The first one of my german nail polishes, Manhattan Bonnie Strange in 06 The Wow-Show! I can’t get this low cost brand in Spain so I thought it was worth check it, this one is a limited edition and the perfect autumn color.
It is a dark purple-brown base with golden shine ,love it, below two coats. Nice formula, not so kin on the brush though, but for 2,95€ you can’t ask for more.
In keeping with last post, grey nails this week. Jin Soon Auspicious. The actual color is a bit darker, three coats here (the formula is rather thin).
Lovely lavander grey with very high shine.
Love Rooney Mara’s makeup in this editorial. Strong brows, contoured face and barely there lips and eyes. My take below:
Chanel Notorious for contouring face and the eyes socket. I am not a person that fells in the wagon of “limited edition” but as soon as I saw this I knew it was going to work on me, and I love it! I use for the face with Hakudodo 210 and eyes Hakuhodo 5523.
Tarte Amazonian clay waterproof brown liner is darker than my other pencils and works best for stronger brows.
Benecos natural lipstick adds just a bit of color , BDIH certified feels very moisturizing in my lips and has a very good price.
As I said here, over the last few months I have been taking care of my make up stash (utterly neglected before). I tossed a few items that were out of date and I started making lists of what I had and what was needed. With those lists in mind I made my purchases that are right in the middle of things I think I need and things I don’t think I need but I really like.
My approach to buying make up is the same as clothing or skincare, I don´t want to have many choices, I prefer to have less things but nicer and higher quality. That said sometimes I jut buy cheap things because I like them : ) I kind of have a budget for each month for clothes, skincare and makeup that lately I have been spending more in makeup and skincare.
In the last three months I have bought less clothes and shoes, a pair of white jeans (30€), a pair of Zara boots on the sales (30€) (for autumn), a half price H&M bikini(12€), cheap summer sandals (12€), a couple skirts (both 8€) and a bra on sale (13€). This is more or less 100€ in 3 months, I can’t resist sales…
Now then, this is what I bought in makeup.
From top left to right:
YSL Volume effect faux cils in extreme blue, it has been ages since I bought my last mascara, I use those free samples, I have nice long naturally curled eyelashes and they do the job. But this summer I wanted something different and I went for blue (it doesn’t show bright blue on me because I have really dark eyelashes, it’s more a subtle blue that I love). I bought it here for 19,95€.
Nars blush in Mata Hari and Nars lipstick in Heat Wave, I only owned a blush and it is already showing the pan! so I went to Nars counter to buy a pink blush and I ended with this mauve mate pink that goes nicely with my fair skin. My boyfriend volunteer to buy me a lipstick so between the two we chose this orangey red.
Kevin Aucoin The Celestial Powder in Candlelight and Kevin Aucoin The Sensual Skin Enhancer, I didn’t have any illuminator in powder ( I have Benefit high beam, but I don’t really like it) and I saw a 20% of in Dermstore, the rest it’s history : ) They also gave me a $15 off on my next purchase and I went back to Kevin Aucoin for the Sensual Skin Enhancer in SX5, my Ben Nye concealer was dead.
Suqqu creamy eye liner in black, I love a good cat eye, I had a friend going to London so I asked him to get me this in Selfridges. I had to restrain myself from asking more things from Suqqu, they just don’t fit in my budget : ( Kind of crazy that Suqqu is cheaper in UK than in Japan. I love the small brush, I can take one brush off from my Hakuhodo list .
OCC Lip tar in NSFW, you can never have too many red lipsticks : ) I wanted to try these so I went for the safe bid and got this true red. It feels really good on my lips, the color is fantastic and I just want to buy more. I heard that they are going to be sell in Sephora from September…
Do you think your make up buys or they are just impulsive?
If there is something that I wanted for a long time and never had the chance to get that is a good set of makeup brushes. The same thing as in the kitchen you need a proper set of knives in makeup I think is worth to invest in good quality set of brushes. What’s the point on expending 25€ in a blush if you don’t have the proper tools to get the most of it?
Due to many different reasons, main one being money (good ones are expensive) and also because I never really knew my options I didn’t ended buying any. But that´s what blogs are there for isn’t it? I did an extensive research and my conclusions were that japanese brushes were among the best in quality and could be also cheaper that high end brands brushes.
Hakuhodo, japanese brush, brand has the advantage that they sell online outside Japan from an USA web page in english (I did try to understand anything from Chikuhodo japanese web shop but It was just impossible). These two companies make brushes for high end brands and also sell their own products.
Hakuhodo has lots and lots of make up brushes, so first thing I had to figure out what kind of brush I needed, sort them out for use and then by price.You can find brushes from around 15$ to more than a hundred. I certainly don’t need 100$ brushes. Prices can change depending on handles, hairs so it took a while to get a comprise between the quality I wanted and the price I liked.
When I was going through this with my boyfriend,he was amazed of how much money these things cost so he offered to get them as my birthday present : )
These are the ones that made the cut (all images form Hakuhodo web site).
G5538BkSL Powder Brush round for setting loose powder and highlighter.
210 Blush Brush round for blush and bronzer.
235 Eye Shadow Brush round and flat for basic shadow lay down.
G5522BkSL Eye Shadow Brush pointed for blending eye shadows.
G5514BkSL Eye Shadow Brush pointed for detail shadow application.
K007 Eyeliner Brush round not only for eyeliner also for concealer spot application.
B242BkSL Eye Shadow Brush round and flat for under eye concealer, liquid illuminator and cream eyeshadows.
I am still thinking, I would like to buy a lip brush but I already have a nice one (the only one I am keeping from my current ones), so please if you have any opinions share them with me, it’s a big purchase and I need all the help I can have.
lunaday 