Best of 2018 – makeup

best of makeup 2018 / too faced palette / gingerbread palette / miss casual

We continue our “Best of 2018” series with makeup. I hope you liked the first part – travel as much as I did putting the post together and drooling over some amazing places. Looking back at all the makeup I discovered and wore over the past year, I remembered that I actually travelled to some of those amazing places with a few of these beauty items.

I did not write about it so much on the blog, but I am still very passionate about beauty and I still watch Youtube videos on the regular. Actually, a guilty pleasure of mine – when I have trouble sleeping, I watch makeup declutter videos and they put me to sleep without fault.

MORPHE Jaclyn Hill Palette

This was such a kind gift from Daniela in a moment that I was in a makeup rut. I had no idea what else to do with the makeup I had and make it exciting. This palette has been in my wish list for months and months, but for some reason I haven’t taken the plunge. I didn’t own anything else from Morphe so I didn’t know what quality to expect, but girl, was I surprised! I would not exaggerate to call this the jackpot palette – it’s that good. Especially when you think of the amount of product and the price- I am in awe!

christmas makeup / jaclyn hill morphe / miss casual

Too Faced – Gingerbread Spice

This was another present, this time from Paul. Can you say how much my friends know I love makeup? This palette has the cutest story: for Romanians, and I am sure that not only, on the 6th of December, St. Nicholas is bringing sweets to all houses. It’s like a small Santa Claus, that only brings sweets and fruits. Now here is the funny part- before opening my present, Paul has told me that he had difficulties finding some dairy free sweets (I am dairy intolerant) so I was expecting that he has found some vegan sweets which I usual like, except the fact that are very, very sweet. Surprise, surprise! It was the Gingerbread Spice palette- can anybody argue that it’s not something sweet? Good quality also – highly comparable with my beloved Chocolate Gold from Too Faced.

Kat von D – Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks

And these are everlasting indeed…except if you don’t challenge them with a burger. Even on my dry lips, these stay put all day without making my lips look like raisins. These were not a new discovery, but two of these shades I wore for work so much that they almost “monopolised” my lips all year.

Laura Geller – Baked Gelato Swirls

These are again some highlighters that I love wearing for work where I don’t want to blind everybody. Ballerina is a bit too dark for my skin tone at the moment – I can’t wait to get tanned to wear it…and not just for the name! However, Peach Glow and Gilded Honey are my daily go-tos. Lately, I even mix them together.

best 2018 makeup / laura geller highlighter palette / highlighter | miss casual

Too Faced – Chocolate Gold palette

This is my most used palette ever. This was part of Paul’s challenge. He had to go into the Too Faced boutique in Covent Garden and buy makeup products with a budget of £100. You can see how everything went in this post, but I was amazed of how well he did. What was actually going through my mind was: wow, he actually listened to all my blabbering about makeup. After a year of using it, I still get excited every time I open this palette, it might secretly be my best of all times.

best makeup 2018 / too faced / too faced palette / chocolate gold / miss casual

Too Faced – Sweetie Pie bronzer

This is another one of the products that Paul hunted down for me in the £100 beauty challenge. At first I was confused by this products – it first says it’s matte, but I can clearly see the golden shimmer. This turned out to be an overlay that disappeared after a few uses. Another problem I had with it was: is this a bronzer, is this a blush, is this superman? It’s mostly a bronzer, but it has the most natural bronzing shade that I’ve ever found for my skin tone. This is another favourite that “monopolises” my face.

bronzer / sweet peach bronzer / best of makeup 2018 / too faced / miss casual

Similar to when I ended my Best of 2018 – travel post, I feel that this was truly a good year, a lot of beauty finds. However, I am still left wanting more and a bit curious what this year will bring. We are thinking of doing another challenge when Paul has to go and buy my makeup, he seems pretty good at that. Would you like this kind of post? Maybe with more behind the scenes on Insta Stories?

Peach kisses!

February 22, 2019 0

To bronze or not to bronze?

I am latey latey with the blog post. Have you noticed? The dog ate my homework…wait, not this. This summer the hot weather in London with being in air conditioning for 9 hours messed up my entire system. Every time these days that I tried to sit in front of the laptop screen- migraine! Getting back to the question about bronzing, damaging UV left behind, I would say, to bronze! I do realize that to be bronzed does not mean the same thing in every culture, but where I come from, looking slightly tanned is synonymous with looking healthy.

The older I get the more I hear how harming the sun rays are and thinking that I used to bath in them for hours when I was a child… The sun might make us feel healthy in the beginning but abusing it, it can actually age our skin. It’s useless saying how important SPF is any time of the year. This being said, I am looking for a new SPF. I am using the Anthelios from La Roche Posay but it irritates my skin if I use it three days in a row so I need a better solution.

I, personally, despite the fact that I am quite fair, I have the potential of getting a nice tan. This happens only after I attend the tomato competition because first I turn red (bright red) and only after then I start exploring shades of brown. Because of this and because of the lack of time, I started looking for makeup to give me that healthy bronzed look, but without the red, dry too tanned skin effect. I have three makeup products at hand that serve a a very similar purpose, and if you are into makeup, you’ll find an excuse to have all three, just like me.

Urban Decay Beached Bronzer in Sun-kissed

This is my all year round bronzer. The shade suits me both at my palest or at my wow! I have actually been in the sun enough to get a tan. For now I only use powder bronzers so if I want to look healthy, sun-kissed as the name suggests – this is my go to. It’s easily buildable which means that if you have a light hand with it, you will barely see it on the skin, but if you repeat the process a few times – you have the potential of looking like a bronzed goddess.

bronzed | miss casual — can you tell how much I like it?

Benefit – Hoola (the original)

This is a tricky one for me. I received a sample of this in one of the beauty boxes and if you have watched makeup gurus on Youtube, you might remember that this bronzer was receiving everyone’s praise. It’s much finer than the Urban Decay one but this also means that if you want to build up a bronzed look, your hand has to be lighter than a butterfly. Personally, I think the problem for me is the shade. Probably the newer version, Hoola light will suit my skin tone better. When I did manage to get nicely bronzed though, the undertone of this bronzer looked like nothing else.

Too Faced – Sweetie Pie Radiant Matte Bronzer

You might ask yourself – radiant matte? What a big fat lie that is? That is a contradiction! But somehow, when you put the bronzer on the face, it makes sense. On my skin, this looks like a matte bronzer except if I do manage to bring it slightly higher, to my cheekbones, it reflects a very natural glow. All honesty, this is my lazy product, the one I use all the time.

Despite the cutest presentation (it really does look like a pie) and the fact that the smell is yummi without being overpowering, this will give you a soft bronzed but blushy look. If I can’t be bothered putting foundation on and it’s just a concealer kind of day, this is what you see on my face to make me look healthy and slightly blushed.

What is your opinion on being bronzed? Do you think it’s necessary, does it make you feel any different and most importantly, what bronzer do you use. Liquid or powder?

Until next time…kisses!

July 30, 2018 1

Eyeshadow palettes I am not using anymore

My eyeshadow palette collection is not a huge one. I would say that it’s bigger than I’d need it to be, but It’s not even close to what we see on Youtube nowadays. Even so, I have eyeshadow palettes that I am not using.

Most often, the reason for this is packaging. If the eyeshadow palette is bulky and can’t fit in with the rest of the palettes, it’s bound to be exiled somewhere else and be forgotten. Other times, the colour combination could be the one that is holding me back from using the palette. It can be that it’s not inspiring me or that I have similar colours to those in an eyeshadow palette that I already use.

Also, please keep in mind that what you are about to see are not necessarily bad palettes, these are palettes that I am just not grabbing every single week for some reason or another. The pictures will not be the clean, perfect ones we are so used to seeing on Instagram. Some of these palettes are dusty which you’ll be able to see on the mirrors which did not seem to want to be cleaned…just thought I’d give you a heads up.

1. Kat von D – Metal Matte

When this eyeshadow palette came out I was so excited! It was interesting how depending on how you held the packaging, it said either metal or matte. Also, the eyeshadows inside seemed so exciting and for the longest time, they were. I used this palette a lot.

The metallic eyeshadows are very pigmented and soft and are a pleasure to wear, except the purple one which for some reason, the moment I apply it, it changes colour slightly. Same goes for some of the matte eyeshadows. I know it’s a strange thing to complain about, but if I need a particular shade and when I apply it it becomes ashier that I want it to be, there is not win there, right?

The main problem however, is how big this eyeshadow palette is. It does not fit with any of the rest of my palettes and most often, even though it’s a very good quality palette, I forget I have it or I can’t be bothered taking it out from where I found a place for it.

2. Too Faced – Sweet Peach

This eyeshadow palette was used like a hero before it was almost retired. Do you know how we always see in police movies that after they retire, some officers just can’t mind they own very quiet new life and keep in doing what their job was for years? This is how this palette is. I have used up completely the white in the palette and I have two more metallic eyeshadows that I use quite often and the matte coral shade. Other than that, the rest of the eyeshadows lay untouched.

This is something that I heard happens quite a lot with Too Faced eyeshadow palettes. There are a few very good quality eyeshadows, some that are good but won’t knock you off your feet and others that you won’t even waste your time with. That is exactly what is happening with this eyeshadow palette.

This does not mean that all Too Faced eyeshadow palettes are like this. I am still loving my Chocolate Gold one and it’s hard not to use it every day. Other than that, The Sweet Peach palette has a very slim packaging which is why I keep it with the rest of my palettes and after more than two years of use, it still smells like peaches, but not in an overpowering way.

3. Urban Decay – Full Spectrum

This is another palette that got me so excited at first because of all the bright colours. Of course, I don’t wear bright colours every day so I knew that I won’t be using this eyeshadow palette a lot but I am still not using it as I should be.

There are two problems with this palette: the packaging and the quality. The packaging is not that bad, but if you’ve ever been in an apartment in London, you know that space is gold. Which this palette is taking up a bit more space than the rest and it’s not giving the same satisfaction as the rest are.

The biggest issue though, is quality. I tried a wet brush, dens brush, finger, still, some of the eyeshadows are not as pigmented as I wanted them to be. Especially when you have bright colours, if you need to build them up too much, be sure that the excess that did not want to stick to your lid, is now under your eyes. Again, there are so many great Urban Dceay eyeshadow palettes, but this is not one of the best.

4. Huda Beauty – Rose Gold

How I loved this palette! I still do, but not as I used to. When I first saw the colours I was in for the ride. I did not mind at all that the metallics are a different formula than anything on the market and that they looked more like a chunky pigment on your lids, I loved that! I still use most of the textured eyeshadows in the palette.

It is almost unfair that this eyeshadow palette is in this blog post, but truth is, even though I love it, I seem to favor other palettes when I do my makeup. The matte eyeshadows are slightly drier than the ones in the Desert Dusk palette but they are still good eyeshadows: they are pigmented and blend well. However, I just seem to prefer the tones in my other palettes.

I have not tried the Remastered edition of this palette, but if Huda kept on improving her eyeshadows, they must be good because the rest of her palettes are amazing!

These are the 4 palettes in my collection that I don’t use that often, from various reasons. The most serious one is the quality one, which means that it’s only a matter of time until I declutter them. I do have single eyeshadows that I don’t use that often either but that is my fault: I did not organize them in ages so that I will need to reach for one palette of singles and not three half empty ones.

Do you have eyeshadow palettes that you don’t use very often? How do you “convince” yourself to using them more?

Latest makeup post – here

July 15, 2018 0

Highlighter – how it changed my makeup game

I can’t even remember my makeup game before highlighter – do you ever feel like that? As mentioned before, because of my disco ball oily skin, I only started using highlighter two years ago. (did I live under a rock?)

It’s quite funny because I was literally salivating in front of every makeup tutorial when they got to the part where they are applying highlighter. I still don’t know if I would have purchased it myself, but let’s just say that somebody else aligned the stars for me.

I was still living in Romania and Paul in the UK when he came to visit holding a MAC bag. You can not imagine how my eyes sparkled! Where I used to live, the closest MAC store is at two hours away and it was only opened around 3 years ago so seeing a MAC bag is not the most common thing. As you might have guessed, the present in the bag was a highlighter, but not any highlighter, the staple – Soft and Gentle! I still use this one to the day, I’m actually wearing it now while I’m writing this blog post.

From my first experience, I kind of got a taste for highlighter so I ventured into the highly reflective Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit, the more subtle but buildable Laura Geller one, a powdery Sleek one that’s perfect for an understated highlighter to the crazy duo-chrome Diamond Light one from Too faced.

My most used highlighter is the champagne toned one from MAC and then the pink-toned Peach Glow one from Laura Geller. The MAC one will emphasize any texture that I have because of it’s consistency – even though highly reflective, it is a bit chunky. Even so, from all the highlighters that I’ve tried, this one has my most favourite undertone.

With such hyped products as highlighters, you would expect the trend to cool down soon, but honestly speaking, I don’t believe they are going anywhere. Except my makeup bag, of course!

Kisses

May 30, 2018 0

4 makeup looks with Too Faced – Chocolate Gold Palette

If you’ve been around for the past few weeks, you already know that we did a challenge in which Paul, my fiance, had to buy me makeup from Too Faced. There were no limits except the financial one and I was tremendously surprised that he didn’t go with his usual crazy choices, but had what I might like in mind.

I must say that I consider it to be a success since I love all the products he bought and now, the Chocolate Gold Palette and the Sweetie Pie Bronzer are something that I use on a daily basis.

As promised, I am showing you a few of the makeup looks I did with the Chocolate Gold Palette. Some will be totally wearable, some will be more appropriate for evening and the one that Paul did on me, will not be for the faint of heart, let’s just put it like this.

We had so much fun yet again, when he did my makeup and I must say that for how technical he is, this time he was outstandingly creative with his gold craziness. I might steal some of his ideas for the future. He said he didn’t buy me crazy coloured makeup (this time), but he won’t be as conventional with the makeup look he created…well, he kept his promise. Be gentle with him in the comments, it’s literally the first time he uses a brush for this purpose.

Even though the possibilities are endless when it comes to this palette, I am only showing you a few of the makeup looks I did. One is perfect for any eyes colour because it’s a bronze…you might get bored of me showing you my coppery-bronze looks, but I find myself drawn to them the most. Then, for a little twist that works miracles for hazel eyes, I added a wash of green in between my lower lashes so that it will show off the colour of the eyes even more.

The other makeup look is a soft glam one that if you keep quite monochromatic, as I did in these pictures, you can easily wear it over the day, but if you add a bit more black or maybe another colour as the over the lid one, this will literally be my go-to evening look.

Than with Valentine’s Day at our doors, I couldn’t leave out the pink halo eyes. It’s actually the first time I wore a bright pink on my eyes and I had no idea that it could actually suit me, but I walked around central London with this makeup look and didn’t feel out of place.

I enjoy doing makeup looks with a theme in mind or even this kind, makeup looks that you can do with one palette, but I want to know if you enjoy these? Do you want more makeup looks, let me know!

The giveaway is still available until the 11 of March, so if you want to sign up for it, I’ll leave the link below

Giveaway link: https://www.woodwatches.com/g/misscasual

February 14, 2018 1

Boyfriend buys my makeup – Too faced

If you’ve checked out my Instagram Stories from Monday, you already know what this all is about. I have challenged Paul (my fiance) to go into the beautiful Too Faced boutique in Carnaby, that really is my favourite place to go and buy makeup. He had a limit of 100 pounds to buy me makeup he thinks I would wear and love. I was curious if he would go crazy and pick daring colours or, he would think of what I like to wear and base his purchases on that. Let me tell you one thing, when we go to buy a lipstick together, he is the kind of person who gets exited over really strange colours like navy and green, which is the reason we don’t do this challenge in Kat von D. But now, thinking of it, that might be quite fun also.

I tried to not influence him very much, I just told him to buy Insta worthy makeup and by this, I mean makeup that is really photogenic which is not difficult with Too Faced because their packaging is to die for. He exceeded the limit by a few pounds, which I expected him to do, but that being said, I was so impressed by what he chose. I waited for him outside the boutique, somewhere where I could not see what he was buying because that is how I like torturing myself. He came out with a sealed bag and I was not aloud to peek until we got home. I was curious how he found the experience and he said that he was all sweaty by the end of it…and then, of course he had to said that this was not because he was anxious or anything, but because the heater was on. Yeah, right, as if anyone would believe that.

Finally, we got home and it was time to open the bag. I couldn’t be more surprised and impressed by his choices. First thing I spotted was the Chocolate Gold palette which I swatched and used this two days in which I had it. I can’t give you a full review on it yet, because there are just this many times you can do your makeup in two days, but at a first glance, the quality of it, is the best I tried from Too Faced. It’s very smartly set up with 4 matted – 2 transitions, an ivory colour and a black – and the rest of the colours are very pigmented metallics which I couldn’t be happier about. The colours are just up my alley and because of the choice of colours and the big mirror, I am pretty sure this palette will travel a lot in the future months.

Second item I saw was the Melted Gold lip gloss. This is exactly the kind of rebel choice I was expecting from him. My skin tone does not allow me to wear this one on it’s own, but I love it as a lip topper on a burgundy or even nudes and especially in the middle of the lips, as a highlight.

Third item was the cutest ever, the Sweetie Pie Bronzer! This is what I meant Instagram worthy makeup. This bronzer is just gorgeous and I am so glad to notice that it is not as heavily scented as the Sweet Peach palette. I forgot to say about the Chocolate Gold palette that it also has that yummy cocoa scent, but a very pleasant one, not overwhelming at all. A doubt that I had when it came to this bronzer were the glittery particles that it has which luckily, I found out later that is only a gold overlay which fades after a few uses and the bronzer is actually a really healthy matte finish which I can use on my uber oily skin and it has the right amount of pigment so you won’t have to do a small workout with your brush too get any pigment on your cheeks.

Last, but not least, this is the second highlighter he buys me, the first one being Mac’s Soft and Gentle. I knew it then that he is a keeper! This one is the Diamond Light highlighter which is a very soft green-blue duochrome which looks gorgeous on the high points of the cheeks. I won’t be able to wear this at work, but other than that, it is really wearable, it only gives you a slight, very slight mermaid vibe.

All in all, I am impressed by how Too Faced as a company are evolving. I find that they always had it with their packaging but sometimes I did not like their formula. That being said, absolutely everything that I tried lately, I just love and I don’t have the easiest to please skin, but still, their products work really well on me. And yes, I am a big big fan of the packaging, I feel like keeping everything out on my vanity to stare at it.

Do let me know if you liked this kind of a challenge and if we should do some more with other brands. maybe next time we try one where Paul will make it a bit harder for me. In a week we’ll have another post with a few looks with these products so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, the post that I planned for Wednesday (today) will be delayed for Sunday because this one was just too exciting. I hope you don’t mind that.

Kisses

January 31, 2018 0