Are you the winner of my giveaway?

Hello everybody! I'm finally back from my trip to Florence. I am so sorry for not announcing the giveaway earlier, but I hadn't had access to the internet for the past six days. I will have three days of relax and then I'll leave again for a cruise with my parents, and then I'll spend a week at my grandma's house in the countryside! I will post here as regularly as I possibly can. 

Anyway, here is the name of the giveaway winner:

(click here to see who won)

Today I want.. #3

...Holika Holika Bulgarian Rose Petal Skin. This water contains aloe vera, chamomile extract, real rose water. It is described as "a blend of hydrating and toning rose floral waters, enriched with real rose petals." It's alcohol free and it's supposed to enhance your mood and hydrate your skin at the same time. Sounds interesting for someone like me whose skin is so far from being petal rose-like! This product retails for just €15 and I hope it'll be in my collection soon! 

Majolica Majorca Jeweling Eyes BR792 & Skinfood Sugar Bloom Shadow Box in Cappuccino Bloom

Today I wanted to do a little comparison between two eyeshadow palettes I got in a swap months and months ago: Majolica Majorca Jeweling Eyes in BR792 and Skinfood Sugar Bloom Shadow Box in Cappuccino Bloom. The reason why I'm doing this is because I'm leaving for Florence in about a week; I don't want to pack a lot of make-up and I had in mind to bring one of these two little quads, since they're so small. I'm still wondering why I chose two palettes so similar to one another, but nevermind: onto the comparison. (If I'll find any difference between the two!)

I remember I was pretty much haunted by the Majolica Majorca Jeweling Eyes BR792 when I swapped for it. You know when you want a beauty item and you'll never be satisfied until you get it? It was that kind of thing with this quad, probably because of the irresistible packaging. How can one not love Majolica Majorca? Their items are so romantic and elegant!

This palette comes with 4 eyeshadows and a little sponge applicator (I doubt I'll ever use it). It features a pearly white shade, a light gold, a rather coppery gold and a brown. All of them are heavily glittery, especially the white! In fact, it's not very pigmented; almost only the glitter shows up. I wouldn't recommend using this palette other than for the night time.

The Skinfood Sugar Bloom Shadow Box #3 comes in a sturdier box than the MajoMajo, which was housed in a plastic case, while the Skinfood palette comes in a little tin. That's a bonus for Skinfood. It comes with 3 shades: a brown, a gold and a lighter pinky gold, all of which, like the MajoMajo ones, are very glittery. The brown is a bit more pigmented than the brown in the other palette.

Considering that I'll only wear eyeshadow at night, I don't mind if these palettes are glittery. But as you can see from the pics, used on their own they're just too much! I will have to bring some mattes to use as a base, otherwise I'll look like a glitterball! What are you bringing on holiday make-up wise?

Today I want.. #2

...a Banila Co Neon Tinted Lip Crayon. Banila Co is a Korean brand midway between drugstore and high-end. The style of the packaging resemble Benefit's, it's very funny and girly but classy at the same time. Those Neon Tinted Lip Crayon remind me very much of the Clarins Chubby Sticks or the new Revlon Just Kissable Balm Stains! This product retails for about $15,00.

Vassen Rainbow Eyes Grayish Blue

Today I wanted to introduce you to a new series of circle lenses that Pinky Paradise recently started selling, the Vassen Rainbow eye series!

The lenses that I chose to try are the Vassen Rainbow Eyes Grayish Blue. I find that grayish blue toned lenses are the one that suit the most my eyes, especially if my brown iris is peeking through. I always go for natural looking lenses, and I made the right choice with these!

These lenses give a pretty natural enlargement effect; they make my eye look a bit bigger without making me look like an alien (also, they're not very curved, so they don't give the dreadful "frog eye" effect). The non-artificial look is also given by the absence of a dark rim around them. Comfort wise, they are ok; I have worn them for several hours without feeling anything.

(click here to read the full post)

Today I want... #1

Since I'm on a spending ban for the next 2 weeks, I'll have nothing to review until a few swaps show up. That will take a week or two though and since I still want to update this blog in the meantime, I'm going to introduce new, more personal types of blog posts. I started blogging about 7 years ago and back then my blog was just a diary, and I kind of miss that. Do you think you could like different kinds of blog posts on here? Let me know what you think in a comment!

Today I want.. a Etude House Dress Room Sweet Look Body Lotion. Etude House and Majolica Majorca are definitely my passion, my two favourite Asian cosmetics brands and probably my all time favourite; mostly because of their lovely packaging. This body lotion is described as fruity, with notes of Jasmine and musk. If only I wasn't trying to save my money for my upcoming trip to Florence, I wouldn't think twice on getting my hands on it! It looks so pretty!

It would be almost impossible for me to get it, though. Italian customs are so strict that lots of the websites that carry Etude House do not ship here! And when they do, the packages get stuck at the custom house for weeks. Actually, I was expecting a package from a sponsor based in Korea when today they send me an email telling that the package has been sent back to them! It's insane! Like I'd ordered the atomic bomb from them! There are moments when I hate living here.. and that was one of those.

Oasap Vintage 3 Way Fold clutch

You will have probably heard of Oasap, I know, but as always I'm late on the bandwagon! For those of you who don't know what I-m talking about, Oasap is a high-street fashion online store that offers clothing, bags, jewelry and more. They have a cool way of promoting themselves, which is by offering bloggers a certain amount of cash to spend on their website in exchange of blog posts. Who says no to nice free clothes and accessories? No one. At least I didn't!

With the first cash credits, I decided to get something I couldn't go wrong with: a bag. I chose the Vintage 3 Way Fold clutch in Apricot, a light leather shade. I received my order after 8 days (and that's quick shipping in my book. Sometimes I have to wait up to one month to receive packages.. silly Italian mail system). The clutch came carefully packed in a white protection bag. 

Details

Length: 28cm

Height: 18cm

Width: 4cm

Long Strap Lenth: 95cm

Short Strap Length: 17cm

I think it's a great bag for summer. It's not too bulky but not too small (I can easily fit my phone, my keys, my huge wallet and a pack of paper tissues in it); you can wear it in three different ways as it comes with a wrist band and a detachable shoulder strap, and since it's a light colour it goes with basically everything. It's perfect for both daytime and nighttime, in fact I'm planning to bring it with me for my upcoming trip to Florence! 

The only thing that's not completely practical is the closure: if you put something too big in the clutch, it'll take you a few seconds to get to close it! Also, if you're not a fan of this shade, this clutch is available in black, brown, green, ivory and pink. 

If you're a blogger or you have a popular Chictopia or Lookbook.nu account, you can join Oasap here or you could leave your email in a comment below, so I can invite you! :)

BH Cosmetics 88 Neutral palette

After waiting for two whole months for it, my BH Cosmetics order finally showed up on the last days of June. I had been wanting one of those huge eyeshadow palettes for a while, and when I heard of a 50% sale on them I just couldn't resist! I also threw a duo fiber stippling brush in the basket, as it was only $5.21.

I am all about neutral eyeshadows, so although the other 88 colours palettes were appealing, I preferred choosing the 88 Color Neutral one, as I was sure I'd get more use out of it. My dream neutral palette is still the Naked 2, but I can't splurge on it at the moment.

As I mentioned before, I received this order after a long time. It took about a month to come to Italy from the US, and then the custom house kept it for almost another month! It's just insane, and it will definitely keep me from purchasing cosmetics from the US in the future. I also spent $12.45 for the shipping, and €11.00 for custom taxes! However, when the package finally got to me, I was very pleased with the carefulness everything was packed with: the palette was literally buried under layers and layers of paper, so none of the little pans got broke.

The single eyeshadows are really small -the size of a 2 cent coin- but there are so many colours that even if you hit pan on one eyeshadow, you'll find a similar one. The palette has of course a wide colour range that can be used to create both day and night looks.

Pigmentation wise, they are pretty good; I don't use a primer just because I use eyeshadows only when I go out at night, so for a few hours I think I can skip it, but I bet you could get the best out of this palette using one. 

The only thing I haven't thought about when I purchased this palette is that it is not very handy for travelling, or even carrying around: it's too big and I'd be afraid to carry it in my suitcase.

Overall, I am very happy with this palette. It gives me the opportunity to experiment and try different looks every time I use it. I would definitely recommend it to beginners like me because it's definitely cheap, but good quality.

What do you think about BH Cosmetics? Have you ever tried their palettes?

Coco-Fashion.com

Today I wanted to introduce to you one of the cutest clothing online shop I've ever come across. Coco Fashion is a website specialized in Asian style, including Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Hong Kong fashion. They feature lots and lots of brands like Sweet Girl, Dolce Infanta, Doremi, Hanee, EGO, You-Too, Miss Milan and more.
They ship worlwide and you can choose between Registered Air Mail with tracking number, EMS, DHL, Leopard Worldwide Express, S.F. Express, DPEX.. so that's definitely a lot of choices!

One thing that particularly struck me about Coco Fashion is their infinite selection of bags, clothes and shoes and their super low prices. Coco Fashion is definitely targeted for teenagers, and sometimes we young people are willing to sacrifice quality a bit in order to have lots of different pieces of clothing to vary our style. If you're one of those people, definitely check out Coco Fashion: you'll find cute dresses -and sometimes even bags and shoes- for under $10!
They're currently having a Summer sale now, so go have a look if you're interested! :)

Brown Chiffon Bohemian Long Pleated Dress, $13,21
Beige Elegant Short Summer Korean Style Skirt, $9,00

Essence Colour & Shine Eyeshadows: Jungle Fever, Stage Beauty

Last week I finally managed to go to the only store near my town that carries Essence products! It's a nice alternative to Kiko, my low cost make-up brand of choice. I was absolutely impressed with two of the three eyeshadows that I got. I usually wear no other colours than neutrals and golds on my eyes, so I immediately spotted these two amazing shades. They're part of the Colour & Shine collection, which includes nine baked eyeshadows with a marbleized effect. I absolutely adore baked make-up so I just had to get these! :D 

Jungle Fever is my favourite one out of the two. It's the most gorgeous gold with dark green and red flecks, that would look amazing paired with a matte brown or black. Stage Beauty, on the other hand, is a more classic champaigny gold; both of them are very shimmery.

The best way to use these is probably to wet the brush and then proceed to the application, otherwise you can expect glitter fallouts and quick fading. 

The only thing that I don't like about the Colour & Shines would be the packaging - it's too plasticky and clearly cheap. As far as I can see, the eyeshadows aren't even placed in a metallic pot but directly in the plastic packaging, so they can't be depotted. But then they wouldn't be so unexpensive - I got them for just €3,49! What do you think about them?

Jungle Fever, Stage Beauty