My Manicure Routine

Hello beauty world :)
How have you been?!
Well I've been great, kind off busy but tonight I have completely devoted my time to writing a new blog post.
I think this one is particularly fun, because it's about manicures. And who doesn't love manicures, especially if you can do them at home.

Let's start with the few things you will need for this part of a pamper day or night:

1. A towel
2. A bowl that is big enough
3. Water
4. A lemon
5. Cotton pads or cotton balls

6. Nail polish remover of your choice
7. A bath cream or oil that foams up
8. A Nail File

9. Cuticle peeling and cuticle balm
10. A base coat (in my case two- one for strenght and the other for a whitening effect)
11. Dry drops
12. A nail polish of your choice

I know I listed a lot of things, but this is just the way I like to do it and it works for me personally. You can skip a few products if you like, that is all up to you.

After getting together all of this things that I listed I follow these steps:

Step 1:
I take my cotton pad, I moist it with nail polish remover and I remove my previous nail color.I think this is the easiest one and also an obvious step.

Step 2:
Fill up your bowl with warm water and pour a little of your bath oil or cream. After it foams up you are ready to soak your hands in it.

This step is going to clean, relax, hydrate and soften your nails. That way they will be perfectly prepared for the upcoming steps.
I soak my fingers for about 10 minutes maximum, also I like the water to be a little warmer because within the 10 minutes it tends to cool off.

Step 3: 
After you have wiped your hands throw away the cooled off water and clean the bowl.
Once you have done that go ahead and put some warm water again in the bowl and this time we are adding squized lemon juice. You can add as much as you want to. Soak your hands for about 5 minutes.

This step will work on the strength of you nails. Nail treatments with lemon have actually resulted in strengthening chipping nails after a while. This has worked for me so far. Although I do have pretty brittle nails. And because of that I is really hard to grow them out without breaking.

Step 4:
Here are my nails after the whole soaking process. And now that we have completed those steps it is time to dry them well and file the nails in the wanted shape. 

The nails have softened a little because of the soaking which will make the filing very easy and quick.
And after a little bit of effort you will achieve nicely filed nails.

Step 5:
Now it's time to take care of the cuticles. I use this Essence peeling and a cluticle balm. You can use which ever products you have at home for this. A thick moisturizing hand cream does the job too.

Step 6:
This is the final step. After applying your cuticle cream you can go ahead and apply your base coat. What I do (and this makes perfect sense in my head) is I first apply a strengthening base coat and after that dries I apply my pro-white base coat. And at last apply a nail polish color of your choice. Here I used a very soft pink manicure nail polish and I put some dry drops over it so it dries faster.

This is how my nails looked before and after I went through all the steps. They are not perfect but at least with time and a proper treatment they will recover. 

How do you do your manicure? Do you go to the nail salon or do you do it yourself?
If you have any additional tips or tricks please tell me by commenting :)
I hope you liked reading my post.
Have a nice day, 
Dee.

February Haul

Hello lovelies ;)

In the month of february I tried to stay away from drugstores and avoid spending too much on makeup and I have to say that I am very proud of myself, because I did not get too many stuff this month. And also everything that I got fits in amazingly with my makeup collection.

1. The first thing I got was the Eco tools buffing brush. I have been on the hunt for a flat top brush for quite some time now and I was over the top excited when I saw this brush at the Tuš drugstore.

Eco Tools are in general my favorite brushes and not just because they are eco-friendly, but also because they are a great quality for an affordable price.

My first impressions of this brush: 

When I opened it I was surprised that it was dense. I did not expect that but I was very happy about it, since I did buy it mostly to apply foundation with it. I also loved the softness of the hairs, but that was very much already known to me.

Quick Review:

I have had quite some time now to try this brush and I love it for liquid foundation.

The way I use it is that I first stipple the foundation all over my face, and than start to buff it in and I can do that all with this brush. It gives me a nice finish and it doesn't soak in too much of the product, as some of my foundation brushes do.

If you are on the hunt for great brushes to add to your collection and if you want a nice and affordable foundation brush, I would recommend you to make this purchase.

2. On a trip to Muller I got this Catrice Lip and Cheek Colour cream blush. It is from the LE collection-Neo Geisha and it is in the color CO2 - Picked Cherry Blossoms.

I have fallen in love with cream blushes after using the cream blush from a past LE collection called Rebels. I included it in a post early on when I started blogging and if you click on on the name you can go and read the blog post if you wish.

My first impressions of this product:

OMG it's so pink i love it !

But on a serious note, it is a very pigmented pink and a little goes a long way with it, especially on the cheeks.

I haven't been using as much of this product yet because I consider it more of a spring/summer color, which means I will be able to tell you more about it in the future.

3. Catrice Prime and Fine Smoothing Refiner had me the day I swatched it on my hand in the drugstore. I have never bought a primer for my face before and I decided to give this one a go.

My first impressions of this product + Review:

I love the packaging. It's plastic and it's a jar so I will be able to use the jar even after I use up the product(always a plus for me).

It feels very smooth on your skin the moment you first put it.

I have combination skin and it does work well for me. It does fill in my pores  which I love, although I do not like to use it if I happen to have some dry patches(I love winter, but it dries out my skin).

I will do a more detailed review when I feel I have been using it enough to have an honest opinion about it, but so far I am very impressed with it.

4. Dita von Teese Golden Vintage Lipstick for Artdeco

I saw this product on Lollistick's blog (click on the name to check her out) and just fell in love with it.

Of course the next day I went down to Muller and they had only two lipstick left in two different colors.

As you might know(or not) I am obsessed with any red colored lipstick and it only made sense to get the red one.

I got very lucky here because it was a -50% sale on this collection and I was very very excited!

I am actually so fascinated with this lipstick's packaging that I haven't even used it yet(not even a swatch). It's just to pretty and glamorous, as you can see in the pictures. That is why I am sparing it for a special occasion. 

When I start to use it I will keep you updated of how I like the quality of it. After all this is my first lipstick from Artdeco. 

PS: I had to edit the pictures with a vintage overlay, because this lipstick is just so darn cute ;)

That is all for today's post. I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you have any feedback or anything that you want to add please leave me a comment, tweet me or email me(amongbeautydrawers@gmail.com). I will be glad to reply.
Thank you for visiting my blog and have a nice day,
xoxo Dee.

January's used up products!

This month I made a new challenge segment to encourage myself to use up more of my products.

So far it has been going great for the february products.

But today I wanted to do a post, because I did manage to use up some products in January even without having the actual challenge.

That is why I'm going to do a quick review and share with you my thoughts on this products.

1. Balea Wasserspray - AQUA 

This product has the same effect on the skin as the Evian Mineral Water. The Balea one has also minerals and the only difference that I noticed is that the Balea one is cheaper than the Evian one. I love this product and I can't wait to repurchase it.

Ingredients: aqua, maris sal, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, silica, nitrogen. 

2. Rexona Long lasting protection - Clar pure Crystal

It says that it has an incredible white mark protection and that is a 48h active anti-perspirant and has 0% alcohol.

I love this product so much that this is I think my 4th bottle that I have used up. It doesn't leave any marks on my shirts and it really works for me. Even after a workout the smell is fresh. I am really impressed with this product and I recommend you to try it out.

Ingredients: Butane, Isobutane, Propane, Cyclopentasiloxane, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Aluminium Chlorohydrate, Triethyl citrate, Parfum, Dimethiconol, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Triethyl Aconitate, Aqua, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Benzyl Alcohol, Benzyl Salicylate, Citronellol, Geraniol, Hydroxycitronellal.

3. Essence My skin - Intensively caring cream: For normal to dry skin.

It says that this rich and intensive cream is specially formulated for skin prone to dryness. You can use it in the morning and in the evening as well, after cleansing with Essence My skin products.

I can't list you the ingredients for this product because I don't have the package that came with the cream, but I'm sure you can find that information on their website.

I do recommend you to try this product. It works really well stepping from winter into spring. I find myself using it then mostly. Also I use it when my skin needs a little more moisturizing and it gives the skin a great base for foundation application.

4. Maybelline New York - The Falsies Volum' Exspress Mascara

This is one of my favorite mascaras. I love Maybelline mascaras in general, but the fact that this one has a curved brush it makes me love it even more. I love the application and the volume that it gives to my lashes and because I already have naturally curled lashes it helps me to coat them in the perfect shape.

5. Bourjois 10h Sleep Effect Foundation - for fresh and rested complexion.

I won't go into details about this product here in this post, because I will be soon posting a review on it, since I have used it up. But I will say that this is the second bottle that I have used from this product.

6. Catrice Cosmetics - transparent fixing powder

This powder was from the "Welcome to Las Vegas" collection. It says that it gives a mattified finish and it fixes the make-up. I couldn't agree more. It is a lovely powder. I can't wait to go to the drugstore and repurchase it. Catrice have an amazing selection of products and I recommend you to go check them out. As far as for the ingredients I couldn't read them  because I've used this powder so much that a lot of the information has been erased. 

7. Manhattan -  Wake up concealer

It says : Conceals dark circles and light redness - all while making your tired eyes shine. With light- reflecting - pigments. Simply dab on to conceal. 

It is light-reflecting and a beautiful product to highlight the inner corner and make it brighter or to highlight the bridge of your nose, but for me it didn't work well for concealing my dark circles. I don't know what it was but I used it very rarely for concealing my dark circles. If you're searching for a dark circles concealer I wouldn't recommend this, but if you want something to brighten up your complexion, than this is the perfect product for you. 

8. Catrice Cosmetics - Re-touch Light-Reflecting concealer

It says: Hydrating concealer with light-reflecting pigments. Diminishes shadows, fine lines and signs of fatigue.I am beyond impressed with this product. I did not expect to love it as much as I do. It did an amazing job for me and I am very sad that I used it up very quickly. It is very easy to apply and it has such an amazing finish, it is not flaky under your eyes and you can also use it as I primer over your lids. 

That is all for my january empties. 

Thank you for reading and if you have any questions or requests please comment bellow or tweet me.
Have a nice day,
Dee.