UNE Sheer Lips Balm

Hi girls,

I've been pretty slacking on the review posts, even if these are my favorite to read. Mostly it's my hate of taking and then cropping photos, but I'm working on it because there are a lot of products that I've been using lately that I think deserve a review. 

One of these products is UNE Sheer Lips Balm in S03 which I picked up as my 3rd item during Superdrug's 3 for 2 sale (those sales are EVIL for me, I should avoid them at all costs lol). I've been looking at UNE for a long time, but never really picking up anything to try.

I am not too concerned with everything natural deal, but once in a while I do like to pick something up that claims that "100% of the total ingredients are from natural origin", and that "9.44% of the total ingredients are from Organic Farming". I thought the organic ingredients percentage was a little on the low, seeing as (it seems) everyone is obsessed with organic now, but that's just my opinion.

Why did I pick this up? I'm not a lipstick or lip gloss person, I own them but rarely use. I am, however, a HUGE lip balm junkie, and I constantly have at least 3 of them on me at any give time. This product is a lip balm that promised to "moisturize and enhance the natural color and shine of lips" so I simply had to try it.

The formula is very moisturizing and the color is light enough that I don't have to worry about a mirror. At first I was, but after checking numerous times in the mirror I decided that I don't need to worry as much. In the photos, the very top right photo is the closes to the actual color, but as we all know it all depends on the lighting. This lip balm might look very dark in the tube, but it goes on very sheer and light. Definitely my lips-but-better color.

The first two photos in the swatches are the closest to actual color. And here it is how it appears on my lips.

So will I buy it again? For £7.99 is a little steep for me, especially considering the exchange rate, but if the brand is ever on sale I will definitely get more. You can find this brand in many Boots or Superdrug stores. I'm also considering trying some other stuff, mostly lip products. The rest of the range just doesn't appear to me, because I rarely like the natural look on anything other than my lips.

Have you tried anything from UNE? 

~ Lyuba

When work schedule sucks

Hello everyone,

My work schedule is really not great for blogging. By the time I get off at 11 and get home, and unwind by reading the blogs I subscribe to and cropping photos, I have no energy to write anything  useful. And in the mornings, I'll have to get up pretty early in order to fit in a blog entry (and I'm a poor writer, it takes me forever to write anything!). For past 2 days I was planning on writing a review for UNE Sheer Lips Balm, but I will have to put it off until tomorrow (again haha, but I promise I'll write it for sure tomorrow).

Meanwhile, here is FOTD that I had on yesterday.

I wanted to go for something different to what I usually do, so I only put eyeshadow on the bottom lid. I used purple Collection 2000 felt eyeliner and put a dot of their liquid gold eyeliner on top. Not sure that I like it there, because I thought it would show up better.

I used my trusty Sleek SUNSET palette, and this time I was brave enough to use yellow and orange from it (something I avoided doing before). I love those colors! Especially their combination. They blend so well and stand out so much from my skin. Love, love, love!

I used UNE Sheer Lips Balm on the lips by the way :) Tomorrow I'll post a full review on it.

~ Lyuba

This or That Tag

Hello everyone, 

I saw this tag on two blogs today, and thought it was fun to do it myself. Plus I don't want to go to sleep yet, so I think it's a great excuse to write another post.

MAKEUP:

Blush or Bronzer: Blush. I'm too pale for bronzer, plus I'm kinda proud of my paleness :) And I don't know how to use bronzer properly, so I'll just stick to my blush.

Lip gloss or Lipstick: Lip balm. I'm not a big lipstick or lip gloss fan, but I am a lip balm crazy. I always have one at home, one in my purse (two actually), and one in my coat pocket that I wear to work.

Eye liner or Mascara: Mascara. My eyelashes are virtually invisible without mascara lol. 

 
Foundation or Concealer: Foundation. Especially after I discovered which method of application really works for me.

Neutral or Color Eyeshadow: Color all the way!!!!

Pressed or Loose Eyeshadows: I'm good with both, although I have to be in the mood to use loose. Mostly because I have so many un-opened ones and I don't really want to touch them yet due to lack of space.

Brushes or Sponges: Brushes. Never mastered the art of applying foundation with a sponge.

NAILS:

OPI or China Glaze: Neither. I love Sally Hansen Salon Manicure ones.

Long or Short: Long I guess. Or what looks long on my nails, since they are so small/short naturally.

Acrylic or Natural: Gel. I'm lucky enough to have a friend from Italy who does Kylia (don't remember how to spell correctly lol) gel nails, so I get them done about once a month.

Brights or Darks: Brights. With designs and everything.

Flower or No Flower: I prefer fruits :) Well actually I just love nail art in general.


BODY:

Perfume or Body Splash: I guess either lol, because I use them so rarely....
Lotion or Body Butter: Lotions, body butters are too rich for my skin.

Body Wash or Soap:Body was all the way!

 
Lush or Other Bath Company: Any company that smells great. Don't have a definite favorite.


FASHION:Jeans or Sweat Pants: Never, EVER, sweat pants. I don't even own any. So jeans all the way.

Long Sleeve or Short: Depends on the weather.

Dresses or Skirts: Dresses!!! :)

Stripes or Plaid: Vertical stripes, like on my kimono!
Flip Flops or Sandals: Flips flops get the same treatment as sweat pants, so sandals. Sadly it's too cold in UK for me to wear them. :(

Scarves or Hats: Hats!!!! I am not known as a crazy hat lady for nothing lol ;P

Studs or Dangly Earrings: Dangly.

Necklaces or Bracelets: Bracelets.

Heels or Flats: Heels, but I do wear flats a lot too. 

 
Cowboy Boots or Riding Boots: Cowboy haha, the only pair that I own and like.

Jacket or Hoodie: Jacket. I hate hoods with a passion, hoodies too.

Forever 21 or Charlotte Russe: I've never been to Forever 21 while in the States, and only briefly walked into one in Birmingham. So I can't decide :( :(

Abercombie or Hollister: So NOT my style lol.

Saks 5th or Nordstrom: Never been to any of those, so how about I say Debenhams?


HAIR:

Curly or Straight: Straight.

Bun or Ponytail: Ponytail.

Bobby Pins or Butterfly Clips: Probably bobby pins, but I don't really use either of those.

Hair Spray or Gel: Hairspray.

Long or Short: Short! Pixie cut that my husband is not letting me have :)

Light or Dark: Red, like Red Sonja red!

Side Swept or Full Bangs: Full bangs. And if only I knew how to style my hair better, I would be a happy camper completely.

Up or Down: Haha, down considering that's all I can do with my short hair.


RANDOM:

Rain or Shine: Shine. I could tolerate rain in Florida, but let's just say I HATE it now in UK.

Summer or Winter: Summer in UK. I would loved winter if it actually had some snow. But I live in a Lakenheath "bubble" as I like to call it, because no matter how much snow the rest of the country gets, we are always missing out on all the "fun". :(

Fall or Spring: Spring.

Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate.

East Coast or West Coast: Florida!!!!! I miss all my friends there :) West Coast is nice to visit, but I wasn't that impressed with it.

Matte eyeshadows are not for everyone or a beauty rant

Hi girls,

I spent the whole day thinking if I should write this entry.... or should not. Then I thought I probably should, but then I changed my mind again. Finally the "should" won since, as Anastasia at Lipsticks & Lightsabers says, it's my space and I can write whatever I want, and whoever doesn't like it should not read it. 

Few days ago I was looking for some makeup inspiration on DeviantArt and through it found Olga Ekaterincheva, a Russian makeup artist who does GORGEOUS makeup work . She even has an English version of her site, so all of you can check it out. She also does makeup lessons on the side, which in itself I think is a great idea. I guess people come to her house (she doesn't say where they come, just that they come over) and bring ALL of their makeup for evaluation. For the lessons, she tries to use as much of person's makeup as possible, only recommending new stuff if theirs are absolutely un-usable. She seems really down to earth and a fun lady, I would love to get a makeup lesson with her myself. (sadly this whole Makeup Lessons part of her site is only available in Russian, but you can still look at photos)

And here where the big BUT comes in. After reading through description of lessons with examples I got a distinct feeling that she is very against shimmer eye shadows and very much pro-luxury makeup brands. Why do I get that feeling? Because she is constantly repeating how matte eye shadows are the way to go (especially when she said that one of the girls had the ONLY  eye palette from Chanel that she would have called GOOD, since it barely had any shimmer - my poor translation/paraphrasing) and only recommends luxury brands (from what I could decipher from small writings in the example photos).

Yes, I agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. After all, I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't have my own opinion on makeup. For example, I hate matte eye shadows, but I do not tell everyone that only shimmers are allowed to "live" so to say. Or I am a budget makeup buyer, from luxury brands I only own some Urban Decay and some Benefit. Actually, I'm not even sure I consider those as "luxury" brands, they are too funky for that :) When I think luxury, I think sophisticated but somewhat minimalistic approach, not fun and funky ways of Urban Decay and Benefit. Yet I am not against luxury brands, I just don't feel the need to spend lots of $$ on a product when I could find a cheaper alternative. At the same time, I am dying to get a luxury brand foundation from say Mac, concealer from Bobbi Brown, or a primer from Guerlain. One of those days I will.

Now I really don't know how is the situation with makeup in Russia, when I went to Ukraine I had no problem finding skin care and hair care ranges made in Russia (Ukraine, Belarus, etc...) but sadly I didn't have time to look better for makeup brands. I think I noticed some 'normal' brands available everywhere, like Maybelline and Revlon, and I think I even saw some luxury makeup brands. Didn't notice any Russian or Ukrainian ones, but I didn't look too well. :( So assuming that all the drugstore brands that we have available are also available there, WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO RECOMMEND ONLY THE LUXURY BRANDS? We wouldn't have dupes if cheaper makeup did not perform as well, or in some cases as better than luxury brands. It just really irked me.

The next thing that irked me quite a lot was her constant use of matte eye shadows. It might be my humble opinion, but only 2 looks from the whole page worked, and even those only worked because of darker, more natural matte eye shadows were used. I even think the other looks would have looked better have there been some shimmer/highlight on the brow bone. And maybe more than one color used (yes, I am referring to that blue eye shadow look on the 1st model).

Why can't day look have more shimmer to it? Why should a night look only have shimmer in moderation? Why, why, WHY? Why would a makeup artist who does such gorgeous works, stubbornly suggest the same thing to everyone who comes in for a lesson? I bet if I had a lesson, she would disapprove of my WHOLE eye shadow collection, because they are all shimmer. Of course she also says that she doesn't forbid anything to anyone, so if you like shimmer, go for it but in moderation. Then why not post a look with shimmer in the examples?

So who knows, maybe the women in examples asked for those looks. Maybe the ones with shimmer did not allow their photos to be posted.  But overall, I got a very one sided impression of the whole makeup lessons, an it really made frustrated so I had to rant about it.

On the bright side, yesterday my friend and I went makeup shopping! She haven't really been to Boots or Superdrug, so when we walked in and she saw that drugstore makeup brands can be swatched and tried, she was just as excited as I was over a year ago. I recommended her a few things that I already tried, she picked up some stuff that she heard about, and was in general makeup heaven. I decided to pick up some No7 stuff that I've been wanting to try, thankfully Boots has a 3 for 2 offer on it right now and with the No7 voucher I was a very happy camper.

So here is what I got:

Exceptional Definition Mascara
The one I have is starting to dry out, so it was a perfect excuse to get a replacement. This time I got it in Black, instead of Black/Brown.

Instant Radiance Concealer in shade II
I wanted to try it ever since one of the blogs I follow mentioned it as either their best of 2010, or just as a favorite.

Colour Calming Primer
It is GREEN so of course I had to try it. Plus because of the offer, it was free. My face tend to get very red in cold or hot weather, so I'm hoping this will help me fix the problem.

Hm.... this is turning out to be quite a long post, but I have one more thing to add. This is FOTD I had few days ago, and I really want to post it especially after all that matte vs. shimmer eye talk.

Here is a look I created with Sleek SUNSET palette, which is my go to palette right now. Not that I don't want to try other stuff, but my makeup storage space is quite limited so I tend to use one thing until I get tired of it, then put it away and start on something new. But for now I'm very happy with the SUNSET palette, and don't see myself getting tired of it any time soon.

I was inspired by Eye Candy makeup book that I got few weeks ago in Birmingham. I love the book, and I love the looks the author creates there, with some modifications (read MUCH BRIGHTER) if I had to re-create them. This look was inspired by some of the examples, and was very quick to do. And very eye catching too, I had several people comment on it.

I didn't use an eyeliner because I felt it will overpower the blue and red, but if I had to repeat this look I would use blue and red eyeliner. If I can find them in the same color as those eye shadows. :)

So what do you think? Should shimmer eye shadows be allowed to be used in every day makeup? Could we get away with using cheaper brands for good (or amazing results)? What do you think about the above look?

~ Lyuba

When Beauty Routines Get "Broken"

Hello everyone,

I am usually pretty good with my beauty routine at the end of the day, but everything changes when my husband goes deployed. Normally I remove my makeup, apply moisturizer, etc... For the past month I've been TERRIBLE with it! At least couple times of week I've fallen asleep with my makeup still on. :( I think it's because I come home from work to a quiet lonely house, get online and read blogs or talk to my US friends so much that I just fall asleep on the couch instead of going upstairs to bed. By the time I wake up, it's already almost morning and I don't even bother with my makeup.

Lately I've been making a point to go straight upstairs after work (and I get off at 11pm) and remove my makeup, and it helped somewhat. I still fall asleep on the couch haha. I'm starting to think that I'm avoiding our big bed, instead for settling for not-so-lonely-and-smaller couch which is just perfect for "little person" (like my husband calls me) like me. At least my makeup removing routine is somewhat back on track, but I do have to put an effort towards it.

Do any of you have a problem with your beauty routine suffering from various events in your life?

~ Lyuba