THE BATTLE OF THE LIPBALM.

lip balms, lip balms and lip balms. You get them thrown in your face wherever you go, grocery shopping, night shopping, shopping for clothes and every other kind of with shopping involved. But what is good actually? I mean seriously, there are millions of lip balms all over the world and they come in millions of different colours, shapes, tastes and scents. Do these elements make the product better? Is it worth spending the extra money? Let's find out.

I have been looking for the perfect lip balm practically all my entire life which contains a small amount of 23 years. Not that much, no indeed. But long enough to have broken and brittle lips everyday and almost giving up all hope about them. Lipstick looks weird on your lips because of the loose little bits of skin, the cracked feeling lipstick gives you and the bloody feeling, literally.

I've been testing some different lip balms for over a year now and i have to admit. it's not how more expensive it gets the better it is, no. Let's say for starters that Labello is no bueno, it tastes good and smells like a fresh spring morning in a flowerbed somewhere in the countryside.

Products that have been tested are:

EOS lip balm in blackcurrant. 8€

CARMEX original lip balm. 3.45€

CARMEX lip balm in tube with cherry flavour. 3.50€

MAC lip moisturizer tube. 15.50€

BABY LIPS lipbalm by maybelline. 4€

Of all these lip balms i tried i have to say i crack for the CARMEX original stick. It's minty, feels healthy and fresh. it leaves a soft layer on the lips protecting them and at the same time nourishing the lips.

Second place goes to the CARMEX lip balm cherry, there is less product in its container and you get bored of the cherry flavour in a short time. But it nourishes at the same high level as the original one!

Third is the MAC lip conditioner. Comparing to their other amazing products this one is way to expensive for what it gives you. it indeed moisturises the lips but it's not the wonder product you need and the tube gets really messy fast.

Fourth is the EOS lip balm. A complete trashy no, i am sorry for the people who thought it's a hype and is so freaking good. No it's not. It tastes and smells awesome, i admit. But as for nourishing and lip care it's worth crying. 

Fifth is the BABY LIPS from Maybelline. It doesn't even stay on for 2 minutes. even tough 4€ is not that bad the product is not nice. it's not smooth when you put it on and it seems to disappear within 2 minutes and you'll look like a lip balm addict when putting it on a zillion times a day. 

I hoped this helped you all out when choosing your next lip balm, don't doubt whenever it's cheap, the doubt should come when it goes over 5€. 

XOXO

Fe Alice

HOW TO JENNER.

No nonsense kind of day, that is what this day represents. It's a couple of days before Christmas and everyone is hunting like a mad hatter to quickly find that one present in time because the shops close at 5pm and they had to work until Wednesday. Na-ah, not for me. My nonsense kind of day is more about how I don't like the whole image about the Kardashian entourage. Except for the Jenners, especially the Kylie-kid. They don't own that artificial to much contouring look and they dare to wear less, I love them. They are young indeed and pretty much wild I have to say, seeing in what wealth they grow up they tend to be "normal". 

-Kendall and Kylie Jenner.

I am a sucker for Kylies make-up look tho, not to much eye shadow in matte colours and those pink mauve plumping lips that make your heart skip a beat. I adore it! 

-Kylie Jenner.

So I recreated the statement look she already put her name on. Simple eye shadow in 3 different matte tones, a lip pencil in a perfect mauve pink colour and the perfect skin. Great idea for the holidays!

Used products:

Mac face and body foundation in C2

Mac Pro long wear concealer in NC20

Mac soft and gentle highlighter

Mac bone beige sculpting powder

Mac prep+prime translucent powder

Mac blush ambering rose

Mac omega eye shadow for brows

Mac brulé eye shadow as highlight on lid and browbone

Mac sketch eye shadow in crease 

Mac carbon eye shadow in crease and lash line

Make up for ever smokey eyes mascara

Mac penultimate eyeliner

Bobbi Brown naked lipliner

Mac ample pink lipgloss

Xoxo and happy holidays,

Fe Alice

MAKE UP FOR EVER, FOR EVER.

Friday night december 12th of 2014. Chilly, cold and windy weather. All i can say about it that it is absolutely annoying and depressing for someone else , not for me. I'm in holiday for 5 days, perfectly sitting in front of my laptop in my comfy couch listening to Christmas music while my fireplace warms up the room and i'm dreaming of having a "white Christmas". Never going to happen so i'd better start writing again.

A couple of weeks ago i was invited to Make Up For Ever's launch event of their new eye shadows. i have to tell, they are AMAZEBALLS.

I went with my gorgeous friend and we were all excited about this, they had discontinued all their shadows, they had 125 colours available. Yet these have been replaced by 210 colours. Yes you hear it well, 210 colours! They come in 5 different dimensions:

ME: Metallic
M: Matte
S: Satin
I: Iridescent
D: Diamond

The texture of these new eye shadows is rather brilliant, it's powdery yet smooth. You'd think it's actually a cream when you put it on your brush or if you feel it by finger. In the beginning they are kind of hard to work with, they are really pigmented, i never saw the MUFE eye shadows being so strong and pigmented as these ones, thumbs up guys, i'm hooked.

They are €17,90 for a refill shadow, twice the size of a mac eye shadow.

If you love make up and love to play around with different textures and uses , you'll be pleased with these. You can use the shadows for highlighting, sculpting and brows as well, great ain't it?

Visit your MUFE shop to try these gorgeous shadows out, you'll fall head over stiletto heels with these babies. I can tell you, they got me addicted.

XOXO

HUSH HUSH ITS BLUSH.

It's 2:15pm here in Brussels, Belgium. It is cold and misty and the skies are grey and unhealthy. It's the City Sam Smith called "romantic" when he visited yesterday. Cool I guess, especially when it's chirstmas time and everything has these cute lightening and stuff. Apart from that it's not really romantic at all. Clearly he has never been to Bruges.

Bruges is a small cute city in the western front of Belgium, yes that place where people have that funny accent. It's what the world calls "the little Venice of Northern Europe".

It is. Along the UNESCO world heritage, tourists and elegant locals you find hipster shops, bars and hairsalons. 

On the address "Damse Vaart Zuid 29" there is this ultra trendy hair salon called BLUSH. It's situated right in front of a romantic canal, has everything a hair salon has to offer such as colour, cut, styling, hairextensions and make-up services.

The owner of this rather amazingly looking salon is even more interesting. He's a graduated make-up artist and hair stylist with all the magic in his fingers. I mean seriously, what you ask is what you get and nothing is impossible for this funny and gorgeous salon owner! 

I tell you, when in Bruges this salon is worthy of your visit. It's on a 5/10 minutes walking distance from the historical centre and the hair stylist is fluent in English, Dutch and French. 

I've got some of his current work for you all to share to brighten up your day. 

And for all your desires, pink, purple, long or short hair. There is only one address:

BLUSH , Damse Vaart Zuid 29, 8000 Bruges.

Contact: Koenraad Coussement

              0032479245205

What's in a purse.

A Sunday here in my home means clean day. And by clean I mean practically everything.

My house, my clothes, my dressing and yep a girls worst challenge, her purse...

I have this thing that I change purses 2 or 3 times a month , depending on the occasion and how many stuff I have to drag with me all the time. So today was that day again, throwing the inside of my current one all over the table and take a plastic bag. Just you know sort the crap out of it, throw things away, stuff I want to keep I immediately throw it in the one I want to use. 

Simple as that I guess. But if you stand still on how much non useful things we dig in there, it's hilarious, seriously. And all of that to make us look prettier, smell better, to pay what we often cannot afford and of course the life saving gear, it's hilarious and at the same time brilliant.

Brilliant in the way that society wouldn't accept us if one day we'd look less cute or less attractive. Imagine that one day you'd have a really bad hair day and your make up just looks like crap. You went way overboard with that bronzing powder and you sit on the bus , train or in class and that hot guy doesn't seem to look at you. You grab your purse put some magic in your hands and hope that what comes out of that big bag will make you look better. 

All for society, unfortunately. Is it the 21st century who made us this way? The magazines or the celebrities who always look smoking hot in those tight clothes? 

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for it too. And the first one who says that she or he isn't is lying. 

Here's a sneak into my purse , clean for Monday that's to come dirty for Friday nights.

Details: 

Purse by Zara official.

Hat by H&M Divided.

Gloves by Zara official.

Wallet by Vicoria's secret.

Beauty bag by Longchamp.

Lipsticks by MAC cosmetics.

Eos lip balm.

Perfume by Agent Provocateur.

Deodorant / body spray by Jean Paul Gaultier "classic".

Mascara scandal eyes by Rimmel London.

Studio fix foundation powder by MAC cosmetics.

Keys to my lovely orange Skoda Fabia.

Tiny tea by Your Tea (detox tea).

Glasses both by Ray Ban.

Emergency party rings by H&M.

For more information on products and where you can find them , mail me at fehuyghe@yahoo.com.

Have a lovely Sunday night and yep , keep your purses clean this time!

Xoxo

Nailing it.

Nails nails and nails. It's all we see these days. They come in different shapes, colours and textures. I'm not really the type to do my nails, but when I do I put some effort in it but it cannot take hours for me. I tried gelish and gel nails but I just can't stand the feeling of them, it's not me unfortunately.

Mostly I decide to go and do my nails on the most inappropriate times , when I have 5 minutes before leaving to work, suddenly before going to bed or simply before cleaning. And I always , I say ALWAYS mess it up. They don't dry, I make stains with them on my fingers and I make stains on my clothes. It leaves me with nothing but messy nails and no other choice but to take it off. 

Yesterday when I came home from work earlier for once and I had nothing to do. I putted on my onesie, be comfortable and oh yes there's the box. It's a box somewhere standing in a dusty dressing underneath shoes and yes, dust. I was like ok, inspiration? What to do? 

I decided to go wild and add some glitter to the scene. So I took my make up kit and searched for the perfect glitter to go with my idea. I grabbed the black/forest green loose glitter and a golden one. For the nailpolish indeed red, dark red the usual.

Festive dark red nails with splashing glitter.

These are the 3 most important ones, a nail base protecting your nails to the maximum. A deep dark red colour and a quick drying glossy top coat. 

-base coat and nailprotector by C'est tout moi! 1.99€

-dark red by Tom Ford beauty 42.90€

-quick drying top coat by Hema 2.50€

 

The glitters I've used are actually make up pigments and glitter. They are really concentrated in pigment and therefor they're perfect. I start up with the dark one and put it on top of the second coat of the dark red polish. 

You take your top coat and emediatly put it on top of the glitter , this makes it a bit more ombré. 

Quickly you take some golden glitter and let it snow over your nails. Top of with the top coat for a glossy and quick drying effect!

-forest green pigment by stargazer 2.90€

-gold pigment Christmas edition 2013 was packed in sets of 4, 33.50€ per set.

My result, quick drying, I have to say by far the best quick dry top coat ever!! You don't pay much for it and surely does it's job! The pigments keep on being shiny even the day after, mostly by putting the first glitter on with an old eye shadow brush. I love these rather festive nails! I'd surely consider doing it again for the holidays!

Hugs and kisses. 

Tom Ford beauty.

What if you ship of to an island all alone and you could only take 1 beauty product with you, what would it be? Moisturizer? Mascara? Eyeliner? Hmm... Hard one! I'd take lipstick I guess... What do you expect me to do? I wear it all the time and I don't see myself making lipstick out of berries if they even have those. By so far, we know already that I'm hung up on them.

A year ago I first saw the make-up line from Tom Ford, known as the creator of Tom Ford clothing and Tom Ford perfumes. As I saw the nailpolishes along with the lipsticks glittering and smiling at me standing there in front of the nice display. "Oh my you're gorgeous!" I thought to myself and started melting away for them...

Tom Ford instore counter.

After doubting it for a while, hesitating the quality and knowing no one who used it before. I decided to give it a shot. As I took my time to sort out what shades I own in my 158 lipsticks collection I decided to buy 2 little sleeping beauties. After the shock of being poor as I bought 82euros or 90dollars on lipstick I pampered myself with the thought that they have to be good. As I opened the packaging. I observed and handled it like it was a Louboutin shoe, my eyes started to blink and whoah, this packaging is so luxurious and elegant. What I've noticed and I found rather cute is the carving in the lipstick that says TF, fancy! But what else to expect from a gorgeous gay guy, he knows how to pamper them ladies!

Here are the 2 shades i bought:

Final decision , I am happy and satisfied and surely about the Flamingo shade, it's a cute fuchia and gives a good coverage for a lipstick. I'm a little sad about the vanilla nude, it claimed to look so beautiful and I read about it on the internet that it was the shade from TF as a nude. Would I buy it again? Hm, no. It's indeed expensive and I guess you can get a good quality lipstick for a smaller value. It's more something and not to use on a daily basis. Except if you can afford them each time they're empty...

If you want to buy or just take a simple look at the range of TF make-up you can go to Parfuma Antwerp, eiermarkt and Wijnegem Shoppingcenter. They'll be happy to help you out and give you the information you need.

Kisses.

Xoxo.

Smoke on the water.

So today is a special day, I woke up at 8AM and got to realise this is it. A perfect day off at home

..

when it's cold outside so I'd better use this as the perfect excuse to stay in and write a post on my blog. So while making some earl grey tea with honey I'm thinking what to write about... Yes! A smoky eye. Brilliant I think to myself, I grab my tea and wander of upstairs to find my make-up kit.

"So how to go from absolutely nothing on my face to having a full make up?" Is a question I also asked myself a couple of years ago, 4 or 5 to be precisely. Wondering and breaking heads about it is over, here's my step by step for "how to get that daily smoky eyes look." Enjoy.

Complete look.

STEP 1.

After putting on my moisturizer and  primer i apply my foundation with the Oval 6 brush from MAC.

Just make sure your foundation is even and doesn't leave any marks(brows, stripes,...)

STEP 2.

I apply my concealer on top of the foundation while using a small pointed applying brush from Jessup. I apply it on particular zones ( forehead,cheeks, nose and chin ).

STEP 3.

I blend in the concealer while using a blending brush to blend the product with my foundation. By doing this you'll make your look a lot more natural and fresh. 

STEP 4.

Powder everything of to set the make-up. This keeps it from getting flaky and this way you won't get any stains during the day. Don't powder to much either, keep it simple by just tapping it on instead of going all wild with it.

STEP 5.

The almighty shaping. So i'm not going to go all Kardashian up your ass. No. It's just to enhance your bone structure nothing more. By making sure your colour is not to dark or to orange you can create a sculpt right under your cheek bone and next to the eyes.This gives that little bit more power to your look and you don't look as flat faced. It's perfect for pale skin , bronzing powders are to dark for us most of the time. Especially during wintertime.

STEP 6.

Combing brows, when I was little I never imagined myself doing this kind of stuff but it feels great. Just simply comb them up and as you get to the ends just comb them a little smoother.

STEP 7.

Filling in the brows, my personal favourite. I love bushy brows and I do them every day. Start under the brow , while going up with your small brush and product you create a more natural brow look and after just simply fill them in. As if we go to the outside and the smaller part you make a straight line following your natural brow. If needed, make them a tiny bit longer for giving more facial expression.

STEP 8.

Eyes! I always apply my primer by using my fingers and smoothly blend it out. You can adapt the colour of your primer depending on the look you want to create. Here I'm using a natural shade so you can put anything on top of it.

 STEP 9.

Applying eye shadow is a fuss for some people, they tend to put on way to much so please take a brush and tap it of on your hand before applying the product. Less is more. Here I'm using a nectar coloured shadow on top of the primer.

 

STEP 10.

Adding darker colours is the hardest, they give stains, they can get messy and you can quickly make your look trashy. Here I'm applying a darker coloured shade in loose pigment or you can simply take a regular eye shadow in a darker brown shade. I apply it from the middle of my eye going to the outside corner of the eye. Never put any dark colour in the inner corner unless it's Halloween.

STEP 11.

Going darker and darker i use smaller brushes. They take colours more concentrated so you get more power out of them when you apply them. Here I'm using colours from my NAKED2 pallet, the darkest brown mixed with the darkest purple. I also apply these colours underneath the eyes. Make sure you blend your eye shadows well by using a blending brush. the last thing you want is lines and stains girls!

STEP 12.

Using a fluffy brush i apply a bit of black shadow only in the corner. This makes your eyes look deeper and more sophisticated. Connect the upper lash line with the under lash line , both in black. Same thing as before, don't use to much product, it's always better to add up than to remove.

STEP 13.

Lash curling is something you have to get used to. In the beginning it might seem scary and it may hurt you but if you finally find how to do it, it's a piece of cake. Simply put your lashes between the metal and the rubber, lightly open and close the curler again for about 10 seconds and you're done.

STEP 14.

Mascara, word says itself. Don't be afraid to put more than 1 layer. You get the maximum out of your lashes when you put minimum 3 layers of mascara. I put mine on the upper lashes and underneath. I also put on 5 layers.

STEP 15.

I always but this at last, even when I do a 50's inspired look. It's easier because your lashes are harder from the mascara. I don't make a winged liner, I keep it just until the outer corner.

STEP 16.

 I put on a natural pink lipstick just because the eyes are already kind of dark. I outline my lips a little again to make them look bigger. It shows on the picture but you can't tell in real life. I don't use a lip liner this time just to keep it more natural.

Products used to create this look starting from skincare:

Last but not least! If you recreate this look and you send me a picture before the 22nd of November you get a chance to win a product chosen by me. You can send your picture to the following e-mail address: fehuyghe@yahoo.com . The winner will get an e-mail back and will be announced the 22nd at 10AM. Good luck!