My makeup favourites for a nude look ♥

Hello !

Instead of doing a post with my favourite beauty items in general, I've decided to split my favourites into a series of several themes. I'm starting with my favourite products to use to create a nude look !

Most days, I tend to go for natural makeup, without eyeshadow or strong lipstick, just because I can't be bothered to do it all the time. But a nude look doesn't mean a bare face either, and it's always pleasant to have a nice result with only a few products and very little time ! :)

Here are my favourite products I always use to achieve a quick nude look :

For the skin, I only use a bit of concealer (the Full Cover by Makeup Forever) to hide redness, spots and dark circles. After that I apply some powder, the Stay Matte by Rimmel, which is very good to keep a matte look for a while.

Then to add a bit of light, I use a tiny bit of High Beam highlighter by Benefit. It is so pretty, I adore it ! I put it on my browbone and on the top of my cheekbones, it gives a nice glow to the face without being too shimmery, which I really like - I'm not keen on proper glitter anywhere else than on my eyelids !

Of course you could add some blush on the cheeks and that's what I do usually, but I don't have a favourite in this category, I tend to use by Sephora pink blush (which has no name) all the time. Just a bit of pink on the cheeks make you look more alive !

For the eyes, I use my Vibrant Eye pencil by Kiko as an eyeliner. The colour is a dark brown which looks more natural and neutral than black, and which fits a nude look better. This pencil is really smooth and you can blend it easily if needed. The only other thing I wear on my eyes is mascara, and my favourite ever is the They're Real by Benefit - nothing new here, everybody knows how great it is !

(yep the pencil is disgusting and not even sharpened... sorry for that !)

Last but not least, I stick to a very light pink for my lips with the Apocalips by Rimmel (named "Show off" in France, no idea why they changed the name), this is the colour 201 "Solstice" - again the names are different in France, but this one really looks like the "Galaxy" colour you have in anglophone countries. It is not a real nude, more of a pink with a slight shimmer, but it looks natural enough.

I've added what I would use on my nails to complete the look : the is the Maybelline Forever Strong Pro  in the colour "ivory rose". It is a simple beige nail polish, which applied in three coats gives you the best nude nails ever. It is so chic and makes your hands look like delicate princess hands ! The brush is nice and thick also, like the Essie brushes, so you apply it very easily. A must have !

There you have it, my favourite beauty items for a nude look ! Maybe you have and love some of these already :)

These pinks and beiges are the best colours to make you look nice but effortless !

Julia xx

Nails of the Week #6 : Lilac

Pastel nail polishes are my favourite : baby blue, pastel pink, mint... the only one that I'm not sure about is pastel yellow, but maybe I'll buy one someday to see how it looks on me.

But for this week, I've chosen a nice lilac shade from Kiko :

This colour looks amazing at this time of the year, especially when you associate it with other light colours in your outfits.

Kiko nail polishes are really good, they are so cheap and exist in so many colours ! However, the quality depends on each product, some are great, last a long time and dry quite quickly, but others take more time to dry completely. You have to be lucky when you pick one !

Julia xx

Wishlist : Spring '14

I haven't made a wishlist in ages ! Maybe because I haven't bought many things either during the last months. But now that we're in spring (and almost in summer, who could believe time would pass so quickly !), I decided it was finally time for a new wishlist.

So here are all the things I want to buy in the upcoming months ! :

1. Dahlia Noir, by Givenchy (50mL), 62,90€ in Sephora. I got this perfume for Christmas and I've finished it, sadly ! It smells sooo good and is perfect for the season, that's why I need it again in my life.

2. Fit Me Concealer, Maybelline, around 9€. I've heard many good things about this concealer, and I'm almost running out of my Full Cover Concealer by MUFE, and I can't afford another one right now haha. We'll see if this one's good !

3. Effaclar K, Laroche-Posay, around 12€. This product is a sort of base/cream for combination to oily skin, supposed to reduce spots, regulate the sebum of the skin, make it look clearer, etc. Again I've heard good things about it, and Laroche-Posay is a nice brand for skin-related products. 

4. They're Real mascara, Benefit, 25€. I've got this mascara in sample size, and I'm afraid it'll run out soon. It is such a good mascara, I must buy it again !

5. Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell. I've watched the BBC adaptation of 1999 of the novel, and I loved it so much I want to read it now (I'll probably make a blog post about it by the way). Nineteenth century literature is my favourite, so I know I'll have a great time reading the book.

Well, that's it for my spring wishlist ! I could add some other things in it, but they aren't items in particular, more like "categories of things I need to get" : some pastel nail polishes, new black treggings, a mid-season jacket... Let's hope I will find all these things !

Julia xx

Nails of the Week #4 : Think Pink

This week I wanted to go for a light springy colour, and I ended up with a very girly manicure !

I'm wearing the "Eternal Optimist" by Essie, which is a light (but not pastel) pink, and I did an accent nail with a glitter nail polish from Claire's, which doesn't have any name nor number unfortunately.

The Claire's nail polish is sooo pretty, it has little holographic glitter and bigger pink sparkles. It cost me 3.50€ only, and the quality is really good, it stays on the nails for a long time. You can find literally the same type of nail polish in other brands like Models Own, but for a higher price. Sometimes cheap brands are more than okay, no need to spend a lot of money to get nice things !

Julia xx

Nails of the week #1 : I don't give a Rotterdam by OPI

Hello !

Now that spring is coming and the sun is there more often, I've been more excited about painting my nails. I always paint my nails and never go without nail polish, but I don't know why, these days I've been super happy to do it ! That's so strange. But I truly feel like buying new colours, bringing back my pastel polishes, etc. 

So I thought I could do "nails of the week" posts sometimes ! Just to show you a few of my favourite colours and brands.

This morning I've applied the nail polish that I'm going to wear this week. It is the I don't give a Rotterdam by OPI, from the Holland collection. I remember when I first saw this shade, I fell in love with it and knew I had to buy it.

(Sorry, I just noticed that I have applied the nail polish very badly and I haven't taken off the excess. Oops !)

It is a light blue shade, almost greyish at time, and it has tiny silver sparkles - or speckles, you can't really tell. It is a very good colour for spring and as it is an OPI nail polish it does stay on a long time (but of course you should always wear a top coat on it). The only thing is that the colour is very sheer so you have to apply quite a few coats to get a good coverage. I've applied four coats here (!), but luckily it dries very quickly so it doesn't take hours to do your manucure anyway.

I do hope that the weather this week will be nice enough for me to wear springy clothes to match this nail polish !

Julia xx

Spring selection : my top 3 lipsticks

To complete my spring selection (I made an article about my spring nail polishes a few weeks ago), I'm going to speak about my favourite lipsticks for spring.

I've chosen only three lipsticks, because I thought it wouldn't make sense if I gave ten of them (or it would make sense if it was an all time favourite lipsticks article !). Here are the three colours that I love to wear when the weather is nice (i.e. not very often at the moment in France, unfortunately) :

Even though it's my top 3, I'm not going to present them in a special order. I love them all the same !

The first one is a Rouge Caresse lipstick by L'Oréal. These lipsticks are a mix between a balm and a lipstick. The colour is quite sheer on your lips, but you can control it and add as many coats as you want to make it more opaque. I have the colour 301 "dating coral", which is as its name says a pretty coral colour, a rosy coral I'd say. There are tiny shimmer in it, you can barely see it. 

I think it is the most beautiful colour when you want a nude makeup, with almost nothing on the eyes, but with a pop of colour on the lips, without it being too bright.

The second lipstick is from Kiko. They have many ranges of lipsticks and some of them are really good. This one is from the Ultra Glossy Stylo collection. It has a SPF 15, which is always good !

It is a lipstick with a glossy finish. Mine is the 804 "pearly watermelon". It is a quite vibrant pink with gold shimmer in it (but again you cannot see it when you wear it on your lips).

It can go with any makeup, because it is so simple and wearable everyday.

Finally, my third lipstick is a chubby stick by Clinique. It is a very popular product and considered to be very good quality. It is a moisturising lip colour balm. I have it in the colour 15 "pudgy peony", a bright fushia pink. I love this lipstick, it stays on for a very long time and does moisturise a little bit your lips (even though I'd recommend putting a lipbalm first, but just to be sure your lips are moisturised all day long).

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So that's it for my favourite spring lipsticks ! They are all quite similar, simple pinks, but they are very good for the season and go with a lot of different makeups.

Julia xx

Spring selection : nail polishes

Bonjour !

As the weather is starting to be nicer (it was about time, since we're almost in May), I'm feeling more... springy these days. So I decided to make a few selections of things that would suit perfectly for the season.

I start with one of my favourite make-up things, i.e. nail polishes !

I chose ten of them, and I split them into three categories. I swatched them on adhesive tape because it would take me too much time to do it on my hands properly.

So here is my selection :

You can see already that I only chose light colours... I'm keeping the brighter ones for summer I guess !

So here is the first category, the pastel nail polishes :

They are all from Kiko. It is an Italian brand of quite cheap products, but in general the quality is good. They have an amazing range of colours for their nail polishes, and most of mine are from this shop.

I chose a very light green, a light blue (it's not a baby blue, but a little brighter) and a lilac. These are staple colours for spring, when you want colour but still with soft shades.

From the left to the right, you have the 345, the 339, and the 330 (Kiko nail polishes don't have names).

Then, the nude nail polishes :

I don't have many nude polishes, so it was easy to select these !

I'll describe them starting from the bottom of the picture.
The first one is the "Don't Touch My Tutu", in the mini version (I got the New York City Ballet kit). It is very sheer, and you'll have to apply at least four or five coats to make it opaque, but you could also wear it with two or three coats for a very discrete and classy result.

The Essie nail polish is "Muchi, muchi", an amazing "French manicure" pink. Again it's a sheer shade so you'll need maybe three or four coats to have a very pale pink on your nails, but you could go for a French manicure effect with two coats too.

The last one is the "Naked" by Urban Decay, which comes in the Naked polishes kit. It is a plain and simple beige, almost with orange undertones. You can have a good and opaque result with two coats only.

And finally, the last category : the pearly/almost glittery nail polishes !

Again, two Kiko polishes in the selection !

The first one is the 371. You can't really see it in the pictures, but it is a nude beige with gold glitter in it. It put it in this category because of the glitter, which really make the colour prettier. On the nail you don't really see them though, except in the sunlight. But still !

The other Kiko one is the 303. It is one of my favourite nail polishes ! It is beige, with almost pinky undertones, and silver glitter. Two coats are enough to have a good colour. It goes with everything and suits any colour for an accent nail manicure. 

The first O.P.I polish is "It's Totally Fort Worth It", from the Texas collection. I bought it (with the other O.P.I. one) during the winter sales, half price each so I got one for free, yay ! The shade is very difficult to describe, it's a sort of pearly white with pink/light purple and gold undertones. Again it goes with everything so I tend to wear it a lot.

The other O.P.I. polish is "I Don't Give a Rotterdam", from the Netherlands collection. I think it's quite famous ! It is a light blue with tiny silver glitter on it. And you can really see the glitter when you apply the nail polish on your hands, it's not only in the bottle like the Kiko 371. It is beautifuuul !

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That's all, here are my ten nail polishes for spring ! Of course I could have chosen more, maybe add some brighter colours like a pink or a bright blue, but I'll keep that for summer, when the sun is around a lot more !

Julia xx