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Unexpected News: I’ve been nominated for the Liebster Award!

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liebster-award

I was recently nominated by Dianna from Cruelty Free Confidence for the Liebster award, an award for blogs with 200 followers or less. Dianna has just started her cruelty-free blog which is awesome, and it’s looking pretty good so far! She also seems so so sweet. So anyway, the rules are:

– You have to link back to the person that nominated you.
– You must answer all 11 questions given to you by the person who nominated you.
– You must give 11 random facts about yourself.
– After completing these questions you must nominate 11 bloggers with under 200 followers and give them 11 questions of your choice.
– You must not nominate the person who nominated you.
– You must let your nominees know that they have been nominated and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it.

Let’s see what Dianna asked! My answers are in italics.

1. If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you want to bring? (Don’t worry you have water, food, and shelter. Its a nice desert island… lets just pretend…)- I would want to bring my phone, so I can talk to people and relieve boredom (I’m assuming I get unlimited 4G…), a box set of Harry Potter, and probably some mascara just in case there’s a cute merman.
2. What is your favorite season of the year? Fall, hands down! I really miss it now that I live in Houston and don’t really get it. That’s one thing that I really loved about Europe. 
3. Oh no, someone stole your makeup stash! What is one thing you would be devastated was missing? Ummm I have a limited edition Chanel lipstick (I know it probably isn’t cruelty-free, but this was before I determined this). It’s a Rouge Allure Velvet in a very dark mulberry shade and it is so gorgeous- both the color and formulation. I’m working hard to find a cruelty-free dupe for the fomula! For the most part everything else is replaceable, though. 
4. You find out that your blog has become famous overnight and a movie producer contacts you to create a film about your life. What famous actor/actress would you love to play YOU in this movie? This is a really difficult one! Lily Collins is probably the one that looks most like me, although she is so much prettier. I think she’s a great actress though and would do a good job. I also love Holland Roden who plays Lydia on Teen Wolf, although she looks nothing like me.
5. What is one beauty tip you would give your 14-year-old self? Probably steer clear of pink eyeshadow- it doesn’t look good on me!
6. We all have bad habits! Which bad habit of yours do you wish you could stop right now? Biting my nails! 
7. It is saturday night, you have nothing to do in the morning and you could do anything you wanted tonight… Where would we find you four hours into the night? I would love to say I would be partying hard, but in all honesty you would probably find me with a friend, eating ice cream straight out of the tub watching a chick flick. Most likely containing Channing Tatum. 
8. If you were just given a large bag of money what would you do with it? Honestly, college is coming really soon so depending on how much it was, I would probably save the bulk of it for that. But you best believe I would also do some hardcore shopping.
9. What is your favorite type of animal? Dogs! I love them- best of all my little baby Viszla. 

10. Do you keep your home/room sparkling clean or a cluttered disaster? Is it somewhere in between? Hmm somewhere in between… but closer to cluttered disaster!
11. Ahhhh, the last one! When you look back in 10 years what would you have liked to accomplish? In 10 years I will be 27, so I would like to have my bachelors and maybe even my masters, and be working as a counterterrorism analyst somewhere. Maybe also have a guy, who knows!

 

…And now for my 11 random facts:

1. I have an accidental ombre. I had a slight dying fiasco, and ended up a light blond/brown, a couple shades lighter than my natural color. That grew out without me really noticing, and one day my friend goes, “omg did you get your hair ombre’d, it looks really good!”. I was rather surprised. Thankfully it was really subtle and didn’t actually look all that bad, and ombre was kinda just becoming really popular.

2. I had appendicitis and got my appendix removed. Before we realized it was actually appendicitis, we thought it was a nasty stomach bug. I am now adversely conditioned to gin, and cannot stand the taste.

3. I am really really bad at chemistry. I don’t know why- I’m not terrible at other sciences or math, but for some reason chemistry makes my head hurt.

4. I love stories about crime: real stories, movies, TV shows, books… You name a crime TV show on air, and I’ve probably at least watched an episode.

5. I have lived in three countries: the US, England, and Germany.

6. I speak German with passable fluency. I also kinda speak Hungarian (my mom is Hungarian), but I pretty much suck.

7. I learned Spanish in school for 9 years straight, and I still can barely speak the language.

8. My favorite strange food combination is french fries in milkshake.

9. I’m a visual learner: currently, I am writing a longer research paper, and I have a board with a timeline on it, using like 3 different color schemes.

10. I have a really eclectic music taste: my Spotify playlist is a mess of so many different genres. I am always going through different phases- right now its more dancy stuff- I’m getting back into techno again a bit.

11. I love traveling- if someone handed me an airline voucher right now, I would fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But not on Malaysian Airlines.

 

So now my nominees:

La Femme Eclectique

The Conscious Eye

Brushes and Belle

I’m afraid I don’t know that many small bloggers, also apologies if y’all don’t have exactly less than 200 followers, sometimes stats are not displayed.

My questions are:

1. What’s your favorite makeup brand?

2. Chocolate or vanilla?

3. If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go?

4. Favorite TV series?

5. Current favorite song?

6. Cities or countryside?

7. What are your top three favorite blogs?

8. Do you have any weird food combinations that actually taste good?

9. What’s your favorite location to blog from?

10. Do you have any secret talents?

11. Favorite designer?

 

Once again thank you Dianna! It was really sweet to nominate me.

Have a great Monday y’all!

Lilla xx

 

 

New Brands Added to the Safe List

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CLEAN Perfume (Fusion Brands)

Diptyque

Figs and Rouge

Fusion Beauty (Fusion Brands)

Motives Cosmetics

NEST Fragrances

 

 

In addition, there have been some concerns about some brands on the list selling to China. I have recontacted some of the companies in question, and have verified the following as NOT selling in China.

Aveda

Stila

Laura Mercier

Review: John Frieda Brilliant Brunette Multi-Tone Revealing Moisturizing Shampoo

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Ulta- $5.99

http://www.johnfrieda.com/en-US/ProductDetail/Hair-Care/Brilliant-Brunette/Shine-Release-Moisturizing-Shampoo-For-All-Shades

http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=prod2095302

Found on JohnFrieda.com

This shampoo uses sweet almond oil and crushed pearl to ‘rehydrate and revitalize dull, dry, brittle hair for renewed silkiness and exceptional shine’, meant to bring out highlights in natural or died brunette hair. The interesting thing is that, according to the packaging, there are no dyes in the product itself so I’m not sure how that is accomplished.

 

Ingredients

WATER, SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE, SODIUM LAURYL SULFATE, GLYCOL DISTEARATE, DIMETHICONE, COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE, CETYL ALCOHOL, BETAINE, COCAMIDE MEA, FRAGRANCE, GLYCERYL OLEATE, GUAR HYDROXYPROPYLTRIMONIUM CHLORIDE, BENZYL ALCOHOL, CARAMEL, DISODIUM EDTA, MALIC ACID, LAURETH-4, LAURETH-23, SODIUM CHLORIDE, GLYCINE, SODIUM XYLENESULFONATE, SODIUM HYDROXIDE, THEOBROMA CACAO (COCOA) SEED BUTTER, PRUNUS AMYGDALUS DULCIS (SWEET ALMOND) OIL, PEARL POWDER, METHYLCHLOROISOTHIAZOLINONE, METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE, LECITHIN, ALCOHOL, RETINYL PALMITATE, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, MAGNESIUM ASCORBYL PHOSPHATE

 

This shampoo is a funny one- it started out doing its job wonderfully, but then after around 1/2 the bottle was finished, it stopped cleaning my hair. I have hair that gets rather oily at the roots but remains dry at the ends, and is fine but dense (if that makes sense). My hair was getting oily again less than 24 hours after washing and was looking limp. I don’t know whether this is because of the shampoo itself or if my scalp chemistry changed, so it is difficult to comment on its effectiveness in that respect. Either is entirely likely, during the course of using it, I underwent a month of stress from school. This could have caused it directly or indirectly because my diet changed with the stress to incorporate crappier food. However, before it stopped working I really loved this shampoo- it cleaned my hair while still keeping it hydrated and shiny, and I think it really did live up to its claim of bringing out “multi-dimensional tones”. I doubt it will cover roots, but I think it could definitely extend the life and vibrancy of a dye job.

The shampoo smells interesting, a bit like a shea body lotion with some faint chemicals scents in it. The smell does not stay in the hair, so it won’t be a problem for those who don’t like strong smells.

I think this would be a great pick for anyone with dry hair. This may even work for people with normal to slightly oily hair (if it was the fault of my own scalp chemistry) because it worked well for the first period, but I can’t give any guarantees. Perhaps coupled with a good clarifying shampoo once or twice a week it could work well. I do not think this would be suited for extremely oily hair.

Rating: B

 

NOTD: OPI I Don’t Give a Rotterdam!

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20140209-131509.jpg

This color is a gorgeous greyed cool periwinkle with fine silver, pink, and lavender glitter. This is such an unusual color, I really love it. The glitter also runs pretty densely through the polish, which is surprising considering the pigment is rather sparse and it is a glitter, not a shimmer. It is very sheer, so it takes three coats to build it up, but it dries extraordinarily fast so that doesn’t really cause any problems. The formula is also rather brittle in a way (possibly from the density of shimmer?), which can lead to a shorter wear time. A good topcoat (like the fabulous NYC Grand Central Station) will take care of that. Honestly the quality of the polish isn’t stellar but the color is, and you can certainly work with it. It’s certainly worth it!

Possible Dupe for Rimmel Apocalypse Lip Lacquers

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ATTENTION: If you currently reside in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, or Spain and you have been wanting to try the Rimmel Apocalypse Lip Lacquers, the Manhattan Lip Lacquers may be a dupe. Though I have not tried them myself, both brands are owned by Coty and have nearly identical packaging, so I think there is a good chance that the formulas are similar or even identical as well.

The line contains 4 permanent colors and 4 limited edition.

Manhattan Lip Lacquers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.manhattan.de/en/products/lips/product/Productline/list/lip-lacquer-le/