Author: RiaG

Illamasqua Matte Lipstick – Eurydice and Scandal

4

 

 

Days are getting brighter and spring is getting closer day by day so it’s time to dig out those bright lipsticks. Illamasqua Eurydice and Scandal are my favorite matte lipsticks for this time of the year.

These are very dry, very very pigmented and they stay on really well. Dryness can be an issue when you apply the lipstick since these are a little dragging on your lips. I find my MAC Ruby Woo being the same way. I use a brush to apply these and I really have no problems. Despite of being dry they don’t feel crazy dry on your lips, more like creamy and as said, the staying power is really good.

 

 

Eurydice is a super bright pink and I find that this can stain your lips a little. Not much though and I don’t find it annoying. My lips are naturally pretty light colored so this little staining effect gives them a healthy glow :D Just wanted to mention the possibility of staining since some of you might not like it.

Scandal is a warm coral pink and I absolutely love this shade. It’s so perfect for me! I haven’t noticed any staining while using this one.

Both of these are bright and super fun colors that light up your whole makeup look and get you in a right mood for spring!

 

***Eurydice and Scandal were purchased by me.

Lookfantastic Beauty Box – February

10

Today it’s time to take a quick look at Lookfantastic February Beauty Box. If you’re still waiting for yours and don’t want to know what’s inside then don’t scroll down any further ;)

 

 

This was my third LF Beauty Box and I’m still pretty pleased with the products inside. Previous boxes have introduced new to me products that I have started using on a daily basis. This time the nice surprise was that there wasn’t a supplement product in this box. I’m not crazy about those and much rather take some cosmetics products instead.

 

 

Moroccanoil Treatment (for all hair types) 25 ml

This is a product that I use regularly and like very much. My last bottle is almost empty so this was a nice surprise. Also my hair has very little damaged part left and it would’ve been a waste of money to buy a new bigger bottle since I won’t need to use this much longer. As good as this oil is it’s too heavy for my natural, undamaged hair and makes it look oily really easily. I think that by the time I have used this bottle it’s also time to cut the dry lengths off.

 

Monu Illuminating Primer 20 ml

This is a new to me brand and I’m excited to test this product. Quick test on my hand and cheek showed that this white primer brings a nice amount of light an glow and instead of feeling silicone-y and smooth it leaves a bit of a tacky feeling on your skin. I feel a review coming up later on.

 

Korres Citrus Little Body Milk 50 ml

I like Korres as a brand but this product is not for me. The scent is way too masculine and strong so this is going to go to my husband and he’ll probably use it as hand lotion if he can live with the strong scent. I can’t say much about how this moisturizes and so on since I’m not willing to even test this further. The scent is by no means bad. It just simply smells too masculine for me to want to apply it on my skin.

 

Dr PawPaw Original Balm 10 ml

This is a heavy feeling balm that is mentioned to be suitable for lips, skin, hair, cuticles and nails. So it sounds like that you can use this for what ever part of your body feels dry. I did a quick test on my dry lips and cuticles and this felt quite good. Another plus for being scent and flavor free. This might be a product I’ll end up buying more of after I’m done with this little tube.

 

Erno Lazzlo Sea Mud Deep Cleansing Bar 17 g

This product also interests me a lot. This is a bar soap for your face. Directions say to wet the bar and gently massage your face and neck with it. Continue massaging with your fingers and at last rinse off with water. This is supposed to gently exfoliate and clean your face without removing natural oils from your skin. I will definitely test this and there might be a review coming up later on too.

 

Bellapierre Cosmetics Natural Lip Liner No. 01

LF page says this is made of 100% natural pigments and promises waterproof wear. Unfortunately the shade is brown so I don’t really have use for this. I might still test this just to see if the waterproof claim is accurate.

 

Sally Hansen Velvet Texture – Crushed and Lush

14

Matte polishes have made a big comeback and Sally Hansen also released a collection of matte polishes. I got two shades, 610 Crushed and 630 Lush to test.

 

 

These are actually a little different than your usual matte polish. Like the name suggests these dry almost textured, concrete looking and very matte. I quite like the effect. Application was surprisingly easy. No balding or streaks. I applied two coats of Crushed but would’ve got away with just one. With Lush I was smarter and only applied one coat. Dry time for two coats wasn’t impossible and it was very quick for just one coat over Glisten & Glow Stuck On Blu! base coat.

 

 

Since these were highly pigmented and very well behaving I decided to try if they’d work for stamping too and yes they did. Since these are fast drying mattes you have to be fast but other than that they worked great. Here’s stamping design I did using a squishy XL stamper and Dream Girl 16 stamping plate.

 

 

 

***These polishes were sent for review.
 

Diorblush – 873 Cherry Glory (Spring 2015 Collection)

6

The gorgeous Dior Kingdom of Colors Spring 2015 collection is in stores right now. I went to check it out on a local store and immediately fell in love with the Cherry Glory powder blush. I just had to have it right at that moment.

 

 

This is such a stunning blush! Amazingly vibrant coral shade and SO pigmented. You only need to apply a very small amount to bring an amazing glow to your cheeks. Perfect for spring and will work on tanned skin too. This is the kind of shade that works perfectly for a lot of different skin tones.

This will be seen on my makeup looks a lot in a future. My new favorite blush ♥

I also love the fact that this is matte. No fine shimmer fallout all over your face. Just a healthy, natural glow. I have very few matte blushes so this was definitely a welcome addition to my collection.

 

***Cherry Glory was purchased by me. 

One of my all time favorite Jindies

12

I think I got Jindie Nails Princess Breath from one of the first review packages I received from them and it has remained as one of my favorites since I first tried it two years ago.

I recently got a brand new bottle and decided to revisit this gorgeous polish. Formula was excellent! No dragging or balding, no streaks and it was opaque on two easy coats. I did turn the bottle upside down before application but I didn’t fish for any of the glitters and no glitter placement was done. What you see is what you get with normal application.

 

This is one coat of Glisten & Glow Stuck On Blu!, two coats of Princess Breath and Rica Glossy Glam top coat.

You can buy Jindie Nails polishes from JindieNails.com or from authorized distributors. You can find the latest news, releases and restock info from their FB and IG.

 

***Princess Breath was sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

New things happening with my blog

12

This spring I plan to re-design my blog a bit. I’m (read my husband is) going to find a way to write my posts separately in English and Finnish so that they’ll look less messy. I’m also going to try a new schedule for my posts. I’m going to start posting every weekday starting from tomorrow and take the weekends off. I’m going to schedule the posts early morning Finnish time (EET/Eastern European time) so they’ll be published at the same time every day. With three kids life happens sometimes so there might still be short breaks every now and then but right now I’m working on having posts ready for at least two, three weeks ahead.

I’ll try and have two to three nail posts a week and the rest will be makeup and other cosmetics products related posts. I’ve been wanting to make my blog more of a beauty blog than just a nail blog for a while now. So that is where I’m headed at the moment and we’ll see how that goes. I have worked as a MUA and a nail tech before staying home with the kids so I have professional experience on both nails and makeup.

I intend to focus on the fact that I’m not in my early twenties anymore with a silky smooth, flawless skin. Instead of that I’m 38 years old. I’m going to post about products that I find working great for my skin. Though age is also not going to be limiting anything either and I’ll be breaking the so called rules with colorful makeup looks and nails. I hope that women can come to my blog and find good product tips and ideas on how to use colors in their every day makeup and nail styles.

I might also include posts about my weight loss project and trying to learn to eat and live healthier.

So I hope everyone will still stick around even if it’s not going to be all nails anymore :)

 

FOTD and testing Rimmel Lasting Finish 25H Foundation with Comfort Serum

6

Here’s my yesterday’s FOTD and first test of new Rimmel Lasting Finish 25H Foundation with Comfort Serum.

This was my first time using Rimmel Lasting Finish 25H Foundation with Comfort Serum and I was so impressed! This made my skin look absolutely flawless. I already said this on my personal FB page and I say it here too. This foundation works so much better for me than the expensive Dior Star I bought a while ago. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the Dior one but after trying this I don’t see myself reaching for that bottle for a while. That’s how good this first test try was! After 8 hours my makeup was still almost perfect. I will have a better and more detailed review coming up after I use this a few more times.

Then to the makeup look. I’ve been drooling over the new Clarins Garden Escape Spring 2015 collection and especially the eye shadow palette so I decided to do a fresh looking green-ish makeup look. I went for some of my old and beloved Dior products plus the brand new Dior blush I just bought. I like how this turned out but it didn’t cure my Garden Escape fever. Those green shades are just too pretty *sigh*

Looking at the photos I also really could have used a matte lipstick instead of just gloss. I have a huge shortage of matte lipsticks so I think I need to throw some money into those too.

 

 

When my skin looks this smooth in a close-up photo you better
believe me when I say it looked almost photoshopped in real life ;)

Face 

Rimmel Lasting Finish 25H Foundation with Comfort Serum – 102 Light Nude
Dior Skinflash Radiance Booster Pen – 002
Sensai Loose Powder (translucent)
Paese  – Kashmir
Dior Flower Blossom Illuminating Powder
Dior Blush – 873 Cherry Glory (Kingdom Of Colors Spring 2015)

 

Brows

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade – Medium brown

 

Eyes

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
Dior 5 Couleurs – 409 Tropical Light
Maybelline Lash Sensational

 

Lips

IsaDora Twist-Up Gloss Stick – 11 Poppy Peony

 
***Rimmel Lasting Finish foundation was sent for review, everything else was purchased by me.

My new favorite black!

6

A good black creme polish is one of the must haves in every polish addicts collection. I already had two good ones and now I think I’ve found my favorite one yet, Glitter Gal Serpent Black.

This black is very well pigmented, a one coater if you apply a generous coat. It also evens itself out perfectly, doesn’t run to your cuticles and if you manage to make a mess it isn’t impossible to clean. This is listed as a creme but it’s so squishy and glossy that I’d say it’s a borderline crelly. Dry time was also very quick. Just a perfect black!

This is one coat of Glisten & Glow Stuck On Blu!, a coat of Serpent Black and HK Girl top coat.

Check out Glitter Gal website for more info and their store.

 

***Serpent Black was sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

LivBox – February

2

This is LivBox, a monthly cosmetics subscription box that is only available in Finland. I’m writing about this cos even if the box itself is only available here in Finland it usually has products in it that are internationally available.

I tried this box for three months last year and wasn’t too impressed. Now I decided to give it another try for a few months and this time I quite liked this first box I got. Most interesting products for me were the new Lumene Nude Perfection Fluid Foundation and Nivea 3-in-1 Micellar Cleansing Water.

 

A quick testing of the new Lumene foundation gave me a very positive first impression and I’ll have a review up for this after using it a few more times. I’ve been hearing good things about micellar waters but never actually remember to buy any when I’m out shopping so it was perfect to find one from this box.

I also haven’t tried In-Shower body lotions so I’m excited to try the Eucerin one. I’m pretty bad when it comes to body lotions after shower cos I usually don’t have time to wait for them to absorb. So this might be perfect for me.

I don’t really have an opinion about the Fructis Densify Lengths Plumper leave in conditioner for hair yet. I’ll give it a try and let you know what I thought of it later on.

Paese eyeshadow in Kashmir was a little meh, but it might be a good color for contouring or brows so maybe I’ll get some use out of this one too. If not I’ll just give it to my mother. She likes these kind of matte shades.

There was also a necklace as a Valentines Day surprise.

All in all this was a good one for me and now I’m really looking forward to testing these products and receiving another box next month :)