❋⚘✿ Mac: A Fantasy of Flowers Haul ✿⚘❋

Hey lovelies

Before I start talking about the drool-worthy products I got from the new Mac Spring collection, let me point towards the Liebster Awards. Two people nominated me, which was such an amazing gesture! However, I will not participate. I started this blog a couple of weeks ago and I haven't even uploaded 10 posts, yet, so I'd rather support some of the blogs that have been out there for a while and that are simply awesome. Who knows, I might get the chance to participate next year. We'll see what the next couple of months hold for me and my blog. Haha people at my work space call me quite a pessimist, but I try to be all optimistic for once :) That's it for the first part of this post. Oh but, of course, if there's a way I can support one of you, lemme know :)

Mac Haul. Sigh. So I'm supposed to be on a low-buy ... uuuups! I really wanna start using the goodies I have instead of constantly adding new products to my ever-growing stash, but I just couldn't keep myself back when I learned about the Mac "A Fantasy of Flowers"-collection. As I've mentioned before, I'm all giddy and excited about Spring to arrive and the products in this collection simply scream "Spring" to me... pink, coral and peach hues, ah yes there's no escaping for me! The collection was first released on January 30th online. I'm sure that all the Americans and Canadians out there will still be able to find most of the products online or in one of the stores that retail Mac products. As for the rest of the world - the collection won't be released till March (I'm not sure about the exact date though, unfortunately). I definitely recommend for all of you to check out the collection in person!
This collection contains two MSFs (repromotes), two blushes, two fluidlines, pigments, lip glosses and 6 lipsticks (if I forgot something, I'm sorry!). Now for me, personally, Mac blushes aren't all that. I much prefer Nars and Bobbi Brown blushes because they go on so much smoother. The blush colors in this collection look AMAZING though. Luckily, I refrained from doing more damage than I already did haha. Especially Petal Power seems like an astounding blush. It's pretty close to Nars' famous "Orgasm" with it's corally hue and the golden glitter. I'm still lusting after this blush, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to be good for once lol.
As for the products I did get ... I love all of them! The MSFs are repromotes and, sadly, they aren't quite the same as when they were originally released (check out Temptalia to see comparison swatches between the different versions). Stereo Rose is lighter than the original version. Nevertheless, it's a great MSF and on my light NC 15ish skin it works as a blush rather than a highlighter. It is really pigmented, so I'd recommend to be cautious when applying it for the first time.  It's gorgeous though and I could spend hours staring at it (jup I'm such a dork).

All of the lipsticks have a Lustre finish. So, basically, they're supposed to go on rather sheer. Another much raved-about lustre is Syrup. I'm not a big sucker of Lustre-lipsticks in general (in fact, I haven't used Syrup much), but when the reviews of the collection popped up, a lot of people pointed out how surprisingly opaque the lipsticks go on. This is so true. They seem much smoother to me as well. I wore Fleur d'Coral yesterday and though my lips are naturally quite pigmented, it nicely covered my lip color and turned into a nice peachy-nude on me (much like Sweet and Sour from the "All About orange"-collection 2013, but more daytime-wearable). The other lipsticks I got are Rose Lily, Snapdragon and Dreaming Dahlia. All the colors look so amazing. They're all named after flowers (ahh you should definitely google "Snapdragon"!) and lipstick box shows the botany code of the flower. Oh Spring seems so close already! My swatches don't do the lipsticks justice.

from left to right: Rose Lily, Snapdragon, Fleur d'Coral, Dreaming Dahlia

from left to right: Rose Lily, Snapdragon, Fleur d'Coral, Dreaming Dahlia

me wearing Fleur d'Coral

 I so have to go back to being a good girl now haha! But I definitely don't regret getting these products. Oh, and by the way, I've got whooping 60 Mac lipsticks now. I'm such a horrible, horrible addict and I assume that the number will soon grow again:)

What products are you most excited about? What did you get/ What are you planing on getting?

Mac's "Playland"-collection will come out in April and it will feature a lot of amazing, bright colors. So In case you're not too excited about the sheerness that is this collection, don't you worry, April isn't too far away :)


xo Laura

lipsticks of the week ♥

NYX Buttergloss in Éclair, Bobbi Brown Creamy Matte Lip Color in Pink Lily, MAC Pret-a-Pretty (LE), MAC Raspberry Swirl (LE), Bobbi Brown Sheer Lip Color in Rosy

Hey lovelies

Wow that moves way too fast! I planned on doing this post at the beginning of the week, but somehow I just didn't find the time to do it.  So instead, I'm doing it now, which actually works a lot better because I had the chance of taking pictures of myself (selfie-time yey!) wearing the lipsticks.
So, I'm a huge lipstick addict. There's barely a day I don't put on some sort of lipstick. I'm not a huge fan of lip glosses (there's not even a reason why) but my lipsticks definitely get a lot of love from me! However, I usually tend to use the same lip products all over, so at the beginning of this week I decided to pick 4 different shades (and a lip gloss) and carry them with me in my make-up bag. Things actually went pretty well. Three out of the four shades aren't too bright to put them on during daytime and the fourth one is the perfect color to wear during a night out.

NYX Buttergloss Éclair is the perfect lip gloss to put over a nude lipstick. On Saturday night I wore my NYX buttergloss with my MAC Raspberry Swirl. I simply adore this shade. I totally screams Spring to me and since I can't wait for Spring to start, I had to pull out this color. Who cares if it's effin cold outside, a bubblegum pink always looks good :). Now this lipstick was part of a Mac Limited Edition. However, I've heard word that thet might re-relase this shade in Summer, so keep your eyes open! Also, Saint Germain would probably give you the same effect (though much brighter!). RS is a cremesheen finish, so it doesn't go on too opaque, which makes it so wearable for me. I imagine that dotting on SG would give you a quite similar effect though. In case SG is too much on the "in your face bright"-side for you, you might want to check out Rose Lily from the recent "A Fantasy of Flowers" collection (LE). This collection hasn't been released in Europe, yet, so there's a good chance you'll be able to snag one for yourself. You're probably still able to find it in the US as well.

Raspberry Swirl + Éclair

Another MAC lipstick that I have a lot of love for is Pret-a-Pretty. It's such an amazing nude color. Unfortunately, it was a limited edition shade as well. I was able to find it on Ebay not too long ago though! It has a really creamy consistency and quite an opaque color pay-off. It's like a creamier version of Hue.

sorry for the horrible quality!

Then, of course, I'm a huge Bobbi Brown-addict. I don't really care too much about the "classic" BB lipsticks, but the matte and sheer formulas are amazing! The matte lippies are incredibly creamy and not as dry as a lot of other matte lippies. The sheer lippies definitely have a misleading name because there not even close to being sheer! They aren't too bright either and feel great on your lips (they're probably comparable to Mac Cremesheens). Bobbi Brown Creamy Matte Lip Color "Pink Lily" is described as a "bright pink violet". It's an amazing color that I haven't seen a dupe for yet. I was worried that it would be too dark or too purple, but it really is the perfect mix of red, pink, and purple. Bobbi Brown Sheer Lip Color "Rosy" is described as a "pinky orange". I had to get it after I saw Essie Button raving about it! It gives me a natural, glowing look. Like a brighter MLBB shade. It's love!

Bobbi Brown Rosy

Bobbi Brown Pink Lily. Crappy lighting :(

So that's it for today. I'm gonna try and use new lippies next week, though I've got a serious crush on the four lippies I wore throughout this week! I hope you had an amazing Thursday! It's almost weekend :) oh, and, of course, have a great Valentine's Day ♥

xo Laura

favorite songs at the moment ♥

Hey gorgeous people

I'm sorry I haven't been active lately. The last days have been incredibly busy and I can't even tell why haha. Anyway, I thought it might be time to add a "favorite songs at the moment" post as I'm really obsessed with music. A couple of years back, I would spend hours a day trying to find new music. I've neglected it quite a bit lately. However, I noticed that it's much easier to work at the office while listening to music, so I downloaded a couple of radio channels onto my itunes. That's how I found a couple of incredible songs. Oh and then there are some all-time-faves that I just can't stop listening to :)

1. Love love love.

2. this one was recommended to me by my amazing friend Adam.

3. such a cute song. sigh.
 

4. such a haunting and sad song. Everybody has his or her bad days, but being bullied has to be one of the worst feelings in the world.
 

5. I really don't know why I haven't discovered this song any sooner.

All these songs are pretty quiet. Somehow that's what works best for me while I'm at work though. And, to me music is about amazing lyrics. That's probably why I'm not really into a lot of the contemporary chart stuff (however, this kind of music is great work out music haha). Have a lovely evening!

xo Laura

Tom Ford Eyeshadow Palette: Cognac Sable

Hey pretty people. This will be a rather short post. I somehow managed to catch the flu, so I'm lying in bed atm feeling slightly bored. I hate how the flu always hits you when you expect it the least, but I guess that's how things roll haha. I actually tried to go to work today but I left again after an hour, feeling like every inch of my body was made of steel (I'm pretty sure I must've looked ridiculous trying to walk around. I'm sure people could have confused me with a robot, siigh). I decided to go home to Zug (an area 30 minutes from Zurich) and I didn't bring my laptop or any special make-up items, so I'm kind of lacking material to do an interesting post. I found these pictures of my Tom Ford "Cognac Sable" palette though and decided to share them with you. I know that TF-products are crazily expensive, but, in my opinion, they're well worth the price. This palette was definitely a special treatment to myself and I fell in love with the four shades the moment I lay my eyes on them. They're the perfect coppery-brownish shades! So this quad sort of started my addiction for all TF products. I still think that these palettes should be treated as a "special gift" to oneself with the incredulously steep price but doesn't everybody need a chear-me-up item every once in a while?:) Three out of the four shades are definitely warm toned.

Top left: warm lightish sand gold shade. In my opinion, this shade is too dark to be used as a highlighter. It's great as an all-over lid wash for a daytime loom though.

Top right: a warm coppery sparkle. Best used as a top coat to add some glitter to the look. It's rather sheer. I recommend using it with a wet brush / Mac's Fix +.

Bottom left: warm, medium chestnut brown. This is a great crease shade/ lid shade for a smokey eye look. It contains some glitter.

Bottom right: cool, dark brown with shimmer. It is a pretty dark shade. Since TF eyeshadows are so silky and smooth, keep in mind to be careful with the application.

Now, as you have probably already figured out, I totally recommend the palette to everybody. I might even go as far to describe it as my favorite palette. Though my Bobbi Brown and my TF "Cocoa Mirage" get a lot of love as well.

Unfortunately, I don't have my palette with me, so I'm lacking swatches. You'll be able to find tons of great swatches through youtube though. I found a picture on my phone of my Christmas make-up look and I'll feature it down below. I used this palette to create the look displayed on the picture.

So talk to you again soon. Keep your chins up and stay healthy:) I'll add a motivational picture down below as well, because these inspirational thoughts really make me feel better about my sick self lol. Oh, and I plan on doing a post on hyped products and on my "Clarisonic" story (sorry, there's no happy ending to it). I'm off to bed again.

xo Laura

FOTD #1

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette, Kat von D Tattoo Concealer, Lioele BB Cream, Mac Mineralize Skin Finish - Light, Benefit Brow Zings - medium, L'oreal Faux Cils Papillon Mascara, Nars Albatross, Nars Amour, Bobbi Brown Chocolate Eye Palette, Laura Mercier Caviar Stick - Sandglow, Mac Lipstick - Morning Rose (LE), Bobbi Brown Corrector, Bobbi Brown Concealer

Hey gorgeous people. Phiuuuuu I've never realized before that I use so many different make-up products to achieve an everyday-makeup-look. I'm pretty amazed and I guess a tad bit embarrassed as well? Oh so I didn't really use the Bobbi Brown Blush and the Laura Mercier Caviar Stick. I had a pretty crappy night and just couldn't fall asleep, so I felt like a zombie in the morning (yey doesn't everyone like the zombie look? haha). That's probably also why I got everything mixed up, I'm so sorry!
Anyway, just to put it out there: Hey, I'm Laura, I'm 23 and I'm a lipstick addict. I really am obsessed with lipsticks. For some reason, I like all the colors out there ... well maybe except for the really dark colors. But I do love reds, nudes, pinks, corals etc., which kinda gets me into trouble every once in a while because I just can't seem to make my mind up on what color to get haha. Luckily, I'm pretty rational when it comes to foundations, concealers and mascaras. It amazes me that I don't feel the urge to own tons of different foundations and I'm so glad I don't care about these kinds of products so much (money, money, money). I usually only use two or three foundations at the same time; one with more of a medium coverage and one with more of a light coverage. In Summer I usually switch to BB creams and tinted moisturizers. The Lioele BB cream is really old. I still like it, but I only use it when I'm staying at my mother's. The Kat von D concealer is a long time favorite of mine as well. It really does cover every blemish possible I've been using it for more than a year I think. Although I can highly recommend it to everybody, I've been feeling the urge lately to try new products. So I'm pretty sure I'm gonna switch to a Mac or Nars concealer sooner or later. The Bobbi Brown corrector/concealer kits I use to cover my undereye circles. I've got the worst blueish-black circles ever and the corrector really does an amazing job at covering them up! That's it for today, I'm incredibly tired and can't wait to snuggle up with a pillow and read some pages of a book. I hope you all had an amazing Monday!

xo Laura

my face products

Nars Amour + Albatross

Benefit Brow Zings

Laura Mercier Caviar Stick

Mac Morning Rose

Bobbi Brown: Rich Chocolate Eye Palette + Pink Coral Blush

 Hey lovelies

Let me start off with saying that Bobbi Brown is probably my favorite brand. In my opinion, it doesn't get enough recognition in the blogosphere. I really don't get why that might be the case. It's true that Bobbi Brown products usually stay on the neutral side. Bobbi Brown, as a make-up artist, wants to highlight natural beauty rather than adding a second layer of colorfulness. In a Vanity Fair-Interview, Bobbi Brown explains that the motto of the brand is "Be Who You Are" (ok, the interview might be almost 6 years old, but in case you're interested, you can read it here. I don't think Bobbi Brown has strayed far from her choices make-up wise since then.). I also own her make-up manual and really can't wait for her newest book - "Everything Eyes" - to become available. In case you're interested in getting a better overview of her offerings, I totally recommend you watching Essie Button's Brand Focus Video.
However, When I first started getting into make-up, I didn't give much of a thought to Bobbi Brown, probably because it isn't talked about as much as Urban Decay, Revlon oder MAC (just to name a few examples). I'm not sure how it happened; it must've been like three months ago. Lately, I've collected quite a bunch of Bobbi Brown products. Her corrector/concealer definitely is a HG-product and her blushes are my favorite ones next to Nars blushers.

Anyway, let's start talking about my little haul. I ordered both the Bobbi Brown "Rich Chocolate Eye Palette" and the "Pink Coral" Blusher (not to be confused with the permanent shimmer blusher!) through http://www.parfumdreams.de/. We do have a few Bobbi Brown counters in Switzerland, but since these two products were part of the Fall 2013 Rich Chocolate Collection, they weren't in stock anymore anywhere else. Thus, I felt incredibly happy to see it on the German site. Unfortunately, it's no longer available, but I've just read about a new palette that will be released as part of Nectar and Nude Collection and it looks pretty darn beautiful as well.

This is such a gorgeous palette. It contains 7 eyeshadows (0.27 OZ/7.9g altogether compared to the 0.13 OZ/3.7g you get in a single eyeshadow). As with all Bobbi Brown eyeshadows, they're super smooth and easily blendable. Ok, I might be a bit biased :) I'm not sure how much I paid for this palette, as I only remember paying in Euros (and they subtracted a certain amount as well, how confusing). Bobbi Brown items definitely don't come cheap, but they're well worth the price. Also, this palette created quite some hype when it was released.
The 7 eyeshadows that are included are:

Bone (matte): This is one of their most famous shades. It's great as an all-over lid wash or as a base color. It's described as an "off white".

Stone (matte): Again, it's a pretty popular shade. However, the single compact version has a shimmer finish and I've been longing to get my hands on it for quite some time. I definitely like the matte version as well. It's described as a "medium ash brown".

Frappe (matte): It's described as a medium ash brown". It's definitely very versatile. I see it working as a neutral lid wash, as a crease color and as a color to blend other colors together.

Caramel (sparkle): It's described as a "shimmery brown sparkle". As with most sparke eyeshadows, ot's best used on a wet brush. I personally prefer Mac's Fix+.

Champagne Truffle (shimmer wash): It's described as a "warm pink beige". Such a gorgeous color. I love how it's so pigmented yet gives a really soft color pay-off. It definitely adds to create a natural yet sexy look.

Cocoa (matte): A "warm ashy brown". Yet another popular shade. I love how it's warm-toned. It's another one of the colors that I've been longing to get. It's a darker version of their other famous shade, Taupe.

Rich Chocolate (matte): A "dark brown". I can imagine using it both in my crease to create a nice natural smokey eye and as an eyeliner.

Swatches. (*aaargh*, my arm looks somehow scary!)

This palette also includes a brush.

I will definitely keep you posted with FOTDs. So far I really love to look of the palette. Oh, I'm such a sucker for Bobbi Brown products haha.

The Pink Coral blusher (31) totally screams Spring to me although it was released in the Fall. With my mind already set on Spring (how couldn't it be with all these pretty Spring collections being released, *siiiigh*) I really can't wait to start using this blusher. It's described as a "bright nectar". It's really pigmented but not overly pigmented that you need to be careful how to use it. It will definitely work great with coral and pink lipsticks (oh how I love Spring collections!). I own a fair amount of Bobbi Brown blushes and I plan on doing a post comparing them to each other eventually so that you'll get a better idea of the color variety that the brand offers. 

How do you like these two products? Do you already own them? If not, what Bobbi Brown products do you own and which are your favorite ones? Leave a comment down below, I'm really curious to hear your opinions on Bobbi Brown products! Maybe you can also let me know what products you're interested in the most. I can definitely imagine doing a post on their lipsticks or their eyeshadows in the future as well if that's something you're interested in.

Have a lovely Sunday evening.

Xo Laura

Thoughts of the Day

 

Hey guys

First of all, my blog finally has a proper layout. Yey, I'm so happy. If I didn't have to get up at 6am tomorrow, I'd definitely go to a bar and have a drink (or 5) to celebrate. But, as things are, I'm actually about to go to bed. Anyway, I wanted to give you an update on the blog's content, because, in all honesty, things look pretty blank so far, sigh. I plan on start posting proper content at Saturday the latest. Since I'm going to be pretty busy the next couple of days (I will at least try to drag my lazy self to the gym and I have a small party launched by my company coming up on Friday), I probably won't get the chance to write something at least slightly decent down anytime sooner. 

Till then, I want to provide you with some quotes I deeply adore. I'm sure I've already mentioned that I'm crazy about literature, right? So when I moved to my new apartment a couple of weeks ago, I decided to personalize my room with a couple of nice picture frames. I'm not really one to put actual photos in the frame (instead, I use my pin-board. Yes, I'm totally weird). Instead, I searched Goodreads for quotes from my favorite authors. Of course, I found loads more than the frame can hold, so it was pretty hard to make a decision. I was looking for quotes that make my heart beat faster and that turn the mechanisms of my brain into a happy pink cloud. Unfortunately, the photos don't include the author's name, but you'll be able to find it on Goodreads.

Well anyway, talk to you on the weekend:)

xo Laura

p.s. yes, I do have more make-up brushes. I took the photo right after I had first moved some of my stuff into my room:)