Sorry about my recent, uh, absence

It's been a tough couple of weeks, turns out I'm going to be unemployed (along with all the great people I work with) from January 1^st.

So, yeah. Expect a bit fewer posts, I promise not to go away totally. It's all just rather stressful and I need to look for a new job, which might be rather difficult considering the current state of our economy.

Time to invest in some more waterproof eye make up, I suppose.
(Now, if only I had something to make said investments with...)

PowderBuff Girl Nails Ados

This is one of my favourite pink nail polishes - Ados's Tear 69. It's REALLY cheap, but I just love the colour. I'm not usually a "pink nails" person, but isn't this adorable?

The polish itself could be a tad more opaque (three coats is torture for me), and perhaps dry a little faster.

Three coats, natural light, Rimmel top coat.

I bite my nails a lot. And the skin around them. So, uh, sorry about my lack of proper manicure and weird fingers.

Since I'm cleverly thinking ahead, do you think I should add this to my first giveaway (a brand new bottle, not my used one, of course)? I'm trying to buy stuff for it, um, gradually; you know... a nail polish today, an eyeshadow tomorrow. Mostly because I feel like I'm spending less when I spread my spendings out over a longer period of time. Yes, I know it's silly.

PowderBuff girl is swatching: Gosh Effect Powders

It's just too dark everywhere this time of the year. I actually opened my window to try and take some photos in natural light, but to no avail.
And flash photography is so unforgiving, especially when it comes to close-ups. I don't actually have uber-hairy arms, I promise.

But here are the Gosh swatches:

Cinnamon - Meringue - Lake - Copper - Blaze - Gold Dust
(Gold Dust only barely visible in the bottom corner on the first photo)

You can see Gold Dust better on this one.

Cinnamon actually looks much less brown in natural light and Gold Dust looks way more golden. I also have a little jar of Satin somewhere, but I cannot find it at the moment.

All of them are applied dry on the photos. Which was not a good idea, because when used dry Blaze gets all over everything (the bits of brown glitter everywhere is Blaze).

Katie's giveaway!

Katie from ...with fashion added in is giving one lucky subscriber an Eyeko nail polish of their choice.

I've seen so many absolutely gorgeous photos of these polishes.
I mean, if you just look at the Cosmic polish, doesn't it just yell "Wear me! Wear me! Wear me!" to you?
And it says "for space age nails" on it, and it looks adorable andandand... it would look great with my Star Trek dress.
(Yes, I'm that nerdy.)

Love it or Leave it Tag

Alicia (FunnyFace Beauty) was tagged with this. And she tagged absolutely everyone. Since I can't resist doing whatever her blog tells me to do... here goes:

The rules (according to Girly's Beauty's Leslie, who tagged Alicia) are as follows:

1. You must give the link to my blog and say that I made this tag.
2. You must tag at least 3 bloggers.
3. You do not need all of the products.

Name a  product that you love and one that you hate from the following categories:
Eyeliner, mascara, eyeshadow, browpencil, foundation, powder, conceler, blush, bronzer, lipstick, lipgloss and lipbalm.


Eyeliner
Love it - Bourjois' Liner Clubbing Liquid Eyeliner in ultra black. I love the texture and it can cope with my 12-hour shifts at work.
Leave it - Maybelline's Define-a-Line Eye Liner in any color. The pencil's too hard for me, texture-wise, and the pencil core breaks way too easily. Can't comment on how long it stays put, because it was just too uncomfortable to use.

Mascara
Love it - Lancôme's Hypnôse Drama. It does everything I've ever wanted a mascara to do. I love Lancôme's mascaras as it is, but this one is just perfect.
(By the way, has anyone else noticed the curiously similar brush bend in Maybelline's Lash Stiletto Volume?)
Leave it - Lumene's Natural Code Eye Dramatizer Lash-Extending Mascara. The "dramatizer" part is spucatum tauri, scientifically speaking (because everything sounds scientific when it's in Latin, right?). It's not really a BAD mascara, per se, it's just utterly unimpressive. It doesn't clump your lashes up, it's not messy, it doesn't stain... but it basically just colours your own lashes blacker and that's it. I suppose it'd make a great "first mascara" for someone younger who's still learning to use one.

Eyeshadow
Love it - Gosh's Effect Powder in Cinnamon. It has a sort of metallic satin-ish finish. Unfortunately, it was a limited edition colour and I failed to stock up, so I'm always approaching this little jar of joy with extreme caution (I don't want to run out!). I should do a couple of swatches for you guys some day, because I absolutely love this one. Luckily, though, a little goes a long way with this (as with most loose shadows).
Leave it - I don't really know what to put here. With a proper primer and good brushes, most eyeshadows stay put quite well and can look pretty good, so there. However, I can say that I look weird when I use a lot of blues or pinks in my eye make up.

Brow Pencil
Love it - Gosh's Eyebrow Pencil in 01 Brown. It's actually not as brown as one might think, as far as hair goes, I'd say it's more of a dark blonde. While most brown brow pencils tend to have a wee bit too much red in them for my taste, this one is a great shade actually. And I've noticed that I use the handy brush in the other end of the pencil more than I use my actual brow brush.
Leave it - Manhattan's Brow Pencil in 99W Brown. As I said before - too red-ish. And whenever you have an itch in your brow area or just need to touch your eyebrows, be ready to wash your finger(s) and have a mirror close by - it smudges.

Foundation
Love it - Bourjois' Healthy Mix in 51 Vanille Clair. Unfortunately they don't sell this shade here in Estonia, so I have to order it from elsewhere. I have used 52 in a pinch, but 51 is just the perfect match for my skintone. Most people didn't really notice the difference, but I kept checking my jawline in each and every mirror I came across. I love the pump bottle (it's a tubeless pump, the bottom and the product are pushed upwards as to not waste any of the goodnes inside), I love the smell and I love the coverage. I do need to carry around blotting sheets for my T-zone, but I need to do that with each and every foundation I've ever used.
Leave it - (I'm going to be eaten alive for this) MAC foundations. I've tried to love them, I honestly have.  They just oxidise on me, and whereas they may look perfect in the morning, straight after applying them,  I'm either a patchy shade of orange by midday or have a really dark T-zone. Whatever primers I've tried under them, MAC's foundations just do not agree with my skin.

Powder
Love it - Bourjois' Mineral Radiance Powder in Vanille. It's quite sheer, but this is actually what I prefer when it comes to powders. It eliminates all shininess in my T-zone without looking too matte, and because it's sheer, I can reapply it when I need to during the day - it won't look patchy unlike some higher coverage powders. Do throw away the sponge-thingy Bourjois provides you with, though.
Leave it - Rimmel's powders. I actually quite like Rimmel's products. But the texture of their powders is just... terrible, even for a cheaper product. I looked like I had skin-coloured flour on my face. Just, uh, never again.

Concealer
Love it - Garnier's Caffeine Anti Dark Circles 2-in-1 Roll-on in Fair. I know it's not usually marketed as make up. It doesn't do much about treating my panda-eyes, but it's probably the best under-eye concealer I've ever used. It covers well, doesn't sink into the small lines around my eyes, and despite being a little disappointed in the 2-in-1 claim, it IS an awesome concealer and I'll keep buying it.
Leave it - LOréal Paris True Match Touche Magique Concealer. It does cover the dark circles to some extent, but it creases. And by "creases," I mean "sinks into each and every little line you might have around your eyes, and seems to create a couple of extra ones for good measure." I do use it as a highlighter on my browbones and nose, at times. Oh, and on cheekbones as well, when I feel like I'd really like to blend something for fifteen minutes straight.

Blush
Love it - Chantal Thomass for Nivea Beauté - Stay Real Blush. I'm normally not super excited by Nivea's make up line, nor have I been terribly disappointed, usually I'm more of a "meh". But this blush is great. It's easy to blend and it layers quite well; you can go from a subtle "it's slightly windy outside" to an "I belong on a theatre stage" look, should you wish to do so. It comes in two shades - one's a warm peachy tone and the other's a colder pink, I have them both. Oh, and you can also use one sheer-ish layer of one and then another layer of the other on top, they blend well with each other.
Leave it - Gosh's blushes. Too matte, don't stay put, can look blotchy when not applied with extreme care - enough said, I suppose.

Bronzer - I have never bought a bronzer myself. I have three at the moment, and most of them have been gifts from either friends of parts of an "buy this, get that for free" deals. Most bronzers make me feel uncomfortable, so I rarely use them. (Remember the Dare to Wear challenge photo, I took? Yeah, that was one of those rare occasions. Yes, I am that pale, and yes, that's probably why I look orange on the photos without flash.)

Lipstick
Love it - Revlon's Superlustrous Lipstick in 730 Revlon Red - this is the perfect shade of red. Well, for me, at least. I do wish it'd last a bit longer, but I fell in love with this shade the first time I tried it, and have been a fan ever since. Unfortunately it's becoming increasingly hard to find it here, it better not be discontinued. I might cry.
Leave it - The entire Gosh lipstick range makes my lips literally itchy. I have no idea why. I'm sure there are people who love them, but I just cannot let them anywhere near my lips.

Lipgloss
Love it - Rimmel's Vinyl Stars Lip Gloss in Born to Bling. I first bought this only because I like the name a lot. I did, however, soon discover that I was actually using it more than all my other lip glosses. It's clear, but sparkly, without looking like one's spent quite some time making out with glittery christmas decorations. I use it on its own, especially at work, where we have to keep our make up on the natural side; but I have also yet to find a lipstick shade that looks bad with it.
Leave it - L'Oreal's Glam Shine 6H lip glosses. Whereas they have some nice colours and they do look nice when you first apply them, they become stickier than the stickiest sticky stuff. I like the applicator and I like the smell of them. Everything else is "ugh". It dries up my lips and sometimes it doesn't wear off evenly, it's just bits of dried up lip gloss all over your lips.

Lip Balm
Love it - Superdrug's Little Blue Tin (and the green one, oh, and the new red one, as well). I wish I could put something extra-fancy here, but I love this little lip balm. It moisturises and softens and looks cute. The only way this could be any better would be if it had sun protection in it.
Leave it - Anything that smells - or worse - tastes like royal jelly or honey. I really-really dislike honey-scented and/or flavoured products. I mean, I can live with a milk-and-honey hand wash, for example, but I refuse to have anything like that anywhere near my lips or nose.

Whew, that's a massive wall of text.

I don't really know whom to tag myself, because I'd really like to just see everybody's lists. If you do decide to do a post about your lovelies and your omg!neveragains, leave me a link in the comments to satisfy this little monkey's curiosity.

PowderBuff girl vs Farmasi Berries Body Scrub

If you've read my "woe is me" post from last week, you might be aware that I got myself a brand new body scrub.

Yup, this one.

It smells absolutely divine (raspberry-divine) and looks a bit like yoghurt with a tad of ground coffee in it. It's not really yoghurt and those scrubbing particles ain't really coffee grounds, they're apricot kernel bits.

It's non-foamy and even though I know some people like that, I would much rather have something that lathers up on me. And there could've been more apricot kernel bits, if you ask me. So, I mixed in some ground coffee. (Yes, I do have a jar of coffee in my bathroom, doesn't everyone?) The coffee made it smell even better. It's crazy!

Just for the sake of trying it out, I actually used it without my added particles. It was nice and hydrating and smelled good, but it just didn't do its scrubbing job. Once I stuck my hand in my coffee jar, though...
I loved it. If it were a foamy-lathering scrub I would love it more (oh, and I do wish the lovely smell would linger on me just a bit longer).

All that aside, I probably wouldn't buy this again. Despite the awesome smell, I do love my bubbles, can't help it. And even though I do have a jar of ground coffee in my bathroom, I'd much rather have the product contain enough scrubbiness without me having to add stuff.

I absolutely fail at taking photos.

FunnyFace Beauty had (well, technically still has, for a bit) a Dare to Wear challenge going on.
From this challenge I learned several things.
1. Flash photos are a big no-no for my wrinkly-scarry skin.
2. Lying down while taking a photo makes my face look swollen up.
3. I utterly fail at taking photos in general.

So, I not-so proudly present... this:

Excuse the state of my eyebrows. I didn't really have time to fix 'em.

And this is what normally happens:

"Are you taking a photo? I wanna be on the photo!"

"Photo time again?"

So, it's now just a bit past midnight here, and I still have make-up to remove, need to get up at 7 sharp tomorrow morning.