Minimal make-up day

Hi everyone! Today I decided to see how little make-up I could put on my face and still feel comfortable about it (of course I mean comfortable when in public, not in the safe zone of my own four walls). Actually, as I went out, I felt 'done' and fresh, so maybe that's a path I should explore more in the future.

Here's how it turned out:

First, I used concealer to cover any discoloration or blemishes, and then buffed in some mineral foundation and added a touch of bright pink blusher. I then spent some time flicking the purple eyeliner and then, as it is not very pigmented, tightlining with a black pencil. I finished the eye look with lots of black mascara and lastly, I put NYX Indian Pink lipstick on my lips.

So what do you think? :)

On a different note, I was happy this morning to see my Illamasqua contest look inspired by Venetian masks featured on Illamasqua's webpage at http://www.illamasqua.com/news/article/109/ 

Fingers crossed!

Have a wonderful beginning of the weekend!

Redhead series: 'The Divine Sarah'

My series doesn't exactly follow the chronological order, but well...

Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was a French theatre and film actress and is often said to be the most famous actress of the 19th century. Her mother was Jewish and her father probably a Dutchman. Little is known about her early life, as she tended to exaggerate and distort, to the point of being called 'a notorious liar' by Alexandre Dumas (son).

She earned her living by being an actress and a courtesan, both professions considered scandalous at the time. She started her stage carieer in 1862 at Comedie Francaise, and became famous in the 1870s. She slept in a coffin in lieu of a bed, claiming that it helped her to understand the tragic roles she played. She was a performing arist as well as a model, a sculptor, a writer and a couch for several young women wanting to become actresses themselves. Her close friends included famous artists such as Gustave Dore, Victor Hugo and Louise Abbema. Alphonse Mucha based several of his prints on her image.

In 1905, she injured her knee on stage while performing in the play 'La Tosca' in Rio de Janeiro. The leg never healed properly and by 1915, when gangrene set in, her entire right leg had to be amputated. She continued performing even though she didn't like using a wooden limb. She is also said to refuse a $10,000 offer to display her amputated leg as a medical curiosity.

"You must have this charm to reach the pinnacle. It is made of everything and of nothing, the striving will, the look, the walk, the proportions of the body, the sound of the voice, the ease of the gestures. It is not at all necessary to be handsome or to be pretty; all that is needful is charm."

Tag - '8 Things'

Thanks to lovely Steph and Daisy for tagging me! So here it goes, a little sneak peak into my life :)

8 Things I Look Forward To:

1) My parents coming to visit me and Mateusz in Vancouver. We're going to spend one week in the city and one week RV'ing on Vancouver Island. I just wish it would be as warm and sunny when they come as it is in Poland now - 26 degrees Celsius!

2) Hauls from Cherry Culture and Coastal Scents being delivered in parents' luggage. I don't have any new things to play with right now...

3) My name day (May 4th). I actually don't think anyone will remember, but maybe that's an opportunity to treat myself just a tiny bit? If you don't know what a name day is, it's something that used to be celebrated in Poland instead of your birthday in my parents' generation. It is more subtle, since you don't have to tell what age you're turning every year ;)

4) Today's dinner at our favorite sushi place, Ki-Isu. Did I tell you that Japanese cuisine is my favorite?

5) Going shopping some time soon. I desperately need new t-shirts/ blouses and a new cardi.

6) Weekend and spending more time with my fiance. On his workdays, he usually comes home dead tired.

7) Having a haircut... I think I have serious issues with my hair right now. I even get these dreams where I can't brush them or put them in a ponytail and I end up having hair all over my face... It's not that bad in reality, but I just wish I could have long hair again...

8) In a longer perspective, my wedding. Actually, I am both thrilled and horrified.

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1) Got up relatively early, jumped in a bikini, went to the pool and swam uninterruptedly for 20 minutes.

2) Went grocery shopping - twice!

3) Cooked an Italian brunch: Spaghetti Carbonara and Caprese Salad, and devoured it to the last crumb.

4) Watched a super stupid movie starring Madonna entitled 'The Next Best Thing'. I like Madonna as a singer, but she's a terrible actress.

5) Got a terrible headache, took a painkiller and went for a nap. It didn't help and I was really exhausted when I finally crawled to bed.

6) Read a couple pages more of "The Art of Seduction". Going through 'The Charmer' archetype at the moment.

7) Went to a climbing gym and attempted at climbing a 5.9 route. Unfortunately, I failed at 2/3 of it... Maybe it was a diffcult 5.9, who knows?

8) Served as a human heater for my fiance at night :)

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1) Make myself more useful somehow. I sometimes feel my days are all filled with this big emptiness, and this is really depressing. I'm looking forward to work too, Steph! Fortunately, there's a job waiting for me when I come back to Poland this July.

2) Take control of all this wedding craziness and organize a perfect reception party!

3) Be closer to my friends. I feel like an outcast. Some of it has to do with the fact that I am away, and some of it... It's just the way I am, I guess. Usually it doesn't bother me at all, but sometimes makes me feel a bit lonely.

4) Buy only useful things. Oh, if I could have a magic insight into what is going to suit me in the long term while shopping...

5) Continue studying in Poland and live with my husband in spe in Canada at the same time. I'm not terribly excited about parting with him in a couple of months time :(

6) Prepare my own sushi.

7) Get over a mental bloc about climbing.

8) Work as a freelance MUA in addition to being a teacher and a translator. Or maybe just have some girlfriends who would like to have a makeover done by moi...

8 Shows I Watch:

It's a tough one. I haven't watched TV in 4 months now... But I used to enjoy:

1) 'What not to wear' with Trinny and Susannah

2) Polish edition of 'You Can Dance'

3) 'My Family' on BBC Prime

4) 'How to look good naked' with Gok. Love how this guy talks, but the Polish voice-over simply doesn't keep up with him.

5) 'Keeping Up Apprearances' on BBC Prime

6) 'Project Runway'

7) Make-up makeovers in different shows on 'TVN Style', a Polish channel aimed at women.

8) Occasionally, 'Desperate Housewives'.

I tag 8 lovely bloggers:

1) Sarah at 'If the shoe fits...'

2) Ondine

3) Nadia at 'Love Lipstick and Lime'

4) Jennifer at 'Mizz Worthy's Stuff'

5) Lottie at 'Pretty Geeky'

6) Hele at 'Hele Says'

7) Lazula at Lazula80

8) Anyone else who'd like to jump on the bandwagon :)

Have a great day, everyone! xxx

Smokey grey and bronze FOTD

Hello my sweeties, just a really quick post for you today... I got up early in the morning and went swimming, just to be rewarded with a terrible headache right now :( I'm trying to ignore the message my body is sending me here...

So today, instead of pairing my bronze with browns or my greys with blacks I did a little mix of the two. In fact I really like jewellery combining gold and black, and this is a little bit twisted version of that combo.

Well, the camera definitely washes it out. I just used my 78 e/s palette on my eyes, Bourjois Rouge Corail blusher on my cheeks and GOSH Darling lipstick. I know this is not terribly summery or anything, but I was in the mood for smokey eyes :)

What is your favorite smokey color combo?

Toes of the day and a little experiment

So I've had this Sally Girl  nailpolish I brought from Seattle for quite a while now and never got to using it. Since it's really pointless to give myself a manicure (yes, I mean climbing), I decided to try it on my toes and make a little experiment out if it.

So the shade I purchased is called 'Not My Type' and it's my first dark nailpolish in years, I have to admit. I remember it looked brownish in the store, but it's actually a very deep berry color with a slight purple shimmer in the bottle, which unfortunately doesn't show up when applied. I love how tiny that bottle is (5.3 ml/ 0.18 fl oz), because first I wasn't sure how such a dark shade would look on my nails and second, I've never used up a whole regular bottle of nailpolish. And I think it costed me something like $1! This is what it looks like paired with Inglot Mega Shine topcoat:

I decided to make a little experiment for you and report in detail how I like it in terms of the quality, application and wearing (fading of color/shine and chipping).

As for the quality, I have to say I am not impressed at all. The consistency is quite thick and it sort of 'drags' on the nail, and the pigmentation is quite poor in my opinion. The little brush and short handle make the application a total pain in the ass: there's too little polish on the brush to cover the surface of the nail, so you have to dip it in the bottle several times, and being so short, it's difficult to maneuver. It goes on streaky so you definitely need 2 coats, and it doesn't fill any ridges, so the finished effect doesn't look that smooth and polished.

Now I'm going to test how it wears for a week or so, exposing it to the ultimate 'Climbing Shoe Test'. If you've ever tried climbing, you'll know what I mean. Climbing shoes are extremely tight and what I've noticed so far is that they caused lighter shades of nailpolish to darken, adding a greyish patina to the surface. I will report back in a week's time and tell you all about it :)

Have you had any experience with Sally Girl nailpolish?

*** UPDATE:

It's been a little bit over a week now, and I have both good and bad news. Good news is that because the color is so dark, I haven't noticed any darkening even after wearing climbing shoes. The bad news is that it chipped at 3 nails, some of them in really random places. All in all, I have to say I'm not a big fan of this nailpolish, and for a comparable price, I would opt for Miss Sporty (plus, this one's available in Poland, unlike Sally Girl).

Spring beauty commitments

I feel I've been a tinsy bit lazy lately with my beauty routine, so as a means of self-discipline, here are my commitments for at least the following month:

1. Take one pill of Belissa skin, hair and nailcare treatment every day. Belissa is a multi-vitamin supplement produced by a Polish pharmaceutical company AFLOFARM. The main ingredient is horsetail, which has been used to improve skin condition for ages (well, at least in Poland). I also hope that other vitamins it contains will help strenghten my fragile blood vessels. Since Sunday, I suffer from a massive allergy attack, and blowing my nose more often results in bleeding. Very embarrassing, especially in public...

2. Drink more water. I am one of these people who could drink only one glass of whatever liquid every day and wouldn't even notice. I'm hardly ever thirsty. However, this is not a good idea if you're trying to keep your skin moisturized and toxin-free... There's not much scientific evidence that drinking water actually helps retain moisture in the skin, but I do feel my skin looks better when I drink more, and it's definitely a good practice for my kidneys.

3. Condition my hair. I'm trying to grow long, healty hair for my wedding (well, my hair won't be actually long by the time of my wedding, but I hope a smart hairdresser will be able to make an interesting updo out of it), so split ends are an absolute no no! Biosilk makes a big come-back from the bottom of the bathroom cabinet...

4. Try using Crest Whitestripes. I bought this combo of toothpaste and 4 top and bottom teeth stripes last week, and I am interested to see how it works on me. I wanted to try the regular pack, but I've heard a lot of bad things about it causing teeth hypersensitivity, so let's just start with this one.

5. Eat more leafy greens. Healthy green salad, anyone?

I shall report back in a month and tell you how far I managed to succeed :)

What I am reading right now: "The Art of Seduction" by Robert Greene

An excerpt from the back cover:

" And once again Robert Greene identifies the rules of a timeless, amoral game and explores how to cast a spell, break down resistance, and, ultimately, compel a target to surrender. The Art of Seduction takes us through the characters and qualities of the ten archetypal figures of seduction (including the Siren, the Ideal Lover, the Dandy, the Natural, the Charismatic, and the Star) and the twenty-four maneuvers by which anyone can overcome a victim's futile resistance to the practice of this devastating and timeless art form." 

Well, I can honestly say that I am NOT planning to seduce anyone at the moment, but I started reading this book a few years ago and I remember that what interested me most in it were the 'archetypal figures of seduction'. Basically, the author analyzes lifes of great seducers from our history (Cleopatra, Marylin Monroe, Rudolph Valentino, Casanova but also Gabriele d'Annunzio and Lou Andreas-Salome, who happens to be the ultimate love of my favorite poet, Rainer Maria Rilke) and the key characteristics that made them so attractive to other people. Robert Greene shows different ways of being seductive, some of which quite surprising and not what immediately comes to mind when you think about the word. I am not so keen on the 'manipulative' side of the book, which tells you how to conquer and enslave others, but I'm looking forward to some tips on how to appear more appealing to my fiance... The other interesting mental game involved in reading this book is trying to analyze your own seductive potential and basically which archetype seems most like you. Am I like theatrical Cleopatra (the Siren) or like masculine Lou Salome (the Dandy)? A fascinating read for anyone interested in biographies of some famous people and in developing their sociotechnic skills.