Dare!

We all love to paint our nails and spend tuns and tuns of money on nailpolishes. Well lately I have decided to try out some cheap nailpolishes. By cheap I mean really cheap not normal drugstore ones but the ones in the 1 dollar, euro, pound, peso, etc range. YES those really cheap nameless ones. 


About two months ago I was at the local market where u can find good deals on anything; from plants, clothes to fruits and vegetables. When wandering around I saw a little stand that was selling cosmetics and nailpolishes for €1,00. With no hesitation I picked up a few. As soon I got home I tried them out and some of them with two coats it looked great and others with three. Good deal right?! So why should I buy expensive nailpolishes from now if I can buy a lot for the lucky number 1 and still have nice polished nails? Ok ok it's true some colors from O.P.I you cannot compare and can't find them anywhere else. But I am sure I can find, at that stand on my local market or any other random cheap place, a simillar color that will please my heart, nails and eyes. 


Now you may think that my cheapy cheapy nailpolish will chip and last only one day. STOP! the trick is using a good top coat, spend a good amount of money on the best top coat ever and the cheapy cheapy look will last for at least 3 days and give a glammy glammy look to your nails and only u know ur secret to this succes. 


Remember to give your nails a rest every other day and go au naturel and always use a basecoat to keep your nails from becoming yellowish. Apply your color and finish with your topcoat.


Now you are ready to conquer the world with perfect nails <3


Try it!


xoxo Steff

Once in a blue moon

This new year is going to be a very special one. Not only 10 million people in the world, including me, believes that the year 2010 is going to be a good year but there is a very wonderful fenomenon going to happen on new year's eve. The new year's eve blue moon! You know that saying once in a blue moon? Something that happens rarely, well we have waited 19 years for this to happen and for that we must celebrate it. Every 29 days the earth is blessed with a full moon and most years have 12. I love love love a full moon especially when it is midnight I can just sit by the window and stare at our moon. I always try and find new things on the moon and ever since I was little I see a man falling off the moon with his hands and legs wide open LOL. Do you see that too?
The blue moon will be visible in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Asia. Australia and Asia will have a January blue moon which will show on January 1st.
However the Eastern Hemisphere will experience a partial lunar eclipse on New year's eve. Only the Americas will not see this one. But hey don't get bumped, if it's alreeady dark were you are then look out the window and you will see the full moon almost there and don't forget to check the blue moon either today or friday depending were you are. Here it's already midnight so I tried to look outside and take a picture of the moon but too bad for me the sky is not clear. I hope tomorrow it will be clear cause I don't wanna miss anything. Here in Holland at exactly 20.23 we can see the eclipse. So in any case you are reading this blog before that time don't forget to check it.

In honour of this beauty I tried and created a look inspired by some of my favorite youtube guru's: Tiffany, Elle, Samantha and Joshua

I did two different eyeshadow looks. One is smokey that reminds me of the midnight moon and the other one is how I imagine seeing my first blue moon. I added some shimmer to my face which reflects the stars in the sky and kept the lips basic because we are focusing on our eyes.

Products used:
midnight smokey moon
- all over my eyelid and blending out to make a cat eye (avon shadow stix: arabian glow in sea blue)
- in the inner part of my lid (divine sleek palette: sunset blue shade)
- in my creast (same palette: black)
Blend to create a nice shape and decrease the hard edges
I also added at the end a little bit of copper all over the eye (sleek palette:copper)
- really tin line of black eyeliner (palladio: black liquid eyeliner)
- waterline (any black khol will do)

Imaginary moon
- inner corner (divine sleek palette: chaos dark blue)
- creast and rest of eyelid (divine sleek palette: sunset blue)
- highlight ( divine sleek palette: sunset baby pink)
- under eye a thin line (divine sleek palette: chaos aqua)
- white eyeliner YES (you could use any it will blend right with the color and become a neon blue line
- waterline (white eyeliner use a khol liner which will last longer)

Cheeks - Clinique bashful blush

Lips - nude lipliner and believe it or not H&M Rich Lipgloss in color me cute. It is my first H&M cosmetic and I must say I am impressed color stays long and is very pretty.

Here the pictures








Hope you enjoyed this and will have the opportunity to experience the blue moon.
2010 is going to be a good year with more peace, blessings and a lot of love to all.

xoxo

Steff

Review: Sleek eye shadow palette

Last week I was browsing around on the net for beauty products and discovered a cute AND affordable dutch website Alicejohavesentials.
For €6,99 I could have a palette in 12 different colors. Woehoe...right away I wanted to test it out and ordered two palettes. On the page self it stated that those palettes are extremely popular on youtube and a famous dutch beauty guru has reviewed them. So hell yeah: Can I place an order please for a divine sleek eyeshadow palette ;)
I ordered two of them

Chaos: This is a colorful mat pallet. I see a lot of pretty creations coming out of this palett. Well I don't only can play around with the colors but I can mix and match and create a perfect office, cinema, theater, shopping look with this palett.




Here are the swatches first one is the upper row and second one well.. the second row.




Sunset: The name says it all. I instantly had a feeling of putting on a beach dress, loose down my hair, put on my slippers and go drink a cocktail on the beach watching the sunset...ahhhh dreaming sighhhhh.....The shimmery look of this palette creates the perfect eye; for dinner or clubbing or just enjoying the sunset over a cocktail. The good thing is that you can also use the lighter colors during the day for a sweet elegant look.



And here the swatches: sorry if it is a little blurry but still shows the true color on my skin, again same order!



I did a swatch especially to show how it looks on my skin color which is brown and tend to fade in the winter. (would you imagina how the sunset palette would look on me when I'm tanned and really dark?) FAB FAB FAB. I find it important when reading reviews or watching videos on make up to find someone with a skin color similar to mine that way I am sure that it suits my skin. But these palettes are sweet and suitable for everybody. The website offers seven different palettes and all look really fine. I want to order a few more, neutral colors for daily use.

Now some pro's and con's of this order in general

Pro:
- they are mineral. Since my last article I am a big fan of mineral make up and want to have as much as possible in my daily routine.
- Worth money value, for the price I paid I find it extremely pigmented and contains pretty much (1,1 gram per pan).
- In every palette there is black (BIG pro).
- Good customer service. Even if it is the holidays my order came in really fast.

Con's:
- Well I went all out when ordering and have too much bright colors for my like now.

That's it so really no con's for this palette.

P.S: the website is in dutch but they do ship Internationally. You can contact them and I am sure they will help you further with your order.

So as a bonus I added a look for tonights movie date with my boyfried.





I chose baby pink colors. The lightest color from the sunset palett added a grey liner, mascara and some bashful blush from clinique. For lips I used a cheap lipgloss I had in my beauty case.

xoxo Steff

Heal your scalp

Ok maybe 90% of women and most often men suffer from dandruff. It is a big annoyance, itchy and mostly embarrasing; especially when wearing those black clothes. (Which I am the biggest fan of). There are several reasons for developing dandruff. Genetics is mostly common, if your parents have it, it is most likely that you have it too. Stress is also a big cause as well as sweating, allergies and the food you eat.

In the past I have had some trouble with dandruff and a little bit of Head & Shoulders and a lot of swimming in the ocean helped battle it. Well after all these years I think it was the salty water that helped the most. Whenever I go on vacation or move to another place I get this painfully embarasing white "stuff" in my hair. Believe me I have tried everything; from multiple really expensive shampoo to DIY olive oil, lemon, etc. Nothing really helped, it would go away for a while but still I needed to wash my hair daily for it not to appear anymore.
A year ago I lived in Dubai for 6 months and the tap water is extremely bad as well for skin and hair. Well you can imagine that as soon as I was back in Holland my hair was loaded with dandruff and again nothing helped.

Until one day I went into a little Surinam shop in the city center of The Hague. I asked for advise and what the lady reccomended was AtOne with nature: Dry, Itchy, Scalp. I taught oh well maybe it can work, maybe not. I took the shampoo plus conditioner.
I was impressed! In one week all my problems faid away and never returned. Apart from being effective it smells so good. A light to medium minth smell and feeling which blends just right with the steam of my shower. This mint "steam" bath is also good for your nasal ways. After you wash your hair you feel fresh and clean and ofcourse dandruff FREE!!
I have been using it for 6 months now and in between I wash my hair with other shampoo to check the effectiveness. Well I can tell you that still my scalp is clean as never before.

I recommend this treatment to all ladies and gentlemens out there. You will for sure lead a dandruff free life.

In Holland you can buy it in every "surinam toko" for approximately €4,00 for 237 ml. I have been using it for 6 months now and I have extreme tick hair and long. Always wash my hair two times and condition it one. So it is worth for your money.

An US website offers it also for $3,99 you can check it out here: http://texasbeautysupplies.com/ato103.html
A little more expensive here for $4,99:
http://paynesbeautysupply-salon.stores.yahoo.net/dritscsh8oz.html


I would say try it out and lead a new dandruff free life!!!



Till later

xoxo Steff!!

Random

So! How to start your blog with totally randomness. Well that is the good thing of having a blog you can write about anything you want.

Today it snowed a lot in my city. I felt like a five year old again and went playing outside in the snow. I have a balcony of my own where I had my personal snow scoop, which is still there and if I want to dig in I just step out and indulge myself again in the snow. I was born and raised in a very warm tropical place. So for me the summer is the perfect weather. Well actually tropical weather with a nice sea breeze. For that I absolutely hate the winter and spring not even to mention all the rain. But I do for sure love the snow. Everything covered in white, the children playing outside and happy faces everywhere. I really enjoyed the snow today and snapped a few shots to share with you.

So enjoy!!!

















Talk to you soon.

xoxo Steff