How to make your brows wow! - An Essence Review

Hello my lovelies!

This post comes later than expected, but editing took a little bit long :P 

Today I wanna review one of the make-up boxes I bought from Essence last week and I also can show you how I fill in my eyebrows at the same time, yay! :) 

Warning! Picture Spam ahead! ;) 

First take a look at the box itself, the packaging is so cute, I love it ! 

I have to admit, the packaging of these boxes from Essence were the main reason why I wanted to have them at first! I mean, just look at it, even the mirror is not just plain and simple :) 

The box itself comes with 3 different shades of brown and a highlighter. It also contains a little tweezer, a double-ended applicator and a little guide on how to do your eyebrows.

The tweezer is always good to have, although I have to say this one feels pretty stiff and cuts the hairs rather than pluck them (small minus point if you really need them).

The applicator is ok, although I prefer an angled brush with a longer handle, so I took one of mine instead of the one it comes with - but that's just my personal preference ;) 

The 3 shades you get are exactly what you need! I can't talk for blondes obviously, but even the lightest color "love blondes" looks pretty good to me. 

I personally combine the darkest color and the medium one, just to get a more natural look :) 

Let's start with the brows! In the picture above you can see my natural brow without any products on it - just for you to see what I'm working with.

Just to make it clear - the following steps are just the way I fill in my eye brows, it may not be the perfect or the only way, but that's how I do it :P 

Step 1:

Take an angled brush (the one from the box or your own) and start filling in your lower part of the brow with a darker shade (I took "love brunettes"). Try to follow the natural curve of your brow, but of course you could also make it more straight or little bit more arched, just like you want it. 

Fill in the end of the brow with the darker shade as well.

Step 2:

Taking the lighter shade (in my case "lov' em all"), start filling in the rest of your brow with really soft and short strokes. Sometimes I alternate between the ligther and the darker shade, just to make it look more natural. 

Step 3:

You could just let the brow the way it is in step 2, or - like I love to do it - also create a line on the upper part of your brow (with the darker shade again) to make it look more crisp and defined. 

Step 4:

Again, this step is optional! Take your favorite concealer and apply it underneath your eyebrow - this way you once again define your brow more and also are able to correct some mistakes you possibly did. 

Step 5:

Just blend the concealer out with your finger or a small brush.

Step6:

If you used a concealer it may be enough as a highlight for you, or you can just add a little bit of your favorite highlighter to your browbone (here I used "lift me up!" from the box).

And that's it! You are finished :) 

And here is a full face picture, just because it looks different than just one brow :P 

All in all I have to say I really like this make-up box! The colors are nice and easy to use, the box itself is a pretty addition to any collection and the price is very good as well.

It costs 5,95€ here in Germany and contains a total of 6g of product. 

What do you think? Do you already own this box, or do you now plan on getting it? 

I would also love to know if some of you fill in their eyebrows totally different..or maybe not at all? 

Let me know in the comments! :) 

See ya soon with some pretty swatches ;) 

Thanks for reading! <3 

Designer Piggies Water Decals - A Review

Hello, my lovelies :)

Today I wanna show you something that I really, really like! I'm talking about the Designer Piggies Nail Art Decals. I was contacted by Cindy, the owner of Designer Piggies, whether I'd like to review her water decals. I have some experience with water decals, since I reviewed a few for KKCenterHK and also her designs looked so freaking cool that I just had to choose one to try out :) 

Once I chose a design, they came pretty fast, considering they came all the way from the US. So that's already a big plus. Here is what you get: 

I love the packaging! I didn't took a photo before opening it, but the paper in the back with the instructions on it, is actually like a little envelope and everything was put inside it and there are little piggies in the front. It's too cute! :D

So yeah, of course you get a sheet of paper with the decals, very good instructions and 1 or 2 business cards with all the information on it about her shop, internet site and prizes. 

I took a close up photo of the nail decals - pretty cool, right? :D

I have a tutorial on how to apply water decals on my blog (here is the post) and it's basically the same thing you have to do here as well. You just have to cut them to your nail size first, apply them and file of the access after it is dry. Cindy actually has a "How to"- Video on her blog as well - check it out --here--!

It looks so amazing after you are done - like you spent the last 5 hours painting your nails, but instead it only took you about 20 minutes. I had some problems with the first decals I applied on my left hand, like filing off to much (pinkie) or just cutting them wrong (cuticle line on my middle finger). But you get the hang of it after a nail or 2 and then it goes on pretty smooth and easy.  

I was worried that the decal for my thumb would be too small, because I have pretty big thumb nails, but even that one was big enough to cover all of my nail - I was amazed :D 

Sure you're asking yourself how much this pretties lasted. A lot! I took a picture after 6 days and of course there was some visible tip wear but the design itself stayed on pretty good! You just have to make sure to use a top coat after you put them on!

So let's see what I loved about them: 

- fast shipping

- a lot of pretty and cool designs to choose from

- easy application

- nail decals fit on all nails (long/short - small/big)

... and the most important one: they're super long lasting! 

I don't really have anything to say against them, I was really amazed by them and I already want to order 2 or 3 more, just to have them here for days when I want something special on my nails and I don't have the time/motivation to do something :P 

I can really recommend them and trust me, you won't be disappointed! 

You can go visit her site here: http://www.designerpiggies.com/

And her Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CynthiaDesignsStore

I hope this review was helpful and let me know if you'll get some nail decals or if you already tried them! :) 

Thanks for reading! :* 

*I did not get paid to do this post. I received the product from Designer Piggies for free for review purposes only and this is my honest opinion based on my personal experience.

Essence Color and Change Swatches & Review

Hello, my dear readers!

Having a nice weekend so far? :) I tried to upload this post yesterday, but blogger wouldn't let me, so here it is now :P I posted these 2 polishes in my August Haul, so let's see how they look! 

There are 4 Color & Change polishes in the new product range of Essence, but I only picked out those 2, since I like blue and purple so much. The other two are orange and pink. 

Unexpected Galaxy (index & ring finger): This one is a really gorgeous metallic purple! Application was really smooth and the big surprise: it's a 1-coater! Yay :D I wasn't very careful with the application, so I applied 2 coats, but when I tried it again on the other hand, I just used 1 coat. 

Wonderlicious Green (middle finger & pinkie): First off, it's blue! =) It's a really pretty shimmery blue, which I bought only because of the color! I don't own anything like it. And again, it's a 1-coater!! This one didn't apply as smoothly as the other one though. It's thick and it just takes some practice to apply it evenly. 

Now let's see how the color change works. 

There is this Color & Change Magic Effect Designer that you can buy separately to create the designs on these polishes, but I also wanted to try a normal clear polish to see how that works. 

Index & Middle finger are both painted with the Magic Effect Designer (MED).

The contrast between the initial color and the "changed" one was better with the purple polish. The blue one didn't change as quick as the other one and it took another thin layer of the MED to make the change visible. 

The MED comes with a very thin tip painter so it's hard to paint a bigger surface with it, but for nail art it works just fine.

Ring finger & Pinkie are painted with a normal clear polish from Essence (CP).

You can't really see a difference between the clear polish and the MED on the purple polish, the blue one though didn't change its color as much with the clear polish on top. 

Bottom line:

All in all, I think these polishes are a nice idea. Essence did a great job making them 1-coaters, so that's a big plus! 

I also tried different top coats I have and all of them worked just fine with changing the color! That said, my recommendation is not to buy the Magic Effect Designer, since any TC will do the same job ;) 

The price of the polishes is 1,55€ each and the MED costs 1,95€. 

What do you think girls? Will you buy them? :) 

Have a great weekend! x 

KKCenterHk Fluffy Sticker Review !

Hello, my lovelies! 

Quick review for you today! I recently got some stickers from KKCenterHk and they are fluffy! Isn't that adorable? They have a lot of different fluffy stickers but I chose the ones with the leopard pattern ...what else? :P 

You get a sheet with 20 stickers, 10 for rounded nails and 10 for square nails. This is actually very good, because everyone has different shaped nails and that way they can choose the ones that fit. 

The stickers are very thin so it may be hard removing them from the sheet but you get the hang of it ;) I applied the first one to my thumb and it actually was too small. Now as you can see, there are just 5 sizes for each hand, so you kinda have to make them fit! (more on that later)

Here they are on my nails. I applied a clear coat as a base coat, let it dry a bit and applied the stickers while it was still a bit tacky. I had a bit of a hard time placing them in the center but it doesn't look that bad, especially not from afar :P 

So, I said that you have to make the sticker fit, if they are too small or too big. Now if they're too big you just cut off the excess with a cuticle nipper and if they are too small ... just stretch them! Yeees you can do that, but you have to be very careful and you can only stretch them a little bit! 

They stick pretty good to the nail and I tried removing them after half an hour and you can't really do that. The problem is that you can't add a TC that would make it last so much longer, because of the stickers texture! But, I tried it anyways :D

One advise: don't add a TC!! Just wear them for a day or a night out without TC, because if you add it, it looks awful. I had to use a big amount of TC on the tips to cover the fluffy texture and it looked bad :)) 

All in all I really like these stickers, they are so cute and fluffy! I wear my manis for a day or 2 max so the wearing time is okay for me, but as I said, these stickers are great for a party or a special occasion etc. 

A big plus is the 2 different shapes of the stickers and I personally will cut the square ones to a round shape and wear them too ;) 

The prize is alright as well!

You can get exactly these stickers --here-- for 2,90$ or look at all the other fluffy stickers on kkcenterhk --here-- ! 

Do you like them? Will you buy them or maybe other fluffy stickers? :) 

Hope this helped! Have a good night! x

*I did not get paid to do this post. I received the product from kkcenterhk for free for review purposes only and this is my honest opinion based on my personal experience. 

Review: Essence Peel Off Base Coat

Hello, my dear readers! :) 

I mentioned in my last post that I have some swatches/reviews of some Essence products for you and today I wanna show you the one I am most excited about! 

-- The Essence Peel Off Base Coat! --

Let's see what it says on the package: 

"fast and easy change of colour and effect nail polish. this innovative, solvent-free peel off base coat allows you to peel off your nail polish whenever you want, wherever you are! no remover needed!"

Sounds pretty good! Of course any nail polish addict will think of one thing now: glitter polish!!! We all know it's freaking hard and annoying to remove glitter polish, so this base coat may be the solution to our problem, right? :)

The instructions are very easy to follow: first apply a generous layer of this base coat and allow it to dry for 10 minutes and then just apply the polish of your choice! 

Here's a bottle shot + the package it came in. When you apply it on your nails it's white just like in the bottle. After it dries it's completely transparent.

(I hate to show my naked nails, but I kinda have to for this review...see what I'm willing to do for you guys ? :P)

To test this base coat of course I tried out glitter polish but also a dark navy blue, to see how the base coat prevents staining!

After I applied this "test mani", I actually started to really like it :D Maybe I'll wear this as a full mani soon ;)

I let it dry and also wore it for an hour or 2 before starting to peel it off. I used an orange stick to lift the edges near my cuticles. I tried to remove it in one piece, but that doesn't really work, so I just kept using my orange stick until the polish was completely off my nail. 

I have to say I'm very impressed! My nails looked very clean, without any polish or glittery mess left! It's very easy to peel off the polish once you lift up the edges, until then it stays perfect in place!

On the package there is a little advice: 

"avoid hot water for 3 hours after application"

So keep that in mind when painting your nails ;) 

The peel off base coat costs 2,25€ here in Germany and I have to say I'm very glad I bought it! I can wear glittery polishes more often now and avoid the messy removal! Yes! :D

So that's it for today, I hope this review was helpful for some of you! And let me know if you'll go buy it or if you have it and like it as much as I do! ;) 

Have a great weekend! x 

BornPrettyStore Review: Color Changing Polish

Hello, my dear readers!

Some time ago, I was contacted by BornPrettyStore to review a product of my choice and it was hard to pick something from their website because they have sooooo much nail art stuff, but in the end I chose the color changing nail polish in Fuchsia/Pink.

The package arrived pretty fast and besides the polish they were so kind to send me this as well:

A mustache ring and purple pearls and of course the pink/fuchsia polish itself. Thanks ;)

The polish comes in a little paper box and as you can see in the picture it's a beautiful fuchsia color.
I started off with a base coat and applied 3 thin coats. It still was a bit sheer, but I left it at that. The application was a bit weird for the first coat, because the fuchsia color changed immediately to a sheer pink once it touched the nail and I couldn't see it anymore on the nail! But with the second and third coat I didn't have the problem anymore, since the color got more opaque. So here it is after 3 coats without TC:

The color becomes light pink on the base of the nail (where it's warm) and fuchsia on the tip (where it's more cold). After it dries completely it has kind of a satin finish, almost completely matte.
Since I didn't had very long nails when trying this product, the fuchsia part at the tip isn't very big, but it looks kinda cute :)

Of course I wanted to see how the color changes when the temperature changes, so I filled one cup with hot water and one with cold water and dipped my nails in it. Here is the result, after I dipped them in the hot water:

It was completely light pink, but until I took the picture a few seconds later it already showed a little bit of fuchsia at the tip. The color changes very fast !!!

And this is the result, after I dipped my nails in cold water:

Again, the color already started changing back until I grabbed my camera, but it was completely of a fuchsia color!

I wondered whether a top coat would affect the color change, so I applied one coat of TC and dipped it in hot water:

Surprise, surprise! It DOES influence the color change! You see the perfect line between the 2 colors? That's where the water couldn't reach anymore of my nail, cause the free edge ended there.
So if you wanna show this cool effect to your friends and family, don't add a TC!

I added a coat of Essie - Shine of the times to make it a bit more prettier ;)

So, my conclusion:
I like this polish, but I personally wouldn't buy a back up bottle of this, because I don't like pink that much, but the color change is very pretty and it's a great polish for layering, like I did in the picture above!

You can get this polish on BornPretty's website: http://www.bornprettystore.com/
--Click here to go directly to the product!--
For the prize of $7,84 you can get a bottle of color changing polish in a variety of different colors!

I hope this review helped some of you and let me know what you think of color changing polishes!

See ya :*

*I did not get paid to do this post. I received the product from BornPrettyStore  for free for review purposes only and this is my honest opinion based on my personal experience.

KKCenterHK Water Decals Review

Hello! :)
I was a bit of a bad blogger lately, but I just wasn't in the mood for posting with this awesome weather outside! It's been 30 degrees everyday for a week now :D Perfect weather to walk, work on my tan and just relax with a good book :)

As the title says, I wanna review some other KKCenterHK Water Decals today, and you can see my first post on Water Decals --here--! The lovely Maggie gave me the choice to choose some Water Decals and I chose this metallic ones: Silver Metallic Water Decals
I thought they would apply different then the other "normal" ones and I was very curious about them :) First some pics:

I used Essence - Paradelade as a base and the Water Decals (WD) as accent on my ring finger and thumb. I followed the exact same instructions as last time:

How to use Water Decals:
- first remove the foil covering the whole sheet of paper
- cut out the pieces you wanna use on your nails
- put them in a bowl of water for about 5-10 minutes
- using tweezers, carefully remove the pieces from the bowl
- slide off the image and put it on your nails


I will do a tutorial on how to apply WD's this weekend, all right? :) It's a lot easier to explain with photos!

 Like I said, I thought the metallic decals would be thicker and apply differently, but they are super thin and just as easy to use as the other ones. In fact, once you have them on your nails, you can't feel them and the nail surface is very smooth. You have to apply one coat of TC of course to make them last longer.
I wore this mani for 4 days until it chipped, but the decals didn't came off.
Removal is as easy as the application! Just remove your nail polish as always, you don't have to let the acetone soak in like with glitter polishes :)

That said, I really love KKCenterHK's water decals! Quick delivery, great quality, easy application and awesome result :) Every sheet comes with 20 images, so it's enough for 2 full manicures. This metallic ones I used cost $6,39 and you can get them --here--!

The coupon code from last time is still available! So if you go shop on their website use it! 
BLGA403RE10  for 10 % off your purchase until 31st Jan 2013! 


Hope this was helpful! See ya next time with a cute flower french mani ;) 


*I did not get paid to do this post. I received the product from kkcenterhk for free for review purposes only and this is my honest opinion based on my personal experience. 

KKCenterHK Water Decals Review

Hello, my lovelies!

I was contacted by Maggie from KKCenterHK some while ago, about reviewing Water Decals for them and after checking out their site I immediately agreed :) The first step was really hard: choosing a sheet of Decals, because they have a lot and they're all gorgeous!! After a few clicks I saw a really cute one and I picked it without thinking twice! 

This is the one they sent me: 

Aren't they cute ?? I love them! 

I never used Water Decals before but the application was very easy and it didn't take much time. 

How to use Water Decals:
- first remove the foil covering the whole sheet of paper
- cut out the pieces you wanna use on your nails
- put them in a bowl of water for about 10 minutes
- using tweezers, carefully remove the pieces from the bowl
- slide off the image and put it on your nails

Now let me explain that last step for you. First I tried to remove the image from the paper using tweezers but I couldn't grab it, cause it's very thin and I almost destroyed it. I found a very, very easy way to apply them though. After removing the paper from the water I used my finger to transfer the image onto my nail. As long as it's wet, the image doesn't stick to anything so you can easily move it back and forth on your nail til it's in place. After it's dry you can finish it off with a TC. 

 I used 2 coats of Catrice - Just Married, applied the Water Decals and sealed it all with a TC. 

I really love the result! The Water Decals are very easy to use, don't take much time to apply and they look like they're painted on your nails. 

You can get these cute Water Decals --here-- for only $2.64. 

But make sure you check all the decals out and some other stuff on their site too!

Maggie was so kind to give me a unique coupon code for you guys, so if you go shop on their website use the Coupon Code: BLGA403RE10  for 10 % off your purchase until 31st Jan 2013! 

I hope you liked this post! And let me know what you think about Water Decals! ;) 

*I did not get paid to do this post. I received the product from kkcenterhk for free for review purposes only and this is my honest opinion based on my personal experience.