HOLIDAY TREATS
With the hopes of you all having a wonderful Christmas holiday I wanted to share a few of my favourites and treats for the family gatherings, New Years Eve and other upcoming highlights in your schedule during these winter months.
I dont know about you but I for one am not tired of glitter for New Years Eve and very much doubt I will ever join those who year after year tries their best to stear away from the typical things like sparkling dresses, tops or accessories on this night. And growing up with a grandmother who was the absolute queen of glitter and sequins I now love anything that sparkles and therefore very much like adorn myself with something glimmering for NYE. As you know I am also a complete lipstick lover - inherited from the same woman I might add - and to not over-do it a matte lipstick is always my first choice. The Retro Matte lipsticks from MAC have been a personal favourite since the release in October and will suit anyone who's up for celebrating this past year and the beginning of a new with a bright lip. Check them out if you haven't!
Prefer to keep the focus on your eyes? Give them that snow-y sparkle with some glitter, a frosty eyeshadow or perhaps a Pro Longwear Paint Pot. I'm liking the silver-white shade called Chrome Angel.
Having a New Years party? Place the jar of Johan Bülow's golden liquorice balls among your tasty treats [Haha I'm sorry - been trying to make this sentence sound less dirty for 15 minutes now, I give up.] and you'll be sure to have the guests talking. Or perhaps my favourite from the range, jar number 2 with salty pieces made out of pure Iranian liquorice if you prefer. Decorative and delicious. Yum!
Still the mascara I recommend most to my clients. Love it!
No, red lips might not be the most surprising thing this time of year but it sure is beautiful. "Stalker" is the brilliant name of my most used red OCC Lip Tar this December.
Yes, I agree, it does look misplaced among all the goodies but since this is a post on treats I just couldn't skip something that is so important this time of year. A treat for your skin, keeps the winter dryness away. If you tend to get dry knuckles or small wounds on your hands then try this if you have the opportunity. I'm buying it at the pharmacy here in Sweden but I know stores like Boots, Ulta and drugstore.com are selling it as well.
I'm not usually the one to go for a light pink lip but I've fallen in love with a pink gloss from IDUN called Irma. My favourite match is with the Sweet Angel lipliner from Kicks. Such a pretty combo!
This year I noticed a lot of people have been giving away donations to different people- or animal-helping organisations as a Christmas gift in the name of a friend or family member which I think is absolutely brilliant. If you didn't but still want to feel like you've done something - and on top of it is a make-up lover who wouldn't mind actually having more of a reason to spend your money on lip products - then one way to help is to purchase any lipstick or gloss from MAC's VIVA GLAM range. For those of you who don't know, MAC Cosmetics has got their very own AIDS fund which gets 100% of the proceeds from their VIVA GLAM products in order to help women, men and children living with and affected by HIV/AIDS and the initiative has already raised over $250 million. 1 HIV test, 23 female condoms or 233 male condoms and 37 delivered meals are a few of the things the cost of only 1 lipstick will cover so trust that your beauty buys will make a difference. In the photo above you can see my favourite nude - VIVA GLAM II. Guilt-free lipstick shopping? Every time!
Lots of Love & Happy New Year wishes!
THE RETURN OF HEROINE
Great news for those of you who missed out on this beauty last time it was available or simply for those who are looking for a great, gorgeous purple lipstick; MAC Heroine is BACK and here to stay!
Find it here: maccosmetics.se // maccosmetics.com
MAKE UP FOR EVER AQUA ROUGE
HOW-TO | HALLOWEEN '13 | SHHH...
After posting this photo slash video on my Instagram I recieved questions about how I did it so I thought I'd take you through the steps even though Halloween has passed for most people now. What you'll need is sewing thread, fake blood, skin glue and cream makeup for bruising.
Before starting working on the threads I used cream makeup to make a slightly bruised look around the mouth. As you can tell I went for the look of a very mild and fresh (-as in recent) kind of bruising instead of the blue-ish, purple, red colours you would have if the bruise would be a couple of hours or a day older. Choose the look you prefer.
Cut some sewing thread into small pieces - approx. 8 cm. Apply small dots of glue along your upper lip where you want your thread to go in and out and attach the ends of the thread to the glue. Let it dry for a while, then measure how long you'll need your pieces of thread to be (depending on the size of your lips), cut them off at the lenght you need and repeat the glue step along your lower lip. Make sure you think about the direction of the thread and the natural round movements when sewing; where the thread would go in and out so that you'll know if to put the end on the upper or lower side of your mouth.
Now it's time for blood and that natural round movement of the thread that I mentioned is something you can work with here as well. Just think about where the thread is coming out and where it's going in - personally I put a bit more blood where it was going OUT so that it looks like the thread was dragging some of the blood out, which may not be needed for the spots where the needle would be going IN, in case you don't prefer to do the other way around or to add blood all over the thread which is also an alternative - it all depends on what you like and how bloody you want it. I added a small amount of a thicker kind of blood - a blood paste - to the spots where the thread was going out and a thinner, "regular", fluid blood to the other areas. And that's it, really!
CHRISTMAS WITH RIHANNA
Two of the items in this collection are a sparkly rose gold eyeliner named Cockiness and a matte, hot pink lipstick called Pleasure Bomb. The packaging is a mix of white and rose gold, kind of Christmas-y and nicely suitable for a holiday collection. The inside is just as pretty, the lipstick having a lovely velvet-y formula and the liner being beautiful both on it's own on the upper lashline or as a nice detail to the lower - or why not as a twist to a matte black smokey eye.
The collection is available in stores and online now. maccosmetics.com // maccosmetics.se or kicks.se for Swedish customers.
KIT ESSENTIALS | REAL TECHNIQUES
I am loving the multi-tasking qualities of the eye brushes as well as most of the face brushes and my favourites of the later are the Powder Brush and the Expert Face Brush. The Powder Brush really is one of the softest face brushes I've ever used and effortlessly blends your powder, bronzer and blush. The Expert Face Brush has become my favourite multi-tasking brush of all time and is absolutely essential to my makeup kit. Foundation (whether liquid, creamy or compact), cream- or powder contouring, cream- or liquid blush, powder- or liquid highlighting - it works for all of it!
The only disadvantage or inconvenience - and this is from a makeup artist's point of view - is how they sell these. Some of the brushes are sold in sets and some are sold individually; the ones that come in sets are not sold individually and the ones sold individually can not be found in the sets. Now that might not be a problem for most people but as a makeup artist I would love to buy a couple more of, for example, the Base Shadow Brush to use when working since you rarely have the time to clean the brushes while working on the same face/model. It's just always a good thing to have many copies of your favourite multi-tasking brushes. Not being able to without buying the whole set of 5 (when 3 of them is brushes that I don't feel like I need to have copies of) is kind of a downside since they're really great brushes so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that in the future they will start selling all of the brushes individually as well as in the sets.
You can find the Real Techniques brushes at a good price on iHerb and Love-Makeup. Find more retailers >here<. Svenskar - borstarna finns även på Eleven, Lyko och Brallis men till nästan dubbla priset (och t.o.m. mer på vissa av borstarna). Jag har hört endast bra om iHerb men har själv bara hunnit beställa från Love-Makeup så om ni känner er lite osäkra på att beställa utifrån så kan jag säga att Love-Makeup (som skickar från England) har levererat snabbt och felfritt vid varje order jag lagt.
IDA & LINA'S NOVEMBER LIP TIP
My sister Lina and I have been loving Burt's Bees lip balm during this fall. The brand range includes - among lotions, scrubs, schampoo, different lip products etc - 7 different 100% natural lip balms. We haven't tried all of them, just simply thought we'd share why we love two of them and how they fit our needs.
Lina is all about taking care of her lips and doesn't really have that chapped-lips problem that I tend to have if I'm not careful. If anyone is taking care of ones lips it's her, and her favourite balm is the Rejuvenating lip balm with Acaí Berry.
"I love how it's so soft and creamy", she says - and it really is! In about 15 minutes after applying it I find my lips already softer which is great when you need a quick boost and as it wears off it gives a smooth feeling to your lips.
As for me, nothing makes my winter lips heal like Locobase Repair but since I really only use that during the night or when I'm just at home with no need to explain what the heck is going on on my lips [it's a WHITE paste/cream], naturally I also need something that I can carry with me and apply during the day.
Since I wear lipstick basically everyday and prefer satin and matte formulas, it's important to me that it's a balm that will work as kind of a base to wear underneath my lipstick to at least try to prevent them from drying out. For that purpose my favourite this fall has been the Beeswax lip balm with Vitamin E and Peppermint. Contrary to Lina's favourite, this one gives a much more matte feeling to the lips - a lot like the feeling of the lip primer from MAC when it has settled.
On a side note I want to add that if the state of your lips is really bad - I'm talking cracked winter lips - then I would recommend going for something more healing and thicker to use during the night or - as I mentioned earlier - when you're comfortable looking a bit funny and use a thick cream on your lips for as long as you can as kind of an intense healing mask. Perfect if you're having 2 days off work or over the weekend. If you're able to get it where you live then do try the Locobase Repair, put on a thick layer and reapply as soon as it's worn off for about 1½-2 days depending on how bad it is.
Please tell us! What is your favourite lip balm?
