Holiday Etsy wishlist

Hello, guys :)

Tomorrow is the first day of December, and the start of a crazy holiday shopping season :D

Therefore, I introduce you to my Etsy wishlist. Some of these things have been on my wishlist for more than a year (Jayne's Cunning hat), and some I've stumbled upon in the past few months. 

Portal Earrings

Dragon Age Grey Wardens Necklace

Reversible Lucky Octopus Earrings

Dragon Age Crest of Kirkwall Champion's Mark Necklace

Assassin's Creed Necklace

Human Heart Locket

Synapse necklace

Brain Bracelet

Cunning Jayne Hat

And the last thing on my wishlist is not of Etsy origin, but is nonetheless drool-worthy:

Sleek MakeUP The Berry Collection (pic borrowed from Killer Colours blog)

Go over to Viola's blog and check out those amazing swatches. This Collection is really a must-have, and I hope to buy it in January, for my birthday. I just hope it won't be sold out by then

Do you have a wishlist for the upcoming holidays?
What is one thing you're hoping to get for Christmas/New Year? :)

One thing before you leave: please go at the end of this post and place your vote in the poll.
And, of course, don't forget to enter my Sigma giveaway.

Thank you for reading 

Nic

Muddy Golden rose

Hello, my pretties 


First a little reminder: don't forget to enter my Sigma giveaway, where Sigma will get one lucky winner a brand new Flat top kabuki F80 brush 

Now, onto the nail polish.

This one is one thing I've never though I'll ever wear: a mud colored nail polish.
I've always found them to be very ugly and meaningless.
I mean, why color your nails in something plain and boring, when there are so many nail polishes in the world that need love.
And then I got a job and thought I need to fit in with all of mine non-nail-polish-wearing colleagues, so I bought this one.
Meet Golden rose Sweet color no.68 (what an ingenious name :D )

All the photos were taken under a daylight bulb.
It was really hard to take a decent picture, so the color is a bit off. It should have a bit more brown in it.
Also, I polished my nails in the evening and when I woke up in the morning I noticed it got wrinkled a bit, but I didn't want to reapply it so please pretend everything is ok :D

What do you think? I don't know how I feel about it. I feel it's a bit blah 
Whenever I saw my nails, all I could think of was : This is sooooo not me.

Good thing is I don't care about adjusting my nail color to my workplace ( right now I'm wearing China Glaze Emerald Sparkle   )

Another thing I would like you to do is please answer this poll.
I noticed that a lot of my (active) readers are Croatian/ex-Yu so I started considering writing in English and Croatian. What do you think? Is it necessary? I like writing in English  because I think everyone understands it, and it's more aesthetically pleasing having a coherent blog post, at least for me.

So what do you think? Leave it as it is, or write in English and Croatian?


Thank you so much for answering this poll and for reading this post 

Lots of love,
Nic

Brush showdown: Sigma F60 vs. F80 (come for the review, stay for the giveaway)

Hello, guys :)

As you already know, I've been a Sigma affiliate for a few months now.
A rep for Sigma contacted me and asked me if I would like to be a Sigma affiliate and offered me the Sigma F80 for a review.
I was a bit skeptic at first, but I decided to go for it, and eventually got the F80.

The only foundation I use is Revlon Colorstay Normal/Dry skin (150 Buff) and I used to apply it with Sigma F60. F60 is a part of Make me crazy kit, which I won at Nihrida's giveaway :)

Before I won the Make me crazy kit, I used to apply CS with my fingers or with a damp sponge. Considering my skin is dry, with very dry cheeks, these methods should be the best.  Maybe they are when using some other foundation, but with Revlon CS they were a terrible choice, at least for me.
When I was finished applying it, my skin would look like I'm wearing a mask, foundation layers were too thick and it felt awful.
I completely gave up on CS until a month-ish ago, when I was watching Lisa Eldridge's tutorial in which she said you could still use foundation brush if you have dry skin, but you should be careful every time to "swipe" in the same direction, from the middle to the outer parts of your face.
 I fell in love with CS+F60 because after I applied my foundation it looked really great. So great in fact, my boyfriend didn't even notice that I'm wearing any :D

But after I got F80...well, I've put everything in a chart below :D
(Your standard disclaimer: Sigma F80 brush was sent to me for a review by Sigma. All opinions are my own etc. )

Skin type: dry, very dry cheeks, with a slightly oily chin Revlon Colorstay Normal/Dry skin 150 Buff
Sigma F60 Foundation brush (damp)	Sigma F80 Flat top synthetic kabuki
It takes three times more foundation for the same level of coverage  It leaves the brush lines which means you need to blend more which can irritate the skin and it takes more time to apply the foundation properly The brush is flat and a bit rigid, so to propery blend foundation with the skin, you neek to press it more and "paint" with it It doesn't absorb too much foundation, it's very easy to clean	It takes a small amount of foundation for good coverage It gives flawless, almost airbrushed skin, it leaves no marks or foundation spots The brush is very soft, it doesn't require you to press your skin more than necessary  It doesn't absorb too much foundation, it's very easy to clean
After 4 hours of wear (no primer, no powder foundation)
Cheeks and forehead feel dry and a bit itchy Dry areas on my cheeks are visible	Cheeks feel just a tad dry, but it isn't really noticeable  Dry areas are not visible
Final verdict:
I believe this brush would be great for someone who doesn't have dry skin. I thought it was perfect before I tried F80. As long as my F80 is in one piece, I don't intend to use F60.	F80 is soft and fluffy, and in the same time  really firm. You can use light round movements and still get your foundation buffed into your skin. The result is a perfect airbrushed effect, not a single trace of foundation application is visible. It felt like I don't even have my foundation on.
Fun fact:
After applying Revlon CS with both brushes, I asked my boyfriend to say what part of my face is more natural looking (without visible foundation) without him knowing what part of my face is done with which   brush. He picked the side done with F80, which makes it an ultimate winner in this showdown.

More pics of these brushes:

 And now onto the giveaway part :)
Sigma was kind enough to provide additional F80 for a giveaway. Say "Hello" to a nice Sigma :D

These are the rules:

- you must be a visible follower via Google Friend Connect  (1 point)

For additional entries:

- add me to your blogroll (1 point) 
- add this giveaway to your blog sidebar or do a blog post and leave a link to your blog (1 point)
- tweet about my giveaway and tag me (@NicCharlie) (1 point)

- follow me on twitter (1 point)


Giveaway will end on 6.12.,which is St. Nicholas day (aka my name day :) ) at noon (GMT +1).


Giveaway is international, but please be advised that Sigma will ship the brush directly to the giveaway winner.
I guess that is all for now :)


All you have to do is to fill out this Google form:


GIVEAWAY CLOSED




Thank you for reading :*
Nic

essence Skyscraper

We interrupt our scheduled Halloween programming (yes, I know Halloween was Monday, but I have at least one more look to post, and I'd like you to pretend it's still interesting :D ) to show you this beauty:

I present you essence Skyscraper, a part of Urban messages TE.

If I had to describe Scyscraper in two words, they would be "dirty white". It's a light grey/muted white base with tiny  finely milled specks of brown something. I planned to write "shimmer" or "glitter" but it just feels so wrong :D

It's almost as if you were making a franken using a white nail polish and a small amount of pure dirt. It also contains almost invisible blue glass flecks which combined with "dirt" give this polish a perfect "pure stone" look. 

This was a first time in my life I really admired my nails. They are soooo long in this picture :)

I used to bite my nails as a kid, and I have a very fragile nails, they tend to break as soon they grow past my nail bed.

I will make a post about my nail routine, if anyone is interested :) 

In this last photo you can really see all the components of this nail polish. 

Skyscraper is surely the nail polish I will often reach for in the future.

Thank you for reading,

Nic