nail polish swatches

I thought I put up some random nail swatches. I loooove nail polish and I have a ton more *g* Maybe I do a "My nail polish collection" post, would you be interested in something like that??


China Glaze Calypso Blue


China Glaze Japanese Koi


China Glaze Pink Underground


China Glaze Bahamian Escape


MAC Dry Martini


Knock Out Karen

Love,
Guinevere

my little MAC Warm & Cozy haul

Lately I'm really trying to be a good girl and buy only stuff I absolutely need and so I look at each MAC collection that comes out very closely as there are a lot as you all know.

Well and since I skipped Love Lace totally and I love Shadesticks, though I don't use them often (bad girl), I pondered about buying those from the Warm & Cozy Collection.

Usually I'm on the MAC counter the first day of release of a new collection. This month I went there on the 15th, which is unbelievable for me. lol. So I looked at each shadestick in detail and also checked out the other items.
I never got hooked by the Mineralize Skinfinishes as so many seem to have, but the "comfort" one was really nice.
So with my hand full of swatches I went home and compared the shadesticks to the others I own and really thought about the Skinfinish. "Comfort" is an awesome shading colour, not so overloaded with shimmer as all the other Mineralize Skinfinishes..

Well and that's what I ended up buying. :-)


Two shadesticks: Relaxed, Cuddle and the Skinfinish "comfort"

Close ups:


I'm really in love with those products, very fallish :-)

And naturally some swatches, sunlight and daylight.

The skinfinish, cuddle and relaxed.

Nice, aren't they?

So what about you, did you get something from that collection? Maybe even the same products? How do you like them? Would love to read your opinions in the comments.

Love,
Guinevere

Zoya Renew Project

I wanted to celebrate my 12 followers *gg* and do a post I really wanted to do for some time now. Thanks soo much. I'm so grateful for each and everyone of you!! Just so that you know.

Okay let's start. As you might know by now I'm a real nail polish freak, I probably should have done an own nail polish blog, but whatever. Diversity rules!!

I have several Eyeko polishes and they are quite nice, nevertheless, now the second one dried almost to death, which definitely started to get on my nerves..
So when I ordered some polishes on ebay I bought some Zoya nail polishes, among other things I got some of their "lock down" polishes and the new "renew polish rejunevator" just out of curiousity, cause at that time I didn't know my eyeko polish dried.

So I thought let's try it! Now to the pictures, the highlight of every post. *g*

That's how the polish looked like, killing isn't it??


That's how it should look like!!


And that's how the renew polish looks like.


Okay, so what you need to reanimate your polish is:


The dead polish, the rejuvenator and a tiny stick to agitate the polish after you put the renew drops in it and that's about it. Simple, right?


So I started out with one full pump and built it up, in the end I put 17 pumps in the polish, sounds much, but it was just right. It depends on the thickness of your old polish, so just start small.


And that was the end result, a perfect polish, better than new. It never was so good than after that treatment. I can't recommend it highly enough!!! It's sooo awesome. So if you have some polishes that start to get sticky and viscous, buy that and you can save all your little darlings.

I hope this post was useful and you all stay tuned for future posts.

Love,
Guinevere

The Clarisonic Mia

Intro-statement: A lot of text, I know, but it just needs some explanation.. :-)

I was lucky enough to persuade Santa to get me the Clarisonic Mia and so it was there under the christmas tree waiting to be used.

For the ones who don't know what this is: The Clarisonic is a brush that cleanses your face with sonic technology! This sonic technology cleans your face up to 7 times better than manual cleansing and that in a gentle way. It also minimises your pores and lets your skin absorb the products you use afterwards way much better. The producers also say it reduces fine lines and wrinkles. Nevertheless, I can't say if this is true, cause fortunately this isn't quite a problem yet.

What I can say is, that it makes pores smaller and your face smoother and I do have the impression that my skin is really able to absorb my cream now, like it drinks it. *g*For fairness sake I have to admit that my skin is fairly flawless. I never really had troubles with pimples or big pores (thank god), but it is unbelievably sensitive, as one can see from my Volcanic Ash Exfoliator post.

I don't wanna complain. Not at all. Still, it bothered me that I couldn't pamper my face, because as always I go for perfection and it just felt like ignoring my skin. This Clarisonic is gentle enough for me to use it, so everyone can use it! But now to some pictures and a how to use guide.

Oh, one thing before starting the picture marathon: The Clarisonic comes in 3 sizes, the "mia" is the "baby" of the Clarisonics. It has only one speed setting, but other than that it does exactly the same, also the brush heads are the same size as the other ones! I have the Mia, cause I only need one speed, that's enough for me and it's the cheapest.

Here is a comparison chart from the US website:


I know I know it is super expensive, but I really think it is worth it. This isn't something that gets bad after some months and the brush heads are replaceable, you will have it for forever. It's like an electrical toothbrush for your face and your face is a very important part of you.

But now, finally, I show you my baby.

That's the packaging it came in. I took this picture the night I got it. :-)


And now a closer look:


No, those bite marks aren't standard.. They are this little monsters fault:


And he doesn't even feel guilty.. How this happened? The Clarisonic is waterproof, which is super cool and so you can take it with you in the shower and use it there. That's what I did and I didn't lay it back, because I wanted to use it again the next day and during the night Kronos, that's his name, decided to take the Clarisonic and my cleanser out of the shower and try how they taste... A proof for the quality - it still works without any problems and is chargeable.. I'm really happy my set had two brush heads in it..

Well, so now you know why and so let's act like those marks aren't there. I try to do that every day as much as I can..


That's the other side and you can see how "small" and handy it is. :-)


Close up of the brush head.


My set, it's from Sephora, contained two brush heads (the second one (now Kronoses) is only in the pic for you), a little bag and the charger. This is how it is charged:


It's magnetic and supereasy to use. The charger works everywhere, nevertheless, you have to attach it to your local power outlet.


I'n my case (America to Austria) it looks like that:

:-)

And just for you: a fake picture of usage lol


It does its sonic thing exactly for one minute and then it stops. You move it around your face in circular motions. So you wet your face, put your cleanser of choice on the brush or your face and then start. It's superfast and makes such a difference.

One thing though: you can't get it here. It is available in the US and they just started selling it in the UK, but they don't have the "mia" yet. I took the slightly detour: I transferred the 149$ to a lovely friend of mine who lives in America and she bought it for me and sent it to me and I gave it to Santa to give it back to me on christmas.. *g*

Long story short: It is pricy and kinda hard to get. Still, I think it is worth it. It truly can improve your skin and make a difference. Hope you enjoyed the post. I know it was long, but I wanted to do it right for you guys. :-)

Love,
Guinevere

Essence Moonlight Collection

Essence cosmetics is a german drugstore brand with pretty amazing stuff. The have a permanent product line and every month limited editions as well.

I became a true Essence fan with every new product I bought and when I saw the "Moonlight Collection" which is obviously inspired by The Twilight Saga which I'm absolutely addicted to, I just had to buy the whole collection.

I payed for the whole collection (14 items) about 28€ which is nothing when you're used to MAC prices.. In general their stuff rarely costs more than 2€ pro product which is truly great!!!

So here it is:


Beautiful isn't it?! I love it. So as you can see there are 3 polishes, 3 eyeshadows, 1 face shimmer powder, 1 gorgeous brush, 2 lipglosses, 2 liquid liners and a glitter set.

I thought you might like some swatches, so here they are:

Let's start with the nail polishes:


They provide a nice coverage after two coats and last well. :-)

Let's move on to the eyeshadows. As you can see they have an adorable pattern. I really have troubles using them, I don't wanna destroy the nice trees...


Swatchwise the colour pay off is decent, it could be better, but it's sublte and nice, that's fine, even more considering the cheap price and the fact that not everyone loves such intense colours. You can also see a swatch of the shimmer powder and here is the product photo:


A very useable, pretty colour.

I am extraordinarily happy with the brush, Essence doesn't have brushes in their permanent line and the brush is soooo soft and it cost about 2,45€! I almost thought about buying another one.

And I mean look at it, isn't it sweet with the pink bristles!

The lipglosses are a bit a different story, they look very nice and cute, but especially the pink one has no colour at all. Nevertheless, they feel nice on the lips and aren't sticky at all.


The liners also have a very decent pay off, but with a bit extra effort, the result is good as well. And again, one just has to keep the price in mind.


Last, but not least the glitter trio. They are so lovely and the colours look exactly like they look in the packaging so I did no swatches, knowing that it would be a bit pointless.


So I hope you enjoyed the pictures. If Essence is sold near you, you definetely should check them out. The products are great and the price is really unbeatable. For all my american readers, I'm afraid it is only sold in Europe, but I hope you still could enjoy this post.

Love,
Guinevere