Halloween nail art

I love Halloween. I love dressing up and looking scary. It might be an afterglow from my “dark days” when I was wearing all black thinking I was somewhat Goth.

This year I have to work on Halloween so I decided that I wanted to have a little Halloween on my nails. And I wanted to do something very simple that I couldn’t possibly mess up even using my left hand.

I looked up a lot of nail art and MissJenFABULOUS’ "Halloween Spooky Eye Nail Art!!!" tutorial was the winner. It is as simple as it can get but still very cute and wearable.

All I needed was a white and a black nail polish and a dotting tool. I used both sides of one dotting tool but I took a picture of both so you could see the different sizes.

Happy Halloween!

audible love damper

audible.de app on my phone

Until this day I was in love with audible.de. I subscribed in March and listened to 13 books within the last 8 months. Today was the first time that I came upon a very annoying damper in quality.

I am about to finish listening to “City of Bones” by Cassandra Clare. I like listening to book series because I feel like a single book finishes too fast when you listen to it. City of Bones is the first book out of six, with a story that I am not overly excited but somehow curious about. And six books are going to keep me occupied for a while.

Since I have only an hour of my book left, I figured I should download the sequel “City of Ashes”. This is where the disappointment started. City of Ashes is not available in English on audible.de. Every other of the six “City of …”-books are available in English but not this one.

Why? This I asked the customer service. They told me it is because they didn’t get the rights on it. What? How is that possible? How can a company like Audible – run by Amazon btw. – not be able to provide the same content of audiobooks to every country their service is available in? How can a writer exclude one of his books to one single country? I would understand if he didn’t want his book to be composed (right word?) in German for whatever reason. Fine. But if he agreed for his book to be available on audible.com in English, why should the same book – ONE book out of a whole series - not be available in the same language in another country?

Anyway, I gave in and I looked City of Ashes up on audible.de again to find the German version. And yes this post would be completely unnecessary if the second problem didn’t occur.

WHY ON EARTH is City of Ashes red in German abridged? WHY did someone feel the need to shorten the book of five and a half hours? That is almost half the book!!! You cannot do that to me!

Dear Amazon,
I am very disappointed in you.
Sincerely,
me

Yes I know I could subscribe to audible.com as well, but I refuse to pay Amazon twice.

teddy cozy

I am planning to have a super cozy Sunday. After a week full of work and university, I feel like I need a day of doing absolutely nothing.

I will burn my new “soft blanket” Yankee Candle, which smells like vanilla and something else I can’t make out. According to Yankee Candle it’s supposed to be warm amber although I have no idea how warm amber is supposed to smell. Anyway, it is delicious and not too sweet like you might expect from vanilla.Simply the perfect scent for a cozy Sunday.

When I spend a day on my couch I want to be as comfortable as possible. That means I need a lot of teddy fur clothing. I recently bought teddy fur lined socks to go with my white teddy fur sweater and my new super soft Norwegian pattern fleece pajama pants. It's all about feeling like a warm cuddly cloud.

Last but not least I fill my favorite apple elder punch tea into my cute teddy cup and read a book on my Kindle in piece and quiet.

How does your perfect Sunday look like?

hairy worries

It is a very personal matter but somehow I feel quite passionate about it. Hair care. And by that I don’t mean taking care of the hair on your head but getting rid of body hair.

I think I can say that I’ve tried every possible way there is to get rid of my body hair. This sounds so gross, like I am a hairy monster.

Let's talk about what I've gone through.

Shaving
Oldy but goodie. Although somehow I always manage to cut myself and even chop off part of a nail sometimes. You’re wondering how on earth I do that? I have no idea. But shaving my legs requires more of my attention than I like to admit. Don’t even get me started on cutting myself accidently…
And after shaving my legs feel so dry that I have to run for some body butter immediately. Not to mention that it is a never ending story. For perfectly smooth legs I’d have to shave every single day. Who has time for that? Thank god it’s getting colder and I can hide my legs in some pants.

Hair removal cream
It stinks, it irritates your skin and who ever said the result lasts longer than shaving never tried it themselves. And whatever happens DON’T try it on any delicate area. Just don’t. I haven’t tried it myself but I doubt it’s gonna be pretty. Only thinking about the fact that this cream is burning your hair off and even sinking into your skin to get closer to the root is an alarming thought. Who would voluntarily put something acidly on their skin?

Epilate
You might as well call it instrument of torture. It growls like a monster when you turn it on and then it rips your hair out piece by piece and doesn’t even get them all. Do I need to say more?
A friend of mine told me that you just have to get used to it but I just couldn’t do it. To me it hurts and sounds like hell. Ripping your hair out piece by piece with tweezers is more pleasant, I suppose.

Waxing/sugaring
Yes, it means ripping out a lot of hair all at once and yes that hurts BUT you will be hair free for two weeks and then your hair will grow back thinner and the area where your hair grows might even thin out a little. If I had the money I would get my entire body waxed every month. I do get my bikini line (right word?) sugared every month and I couldn’t go without it. Sugaring means a few minutes of pain and weeks of being hair free. You can start with your arms or legs if you want to get used to it, but I tell you, there is nothing better than not having to shave and therefore no stinging hair “down under”. It might amaze you but the body part that sugaring hurt the most at – at least in my opinion – were my armpits. It felt like she ripped my entire underarm off. Oh my god! I would only do it again if I wanted to get it done regularly because than the hair will get thinner eventually..

If you want to have some fun try waxing one of your guy friend’s chest. I have rarely laughed so hard in my life!

Do you have any funny hair stories? Is there anything I haven’t tried? Let me know!

I give in.. It's fall.

This year summer came and left almost unnoticed - at least where I live it did. It was cold, rainy and just not summer at all. Yes, we had a few very warm days but that was by far not enough. I didn’t go on vacation anywhere this year so I couldn’t even enjoy a full week of summer somewhere else.

This beeing said, I guess it is understandable that I denied that fall was around the corner as long as I possibly could. My mind didn’t even give in after wearing a scarf and a fall jacket for a week. I was born in the wrong country. ;)

What did it for me though was going into Depot to shop for a make-up mirror. For those who don’t know, Depot is one of the cutest home décor shops I have ever been to. And there it was. Fall! The entire shop screamed fall from every possible angle in every possible way. The fall décor was so adorable that all of the sudden I got really excited about the seasons changing. Finally! I bought some décor stuff and – of course - no make-up mirror and rushed home to give my apartment a fall makeover.

For this vase I only had to buy artificial apples and popcorn. The candle is made out of plastic and can be lit by a switch at the bottom to get a burning effect. I tied a ribbon around the Vase to complete the look and to make it less "naked looking" at the top.

 

I also put an artificial apple in another vase with some moss and other stuff that was in a potpourri mix I bought from Depot. The stones at the bottom were in the vase before with some spring déco stuff so I just left them there.

 

Last but not least I brought a piece of forest into my living room. I used the leftovers from the potpourri mix and just had to arrange them.

Disappointing Mascara

I want to talk about 6 mascaras that I wish I wouldn’t have bought. I wanted to take a picture wearing the mascara to prove my point but I failed miserably. It was impossible to take even one decent picture of my eye. So I will do my best to describe what I don’t like about each mascara.

 

·  Serious Skin Care - THE Mascara € 16,04

 

Thankfully I didn’t actually spend money on this one because it is by far the worst mascara I have ever tried! I received it in my Glossybox and was very excited. Who doesn’t love to try new mascara?

What it claims to do:

“formulated to lengthen, thicken, curl and define for maximum lash fullness”

What I think:

All it did for me was lots of fiber in my eye and not a lot of fiber or mascara on my lashes. I couldn’t even begin to really play around with it because there was so much fiber in my eye that I got really irritated. I had to take the mascara off and rinse my eye because it was itching and burning like hell. That killed it for me. I never tried it ever again.

 

·  Maybelline – Illegal Length, Waterproof € 10,99

 

This mascara is not awful but we are not becoming great friends any time soon. I bought it on a youtuber’s recommendation.

What it claims to do:

“Build 4mm of measurable extensions! Fiber-fix brush has 6 different contact points with each lash for optimal fiber placement.”

What I think:

First of all “4mm of measurable extensions” is a ridiculous promise. For me it didn’t extend my lashes at all. The brush and the color payoff is ok but nothing more. It makes your lashes look thin and lightly coded with mascara. Like I said fine but not what I look for in mascara.

·  Astor – Big & Beautiful Boom! Volume Mascara € 9,49

 

What it claims to do:

“Its exclusive over-sized One Coat Brush, instantly volumizes and plumps lashes without clumps!” “One coat. Ultra thick lashes.”

What I think:

First try – nothing happens. The mascara stays on the brush and my lashes stay untouched. On my second try I wiggle the brush and press it on my lashes. The tiniest bit of mascara actually gets on my lashes. I repeat wiggling and pressing and manage to get the thinnest coat of mascara on my lashes I have ever seen. Not matter how many layers I try to put on, that was the best it got.

 

·  Look by Bipa – Special Eyes Long & Define mascara € 2,99

What it claims to do:

“Ultra long and well-defined lashes.”

What I think:

The brush has thick and hard plastic bristles with lots of space between the rows of bristles. That is probably the reason why you get an uncontrollable ton of mascara on your lashes at the first stroke. It feels and looks like your lashes are drowning. Every stroke makes it worse and glues your lashes together. I ended up with the thickest spider legs ever. Wow.

You can save your lashes by using a mascara wand you like to get all the excess mascara off and then it works fine. I sometimes use it if I want extra thick lashes AFTER I put on mascara I like and that one is dry.

 

·  Sleek – Lash Out mascara € 8,49

What it claims to do:

“Lengthening and volumizing. Spiral nylon brush captures every lash for maximum coverage. No clumping formulation”

What I think:

I bought this one when I was in London because I saw some nice reviews online. First of all the mascara wand looks like its bristles caught on fire and melted to pretty much nothing. It does separate your lashes though I don’t know how and it does give ok volume. I don’t hate it, but I used it only a couple of times and then gave up. Now a year later I is completely dried out without being used.

 

·  Essence – Get BIG Lashes, volume boost mascara € 2,65

What it claims to do:

“For maximum volume and especially thick lashes.”

What I think:

It reminded me a lot of the Astor Big & Beautiful mascara. Its packaging is huge and it has a large and puffy wand, if that makes any sense. You don’t have to work as hard as with the Astor mascara to get some color on your lashes but there is absolute no volume and no length. You get slightly coated, very natural looking lashes. Not what I want. But if anyone is just starting with mascara and wants to try something very simple and cheap, than you could go for this one.

 

I hope this was a lttle helpful if you were eyeing one of These Mascaras. Let me know your opinion on my selection and bad Mascaras in General. Help to save me from a bad buy. :)