Owl Nail Art!

Hey there!

Have you noticed how popular owls have been lately? You see them in jewellery, clothes, accessories, even cushions and little home decor items. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and create some owl nail art! 

 Are they not cute? They were a present for my friend Amy who loves owls. 

Here is how I created the design: I painted the base colour, then the owl body, eyes and wings and then the smaller details. It is very important to wait enough time between layers to avoid smudging. That is the reason I would suggest recreating the design on fake nails again. Unless you have the time to sit around and wait without touching anything. Personally I have no patience.

Polishes used!

Missguided - Misstique

Nicole by OPI - On Top of My World

OPI - Goldeneye

H&M - Rising Sun

OPI - Play the Peonies

H&M - Kiss Goodnight

Let me know if you like the design and if you will try to recreate it! I would love too see what colour combinations you use!

Love,

Kristine

Benefit's ROCKATEUR Blush! Review and Swatches!

Hello!

Guess what I bought the other day! You're right! Benefit's new blush, the Rockateur.

If you follow Benefit of facebook you may have seen that they held a flash sale of their new blush in selected stores, before it is officially released in September. With all the hype about it, I had to go get one and try it for myself!

The Rockateur is promoted as a rose gold blush and it comes in the usual Benefit box packaging. The design of the box reminds me of the glam rock era, which is very appropriate having in mind the whole vintage looking packaging of Benefit's other products. It also comes with a mirror on the lid and a little brush that fits in the box for easy touch ups on the go. The powder itself has the word Rock embossed on it and a geometric pattern that reminds me of the surface of precious stones. Maybe I was influenced slightly by the sparkly layer on the triangles, but that goes away after you use the blush.

The blush itself is indeed rose gold and I think it suits a lot of different skin tones. I particularly like the pigmentation because it can be built up to an intense colour (left) or used lightly for a more natural look (right). The formulation is also very good, making the blush very easy to work with. It blends like a dream!

heavy application                                                                          light application

I also thought is would be a good idea to show you how it looks on my face in natural light (above) and under a lamp (below).

All in all I really like this blush and I can see it becoming one of my favourites very fast! Will you be getting your hands on it once it hits the shelves?

Love,

Kristine

<3 <3 <3

Graduation Ball Outfits!

Hey there! 

I went to my first ball! The occasion was our upcoming graduation from our masters degrees, and, although technically we will not graduate until December, the next ball, if any, will be next summer and we will not be able to go. I must admit that the word ball makes me thing of Cinderella and the masquerade scene from Labyrinth with David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly (if you do not know what I'm talking about watch this. But, as I was informed, a ball in England is more like prom and puffy dresses are not really encouraged. Instead you are supposed to go for a nice, elegant evening dress.

I went to the ball with my friends Sera and Kat, whom you may remember from my Ladies' Day at the Races outfit post. Me and Kat decided to get long gowns in shades of red while Sera opted for a classic black cocktail dress. So let's get into the details of each outfit!

My outfit!

Dress - New Look

Shoes - Peacocks

Ring - Primark

Earrings - Tally Weijl

I knew I wanted a dress on the darker side, either blue or red. When I found this one, I particularly liked the gunmetal details on it because they made it more unusual. Since the dress already had embellishments, I decided to keep the accessories to a minimum, with only a gunmetal ring and simple gunmetal stud spheres. I finished the look with plain black mid heel sandals, which were covered by the dress anyway. As for a bag, I knew I would be carrying my big camera with me, so I just put my ID and money in it. Problem solved.. ;)

Sera's outfit!

Dress - BCBGMaxazria

Bag - Picardo

Shoes - n/a

Necklace - Swarovski

Sera's look is classic and simple. Her black dress makes a subtle statement with its sequins and her necklace gives the outfit a dainty feminine touch. Her ponytail makes the whole look sleek and polished.

Kat's outfit!

Dress - Coast

Shoes - Glamour

Clutch - Debut

Earrings - H&M

Necklace - gift

Kat made a much bolder statement with her outfit. The bright red shade of her dress contrasts with the black accessories and, because, unlike mine, her dress does not have any black details, the final look is much more eyecatching. The feather earrings are not something to be expected in such a formal event, but they end up working with the rest of the outfit, revealing that she has her own personality and is not afraid to show it.

I must say we all looked really nice at the ball, we danced a lot and had fun. Please let me know which outfit you liked best and what you would wear or have worn to a ball/prom!

Love you!

<3 <3 <3

Newmarket Races Ladies Day! Fashion @ The Races!

Hello there!!!

As I mentioned in my last video I went to the Ladies' Day of the Newmarket Races! It was such a wonderful day and a great experience. Ladies' Day is more about the fashion than actual racing and betting, in my opinion, although we also did some of that (I won 3 pounds...).  So I am going to show you what me and my friends wore, what the ten women who won the best dressed competition wore, and also some other girls that I liked their outfits.

This was our group, me, Amy, Kat and Jess! Of course we all look gorgeous! 

Let's start with my outfit. I decided to go for a sea theme. I have missed the sea and the waves crushing on the shore and this dress reminded me of it. Of course finding a boat headpiece was the perfect way to complete my outfit!

Dress - Primark

Shoes - New Look

Earrings - H&M

Headpiece - Red Queen's Black Legion

Kat's outfit was on the gothic side, but still remained feminine and elegant. I especially like her necklace, which was from the Edgar Allan Poe collection by Alchemy Gothic. Her peacock inspired beaded clutch added a very nice hint of sparkle too.

Dress - Dorothy Perkins

Shoes - Oxford shop

Hat - Gothic Lolita & Punk

Raven's Call Necklace - Alchemy Gothic

Clutch - Mod Accessories Ltd

Jess went for an elegant look, with a simple cream fascinator and a lovely raspberry dress. Her cream belt was also spot on to give balance to her outfit.

Dress - Asos

Shoes - n/a

Fascinator - Debenhams

Belt - n/a

Earrings - n/a

Amy's look was a bit more classic and ladylike, with a very nice purple and black combination. I love the purple roses on her hat. Her dainty pearl necklace gave a feminine touch without taking away from the rest of the outfit.

Dress - Pippa Dee

Shoes - Asda

Hat - Camden market and then customised

Necklace - Accessorize

At the races we also met Amy's sister Grace (the one in blue) with a friend of hers. Their approach was bit more glam with bold colours, embellishments and statement jewellery.

Grace's outfit!

Dress - xpose clothing

Shoes - Style Sketchbook

Clutch - Peacocks

Necklace - Next (possibly) 

Bracelets - H&M

Fascinator - Custom made

Her friend's outfit!

Dress - Celebz booty

Shoes - n/a

Clutch - n/a

Necklace - n/a

Fascinator - Custom made

What I would like to say here is that Grace made both of their fascinators. She is very talented and she has her own business, so if you want to get a custom made fascinator, which no one else will have, for a wedding, prom or any other party, you can find her on facebook here: Grace's Fancy Fascinators. 

Now, let's move on to the best dressed ladies of the day. There was a competition and over a thousand women entered for their chance to win. These were the best ones according to the judges. Out of these 10 they chose the best 3... Before you read who won have a good look at them and pick your favourite please. Just for fun.

So, the third place goes to girl number seven, with the cream dress and the orange hat made by her sister.

The second place goes to girl number one, with the classy headpiece and old fashioned umbrella.

And the winner of the Ladies' day is..... drum roll.... girl number ten, with a pale Karen Millen dress and a custom made hat full of roses that match her outfit!

I do love that hat!

And because I did spot those three early on at the day and I knew they would definitely make the final ten I asked to take a picture of them to show you. Their outfits were so well put together and looked like they had been styled professionally. Very good job I must say!

I also took a photo of these girls, who I thought gave a very good idea of what the majority of women looked like there. Red and orange was the way to go definitely!

As for the hats below, I just thought they looked cool. And yes, the black horse on that hat is an old school Barbie horse! I remember playing with is when I was little because a friend of mine had it. If there was a prize for mos unusual hats I think that one, mine and Kat's would be the top 3. Of course I would win! Not biased at all there, right? Hahaha. 

This is the end of this quite long post! I hope you liked our outfits and you also got some ideas if you plan to attend the races any time soon. I would definitely suggest going because it is a lot of fun and a very British thing to do.

Love you all very much!!!

REVIEW! July Magazine Goodies!

Hello!

What girl does not love a magazine? They are a great way to see the latest trends, find out what is happening in the world (yes they do include serious articles in there it is not all gossip and superficiality) and get some good tips for various things. They also include some very nice freebies, which are a great way to try out a few products without actually having to buy the full size and risk not liking them. Could not get better than that!

So, the magazines I buy every month are Cosmopolitan and Glamour because I really like reading them. For their July issues they had quite a few products to give away so I thought I would let you know what I thought about them. Let's begin!

- L'Oreal Hair Expertise Ever Riche shampoo: My first thought is that L'Oreal has a bit of an obsession with the word 'riche' (see the Color Riche lipstics). I think shampoo is shampoo and it is hard to see results from just a sample. Out of all the shampoos I have tried in my life the only one I would say stood out was the Aussie Miracle Moist shampoo and the rest have been at most ok. So I suppose maybe this one has some effect after a few uses but after just one I can not say anything other than it cleaned my hair.

- Durex Play lube: I have to admit this made me laugh. Imagine the boardroom conversation 'I know what our readers will like...free lube!' Anyway, admittedly I have not had the chance to try that (having no boyfriend currently and such..) and I am not even sure how you judge lube really. I know that a friend has tried it, though, and it is supposed to be all right. . 

- Garnier BB Cream: At first I was a little bit surprised they still give samples of this products seeing as the product came out more than a year ago but I suppose advertising never hurt anyone. The shade that I got was medium and it was too dark for me. However I do have the full size product in light and I do use it on days I am at home and I only want a little bit of coverage so that I even out my skin tone and I do not scare people by having a naked face (ok my skin is not that bad but there is always room for improvement). I would recommend this product unless you live somewhere very hot because in Greece it felt like it was melting off of my face. It has been fine in England though so that is a good thing.

- Nivea In Shower Body Moisturizer: Apparently this is the new craze. Instead of putting on body butter after taking a shower you can use this product inside the shower and rinse it off and apparently it will keep your skin moisturized. In my opinion, that was not any kind of a revelation. It was not a bad product and it may save you the time of waiting for your body butter to be absorbed but for me personally it is not something I needed.

- Sunglasses: These glasses are Ray Ban look alikes and everyone and their grandmother has the original ones. I grew up wanting a pair of my own but they do not really suit my face so I would not buy them. I think getting one that looks like them for free, especially since I know I will probably hardly ever wear them seemed like a good idea.

- ModelCo Fibre LashXtend mascara: I have been using this mascara for a few days. Its main selling point is its lengthening ability but I personally like it more because it defines individual lashes quite well. I quite like using it.

- Scholl Dry Skin Instant Recovery Cream: This was a product I wanted to try for some time because in summer my feet tend to get a bit dry. I was quite pleased with it because it did make my feet nice and soft and I will probably get the full size next time I am out shopping. It is a good and useful product to have around. Let your feet be nice and soft!

- Mentos Strawberry Mix: That is one sweet I was excited about! In the normal mentos pack I always loved the pink ones so now I know they make a pack with just the pink ones I will be all over it! I just love it! Better make sure I don't drink coke with it though. I have seen those videos and I do not want that happening in my stomach...

- Smint mints: That is one intense mint! I remember years ago trying out the peach flavour and I had really loved it. I think the mint ones may be a bit too strong for me but they are still a good thing for your handbag to keep your breath fresh when you go around and talk to people.

All in all it was really fun having all the samples and the sweets! I hope my comments on them were helpful to you in case you want to try the products or if you want to go get the magazines and try the samples yourself. That is always fun. Talk to you next time!

Love you!

SLEEK Face Form Contouring and Blush Palette! Swatches & Review!

Hello there!!!!

Today I want to talk to you about a product that I bought last week, the Sleek Face Form Contouring and Blush palette. I had seen several people raving about it and since I did not have a powder highlighter and a nice bronzer I decided to give it a try.

I got the palette in the shade Light. It comes with a matte bronzer, a shimmery highlight powder and the Rose Gold blush, which can be bought individually too and I had my eye on for some time. Medium and Dark palettes have another bronzer instead of this blush but they are much too dark for me. 

The packaging is simple yet quite appealing. However I would not have it in a makeup bag because it feels like it can get dirty easily. If you do not care about that though, it is a very practical product to have with you when you travel because you get three different things in it without taking up too much space. The big mirror on the inside is also very helpful if you are touching up your makeup on the go.

Moving on to the three colours inside it.

The bronzer is a light to medium matte brown and it is incredibly pigmented. It matches my skin tone perfectly so it looks like a natural shadow instead of a mud stain (yes that has happened to me before). I would say that it is worth the full price of the palette on its own. What is more, it applies like a dream both with a small contour brush for a nice structured contoured look and with a big fluffy face brush if you want to add some colour all over your face to look a bit more tanned. I would give it a 10/10!

The highlighter is a beautiful shimmery champagne colour, which is very close to my natural skin colour. This unfortunately makes it a bit hard to show up and it is barely visible on me when I use a fluffy brush to put it on. Instead I will either use a buffing brush or apply it with my fingers in the areas I want it to be and then blend it out where it is necessary. One thing I tried and it worked quite well is to use it instead of eyeshadow on days when I stay at home and I only put some foundation, mascara and lip balm on. It will make my eye area brighter and my eyes pop much more. I will give it a 7/10 just because I have to work a bit more than I would like to to get the best result.

The blush, which everyone says is a dupe for NARS Orgasm, looks really beautiful in the pan. However, I need to be careful when I apply it because it is quite orange and if I put too much it can clash with my skin tone, which tends to be more neutral to yellow. I think this as a blush looks much better on darker skin tones, an Indian friend of mine has it and it looks amazing on her skin because the simmer comes through and glows, whereas on me it is the base colour of the blush that draws all the attention. As a result, I need to be patient and build it up slowly for the best result. I would give it 8/10 just because I can not help comparing it to Sleek's blush in Pomegranate, which is one of my favourite blushes and I think is much better for me than this. 

Anyway, here are some heavy swatches on my skin in cloudy daylight (above) and direct sunlight (below). Imagine them much more sheer when you use a brush on your face though. Overall I am quite satisfied with the palette I would definitely recommend it. It is a very good product for just under 10 pounds and you are going to get a lot of use out of it.

Let me know what you think about this product and what kind of skin tones you would think it would work well with.

Love you!

MODELS' OWN Scented Polishes 2013! Swatches and Review!

Hello there!!!

I hope you are having a lovely day. A couple of weeks ago I showed you in a video that I bought these two nail polishes and I promised to do a review here to let you know exactly what I thought about them. So let's get to it!

The shades I picked up are Grape Juice and Banana Split. In the bottle they both look beautiful and quite bright for pastels. Since I had never tried the Models' Own brand before I did not know what to expect but I knew that a lot of people like their polishes. There are a few points I would like to take you through though because they are more or less the standards for judging any nail polish.

Application!

The first thing I noticed was that the brush tends to apply a very thick coat of polish, which makes it harder to smooth it out on the entire nail and can create unevenness in the opacity of the polish. The normal solution to that is a second coat, which is what I did, but I found out that if again another thick coat is put the same problem can remain and you may end up with really thick opaque parts and very thin streaky ones on the same nail. I would advise making the first coat as thin as possible and the second one a little bit thicker and fully opaque and then waiting until they are completely dry. If you still are not completely satisfied with the result use a good top coat. It will make a huge difference, and I really mean a huge one.

Durability!

I was able to wear both of these colours for five days without having any serious chipping. I would say they stay on quite well once they are dry so you do not have to worry too much about them, which is something I really like in a polish.

Scent!

Since these products are marketed as scented polishes I expected them to smell quite nice. Especially since I have tried the Revlon scented polishes in the past I thought they would be similar to them. However, the scent is barely there, if there at all. The wet nail polish in the bottle has a normal nail polish scent with a tiny hint of something else but as soon as it is on the nails and especially after using a top coat everything disappears. Comparing with the Revlon ones that you can still smell them a couple of days later, even with the top coat on, I would say these polishes fail on the scented aspect completely.

My final judgement of these two polishes is that I like them. I did not care about the scent anyway, what I was going for was a couple of beautiful pastel colours and I really like how these two look on my nails. The only thing that slightly put me off, is that I need to work with them to get an even application, but the Sally Hansen Mega Shine top coat saved those two polishes and made it possible to get a beautiful result so I will definitely keep using them throughout summer. Between the two, Grape Juice is my favourite because I love purple and it is slightly easier to apply because it is a bit darker than the yellow one.

Please let me know if you have tried any polishes from this line and if you had the same problem with the application. I hope you found this review useful. See you next time!

Love you!

PRIMARK OOTD: Summer Mermaid!

Hey there!

I do not know if you noticed but there was sun outside last week! So I decided to go out for a walk in the park and my friend, Maria, offered to take some pictures of my outfit for the blog (no friends were harmed in the making of this blog post). 

I know the cut of the skirt is not a mermaid style but the whole outfit reminds me of mermaids because of the colour. It is a nice change from the traditional ombre look that you see everywhere, which goes from top to bottom, and the pleats make it move a lot more and create an effect of the different blue hues chasing each other in the light, like I imagine they would reflect on the scales of a mermaid's tail.

Outfit!

Top - Primark

Skirt - Primark

Shoes - Primark

Bag - Primark

Headband - Primark

Earrings - H&M

Glasses - Accessorize

A note on the shoes: they are quite comfortable and easy to walk but I found two problems with them. The bow is screwed on the shoe and if it keeps twisting it can be unscrewed so I'd suggest unscrewing it at home, putting some superglue and screwing it again. Also, the bottom part of the screw can dig into your skin so you can either add a plaster every time you wear them or put a piece of fabric to cover the screw for good (ideally after the superglue so the bows won't come off). The second issue is that the plastic between the toes can cause blisters after wearing them daily for about a week, so keep that in mind too.

I must say I really love this outfit because it is bright and happy and it is a nice change from the dark colours I would wear in winter. I should also probably warn you that it does attract looks and comments in the street so be prepared for that.

And just because I did not want to carry a neutral bag, I decided to go with a bright pink one instead! What can I say, I love my colours! This bag can fit my DSLR camera, my wallet, notebook, pen, makeup etc... I like being prepared for things (add an axe for potential zombie apocalypse). 

Anyway, I must go now. I hope you enjoyed this post and you will be brave enough to wear bold colours! London needs more colourful people to balance out the suits! Again a big thanks to Maria for taking the pictures! See you next time!

Love you!

OOTD Flower Market Sunday!

Hey there!

Yesterday I went to the Columbia Road Flower Market and I got some beautiful white roses! This was also a great chance to wear my new purple dress and my flower headband that I got last week! Yay! 

Outfit!

Dress - Primark

Belt - Terranova

Shoes - Primark

Headband - Primark

Bag - Primark

Makeup!

Lips - Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balmstain in Lovesick

Nails- Models Own scented polish in Banana Split

I really like my outfit although I wish it was a little bit warmer so I could skip the tights. What I tried to do is keep it simple with purple and pink as my main colours and have pink roses in my belt and headband. I wish I had taken more detailed photos of the outfit but I didn't think I would be writing this post. I changed my mind though because a couple of people asked about my headband so I thought I should let you know.

Finally if you want to see the other flower headband and some more stuff I bought from Primark last week you can watch my haul below!

I hope you liked this post and the video! Let me know if you would wear a flower headband with your outfits!

Love you!

REVIEW: Bourjois Rouge Edition Lipstick!

Hey there!

As you know (and finally can feel outside) it's spring. One of my favourite spring looks is orange lips and I decided to get a new orange lipstick and at the same time try out the new Bourjois lipsticks! It was also a good thing that the only orange lipstick I liked was from this line even if I had to look for it in 3 different Boots that were sold out and finally buy it from Superdrug. Oh well, at least I got it. The shade is number 10,  Rouge Buzz.

The Bourjois website states that it is designed to have a glossy finish and keep the lips hydrated for 10 hours due to the orchid extract it contains. When you first put it on it does feel very soft and creamy, it slides on like a dream and it leaves a nice shiny finish but nothing too glossy or sticky. I know that the latest trend is to have lips that look wet but I hate it. It feels unnatural and makes me think it will smudge. I know it's in my mind but I don't want my mind to be on my lips instead of enjoying my time.

Moving on, the staying power is quite good, I had lunch and tea and my lips were still nice and bright afterwards. Although it did leave orange lip marks on my mug so I suppose if you intend to kiss anyone you may need to be careful.

Here's a swatch on my lips and the back of my hand to see how it looks. It a red orange so if you want you can even use it instead of red lipstick for a fresher look.

Overall I think this is a very good lipstick for the price of 7.99 pounds and it can easily become a staple in mine and your spring and summer makeup bag!

Let me know if your decide to get it or if you have any other colours from the line!

Love,

Kristine