Manicure Monday: Louis Vuitton and Rhinestones

Hello Princesses!

Today I have the last manicure in my little designer mani series, which is a Louis Vuitton and Rhinestone manicure! I really love the Louis Vuitton Speedy bags, one day I'll be able to afford one of those *sigh* but until then, here's a manicure which is not based on Louis Vuitton bags, but literally just stuff I wanted to have on my nails this Monday.

I used Zoya's Gaia for the white base, and Designer Metal Plates and AB Rhinestones (2mm) from Fullmoon07! I really like how this manicure turned out, the white was much more wearable than I had anticipated but the LV metal plate looked really tiny on my long nails ><

What do you Princesses think about this manicure? 

Blogging 101: Making Your Blog Look Pretty

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be showing you how to make your blog look pretty! ^.^

One of the first thing you want to do is figure out what side you want all your gadgets to be on. Left, Right or Both? If you want to change the way your blog gadgets are set up, click onto your Template Tab, and then onto the orange Customize button. If you're not sure how to use your HTML code, don't click onto the Edit HTML button just yet! Once you're in the "Customize" tab, click down into the "Layout" tab.

In this tab you can chose where your side gadgets and footers are placed. I prefer to have my gadgets to the left of my blog posts. You can also go to the "Adjust Widths" tab and change how wide everything looks. My Entire blog is 1200px and my Left Sidebar is 220.

You can also change your Template using the "Template" tab. I use the Simple template because I upload my own background picture. It makes it look better because the template is transparent. I'm terrible at explaining things so I'll show you what I mean! My main blog background looks like this: (don't try to steal it, I changed the colours)

It looks deceivingly small, but it's tailor made for the length of my blog. Everything on my blog is transparent, so when it looks like your looking at a white text background - you're actually seeing the white section of the background picture. If you want to do the same sort of thing with your background template, make sure that the white section on your background is a little wider than the length of your entire blog (the amount we selected previously in the "Adjust Widths" tab).

Anyway ... if you chose a different theme, expect a different outcome. Try out all of the themes before you make your pick. I'm leaving mine on the Simple template. Next, you can chose if you want to add a background, or leave it white or a simple solid colour. There are a couple of pre-made backgrounds to chose from as well. 

 I found a simple non-copywrite background by searching Blog Background Tumblr, (I'm not sure why, but it just comes up with cuter things if you add Tumblr to your search). Make sure that you're not stealing someone else's property, otherwise you will not be having a fun time. Set your Alignment to center, and play around with the tiling setting. I chose to not scroll my background, which means it stays static while the rest of the blog scrolls down.

The last section is the "Advanced" section, which is very misleading because it's not really advanced at all. This is where you can change the font, text colour and gadget colours. I suggest you stick to a colour theme for most things, and make good use of the transparency colour! I use the Veranda font and variations of pale pink, blue and purple for links and titles. 

That's all I'm going to be showing you today, next week I'll show you how I make, troubleshoot and install backgrounds, banners and pages! ^.^ 

Leave a comment if you're enjoying this series, or if you have any questions about blogging or coding and I'll try my best to answer them!

First Impressions: Estēe Lauder Double Wear Maximum Cover

Hello Princesses!

Today I have another Estee Lauder product to talk about, which is the Double Wear Maximum Cover. ^.^ A couple of weeks ago I showed you Princesses my first impressions on the regular Double Wear which was regretfully too dark, so of course I went back to the Estēe Lauder counter and asked them if they had any other products that might be suitable for my fair skin, and they gave me a small pot of the Max Cover in Very Light.

What Does It Do?

"Double Wear Maximum Cover

12 Hour Staying Power

Soothing, Natural-looking, liquid-creme makeup for concealing all skin imperfections, including surgical and acne scars, birthmarks, sun spots and varicose veins.

- Helps protect with SPF15

- Full Coverage

- Natural-looking

- Long-wearing

- Non-transferable

Suitable for post surgery use as directed by your physician. Developed and tested in collaboration with surgeons and dermatologists.

Formula Facts

- Dermatologist-tested

- Non-acnegenic

- 12-hour wear

- Full coverage

- SPF15

- Matte finish" (1)

When they say maximum cover they are NOT joking! This foundation is so crazy full coverage the first time I wore it I felt like I was wearing a thick mask because you couldn't see any scars or freckles - my face was just one smooth colour. For the first application I used my fingers to apply the foundation which gave me the super thick coverage. My chin, which is usually covered in red scars, was completely smooth and covered! I removed a patch of the foundation on my nose to show you the difference between my real skin and the foundation.

With the second application I decided to sheer the product out by using my beauty blender instead of my fingers. It still gave beautiful full coverage but it didn't feel so mask like this time. It wears beautifully, only getting a little shiny on my nose, but the coverage stayed flawless. I found the finish to be very very matte and very non-transferable like the description says. I didn't need to finish my whole face with translucent powder like I usually would, just my T-Zone needed a light dusting and I was done!

My only problem with this product is the colour. It's half a shade too dark! Due to my current lighting it looks too pale in comparison to my neck, (NARS Siberia makes me look ghostly in this lighting) but in real life it is a little too dark. Still wearable, but I wouldn't be able to contour or bronze without looking too dark. You will need a serious cleanser to remove this product too! I found that an oil cleaner worked best for me.

Would I Purchase This Product?

Maybe. If I had all the money in the world I probably would purchase this, but it is quite pricey and it's not quite light enough for me. I'm thinking about buying it just for performances so that I'll look like I have a flawless face even though I'll probably be covered in stress acne by exam time comes around, but I'm still not 100% sure. 

I would totally recommend this for any Princesses who are wanting a serious full coverage foundation that's easy to apply and stays all day!

Review: Etude House Rose Drawing Show Creamy Pencil; Creamy Romance

Hello Princesses!

Today's (probably really boring) review is going to be about the Etude House - Rose Drawing Show Creamy Pencil in Creamy Romance. I talked about my first impression of the product in my Rose Rose Shop, The Tragedy Edition post, and I won't hold you in suspense for a change of heart - because 6 months later I still feel the same about this product (and it's not a great feeling).

I think if I could sum up this product in one sentence it would be; so cute, but terribly disappointing. This was my first impression of the product which I wrote in November, but published in April.  

I'm actually not a fan of this product :C I find it very difficult to use around my eyes because the pencil isn't soft or creamy, so it feels like it's tugging and tearing at my soft eye area which is just not pleasant. However, the packaging is absolutely gorgeous!

I purchased this pencil from RoseRoseShop for $6USD. I was first attracted to the product by it's gorgeous packaging and product colour (I'm a sucker for cute packaging) but I made the number one mistake of the Beauty Blogger - which is not checking other bloggers reviews before purchasing products. I was SO drawn in by the cute packaging that I didn't realize that almost every other blogger's review on this product was negative.

The eyeliner is really difficult to apply because the texture just isn't soft or creamy enough to be gently applied to your delicate eye area. Forget about putting this on your waterline - it was actually painful for me. The glitters tend to chunk up and look uneven and un-attractive.

What I Love

- Cute Packaging

- Gorgeous colour

What I Don't Love

- Terrible formula

- Hard to apply

- Tugs on delicate under eye area

- Looks chunky and unpleasant

Final Thoughts

I'm so so disappointed in this product. I think this is the first Etude House product that I have disliked, (which I think is still quite impressive!), but I feel comforted that I'm not the only person that had trouble with this product. It's just not soft or creamy enough to be placed around the eye area without a little bit of pain. It really is a pity, because the packaging and the product colour are just so gorgeous!

After reading other beauty bloggers reviews, I've decided that even though I hated using this pencil, I might try the burgundy colour, because the other shades are a lot creamier than this one (probably because they don't have glitter in them!).

What do you Princesses think about this pencil? Is the cute packaging worth the delicate eye pain?