Sunday Roundup: #8

Another week gone by! And with that week, August also passed and September is right around the corner. How is it possible that there's only four months of 2014 left?
Before I recap what happened on the blog this week, let's take a little picture stroll through my Vienna neighbourhood ...

These pictures we're taken on Thursday- we had such nice weather that day! Pretty sure it was one of the last really summery days of this year though ...

A Guide to KIKO Nail Polishes

Let's talk about nail polish!
I haven't written about nail polish on this blog before- I wear nail polish all the time, but somehow it doesn't get me as excited as other beauty and makeup products, it's just something I apply without thinking too much about it.

For today's post, I wanted to write up a little guide to nail polishes by the brand KIKO. They have a really great range of different colours and finishes, and I find that they work pretty well for me in terms of staying power/not chipping all too fast.

From left to right, we have the 3 in 1 Mat Base/Top Coat that belongs to the nail care range, a deep plum shade from the regular Nail Lacquer range, a light blue with a Sugar Mat finish, a mint with a Cupcake finish and a dark purple/reddish tone from the Quick Dry Nail Laquer range.

Music Talk: 10 Years of Green Day's American Idiot

Brace yourselves guys, because I'm going to get emotional up in here.
So ten years ago, the year was 2004. I was thirteen. Which is, arguably, a horrible age to be in. I wouldn't want to be thirteen again for the world. On September 14th, 2004 however, a band called Green Day released their seventh studio album, American Idiot. And it changed my life.

Oh I know exactly how stupid it sounds, to say "uh this piece of music that will probably be forgotten over the course of another few decades" changed my life. But it did. I would not be sitting here today, harping about The Rolling Stones and David Bowie in my MA thesis, had it not been for the massive impact that Green Day's American Idiot had on my adolescent life. We all start somewhere.

So let's go back again to 2004. I may not remember much about what happened ten years ago, but I know that the first song I ever heard of Green Day was Boulevard of Broken Dreams. I heard it on the radio, and I was so, so intrigued by it. The melody, the lyrics, it was just so beautiful to me. It certainly took some time for 13-year-old me to find out what the song was called and by whom it was, but I also remember buying the maxi single (yes, back when we still did that!) for the song soon after I first heard it. It also had She's a Rebel on it, and soon I bought the whole album. I needed more of this music in my life. And man, did I fall in love with everything about this album that is American Idiot.

CV Picture Makeup

Since I'm hoping to get my MA degree over the course of the next months, applying for jobs seems inevitable at this stage. But before that can happen, I need some up-to-date CV pictures of my face. Since I'm very critical and professional photographers never seem to get it right (maybe the would, but which photographer takes the time to take about 100 pictures of you so that in the end, you can single out about 5 of them out that you actually like?), I tried a different approach this time. Together with my friend Chrissi, her camera and a white wall in her room, we tried to do it ourselves. Here's some of the pictures that I quite like:

For pictures like these, a few questions you ultimately have to ask yourself are:

# What will I wear?

# How do I wear my hair?

# How do I wear my makeup? 

As you can see, for clothing I opted for this navy dress with a black collar and for hair, I decided to wear them open and wavy. For makeup, here's some more details ... 

Deep Cleaning Your Makeup Brushes

A quick post while I'm at work, and it's about cleaning makeup brushes! Yay!
No, just kidding. Cleaning your makeup brushes must be one of the most annoying, pesky tasks in the life of a beauty lover. Plus, it tends to suck up more and more time as your brush collection is expanding- and we all know, once you start collecting something, it's hard to stop ...

Sunday Roundup: #07

Another week has passed, so it's time for my weekly roundup!
This week, work happened. Shopping happened. Thesis work happened. Cookie baking happened. So I'll just let a few pictures speak first ...

The Face: #06 - Autumn Inspired

I've reviewed quite a few new products I got this week, starting of with the new Catrice Nude Illusion Makeup on Monday. Back then, I promised to post pictures of me wearing said foundation soon- and I thought why not incorporate it into the traditional "face of the day" post? So here we are!

Review: KIKO "Daring Game" LE Lipstick and Lipliner

Another day, another review!
As I've mentioned in yesterday's post, I went shopping recently- mostly to check out the newest limited edition from KIKO. I've talked about it before- I really adore KIKO as a brand in general and I think they do great limited editions with even greater packaging!

Generally, I think it's pretty cool that KIKO limited editions are not released as frequently as those by other brands- this way, the products are longer available in store as well as online, and the chance of actually getting your hands on a product is much more stress-free compared to limited editions by other brands (think MAC or if you're familiar with the brand, Catrice).

I've mentioned the KIKO Daring Game limited edition and the products I find most interesting in this post; so far, I've bought one lipstick and one lipliner, which I will review for you today.

Review: LUSH "No Drought" Dry Shampoo

On Tuesday, in between watching Teen Wolf (super important) and doing MA thesis related stuff, my friend Dani and I went for a mini shopping tour- mostly because we wanted to check out the new KIKO Limited Edition (which I already posted about here) and to visit another friend who works at LUSH.

I have indeed spent some money in KIKO, but I will post about that in the next couple of days. Today's post concerns itself with the product I picked up at LUSH - the "No Drought" dry shampoo.

Hope you're enjoying the German description? ;)

Music Talk: Female Artists - Florence Welch/ Florence+ The Machine

When I look at my iTunes library (is it a library when it's music?) it's pretty obvious that I tend to listen to a lot more male artists than female ones, percentage-wise. So why not focus on the female artists and voices for a change? Here's a breakdown of my favourite ladies in the music business! And while I'm at it, I will make it a series! Starting with the absolutely incredible Florence Welch of Florence+ The Machine.

I actually have no idea how I discovered her because it's been a few years, but I strongly suspect that my friend Eva (shoutout to you, you rock!) introduced me to her. I could be wrong, but in that case I'm sure she will correct me when she reads this. Anyways, I definitely started listening to her way before her second sudio album Ceremonials was released.

Florence Welch is a singer-songwriter and widely known for the work she has done together with her band ("the Machine"), with two studio albums called Lungs (2009) and Ceremonials (2011), as well as the b-sides to Lungs and two live albums (including MTV Unplugged). Her musical style is described as something in between indie rock/pop and art rock- I think it's really hard to narrow it down in her case.

Review: CATRICE Nude Illusion Foundation

Catrice Cosmetics has changend and expanded their regular line for the upcoming season, and along with other products, they now offer a bunch of new foundations. Saturday, I was in my local drugstore and noticed that they already carried some of the new products. Since I wanted to try out a new foundation anyways, I opted for their new Nude Illusion Makeup which I will review for you here.

Sunday Roundup: #06

August is officially halfway over, and for Austria that basically means summer is practically over as well. I can't say I'm overly sad about that- I'm slowly getting to understand why so many people actually prefer autumn and its crisper weather.

Here, have a garden picture + herb spiral thingy!

Autumn Wishlist

Autumn Wishlist from tanjawhatsername

The seasons are slowly changing and it's definitely starting to feel like autumn is around the corner in Austria- which is really fine with me, I've had enough of the summer humidity in Vienna. To me, perfect weather really is when the temperature is cool enough to throw on a leather jacket without feeling too warm in it.

Which brings me to this post! I've never played around on polyvore before because I never felt the need to (since it only makes me painfully aware of the things I want but cannot afford), but this was kind of fun. So above you can see a few things that I want to get (but probably don't need) in no particular order ...

Weekend Skincare Bag

I have to confess, I actually didn't plan a post for today and played with the thought of slacking a bit, but as I was packing for going to my hometown for the weekend (there's a bank holiday on Friday in Austria, so it's a long one!), I thought to myself ... why not throw together a quick post about the skincare products I actually take back and forth with me? So here we are!

The Face: #05 - Winged Eyeliner and Red Lips Edition

After watching Jersey Boys in the cinema this past Sunday, I felt very much inspired to break out the matte red lips again after looking at all the makeup and costume porn presented in that movie! The 1950s sure had their priorities on point when it came to makeup: red lips and eyeliner flicks everywhere!

So for today, I went back to an old favourite and probably the most popular shade of red that MAC offers: Russian Red. The perfect neutral-toned matte red that pretty much suits everyone. Paired with my favourite eyeliner- an absolute bargain-product- Essence's Liquid Ink Eyeliner (waterproof version), these two make the perfekt red lip and cat flick combination.

New KIKO Limited Edition in stores now!

As I was scrolling through my twitter feed yesterday, I saw that KIKO Cosmetics had tweeted about their new limited edition for autumn/winter. Since I'm always intrigued by the beautiful packaging as well as the quality of their products, I obviously had to take a look at the website- and I was very pleased with what I saw!

The new limited edition is called "Daring Game" and is casino themed- which the gorgeous packaging of the compacts also indicates!

Here's a list of the products that appealed the most to me while browsing through their new offering of pretty things:

KIKO Golden Game Sculpting Bronzer

KIKO Golden Game Sculpting Bronzer (15,90€): A gorgeous bronzer/highlighter duo that comes in two shades- the bronzer obviously occupying the bigger pan. Would you look at that gorgeous design?! I want it... 

Flawless Albums: #1 - "Babel" by Mumford & Sons

As last week's posts have been very beauty content heavy, I thought I'd start the week of by talking about music again. And while I'm at it, why not start a series? So this really is the first installment of a string of posts that will discuss albums which (in my humble opinion) are flawless. 

So first up, in this list of albums that are awesome (in no particular order) we have Babel by Mumford & Sons: 

Sunday Roundup: #5

Another week has gone by, and we're well into August. Considering I want to finish my thesis sooner rather than later, time is passing way too quickly. On the other hand, I'm excited for autumn as well because the summer in Vienna has been nothing but hot and humid these past few weeks, and that's not what you want when you're stuck in a flat in the middle of the city.

Austria News: MAC Pro Lipsticks now available in the regular line!

Attention, fellow Austrians: Just yesterday my friend Dani informed that the MAC Cosmetics newsletter- which I wasn't subscribed to before because I'm an idiot - said that the lipsticks of the MAC Pro range are now available in the regular line of products in Austria! Yay!

Top 10 Favourite Makeup Brushes

Face brushes

Eye brushes

Let's talk makeup brushes!

The Face: #04 - Colourful Edition

Neutral looks are pretty, I agree, and I mostly also wear a variation of them on a day to day basis. Today however, I felt like putting colour on my face and eyes. So what better to use than red and blue eyeshadow to make things interesting, right? As you can see, I used a lot of Sleek stuff for today's face- I love the brand and I always buy something of Sleek when I visit London ... great pigmentation for a very budget-friendly price, what's not to like?

July Favourites

Yes, I know. We're well into August and yet here I am posting the obligatory July favourites post ... I just didn't get around to do it earlier, but I figure better late than never, right? So without further ado, here's what I've been liking last month:

Swatch Comparison: MAC Rebel vs. Estée Lauder Insolent Plum

Last week, the combination of having a gift voucher and being drawn to plum lipsticks in general made me buy a new lipstick: Estée Lauder's Pure Color Envy in Insolent Plum. You can read my first impression on it in this post.

I already mentioned that it reminded me a lot of MAC's Rebel, one of my all-time favourite lipsticks. So I though a little swatch comparison was in order! Here we go...

MAC Rebel vs. Estée Lauder Insolent Plum

Sunday Roundup #4

Can't believe week four is already over! So far, blogging is still fun and I enjoy it, yay!
I'm afraid there's not much to tell/show in this week's roundup, as I didn't have too much time to blog (as you might have noticed by the number of posts in between roundups) because I was more occupied with spending time with family and friends.

What I did do though is tidying up my flat (with my mum's aid, I'll never be as thorough when it comes to cleaning...)- I finally managed to rearrange my bookshelf which was overflowing with stacks of printouts for uni and other unnecessary stuff that ultimately landed in the bin. Other than that, I finally was able to put up the beauty blogger piece of furniture everybody seems to have- the Ikea ALEX. It's really super convenient though, lots and lots of storage space in these drawers. And trust me, I'm not planning to fill this one up with heaps and heaps of makeup- unfortunately, I'm still a poor student with not enough money to do that kind of thing (one day. #hopefulsigh) ...

Excuse the awful lighting. It's raining outside.  

Music Talk: Legends covering legends

I usually don’t get very excited when new artists cover older songs (not out of snobbery, it just doesn’t feel as epic to me), but there’s one thing that fascinates me in the music world: when legends cover legends.

Mini Haul & Review: Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy in Insolent Plum (450)

My mum has been visiting me in Vienna for a couple of days (which is also the reason why I haven’t been posting as regularly as I wanted to, apologies!), and today we went shopping. I didn’t really buy anything else worth mentioning, but what I did buy was this beauty- behold the lipstick porn:

Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy in Insolent Plum