Origins

I came across an incredible offer today when I went to pick up a few necessary bits and bobs for my shower (shampoo tends to run out very quickly around me...erhm). Anyway, I wasn't supposed to actually buy anything but that shampoo and nail polish remover but then I walked passed the Origins corner and noticed quite the deal. 3x75 ml face masks for £35. I mean, that is plain ridiculousness! Originally they would be over £55 so I saved quite a bit there, and these are quite decent sizes, so I bet they'll last me a year or maybe more! To top it all up and make the deal even better, one of the 3 face masks was the Origins Clear Improvement mask, which Anna has raved about quite a few times, so obviously I have been dying to try it (and so I did tonight - review coming in a week's time).

Along with the Clear Improvement charcoal mask you get the less intense version of the DrinkUp Intesive mask, which is called (no surprise here) DrinkUp.  It works in more or less the same way as the intensive mask does, and I have a review on that here if you want to check that out. The last mask in the set is the Out Of Trouble (love that name) which claims to "rescue problem skin"which I have to admit sounds pretty cool, so I might try that one out during the weekend!

I think that for the quality, the amount and the simple amazing-ness of these products this was quite a small prize to pay, in other words it was a bargain! I am thrilled about stocking up on some facial goodies for the spring so expect to see reviews on these soon :)

That's all from me today, but if you have tried any of the Origins face masks, let me know your thoughts on it in the comments, I would love to hear how others feel about these!

- Em

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Did someone say Alexander Wang?

I'm afraid not, but these gorgeous heels do come quite close in appearance(except from the holes), although price wise they are far, far, far cheaper. In fact I didn't pay more than £10 (100NOK) for them in the January sale at H&M! The quality may not be nearly as good as a pair of Wang's (not that I would know, but I assume so - my budget certainly does not stretch far enough for owning a pair of Alexander's designs, even though I wish it did). Anyway, these cheap-ass pretties are quite a decent dupe (I know they aren't identical at all, but the style is rather similar I think) for those of us who want to pretend that we do indeed own designer  shoes whilst we don't ...at all :) Ok, enough about that, you can judge as to how far they look alike yourself, but regardless of the resemblance I still think they're pretty gorgeous, and they are actually comfortable - that is if you are a little used to heels, if not then well, they aren't exactly as comfortable as flats..duh. Ok, I'll let you have a look and judge yourself:

A teeny tiny similar at least? No? Ok...

I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you want more of these "cheap dupes of designer brands" posts, then let me know! It can be for Make-up, Clothes, Shoes, Accessories et.c it's up to you :) 

Have a nice day!

- Em

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ChanelChanelChanel

So that was a strange title, but I have a reason for it. Chanel was my inspiration a few weekends ago when I created the make-up look that my good friend Siren is wearing above. You see I have been applying to universities and a few of them require a creative portfolio. Now I am not very good with sketching, drawing and all that stuff so to have something to put into this portfolio of mine, I ended up doing some of my friends makeup, and well...with one of them I became quite a lunatic and took my inspiration from Chanel's famous glitter brows from the Autumn 2012 Runway. 

It was a friday and I was going shopping for the bits and bobs I would need for this look I was going to create, and 1st if all - I am one to stick with high street products as I don't really have a budget for all the high end products out there, so to go into the more "luxurious" make-up stores was quite fun. Very fun actually - just imagine me as a little kid in a candy shop and you've got it! Secondly I had no clue as to what exactly I was looking for so I had to come up with something as I went along. But oh well, with Karl Lagerfeld's out-of-the-box brow designs in the back of my mind, I stepped into the streets of Stavanger and started this quite exciting little hunt which in the end led me to this:

Make- up Store had quite the selection of loose glitter, and such a gorgeous range of cream highlighters!  (I will add the name of the products later today as I am not at home right now)

Eyeshadow palette from Accessories which has surprisingly good pigmentation! Care for a review?

Smashbox HD complexion set with a travelsize foundation, concealer, primer and powder.

Very good sizes for the price (£30) and the quality is extremely good so I will definitely do a review of these soon!

I am not sure if any of you are interested, but here comes a quick run-down of how I created this look: I primed her face and eyelids, then used a pritt-stick to "cover" her brows (just remember to wipe away any of the glue that might have come outside the brows). I then applied the Smashbox foundation in Light all over her face. Next came the "Very Berry" pencil from Make-up Store which I used to outline and fill in the brows with. I then added eyelash-glue on a cotton bud and spread that on the eyebrows (one at a time) before I applied the glitter, gradually moving from pink to green/blue (I created a mix of the two colours for the middle part so that they would fuse together naturally. Then I cleaned up any fall down of glitter with a tissue and then applied some concealer where it was needed, which was pretty much nowhere :) (a tip is to make your model hold a  tissue paper under her eyes while working with the glitter to reduce the amount of "cleaning" needed. )  For the eyelids I applied the cream highlighter from Smashbox and a swipe of the eyeshadows Copper and Bootycall by Urban Decay (Naked2) all over with some mascara on the lashes just to keep it subtle and natural. To finish off the face I used my Chanel Soleil de Tan Bronze Universal (Review Here) to warm up her complexion and do a little contouring, and the Smashbox highlighter on her high-points set with the TopShop highlighter in Crescent Moon. And that was it, as simple as that. Well it did take me about 2.5 hours so I guess it wasn't that simple but its not too complicated, just very time consuming.

I will leave you with a few more pictures of Gorgeous Siren and the completed brows, and if you want to know anything more about the products, the procedure or just have any questions or comments then don't hesitate to write them below or send me a tweet :)

  

Have a lovely weekend!

-Em

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The Review: Chanel Bronze Universal

Before I applied it, and after. Below is with blush and contour as well. Apologies for the yellow light in these, I know that distracts from the true colours, but I did this in the morning so the lighting was bad... 

Ok so I admit that I have been cheating a bit with only posting polyvore creations for the past week, but honestly I don't know where the time went! All I can say is that I will try to resume to my somewhat more normal content, starting with my Chanel Soleil De Tan - Bronze Universal review which is coming just below the next paragraph.

As for what I have been up to, there's not much to tell other than that my birthday was last Thursday which meant a celebration was in order for Friday, then a birthday party for a friend of mine on Saturday - and then a visit to my grandparents on Sunday.

So here it is, the long awaited review of my beloved (yes I attach quickly) Chanel Soleil de Tan, Bronze Universal. I showed you a quick glimpse of the actual product in this post so I will skip that part today and stick to the fun stuff, which is how it works.

This product is raved about on quite a lot of beauty blogs and in even more beauty videos. It is a staple for many make-up artists and on the runway it happens to be one of those “instant bronzed face” staples. So how does it work for us non-models? At first glance it looks like someone popped a big dollop of chocolate mouse in a Chanel jar, with the consistency of cold, hard butter. But once you actually get some on your little synthetic brush (I use this one) and apply it on your face it blends into a smooth, velvety creamy bronze glow that doesn’t look cakey, powdery nor too “creamy”. In a way it disappears, leaving only a nice glow and some colour, because it is quite pigmented and has a slight shimmery finish (although nothing too overpowering). As for the colour, it is more on the orange side than the grey-ish brown,  so please, if you have a skin tone close to mine (I’m MAC NW20) then use it as more of a bronzer, and not so much a contour product as that can easily look fake and not so flattering. In the pictures above I have applied it just above where I normally apply my contour and then blended it upwards and slightly down to the hollows of my cheekbones. This does create an illusion of a contour but not a super obvious one. I then applied some of my Sleek Contour Kit in Medium (only the contour colour) to shape my cheekbones and my temples. To finish off I used a swipe of my Sleek Blush Trio in Lantern.

The lasting power for this badboy is quite impressive, at least on me and I have combination skin. It lasts a good 10-12 hours without too much budging and it’s only when I wear it for longer that I notice it going slightly patchy.

All in all I love this product and it is now an everyday staple in my make-up routine. I just love how it gives my face that little bit of colour and healthy glow.

Have you tried it or du you want to give it a go?

- Em

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Running towards spring

Running towards spring by emiliega featuring high heel sandals

Topshop / River Island black tank, $32 / Current elliott, $285 / Giuseppe Zanotti high heel sandals / Chanel quilted handbag, $2,285 / Elizabeth and James / Chanel lipstick

Untitled #2

Untitled #2 by emiliega featuring helmut lang

BOY London printed shirt, $72 / ELEVEN PARIS , $52 / Helmut Lang / Converse side zip boots, $76 / Burberry / Chanel gold jewelry / Monique Péan black jewelry / Yellow gold jewelry, $505 / Eddie Borgo studded hoop earrings / Marc by Marc Jacobs white gold jewelry, $295

Summer Dreams

Blog, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Weheartit, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest.. Where and when will my addiction end? Apparently not there and not now. My good friend (and blogger) Amalie introduced me to Polyvore yesterday - damn you for giving me another reason not to socialize...Anyways, after starting about ten different sets/collages, I finally managed to stay focused on finishing one (there's constantly new items popping up that you want to use in a new set which makes it hard to only create one...) and it is definitely reflecting my longing for summer! But as a beauty/fashion blogger I thought I could be fun to share, and if any of you lovelies would fancy following my polyvore profile to see all my future sets, then just click the link below :)

My Polyvore

River Island party shirt $40 - riverisland.com Witchery long skirt $135 - witchery.com.au Topshop shoes topshop.com Lodis handbag lodis.com Gold jewelry makemechic.com

Vintage style necklace banggood.com Lucky Brand gold feather ring luckybrand.com Circle sunglasses nastygal.com Nars cosmetic beauty.com

I know I am definitely going to get quite a lot of inspiration from this page so I recommend it to every fashionista or beautygeek out there!

Do you have Polyvore?

- Em

Oh and PS. today (the 17th is my birthday, so now I am officially an adult :)

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New Year, New Goals, Same Old Dreams

2013. Two thousand and thirteen. I might be a little late on the band wagon but, wow, it is crazy how time flies, and with that I mean, really - it flies by, with a loud "swooosh". Whenever a new year approaches I start thinking about resolutions and goals I can set for the coming year, and every year I end up with the same, old, sticky clichés. Work out, eat healthy, work more with school work, blah blah blah... It's so old and used up! And honestly, when have I ever stuck with any of those? Never. Therefore, this year I will set myself some proper, serious goals that I haven't had before. They may not  be all eye-opening and original, but certainly better than my previous ones. Let's get on with them then, shall we?

Move to England and start Uni
Meet new people and become more independent and educated

Pretty obvious as I've just applied to universities in the UK, but this is what I am the most excited about for this year. Experiencing the life at university, learning about what I love (for those who do not know, I have applied to fashion marketing) and meet so many new people!

Travel

I told you they wouldn't all be original, this is one of the typical resolutions, but I really do want to travel and explore some more of the world this year! I have a few things in mind, but I need to decide on what to choose!

Develop my Blog

Any blogger of any sort will constantly be striding towards having a blog they are proud of, and although I am partially satisfied with the way my blog is now, there is so much more I can do with it! I also want to make it more of a full-time thing. That is once I finish my IB because I'm about to enter the time on exams which doesn't allow much blogging I'm afraid...

I need to leap into something that's unknown territory and try my best to make it work although it scares the hell outta me...I other words I need to:

Start a YouTube Channel!
Good god, now I've said is, and it's here, black on white. I've wanted to start making YouTube videos for quite a while now as I am obsessed with others on YouTube, but I find it really hard to sit down and make it all work... but new year means new opportunities, so I am going to do it. As making videos is a quite time-consuming project I doubt there will be any great progress until school's done, but I would love it  if you guys could give me some tips and tricks regarding this whole video-making thing. And if you have particular requests for what kind of videos you would like to see me do then feel free to let me know as I am quite lost somewhere between vlogs, reviews and tutorials..

Sort out my skin and clean my insides!
didn't really intend for that to sound so grotesque...
You were right, there had to be something beauty related, and well since my skin has been acting like crazy lately I have decided to take matters in my own hands for real this time and start from the inside to make my skin clear up.  I hereby open my door to everything vitamins, clean and healthy food, water and exercise. Hopefully it will do the trick, because my skincare is currently not enough on its own...

I consider these things as more of dreams and things I want to achieve (except from that last one - that's a pretty ordinary resolution...) and boy do I want to work hard to do so! Anyway, now that I've shared my dreams, goals and resolutions for 2013 I want you to do the same! Either by making a blogpost of your own (is you do, then link it in the comments so that I can check it out :) ) or by leaving a comment listing them. This way we can all work together towards achieving them and support and motivate each other along the way! I know this isn't like my typical beauty and fashion posts but I wanted to make this post, and so I did :) 

I thought I'd leave you with two pictures that may help your imagination spring to life when pondering on what you want to have done by the end of this lovely year.

- Em

If you prefer twitter for communicating rather than leaving comments, then you can always tweet me:) Find my link below...

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The miracle liner

Review time! A few weeks ago I came across a little beauty that had been hiding in the shelves of my local H&M store (yes, they sell drugstore/high street makeup in H&M here). I have been searching for the perfect, smooth, long-lasting, pigmented, "blendable" and affordable eyeliner for a long time now, and I believe I have finally found it. Enter Maybeline Master Drama Eye Pencil. I believe this has been out for a while now, but I haven't heard a lot about it something I find strange as it is surprisingly good, with quality that hits the high end standards! I have it in the colours Dark Brown and Deep Purple. Dark brown is a matte while deep purple has some shimmer (see pictures below). 

They both slide on very easily and with high pigmentation so one "swoosh" with the pencil along your lash line + some touch-ups on the wing (if you want one) and you are good to go. Honestly I have never found putting eyeliner on easier than with these! If your want them smokey, then smudge until you have the desired effect and then it will stay like that for the rest of the day. They are said to last 16 hours, and so they do. The other day I put it on at 7 in the morning, and didn't remove it until 11 o'clock at night and it looked pretty much the exact same, except for a little fading of my wing, but considering I'd worn it all through a 16 hour long day, I can't complain. It's also lasted through sweaty work-out at the gym so to put it this way - this is a miracle liner that is unbeatable! Now I will shut my mouth and give you a little peek at what it does...

UK price is £4.49 which is a little lower than the Norwegian price which was NOK70 I believe, but it is still quite affordable considering its high quality.

When I put it on in the morning this is what it looked like:

Then about 10 hours later this was the state it was in; pretty good huh?

 So if you're ever in doubt of what eye liner to choose, then you know what I would recommend, because this is pretty darn awesome!

- Em

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