Essence Colour & Go Do You Speak Love?

The one nail polish colour to lift up the mood? For me it’s definitely red!

I have picked up a few Essence nail polishes when I went Poland back in October. They are cheap, have good colour selection and formula is more high end then anyone could expect.

Do you speak love? is a deep vampy red I mostly like to wear in autumn and winter. It looks very sophisticated on the nails and it makes me feel that little bit better when looking at them :).

Only downside – chipped quite quickly even with my usual Seche Vite top coat. Only lasted about 3 days before chunks started to come off. It’s a shame really because I didn’t experience it with nude Essence polishes I’ve tried so far.

Overall it’s a great nail polish and beautiful colour.

Sylwia x

Essence Nail Polishes

Since Essence is not available in the UK I picked few of these lovely nail polishes while I was in Poland.
They cost only £1.30 and the quality is great! Two coats are enough to give opaque finish (Cotton Candy being the exception as it could do with another coat).
I find the formula perfect to work with – not too runny or too thick. The brush is pretty good too – flat and slightly curved at the end which seems to work very well with the shape of my nails.
Staying power is very good too. I only tried one colour so far but it started to chip only slightly after 4 days and that was without the top coat.

From right to left: 113 do you speak love?; 111 english rose; 130 what's my name?; 131 ballerina's charm; 05 cafe ole; 04 iced latte; 03 cotton candy. 

I highly recommend you to try Essence polishes if the brand is available in your country. To me this is an amazing quality comparing to the price.
Sylwia x

Skin Cleansing + Mini Nail Polish Haul

I consider cleansing being something totally different than make-up removing. It should be a process which gets rid of all dirt, sebum, and dead skin cells from our pores. Like with any other thing there are many ways to cleanse. Some people swear by Clarisonic but at £120 price I can’t risk “try it out and see if it’s any good” experiment. According to many specialists Hot Cloth Cleansing is a second best alternative to Clarisonic. And that is my chosen method.

Currently I own three Hot Cloth Cleansers. Obviously I don’t need them all (one at a time is just fine) but I couldn’t wait for one to finish to buy and try another one :) Another reason for having all three at the same time was to give you a good review/comparison. I have been meaning to do so but when it came to thinking about differences between them I didn’t really notice many.
I enjoy the scent in all of these products, each different but all subtle and relaxing. Consistency varies, some being a bit thicker than the others but all have that nice soft, creamy feel to it and are easy to spread on the face.

Superdrug Vitamin E Cleanser £3.99 200ml
Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish £12.25 100ml
Soap&Glory Fab Pore £10 100ml

Even thou all of the above came with a muslin cloth,  I do recommend getting a few more separately. You can only use a muslin cloth once or twice before bacteria starts to live on it. I myself bought pack of 10 on ebay but Liz Earle sells them too.

The idea is to spread the cleanser on your face, eyes and neck after removing make-up and gently rub it in for about a minute. Rinse the cloth in hot water, wring it out and polish off (again, gently!) the cream. Then splash your face with cool water to close the pores.

I love this cleansing method and condition of my skin improved since using it. Muslin cloth removes dead skin cells so I don't feel the need to exfoliate. Remember that our skin is working full time producing sebum and new skin cells. We can’t treat it well for a week, see good results and expect it to stay looking like that forever. It needs constant attention if we want it to behave good :)

What I just described is my night time cleansing routine. I don’t do it in the morning as I don’t feel my skin needs it. Unless you’ve got very oily skin you probably don’t need it either.
Just use something delicate (I currently use Cetaphil)to freshen up the skin and wash off oil produced by the skin during the night.


Book reading update:

I have finished reading “Serial Killers” by Rodney Castleden. You’re probably wondering why on earth I would want to read that?! Well… aside from poor editing it is very interesting book. If you’ve ever been a fun of Crime and Forensics programs on Discovery channel you will enjoy this book. It isn’t gruesome but it describes how serial killers childhood looked like and what triggered them to kill. It is fascinating to read how police managed to catch them or failed to do so.

I have moved on to something lighter now. I bought “Look at me” by Jennifer Egan for just £1 during Amazon’s 7 days of Kindle. Has anyone read this? If yes, any good thoughts?
This is first book I am reading on my kindle and I am amazed. Althou nothing can replace the feel of a real book; Kindle is so much more comfortable to hold. Plus a dictionary option amazes me! Just highlight a word and see what it means! So handy!

Onto the fun stuff:

Yes, I bought more nail polish. It probably wouldn’t be so bad if one of them wasn’t nude! I don’t know what it is but I am always drawn into the nude shades. It probably means I am boring… never mind, I love nude polish all the same. Perhaps the fact that other two are glitter will counteract the nude one :)

Essie Brooch The Subject - the nude one!
Essie Set in Stone - I loved A Cut Above some much I had to get this!
China GLaze Some Like It Haute - Oh so pretty!

This evening I will be glittering my nails - YAY!

Hope you have a great week darlings!

Sylwia x

ELF Cosmetics Sale Haul

Hello sweeties!

Last weekend I have received a Free Delivery code for ELF website. I obviously took advantage of it and immediately placed an order :)
I was really surprised when post man handed me a parcel with ELF logo on it just yesterday :) So I thought I will share with you what I got. Majority of the items were in the sale so you might still get some of them if you hurry. Brilliant thing with Elf is that once you place your first order you get lots and lots of discount codes on your email. I only order from them when I've got a promo code :)

• Natural Eyeshadow Palette £1.75 sale
• Smoky Eyeshadow Palette £1.75 sale
• Conditioning Lip Balm Mellow Melon £3.50
• Nail Polish Smoky Brown £1 sale
• Nail Polish Cranberry £1 sale
• Matte Finisher Nail Polish £1 sale

I only paid £10 for this lot! I will test everything out and let you know my thoughts.

Dose of randomness:

• "Girl with the Dragon tattoo" movie was really good! I am glad I have read the book before seeing it thou
• I have got so many ideas for blog posts and so much I would like to show you peeps! Just not enough time :(
• I am like 10 years late on the whole "matte nails" wagon but looking forward to see how it looks
• I have got three scratch cards in front of me right now.... I might be telling you in my next post that I am going to Maldives on a holiday.....NOT