giovedì 20 ottobre 2016

♕ Summer Most Played ♕

I haven't written any Most Played post during the last year - shame on me, shame on my cow. I don't even know why, these kind of posts are so fun to write and also to read. Anyway, after the longest time ever, I finally managed to put together and post one - yay me! #Teammostplayed power u.u

Before we get started, I want to explain how I'm going to handle & schedule my Most Played posts from now on. I'd love to post monthly like I used to - and like it is supposed to be - but I seem unable to do so (meaning that I tend to procrastinate and end up with two/three months piled up). Also I don't switch products that often, and when it happens it depends on new launches, personal necessities... Thus, I may not have new stuff to include each month - resulting in not-so-exciting posts.
That being said, I decided to post one Most Played every three months: basically it'll became a seasonal appointment where I'll gather all the products I used the most - both favourites and non favourites, mind you. I think this schedule will work better for me, let's start this new adventure with my Summer Most Played (I know I'm waaay late with this, but better later then never right?)

lunedì 17 ottobre 2016

♕ The Mermaid Series ♕ Dark Siren Eyes ♕
{Feat. Nabla Cosmetics ~ Mermaid Collection}

Today's makeup is the last one I made using only the eyeshadows from the Mermaid Collection by NABLA Cosmetics - don't worry though, this series is not ended at all! I will never, never run out of mermaid looks ;D

This final look features deep shades, bright eyeliner, both sparkly and matte shadows - makes me think of sirens, dangerous enchantresses of the deepest and darkest seas. I'm so excited to be able to finally post it here, I love this makeup so much *_*


venerdì 14 ottobre 2016

♕ Nabla Cosmetics ~ Brow Universe ♕ Brow Pot & Brow Divine ♕
{Overview, Swatches, First Impressions}

{Disclaimer: this post is a first impressions/preview about a product I got for free as press sample. I'd like to thank NABLA Cosmetics for the opportunity, anyway my evaluation policy doesn't change and is always based on real usage of the product(s)}

Over the last one year and a half I became very interested in eyebrows, I gradually learnt how to shape and define them - mainly by using a pencil, but I also used eyeshadows for a short amount of time. Now, doing my eyebrows is a step in my daily routine I never, never skip. 
So, needless to say, when NABLA Cosmetics announced the upcoming launch of their new eyebrow product I rejoiced right away! (They already have a brow product in their range actually - the Brow Divine pencils - but I can't relay on those because there's no shade for red hairs, sadly.)

And I got even more excited when I learnt that this new product was a cream - perfect timing, as I'm using up my currently brow pencil and I was taking into consideration switching to cream/gel.
Please welcome the new Brow Pot range, a brow cream that features a waterproof and long-lasting formula.


venerdì 7 ottobre 2016

♕ Peacock Eyes ♕
{100 Days of Make Up ~ Day 29}

Today I'm going to start posting again some of the make up I created for the 100 Days of Make Up Challenge - I knew I said I wanted to write a blog post for each one, but I soon realized that it was pretty much a mission impossible. For two reasons: first, the huge amount of time needed to post one hundred different looks; second, I keep doing new looks almost every day or so - meaning that if I focus only on this "old" series I'd leave behind the newer ones. And so on.

I came to the conclusion that I needed to catch up quickly - so I did a massive selection, keeping just an handful of looks to post here. I really hope to go through them in a couple of months at most. 


Let's get started with today's look - as you can tell, inspired by a peacock feather!


martedì 4 ottobre 2016

♕ The Mermaid Series ♕ Aquamarine ♕

I'm baaack! And so is The Mermaid Series! *_*
I'm sorry for the lack of posts last week, but I spent my spare time planning and re-planning my blog schedule - I've plenty of makeup looks, plus empties, summer favourites/most played and many reviews to post, but I had to sort them out a bit due to my decision to write in English only from now on.

Today I'm going to show you another mermaid makeup, this time inspired by the well-known mermaid movie Aquamarine. No need to say that is one of my favourite movies in the whole world :p

"We are not fictional! We're just discreet!"

martedì 27 settembre 2016

♕ English takes over the blog: bye Italian! ♕

Ciao Principesse,

Ebbene sì, come avrete intuito dal titolo del post ho deciso di abbandonare il bilinguismo e di tornare a scrivere in una sola lingua - solo che, a differenza di quanto accadeva in passato, questa lingua sarà l'inglese e non l'italiano.

È stata una decisione davvero sofferta e difficile da prendere, ma era necessaria: scrivere in due lingue richiede il doppio del tempo e delle energie, talvolta anche di più. Inoltre, i post molto lunghi (come recensioni, preview e/o overview) vanno necessariamente divisi per lingua, scrivendone separatamente una versione italiana ed una inglese - sia per facilitare a voi la lettura, ma anche per facilitare a me stessa la scrittura, l'organizzazione e la revisione dell'articolo. Mi ritrovavo schiacciata a panino su due fronti: un ritmo difficile da sostenere e che mi stava mandando nel pallone da un lato, e la scomodità intrinseca del bilinguismo in determinati tipi di post dall'altra. La situazione stava diventando ingestibile, e se c'è una cosa che non ho mai voluto è che questo blog diventasse una fonte di stress. Urgeva trovare una soluzione, anche se radicale.

È scontato che scrivere in una lingua sola sia decisamente più semplice, ma personalmente me ne sono resa veramente conto proprio nelle occasioni in cui ho preparato quei post tanto lunghi da poter essere trattati una lingua per volta: il processo di scrittura era palesemente più veloce, immediato e rilassato, nonostante si trattasse appunto di articoli estremamente lunghi. Tuttavia, un dubbio amletico mi frenava dal prendere la fatidica decisione: italiano o inglese? È questo il problema!
Sono rimasta per un bel pezzo nel limbo del dubbio... L'unica altra opzione era ridurre il numero di post - ma diciamocelo, già pubblico poco e la cosa non mi va giù, avrebbe senso ancora meno di così?
Risposta: no.
Ecco perché alla fine della mia lunga riflessione ha vinto il ritorno alla lingua unica.

Per quanto riguarda la scelta dell'inglese... Immagino che troviate la decisione di passare ad una lingua straniera quantomai bizzarra e poco funzionale, ma alla fine dei conti è quella che mi è più congeniale: dopo un anno abbondante di bilinguismo non me la sono sentita di abbandonare l'inglese, è una lingua che amo, che mi diverte parlare, ascoltare, leggere e scrivere e che è compresa ovunque (più o meno). Ho sperimentato l'uso esclusivo dell'inglese su Instagram ed mi sono trovata molto bene (ovviamente l'accostamento è molto risicato perché parliamo di due piattaforme diversissime, ne sono cosciente), cosa che mi ha incentivata a scegliere questa lingua anche per il blog. 
Naturalmente mi dispiace abbandonare la mia lingua madre - ma penso sia sottinteso, altrimenti non sarebbe stata una scelta sofferta. Se avessi avuto più tempo a disposizione avrei volentieri proseguito col bilinguismo, ma a meno di non avere giornate lunghe 36 ore ciò non è più possibile. (E anche così non si risolverebbe il problema della scomodità, purtroppo).

Perciò questo è il mio ultimo post bilingue, a partire dal prossimo saranno tutti solo ed esclusivamente in inglese! Se tutto va come spero, grazie a questa decisione sarò in grado di postare molto più di frequente e con costanza ♥ See you soon!

My dear Princesses,

as the title says, I'm switching from bilingualism to English only. In the past I used to write only in Italian, but then I decided to add English, both to practice but also to be able to be read all around the world. 

Thing is, writing in two different languages is quite challenging and time-consuming: it takes twice the amount of time and energies required, sometimes even more. Also, the longest the post, the hardest to read (both for you and me). Longer articles had to be written separately, resulting in one post in one language, and another post featuring the other language. Crazy, hard-to-keep-up schedule on one hand, and the difficulties of the bilingualism on the other. I was starting to feel stressed - and I've never wanted my blog to be stressful! So I definitely need to find a solution - quickly.

I realized how easier it would be if I went back to the one-language-only when I was writing those pretty long posts. I noticed how quickly I wrote, no stress, quite relaxed - even thought I was writing a really long and articulate post. The thing that has been holding me back for all this time was an Hamletic doubt: "should I choose Italian or English?"
My only option, apart from this, was to slow down and post less - but I already have a poor schedule, honestly, and I actually aim to post more frequently!
This is why, after a lot of thinking, the "lest go back to one language only" option won - and so did the English option. Hardest choice ever, must say.

I know, switching from my native language and bilingualism to another language might seem weird and nonfunctional, but in the end it's the option that hopefully will works best for me: after more than one year of bilingualism I didn't feel like giving up on English. I love this language, I love speaking, reading, writing and listening to it - plus, it's understood pretty much worldwide (ish). 
I've been writing in English on my Instagram for a couple of years now and so far it worked just fine (I know it's a very different platform, but bear with me) and thus I feel comfortable with switching language in here. 

Of course I'm quite sad of quitting writing in my native language - as I said, it was an hard decision to take. If I had more spare time I'd definitely keep on writing in both languages - but to do so I'd need 36-hours days, at least. And still, that would not resolve the difficulties in terms of longer posts, harder to be read. 

So, starting from the next post, I'll write only in English. Hopefully this will allow me to be way more productive and consistent! Wish me luck and stay tuned, I'll talk to you all very soon!

XOXO

venerdì 16 settembre 2016

♕ The Mermaid Series ♕ BombShell Eyes ♕

Manca una settimana esatta al lancio del nuovo BombShell Brush Set di Spectrum Collections (qui la preview in italiano), così ho deciso di pubblicare questo look che ho realizzato in onore di questo set utilizzando i suoi colori distintivi. Non è la prima volta che realizzo trucchi ispirati ai pennelli Spectrum, è una cosa che mi diverte sempre molto - ogni set presenta una combinazione di colori unica ed è una piccola sfida riuscire a realizzare un trucco che li evochi. 

In just one week the new BombShell brush set by Spectrum Collections will be officialy be launched - so I thought I'd post this look I made a while back, inspired by this new set's colour way. (Read my BombShell preview here). I always enjoy doing this kind of inspired looks, because Spectrum brushes always come with the most fun colour ways - it's challenging!