Goodbye Vancouver!

Tomorrow I'm flying back to Warsaw to organize things before the wedding, go back to work and most importantly, continue my studies at Warsaw Univeristy after a year's break spent in Canada.

I'm sure I'll terribly miss Vancouver and everything that goes with living here. First off, I have to part with Mateusz (fiance) and what's more, Vancouver is the most perfect place to live! I've travelled quite a lot in Europe and none of the cities I've seen appealed to me as much as Vancouver. Downtown area, parks, walks on the Seawall, the ocean, the mountains, the people... I will miss thee!

Of course, when I first arrived in Vancouver in October last year everything seemed so different and overwhelming... We virtually moved to the other end of the world and every little thing reminded us that we were in 'The New World'. It's so funny how the smallest thingies are different here than in Poland: the plugs of course, the taps, DVDs, getting off a bus, washing machines and dryers, bed sizes, painkillers, buying contact lenses and alcohol, gas stations... I could go on and on.

Overall, these couple of months have both been challenging and wonderful. I left my parents' house for the first time to move in with my fiance, furnished my first apartment, learnt to climb, snowboard and rollerskate, met new friends, experienced being a foreigner, switched to the Canadian/American accent, became more tolerant and aware of who I am and where I come from, saw unforgettable sights and started to truly admire Mother Nature, spent my days thinking and doing nothing, laughed, cried and loved to the bottom of my heart. Now I have to go back to the daily grind of work/uni, just as I left it almost a year ago.

I will continue blogging from Warsaw, only not that often as I'll have less free time to spend on that. Sorry if this post seems a bit off or too sentimental, but it's just my way of saying goodbye. Thanks for stopping by and have a great one! xxx

June favorites and blog award

I don't have that many favorites this month, but still wanted to share some great stuff I'm enjoying right now!

1. Illamasqua powder eyeshadow in Forgiveness. It's a matte, purpley brown shadow with great pigmentation and butter smooth texture. I use it almost every day as a crease color, it's very subtle but still something a bit different than your usual brown because of the warm, purple undertone.

2. NYX round lipstick in Thalia. You know all these 'my lips but better' posts featuring a nude lipstick of some sort? Well, no MLBB nude lippie for me. My lips are quite pigmented and Thalia is exactly the same shade, maybe a tad darker. The color payoff is good and the consistency nice and creamy.

3. Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme. Can't help it, you're probably bored to death by me mentioning it, but I still love it.

4. Yogurt pack method. I discovered this on Brilliant Farmgirl's Beauty Secrets blog (check her out if you haven't already, she's the loveliest and most ingenious person ever!) and have used it for 3 days now as a mask before I go to bed. It leaves my skin feeling baby soft! I'll update you in a week's time on how I'm doing with it.

5. My scarves. I use them to give the simplest outfits a bit of texture and color. I have to get some more soon!

Today I also received an Uber Amazing Blog Award from Michelle at Lipstick Rules, thank you so much sweetheart! The rules are as follows:

1. Write five (5) interesting facts about the person who gave you this award. 2. Jot down ten (10) interesting facts about yourself or your hobbies. 3. Pick your ten (10) most deserving recipients and describe them. 4. Leave a comment on the recipients' blog to tell them they've been tagged. 5. Paste the award badge in your side bar.

About Michelle:

- She comes up with the most interesting ideas for blog posts that always spark off a vivid discussion

- She lives in Toronto where MAC started!

- She's a lovely person inside and out, I love her comments :)

- She has an amazing family who understands her passion for make-up, even her 2 years old son knows about it!

- She likes to excercise her will power by joining different variations of spending diet challenges

About myself:

- I'm Polish both by birth and citizenship

- I speak 3 languages fluently, Polish (of course), English and French

- I'm still a student at the Institute of Applied Linguistics, Warsaw University, Poland

- I'm short-sighted and wear contact lenses

- I'm getting married in September

- I don't like pop drinks, Coke is a big no no for me

- I like dogs and used to have a Welsh terrier, but I'm allergic to cats

- I inherited my eye color (warm dark brown) from my maternal great grandmother (or so I'm told, she'd died before I was born)

- My friends in high school called me a 'squirrel' in different variations of the word in Polish, like 'Wiewiórcia' or 'Wiórka', because of my reddish hair

- I hate war movies, they make me feel utterly depressed. In my opinion WWII is probably the worst thing that has ever happened to the humankind.

I'm going to cheat here and nominate less than 10 lovely bloggettes:

1. Brilliant Farmgirl's Beauty Secrets. She's so passionate and honest about her recommendations on skincare. She's helping me a lot with improving my skincare routine, and her tips are simply genius!

2. Loveaudrey. She's just had her baby boy and is probably one of the most glam mummies in the blogland. I feel a kindred soul in her!

3. Jen at Mizz Worthy's Stuff. She's the sweetest person ever, hosts amazing contests (check out her latest "Myths & Legends" contest with fab Illamasqua prizes!) and posts the best, most honest reviews. Go Jen!

Hope you all have a lovely Monday and thanks for stopping by! xxx

My first MAC palette

Yay! We finally made it to MAC Pro store today! It was super quick though, just 1o minutes before they closed... So I got my first 15 pan eyeshadow palette and 2 eyeshadows, and they're absolutely gorgeous!

In preparation for the new palette, I followed Michelle's (Lipstick Rules) tip and bought two Annabelle Studio Mono Eyeshadows which perfectly fit MAC palettes, and depotted one very old Inglot pearl eyeshadow, also accidentally the same size! I know that The Body Shop eyeshadows would also fit, so if you ladies are interested in cheaper alternative to MAC eyeshadows they might be worth a look.

Without further ado, I hereby present you my very first MAC eyeshadow palette:

(CCW) Annabelle Vanilla Chilla, Inglot no.68, Annabelle So Foxy, MAC All That Glitters, MAC Satin Taupe

Neither Annabelle nor Inglot have the same pigmentation or texture as MAC, but they're about 1/3 of the prize. Probably the one I like the least from this lot is Vanilla Chilla, it almost doesn't show up on my skin at all. Both Annabelle eyeshadows are matte, because I wanted them to counteract the shimmers in MAC shadows. Here are the swatches:

Not the best swatch out there, all the colors look matte here... But they're not! (L-R): Vanilla Chilla, Inglot no. 68, So Foxy, All That Glitters, Satin Taupe

Even though Vanilla Chilla doesn't impress me at all, I really like So Foxy, a rather cool toned, velvety brown, great for accentuating the crease in daytime, subtler looks. I used it together with Vanilla Chilla and a bit of NYX White Pearl yesterday and really liked the result:

Excuse the hair, I just let it air dry and haven't had a cut in almost a year...

On my lips I'm wearing Illamasqua Medium Pencil in Ascend and Bourjois Dr Glamour lipstick in Brun o p'tits soins.

I can't wait to try my new eyeshadows tomorrow! What is your favorite eyeshadow combo right now?

Ins & Outs

Ins:

1. Sunshine! The last week was pretty depressing with all those heavy, grey clouds, but today it's sunshine again :)

2. Depotting my first eyeshadow. It wasn't MAC so didn't have that nice little hole you can use to push it from the plastic thingy, and I didn't have a hair straightener (used a frying pan instead), so I'm pretty proud of myself!

3. Using darker shades on the lid. I actually thought this would make my eyes look too small, but with some highlighter in the inner corner it looks nice and smokey.

4. Promised trip to MAC, I soo can't wait!

5. Getting things organized for the wedding. We bought fiance's wedding suit this week, almost completed the guests' list, booked a honeymoon trip, wrote a text for the invites and chose a first waltz song. Not bad, huh?

6. Having such wonderful followers!

Outs:

1. My mineral foundation being too light (and powdery?) for the new season. I mix it with a much darker mineral concealer I got in the kit and it seems to work. Also, might need a nice face spray to get rid of the matte effect.

2. Flouting the challenge :(

3. Last days in Vancouver... I will miss this city!

Oh, and just as an extra... I bought a Soap&Glory shower gel sometime ago and yesterday put it near the bath tub since I'd run out of the other one. Me and fiance have separate shower gels, but Mateusz (fiance), who showered after me, immediately spotted the Soap&Glory one, used it and happily announced that I bought a very nice gel, he especially liked the smell and urged me not to take it with me to Poland, because the bottle is just too heavy and will spill all over my clothes in the luggage. Men!

Have an amazing weekend, everyone! xxx

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

Week 3 of the challenge

I've been a bit of a naughty girl this week, I admit. I caved in and bought Sally Hansen's Mega Shine topcoat, not only because it was recommended as an even better alternative to Seche Vite and I want my nails to be perfect, but also because I'm not so sure this is available in Poland... Same for the mini Burt's Bees hand salve I got to keep in my handbag (it's actually so tiny that I could keep it in my wallet!). I'm not too proud of myself, but hey, none's perfect. Still, to exercise my willpower even a tiny bit, I decided not to use these two things until I fly back.

By trying to use up as many products as I can before the travel, I discovered what most probably had been breaking me out. I threw out my face wash even though there was still some left in the bottle and stopped using an enzymatic exfoliator I had, and my skin is much clearer now. I've been also adding a couple of drops of tea tree oil onto a cotton pad dampened with a toner to wipe my face after washing it, maybe this also helped?

On the positive side of things, I received this super cute award from Ondine and Tali; thank you so much girlies, you've made my day!

The rule is to name 6 things that made you happy today, but the same as Tali, I have to cheat and include last 24 hours because it's only 12 pm :)

1. I had a lovely lunch with my fiance at our favorite sushi place

2. We booked our honeymoon trip to Cyprus

3. I climbed another 5.9 route and it was a bit overhung

4. Fiance's wedding suit arrived from Toronto and we're having a fitting today

5. I rearranged some things at home and it looks better that way

6. I've just indulged in my favorite cappuccino and read new posts from blogs I'm following

I tag:

Michelle at Lipstick Rules

Loveaudrey

Fashion Titbits

Thanks for stopping by, mes cheries! xxx

Canada beauty discoveries

First of my 'Farewell Canada' posts, here you have a list of the best make-up and beauty products I discovered during my stay in Canada from September 2008. Most of these buys were hugely influenced by the beauty community on YouTube and here on Blogger, so they probably don't sound all that innovative to you, but they were very new to me. Some of the brands mentioned are practically unheard of in Poland!

Enough rambling, on to the good stuff :)

1. MAC

Of course, the most known Canadian brand out there... So far, I only own 2 MAC products, a concealer and a brush cleanser, but I love them both. Can't wait to get my grubby mits on the eyeshadows, and fiance promised a wee trip to the MAC Pro Store before I fly back... heheh [devilish laugh]. Raising your eyebrows in surprise? There are at most 2 MAC stores in Poland, both opened last year, and for an average student's pocket MAC products are as reasonably-priced as, let's say, YSL lipsticks.

2. Marcelle skincare

Another Canadian make-up and skincare brand. I got Marcelle's Oil-free Multi-defense Lotion after my La Roche Posay moisturizer turned my face into a mirror each time I used it. It has SPF 15, which is a great bonus, very faint smell, absorbs well into the skin and doesn't clog my pores! Plus, it's great value: about $17 CAD for 120 ml.

3. GOSH Extreme Art eyeliners

Amazing, vibrant colors and unbeatable staying power. Funny that GOSH is unavailable in the US but sold in every Shopper's Drugmart drugstore here in Canada :) The brush applicator takes a bit of practice not to get them smeared all over your lashes, and that's probably the only downfall. These eyeliners last through kayaking, rollerskating and climbing! See swatches of the ones I have here.

4. Covergirl Lash Blast mascara

Great drugstore find, separates the lashes really well and gives them a bit of a definition. Nothing revolutionary, so don't you distress lovely UK ladies, but still a good buy overall.

5. TreSemme Heat Protective Spray

Love the smell of this stuff, I just spray it on the wet hair and style. Sometimes I use it even if I let my hair air-dry... Can't go wrong with vitamin-infused spritz in your locks!

6. Burt's Bees hand moisturizers

I love the whole idea of the brand using all natural ingredients and their cute vintage packaging, especially the little tins with cuticle creme or hand salve that you can just throw in your purse. The scent makes using their products another simple life pleasure!

7. LUSH massage bars

Mange Tout ('Eat all') massage bar, current favorite

Again, I like LUSH as a natural skincare brand, and the smells... I find them especially appealing in the winter/spring, when I am more keen on sweet, honey scents. Their massage bars melt onto your skin, leaving it soft, moisturized and smelling delicious :) On the other hand, their bath products seem too pricey considering what they are.

So that's my shortlist, hope you liked it :)

Have you ever discovered a brand abroad and wished it was available where you live?