A Little Trip To The Czech Republic

Hey everyone,

I just came back from the Czech Republic which was great. I have been there on an excursion to Theresienstadt now known as Terezin with one of my lectures from University. It was a great trip very informative and very interesting but there is too much to talk about and this blog is mostly about beauty so it doesn’t really fit.

BUT we have been to Prague afterward and I did some shopping not much because we did a lot of sight-seeing and there is a lot to see in Prague :D

I found a really nice MAC shop!!!!!!! I was so happy when I saw it and of course I had to go in :D I actually have never bought anything from MÄC but my Mom has some lipsticks from MAC and I saw a lot of videos on YouTube where they used products from MAC and were really happy with them.

By the way the MAC shop is near the metro station Mustek, I think the address is Vaclavske Nam. 4 (Wenceslas Square) Praha 1.

 The salesclerk was really nice and seemed very competent. Mostly I was looking for a good concealer because I have the tendency to get pretty bad pimples shortly before my period and during it… and sometimes if I eat a lot of candy or unhealthy food… but ‘unhealthy’ food usually tastes really good :D and if you manage to eat not tooooo much of it it is no problem ;D

She tried a Concealer on me but the colour was a bit too dark for my skin (I forgot the name of the concealer but it was a fluid one). She took the same colour but a different type of concealer which was lighter, it was the Mineralize Concealer in NW20. By now I used it two or three times and up until now I’m quite happy with it but I will have to try it a little longer till I can really say if it works for me or not.

The next product I bought is an eye shadow the ’All That Glitters’ (A92). It’s a pretty nude colour with glitter so it is still recognizable and it has a light peachy touch I think and I LOVE it!! :D They didn’t have it in the pot any more but they had it as refill so it was even a little cheaper (I have the prizes written down at the end of the post) :D

And the last I bought is the Blacktrack Fluidline.  Before I had the Gel Eye Liner from Catrice in ‘Black Jack with Jack Black’, it was really good at the beginning highly pigmented, easy to apply and had a really nice texture. But after some time it started to dry up… I put in some body lotion and it got fluid again and was really nice and usable again. But after a few weeks it started to dry up again and using it was a pain and I was pretty disappointed because it didn’t last long, so I decided to get the one from MAC hoping it will last longer. I’ll tell you guys in a few weeks how it turns out :D

I also bought a peppermint green dress, from a brand called Timeout. It is really nice and soft and it is fitting really nice. It hides if you have a few curves too much and gives you a nice waist. And if you have big breast it makes them look nice as well and the ribbon is beneath the breasts, which is really hard to find when you have big breasts. It has knee length which is the length that I prefer in skirts and dresses :D (Sorry on the pic it looks shorter and wider, which it isn't, Just a bad pic and I couldn't work it out to look like it really looks sorry :D )

Okay the prices:

The MAC products have all been cheaper in Prague than when I would have bought them in Germany or online. They were about 3 or 4 € cheaper not much cheaper but saving money means saving money :D

Mineralized Concealer in NW 20             520 Ks                  about 20 €

Eye Shadow All That Glitters                   330 KS                 about 13 €

Blacktrack Fluidline                                  500 Ks                  about 21 €

Dress from Timeout                                   599 Ks                  about 23 €

I hope you enjoyed my post about my little trip to Prague :D Do you guys have products you like from MAC? Tell me I would really like to know :D

Have a wonderful day everyone!! :D

Your Dahlia

Hair removal

Hey Ladies and maybe Gentleman ;)

Summer is coming pretty fast and I just read an article about different ways to remove hair so I thought you might be interested in my experience with various ways of hair removal :D

-       -  Shaving

-       -   Depilatory cream

-    - Epilator

-       -   Hot and cold waxing

-        -  Sugaring

The first I want to talk about is shaving because I think it’s the most common way to remove your hair. It was the first method I used. It is simple and cheap the only things you need are a good razor and if you want to shaving cream. I prefer it with shaving cream because it protects my skin a little more but in total it is always damaging your skin. During summer I always have to use a lot of cream and lotion for my legs cause they get dry and itchy from the shaving. And you have to shave at least every second day better every day in summer. So annoying when you are in a hurry but you still have to shave your legs!! And you usually cut yourself on some really obvious place… and you just wanted to wear your little black dress :D

The next method is the depilatory cream. I tried them when I was several years younger….god…that sounds like I’m really old ;D I’ve tried a few different brands. The use is really easy but I don’t like the creams because they smell of all the chemicals and it made my skin itchy and my skin reacted to the chemicals when I used them too regular. So once in a while I could use it but not as a regular method. And a few times I even ruined some of my clothes because the cream dripped on it or I smeared some unknown way on it :D

Another method is the epilator.... scary thing:D It looks really scary and it was really painful. The thing is that it has small hooks, I have no better word for it and they catch your hair and are supposed to pull them out that way. For me it looked like some torture instrument that is supposed to peel of your skin... I have no clue how I came to that comparison but I only looked once at it, and that was what I thought... Yeah I guess I probably I look to much Zombie movies and stuff like that ;) Another thing I didn't like is that the pulled out hair is not contained, it's just falling on the ground and flying around which I think is really gross. And the epilator I had didn't pull out a lot of hair it took forever to do my legs... and I still had a lot of hair on them. I don't know if other epilators are better or maybe even worse. For mine I paid I think ...about 20€ so it wasn't overly expensiv. I didn't get an expensiv one because i thought why pay a lot of money and it doesn't work, so I tried a cheaper version and wasn't happy.

The next very popular method is waxing. You can use hot wax and also cold wax. I have tried both but the once you can do yourself at home. It didn’t work really well… you can’t reach all places really well, like the back of my calves. So in the end I always had a lot of hair left on my legs and it was always really uncomfortable and sometimes even painful.

Cold wax is easier to use because they are already on these stripes but to overcome yourself and pull them off isn’t always easy. I sometimes count to three and tell myself at three I’m pulling it off…and I count to three aaaand ….I didn’t pull….and I count to three again…. aaand I don’t pull again :D especially the first stripe is hard to pull off because in your head it is usually worse…. Not always but usually ;)

The hot wax I used together with my best friend . We tried it together:D If you try something new try it with a friends, it’s much more fun :D

This wax is one that dries on your skin so you pull off the wax and don’t need some extra stripe you put on the wax to be able to pull it off. I didn’t like this hot wax, it pulled off even less hair than the cold wax. After I heated it in the microwave as explained in the manual…but it took really long till it cooled down enough that it didn’t burn my skin. And when I tried to apply it, it dripped on the floor… I was in my room which has carpet … let’s just say it took a reeeaaaally long time until I had all drops removed :D And the problems are the same as with the cold wax. Painful, doesn’t remove all the hair and it’s hard to use by yourself.

The last method I want to tell you about and which I like the most is sugaring. I don’t do it myself, I’m not even sure if you can do it on your own. I go to someone who does it for a living and everything in her room is absolutely clean and she is very thorough. The sugar paste consists of several different kinds of sugar and water, which means there are no chemicals and all natural, which I really like. The hair is pulled out the way it grows and not like with waxing, where they are pulled out against the way they grow. I think the first is more affective but that is my opinion. When you get your hair removed the sweet way ;P don’t expect ALL hair to be removed the first time. When you have your hair removed with this paste the first time about 80% of the hair will be removed. So I would advise to start sugaring early in spring or the end of winter. The first sugaring will hold for about four weeks maybe more maybe less. Of course your hair will slowly grow back in that time but you barely see it so you can still wear hot pants, skirts or maybe a nice dress :D This procedure for hair removal is supposed to be repeated several times but after each time less hair will grow and it will be thinner, lighter and softer.

I had my legs done for the first time a bit over three weeks ago. If I look really close I can see the hair coming back but no one looks as close as you do yourself and no one is as critical as yourself ;)

My armpits I had done twice because my hair there is darker and I won’t make it to the town where my sugaring expert is for a few weeks :D My hair is already much lighter and softer. I think sugaring is really awesome and I can only advice you to try it. Of course it’s not comfortable since hair is ripped out but for me it’s a lot less painful than wax and it’s cleaner. I also didn’t have any kind of reactions, no itching, I don’t need tons of lotions and I only have to do it every few weeks and over time I will have to go less often till probably never again :D

The other options I told you about are of course less expensive I think the pot with the hot wax was the most expensive with about 12 – 15 €. The professional sugaring is of course a lot more expensive in comparison to the others. But I’m willing to pay more for something I’m convinced of. For my legs (calves and knees), armpits and bikini zone (just the sides )I paid in total 60€, and when I had just my armpits done it was for that 17€. But when you do that, have it done by a professional, look for special offers or ask if they have one, always a good way to save money :D The only negative thing is before and after having your hair removed in your armpits you can’t use deodorant (to prevent infections), which I don’t like because I’m always worried that I might start to get a bit smelly.

And when you go to someone who removes hair, look if the place is clean, and if they use gloves, if the things they use are clean and if they have and use things to ‘sterilize’ your skin beforehand and to calm and clean your skin afterward.

I think you can all see which method I like best and why from my descriptions above :D But you all have to decide what you like best on your own. Do you have made any experiences with any of these methods or maybe another method??? What is your oppinion about hair removal and all these methods?? I would really like to know :D

I hope you found what I wrote helpful and interesting and maybe a bit entertaining :D

Have a great day everyone!!! :D

Your Dahlia

 P.S.: The information about sugaring are from my specialist :D But if something I said/ wrote is wrong it’s all my fault. And everything is my opinion and not based on professional knowledge.

Review Hairproducts

Hey everyone!

Today I want to tell you about some hair products I’m using at the moment and which I really like to use.

The products I’m going to tell you about are:

1.       Herbal Essences Shampoo, moisturizing

2.       Garnier Fructis Wonder-Oil

3.       Lee Stafford, Treatment for Hair that never grows past a certain length

4.       Lee Stafford, my big fat healthy hair

5.       Schauma, Dry-Shampoo, Cotton Fresh

Okay first my hair is longer than shoulder length and has a reddish brown colour from dyeing. It’s sadly pretty thin and has the tendency to get greasy really easy when the products are ‘heavy’. But the products I listed above work really well for me so I thought I should share it with you guys, in case you should have the same problems I do.

The first product is Herbal Essences Shampoo (not conditioner), in German it’s the “Verwöhnende Feuchtigkeit”, so it’s supposed to be a bit moisturizing. It’s light blue in colour and has a lightly fruity smell, which I like:) It’s my everyday shampoo and I love it. It keeps my hair clean all day and it makes it light and fluffy and it even curls a little bit at the end :D I also like the other shampoos from Herbal Essences but the blue moisturizing one is my absolute favourite! 

The next product is the Wonder-Oil from Garnier. It’s a clear liquid with an oily texture which already implies the name ;) It has a nice smell, which I can’t really describe. I still have my first bottle of it and I bought it sometime last year, but you don’t need a lot of product. I use it nearly every day in my towel dry hair before I use my blow-dryer or anything else. It makes my hair softer, easier to comb and makes it shiny. And what I REALLY like about it doesn’t make my hair heavy or greasy! 

The Lee Stafford Treatment is the next product I want to tell you about. It is in this really really bright pink container. It has this typical shampoo/ conditioner texture and the smell … I can’t define it, but it’s a nice smell…not bad but also not something I could get addicted to because it’s so good. If you want to know what it smells like just go to a store that has Lee Stafford products and smell it ;)

This treatment you are supposed to use every day till your hair gets better or healthier and then you just have to use it like once a week. From the beginning I just used it once a week and it works fine. I try to use it when I know I’m not going away that day, because even though it seems to nourish my hair and make it soft and shiny it tends to make it a bit greasy over time and I really feel uncomfortable when I think my hair got greasy. But it still feels nourished after a few days which is really nice. It says it’s also for hair growth, I can’t say that I noticed any change in my hair growth but it feels a little bit thicker afterward and it seems to have a bit more volume to it. So as a weekly or so product I can really recommend it but don’t use too much because the product is not really cheap, I think I paid 7,95 € for the container.

The other Lee Stafford product is the volume conditioner, smell and texture are the same as in the treatment. I haven’t used it that often till now, but it gives the hair definitely more volume and makes it soft and shiny. I also just use it once a week or a day before I want to go somewhere or do something special. If you use too much product your hair tends to get a little greasy, at least my hair does, but else I really like it and can really recommend it but again there is also the high price again, it’s 7,95€ that’s the price from Müller (a drugstore), I still have the bill so here I definitely know the price :)

The last product I want to tell you about is the dry-shampoo from Schauma which is produced by the brand Schwarzkopf, which seems to produce pretty much everything. I only use it when I have a free day and I just have to take a short trip to the grocery store because I forgot something…. Which I have to admit is quiet often the case ;D It really makes your hair less greasy but it also makes it dull and at the beginning gives it a grey shadow, so you should use it well ahead before you leave. It’s always a good solution for an emergency, but not for the everyday life.

I hope you found my little review helpful and I wish you all a great day! :D

Your Dahlia

Water Marbling

Hey everyone,

 

I guess you all have heard of this technique at one point or another. In case you haven’t, a short explanation. When you use this technique you have a cup of water in which you can drop different colours of nail polish which you can swirl. You then dip your finger in it and you have the swirls on your nail :)

I think the most useful way is when you do it in form of a bulls eye, from there you can swirl the colours in any way you want, you can make even forms or just swirl them around the way you like it. At the end I will show you pictures how to do it…. Or more how I do it ;)

I found out about Water Marbling on Youtube. I have never been someone who watched a lot of Youtube, but one day I dropped my Laptop…I'm kind of clumsy sometimes :D and it took some time until it was repaired, so I started to search for movies or TV series on Youtube. I didn’t find much that interested me in that regard but when I opened the app there was always the popular or favorites and there it showed a video about water marbling. I watched it and started to search for more videos and then I saw on the sidebar more videos about make-up, nail polish and so on. Since then I am addicted to YouTube tutorials :)

Of course I had to try this ‘water marbling’ right away. In the videos it looks sooooo easy but when you try it just doesn’t want to work… that was my first experience  with water marbling. Since I have watched a lot of videos about this I thought I knew pretty much everything I needed to make it work and look good. I had a cup of room temperatured water, a bit paper towel, pretty new nail polish and some toothpicks. So I started, I dropped in my nail polish and waited that it would spread and get thinner. And I waited and I waited and it finally had spread a teeny tiny bit! And I thought “what the heck did I do wrong?” So I tried it again….and again…and…again. But it didn’t matter it just didn’t work. The colours stayed pretty much a drop and when you tried to put in your nail and pull it back out you just had all the colours you used mixed together on your nail and big fat drops of polish dripped of your nail. I was so disappointed because it looked so easy and I felt a bit stupid because I just couldn’t get it done. But over the next few weeks I tried it again and again but it still didn’t work. At some point I bought these plastic nails you can glue to your real once. I don’t like them, in their real purpose but to try new nail designs or for trying water marbling they are perfect. Just glue them to the ends of skewers, I hope that’s the right word :)

By now I think I found out that the nail polishes I used are not the best for water marbling. I used nail polish from Essence, Manhattan, L.A. colors, Kiko, Astor, Maybelline, Lacura Beauty and Sally Hansen. I noticed in all my trys that Sally Hansen nail polish was spreading a lot better than all the others so I tried to do water marbling just with Sally Hansen nail polish and wonder oh wonder it worked :D YEAH!! 

So as a conclusion I would say that not every nail polish is usable for water marbling. I want to try some other brands for nail polish, like OPI (I really want to try that nail polish!! ), China Glaze and so on, but they are kind of hard to get here in Germany, maybe I’ll have to buy them from Amazon.

Do you guys know some good place to buy nail polish where it’s not overly expensive? I found some OPI nail polish in a perfumery but for one polish they wanted nearly 17€ and as much as I love nail polish I’m not ready to pay that much money for just one polish.

But now let’s get to how to do water marbling !!! 

 

If you want see how it's done even more detailed there are also videos on YouTube, just search for Water Marbling and you will find tons of Videos!

Have fun everyone!!!

Your Dahlia