Finished Products: December

Hello everyone!

December found me finishing up quite a lot of products. For me it's an accomplishment, considering that up till few month ago I didn't even have that many products. I still don't, as I try to use stuff up before buying anything new, but I definitely see my space filling up!

1. Simple Soothing Facial Toner
I'm on my second bottle of this and I love it! For the price, it does a wonderful job at making my skin clean and fresh. Definitely will be buying more of it in the futures. 

 2. Almay One Coat Dial Up Mascara
 I needed a new mascara and I decided to step away from my safe and trusted Maybelline one and try something different. This mascara is supposed to help you create 3 different eye lash looks, from day to night. I am not sure how the first two 'clicks' work as I always kept it on 3, and it did a pretty good job. I'm not sure I would re-purchase it though as I wasn't that impressed with it. Even on 3 I didn't see that big of a difference between this and other mascaras I tried. It does have one good point - after using it, I'm no longer afraid of silicone type applicators.

3. Black Pearl Day Moisturizer for Young Skin (program for under 25 years old) 
In April I visited Ukraine for the first time in 9 years, and being myself the first thing I did was hit up Ukrainian drugstores for some Ukrainian & Russian makeup. This was one of face creams that I bought for myself, and I wish I was able to buy more! But due to luggage weight restrictions and stupidity of Ukrainian postal workers mailing restrictions (not sure which ones, British or Ukrainian) I was not able to mail myself any of the makeup and had to get only what would fit in my luggage. BUMMER as this was a great moisturizer which had everything I've been looking for in one. Next time I go to Ukraine I will stock up, and try several different post offices in hopes that postal workers will allow me to mail stuff back to myself.

4. La Roche-Posay Hydraphase Eyes
I tried this brand after reading several great reviews, and overall I like it. I am not sure if I will buy this particular product again because I didn't notice that much difference in my eyes. It hydrated my eyes just fine, but I didn't see any de-puffiness. Probably because I do not suffer from puffy eyes to begin with.

5. Revlon ColorStay Mineral Blush in Roseberry
This is my first blush that I used in a long time, I got it after I decided that I probably should use a blush. I would not be buying it again because the staying power was pretty average, and I can find cheaper products that deliver better results.

6. Simple Kind to Skin Hydrating Light Moisturizer (not pictured)
I forgot to take a picture of it, but I'm sure most of us know how it looks like. This is my go-to moisturizer, I've been using it before my Ukrainian one, but then went back to it after other one was finished. I use it every day religiously, and since my skin is not dry it is perfect for me. I love how it absorbs within seconds! I will be buying this over and over again.

New Year's eve look

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope that the year 2011 will bring you everything that 2010 forgot to bring. As for me, the main thing I wish for in 2011 is to get a job that I would like, and that would like me.

For this New Year's eve I didn't do anything special, I decided not to go to an acquaintance's masquerade party because no matter how much I wanted to dress up, I still didn't know anyone there and I'm sadly not one of those people who can make friends instantly. Instead I went to my friend's house and we had a quiet evening of playing video and board games.

However, regardless of me staying home or going out, I decided to have fun with my makeup. Recently I've been obsessed with Sleek's SUNSET palette, so I used it again to create this look.

I'm having a pretty bad hair day here, guess it's time for a trim.

I used SUNSET palette on the top lid, and STORM palette on the bottom lid. Then I decided to get adventurous and put Eyeko glitter on top of blue eyeshadow, and Collection 2000 gold liquid eyeliner on top of red. For lips I used my "pirate" lipstick, called that because I bought it specifically to go with my pirate costume (but it is actually by Clinique).

 In order to fix my bad hair, I used my old trusted method of choice - I wore a hat!

I think the  hat and glasses definitely toned down my look, but I still rather like it :)
~ Lyuba

Life is too short to wear "safe" makeup

Hello everyone!

Some time ago I decided that life is too short to wear "safe" makeup all the time. After all, I buy all these fun stuff and then they just sit there... not used... not loved. Thankfully my temporary job right now really doesn't care what we wear, so I can do fun makeup every day and not care about looking professional. Most of the days I wake up too late to do it, but today I was up bright and early and had time to play with fun makeup. 

Today I decided to play with my Sleek SUNSET palette. I had it for few weeks now, but never got around to doing anything with it. Shame on me! 

I absolutely love this palette, I could even say that it's my favorite out of all Sleek ones I own. I'm actually surprised that I bought STORM one first instead of SUNSET, guess I was trying to be "safe". 

Sadly my closeups didn't turn out because my camera was acting all weird and didn't want to take pictures in Auto mode. I hope you can still see the colors I used. In total I used 5 shades, but since they are not named I will not bother trying to describe them. 

My lips turned out a little crooked haha, but I didn't notice until after I took photos. And I promise I did not go out of the house with them looking like that! 

So what do you think? Have you tried the SUNSET palette? 

~ Lyuba

Christmas look

Merry Christmas everyone!

Even if Christmas was yesterday. But I'm still in the festive spirit, so I can still say it right? Not only that, but Christmas in Ukraine is not till January 7th, so technically it hadn't happened yet.

Sadly Christmas (and all the holidays) are not very festive for me this year. My husband is away and this really puts a damper on things, even with friends readily available to keep me company. So in order to cheer myself up, I decided to do some fun festive makeup. (Lets see how many times I can say word "festive" in one blog post)

I used Sleek SPARKLE palette for the eyes, and I have a mixed feelings about it. I did not expect it to be so matte! So for my look I mixed in lighter pink from STORM palette to add shimmer to the eyeshadows.

I also was feeling rather adventurous and used glitter eyeliner instead of my usual ones (Eyeko Glitter eyeliner). That successfully helped me figure out that I'm not a glitter eye liner kind of girl. Although the quality of the product is amazing.

At first I did very dramatic lips, but then I decided the look was too dramatic for an at-home get together, so instead I put one of Eyeko London glosses on.

On cheeks I used e.l.f. All Over Stick in Persimmon, but since I didn't show up enough for me I lightly dusted it with Rimmel Autumn Catwalk. Much better :) And I love All Over Sticks... but the smell, the smell is TERRIBLE!! It lingered much longer than I would have wanted, and the smell alone put me off enough to never buy them again (although it didn't put me off e.l.f. cosmetics altogether, I have 2 orders coming from them and I'm very excited).

So what do you think?

~ Lyuba

e.l.f. Makeup 50% off sale on Studio and Mineral makeup

Hello everyone,

e.l.f makeup is having one of their sales once again. This time everything in Studio and Mineral range is half off when you spend $25 or more, which is a great excuse to treat yourself to some E.L.F. greatness at half price. Just use the code SAVEBIG at the checkout.

I'm using it to try some stuff that I missed out on during their 55% off sitewide sale couple of weeks ago, as well as get more much needed brushes. Sadly, this sale is on US website, I honestly don't know if British one also has a sale. But for all my US readers, go stock up on e.l.f cosmetic! :)

The only downside, the orders take forever to get to me! I don't know if it's an e.l.f thing, or just an APO shipping thing. But I'm a patient person, so I don't mind. I wish they would do an order tracking though, because when I have to wait for over a month to get my stuff (I still haven't gotten my order that was shipped on November 12!!!!!), I would like to know that it wasn't lost. Oh, and pay attention to the sneaky magazine subscription on the bottom left. I accidentally subscribed to Women's Health because I forgot to check the box (checking the box means you do NOT want a magazine). Supposedly there is no contract, and it will not renew automatically though my credit card, but I still would like to be on the safe side and not subscribe to anything.  

But hurry, the sale is for limited time only of course. Those sneaky marketing experts!

~ Lyuba