ESSIE GO GINZA

I have been M.I.A. for the past few days because I travelled back home to my hometown, and figuring out how to maintain a certain photo quality without the usual light, equipment and location is more difficult than I expected it to be, and you all know how important photography is to me and what a huge part of my blog it is. :)



As this year is coming to an end, interesting new things are being prepared for this blog and I cannot wait to show them to you at the beginning of 2015. I cannot wait!

I am utterly excited for today - Christmas Eve is such a special night. Every member gathered around a pretty Christmas tree, with wrapped presents underneath prepared to bring a smile to each one of their faces. My three dearest friends surprised me a day early with this lovely pastel lilac nail polish by Essie. They follow my blog intensely and they managed to pick out a shade that I adore. I find pastels make every hand look softer and more feminine, and this lovely lilac does that job perfectly. Even though the website describes the color as a soft cherry blossom pink, I think that its undertone is a very strong blue which makes it appear more lilac than pink.

Go Ginza goes extremely well with greys so I had to wear my new, comfy, grey sweater to match the color.
 

I hope you all enjoy this Christmas Eve with your family and loved ones!

CATRICE LUXURY LACQUERS IN STARS & STORIES

It isn't possible to walk by these glittery lacquers without stopping. When I spotted the golden glitter in Stars & Stories, it immediately ended up in my shopping cart.

BODY CARE ESSENTIALS

I've gotten a few requests to talk about the beauty products that I use to take care of my skin, body and hair. So I thought I'd start with the necessities that I use either daily or weekly, starting with the body. I personally love taking a peak in other people's skin care and hair care routines. Click Read more after the image to see my essentials.

ESSIE ETERNAL OPTIMIST WITH A TWIST

I adore optimists. They're the kind of people I admire the most. Always seeing the glass as half full, never giving up on anything. Essie's Eternal Optimist found its way into my hands through a very old and dear friend of mine - the friend isn't old, but our friendship is :) - because she purchased it as a replacement for In Stitches. She's the exact friend I mentioned in my In Stitches post, I had to paint her nails after she fell in love with the color. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to find it in Croatia, so she went with Eternal Optimist as a replacement. Upon seeing the photo of her wearing the shade, I had to have it. It's a whole bunch of shades lighter than In Stitches.

ESSIE SHEARLING DARLING

This week has been somewhat of a nightmare. Not because something bad happened, no, but because next week is the actual nightmare. Two exams, two presentations. Doing my nails and blogging about them is the only break that I allow myself to take to relax for a while and close the books for a short time.

ESSIE GIVEAWAY RESULTS!

I am beyond thankful to all of you who entered the giveaway. There were over 100 girls who entered with over 200 individual entries!

ESSIE SPIN THE BOTTLE

The Essie giveaway is officially closed and the two lucky winners will be announced tomorrow!

Unfortunately, winter isn't the ideal time of the year for blog posts if you're always coming home around 4 PM and there is barely any proper light available for photographing. Today was an incredibly sunny day, and luckily, I was home around noon to use the opportunity for photos. For the first time in my life I have shaped my growing nails into a round form, and I must say that I have been enjoying them. Right now it feels like they are less fragile, but time will show if that is indeed true, when they grow a little longer.

I must say that round nails make my hands look more feminine and elongated, which is definitely something to enjoy.

I ran into an Essie sale (certain shades were 40% off) so I couldn't miss out on this wonderful soft nude shade called Spin The Bottle. This is a fantastic nude color because it has just the right hint of pink that will give that certain mademoiselle look to your nails. What do you think about round nails? Do you feel like they're more or less rigid than square nails? 

NOVEMBER FAVORITES

Since we have December 1 marked on our calendars, there is obviously no better time than to post my November favorites.

November is over and I think this sentence will not come as a surprise to any of you: I cannot believe the year 2014 is already over! I remember being a child and feeling annoyed with how long it took for a year to go by, and now I wish for it to last longer.

You will recognise a few of the products as I have already mentioned/reviewed them on this blog, but there is also a couple of new ones which will also be featured on this blog in the coming weeks.



The first November favorite and an absolute holy grail of my life is the Invisibobble hair band. It's a strange telephone wire looking hair band that doesn't make my head hurt and that doesn't pull on my hair or break it every time I take it out. To keep this short and leave enough material for its own post, I can just recommend you to try these. They are fairly expensive, so I also ordered a pack of 20 copies on eBay, which I will be reviewing in the standoff "Invisibobble VS eBay "Invisibobbles".



Now that it's getting colder and colder and we're starting to reach zero on the thermometer, my lips need more care and moisture, so I went for labello's lip butter, hoping it would be more moisturising than their regular labello sticks. It didn't disappoint. Even though numerous versions of this lip butter are available (coconut, vanilla, blueberry), I went with the mild classical scent and I'm really happy about it. The packaging isn't ideal because neither pressing it against your mouth or using your finger to scoop some product out of the tin can are the most hygienic ways of application, but the pleasing effect of this lip butter makes me ignore that.



Finally, I'm mentioning two (or three) products that have already made an appearance on this blog.
The two Matte Me lip creams by Sleek have really been a great discovery of the month of November. I am in love with their long lasting matte texture, and if I had to pick one that I favor more than the other, it would be the color Rioja Red.

Click here to view Birthday Suit's post.
Click here to view Rioja Red's post.

Following all the Essie nail polishes that I acquired over the past month, I had to decide which one was my favorite. And this was a reaaally tough one. But, in another way, it really wasn't. In Stitches is the shade that I definitely got the most compliments on and it is a shade that I haven't seen a dupe for anywhere.

Click here to view the Essie In Stitches post.



I am already looking forward to reading other people's November favorites! List yours in a comment! :)

SLEEK MATTE ME IN RIOJA RED

Remember my impulsive final decision to order the Sleek Matte Me in Rioja Red while I was finishing my thoughts on the shade Birthday Suit? Well, best decision ever.



The postman rang my doorbell yesterday while holding my "non hazardous cosmetics". I obviously knew what was inside and was immensely excited to try it on my lips.




I opened the package, applied the cream with surprising ease. Thankfully, I have very steady hands, and even the excitement of seeing the color in the bottle didn't change that. After applying, I waited. And waited. The shade Rioja Red takes a while longer to turn matte than Birthday Suit, so for about a minute I stood there looking at a red lipgloss. And then - boom!

Words cannot sum up the beauty of this red color. A true, Snow White red. When swatched next to Ruby Woo, it leaves Ruby Woo looking like some sad, cold and desaturated red. Ruby Woo is my all time favorite red lipstick, but Rioja Red is such a fiery red - it's fantastic!



Once matte, just like Birthday Suit, it doesn't transfer onto anything. When I poured some micellar water onto a cotton pad to straighten out the edges, I concluded that it must take some rubbing to take off completely. Little fixes aren't hard to make, but removing it all takes some force and a strong make up remover - like Garnier's Micellar Cleanser.

GARNIER MICELLAR CLEANSING WATER

Like every other girl, I have a little list of my all time favorite products that I just keeps buying over and over again without ever having the need to try out something else because these just work.

I have already mentioned Kerastase's Nectar Thermique and the Batiste spray, which I both consider my all time favorite hair care products and today I'll be writing about my all time favorite skin cleaning/skin care product. It doesn't just remove make up and cleanse skin, it also calms it down.

If you are a contact lens wearer like me, you will know how irritated the eyes can get when removing mascara and eye liner, so finding a product that cleans both without burning was a life long quest for me.



Before Garnier's Micellar Cleanser I tried out the famous Bioderma. Sadly, it ended up drying out my skin terribly. I am quite sure that it's due to the fact that I was using the blue/green version for greasy skin, but since I tried the Garnier, I don't feel the need to try Bioderma's pink version any longer.

I also tried Vichy's Micellar Water, but Garnier was so much better at cleaning mascara, I didn't have to use up 5 cotton pads. Plus, Garnier is definitely the cheapest out of the three that I tried. That's a win-win situation.

Bioderma Sensibio H2O Solution Micellaire: € 16 for 500 ml
Vichy Purete Thermale 3 in 1 Cleansing Micellar Lotion: € 14,50 for 400 ml
Garnier: € 5,99 for 400 ml (I always get it on discount for about € 3,50)

I use this product with huge cotton pads from babylove (dm) because I can get the make up off with one half of one pad and use the other half to go over my cheeks, forehead and chin.



Not everyone is as excited about micellar cleansers as I am. I have read about the absurdity of buying something that is 90% water on quite a few websites, and I have seen many DIY tutorials for Micellar Water, but I'm not sure that I would want to risk exposing my eyes to something that has 0 preservatives in it to prevent a bacteria attack. Then again, there are tutorials that list a preservative as an ingredient, but that way I don't see a huge difference between a homemade micellar water and the store bought one other than the price.

The ingredients follow:
AQUA/WATER, HEXYLENE GLYCOL, GLYCERIN, DISODIUM COCOAMPHODIACETATE, DISODIUM EDTA, POLOXAMER 184, POLYAMINOPROPYL BIGUANIDE



What is your favorite micellar cleanser? I would love to try the two micellar cleansers that are NOT available in Austria, but can be bought in Croatia - Mixa and Corine de Farme, but I'm trying to stick to products that are immediately available to me as I need them.

ESSIE ROMPER ROOM

Are you tired of seeing the word ESSIE in all of my nail polish posts? I am terribly sorry about sticking with Essie, but I created quite the Essie collection in the past few weeks and there are many beautiful shades that I definitely want you to see.

My nails still haven't grown back enough for me to consider them an appropriate size for nail polish posts, but I'll feature this shade now regardless of their length.



A few days ago I was wearing this cute pale pink shade called Romper Room. There isn't all too much to say about this shade, or actually, I don't need to over-enthusiastically do my best to describe the shade for you. It's a pale pink. Done. Oh wait, I know there's something. What I can tell you is that Romper Room is a noticeably softer pink than OPI's Mod About You - everyone's go to light pink. Mod About You's swatches can be quite deceiving, as there are stronger lilac tones in it than most swatches give away, and I cannot pull of purples. Well, actually, purple is my least favorite color, so I don't even try to.



The book I am reading now on my kindle is called Eleanor & Park. I'm about half way through the book and I'm enjoying it immensely. To be honest, I am quite the bookworm. Should I feature more books on this blog as well?

ESSIE ABSOLUTELY SHORE

A week ago, I let myself binge shop Essie shades. Previously, I had always stared at the huge Essie shelf not really knowing which shade to get, so instead of getting something, I left empty handed.

But, that day I allowed myself to walk out with three shades. (They'll all make an appearance on the blog, no worries.) One of those shades was Absolutely shore. This is a special one. As soon as I applied it, I felt it made my hands look so much more feminine. Does that sound weird? It's such a gooorgeous soft pastel shade that you really need to see it on your nails, because the bottle definitely doesn't do the color justice.



For some reason, when you google the color, the swatches look a lot more green then the color ever appeared in my eyes, I rather consider it an extremely soft mint color. Even on the website, it looks like a light green and the color is described as a sea foam green, which is definitely way too green for me to admit that Absolutely shore is a sea foam green shade. On my nails it just doesn't show up that way.



I feel like I analyse the colors far too excessively. But when it comes to swatches, I feel like they can portray a color shade in a thousand different ways.

This glitter shoot took a whole lot of effort and many many photos to get it right, but I think the outcome is quite pleasing. :)

AN ESSIE GIVEAWAY

To thank you all for being such kind readers of this blog, I would love to give away two Essie nail polishes in the shades that I have fallen in love with and have been wearing frequently in the past few weeks. Christmas is just around the corner, and I love giving presents even more than receiving them.

I have bought my very first Essie nail polish less than a month ago, yet my very own Essie product family has since then grown by quite a few new members. :)



I have featured both shades on my blog, the first being In Stitches - the awkwardly named dark blush color that has resulted in at least five individual compliments on my nails. Luckily, I had the bottle with me when my friend commented on my nails, so I actually painted her nails on the spot. (In Stitches post)



The second shade is called Chinchilly, a cool, clay grey color that will suit any skin tone because it is such a simple yet interesting color. (Chinchilly post)



To make this short and simple, here's what you need to do to enter the giveaway.

If you will be entering on Facebook, I would appreciate it if you would:

• Like my facebook page: www.facebook.com/breathofcolorblog

• Comment on the post which nail polish you prefer. If you like both colors, just write "any" or let me know in any other words.

For additional entries:

• Share the giveaway post.

• Let me know why you like reading my blog and what you would love to see more of from me in the future. It will help me immensely and give you better chances of winning! :)


If you will be entering through my website, I would love it if you would:

• Follow me on Blogger or Bloglovin

• Leave a comment below which nail polish color you prefer. Again, if you find both colors interesting, let me know. Also, make sure to leave your e-mail so that I can contact you if you win!

For additional entries:

• Just like on facebook, let me know what you particularly like about my blog and what you would love to see more of from me in the future. It will heighten your chances of winning and help me out!


Altogether you can get up to 4 entries (2 additional through the Facebook post and 1 through this blog post)!

You can enter the giveaway until December 5 and the winner will be announced and contacted on December 7.

This giveaway is open internationally.

KÉRASTASE NECTAR THERMIQUE

I bought my first hair straightener over 10 years ago. I have very curly hair which I am ultimately thankful for, but straight hair is so much more manageable and especially bearable during the summer months. Since I have been straightening my hair for 10 years, I have had terrible cases of fried hair and was never really able to grow my hair out. I was always stuck with shoulder length hair until I ordered this product back at the end of 2010. Since then, it has become my all time favorite hair product. You might have guessed it, it's a heat protectant.

I haven't tried many Kérastase products so I cannot say much about the brand's entire product range, but their Nectar Thermique is my holy grail when it comes to protecting my hair from heat damage.


I am currently on my fifth or sixth bottle. It might seem like a small number considering I've been using it for 4 whole years, but I only go through about one and a half to a maximum of two bottles of this per year, which means I cannot complain about its price which is in the higher range.

In regular stores, the Nectar Thermique costs € 29,95. I usually hunt for 20% discount vouchers that I can apply on websites like feelunique.com, hqhair.com or lookfantastic.com, so I have never paid over € 16 for it. That's an awesome deal.

The reason why I am featuring it is not just because I love the product itself, it's also because Kérastase decided to repackage and reformulate it. The very familiar scent, which I find absolutely divine but I know some detest, is still the same. I haven't used it all too many times to be able to tell a significant difference, but I am sure that the quality of the effect it has on hair in the long run is the same, if not better than before.

Which hair protectants do you use? Have you ever tried Nectar Thermique?

MAC SO CHAUD

I have already spoken about my love for Mac lipsticks. At first I didn't really understand how someone can love a brand so much that they would actually organise their make up collection by "Mac stuff" and "Non-Mac stuff". But now I think that I'm quite lucky I don't use too much make up because I would be standing at the Mac counter every other week.

So far I have only tried their lip sticks and lip pencils. I literally stay away from everything else because I'm trying not to hoard too much stuff and not use it. This matte lipstick called So Chaud was a summer buy. The color is an orange red which I feel compliments my warm, yellow skin undertone extremely well, so I love love love wearing it during the summer.

I feel really bad for all of you who don't have Mac just around the corner and have to travel to buy it or order it online, but in some way it's better for your wallet, trust me. If you love matte lip sticks as much as I do and would love an orange red, next time you're near a Mac counter, check out So Chaud. You won't regret it. :)

SLEEK MATTE ME IN BIRTHDAY SUIT

"Oh please no! NO! Noooooooooooooooooooo!"

The perfect description of yesterday's dramatic event.

You know that feeling when you've been growing out your nails for two weeks without a single damage and then all of a sudden one of them breaks beyond repair? Well, that's the feeling I had to endure yesterday. Since it didn't make much sense to walk around with 9 super pretty long nails and leave that one single nail short and jealous of the rest, I cut them all short. That means that you'll be seeing more of lip and other products in the next couple of posts until I can return with somewhat good looking nails.

Today I am reviewing Sleek's Matte Me Ultra smooth matte lip cream - that's a mouthful - in the color 436 Birthday Suit. As far as I'm aware of, there are 6 shades to choose from and one lip cream costs €6,49. You can find them here.

This lip cream is the very first product that I now own by Sleek. I found it somewhere in the vast field of pinterest boards. One thing I am now noticing is that my label is in a different font than the one on their website. Strange.

Anyway, I'm a sucker for dark nudes and matte lips, so this was the perfect combination to get. It also arrived quite quickly. In the photos below you can see the applicator, which I'm in love with. The cream is so easy to apply and the applicator allows you to apply it perfectly on the first go. That's also a reason why I'm considering getting it in the red shade called Rioja Red. Once applied, the glossy cream takes a couple of seconds to turn completely matte and then it also becomes everlasting. I wore it for an entire day while eating and drinking and I only had to reapply it once because the corners of my mouth were the only place where the color started fading.

I used the word everlasting because removing the cream isn't all too easy. I had to use my micellar water and rub gently to get everything off. But that's a factor that I like about this product.

All in all, this blind buy was a success. If there are other products by Sleek that you enjoy using, please do recommend them. Remember when I said I was considering ordering this cream in red? Well, that consideration now turned into a decision. :)

I'M ON FACEBOOK!

Back when I started this blog in September 2011 (I simply cannot believe it was three whole years ago), facebook pages weren't all too used for personal blogs and businesses and such. I hope that this simple step will let all of you keep better track of my posts. So, here's where you can find me:

http://facebook.com/breathofcolorblog

ESSIE IN STITCHES

A dark pink blush nail polish... In stitches... Pink... Stitches...

Nope, I just can't figure out how Essie's team comes up with such crazy names for their nail polishes. OPI also has some crazy ones, while NARS's are plain inappropriate. I wonder how they decide what to name which color. The naming aside, this nail polish is described as a cheeky blush pink, an innocent-dusty dark pink, and I have to agree with Essie's website. It's a wonderful color for fall, and it is actually a part of Essie's 2010 Fall Collection. It is also my third nail polish by Essie and with every application I am more and more in love with Essie's nail polishes. They glide on easily, they're incredibly opaque, dry fast, don't cheap, last for days with no wear - even my OPI isn't this good. Yeah, I only have one OPI nail polish, a post about that one will follow. I've always read such rave reviews about OPI's nail polishes, and the whole brand is a lot more out there than Essie.

I keep wearing this shade because it's very feminine, not too pink, but pink enough to stop it from looking bordeaux.

I am now in the mood for a red and a dark red nail polish by Essie, please recommend your favorite shades. :)

FRESH ORANGES

Well, this one's not going to be beauty related. I have thought about this for a long time, and I decided to mix in some lifestyle posts to add some diversity to this blog.

I have been living very healthy for over a year now. I started going to the gym, I train about 5 times a week and try to eat as healthy as I can. I love starting my mornings with smoothies or freshly squeezed orange juice like on this morning. Sadly, my mixer/blender broke a few days ago, so I'm sticking to just squeezing the fruit that I can. Starting your day right by eating a good breakfast or having a healthy smoothie can really boost your energy and leave you ready to tackle the day's challenges.

Enjoying a good breakfast has become part of my morning ritual and I cannot imagine a day without it, wherever I might be. What are your morning rituals?

BALEA UREA HANDCREME

You might have noticed that I didn't post anything during the weekend, and that is exactly what I needed, a short break - not just from posting, from the week in general. :) Back to posting!

As I have already featured Batiste as one of my all time favorite beauty products, I thought I would continue to do so with the rest. Another favorite of mine is this hand cream by Balea, a brand by Germany's largest drugstore chain, which we all know and love, dm.

 I bought these creme upon reading many recommendations for it and I am very happy with that decision. I have been using it for about two weeks now, religiously, I most certainly apply it over 10 times a day. That would speak against the packaging which describes the creme's ability to retain moisture for 24 hours, which is obviously just a slight exaggeration. No one can go for 24 hours without washing their hands.



I quite enjoy the thin film of moisture that this cream leaves on top of my skin, and its smell is divine. Looking at the ingredients, there might be a few too many perfumes in them, but since the ingredient UREA is in third place, and it clearly says on the packaging that it contains 5% of UREA, there can't be too much of the bad stuff.
All in all, I can recommend this product. It is somewhat watery which makes it easy to apply, it sinks into your skin fast and, most importantly, doesn't leave your skin sticky, only super silky and smooth! It is also vegan (according to the website), and the whole Balea brand is cruelty free so I can give it a cruelty free bunny stamp!

The ingredients are listed below the images along with their function, if you see anything alarming, do let me know.

Ingredient	Function
AQUA	SOLVENT
ETHYLHEXYL STEARATE	EMOLLIENT
UREA	MOISTURIZER, ANTI-INFLAMMATORY
GLYCERIN	SOLVENT MOISTURIZER
CETEARYL ALCOHOL	SURFACTANT, EMULSIFIER
DICAPRYLYL ETHER	SOLVENT, EMOLLIENT
BUTYROSPERMUM PARKII BUTTER	MOISTURIZER, EMOLLIENT
PENTAERYTHRITYL DISTEARATE	EMULSIFIER
PHENOXYETHANOL	PRESERVATIVE
SODIUM LACTATE	MOISTURIZER
PARFUM	FRAGRANCE
CAPRYLYL GLYCOL	MOISTURIZER, EMOLLIENT
SODIUM STEAROYL GLUTAMATE	EMULSIFIER
CARBOMER	EMULSIFIER
TOCOPHERYL ACETATE	MOISTURIZER, ANTIOXIDANT
LACTIC ACID	ASTRINGENT, WHITENING
SODIUM HYDROXIDE	PH ADJUSTERS
BENZYL ALCOHOL	PRESERVATIVE, SOLVENT, FRAGRANCE
COUMARIN	FRAGRANCE
LINALOOL	FRAGRANCE

DEBORAH MILANO SHINE TECH IN SHADE 29

This is going to be hard to write. I try hard to be an optimist, to find the best in everything. But, with Deborah Milano's nail polish in the shade number 29, that's incredibly hard to do. I bought this nail polish months and months ago back in Croatia but I don't like using it. You will see by the photos of the bottle, it is obvious that I have used it many times, and I am forcing myself to use it up even though I don't enjoy it.

The color is a nice deep red, it goes on smooth, it's very opaque, but the general quality of the nail polish is where the problems appear. It does not chip though, it can go for up to two whole days without a single chip, but the problem is how fragile the surface or general consistency of the nail polish is. I applied two coats and let my nails dry completely. With most nail polishes it takes 10 minutes tops. But with this one, even during the next day I couldn't properly touch or scratch the nail without leaving a dent in it. I'm really hoping that you understand what I mean by the way I'm describing it.

Basically, through all those scratches and fingerprints, the glossiness of the polish disappears. That's very unfortunate because it could have been such a nice, glossy, dark red color. I applied it yesterday evening and my nails already look scratched with an obvious lack of shine which is why I rarely wear it over a day. What is your experience with this nail polish brand? Have you experienced the same problem?