Rocaille Raves: The Z Palette

Finally, I've laid my greedy mits on this sleek black beauty... Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to my newest obsession, the Z Palette.


I'm sure by now everyone and their grandmother has heard about it and I might be the last person in the whole wide beauty blogging world to get it, but it doesn't negate the fact that it's an awesome product. The Z Palette is a free-form palette, meaning that it comes equipped with a large magnetized sheet at the bottom which allows you to store eyeshadows of all sizes and shapes. It's made of sturdy cardboard with a strong magnetic closure and features a transparent window so that you can see all the eyeshadow/ blusher pans inside. So far, 2 sizes and 4 colors are available, with the large palette retailing for $20 and the small one for $14 (but you can watch out for discount coupons, I got mine for about $17 with shipping!). As you can see in the photo, the palette allows you to streamline your collection of various singles, duos and trios and makes reaching for these often abandonded shadows much easier.

Eyeshadows stored in the palete: Wet'n'Wild trios in Sweet as Candy, Silent Treatment, Walking on Eggshells, Covergirl single eyeshadow in Tapestry Taupe, 3 single Inglot eyeshadows, NYX single eyeshadow in White Pearl, a very old Inglot eyeshadow trio

My palette arrived on Valentine's Day and while my husband wasn't too impressed that I immediately sat down to depot eyeshadows into it, at least he snapped some shots.


I decided on the no-heat method for depotting my shadows, using alcohol to dissolve the glue that holds the pan in its plastic packaging. I've found that some shadows were more difficult to depot than others, and also that the pans themselves seem to be made of different metals as some of them would not stick to the magnetized bottom of the palette! This was especially true for my Wet'n'Wild eyeshadow trios.

All in all, I'm more than happy with my Z Palette and I'm already thinking of buying the smaller size for travel. I love how much space it saves in my vanity drawers and how easy it's become to do eye looks with all my miscellaneous shadows. What is your favorite make-up palette?

Project Bedroom

If you've been wondering what I've been up to for the past couple of days apart from settling in, here goes: I've been busy decorating our bedroom. My husband moved in to this apartment back in March, but since we'd lived in a studio before and didn't have the furniture, he left the bedroom bare, or rather used it as his storage room, bike, sports gear and heaps of cables included. So, as soon as I beat the jet lag, I've started turning it into a comfortable, peaceful room for us both to sleep in and dress, and for me, to play with my make-up :)


It's the first bedroom we've ever had, so we're quite excited about it! It's still work in progress, but here you have a couple of shots from different angles. You can also see my vanity there in the corner, but I'll devote a separate post to it once I'm done organizing.


It feels quite bare now and needs some finishing touches. What would you girls suggest I should do to make it feel more cozy and lived-in but still airy and simple? All your ideas will be much appreciated! xxx

Storage Tip: Lush Pot Pourri

Certainly the idea of using Lush as a wardrobe perfume isn't very new, but here are my 2 cents on how you could do it. Basically, I decided to make a small string bag from some checkered fabric leftovers and red velvet ribbon I had laying around in the house. Then I popped my Lush 'Waving not drowning' bath bomb inside and buried it in my wardrobe for ylang-ylang smelling clothes. Simples!


The sewing project took me maybe 30 minutes and I was hand stitching it, so with a sewing machine it's probably a 10 minute job. First I just folded and stitched one end of the fabric to weave ribbon through later, folded the piece in half and stitched around 2 edges. Then I turned it inside out, weaved the ribbon into the fold using the old safety pin method (you attach a safety pin to one end of your lace/ribbon/string which makes it much easier to push through the fabric), worked on the little wholes at the ribbon's ends by folding the fabric inside and stitching around. Voila!


Here's the little baggy cosily wrapped up in my scarves. From now on they'll be smelling divine! The bag would also be handy for soaps or bubble bars, but I wouldn't recommend it for neither massage bars (too greasy) nor sugar scrubs (far too messy).


I'm planning on buying some more exciting fabrics and making more of those little bags. They''ll be great as unique reusable gift bags for b-days or Christmas. What do you think?

pot pourri - lit. 'rotten pot'. Originally meant "mixed meats served in a stew", the modern meaning of "mixture of dried flowers and spices" only appeared in the 18th century. The other meaning is that of "miscellaneous collection". From Online Etymology Dictionary.

New make-up station

I already showed you my make-up storage in our apartment in Vancouver, but I was a bit at my wits' end when I came back home and realised I had literally nowhere to put my stuff.

First, I hesitated about setting it up in a chest of drawers in my bedroom, putting most products in an Ikea organizer I've had for ages. However, the drawback of this solution was that I wouldn't be able to sit at it. Then I thought that I could actually put everything in the bathroom, but again the disadvantages were a very diffcult access to a mirror where I'd have to lean across the sink and also bad lighting. Finally I decided against those two solutions and started preparing a station at my desk, where I can sit comfortably and the daylight hits my face directly from a window.

If you (like me) don't have a vanity table or a nice set-up in your bathroom, I highly recommend this solution. Here is what I did:

1. First I had to empty two top drawers so I could put all my make-up products in there. This was a bit of a challenge!

2. Then I cleaned the drawers with a damp cloth on which I poured a couple of drops of lavender essential oil, so they smell really nice when I open them.

3. The very top drawer now houses various face products and a kabuki brush, liners and mascara as well as single eyeshadows and eyeshadow bases.

The second drawer is filled with my two palettes, a brush case with mostly eye brushes (not in the photo), a container with lip products and some other stuff like samples, falsies, sponge applicators etc.

4. On the desk top, I put a cup with my most often used face brushes, a lit-up mirror and a scented candle. Right now I also added my MAC brush cleanser so I can have it handy whenever I need it.

I really like my station, it definitely saves me time when I'm getting ready in the morning. I'm also thinking about decorating it somehow, would you ladies have any suggestions how to prettify it?

PS. I'm away for a cousin's wedding tomorrow, so I'll blog all about my make-up, hair and outfit when I come back - watch out for that!

Make-up station

Before I leave, I wanted to show you my current make-up station. My collection has grown a lot since I came to Vancouver, so once I take all my stuff with me back to my parents' house, I'll have to think of a new storage solution!

I just keep all my make-up, mirror, nail stuff and jewellery on a shelf, close to a table, so I can reach easily for everything I need. In the picture (left to right) we have a binder I'm planning to use as a 'look book', earrings rack my friend made for me (I have more pairs than shown, some of my earring were left in Poland, some of them are dispersed around the apartment), one pot with eye/lip pencils and such, another pot with face brushes, and some brush cleanser and nail polish remover in the background. Then we have a little chest of drawers from Ikea, on top of which I put my palettes and a brush case with eye and lip brushes.

In the top first drawer from the left I keep my face make-up, including a mineral foundation, a concealer, a primer, blushers and bronzers and a nearly empty eyeshadow trio I use for highlighting. In the second drawer I keep lipsticks and lipglosses along with some rarely used loose powder in the back. In the third drawer, we have random things like false eyelashes and samples.

The middle big drawer is packed full with miscellaneous wonders. The big purple bag contains an unused make-up bag, there's also a lot of nail polishes/ topcoats lying around, some single eyeshadows, some eyeshadow palettes, a glitter eyeliner... All in all, this one looks a bit like a Pandora box :)

The bottom drawer contains my accessories and hair stuff. I have some wooden/ semi-precious stone/ glass necklaces, a pile of bangles/ bracelets, and two boxes with mostly silver jewellery.

So here you have my little stash... I know it's nothing amazing, but I thought it might help some you who don't have a proper vanity table to keep all your things at. We live in a studio with a tiny bathroom, and it was difficult for me to find a nice place to play with my make-up. If you'd like me to show/explain something in more detail or something from my collection grabbed your attention, just ask me a question in the comments.

On a different note, I'd like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of my followers! I'm so happy to reach (over) 5o followers, I can't say enough good things about you guys! When I first started blogging, I'd never imagined that having someone read and comment my ramblings could give me such a thrill! Thanks to the beauty community on Blogger, I found some amazing, sweetest people, you're simply the best! As a more tangible thank you I'm planning a little contest featuring Polish beauty products, so watch out for that!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day :) xxx

Coastal Scents haul & review

Bonjour, mes cheries! I have another haul for you, this time from Coastal Scents :) Yes, I am still on a spending diet, I actually bought these things a month ago, so I managed to give them a good try before reviewing.

On to the stuff I got...

This time I didn't order a whole lot, I tried to rationalize my approach and ask myself if I really needed something or not. I decided I needed a good make-up brushes case, so I got this 10 slot leatherine one. You can actually pack way more that 10 brushes in there, as the case is very long and the slots pretty big. I think it's going to be great for travelling or storing brushes that I don't use on an everyday basis so they don't get all covered in dust.

I got three brushes, a pink kabuki (I'm such a sucker for pretty objects), a pointed dome blusher brush and a bent eyeliner brush. I meant to use the kabuki as a spare one to apply my mineral foundation, but in my opinion, it's way too soft for that (but maybe it's just me, I feel I need more control when I apply foundation so I prefer slightly stiffer kabukis). However, it's perfect for blending your blush or contour color, or if you accidentaly use too much bronzer. The blusher brush is my new favorite for applying color on the apples of my cheeks and for contouring although it does shed a bit. I also meant to try it with liquid foundation, but since I hardly ever use liquid, I can't get myself to check out how it performs.

The bent eyeliner brush makes applying gel eyeliner very easy. I use it with two gel eyeliners I got in shades True Black and Indigo Blue. They're both very creamy, so they spread on your upper lashline very easily, but they tend to smudge. I have to try using some eyeshadow on top to set them, otherwise they don't last all day on my super oily eyelids.

I also ordered the famous Brush Guard in a variety pack, where you get one of every size they carry. It's a very nifty yet simple idea. I used them both to protect the birstles while travelling and to reshape my brushes after washing. They're very flexible, so they fit even on a kabuki or skunk brush. I highly recommend them!

My freshly washed brushes cosily wrapped in Brush Guard

So that's all I got, I hope you enjoyed the haul :) If you'd like me to do a swatch or a close-up of anything, just let me know in the comments. Thanks for stopping by! xxx