Why do you wear makeup - TAG

Hello Muggles,

a few days ago the beautiful Megan from Wonderful You  did the "Why do you wear makeup"-TAG and I thought it was interesting, so here we go...

 
1. When did you begin to love makeup? 

This is actually not that easy to answer. When I was about 12 I really loved clear lipgloss - and I wore like the whole content of one lipgloss tupe on my lips every day. xD

With about 14/15 I went through quite a bad "emo" phase (but fortunately it was new to everyone, so I was the only person to look like this... people didn't make fun of me then because they we're probably scared, which would have been a whole different thing if I started 1 / 2 year(s) later xD) and I used to wear red lipstick and a lot of black liner around my eyes... yes, you read right: lipstick around the eyes. This and black liner were actually the only two make-up items I owned. This is embarassing? Why do I even tell you? :'D

Since December 2011 I'm discovering the make up world again and from a very different point. I started to watch Youtube videos and think more about what make up is really about. I'm not super into it but I'm interested and yeah... so long story short: I'm not immensly in love with make up but interested.

2. How do you feel without makeup?

I'm glad to say that I'm fine without makeup! :)

3. What do you like about makeup? 

I like the fact that makeup can underline your natural beauty. Most women probably don't wear makeup to do this but to make themselves look totally different - however in my opinion this is not the point.

I also really enjoy makeup as being a form of art. Take the girls from "pixiwoo" for example; they do the greatest things with makeup and this could definitely be considered as art.

4. Three 'Holy Grail' Items: 

1) Mascara - the classic.

I think the nice thing about mascara is that it really just underlines or highlights what you've already got. Everyone has lashes but some people (like me -.-) don't like their own lashes to be short, straight and light but a little bit more "out there". What I personally love about mascara is that it always makes you look a little bit more feminine, which I go for because I'm almost a little tomboy otherwise. :D

The one I use at the moment is the ASTOR Volume Artist Modelling Mousse in Waterproof - 800 Black. 

If you know any black, waterproof drugstore mascara, which gives you lots of volume: let me know, please! :)

2) Lipstick  / Lipbalms

I love red-, berry- and plum-toned lipsticks and tinted lipbalms.

The Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Hibiscus is a perfect "your lips but better" product for me. It just highlights my natural lip colour, which I love, plus it is super nurturing!

3) Brow Pencil

My brows are not very full and defined, so I help along with a eyebrow pencil.

Currently I'm using the Catrice Eye Brow Stylist in 020 Date With Ashton, which is a very affordable pencil in the perfect shade for my eyebrows.

I did a whole eyebrow related post some time ago, which you can check out here .

***

That was it for the "Why do you wear Makeup" TAG.

If you want to do this TAG on your blog as well, feel free to do so and leave me a comment, so I can read it. :)

However, I would also like to tag some people:

        Lauren from "A Lauren to Herself"

Anna from "And This Little Piggy"

Amie from "Belle-amie"

Amy from "Brighter Shade of Pale"

Megan from "British Beauty Geek"

Hannah Justyne

Becky from "Rose Petals"

Sophie from "Sophie Rose Hearts"

Hayley from "Water Painted Dreams"

Have a lovely day and see you next time,

Hermione

Mini Beauty Haul & Review

Hello Muggles,

in the last two weeks I bought two lipsticks and a mascara and I thought of telling you about it. :) 

Because my camera wasn't working I couldn't take pictures before, so this is why I used all items quite a lot already and can make reviews as well.

I bought both Astor products very early in the morning when my train has been cancelled about two weeks ago. My thoughts when I entered the drugstore were something like: "I definitely need a new waterproof mascara and I will buy the Maybelline Colossal Volum' Express one because I read good things about it." Standing in front of it, I figured that I didn't like the brush - so screw all the research, which should have helped me finding the perfect mascara and go for one you don't know anything about. :D

This is what I did and I ended up buying the Astor Waterproof Volume Artist in 800 Black.

As you can see it has quite a small wand but I prefer those one to the huge ones because they often already look clumpy and clumpy eyelashes is definitely something I want to avoid. ;)

I'm a little disappointed with the volume the mascara gives - because it's not that noticeable - but it's a nice mascara to wear everyday. It makes your lashes look more black and defined (I know it's a black mascara and of course it makes your lashes look black but my lashes are quite fair and I already saw mascara that looked a little "dusty").

On this day I also bought an Astor Lipstick in "123 - Rose Attraction"

I think the colour could be described as a blue-toned purpely pink. :D It is shimmery but I'm sure it will look very nice in winter because it's quite a cold colour.

At the beginning of this week I went to the drugstore to buy ear-plugs for a concert... and I went out with buying another lipstick and forgot the ear-plugs. :'D

I got the p2 Pure color lipstick in "101 - Rue de Rivoli".

I already mentioned it in my "Tops & Flops (September)" post because I'm totally in love with dark lipsticks. :) I think this one is a very nice autumn colour and a perfect mixture of a dark cherry-red and plum. As much as I love the colour, I have to confess that the lipstick itself is not that overwhelming. As you can maybe see on the picture above it is very pigmented but the colour tends to be blurry and not 100% perfect. This is probably why I got it for 1,95 Euro. :') 

Nevertheless, you can work with it! I will do a post about how to work with beauty products that are not perfect but for now all I do is to apply it with my fingers and put some lip balm on top because it is too dry for me.

As long as I'll not be able to buy MAC lipsticks or anything like that I will like it - it kind of became my favourite thing to wear on my lips. :)

Another product I forgot to include at the top photo is the Neutrogena Visibly Clear 2in1 Wash Mask.

When people ask me what skintype I have I always answer with "Dry!" but actually I found out that it's slightly more a combination-thing. It doesn't make any sense but my forehead is extremely dry and has some oily parts too... I don't know.
Well, nevertheless, the Neutrogena Visibly Clear helps to calm my skin in general. It removes the flakes from my dry parts and helps the rest of my forehead to not become too oily.
Works for me and I'm fine with the product! :)

*** 

I hope you enjoyed this tiny haul.

Comments are appreciated as always. :)

See you next time, 

Hermione

Tops & Flops (September)

Hello Muggles,

September has already come to an end and I thought of telling you what I liked and disliked. :)

TOP:

1) Danisnotonfire

If you could see me writing you would know how red my cheeks are right now. :') 

I'm turning into a creepy girly-girl when thinking about Dan from danisnotonfire 

I don't watch his videos because he's handsome as hell (oh yeah, we all know it's true - you know it's true, Dan) - although this probably is the reason why I watch so many of them - BUT he's just the funniest guy ever and he makes me laugh every single second - pure entertainment especially in the grey days of autumn that are to come! :)

Watch his videos, if you like a good laugh... and you can handle the handsomeness. ;D

(I also love AmazingPhil, of course! Rawr!)

2) Essiebutton

Let me just talk about Youtubers at once. You probably already know how much I adore Estée from essiebutton but I can't get enough of watching her videos. :) She is hilarious and entertaining like no other and you just have to watch the video I put up below - especially the end will demonstrate you why I'm so in love with her. :D

3) Books ("The Future of us")

As "books" is quite a lame headline for something I liked this month (because I didn't just like books in September...) I added one of the novels I read, which was "The Future of us" by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. I read within 24 hours because it's just very easy to read and to be honest I had a lot of time and fun reading it so it was ticked of very fast. I will do a more detailed review about it because it's one of the few books I read in the last couple of months that is actually written in English - so everyone of you should be able to read it, which makes the whole thing of writing / reading a review more interesting! ;)
Other books I read were "Log Out" by Sylvia Witt and Oliver Uschmann, "Das Portal" by Elke Pistor (which I didn't like), "Der Krähenturm" by Kerstin Pflieger and last but definitely not least: "Solange die Nachtigall singt" by Antonia Michaelis!
I also finished the "Jane Eyre" audiobook - which I loved! :)


 

4) Dark red / Plum lipstick

Picture by P2 - I bought the middle one (Rue de Rivoli)

 

This is probably mostly autumn inspired but I love darker lipsticks on other people and so I bought my first really dark one, which you will also see in an upcoming collective haul very soon. :)

My favourite look for autumn is wearing a dark lip and only mascara on your eyes - no eyeshadow or anything else that diverts from your lipstick.

There`s a quite interesting "Dos and Don'ts of Dark Lipsticks" on the Glamour page. Just click here to check it out. :)

  ***

FLOP:

1) The Hunger Games (Film)

Picture by mmm-mag.com

Okay, I know that it's not nice to talk about anything in a bad way but I'm just being honest here and I don't want everything to be perfectly good every time because it just isn't. 

After this short disclaimer I would like to talk about how disappointed I am about "The Hunger Games". This film is SO hyped and everyone I know watched it in the cinema and liked it so I wanted to have a look myself. Here's the truth: I watched 30 minutes! That's it.

Firstly, the camera was driving me insane.

Secondly, I think the actors aren't good and convincing at all - worst of all: Liam Hemsworth! I just didn't believe him. He was like thrown in there like anyone told him: "Just be the "pretty" friend of Katniss, don't show any personality:" o.o

Thirdly, the animations. How can a film, which was this expensive have animations that look like in Blue's Clues? 

And in the end: I felt sooo bad watching! I literally felt like one of those crazy people in the Hunger Games world that watches the Hunger Games in TV or something. I couldn't deal with that and felt so bad after thirty minutes that I decided to end my Hunger Games experience there. 

Maybe I will read the books but probably the topic in general is not for me.

Don't be mean with me because I'm just talking about my opinion and if you liked the film than why shouldn't that be okay? Hurray for you. ;)

2) Learning Latin in 3 weeks

Yes, it's as stupid as it sounds. Because I'm about to do "English Studies" in university I have to learn Latin. It's not enough that I already did 4 years of French and 3 years of Italian - no, it has to be Latin, as well! -.-
The genious I am, I decided to do two crash courses for three weeks each. I finished the first one last week and should be able to know about 600 words and a million forms of grammar. Sad story is I am not. So the plan for the following 11 months is to do revision all the time. Hopefully that will work because there is an Latin exam to come next year... and I have to pass! 
Hurray to the future. ;D




 3) Bye, bye summer - hello autumn

Picture by wallpaperzzz.com

As romantic as this autumn picture might look like... I don't like it. I'm surprised how many Youtubers and Bloggers adore this time of a year - but they mostly said they like it because of the fashion... I also like autumn fashion but I fancy warm and sunny days anyway. :'D
I don't know how to survive winter yet... -.-
xD


***


Okay, I think that's enough for now. I hope you enjoyed it.

Please let me know what your September top and flops are or link your own blog in the comment section down below! :)

See you next time,
Hermione 

Products I regret buying #1

Hello Muggles,

today I would like to talk about beauty products and I don't like and I regret buying.

Before I start I would like you to know that this is my opinion and it's totally okay if you don't agree with me. I don't want to offense anybody! I always considered these kinds of posts as very useful / helpful because you see the negative side of beauty products then and think about getting a product a little more. ;)


I hope you have fun! Let's get started...

# One

The first product I would like to talk about is the L.A. Girl Crème Lipstick in the shade Pure Ecstasy (3,95 €). The reason I bought this was it looked totally different on the page I ordered it as you can see here: 

                                                           

This is the colour I wanted - and I still want because I'm totally into those rosewood colours! - and which was titled "Pure Ecstasy". In this case I think it's obvious that these two colours don't match at all and I this is kind of rude.

But there's more. So not only the colour is not at all what it should be (you can see that it is the brightest orange / coral, which looks unbelievably bad with my pale skin and reddish hair!) - no, additionally it looks horrible on the lips!

It's so creasy and makes your lips look awful. It also doesn't get into the "inner" section of the lip, as you can see quite good on the picture above.

Urgh, it's just the most horrible lip product I ever owned! 

# Two

Next up there is the P2 All Day Matt Make Up in the shade 010 charming ivory (about 3-4 €), which is the first foundation I've ever bought. I really don't know why I chose a matte one because my skin is very dry and this had to go wrong. Well, I still sometimes use it as an alternative for concealer under my eyes and that's okay but for a real foundation it is simply too matte and also too dark for me. Although I already picked the lightest colour, it doesn't look right on my pale skin.

I hope you can see that it seems to be quite rosy-toned but the truth is that it's not at all! The strange thing is that I have rosy-toned skin on my face but slightly more yellow toned skin on my hands and arms; so when I swatched it, it looked all right. But after applying the foundation on my face it just looked as yellow as every other drugstore foundation, which I think is very sad! :(

# Three

Now let's get to eye shadows. I bought the Maybelline EyeStudio Intense Chic in Vivid Pinks / Roses Magnétiques for 7,95 € if I remember correctly. Predominantly I bought it for my ball / prom in school because I had a pastel pink dress and thought the eyeshadows would look nice with it. Unfortunately I couldn't swatch it because there were no samples and you couldn't open the eyeshadow "palette" because of that little stripe of tape you maybe can see on the upper picture. To be honest that was a mistake. For such a "high price" I thought I would get pigmented and pretty colours but the truth is this:

The first three colours almost look identical. Especially on the eye you can't make a difference between them. The pigmentation is lousy considering the cost! What's also strange is that the 2nd colour looks more bright and white than the 1st one. But not enough yet: The eyeshadows smudge and "crumble" a lot! This is why the packaging looks so dirty although I only used them twice. 

This product probably has been the most disappointing one! Pity!

# Four

The next product I've got for you is an eyeshadow as well. The quatro eyeshadow in 01 xoxo by essence promises "4 long-lasting, trendy eyeshadow shades for creating endless looks". 

I actually knew what I was doing. This one was only about 3 € and I was quite sure that I wouldn't be astonished by it's beauty because I only got it for a Halloween make up but nevertheless I think that it's not okay to sell such crap. Here's what they look swatched:

Again they are very shimmery but the pigmentation fails. I think the purple colour is the best by far but still not what I expect an eyeshadow to be. This product I also wouldn't recommend. ;)

# Five

I forget to put the last product on the picture at the top but still I would like to talk about it. I bought the Catrice Cosmetics Volume Plus+ Waterproof Mascara after seeing a Blogpost by a German Blogger and Youtuber. Klick here to get to Reni's Review about the Mascara. I think it looks super pretty on her, so I got it.

Unfortunately it doesn't work for me at all! After using it for the first time my lashes felt extremely heavy and I only applied two coats maximum! It also makes my lashes stick together, so it looks like you only have five several lashes - and this is what makes me not like it. When using a Mascara I want full and voluminous lashes not five thick single one. :/ 

                                       

I tried to take a good picture but this one is the only one that turned out okay. In reality this looks much worse! But we also have to talk about the good things: I took this picture after wearing the Mascara for about eight hours - and they still look the same as after applying them. I think Catrice did a fine job with that! :)

***

So that was it. I hope you can take any use of it (although these products are probably only available in or around Germany) and had some fun!

Please leave a comment saying, which products you regret buying or wouldn't recommend! :)

See you next time,

Hermione