Grow Stronger".

Apply one coat of the OPI, let it dry (what goes super fast) and add one coat of the Essie one.

By now, my nails are strong enough so I skip the nail strengthener and just use the "Grow Stronger" base coat.

 

Wait, did I Forget something? What about filing your nails?

Don't worry, this always is part three on my Nail-To-Do-List.

I figured out, that it's way easier to file your nails when they already have their protection coat on, they won't split and I feel like the weird sound of the file on the nails is not as bad then.

Now make sure you know what shape you like for your beauties. Square? Oval? Stiletto? There's so much space for possibilities!

I always had my nails square shaped (not talking about an awkward two months kitty claw experience last year) because that shape fits me the best.

To keep them in shape properly, I'd like to file them a bit everytime I do my nails, at least once a week.

If your nails tend to break, try filing them in one direction, that's what makes them beautiful.

I recommend sand nail files, even though they wear off pretty fast. But they are really sensitive and do a great job and that's what we want!

 

 

Here you see my nakies, freshly filed and covered with base coat.

I know, they're a bit yellow. That's something that can happen when you wear nail polish everyday, like I do. Fresh lemon juice can help to get off of the yellowness, I tried baking soda as well, but that didn't work for me.

 

When you've finished these steps, you can finally get to the fun part (if this wasn't already fun enough).

Choose a nail polish color of your choice.

I'm a pastel girl, but for fall I do like darker colors as well.

In my opinion, the bestest ever nail polish brand is OPI - and trust me, I've tried a lot!

They're super long lasting, they apply super easily and the color palette is amazing.

Today I took "Miami Beet", a gorgeous dark raspberry pink.

When you apply your nail polish, always go with two thin layers instead of one thick one. The thin layers will dry much faster and you won't make the experience of weird little bubbles appearing on your nails.

Try not to paint to the very outer edge of your nail. Your nails look longer when you keep a little space and you won't get the nail polish everwhere on your cuticles. Talking about that, it's always easier to apply the polish flawless right away then cleaning up afterwards, so don't paint your nails when you're in a hurry, when you're currently doing something like cooking or cleaning, or when a wild kitten tries to catch the nail polish brush. But if there still got a bit of polish on an unexpected place, just take a nail polish remover pen or a thin brush dipped in nail polish remover and clean it up.

 

Now we get to my favorite part, the top coat.
Top coat is not optional. If you thought that, I'm happy to tell you today how life changing a great top coat is. It really is. Trust me.
The right top coat will help your polish to dry immediatly, fix little damages, leaves and amazingly glossy finish and help your manicure to stay flawless for days!
And this is what I call: The Top Coat Difference.
I really really really love the HK Girl Top Coat by Glisten & Glow! It's the best I tried and it ticks all the boxes I mentioned above. I'm not exactly surre if you can get it anywhere else than their website, but they ship international and it's really worth it.

The last step is the moisturizing. For my cuticles, there's nothing better than the Lush Lemony Flutter and I use Lush Helping Hands for my whole hands - these two work wonders!

 

So here we have the completed manicure!
Of course you can always add more steps to this routine, go further with some outstanding nail art, but I wanted to keep it simple to really show you the basic important parts.

I hope this was helpful!
Stay tuned for a post about how to take a great picture of your nails - because, isn't it a shame when you put so much effort in your manicure and the picture just wouldn't show it?

Until next time, stay beautiful!

Love,

Alina



 



Top 5 // Favorite Pink Lipsticks

Hi dolls!

This is the first post I'm writing here in my beauty corner and I thought, the first post should be something I really relate with.
As you may know from my Instagram, I absolutely looove pink. It's just the prettiest color ever. And almost as much as I love pink, I love lipsticks. I can't go without anything on my lips and I think pink matches my super duper light skin tone the most.

So I decided to share my current top 5 pink lippies with you today!
Here we go.

 

When it comes to lip products, I usually prefer high end over drugstore ones, because my lips are very sensitive and I had really bad experiences with drugstore lippies in the past.

But NYX is different. They absolutely don't fail at lip products at all, I really really love them!

 

Let's get to my favorites now.
My number one favorite lippie is by far the MAC "Kelly Yum Yum" from the Kelly Osbourne LE.
Than we have MAC "Snob", NYX Matte Lipstick "Audrey", NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream "Tokyo" and Dior Addict Extreme "Plaza".

 

 

MAC "Kelly Yum Yum" is super bright blue based pink and really compliments fair skin tones in my opinion.

"Snob" is more like a purpelish pink, very light and more like an everday kind of lipstick.

NYX "Audrey" is a beautiful pinky pink, not too bright but still pretty bold!

As you may have noticed, "Tokyo" is not really a lipstick. Silly me. But still, it feels like a lipstick once you've applied it. It's a soft and light pink shade and so fetch!

Dior "Plaza" is the only sheer lippie on my top 5 list. It reminds me of a more wearable and sheer version of "Kelly Yum Yum".

 

 



The two MAC ones come with a satin finish, which I absolutely love!
Matte lippies can be very dry and look weird on your lips, so the satins are perfect for a beautiful semi-matte look.
Talking about matte lippies, "Audrey" is one of them, but it takes everyones fear of matte finishes away. It just glides on your lips so smooth and doesn't feel dry at all!
The "Tokyo" lip cream is matte as well. I feel like it's a bit hard to get an even finish with it, but the color is worth every little struggle. Well, at least for me it is.
As I said, "Plaza" appears pretty sheer. It's not like super sheer, just more like a pink for girls who don't want to go too extreme and you can definetly build the color up.

 

 

What are your favorite pink lippes? Is there anything you couldn't live without?

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Love,

 

Alina