Hello again! Etam beauty: eyeshadow number 36 - Pop Rose review

HOWDY folks! I know I should maybe do a "well here I am, back in the blogging game!" thing but I really don't feel like it's necessary. That's kinda awkward and I have no idea what to write in a post like that so I'm just gonna jump right in. My future plans for the blog are mostly beauty/make-up related, since that's something I do and love almost everyday and I feel like I'll keep up the blogging more easily and with more GUSTO if I do it about something I really enjoy and am creative with on a regular basis. I just need my tripod and a remote control for taking the pictures, and mah brain, which is super chill and can be done at any time of the day (though my brain isn't worth much early in the morning and late at night, plus the lighting would be horrible at night BUT ANYWAYS) . And I really miss blogging as my kind of "look diary". Well there ya go, an awkward "well here I am, back in the blogging game!" mini post.

Onto the order of the day: my sister got a surprise package from Etam Beauty a couple of months ago. Etam is a brand/store usually known for pyjama's and lingerie, so I was pretty stoked and surprised when she opened the box and it showed make-up, nailpolish and soaps! After getting this color from her as a little present, I decided to play around with it and I loved it. I got so excited about this particular brand of beauty products that I bought four more colors! They're not expensive at all for what you get, they have great lasting power and the colors that I tried are wonderfully opaque. Etam has a great range of colors, beautiful neutral gold, brown and grey shades while also having some wonderful neons, sparkly colors and and a variety of textures.

I did a full lid look with it, which I will post later, and I did this look with it, which I would like to call "RAVE PIXIE". If Tinkerbell was a party gal.

I swatched it, on the left you have it over primer and on the right over a white cream base. Bases and primers are musts! Eyeshadow shows up much more sheer and often doesn't last the day without them, and it was such a big revelation for me when I started using them. It's bright bright bright pink!

This is with a white line of eyepencil under the pink. As you can see, it makes for a bright, awesome eyeliner-ish look! The consistency is still powder of course, but I wore this the whole day with great succes, no blurring. I paired it with a nude lipstick from Catrice (240 "Hey Nude") to keep the look simple and to let all the attention go to the eyeshadow.

The only downside of the eyeshadow, and that's only for this particular shade, is that it stains the skin. After removing it with my standard eyemake-up remover which does the trick for all my other stuff, I still had a faint pinkish sheen on the part of my eye where the shadow was. I think it's a think that happens sometimes with neon colors, as I've read about it on other blogs too. The pink sheen was gone after a night of sleep though, so it's nothing to worry about.

I am a BIG fan of this brand and I'm sure that I'll buy more colors in the future!

What are your favorite eyeshadow brands?

C-c-c-c-cold but happy

Welp, we finally got some winter wonderland action going over here in Belgium. Thankfully it wasn't too much of an inconvenience except for being an hour late for class one time because the bus decided not to show up. But apart from that it's all good.

With the little chit-chat about the weather out of the way: some happiness! I've got such positive things in my life going on and I'm so incredibly happy. I write articles for a Belgian gaming site (with the possibility of reviewing games and going to press events in the future!), school is going great, I got comments from my photography teacher stating that I have serious potential and that I should definitely try to actually study art AND I just got a little email stating that I will be part of a body positive project here in Belgium. More info on that later, I will now just say that I am SO incredibly happy for getting recognistion for who I am, what I love and what I do. I feel like my life is heading in a great direction and it's the most wonderful feeling in the world. Sometimes I can't believe how much my life has changed in the last year and everytime I realise how much it has changed I can't help but be happy. I'M HAPPY, YO.

Now some beautiful outfitpictures in the snow! Even though I mostly just worry about keeping my ass warm in cold times I still try and put a little creativity in my clothes.

A little HOLLA @ Barry M cosmetics for the amazing eyeshadow. Bright eyeshadow? You know that be mah thing but finding bright, colorful eyeshadow that covers your eyelid nicely isn't the easiest task. A friend from school recommended this brand and I'm in love with it. This green eyeshadow is amazaballs, no? Also, I was in no way, shape or form paid to say this. I really love it and would recommend it to anyone. Take a look at ALL THE PRETTY COLORS of dazzle dust! That's beauty right there. Now Imma go study and enjoy my happiness high. Catch ya later!

Shine on you crazy diamond

As I told you in my last post, me and my sis went to the Lokerse Feesten past tuesday to see The Beach Boys and The Australian Pink Floyd Show. When I bought the tickets I bought them especially for The Beach Boys, not even being aware of the fact that Aussie Floyd would be there. Little did I know that Aussie Floyd would be the highlight of the evening! The Beach Boys were fun, the first half of the set was kind of boring with all the songs having the exact same rhythm/sound. Of course there were fun parts when they played "Good Vibrations", "Barbara Ann" and some other hits, it was just a bit disappointing that they didn't play more hits. Also, we stood next to a really irritating lady who tried to get her boyfriend excited for the music by singing loudly into his face. I don't think he was very pleased. :-D

After The Beach Boys we were able to go all the way to the front of the stage, strangely a lot of people went away after TBB. Two super sweet, tall Dutch girls asked us if we wanted to stand in front of them because they were aware of the fact that they could look over our heads while we would be looking at their backs. Which would also be good if I rolled that way but I'd rather look at the musicians, being heterosexual. :-D Aussie Floyd opened with "Shine on you crazy diamond" and I got instantly teary eyed. I just love Pink Floyd music so much and they did an absolutely amazing job with preserving the atmosphere and quality of the original music. They even got me to appreciate the music more! If I closed my eyes it was almost like listening to the real deal. With a big laser show and blow up dolls, it was a wonderfully entertaining show. "Wish you were here" got me crying, of course, because it's one of my favorite songs in the history of all music and hearing your favorite songs live is always magical. I cried when Roger Daltrey did "See me, feel me" last year, too. It touched my heart. I'm also still a bit of an emotional wreck these days so I don't need much to get the ol' waterworks running. As one of the many highlights of the show, hearing "Another brick in the wall" live was awesome. Hearing everyone around you yell "HEY! TEACHERS! Leave them kids alone!", pure epicness. As you can read, I was overwhelmed by the greatness of the band. Coverbands will always get a lot of shit because they will never be the real deal but Jebus Rice, I will never be able to see the real deal so I gladly "settle" for the Australian Pink Floyd Show! If they ever come to Belgium again I won't hesitate to go once more and I can recommend them to anyone. It was perfection!

I have extra love for Pink Floyd because my big brothers and sister were always crazy about them too. Listening to their music always makes me think of my family. Most classic rock does, my dad gave every one of us his love for music and for that, I will be eternally grateful. Music is one of the best things in life and I hope that, if I ever have a kid of my own, I will be able to instill that same passion for music. To me, there's almost no feeling as good as standing in a crowd, screaming your lungs out, forgetting everything you were and will be, for that moment just being part of the music.

Now for my outfit:

Make up:

earrings and pants: H&M
cardigan: 3 suisses
band T: punk shop in Canterbury, forgot the name :-D you can probably find it online too!
shoes: converse
belt: thrifted

nailpolishes: all catrice, the first orange color a brandless stripertool I got secondhand. 
glitterpolish: essence

Thanks to the momster for taking my outfit pictures! I'll leave you with two pictures of me and my big sis and her badass legging, I had a wonderful time as I always do with her and she's been a great support to me! LOVE YA SIS

P.S.: If you're feeling in the mood to listen to some good music, this is my current favorite!
Pink Floyd - Time

Comfy grunge and death

Well, with the promise of more blogposts in spring break and with spring break now officially over I've been a terrible blogger. I do have a damn good excuse, though.

My dad passed away, barely a week ago. It's very strange to say (or type) those exact words because the concept of death is so incredibly abstract and strange. I'm not going to bore you with details because they are terrible and laughable, ridiculous and disgusting, all at the same time. I feel incredibly confused and my brain is pretty messed up, especially since my relationship with my dad has been complicated for a while now. I might do a bigger post one day about the strange relationship I had with my dad. Maybe I can work through some emotional crap that way and maybe I can help some other people who are in tough situations with their parents too. Lord knows that stuff happens A LOT. While this spring break is probably the worst spring break one can ever have I did enjoy all the time I got to spend with my family, including my fathers sisters. I always loved stories about my parents when they were young and hearing stories about who my dad used to be reminded me of the good memories I have of him and the good parts of his personality. Since my dad had his first stroke his personality changed quite a bit. I was a little afraid that the only thing I could remember my dad by would be the shitty couple of years we had more recently but thanks to my older siblings, mother and aunts I'm slowly starting to remember again who that father was and how much I'm going to miss him. In the end I got to spend some beautiful last moments with him. including a moment where he told me he wished he would've taken better care of me, how beautiful I am and how much he was going to miss me. If there's any moment to be honest it's the moment you know you're going to be gone soon, right?

I won't be going to school this week because my brain is fucked up with all the emotions and I'm terribly unstable. One moment I feel like everything's okay and I can just get up tomorrow at five thirty in the morning and go to school. Five minutes later, however, I'm crying like a baby and feeling like I could punch someone so hard their ancestors would feel it (mulan reference). And again five minutes later I fall asleep on the couch. Emotions are exhausting, yo. I haven't lost my appetite and I'm able to sleep just fine so I guess that's something.

Random topic switch: I just wanted a comfy outfit to pair with my appetite for slightly gothic make up so I put on this dress and a comfy, thick cardigan I wear all the time. Hope you like it. If you have some interesting stories about your parents or a difficult relationship with them, don't hesitate to share it with me if you want to. And while I still have a couple of outfits to post with my long hair I'll warn you now: I have a banging new, short 'do. But for now: colorful pincurls! I will miss pincurling.

70's outfit + golden eyes

Yes, I did actually enjoy 007 golden eye (the videogame on the N64, not the movie. I can't seem to get myself to ever finish a 007 movie unless I actually go see them in the theatre) but these particular golden eyes are the eyes of yours truly! I love golden eyeshadows. They look amazing with my eyes and skintone (though I think that it looks great with basically every skintone and eyecolor, on darker skinned people with brown eyes <3 as well as blondes with baby blues), maybe change the kind of gold to your liking. I love all kinds of golds. I love the more bronze-brown gold, the vintage dark gold, the bright yellow-gold, I think it's the shimmer I like the most. I remember I got my first golden eyeshadow (baked) on my thirteenth birthday and I was too scared to wear it with it being such a strong color. Now, 5 years later, I do actually use it. And yes, I now confessed that I don't hold myself to the dates that come on the back of the make up boxes. I have make up that I stole from my sister when I was eleven or something that I still use (no worries sis, it's a black kohl pencil, nothing special :-D) and it's always been okay. I do try to apply my make up with clean brushes and sponges (I try to clean them once every 2-3 weeks). The only product I actually do throw away once the date on the back has passed is mascara. But my mascara usually doesn't last that long since the expiration date is around twelve months and I finish my mascara's in less than a year. Do you guys actually "listen" to the expiration dates on your make up? When I have a little more time on my hands I'm gonna do a make up post with all the eyeshadows and lipsticks I own, I always love to see pictures of other peoples make up so I'm guessing you do too! :-D

I kind of wish I had some awesome seventies clunky wedges to wear with this dress. Some heels I could still walk in that just give the illusion of being elegant. :-D

I really like my ass in that dress. Just sayin'. Now for the make up!

I have the perfect rusty-red lipstick to wear with golden eyeshadows! I love the golden shimmer it has.

My nails here were still a little blueish from washing out the dye in my hair.

A little announcement: I'm gonna be moving! Our house is falling apart and luckily we found a cute little place not too far from here. While the house we now live in has this gorgeous garden I will definitely miss, I will not miss the leaky roof, the cracks in the walls that let in all kinds of cold during the winter, the walls that seem to be coming down and the electricity that sometimes just likes to give up on us. Yes, this house is a freaking mess and I think I won't fully realise how strange it's gonna be to live in a normal house where you don't have to worry whether the livingroom will stay dry during the rain or not. I have set my heart on painting the walls of my bedroom along the lines of this (but more colors, just this pixel-y technique):

Which is gonna be awesome. Or I get a Zelda wall!

That'd be freaking awesome. :-D Have a lovely day!