Chilli con Carne & Hot Cherries

It's been a while since I last posted a recipe here. I think that today's lunch was a real winner (my boyfriend loved it), so I'm going to share it with you. Remember - this are my recipes and how I do it. I'm not gonna say it's the right way, with the right ingredients. OK?

Chilli con Carne

Ingredients
500 g beef mince
2 onions
3 cloves of garlic
800 g tin of whole tomatoes
800 g tin of red kidney beans
340 g tin of sweet corn
2 spoons of flour
salt and pepper
sweet pepper powder
1 laurel leaf
cumin, thyme, oregano, rosemary, marjoram
olive oil

Heat the olive oil and add chopped onions. When the onions turn brown-ish add meat. Cook until the meat is well browned. Add garlic, sweet pepper powder, flour, cumin, thyme, oregano, rosemary and marjoram. Stir, add tomatoes and a glass of water. Add laurel leaf, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 45 minutes.
Drain the can of sweet corn. Add the corn and beans. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

Yeah, it's chilli con carne and I didn't add any chilli. Silly me. I forgot to buy it and I just added sweet pepper. You know what - it was delicious anyway.

Hot Cherries

Ingredients
small tin of cherries in natural juice (compote)
2 spoons of vanilla pudding
ice cream
whipped cream

Boil the cherries (with the juice). Add vanilla pudding mixed in a few spoons of cherry juice. Cook and stir for another 2-3 minutes. Pour the cherries into serving dish, add ice cream and whipped cream.

Thanks for looking and bon appetite!

Just a Tattoo

Karla Michelle wanted to see my wrist tattoo. Here it is, honey. B-)

No, I'm not going to tell what it means. ;;)

Thanks for looking!

Essence - Cool and the Gang

Cool and the Gang is a new polish shade from the Essence Multi Dimension line. It's one of those colors you want to have from the moment you first see it. And it haunts you until you get it.

Essence, Cool and the Gang, 2 coats

Let's go step by step. As you can see, Cool and the Gang is a gorgeous blue creme leaning towards jelly finish. Well, most royal blues are jelly-ish anyway, right?
The formula is great and the polish needs 2 coats to achieve a full opacity. There's visible ''jelly'' nail line in the photos, but it's not that visible in real life. Love it!

The thing (which is also the only thing) I do not love is the brush. I actually hate it. The person who thought that poor excuse for a brush would be anywhere near usefull should be slapped back to 90's. I can't even tell you how horrible it is. Too big, too bushy and too out of control. It was hard for me to apply nail polish to nails and not cuticles as well. You will definitely need to do a clean up after...

That being said, I still think it's worth those €2.00 - unless you already have a dupe in your stash. Then just skip this one.

What do you think about it?

Thanks for looking!

Essence Irreplaceable VS Catrice Clayton My Hero

While I was applying Irreplaceable to my nails a couple of days ago, I thought of Catrice's Clay-ton My Hero nail polish. It's similar: taupe color with golden shimmer. Well, the shimmer in Catrice is really fine and the one in Essence is more like flakies, but still. They deserve to be compared side by side.

They might look like non-identical twins in the bottles, but once you apply them... kaboom!

I used 2 coats of each and they look completely different. And my favorite? Irreplaceable layered over Clay-ton My Hero. Have I told you how much I hate dashes in nail polish names? Damn OPI!

Catrice, Clay-ton My Hero, 2 coats + Essence, Irreplaceable, 1 coat

Which is your favorite: Catrice, Essence or layered look?

Thanks for looking!

Essence Meet_me@holografics.com Trend Edition

''Enter the world of makeup holographics, where shimmer unites with vibrant colors and 3D effects seductively play with your eyes, lips and nails. Essence has it all this season! The essence “meet_me@holografics.com” trend edition takes a cue from the make-up trend of the year and offers celestial styles straight from the fashion world! Essence is heading into may/june 2011 with 3D reflections and sunny, light textures for a futuristic start to the summer.'' (Essence)

Image source: Essence

First of all: what the hell is up with the names of Essence trend editions?! Couldn't they just name it Meet Me at the Holografics? All the dots, at's, dashes etc... confuse me.

OK, other than that, this collection seems really interesting. I just hope that these shades will really be holographic and not duochrome or even worse, just shimmery. Let's face it, Essence tried to fool us before. /:)

That Cream to Powder Eyeshadow looks great (I'm eyeing the teal one called Gagalectric). The only thing I'm afraid of is creasing. Sometimes even Urban Decay Primer Potion doesn't help with cream eyeshadows. At least on my rather oily eyelids. We shall see. Eyeshadow pots will come in three different shades.

Lipglosses also come in three shades: purple, white and pink. Interesting, but nothing more. I doubt they would look good on me anyway. I also have a feeling this ''holographic shimmer'' lipglosses were supposed to have is just a regular iridescent shimmer. But who knows, I might be surprised when I see them in real life.

Liquid Eyeliner comes in blue and white color. I'm not sure about this, but if Essence happened to make a holographic eyeliner - more power to them. Blue one looks great on the photo. Hmmm... I might have to buy it.

Nail polish!!! Sadly all 5 shades look more iridescent/duochrome than holo, but if the colors are right, I don't really care. Let's just hope the formula will be OK. The blue one shall be mine. :D

Body Oil reminds me of Illamasqua's Illumine Oil. I'm so curious how this would look on skin. Yep, this is one of the most interesting products in the whole collection for me. Hope it smells good.

What do you say about Meet_me@holografics.com Trend Edition?

Thanks for looking!

Born Pretty False Eyelashes & Eye Charm

People from Born Pretty online store contaced me a while ago and asked me to review some of their products. I chose these false eyelashes (#113). You can find them in their online store - here.

I also got this false eyelash glue. It's called Eye Charm and it features some Engrish as well. :D

So, back to false eyelashes. I found these very hard to work with. I followed the instructions on Born Pretty website, but I still couldn't manage to apply them properly. It could be my fault and I admit I'm not very skillfull when it comes to falsies. But then again, I did use other lashes from their store as well as Illamasqua ones and I didn't have any problems with those... What's the main problem? The band of these eyelashes is fairly hard. I had to use my fingers to soften it and it did work to some level, but it wasn't enough. The application caused me a lot of troubles and the inner part of falsies just didn't want to stick to the eyelid. You can see it on the photo, which was taken after a good amount of time spent to soften and stick the flasies to my lid.

I was disappointed with the false eyelashes, but I really like the glue though. It's easy to apply it on the band of the falsies and it works really well. I used it to apply my other eyelashes as well - remember my previous review? This glue has a funky smell, but it disappears once it dries. I recommend this!

Price: $3.03 for 10 pairs of false eyelashes and $2.84 for 21 g of glue.

Where to buy? Born Pretty online store.

*Products were sent to me by Born Pretty. Read my disclosure policy for more information.

Thanks for looking!

Nobody's Perfect

Essence - Irreplaceable

Another nail polish shade from the new Essence line. It looked so beautiful in the bottle I just had to buy it. Nude with small golden flakies. So pretty!

Essence, Colour & Go, Irreplaceable, 2 coats

This one looks like it's very sheer, but I think it could be almost fully opaque in three coats. That's not so bad, right? I don't mind the sheerness with this kind of colors though. I also have to mention it has a great formula, the application was easy and it dries quickly. I like it a lot.

What do you think? Is this the kind of color that would make it's way into your nail polish collection?

Thanks for looking!

The Grass Snake

Where are the times when cats hunted mice and rats? Aishila and Jimi seem to like reptiles a bit too much. Aishila wanted to have this small grass snake (Natrix Natrix) for lunch today. No can go, baby doll!

Grass snakes are the most common snakes here in Slovenia. And they're non-venomous.
This pretty little thing was saved. This time. Better watch out, 'cause Aishila is always on the hunt.

Thanks for looking!

Essence Bella - Green Comparison

Ana politely asked me to do a comparison between Essence Bella and Crazy Me from the Crazy About Color Trend Edition. I added Milani's Fresh Teal And Sally Hansen's Mint Sprint which are the closest colors in my green collection.

Here they are (in reversed order) on my nails. I used 2 coats of each, except with Mint Sprint. One coat of Sally Hansen's polish was enough. Impressive!

As you can see, they're all different. Bella doesn't come very close to Crazy Me. Bella applies better and Crazy Me appears to be a tad jelly-ish when compared to the other shades. Both are nice though.
Mint Sprint is lighter and has a yellow undertone. It's a definite quality winner from these. It needs only one coat and I have absolutely nothing bad to say about it.
Fresh Teal by Milani looks a lot like Bella in real life. Since FT is a neon, it photographs more blue-ish, but the difference between it and Bella isn't as noticeable as it is on the photo.

Conclusion: Bella is a great shade and the quality is awesome. You get a great product for less than €2.00. I can only say I highly recommend it. Other shades are very good as well (quality and color wise) and all are worth buying.

Which one is your favorite? Do you own any of them? If yes: do you think the same about the quality of it as I do?

Thanks for taking your time and reading this!

Get Free Eyeko Fat Balm in Cherry

Spend more than £15/€18/$20 in Eyeko online store, enter the code E10655 and you will get this Cherry Fat Balm for free.

Image from eyeko.com

Shipping is free for all UK and Europe orders. =)

Hint: Don't forget to buy Saucy nail polis. It rocks!

Thanks for looking!

Essence Eyeshadow in Blue Mission

I tried one of the Essence eyeshadows I swatched a couple of days ago - Blue Mission. It looks amazing when you look at it in the pot - beautiful periwinkle matte eyeshadow. Once I've tried it with my finger, it didn't look as good, but it was still somewhat attractive. Now that I've tried it on my eyes ... I'm just so disappointed.

This is how it looks.

Products I used for this look:
* Essence eyeshadow in Blue Mission
* Essence Black Mania eye pencil
* Essence Stays On and On and On mascara
* Rimmel eyeshadow in Jet Black

Price: 1.89 € for 0.08 oz/2.5 g

Where to buy? Wherever Essence cosmetics are available.


I tried to write pros and cons for this product, but I'm afraid that's almost impossible to do. I couldn't think of one good reason for purchasing this color. I don't expect much from my eyeshadows. Urban Decay Primer Potion takes care of the staying power of all my shadows (and it does a hell of a job too). The only thing I want from a shadow is - pigmentation. And that's the main reason to buy it in the first place, right? The color!
Well, this one failed me. Miserably.

I have four Essence eyeshadows in front of me while I'm typing this. Two from the old line and two from the new line. Three are better pigmented than one. And those three are all shimmers and the not-so-pigmented-one is Blue Mission, which is matte. Essence can't make a good matte shadow?
Oh, and one more thing. Shadows from the old line were made in Germany, while shadows from the new line were made in Poland. I don't know if that makes any difference quality wise, but it's good to know. Just in case.

To sum this up: I don't recommend you to buy this color. If you're like me and have to learn from your own mistakes, at least try the tester in the store before purchase. I know it's cheap, but it's still too darn pricey for being a crappy product.

Why are Essence products a total win OR an epic failure? *scratches head*

Thanks for looking!

Essence - Bella

Bella is a gorgeous bright green from the new Essence nail art twins line. You can wear it on it's own or top it with sparkling Edward for a special ''bling-bling'' effect. I don't like Edward very much (*sparkle, sparkle*), so here she is - on her own.

Essence, Nail Art Twins, Bella, 2 coats

This polish is amazing. The color is beautiful and the formula is perfect. Two thin coats and that's it. The application was easy and not problematic at all. Another winner and a must have from Essence. I love it!

Thanks for looking!

New Essence Polishes

These are the shades I bought from the new Essence nail polish line. They're all from the permanent line, but we all know how Essence likes to discontinue their products.

These are the color drops. For now. You'll see swatches later. =)

See anything you like?

Thanks for looking!

Taupe Comparison

Taupe, brown, mushroom ... whatever. Here are China Glaze Channelesque, Rimmel Steel Grey and Essence Most Wanted.

I used 2 coats of China Glaze and Essence and 3 coats of Rimmel. All different, but I think Rimmel and ChG come pretty close. If you squint you won't even see the difference. XD China Glaze applies the best, but we all know how hard it is to get it (I got it thanks to a lovely Croatian lady, who's living in Canada now). Thanks, babe, I know I still owe you.

So, which one is your favorite?

Thanks for looking!

Essence Eyeshadow Swatches

Quick swatches of four Essence eyeshadows. This is how they look in the pot.

And swatched on my fingers.

Irresistible - shadow with a metallic effect. Very soft and the pigmentation is great. This one is perfect for nude/natural make up.

Get Ready - shadow with a shimmer effect. Not so soft and the pigmentation is not the best. It's a beautiful brown though. Worth it's price.

Forest Gump - shadow with a shimmer effect. Amazingly soft and pigmented. Worth every cent.

Blue Mission - shadow with matte effect. I wanted this shadow even before it hit the stores. Electric periwinkle without shimmer? Give it to me! I was a little disappointed because the color payoff isn't what I wanted it to be. It's still a good shadow.


I got me some Black Mania as well. This is my favorite black pencil and now I have mascara as well. I'm satisfied with the effect. I'll try to review it sometime in the future. =)

Which are your favorite Essence eyeshadow shades? I want to know which one to buy next. ;)

Thanks for looking!

In Love with Graz

I visited Graz (Austria) last Tuesday. I'm officially in love...

Graz was first mentioned in 12th century as ''gradec'' (etymologically from Slovene), which basically means "little fortress". It's the second largest city in Austria.

Above: View from the bridge over Mur river. The hill in the back is Schlossberg with Clock Tower on the right. The church tower belongs to Franciscan monastery church.

Above: The City Hall (Rathaus) is just breathtaking. On 14th March 2010 Graz became a UNESCO City of Design. I can see why.

Above: The other side of the City Hall. Oh, the architecture!

Above: In the centre of Hauptplatz there's a fountain/monument dedicated to Archduke Johann. It features statues of four women symbolising the rivers Mur, Enns, Drava and Sann. It's great to sit on the stairs under the fountain and watch the people and buildings around it. I think that's so European. XD

Above: The stairs to the Schlossberg (which literally means ''castle mountain'') and Tower Clock.

I want to go back to Graz as soon as possible. But next time I'll be ready. I'll write down all the sights and streets, so I don't get lost, like the last time. XD Did I mention Graz is a great city for shopping?

Thanks for looking!

Periwinkle Comparison

Here's a quick periwinkle/blue-ish lavender comparison for you. From left to right: Essence Forget Me Not from the Blossoms etc. trend edition, Essie Lapis of Luxury, China Glaze Secret Periwinkle and China Glaze Agent Lavender.

And here they are on my nails in reversed order (from left to right).

Essence, Forget Me Not - 2 coats. The best application of them all and the best formula - pure winner!

Essie, Lapis of Luxury - 3 coats. I wanted to love this one so much, but the formula is so watery. I applied 3 coats and it could use another one. Sorry, LoL, guess we weren't meant to be together.

China Glaze, Secret Periwinkle - 3 coats. Same story as with Lapis of Luxury: beautiful color, but watery formula. Still, this one is a bit better than Essie (quality and color wise).

China Glaze, Agent Lavender - 2 coats. Great formula, great color. It looks a lot like American Apparel's L'Esprit. Like it a lot!

Here's a tip for you: if you like periwinkle and want to get a nail polish in this color, then I strongly suggest this polish - Collection 2000, BMX Bandit. It will blow your mind. I promise.

What do you think about these colors?

Thanks for looking!

Essence - Forget Me Not

Here's the only polish from the new Essence Blossoms etc... trend edition that I thought was original enough to buy. This is Forget Me Not.

Essence, Forget Me Not, 2 coats

I love how original this colors is. My collection is pretty big and I don't own anything like it. Some of them might come close... Forget Me Not is right in the middle of Orly's Cashmere Cardigan and Snowcone. With shimmer, of course. It's gorgeous and I advise you to get it while you still can. The application was easy, formula is great. Get it!

What do you think about this one?

Thanks for looking!

Throbbing

Here's the look from the other day.

Face:
* Skin79 Super+ Beblesh Balm (BB cream, hot pink)
* Manhattan Soft Compact Powder in Sable
* Revlon SkinLights Face Illuminator in Natural Light

Eyes:
* Essence Black Mania eye pencil
* Essence Black Mania mascara

Lips - Illamasqua, Sangers
Nails - Illamasqua, Throb

Thanks for looking!

China Glaze - Frostbite

Blue. Frost. China Glaze. Of course! It's Frostbite.

China Glaze, Frostbite, 3 coats

It's not really frosty. It has a tiny shimmer and it might look like frost, but it doesn't streak like other frost polishes. And it's darker in real life. It just went crazy in my lightbox. Pretty color, good application and formula. I only wish is was fully opaque in 2 coats. I know, I'm spoiled.

My sister Amikadeja made this gorgeous bracelet for me. Isn't it great?

Thanks for looking!

a England in Holy Grail, Camelot and Merlin

I just received another three shades from a England. Here they are:

a England, Holy Grail, 2 coats

a England, Camelot, 1 coat

a England, Camelot, 1 coat + Merlin, 1 coat

The quality of these polishes impressed me once more.

Holy Grail - described as glorious gold, really is what it says it is. It has an antique look in the bottle and a gorgeous shimmer. Not my color, but I can't deny it's beauty. It took 2 coats to achieve a full opacity. The formula is great and so is the drying time.

Camelot - black onyx glaze with unique luster. Adina from a England said she really wants me to try this one. How unique and special can a black creme be, right? Well, this one is. And now I know why she sent it to me. Effortless application gave me perfect look with only one coat. Can you believe that?! It's just as awesome as my previous black favorite (Color Club Where's the Soiree), but this one has a glossy shine which CC doesn't have. Now I don't have to apply a top coat to get a wet looking black polish. Yay!

Merlin - spectacular scintillating silver. This one is supposed to be a layering polish and that's exactly what I did with it - layered it over Camelot. And it looks hardcore. =) Easy application, super fast drying time and easy removal - and that's not common with this kind of glitter/shimmer.

Price: £9.50 for 13 mL (~ €11)

Where to buy? a England online shop

*Products were sent to me by a England. Read my disclosure policy for more information.

Thanks for looking!