Haul Kosmetik4less

And again a haul, this time beauty stuff galore from kosmetik4less (a german cosmetics site), some of which I might review later (some right away). All together I paid around 35 €!

The most important piece, which was about 12 €, is the Girlfriend! Microfiber Hair Turban. I have long hair and always let my hair dry in a towel before blow-drying, but the towels usually fall from my head and it’s a little bit annoying. So I got this turban which you can close by button so it stays put. Furthermore it says it speeds up drying time! Let’s see about that.

The Cotton Candy Hand and Body Cream inside a silver howl. Very cute but doesn’t smell like cotton candy at all. It’s a nice piece of decoration but a waste of money for me…

Then the Anatomicals Never Fake Strawberry Milkshake Lip Gloss, smells sweet but nothing like strawberry milk shake. It’s a sheer gloss but feels nice on my lips, still not really worth 5 € in my opinion because it’s just nothing special.

Next the Ardell Lash Applicator, was pretty inexpensive for about 2 €, haven’t tried it out yet but it’s supposed to help the application of false eyelashes when placing them on the lids.

2 pairs of false eyelashes, just for fun and trying them out, one pair is extra short but full and kinda feathery, the other one is a generic false eyelash style, both from Red Cherryand about 3 €.

And last a cute solid perfume “Shanghai Rose”, which smells a little bit citrusy and quite fresh. I think this is a cute thing to have in my bag!

(Not pictured is a lash glue from duo)

I should really stop buying stuff…Now I just enjoy what I have haha (even I don’t believe that…) No but seriously there are things like mascara that I actually don’t plan on buying because I have about 30 different ones…self-control is not easy though.

Review: LAQA & CO Nail Polish Pen

I ordered this Laqa & Co Nail Polish Pen from Asos.com for 9,74 €, a discount from the original 14,28 €. The idea of having a pen in my purse that I can apply nail polish with seemed very practical to me, and the colors were also very pretty.

I got tweedledee, which is not pictured there!

The packaging is super cute! To apply the nail polish you just have to press the button for it to pump the polish into the brush at the top! Sounds pretty simple right?

It was not so easy because the right dosage is so difficult to estimate. Usually when I press the button way too much nail polish comes out an I have difficulties painting my nails evenly… And the color although cute (I like pale corals) is only really pretty after the second layer. It drys pretty fast though, so that’s a plus!

So it is practical and cute but the quality of the nail polish itself is not that great. A fun gimmick but won’t buy again!

Review: Eyelure Pre-Glued Lashes

I have terrible difficulties applying lashes. It’s true, they somehow never want to stay in place and it’s such a hassle. God knows Ive tried applying them, over 20 times, I just suck at it. Maybe I have the wrong glue? I don’t know. But I got fed up with fake eyelashes until I ordered these pre-glued lashes for about $8 from eyelure (I got them  on asos.com). Because….you know I still wanted to get this kind of eye catching look.

I ordered the “feathery” style just to try it out. I just took them out of the package, placed them on my lashline and voila, they stayed in place! I would have never dreamed of it being so easy!!

Here a picture without lashes with very simple make up (just eyeliner and mascara)

and here a picture with the lashes applied:

On the picture they seem a bit chunky but in reality they look really soft. still you can easily tell that they are fake. (but I never really thought one could create a natural look with fake lashes). As you can see my make up is really simple, I am not a fan of heavy make up on myself because I don’t think it suits me.

The downside of the lashes is that the pre-glue (can I call it that way??) is not very strong somehow, it’s enough to put them on properly and they stick to the lashline at first but very soon they start coming off at the ends. after the glue wears off you can just use regular eyelash glue to put them on again but for me the magic of “it was sooo easy” is gone by then. You can use them with the “pre-glue” two times tops.

I’ll have to look for a lazy solution, or maybe I’ll try it oncemore with a better glue… because I already got 10 pairs of cheap lashes that I can practice with! (again.)

Still, I love the design and they give you a glamorous look. Will maybe buy again for special occasions!

Review: Tigi Bed Head Candy Fixations Glaze Haze

I got this as a combined package for about $15, the mini hard head was for free. Always wanted to try something from the candy fixations series!

The Glaze Haze one smells like crème brulee. You’re supposed to put a small amount of it in your towel-dried hair, mostly into the tips. It says it helps against frizzy and fly away hair and that it also speeds up the drying time!

The smell is heavenly!! I just want to use it as a hand lotion haha AND it really does work it’s magic in my hair! My hair is alot smoother after using this and the drying time is significantly reduced. 

Only downsides: - Hair gets oily a lot faster after using this, but that’s no wonder.

                          - The smell wears off fast, I mean really fast! You don’t even get to enjoy it fully. (hence my stupid idea to use it as lotion…)

Will maybe buy again because the amount I have to use for it to work is sooo small that it’s really worth the money. (alot better than the frieda products I used against frizzy hair)

Review: Benefit Confessions of a Concealaholic Set

Next product I got in the mail some days ago: The Benefit Confessions of a Concealaholic Concealer-Set. Now I love benefit from the bottom of my heart, the packaging, the quality, the names of the products, just about everything but the price. I wanted to try some of their concealing products (because who doesn’t need some concealer from time to time?? okay there probably are people who don’t, whatevs) and this set was perfect for me. It costed only around $20 and considering all the products I get from this (even if they come in traveler size) it’s a bargain.

It’s so very adorable, and after opening it looks like a fairy tale book or a cute diary! Themirror that is in this “book” is very useful and unlike some cheap gimmick mirrors that I experienced (especially in make-up palettes) this one is really nice and helpful without distorting your face at all.

There is even a cute booklet that comes with the set that explains how and where to use every product! Also very helpful: The brushes are labeled so you always use the same side of the brush for the same product. The products in this set are:

“That gal” brightening face primer, 7,5 ml. I don’t really need this product but it gives the face a healthy glow and can actually be applied over (!) make-up (and it really doesn’t mess it up!).

“Erase paste” brightening camouflage for eyes and face, 3,2 gr. This works really well with dark circles as its just like a regular concealer, but not that heavy and creasing! The coverage is a light to medium. Love it!

“Boi-ing” concealer in two shades, each one 1,3 gr. According to the instructions you can actually mix your perfect shade with the two different ones, for me the light one is enough right now. The coverage is still pretty medium but it has no nasty gray shade to it after concealing and doesn’t feel heavy! Love it, too!

“Lemon aid” color correcting eyelid primer, 0,9 gr. Now as I already got a good primer for eye-shadow this was no necessity, BUT I absolutely love this product, you put it on your eye-lid like a primer and you don’t even have to use eye-shadow, it’s such a pure look after putting this on because my eyes look refreshed and bright! Adore it.

“Eye bright” eye brightener, 0,9 gr. This is a very light rosy shade for the inner corners of the eyes to look brighter. Not my favorite but still useful for highlighting and so on!

Summed up: I’m glad I got this set, I will certainly get the products I liked best (like erase paste and lemon aid) in their original size, too, after trying these out!

Pretty and useful in my eyes!

Review: Balea Zuckerschnute Deodorant & Showergel

This has been reviewed a lot in germany. It’s the Balea Showergel and Deodorant from the “Zuckerschnute” (something like Sugar-Pout ) series. There’s also a body lotion but I couldn’t get it. The products are all sold for around 1€, so the price is not worth mentioning, but now it is sold out and a bit more expensive on ebay. The series is popular because of the super sweet smell that reminds of lemon bars or lemon cake, something like that! 

I’ve been using the shower gel for a long time already and LOVE it because of the smell! So sweet and slightly lemony, but not like a bath re-freshener but as if used in pastry and cookies! And it doesn’t wear off that fast after showering.

Now about the deodorant, I picked it up recently because of my positive impression from the first product. But I was terribly disappointed. The smell is horrible, it’s extremely artificial and has nothing sweet about it. I have seen positive reviews about it but I can’t see why…

Depending on how long they plan to sell the shower gel I will keep buying it for sure! I’ll have to throw away the deodorant though…

I am currently bidding on ebay to get the Body Lotion....pleaaaase.

Review: Maybelline Dream Fresh 8-IN-1 BB Cream

I finally bought the Maybelline BB creme!! I already wanted to try out the Loreal BB creme but the texture is just so strange and runny I didn’t like it. I was pleasantly surprised that they finally brought BB cremes into usual stores to germany! No more purchasing them from asia over ebay with high shipping?? The Maybelline BB creme was 9 € which I found to be reasonable enough because their foundations are at the same price level.

What I was amazed about is that there is only one shade that is supposed to be universally applicable and it is Apricot. Asian BB cremes usually have 2 shades and those are more beige.

 It looked super dark and orange-yellowish on my hand! How the hell is that supposed to blend into my shade? Well I tried it out…

It actually blends in pretty good, what a surprise. But applied on the face it is way too oily, not mattifying at all and STILL orangy. So I didn't wear it at all practically. As for coverage it is ok, about medium, SPF 30 sounds a bit high but whatever.

Pretty useless in my opinion.

Will not buy again, I'll stick to Asian BB cremes AND the new Catrice BB creme. 

Review: Maybelline Colorsensational Popsticks

And again a review about the Maybelline Colorsensational Popsticks! Last time Iwasn’t very impressed with them, I got the 010 Pink Sugar and while it was cute and pretty it didn’t make much difference on my lips. This time I got the 020 Tropical Pink. It was 10€ so about $13 I guess?? Not totally unreasonable for a maybelline lipstick!

Why did I even get another one? Well look at it. It’s so cool being all see-through and stuff! And I actually thought a lot about buying it but after testing it out for weeks in the shopping centre I realized I should just go ahead and buy it! It’s a pink-orangeish kind of shade and does not go overboard with the orange shade like it would appear from the lipstick itself. I haven’t got pics of the difference on my lips yet, but I still got a swatch.

You can slightly see the pink color but not so much the orange one on the swatch. The glitter on the other hand is not so much visible when applied (probably because there are no real glitter particles). The one downside to this popstick is that it kind of dries the lips very quickly! I expected it to moisturize but it does the exact opposite! Still the whole design is nice, the scent is sweet like a lollipop, it doesn’t wear off that quickly and it has a nice color on the lips!

Will buy again but is not a must have for me! Maybe I will combine it with a chap stick base and then apply it over the base to keep my lips moisturized…

Review: Clinique

I bought three Clinique products a couple of months ago but I actually only wanted one. But because they were cheaper in the set I thought I’d might as well get it! The product I wanted to get was the “Dramatically Different  Moisturizing Gel”. The set went for about $25 and the full size gel was $22 I think. So I got the gel and the “Clarifying Lotion” and the “Liquid Facial Soap”, the set is for combination oily to oily skin (is this even my type of skin???).

I’ll make this short: I hate it!!!! Ok I like the Dramatically Different Moisturizing gel but the other things, just UGHHH. The clarifying lotion irritates my skin soooo much, I’m red like a tomato after using it. And the facial soap doesn’t really do anything in removing dirt, and it leaves my face feeling stretched out with that amount of soap, even when I wash it away!

And it’s certainly not just because I’m not sure whether I have the kind of skin the products are for. My skin is a combination, and sometimes oily sometimes dry so this is probably about right…

This brings me to the thought I’ve been having for some time: don’t buy all these useless products, you’re better of just using soap! Honestly I had better experiences with simple soap. Nowadays our skin just gets over-treated with all the amount of products we use, you should rather just let it be. Of course I can’t bring myself from buying one or another hyped product but I have to keep that thought in mind to not overdo it with skin-care.

Won't buy again, clearly a good example of pretty useless.

Review: Too Faced Shadow Insurance Eye Shadow Primer

I already mentioned that I got this eyeshadow primer from Too Faced some days ago in the mail. It was $8 on ebay and I’ve been always looking to get a good primer because I thought there had to be a better one than my artdeco primer that was so difficult to apply because of it’s dryish-creamy texture. I was positively impressed by this new primer.

It comes in a tube of 11 grams and is quite easy to handle and to apply. The texture reminds me very much of liquid foundations and it blends in perfectly. The real convincing argument for getting this was the comparison between the eye-shadow applied without the primer and with the primer:

I just used some cheap astor eye-shadow in black as I didn’t have any of my palettes with me. On the left without and on the right with primer. Amazing, it’s such a huge difference. Now I know the quality of this particular eyeshadow is not very good to begin with but then again that’s why the primer is even more convincing, it changes the pigments from nonexistent to a strong black!!! And it doesn’t smudge or wear off quickly (or at all for that matter, at least not through the hours I wore it).

Will definitely buy again because I don’t see any downside to this primer, and the price is great, too, when I compare it to the crappy artdeco primer I used to spend $12 on…