Self-made Nail Quills!

I love Illamasqua, I really do and when I saw their nail quills I thought "sooo cool" but then I saw the price.. 43€.. I spend a lot on make up and nail polish, but that is so ridiculously overprized that even I would never buy it.. Especially since it's so easy to make them yourself.. So I thought I show you!

Let's start: 

First you get yourself some nail tips, the big ones, which are designed for your thumb. You can get them in every nail design supplies store. I bought mine from http://www.naildesign-zubehoer.at/ You can shop online or buy them at their store in Hernals.

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Buy the ones with the round "beginning"

Next you fit the tip to your nail and mark the edges, so you know where to cut.

After you cut them in the right shape, you file the edges to get the precise, final shape.

That should look like this in the end:

Now to the painting. I used my black, matte KO polish and Essence "Hide Bella Hide".

After you painted the tip black and let it dry, you apply some tape for the silver part and go crazy.

And ready is your perfect nail quill:

It is super simple and they are just as perfect as the ones from Illamasqua and since most of you have nail polishes and these basic tools, you only need to get the tips. I payed 2,90€ for 50 tips..

So 2,90€ in comparison to 38 pounds plus shipping.. Not a hard decision..

I hope this was interesting and helpful and you are now able to make your own personalised nail quills!

Love you!
Guinevere

Let's be groooovy!

Scrangie, one of the most divine nail polish bloggers out there, is currently swatching her China Glaze collection and when I saw Groovy Green I was hooked..

So I looked for it and found it on ebay!!! Thank god for ebay.. What would we do without you.. *g*

And here it is:

Gorgeous, right?

In comparison to the other pastel greens I own (China Glaze Refreshmint, Mac Peppermint Patti) Groovy Green is a lot greener. The others have definitely more blue in them.

Like it??

Love,
Guinevere

DM and Naildesign Supplies Haul

I've read about a new skin care series from Alverde a few weeks ago and yesterday I caught sight of it and naturally I had to have it. *gg* It is a series specially designed for (young) skin from 20 and up.

I bought the complete series: day cream, night cream and serum

I can't wait to tell you about it. Review will follow soooon!! For now I can say it smells awesome. :-) I used the day cream this morning and was totally happy with the result. I have dry skin and I moisturised it perfectly.

After that I went to a naildesign supplies store in Hernals and bought these:

Two packages with nail tips for my nail polish swatching thing, a cuticle pusher and a new file. :-)

What about your christmas shopping? ;-)

Love,
Guinevere

Gel refill and an awesome christmas gift!

Yesterday I had my nails refilled and I am dazzled everytime!

This woman is an artist!!! I love her so much.

I even got a christmas gift - I could choose one polish from her store!!! Sooo amazing, I chose OPI's "Tease-y does it" from the new Burlesque collection, such an unbelievably beautiful colour!!!

Isn't it pretty??

Love,
Guinevere

OPI reaches Bipa

They arrived. :-)

Sorry for this incredibly bad quality, but they put this display on the last unit, like 5 cm above the floor and the Bipa girl was already looking weird at me, so I took the pic as fast as I could. *gg*

Love,

Guinevere

Moroccan Oil Shampoo & Conditioner Review

I bought these little babies back in March when I was in NY. Those are quite hyped hair products so I had to have them. *g* I bought the "Moisture Repair" series for "colour/chemically damaged hair"and payed for each bottle 8 bucks, which is a lot for 70 ml!

What do I think about them?

Unfortunately, I gotta say I'm really underwhelmed..

The shampoo foams nicely and you don't need much product, but I don't have the feeling my hair in nourished at all. It doesn't make it soft, more the opposite.. If I buy a "Moisture Repair Shampoo" I think it's not too much to ask. The smell is nice, but nothing mind-blowing like Body Shops Radiance series.
With the conditioner I have the same problem. It is okay, but that's it. Definitely nothing special..

What annoyed me the most or in fact really pissed me off was that my scalp turned super sensitive after using those products! I used the shampoo and conditioner several times and it was always the same, I never experienced something like that before and I think that is very worrying.

Long story short:

Pros: It's sulfate and paraben free, has a nice smell and cleans your hair.

Cons: For a moisturising shampoo it doesn't do its job at all. It is unbelievably expensive for the result and makes your scalp totally sensitive.

My result: I wouldnt recommend it! It is soo not worth the money. I know that many people love it and I'm sure it works for them, but it doesn't for me. Maybe they haven't tried good alternatives, but for what I expected and for what it is supposed to do it failed completely. Sorry Moroccan Oil...

Love,
Guinevere

Ice Blue Make Up Look

Something for the cold weather:

Love,
Guinevere

Long-term Thoughts about Gel Nails

I have my gel nails for quite a while now and I thought it might be interesting to do a pro and contra list about them.

Here are they in all their gorgeousness:

Let's start with the positive aspects:

• Your nails are strong and don't break anymore
• All your nails have the same length
• You can get long nails, which stay long, finally
• Your hands look neat and manicured, rather than someone chewed them up
• You don't need to spend money on nurturing nail products that don't work
• EVERY nail polish lasts forever
• It is possible that they look natural!!

Now to the negative aspects:

• They are pricey.. A new set costs 72€ and the monthly refill 38€ (at least where I get them done and I tried cheaper nail designers, whose work always disappointed me)
• I don't know why but "dirt" tends to get stuck under your nails (see pics at the bottom)
• Sometimes there gets a little "dirt" stuck between your real nail and the gel (again pics at the bottom)
• If you work a lot with your hands and aren't careful they can break, but if your nail designer is high quality they usually repair that for free
• If you decide to stop having gel nails the real nails underneath can be weaker than before (only for the time it takes to grow a new "ungeled" nail)

My thoughts: I loooooove my gel nails, but I said that many times before so you already know that. *g* I was very embarassed about my nails and now that is gone. They look perfect all the time! I think I will never stop getting them done. It is so worth the money. I had to get used to them, cause I never had long nails and so that was kinda weird in the beginning, but now it's the most normal thing in the world. They look natural! I am so happy about that and EVERY nail polish lasts forever, every, never had that before! One strange thing about my gel nails: if I wear glitter polish, sometimes some glitter particles "sink" into the gel and stay there, even if I use a base coat, which I always do.

If you think about getting gel nails and have a professional nail designer near you who you trust, go get them. Nevertheless, think first if you can afford them.

Hope this was helpful!

Love you guys,

Guinevere

New Products I'm using aka Alverde Review

Again Alverde *gg* I'm in the process of checking out a lot of their products and since my Body Shop shampoo is empty, I needed a good alternative.

Alverde Coffein Shampoo and Tonic:

At the moment I make a pause from dyeing my hair black, I already miss it, but I'm still not sure if I don't want my "natural" hair colour back to get more possibilites. Maybe even make it lighter.. I don't know, what do you think?

But let's move on to the review:

Since I don't need a shampoo for coloured hair at the moment I chose the coffein shampoo, which is against thin and fine hair. It is with green coffee, never heard of that in a shampoo, but why not.

Shampoo:

I'm still not totally sold on the shampoo and that is becauce of the smell. The shampoo itself is great, you don't need much and it foams nicely, which I want and it's silicone free. The problem, as stated, is the smell. When you shampoo your hair it actually smells like a bean, like a green coffee bean. So you kinda have the feeling you massage a plant into your hair, which isn't that great. The good thing though is that the smell doesn't last at all. You really only smell it during shampooing and then it's gone, so it's not that bad. Your hair feels clean and fresh. :-)

Tonic:

I never used a hair/scalp tonic before and I love it! *gg* It is so funny. You use it after you towel dry your hair. It has a water consistency and smells great! Thank god.. It smells like a mixture of green and lemon ice tea. You put it all over your scalp and massage it in, like you would do with a hair colour, it also has the same kinda bottle top.

It does !not! clump you hair or makes it sticky, you can brush through your hair and it feels like nothing is on your scalp. I can totally recommend it, I love using it. :-)

In a nutshell: I can recommend both products, the smell of the shampoo is a bit weird, but it's not that bad. The tonic is gorgeous and both products are free of artifical stuff, what do you want more. :-) I will repurchase both items.

Augentrost eye cream:

This is a very rich and intense eye cream and it does a great job, what I don't like about it is that it is a bit sticky. That feeling goes away after a few seconds, but if you get it in your eyebrows they stick together like crazy. An unpleasent feeling, like you put glue in them. Nevertheless, it does moisturise your lid area very well and that is the most important thing and you only need a tiny amount of product.

In a nutshell: If you have very dry lids and don't mind that you have to be careful where you put it, go buy it. :-)



I hope this was informative and useful.

Love,

Guinevere

Snowy Eyes

 Since there was so much snow, I thought let's to a white-grey look.

Like it?

Love,

Guinevere

France Haul

I wanted to show you what a very special person got me for christmas, I doubt that I will get that much from my family lol. Which is naturally more than okay.

It is soooo amazing, I was so dazzled when I opened it and I still am, I couldn't believe it.

Here is it:

I will do close ups and so very soon, I just wanted to share that with you. :-)

And I wanna officially thank this lovely friend that means so incredibly much to me, that it is hard to put it in words. I wish one of my soulmates wouldn't live so far away. I love you!!!!

And I also wanted to thanks YOU GUYS. I almost have 50 followers now, it means so much to me. I know there a ton of people who have more followers, but that doesn't matter to me, each and every one of you is so precious to me and I am truely grateful!

Love,
Guinevere

Got2b Guardian Angel Blow Dry Lotion

I bought this when it was released several months ago, finally it came to Austria, but I didn't do a review, cause I wasn't using it... *g*

I have long hair and I'm obsessed with keeping it pretty, so I try to avoid blow drying my hair and I'm very good at that. *g* I just didn't need it, but since the cold weather has reached us and I tend to sleep too long I need to use my blow dryer. So fiiinally I can talk about it. *gg*

It is a spray that, what a surprise, you spray all over you hair before blow drying. It has a nice smell with a hint of hair spray, but (and I tried) I don't find a proper description, you know: It smels like this .. . Maybe if you own it, you could tell me your opinion. So I have to stay with the description: it smells nice *gg*

It doesn't (and that is a major or the most important fact) make your hair sticky or heavy. I just hate it when hair sprays clumb you hair and you can't get a hair brush through it anymore. This doesn't do that and I love it for that.

For the effect: To really tell you if it works, I would have to send samples of my hair in a lab and analyse the before and after effect. *gg* I like it, my hair feels soft and I feel "safer" when I use it.

Conclusion: If you are looking for a blow dry protection I would recommend it, it doesn't make your hair heavy or sticky and keeps them soft. :-)

Do any of you own it?

Love,
Guinevere

Balea Vanilla Handlotion

This month is weird.. But let's start this week with new energy. :-)

Yesterday I went to DM to get some things for my boyfriends Advent calendar, I should have thought twice about what it means to find 24 "menly" gifts before announcing that this is better than one boring christmas present.. *g*

I stopped at the hand creams, I mean men need hand creams don't they? And found this:

A limited edition hand lotion with sheabutter and vanilla!! I know you can read, but why not write it again *gg*
I had to have it, I mean limited edition, I loooove limited editions. It was 1,50€ I think and so I could justify it easily. *g*

It smells delicious, a very sweet vanilla scent! I also love the dispenser. For the consistency, it isnt that intense. It is a lotion that moisturises, but I wouldn't call it rich, as it is advertised on the packaging.

So if you like vanilla and could use a hand lotion/cream, go get it. If you have really dry hands and are looking for something quite intense, this won't be enough.

Love,
Guinevere

The Snow Disaster or What Happens If You Don't Listen To Your Girlfriend..

Wanna know about my day? I wanna tell you about it! I need to tell this story, cause it gives "I told you so!" a whole new dimension..

At the moment Austria is blown away by snow. Even Vienna, which is very resistant to actual snow, usually Vienna only keeps the mud.. Not now and I love it!

Cause if it keeps snowing like this I finally can justify buying a dog sled for Kronos!!

But back to the original story..

Today we had planned to bring my mother-in-law to her flat in Hungary and visit my father-in-law on the way (Nickelsdorf). But at 7am I looked out of the window and thought, okay, we need to replan. And after Kronos dragged my through the streets to find the cat he once saw months ago, I knew it for sure. But NO my boyfriend was suuuuuure this would be no problem.. 

And since my boyfriend is incredibly stubborn and I'm way too nice, we sat, 90 minutes later, in the car, mother-in-law and Kronos included. Enjoying this:

Despite the fact, that I felt the need to start praying every time we passed a truck, we did well.

And ONE, yes ONE freaking kilometer before we arrived at his dad's place, our car died. It just died. No warning, just stopped running, during driving. I'm so glad we already had left the highway..

So we walked to my father-in-laws house to keep us warm, called ÖAMTC and after one hour this was our situation:

I gotta say, standing there in my gum boots I couldn't help myself but think: I knew it! I knew this wouldn't end well. Couldn't we fucking have stayed at home..

And how was your friday??? *gg*

Love,

Guinevere

Beauty Award Tag

I got tagged!!!!!!!!!! Whoooo, I love tags, thanks lovely Chrissy!!

So let's start. It's about the products you used this year and you think deserve an award:

Bath and Body:

I really loooove the Raspberry shower gel from The Body Shop and their Raspberry Body Butter which isn't available anymore.. :-(

Face: 

I haven't found the perfect face cream, but I found the perfect cleansing item:
My Clarisonic Mia, I adore it, it is sooooo awesome!!! I would buy it again in a heartbeat.

Haircare:

I'm extremely picky when it comes to hair care..

But I fell in love with the Radiance Rainforest series from The Body Shop.

It is great, it makes your hair smell delicious and super soft and is silicone free and has an Eco-conscious sign. What do you want more? Nevertheless, I'm still on a budget, so I will try out some of Alverdes products in the future. By the way, so you are warned, I also tried Rainforest Shine, the one for extra shine and I don't like it at all!! My hair gets greasy so much faster than usual with this..

Complexion:

I would give the award to MAC's various concealer. My favorite is Full Coverage (which is technically a foundation), but I love Moisturecover for my undereye area and also the new Longwear does a great job. :-)

Eyes:

Definitely an eyeshadow base. My make up wouldn't last at all without it. I would say UD Primer Potion, it works best for me.

Lips:

Tough one.. Since I wear lipstick and lipgloss way too rarely I will will stick with a lipbalm. At the moment I absolutely adore Body Shops Hemp Lipalm.

Cheeks:

Since my cheeks are so red anyway I like to use very light blushes. I would therefore choose the Beauty Powders from MAC. :-)

Nail Polish:

That is just impossible.. You've seen my collection, it is big for a reason. *gg* Since I can't pick one I will pick a tool. It's OPI's cuticle pusher, it is divine, it does such an amazing job!

Brush:

I wanted to add this, cause I think it transforms your make up so much! I would choose:
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Face: MAC 138 - it is perfect for contouring

Eyes: MAC 222 for defining my small crease

         MAC 266 for being perfect for creating a precise line

Overall product of the year:

Hmm.. I would stick with my Clarisonic Mia, it is just an item I wouldn't want to miss!

Thanks again for tagging me. :-) I love tags..

Love,

Guinevere

Ps.: I tag all of you!!!!