Small haul! + FOTD

I went shopping today with my best friend as I wanted to check out this shop I've heard a lot about called HEMA. First of all, a friend told me a while ago that their makeup brushes were amazing but I never went to the shop. Then I saw these brushes on Jenny's blog and enquired as to where she got them - HEMA being the answer.

And so I went along today and found lots of brushes that looked really good...dirt cheap!

 

The eyeliner cost 4,50 € as did the grey brush, I think and the other two cost 2,95€ each! Amazing prices, especially in Luxembourg (UKers may not bat an eyelid seeing as they have amazingly cheap stuff like Primark but for Luxland this is incredibly cheap)

I haven't tried them yet but look forward to!

So as for the FOTD, I've been trying out my Fred Farrugia cream eyeshadow...still not sure and I have used my Sleek berry collection kohl pencil, which I LOVE even if it might make me look tired, I love the way the red contrasts with my blue eyes :)

Trier Haul!

So yesterday I was asked if I fancied tagging along to Trier with my best friend yesterday and I jumped at the chance, because the german drugstores are just so much better than the only one that exists in Luxembourg.

Also Trier has a Claire's Accessories and I've been wanting to try out their false eyelashes for a while now.



So basically all I got was the Claire's eyelashes and then some MNY stuff (despite not being a big lover of the pale eyeshadows, I decided to give them another chance. and those nail varnishes looked cute)

As you can see, I have two varnishes of the same shade and that's because I liked the look of it and decided I'll add it to my giveaway (of course that won't be the main focus of it, it's just a little random something)

left: 308A and right:549

So here we have a nice metallic red from their Limited Edition I am a jungle chick collection. Honestly, the whole I am a ______ line is really annoying, as they've been doing it with every LE collection, but I'm more interested in the products than the names, so I'll just let that slide. The nail varnishes cost 1.95€ each which is quite a decent price and I think these are quite good quality from various german blogs that I've read.



Next up are two eyeshadows, neither of which are limited edition and these too cost 1.95€. I haven't opened them yet as I'm debating whether or not to include one of them in the giveaway as well, so unfortunately no swatches.





Here we have the eyelashes from Claire's that cost £5.00 in the UK and 6.95€ here in Europe. These weren't even the biggest ones there and I got these because I've been wanting to experiment with falsies for a while now and the ones in Schlecker here cost about 10 euros yet look a lot worse than the Claire's ones.





There you have two very messy and quick nail swatches of the two colours done, I'll try and do a NOTD for them at some point during the week.



And here we have a quick look with the falsies, which you can see are a bit long for my lashes. The eyeshadow and eyebrow are quite messy as I did this last minute at night so I could show you guys what they look like xx :)

Teeny tiny haul

Ok, it's not really a haul, but I bought it yesterday, the same day that I got my Zoeva goodies.

I was in my local drugstore Schlecker (unfortunately it is NOTHING compared to the lovely Superdrug) with my best friend and we were looking at the skincare stuff when I noticed these two hidden palettes behind all the products. The eyeshadow one I dismissed, cause it looked rather boring and I have enough eyeshadows already but the lipgloss one I just HAD to buy, especially considering it only cost 1.99€!



(excuse the brown marks on my bed, whilst depotting my now broken Benefit Brow-zings eyebrow powder into a pot, some fell out, and in hindsight, my bed wasn't really the smartest place to do that, so apologies for the mess.)

Anyway, on to the actual product, it is obviously one of those unknown brands that do cheap palettes and are usually incredibly crap quality. But the colour selection looked quite decent, and at its cheap price, I didn't mind buying it.


Basically, you have ten nude-ish glosses, some of which are quite shimmery, and well, I'm not crazy about shimmery glosses, so they might end up ignored. It also has a brush, which is, to be plain, utter crap, as most applicator brushes that come with palettes are. The brush is really stiff and the handle just feels uncomfortable, so I think I'll stick to my Zoeva lip brush.



As for swatches, quite impressive and a nice surprise is the fact that they aren't AS shimmery as I thought they were, which is a definitive plus! Then I ended up putting the very right one from the top row on my lips and I actually really liked it.



It's quite dark and has more of a lipsticky feel to it than gloss.

So all in all, these are quite good, quite pigmented and very decent payoff for the price. I think if they still have them, I might buy one and include it in the giveaway that I'll hopefully have soon (although don't worry, it's not just gonna be cheap crap, I'm gonna go rack up some points in Sephora for that :))

EDIT: And about the coins from yesterday, Steph guessed 10$...more like 32€ (which is around 40$) so not very close :P But I had no idea it was gonna be that much :P

Online Haul!

Last week, whilst sick, I decided to spend the last of my film money on some treats that I just couldn't resist on Zoeva, a german online shop which I think is the equivalent to America's Coastal Scents.

And guess what the UPS man delivered today....? My goodies! First off, I have to recommend this brand, because they shipped it really quickly to my house (today was the third attempt...I wasn't expecting them to deliver it so quickly whilst I was still on holiday), although the shipping is about 7€, so quite pricey.


In my excitement, I was halfway through opening the package before I realised I should take some piccies.

I ordered their 28 Nude Eyeshadow Palette(14.95€) and Basic 12 Brush Set(20€).

I'll start with the brushes and then go on about the Palette. The Brushes came in a black (leather? I've forgotten :P..bad naty) brush holder in an adorable velvet bag!




I love the packaging, it's simple but very professional looking.



So in this set, you get (l-r) a powder brush, a slanted blush brush, a foundation brush, a short haired smudger brush, a small crease brush, crease brush, fan brush, small eyeshadow brush, double-ended eyeshadow brush, double-ended flat liner brush, double-ended eyebrow comb and brush and finally, a lip brush.

Just a side note, I'm not sure if those are the correct labels, I only have the names in German (and in no order, at that), so I've tried my best at translating them.

(l-r: top row powder brush, slanted blush brush
bottom row foundation brush, smudger brush)

First of all, WOW at the softness of these. I spent a couple of minutes just brushing the powder brush against my face, it felt so nice and using the powder brush to apply my blush (I didn't use the slanted one), it really picks up the blusher and applies it really well! I haven't tried the foundation brush or the slanted blusher brush yet, but they look to be just as good, but there was a drawback to the foundation brush... As for the smudger/blending brush, I used that in my crease and it really blended the shadow out well, so thumbs up for that!



Yeah, it had some ugly marks on it and was sort of stuck to the plastic, but it was the only one so I'll just brush it off as a one off. Haha, sorry for that pun, I'm full of them lately!

(l-r: top row small crease brush, crease brush
bottom row fan brush, eyeshadow brush)

Again, the brushes are all incredibly soft, I can't really say much else as I haven't tried them out yet but if there's something really wrong with them, I will let you all know.

(l-r: top row eyeshadow brush, double-ended nylon eyeshadow pt 1 brush
bottom row double-ended nylon eyeshadow pt 2, double-ended nylon eyeshadow brush)

Yeah..this second pic of the eyeshadow brush shows what happened when I first picked it up, not that impressed with this one, but hopefully it's nothing superglue can't fix! The rest of the pictures are all of the double-ended eyeshadow brush, which is pretty standard and practical having two parts, so that you can alternate between the two to avoid mixing your colours.

(l-r: top row double-ended flat liner pt 1 brush, double-ended flat liner pt 2 brush
bottom row double-ended flat liner brush, eyebrow comb brush)

Again, these are pretty standards. I'm looking forward to trying out the flat liner as I've only got a slanted liner brush and maybe this might help making my gel liner easier to apply. The eyebrow comb is quite good, miles better than the old mascara brush that I've been using to comb my lashes.

(l-r: top row slanted eyebrow powder brush, double-ended eyebrow brush
bottom row flip brush, lip brush)

The eyebrow powder brush is sort of hard to use, it's actually quite scratchy compared to the others but it does apply the powder quite smoothly, which is what I want, so I'll just have to get used to the scratchiness. The lip brush is pretty good too, applies the product smoothly, although I have no idea how I'm supposed to use the black bit :P

So all in all, the brushes are quite good quality and I'm happy with them (and the fact that I don't need to splash out on MAC now!) so now it's time for the palette!

Nice and sleek, isn't it? Again, it looks quite professional and simple, so the first impression is good.



Aaaah, heaven! 28 Nude mostly matte with a few shimmers chucked in there colours, all in pretty big pans! The perfect thing for someone like me who's just starting out with matte nudes (yes, most of my eyeshadows are actually shimmery :O)

Now for a closer look and swatches, starting with the bottom horizontal row.










So you have everything in this palette. Highlights, dark colours, some gorgeous shimmers chucked in there, although due to my stupid camera, you can't really tell. If these swatces aren't good enough, just tell me and I'll gladly take some more! The eyeshadows are all quite pigmented, although I think you will definitely need a base with these to ensure the high pigmentation.

All in all, I'm very happy with the palette and the brushes, so maybe in the future, when I've got some more money, I'll pay another visit to Zoeva. Hope you all enjoyed this! And big kisses and thank yous to my new (and old, of course) followers, you guys make me so happy! And I'm thinking of doing a giveaway when I hit 25 followers, so stay tuned!

xx