Nail Polish Haul: Essie, OPI

Hello my name is Dandygal and my obsession is grey nail polish. And also other colors on occasion.

I apologize for the colors coming out weird; everything is more blueish in the pic. Shown: Essie Wicked, Chinchilly, and Sew Psyched; OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine!

Wicked looks black here, but it’s a very dark brownish red, both Sew Psyched and Nein are slightly greener in real life. Nein was my fav in the Germany collection but why is the name so dubcon-y? Anyway, greyish, greenish colors always get me; Wicked was an added bonus. It’s probably the first red in my small yet growing stash. (edit: wait, no. I also have OPI Royal Rajah Ruby)

All used up: Cowshed, Kanebo Sensai, Lancome, Lacoste

Time for another used up post; I will terribly miss most of these:

The one I’m not going to miss: Cowshed cow pat moisturizing hand cream. It came in my glossybox a few months ago. Seeing as the last used up post featured two hand creams, I guess you can say I go through hand creams like underwear, only sadly you cannot revitalize hand cream by throwing it into the washing machine. /overly weird metaphor

Anyway I was glad seeing hand cream in my glossybox, since I need so much of it. However…

List of ingredients. Doesn’t look too bad, but I felt like it didn’t help my skin at all. It was very cold here the last few weeks and with this my skin cracked. Unamused. The smell was pretty annoying too. It’s probably the coriander. I severely dislike coriander. And unlike with other products whose smell I didn’t like at first, I didn’t grow used to it! Meh, let’s get to nicer products.

Lacoste Pour Femme Body Cream. This also came in a glossybox and unlike the previous product this was a full win! Note this is not the body lotion for their newest perfume, Eau de Lacoste, but the older Pour Femme. The scent I would call pleasant, sporty and never overpowering. I love it to bits and pieces. This was so far the only glossybox product that got me to buy something related (the matching shower gel).

The ingredients don’t even look all that great, but my skin felt moisturized and whole these months, so whatever. I even started using it on my hands after the above product turned out to be troublesome.

Kanebo International Sensai Cellular Perfomance Emulsion II Moist Another glossybox product, a tester of glorious 30ml. Ingredients aren’t listed at the back, so I forgot what was in it. Silk, I believe. This is a very rich face cream and has lasted for months. It lead a brave battle against my dry skin in the winter cold.

Last, but not least, one product that didn’t come in any box: Lancome Eau Micellaire Doceur. This is the bigger 400ml bottle.

It’s a typical micellaire type cleanser, suitable for face, eyes and lips. The description says it’s for all skin types, even sensitive. I say “especially for sensitive skin”. You use only the product for taking make up off your face, no water. And boy, does it make a difference on sensitive skin if you don’t need any water. I wasn’t even aware how much my skin was aggravated by water before I switched to the micellaire type cleanser. I will always purchase these cleansers now, but I am switching the brands around (currently using the cheaper La Roche Posay). Lancome’s micellaire has a rose scent, that’s the only negative thing I could list. Face products don’t need scent imo, but I don’t think it hurt my skin either. I liked the pump a lot, very useful. At the end you can unscrew the cap and get the rest out this way.

Anny nail polish in Sporty Snowflake and also essence color&go review

I got this Anny polish in Sporty Snowflake in my recent glossybox. Like I said in the post I didn’t know about the quality yet, so here’s my follow up post:

Pictured: Two coats of polish with top coat.

What I like: the color. Even if it isn’t showing properly, this is a light grey base with teal/purple duo chrome. Wonderful. Lasted four days without chipping.

What I don’t like: this reminds me of my pre-OPI days when I thought I was too clumsy to apply nail polish. Then I met Essie and OPI and realized it’s not me, it’s the polish! You can clearly see the coat is streaky and uneven. It might have been repaired with a third coat, but I was running out of time so it stayed like that. The brush is also too small for my tastes.

Now I would like to bring your attention to this:

Pictured: Anny in Sporty Snowflake, essence color&go in 142 grey-t to be here.

The base color is very slightly different, and the shimmer is red without duo chrome, but who besides dandygal, the grey polish addict, could tell? essence is super cheap, the brush is wider than OPI brushes (I like wide brushes – application is easier with them), the consistency is so good it is a one coater (apply two coats for lasting power, though). essence wins this round. Their color range is very modern, too, and cheap enough to buy whatever color is trending if you so wish. I have a lot of feelings about essence, okay.

Quick Dry problems

I think Butter London nail polish and Essie “Good to go” quick dry top coat don’t like each other. ^^”

Picture taken two days after application of polish. This didn’t slowly chip off, the missing polish jumped off all at once. I think it’s the quick dry top coat problem. Quick dry top coat works with most polishes in my stash just fine, and then on others, the polish peels off like this. I mean the upside is that there’s less glitter polish to take off. Glitter polish is a pain to remove. On the other hand, at work you don’t need nail polish taking off your nail like a rocket. Anyway this is mostly a note to myself: don’t mix those two.

Glossybox Österreich Februar 2013

Here’s what Glossybox Austria sent me for February:

20% off for Body Shop.

DKNY pure perfume tester as an extra.

Anny nail polish in “sporty snowflake“. This is a very pale grey with blue and pink/purple duochrome. Very modern. Can’t wait to wear it. This is my first Anny polish so I have no clue about the quality of it. Full size 15ml. (review)

Body Shop Body Lotion in Strawberry Puree. Great, I just ran out of my old lotion this week. Mini size of 60ml.

Schwarzkopf Professional BC Bonacure Moisture Kick Spray Conditioner. Sadly, this one is FULL of silicones. I’m only fussy with silicones in my hair and on my scalp, somehow I don’t care when I have them on my face or body, but I really can’t stand them on my hair. Mini size of 50ml.

Eucerin Hyaluron Filler face cream for combination to oily skin. Excited to try this, sadly I still have so many other face creams to try… Mini size of 20ml.

Aok Pur Balance Seesand Peeling. This is a full size of 100ml, oh dear! I’ll never use this up! I’m not the biggest fan of peeling per grains and this has no alpha or beta hydroxy acids in. Well, I’ll see if I like this or not.

All in all, the box is pretty ok. I prefer sample sizes to full sizes these days because I just have so many products! And the sample sizes in this box are all pretty big anyway. Glad to see nail polish instead of yet another eye liner.

Butter London: Fairy Cake

It’s Carnival! So I decided to wear some colorful glittery polish.

These are two layers of Butter London‘s Fairy Cake. It’s more colorful in real life, the camera didn’t really pick up the sparkles.

Usually this would be more for layering on top of another polish, two layers of this nail polish alone aren’t opaque. But I still like it this way. Pic is taken without topcoat. Later I put topcoat on, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference though. Without topcoat it dries pretty gritty. The feeling is much like the liquid sand that is all the rage right now, only it doesn’t look as gritty.

Clinique Age Defense BB Cream

This is the last BB cream type product that I (currently) own. I figured I might as well make a series of my BB cream posts and tackle my foundations later.

Clinique Age Defense BB Cream

Like it says on the packaging it has SPF 30. The tube holds 40 ml (Dior comes with 30 ml, Aok with 50 ml). Like all Clinique products it is fragrance free, which I like a lot. I find it pointless to put scent in face products. If I want to smell of perfume I put some perfume on.

The tube has a very tiny opening, you can easily control how much you take out. The shade shown here is 001, the lightest of the three. The Clinique counter lady told me to get 002, but I think that one would have been too dark. Never listen to color advice from Clinique counters.

You can see the cream is very much on the pinkish side, even more so than the Dior one. Shade 002 looked a lot less pink to me in the store, but I think that one may lean towards orange. Make sure to swatch the color on your skin before buying. The thing is, the color seems to adapt to your skin, it’s not as pink on my face as I feared it would be.

The consistency is thicker than the other BB products I tried. Coverage leans towards medium. It gives way more coverage than other BB Creams, it’s more like a foundation in that regard. This also means it is more visible and must be applied in a thin layer.

The finish is matte. I don’t wear any powder over it (mind you I barely ever wear powder). After six or more hours my nose gets a little bit shiny, but not as much as with some other products.

Wearing it makes my skin feel… something. I mean if I put a finger on my cheek I can clearly feel that there’s something there. This doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but may be a deal-breaker for other people.

Now, this product is pretty great, good coverage, good enough color, good sun protection – BUT. The counter lady already warned me not to wear it without moisturizer or primer underneath. This is a tad annoying because if I have to wear primer I can just as well wear a regular foundation. (By the way I found that my nose stays mattified for longer if I don’t put primer underneath.) If that were the only thing, it would be okay. However, the big problem with this BB Cream is that not only does it emphasize dry skin much more than any other product. It even makes dry skin patches show up on places that weren’t visibly dry when you applied the cream! After half a day I look like a mummy! This cream is only suitable for oily skin imho, but for oily skin it should be pretty good, as it mattifies a lot. I’ll be wearing this in the summer as I cannot wear it any other time of the year (at least the SPF matches my plan, haha.)

On the plus side, this product doesn’t break me out and it even seems to calm my skin down. This is so weird, how can it make my skin so visibly dry yet calm it down? I don’t know, but I’ve been using the Clinique BB Cream for months now and these are my observations.

Mini haul: OPI Nail Envy & Avoplex; Chanel Stylo Yeux (Beryl) & Joues Contraste (Ultra Rose)

My nails were damaged lately and so I was looking for help. I ended up at the OPI booth (of course) and saw this lovely package:

OPI Nail Envy Original plus a free OPI Avoplex! Two helpers for the price of one. Let’s hope they really do help. I’d have never bought a cuticle oil (Avoplex in this case) on its own, but now that I’ve used it – it smells so good! I have no clue if it helps, yet I am going to keep on using it for the smell.

And then I made the mistake of crossing over to Douglas, who had a 50% off stand out… and I found this:

Pictured: Stylo Yeux Waterproof in Beryl 102 and Joues Contraste in Ultra Rose 74.

Beryl changes the color on the photos, this was the closest to real I could get. Anyway, so I picked this up and said to the counter girl, but isn’t this the current collection? And she said: “Yes, but we’re throwing all the collection out, plus some older stuff.” and I looked around the table and yep. All the stuff, 50% off.

When I recovered from fainting I was clutching this waterproof eyeliner and the blusher. And then I told myself, no two items are enough. Be strong. But now I really wish I’d have also taken some lipstick and some other brands. 😦

Ultra Rose really is ultra pink.

Swatches: Eyeliner on top, blusher underneath.

The eyeliner really is waterproof, I’ve been trying to remove it from my arm all afternoon. I’ve been looking for this eyeliner for a while, it was mostly sold out. When it wasn’t I was oohing and aahing, but a barely visible liner for so much money? No, thanks.

I still can’t believe they had it on sale.

Here‘s a video of Lisa Eldridge applying the Stylo Yeux Waterproof. I’m so going to appropriate this look for work!

Diorskin Nude BB Creme

Let me just say that I am not getting paid for this, nor did I get the product for free or anything of this sort. I feel the need to say it, because OMG I LOVE THIS THING!

This is the new Diorskin Nude BB Creme in color 001. It is part of the 2013 spring collection. Take note, Dior has already produced another BB cream before, with a different name. They are completely different products. This one here just came out at the end of January.

List of ingredients.

It looks like a normal tube, but when you open it, it has a pump. On the one hand, it’s a really great pump, you can control how much product you remove  very well. On the other hand, I suspect it’s going to be difficult getting anything out after you used up only about half of the product.

First little pump. The product says it comes with SPF 10. The description also says that it can be worn without moisturizer underneath, but recommends using moisturizer if your skin is very dry. It raves a lot about its color too. The words “rosy glow” show up several times. It says it has rosy particles and peachy ones, only it says so more poetic than I do. What I take away from it is to make sure not to use too much product to avoid looking too pinky/peachy. It most certainly is perfect for anyone with pink undertones.

Product spread out. Now why do I love it so much? First off, the color is pretty much perfect. It does give a healthy glow in the face, yet it looks like I got nothing on? I look like me, only better. This is so cliché, but it’s really the first product that ever made me feel this way.

Coverage is light, but it is there. My pores are perfectly covered. Any stronger blemishes, like acne scars, need concealer.

I wore it without anything underneath, with primer and with moisturizer. It depends on how dry my skin is, but I like it best without anything else. I can just slap it on and be done. My biggest problem this winter was that every foundation/bb cream emphasized my dry patches. This one does not. Dry patches will show up after several hours, but it’s nothing like with other products. This is what makes it win a special place in my heart.

The finish is dewy, but I didn’t feel like needing powder on top (note however, that I barely use powder). After a whole day my nose is surprisingly still not shiny. It does wear off on the nose the most though.

I am so going to wear this BB creme every day until summer. Then I’ll probably switch to the Clinique one (review upcoming).

Clarins haul: Stick Anti-Cernes, Eclat Minute Blush

This is the Concealer Stick (Stick Anti-Cernes) by Clarins, shade 01. The packaging claims it’s for both under eye concealing and for blemishes.

It is creamy, but under the eyes it still ends up in fine creases. I found it to be pretty good for blemishes, though.

Instant light blush (Eclat Minute Blush), also by Clarins in the colors Coral Tonic and Vitamin Pink.

Don’t they just look super yummy? I think these were part of last year’s spring collection and as such probably discontinued. I hope Clarins make more of these because I love them. At the same time I hope they won’t make more, because else I’d have to buy them all! They are liquid blushes and come with a doe foot applicator, much like lip glosses, but bigger. You put a tiny bit on your cheek and then blend with your finger. They are easy to blend, perfect to put on in a hurry.

On to swatches:

Top left: the concealer worked into the skin, pretty much invisible. Top right: the concealer as it comes straight from the stick.

Bottom left: Coral Tonic; Bottom right: Vitamin Pink

The blushes blended out. Here the pink looks stronger, but as you can see in the other pic, it depends on where the light is.

Pic with me turned around so the sun hits from the other side. I think you can see that both colors are strong on the shimmer. They are blusher/highlighters. I only wear them on gloomy, rainy days; for one because they make me happy, but also because in direct sunlight they make you look a lot like a blushing Edward Cullen.

 

Coming up next: review of Dior’s new BB Cream.

My favorite lipstick: YSL Rouge Pur Couture in Rose Lyrique

Gosh it’s impossible to take pics of those super shiny products! Anyway, this is my (current) favorite lipstick: YSL “Rouge Pur Couture” in Rose Lyrique (42).

Admittedly I am not a fan of all gold packaging, it looks so… tacky. But I squee at these engraved logos on the lipsticks themselves. As you can see, the color is a plummy, berry kind of shade. Everyone starts wearing those at the start of fall, I wear them going into spring. *rebels* Usually I go more for nudes and pinks, and when I bought that one, I actually checked out a pale pink shade at the YSL counter, when the counter lady came and said, that one would make me far too ghostly and to wear the number 42 one. And I was like, that one’s far too dark! And she said to put it on. And I’m like nooo! But she was very insistent, chopped the top layer of their tester off and pressed the tester into my hand. And she was right, it looks amazing on my lips!

/cool story, sis.

This is the shade straight from the bullet. It’s very creamy, with subtle gold shimmer.

This is what it looks like clumsily blended with my finger while holding my phone in the same hand. I wear it as a stain on my lips. The lipstick isn’t glossy and as such holds for a few hours. It’s not like one of these super stay things, but it stays longer than the glossy kind of lipstick. It’s not drying (the super stay kind sometimes feels dry), but creamy and works pretty well for hiding chapped lips, imho.

I never noticed how freaky my veins look before. Anyhow! I’m not usually a big fan of YSL, but this lipstick hit a nerve.