Hauls and why I have been away

I haven't been blogging for a couple of weeks, sorry about that. I actually was catsitting three kitties for a week and that's one major reason why I haven't been posting anything.

So to make up for neglecting you, I decided to post my first hauling post ever! I received my The She Space grab bag and more Heavenly Naturals stuff.

So I received Basking in Sunshine ( top row, first one from the left), Necessary Laughter (top row, second one from the left), Vampires Tap Dancing (the red in the middle), Take a YOU Day (bottom row, first one from the left) and Experience Everything (second one from the left).

So I got two of the colours I wished for, yay! And these babies are superpigmented, I'm very VERY pleased. I'm glad that I took a chance on the grab bags and I actually ordered another Storypeople grab bag that has 10 shadows.

Basking in Sunshine is very vibrant orange (not peach, not copper).

Necessary Laughter is a lovely yellow with copper tones. Lovelovelove!

Vampires Tap Dancing is a pinkish red. This shade is so yummy, I can't wait to do a look with it!

Take a YOU Day is a regal purple.

Experience Everything is a gorgeous steely dark blue, a bit like stormy sky.

From Heavenly Naturals I got With You and Bambi. René had also sent me one of her lipglosses to sample! I got this lovely red called Candy Apple. It smells and tastes like peppermint and it tingles on my lips. I love it. I was expecting to get a couple of her regular eyeshadow sample baggies but this was a nice surprise! You don't have to guess that I'm smiling like a lunatic. I'm such a sucker for lipglosses.

With You is a minty green with a curious sparkle (I think it's golden but I have to look into it). I think this one is going to be my summer love.

Bambi is a lovely golden neutral, perfect for laid back summery look.

So I got the stitches out and this is what my wrist looks like now. Yeah, I've lost a bit of skin and flesh from the lower part.. It was just a matter of millimetres that I didn't cut my artery. But as you can see, it's healing quite nicely.

I'm trying to find some time to post a look soon!

Heavenly Naturals Earth Child + Believe FOTD

Actually I took these photos yesterday but as I redid this look today, I decided that I could use them still. I have been searching for a brown with green shimmer for a while. I had ordered Lime Crime's Dragon Scales but the colour just clashed with my skin. Then when I found Heavenly Naturals, I discovered Earth Child. It's a copper-shaded brown with lovely mint green shimmer. I also happened to have Heavenly Naturals' eyeshadow in Believe which is the actual same colour as the green shimmer in Earth Child. So of course I had to use them together.

Earth Child + Believe FOTD

Purely Cosmetics Skin Smoothing Foundation
Meow Cosmetics Top Cat Finishing Powder (over foundation)
Purely Cosmetics Blush in Blushing
Too Faced Shadow Insurance (as a primer on upper lids)
Heavenly Naturals eyeshadow in Earth Child (all over upper lids)
Heavenly Naturals eyeshadow in Believe (inner corners of eyes)
Lumiere Cosmetics eyeshadow in Butter Cream (as a highlighter below brow)
MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack (upper lashline)
Dior Diorshow Waterproof mascara in Black
MAC lipglass in Possum Nose Pink (from LE Dame Edna collection)


I really like the green shimmer in Earth Child. The highlighter also has a hint of green in it. I didn't even remember I had a shade like Butter Cream but it just magically reappeared when I was doing this look. Also note how the copper in Earth Child makes my eyes appear bluer. Blue-eyed babes take note: copper makes blues pop.

Here you can see the lovely shimmer Earth Child has. It matches 100% with Believe. It's fun because when I look at my eyes on the mirror, you can't see where Believe ends and Earth Child begins; the green shade just glides into the copper.

I'm very pleased with this look. I bought the cutest earrings ever! You can barely see them but they have Russian matryoshka dolls in them. They are made by Green Papaya. The company uses recycled and upcycled materials. These earrings of mine were made of a fabric that had matryoshka print in it.

I had a hard time deciding what shade of lipstick to wear with this look. I thought about wearing something orange but it would have been too matchy-matchy. So I settled with Possum Nose Pink which isn't a pink pink but rather a mix of fuchsia and warm red.

Oh, I also had to take a picture of my hand. I have a protective tape over the stiches but it's starting to peel off. As you can see, my wrist is pretty bruised.

Okay, I know my hand looks disgusting but what do you think of the look?

Heavenly Naturals Dark Purple FOTD

I accidentally slit my wrist while cutting bread two days ago which morbidly enough gave me an inspiration to do a darker, almost gothic purple look. My hand is still aching (it got stiched up) so doing makeup at the moment is a bit of a challenge. I hope you understand the situation and ignore any problems I might have had with blending.

Dark Purple FOTD

Purely Cosmetics Skin Smoothing Foundation (custom blended with 2 parts of Fair Maiden and 1 part of Peaches N Cream)
Meow Cosmetics Crystalline Cat Glow Powder in Quartz (as a higlighter on cheekbones and temples)
Purely Cosmetics Blush in Blushing
Too Faced Shadow Insurance (as a primer on upper lids)
Heavenly Naturals eyeshadow in Romantic Notion (all over upper lid)
Heavenly Naturals eyeshadow in Persuasion (outer vee and crease)
Heavenly Naturals eyeshadow in Cupcake (to blend out Persuasion and Romantic Notion)
Fyrinnae eyeshadow in Sakura (as a highlighter under brows)
Heavenly Naturals eyeshadow in Diva (wetlined on upper and lower lashlines)
Dior Diorshow Waterproof mascara in Black
MAC lipstick in A Rose Romance


I think Diva is a kick-ass purple and makes a great liner! I love it as an eyeshadow, too. Persuasion is a bit brownish purple which is why I decided to use a pretty pink like Cupcake to blend it with Romantic Notion which is a mauveish sort of purple. I didn't want to go too gothic so Cupcake balanced the look perfectly. Fyrinnae's Sakura is white with purplepink irisdecence to it. I blend it a bit with my fingers because it's a glowing white and I wanted to blend it so that it would look like I had a white line below my brows.

I think this is great photographic evidence on how purple really brings out the green in my eyes. I was going to line my eyes with black but instead went for purple which I think works better than black would here.

If you like Orgasm blush from Nars but find it a bit too gritty and glittery then try Purely Cosmetics' Blushing blush. It's a great dupe and looks way more glowy than Orgasm does. I have Orgasm in Multiple (haha) and I have a love/hate relationship with it. The colour is great but the glitter is a bit too much. I also adore Purely Cosmetics' Skin Smoothing Foundation. I use it when I want my skin to look flawless without a concealer.

I think Heavenly Naturals have great eyeshadows. They aren't as crazy as Fyrinnae's but they are of really good quality and the colours are lovely and very pigmented. I already have several full sized eyeshadows and I've been extremely happy with them.

I think I mentioned MAC's A Rose Romance lipstick in my last post. I love the formula and I really like how it looks on my lips. It's a limited edition colour as far as I know so if you're interested, you might want to get it ASAP.

How do you like my darker look?

Heavenly Naturals: Cupcake + Fairytale +Coutour FOTD

I noticed how I've done lighter looks a lot lately. The reason for this is that I'm very allergic to birch pollen and now it's like birch pollen party extravaganza going on. So I do lighter looks because most of the time my eye makeup starts running after half an hour.

I did my look using Heavenly Naturals, partly because I already did swatches and review and wanted to show how the colours look on me. I chose Cupcake, Fairytale and Coutour because I wanted to do something sweet but with a little twist.

Cupcake +Fairytale + Coutour FOTD

Meow Cosmetics Pampered Puss foundation in Inquisitive Himalayan
Meow Cosmetics concealer in Inquisitive Chausie
Meow Cosmetics Top Cat finishing powder (as a primer AND as a finishing powder)
Fyrinnae Blush in Enrapture
Too Faced Shadow Insurance (as a primer on upper lids)
Heavenly Naturals eyeshadow in Cupcake (inner half of upper lid)
Heavenly Naturals eyeshadow in Fairytale (outer half of upper lid, outer vee and crease)
Heavenly Naturals eyeshadow in Coutour (lower lash line)
MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack (upper lashline)
Dior Diorshow Waterproof mascara in Black
Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Visual Kei




I love Fairytale. It's very layerable colour and such a pretty green. I can't wait to use it wet as I'm almost positive that it will look unbelievably gorgeous. Coutour is a lovely golden colour (you can barely see it here but it gives a nice glow), very usable although it looks very strong in the swatches.

Visual kei is a lovely pink lippie, I love it.

Sorry for the short post, I need to go for a walk! I hope you like the look (although my eyes look a bit puffy) :)

Heavenly Naturals: swatches and a review

After reading xsparkage's glowing review about Heavenly Naturals I decided to have a go at them myself. Heavenly Naturals sell a variety of beauty products but I've concentrated on eyeshadows.

Pigments

I really like the smoothness of the pigments. Some of them are more sheer than others but overall I'm not diappointed so far. For those who don't like shimmer, there are several matte shadows to choose from. The mattes blend easily and there was no clumping like there sometimes is with matte pigments.

Colours

Well, you won't be disappointed with Heavenly Naturals' range of shades! Ok, there are not as many to choose from as there is with Fyrinnae or Aromaleigh but I dare you to say that you can't find anything you would like. There are reds, pinks, aquas, purples, oranges, yellows, nudes, whites, blacks... Something for everyone.

Shipping costs

As someone who doesn't live in the US, I always look at the shipping costs. That's partially why Fyrinnae has become such a staple for me. Heavenly Naturals offer international shipping at very affordable prices. I hate companies that charge me $15 for shipping and when that package arrives, I notice that the actual cost of shipping has been $3-$5. Heavenly Naturals doesn't charge you outrageous prices for putting the stuff on an envelope. The shipping costs were somewhere around $3.

Customer Service

I had a problem with my order. I received a wrong eyeshadow due to a glitch on the website. I e-mailed René and received an answer in two days. The problem was fixed instantly and with friendliness. They must be a bit swamped with orders after xsparkage's posting so I understand why I had to wait for two days. Plus that's not bad. There are companies that haven't answered me until I started getting really angry (I'm looking at you FaceFront).

Website

Okay, I'm such a language police and there are a lot of spelling mistakes. Also, individual samples are only available with certain colours, otherwise you have to do a package deal (which is not entirely bad). But mostly you can find the stuff you're looking for. I hope René will find the time to list the shadows according to colours because that would be very helpful.

In all, I give Heavenly Naturals an excellent grade. One has to remember that they are a small company and that brings some limitations. But the key points (product quality, shipping costs and customer service) were all right on.

I advice you to order samples first and then go for full sizes.

Finally, some swatches of the colours I have :) (I've used Too Faced Shadow Insurance as primer)

1st row from the top (from left to right): Cupcake, Baby Doll, Demure, Sacrifice

2nd row (from left to right): Daddy's Girl, Sleeping Beauty, Persuasion, Diva

3rd row (from left to right): Lemy-Lime, Fairytale, Panic, Fantasy

This pic was taken outside in direct sunlight. The shimmer is way more sparkly in direct sunlight, it's exquisite!

Same colours inside in sunlight. The difference in shimmer is noticeable when compared to the photo taken outside.

1st row (from left to right): Vanilla Crush, Bashful, Chocolate Brown

2nd row (from left to right): Fierce, Coutour, Ransom

This was also taken outside in direct sunlight. Look at all the shimmery goodness!

Same colours, picture taken inside in sunlight.

Is there some colours that I think are a must-have? Yes. If you love purples, you need Diva. Dady's Girl is lovely too but if you have MAC's Stars N' Rockets, it's almost a dupe. If you are a sucker for greens then I'd recommend getting Fairytale because it's a gorgeous golden green. For nude lovers, Bashful is a good choice. If pink is more your cup of tea, Cupcake should be on your list. If you want something out of the ordinary, check out Coutour and Ransom.

I really love Heavenly Naturals' mattes. Demure is almost like MAC's Yogurt,Vanilla Crush is a lovely off-white shade and Chocolate Brown is, well, chocolate brown :)

Heavenly Naturals has a spring collection called Spring Dollface. Vanilla Crush, Demure, Chocolate Brown, Bashful, Baby Doll and Fairytale are all from that collection.

So what do you think? Will you be sampling Heavenly Naturals?

Photographic evidence that I can be a real girl too... :)

Okay, I didn't have time to post my May Day's Eve look on Thursday. May Day's Eve (and May Day) are a cause of a big celebration here. It's the time for students and workers to celebrate and usually dress up in silly costumes (like bumblebees). Balloons are THE thing, too. And champagne/sparkling wine. We had our own May Day's Eve party at our place. We had invited a few friends to come over for a couple of drinks. I didn't want to dress up as a bumblebee (those stripes do nothing for my hips) but I wanted to use bright colours and my new skirt.


For eyes I used Heavenly Naturals. Baby Doll on inner corners, Daddy's Girl in the middle, Diva in the outer vee and crease and I lined the bottom lash line with Fantasy. It looked very fresh (sorry I don't have better pictures) and I was really happy with the look in general.

This is what you have been waiting for, right? A picture of me wearing THE skirt. I got so many compliments at work (yes, I had worn it the previous day at work) and people were thinking that it had been especially designed for me. I could almost feel my head getting bigger :D

So there you have it!