Tarja Turunen in Ave Maria en Plein Air Inspired Makeup Look

Hello!
Today's post is inspired by one very talented singer that I so love, Tarja Turunen.

Her makeup is usually very monotonous in shades of silver and black which suits her features beautifully but for the promo video for her upcoming Ave Maria En Plein Air album she has this bright orange eye makeup that at first I didn't particularly love because orange is not my favourite colour of eyeshadow but then I kinda fell in love with it as I was doing that same makeup on myself.

It's quite intricate the way the orange reflects pink and transitions to a dark plum shade.
She has a very peculiar eye shape that I tried to mimic by placing the plum colour in the very socket of my eye in a V shape to give me that sunken in look she has to her eyes.

This is what I came up with!

I apologize for the little white particles on top of the lashes, I applied an eyeshadow that has a rosy lust to it after I applied the false lashes and it fell on top and I only realised when I was editing the photos.

Bloopers

Products used:

Face: 
Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Foundation in "I'm pure 4 sure" IvoryBenefit Boi-ing Concealer in O1 and O2
W7 In The Mood Eyeshadow Palette in Wink (contour) 
Kiko Milano Water Eyeshadow in 218 (blush)
H&M Highlighting Palette in 2

Eyes: 
Kiko Milano Long Lasting Stick in 28
Kiko Milano Infinity Eyeshadow in 206
Sleek Ultra Mattes V2 Eyeshadows in Dune, Flesh, Vilan and Noir
H&M Highlighting Palette in 2 (inner corner, outer corner, brow done) 
Kiko Milano Miami Click Slick Eyeliner in 06 Black
Ardell Lashed in 118

Brows: 
Astra Italy Eyebrow Pencil in 23
Essence Lash & Brow Gel Mascara´

 Lips:
H&M Lip Gloss in Nude Rose (a LOT of it over concealed lips with foundation)


With all the orange it almost looks like a fall look!

I hope you have enjoyed this look, of course it is dedicated to Rita who also took the photos.
If you want you can check the inspiration video here, I also used some reference photos which I got by cutting some frames out of that video.

Have a great week and till the next one.

Love,
Anna

Lost Northern Star

Hi! 

Today's post is my twist on this interesting trend that I noticed a while ago on Pinterest. In the photos I saw the models had glitter stars on their cheeks representing freckles. I decided to "continue" this trend adding a little twist where I shaded my model's temples and cheekbones in blue and purple shades to give a galaxy feel to the makeup.

Products used:

Face: 
Kiko Milano Water Eyeshadow in 218 (cheeks, forehead, nose, chin) 
Kiko Milano Water Eyeshadow in 225 (temples)
Sleek Ultra Mattes V2 Eyeshadow in Highness (temples) 
Sleek Ultra Mattes V1 Eyeshadows in Sugarlite and Bolt (temples) 
Essence Crystal Eyeliner in 07 Blue Heaven (highest points of the cheeks)

Eyes: 
Kiko Milano Long Lasting Stick in 28 
Essence Eyeshadow in 75 Purple Clouds
Kiko Milano Infinity Eyeshadow in 264
Sleek Ultra Mattes V2 Eyeshadows in Ink and Highness
Essence Crystal Eyeliner in 07 Blue Heaven
Ardell Accent Lashes in 215

Brows: 
Sleek Ultra Mattes V2 Eyeshadows in Ink

 Lips:
Kiko Milano Smart Lip Pencil in 710
Kiko Milano Luscious Cream Lipstick in 522
Essence Crystal Eyeliner in 07 Blue Heaven

I would like to give a huge thank you to Inês, my model. It was a great pleasure working on her face, given her fantastic bone structure. You can contact her on Facebook.

I hope you have enjoyed this look and I will be back with a new one next week!

Love,
Anna

Blue Is The Warmest Colour: Caring for Bleached Colour Treated Hair

Hello! As promised, today's post is about hair care products.
I was to say that I'm no hair professional and everything I know is based on my experience and things that my hair dresser has told me. The things I may mention or suggest in this post are things that apply to my hair and my hair only so I don't know if they'll work on yours as well.

When I decided to work on having a healthy hair to get it ready for the disaster bleaching is, I started building a hair care routine that actually helped me a lot with keeping my hair as healthy as I possibly could and since bleaching I've stuck with this routine. I've made some changes on it ever since I dyed it blue but it's been much of the same and so, I would like to share with you my hair care routine and the products I use in order to keep it as neat as possible.

Hair Dyes

For my blue hair I chose to use La Riché Directions hair dyes. I mainly use Midnight Blue but I've also used Ebony and I just recently ordered Neon Blue because it has more of a purple hue to it.

These are vegan hair dyes with an enormous pigmentation and I shall say that they actually last for a very long time.

Shampoo

I use a very large rage of shampoos, any shampoo for damaged hair sold in supermarkets in Portugal I probably have tried. I prefer the brand Schwarzkopf because their products are actually efficient. I also Use L'Oréal and Le Petit Marseillais sometimes. The shampoo I use the most for colour treated hair is Elvive Color Vive and the one I prefer for damaged hair is Gliss Serum Deep Repair.

I mixed a bit of gentian violet into my Elvive shampoo to help kill the yellow tones in my hair and this photo above shows what it looks like.

I got this tip from my friend Catarina who has also used this products before on her own hair. This is a very inexpensive product and I got it from the pharmacy. 

Deep Conditioning 

For this part of my hair care routine I tend to use only Gliss products because they seem to be the best. Both of these two masks, Ultimate Repair and Serum Deep Repair, contain the hair's most important protein, Keratin, which is very important for its structure and for a healthy hair follicle. I use these about once or twice a week and let them set for about 5 minutes before rinsing.  

After Care

I am a huge sucker for leave in conditioners, these products save my life. They are so easy to apply and actually help the hair a lot throughout the days when you don't wash your hair. I always make sure to have Elvive Color Vive, Gliss Total Repair and Gliss Million Gloss leave in conditioners because they have proven to be the best for my hair. I apply either of these when I get out of the shower, right before brushing, to ease the pain of brushing wet hair, and also everyday before bed.

This product saved my hair after bleaching my hair last year. My hair was so so damaged and this product made it come back to life. I swear by Gliss Color Protect leave in mask. This mask is one o those masks you apply onto wet hair and leave it to do its work and this one does it perfectly. I think I've gone through five bottles of this one ever since I started dying my hair. This product locks in moisture, helps replenish the keratin in your hair and has UV protection. I can only say good things about this one and I know people who can guarantee the same.

This serum is one of the cheapest hair care products I have and yet it is so good! It is an Essentya serum for damaged hair. I use this serum everyday before bed as well because it locks in moisture. It actually leaves your hair feeling super soft!

Between dyes colour check

To bring some life to my hair colour between hair dyes I mixt this Gliss conditioner with my dye and leave it on my hair while I shower just to give it a little more brightness when it starts to wear down.

The hair dye I use is very messy so I have to mix the conditioner and dye in a separate container and I'm left with a lighter blue colour than the dye just to refresh the hair.

I am only able to do this because the hair dye I use is a pigmented conditioner which means, and is recommended by the brand, that I can mix it with any conditioner to lighten the colour, so for a wash of colour this is perfect!

Styling 

My hair is naturally wavy and curly so I use this Nivea product to define the curls I already have on my hair. I've used this for years and it has never failed me.

The Tangle Teezer is the hair brush I use. I recommend this hair brush to everyone but specially to people with bleached colour treated hair. When you bleach your hair it becomes extremely bridal and when you pull on it with regular hair brushes it tends to break or get damaged. This hair brush is perfect because it brushes and untangles your hair without ever pulling on it and with one soft swipe. It is great!

Tips:

• I try as much as I can to wash my hair only twice a week. 
  
  
• Since my hair is a bit oily at the roots I sometimes have to use dry shampoo or baby powder to help it look fresh for longer.
  
  
• When I go to the beach or pool I always spray some organic coconut oil onto the ends of my hair. This trick helps me protect my hair from the chlorine in pool water and the salt in sea water which tend to dry the hair.
  

And that's it for this post! This is how I care for my hair, I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope to be back soon with a new one.

Love, 

Anna

Summer Sale Haul

Hi! 

This is probably the first post in a long time and I would like to, once again, apologize but I really have no explanation for it. I'll try to post more regularly from now on, I promise!

Today's post is a collective haul of some makeup items I've bought over the past month or so. Since it's been some time since I actually bought these things I already have an opinion on them and so I'm going to write a review as well of each product.

Kiko Super Colour Eyeliner in 104

"coloured waterproof eyeliner, ultra shiny and intense colour"

This eyeliner is very liquid and waterproof, just like it's description says. It has a felt tip applicator which is quite harsh and pointed for flawless effects. 

The colour I chose is a black with emerald green reflects, it is not super pigmented when it comes to the black side of it, it's actually pretty sheer but has beautiful shine and metallic finish. 

I chose this colour mostly because it's such a subtle way to wear a colourful eyeliner which I love.

Here is a swatch of it. This has probably two coats of the eyeliner and is still a bit patchy but you can see how it reflects beautiful green shades. I've been using it my regular black eyeliner and it gives it a nice waterproof finish as well.

Kiko Long Lasting Stick in 37

"8 hour no-transfer eyeshadow"

This stick is probably the best purchase I've made in a long time, makeup wise. I should've bought more shades cause it is so good! I've seen Pixiwoo talk about Kiko's eyeshadow sticks and how good they are and when I had a chance I bought one and this was the most appealing colour. It has an amazing creamy texture in the beginning, it's very easy to blend and it also is very pigmented and sets to a waterproof, smudge-proof shade. When I swatched it at the store I only really got it for the colour but then when I went to take it off in the bathroom of the mall it wouldn't come off! That was when I knew I had made a great purchase.

The colour I bought is a copper shade with pink reflects. It looked perfect to create grunge rusty looks.

It blends into this copper/rusty orange colour that sets and becomes waterproof, staying on for the longest time.

I found it to be a great eyeshadow base and I tried it with Kiko's Water Eyeshadow in 2018 and Sleek's Conker Eyeshadow from the Au Naturel palette and the look lasted me all day!

Kiko Supreme Eyeshadow in 04 Gorgeous Anthracite

"long lasting creamy eyeshadow"

This cream shadow from the Supreme collection is beautiful and perfect for when you're in a rush!

Just blend some of this on and you're ready to go with the guarantee that it will last you all day.

It is a black base shadow with a thousand shimmers and shinny particles that reflect mostly silver with some hints of pink and purple in certain lights.

I didn't find it to be as long lasting and pigmented as the sticks though. 

Kiko Water Eyeshadows 

"long lasting wet & dry use eyeshadow"

In 225

These are a total dupe for Nars Dual Intensity Eyeshadows. It's the same concept, the same product but less expensive.

The pigmentation varies from colour to colour and some of these have a duo chrome which shows off beautifully when wet. They are not as long lasting as Kiko says they are.

Left is wet and right is dry.

Top is dry and bottom is wet.

This shade is a beautiful cyan blue with purple chrome that shows a lot better when wet. This particular shade has very little pigmentation when dry and loads when wet.

In 218

This was the first shade that I saw when I reached over to their water shadow set and I fell in love with it. It is such a beautiful shade of coral with golden reflects!

Left is wet and right is dry.

Top is dry and bottom is wet.

As you can see there isn't a huge difference between the dry and wet version with this one. It is just beautiful!

I've also tried this as a blush and it looks fantastic because of that golden shine.

Makeup Factory Dramatic Cream Eyeliner in 05 Drama Black

This eyeliner is just... Not worth it...

I was in need of a new gel eyeliner for a long time now and I finally decided to go into my local boutique and bought myself one and this was probably the most expensive eyeliner I ever bought and oh lord is it a disappointment... It's not pigmented, it's not waterproof, it's not opaque... It's just not worth the money.

Unlike most gel eyeliner I bought before, this one needs several layers to be opaque and since it is so creamy it won't stay in place. I do not recommend this one..

Maybelline New York The Colossal Go Extreme Volume Mascara

This was a refill/repurchase because I had run out of mascara and this is probably my favourite now.

The brush is perfect to coat all lashes and separate them.

Essence LipLiner in 05 Soft Berry

I bought this lip liner hoping for it to be somewhere near the Kylie Jenner colour and it kind of is. It's a deep nude colour perfect to outline the lips with or, if you don't mind, to fill in the whole lip.

I usually fill in the whole lip with it and use it on its own and I've actually gotten a lot of compliments on it!

Astra Itally Eyebrow Pencil in 23

This eyebrow pencil has the perfect shade of taupe for my hair colour. To match my brows to my hair has been just way too hard so I decided to hunt down a brow pencil that would look good with my blue hair and this grey'ish taupe was the perfect shade.

When I first swatched it in the store it looked too light for me but it turned out to be perfect!

The only down side to it is that it is such a hard pencil, the tip of it is actually super hard and solid. It's not creamy at all. The fact that eyebrow pencils are hard usually means that they stay on for longer and I cannot dismiss that fact, it does stay on all day!

Only good things to say about this one!

Astra Italy Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in 61

This beautiful colour caught my eye the first time I went in the store and the second time I knew I had to get it.

It is a gorgeous water green with a metallic finish.

It is very creamy and blends beautifully but doesn't stay on as long as any other eyeshadow pencils/sticks I have.

Astra Italy Define Lip Lip Pencil in 42

This lip pencil I haven't gotten too much use out of yet. Since I lost my favourite red lipstick I haven't been wearing too much red on my lips but I thought it would be a good idea to finally get a new red lip liner.

It does its job, not much to say about it.

Catrice Limited Edition Nomadic Traces Matt Lip Colour in CO2 Urban Red

This lipstick is just perfect. The concept of this lipstick, the formula and the colour make it the perfect lipstick for anyone which a busy schedule. It applies very easily and creamy with an already matte finish and stays on a long long time even when you eat!

The only down side to it is when you reapply it over a bit of it that was left it starts flaking and feels a bit weird on the lips.

When I was taking these photos I actually realized how close these two lip pencils are. Top is Astra's and bottom is Catrice's.

After taking these photos I also received Lancôme Gradiose Mascara which I didn't take pictures of but my overall opinion on it is that it's not worth the money. It's an expensive mascara that leaves your lashes clumpy and takes a log time to dry. The curve brush is not that big of an innovation because the brush itself collects too much products, leaving the lashes too loaded with mascara.

And that's it for this post! I hope you enjoyed it and until my next one!

Love,

Anna