Company party with beauty gifts for the ladies

My husband works for a norwegian company and every year in January they organize a fancy party. We are treated to music, entertainment, good food, a hotel stay, and my favorite part: every lady gets a gift with beauty products! Yay!

It's called "Damegave" in norwegian, and basically means "gift for the ladies". The company is traditionally male dominated and somewhere a long the line in the company history someone came up with the idea of giving the wives a gift as a way of saying thank you for letting us borrow your husbands so much. Cute! :)

This year's gift was a hand cream and a lip balm from Decleor. Lovely!

I also want to treat you to some pictures of us at the party. 

My husband and I in our hotel room before the party.

My outfit.

 

At 24 weeks pregnant I'm getting huge!! 

The party was at the Quality hotel in Fredrikstad, January 10th.

I bought a pair of new shoes from Roots Exclusive for this occasion. I had to buy them one size larger than my normal size since my feet are so swollen from the pregnancy. Aren't they gorgeous?!

I bought them on sale at Eurosko for 620 SEK, which is about € 66 / £ 55 / $ 90.

New Year's Eve

Me and my husband celebrate our wedding anniversary on NYE, which makes that day extra special for us. We had originally planned on going to Marbella in Spain because we love that place so much. We have access to a luxury apartment there, which makes me want to go there as often as possible. We had planned on going there for a few days around New Year and for another week in April.

But something happened that made us change our plans… that something is the little miracle growing in my belly. <3 I've wanted a baby for ages and are so happy about it that I don't care too much about having to cancel our two trips to Spain.

So instead we checked in at our favorite hotel in Gothenburg (Scandic Opalen) with spectacular views of the city. We went out for a delicious meal and stayed in bed the rest of the night watching fire works all around the city. The following day we saw the Hobbit at the cinema.

Here's our NYE in pictures.

 Getting ready...

The dessert was sooo good. 

Warm fried apples in cinnamon and sugar, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Yum!

Me and the love of my life. <3

Finally some makeup + baby bump

I've been so ill that I've been in bed for the last three months and have hardly left the house at all. I'm bored of my bed and tv, and I miss my social life and work. During these months I've just worn makeup a couple of times and today I reached a point when I was so sick of my tired face in the mirror that I decided to put some makeup on.

Ok, so this isn't a great makeup shot, but really I just wanted to show of my baby bump! Yes, I'm having a baby! :) I've still got 21 weeks to go, but I'm getting bigger every week.

So makeup made me feel a little bit better today and I'm glad for the change. Now I'm back in bed resting… as usual.

Officially relaunched!

It's been hard (!) work, but now, finally, my little webshop is relaunched!! I'm so, so proud of the result. I know there's room for improvements, but I did it! All by my self!!

I'm now collaborating with Payson for secure internet payment, which I'm very happy about. It'll be more secure for my customers, but for me as well. Unfortunately I've had customers who orders and then never pays, which sucks since I've allready sent the products. Hate that people can do that.

My little business suffers greatly from people not paying since I don't have the turnover to cope with any losses. I don't earn anything from my business as it is today. Everything, absolutely everything goes back into the company so that I can expand and bring in new products. If people only knew how much works goes into this I hope they'd think differently.

But I guess I should thank them really... The last two who did this was what made me feel I'd had enough. I changed webshop distributor to be able to do the necessary changes and contacted Payson to join their payment solution. And here I am. Many, many hours later and it's done.

My webshop is only for swedish buyers so this'll probably not be that interesting for most of you. But if you feel curious enough then I suggest you take a peek: www.makeuplook.se

Sleek Makeup in Sweden

I wrote a post 1,5 year ago announcing that I was going to start selling Sleek Makeup in Sweden. Since then my little webshop has grown and I recently started selling Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman brushes as well (which I'm more than happy about).

I still get a lot (!) of visitiors on that blog post every week and that tells me that people are still looking for Sleek Makeup in Sweden. So because of that I decided to do another blogpost on this topic.

Yes - I do sell Sleek Makeup in Sweden! Please visit my webshop: www.makeuplook.se.

***

Jag skrev ett bloginlägg för 1,5 år sedan där jag meddelade att jag skulle börja sälja Sleek Makeup i Sverige. Sedan dess har min lilla webshop vuxit och jag har precis börjat sälja Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman borstar också (vilket jag är mer än glad över).

 

Jag får fortfarande många (!) besök på det blogginlägget varje vecka, vilket säger mig att människor fortfarande letar efter Sleek Makeup i Sverige. Så av den anledningen bestämde jag mig för att skriva ett blogginlägg till på det här ämnet.

 

Ja - jag säljer Sleek Makeup i Sverige! Besök min webshop: www.makeuplook.se.

 

New MAC purchases

I went to a conference in Gothenburg today and I couldn't resist stopping by (or rather: take an extra trip to) the MAC counter afterwards.

I recently bought Club eyeshadow and I think it's spectacular. But I find that it needs a base to blend nicely, otherwise it'll kind of brush of the lid and make a mess. So, taking a tip from one of Tanya Burrs videos I bought MAC paint pot Constructivist. Gorgeous!

I also bought MAC no 7 lashes, which I've been wanting to try for a while. My husband is a musician and he's got some concerts booked this spring. That means I get an opportunity to play around with some fun party makeup - including lashes!

Well... I know my mug for tea on the go hasn't got anything to do with beauty, but I found this in a shop today and thought it was really cute. So because it's also a purchase I did today (and just because it is cute) I included it in the picture.

Norwegian Formula hand cream

Winter means dry skin for me. My hands, my face... everything just dries up. I'm having a hard time understanding how I can be born in Sweden, when I'm clearly not made for this climate. But that's another story...

 

I haven't had a favorite hand cream for quite some time, but I found this Norwegian Formula hand cream at my regular supermarket. It's really cheap (can't remember the exact price, but it's about 50 SEK/£ 5/$ 5) so my expectations weren't too high. And to my surprise I found it to be amazingly good!

 



It comes in three different versions - concentrated scented, concentrated unscented and fast absorbing light texture. I've tried the both concentrated ones and they're both excellent. The scented one isn't really scented. It's more of a natural smell of the product. So there isn't much difference between the scented and the unscented one. The formula is very thick, but not greasy at all. It dries into your hands in less than a minute.

 

 I haven't tried the light textured one yet, simply because it states that the concentrated ones are for very dry hands, and the light texture just for dry hands.

 

It works like a charm, isn't greasy and it's cheap. In other words: it's a keeper!!

 

 

 



Colourful makeup

Just thougt I'd share a couple of pictures from a fun makeup and photo shoot today. My husbands daughter wanted me to do a bright makeup on her copying a picture that she liked. Here it is!

Long time no see

Dear blog,

I'm so sorry for neglecting you lately. It wasn't my intention to abandon you, I've just been so busy. I'm working full time as well as running a business on the side and something just had to give. But seeing you now made me realize how much I've missed you. I'll try to do better from now on!

See ya soon!

Sleek Makeup in Sweden / Sleek Makeup i Sverige!!

Finally - everything is set. It's taken me a while to get everything in order, but I've now started selling Sleek Makeup here in Sweden. This is probably only interesting to my swedish readers, but I thought I'd let you know anyway. ;)

***

Äntligen - allt är klart. Det har tagit ett tag att få ordning på allt, men jag har nu börjat sälja Sleek Makeup i Sverige. Jag vet att detta kommer att glädja många eftersom Sleek Makeup är mycket svårt att få tag på i Sverige. Vad jag vet är jag den enda på nätet som säljer märket.

Jag har funderat mycket fram och tillbaka på bästa sättet att sälja Sleek Makeup och kommit fram till att jag ska testa Tradera till en början. Jag skulle gärna starta en webshop direkt, men det kostar tyvärr pengar och när jag startar upp något nytt så här vill jag inte binda upp mig på för mycket kostnader. Jag ligger redan ute med pengar för produkterna och det får räcka för tillfället. ;)

Jag kommer att börja med att sälja några av i-Divine ögonskuggepaletter, några rouger/blush, face contour kit och Luminous pressed powder. Om allt går bra planerar jag att utöka sortimentet allt eftersom.

Jag har lagt ut några annonser på Tradera redan, men kommer att fylla på dem med fler produkter de närmaste dagarna. Håll utkik!

www.tradera.com. Sök på Sleek Makeup.

My article in SIX Magazine!!

I'm extremely happy and proud to announce my collaboration with SIX Magazine - a brittish sustainable and ethical fashion and lifestyle magazine. I didn't want to say anything until the magazine was out in case it didn't work out, but here it is: http://six-magazine.co.uk/magazine/!!!

They asked me to write an article on six products from Scandinavian brands that you can't be without in the winter. I had a lot of fun researching and asking for samples to make this article happen, and it was a lot of work. But I'm so happy for the result. Check out my article on page 132-133, and read about me on page 17.

Hope you like it!!

Palettes from Coastal Scents

Today I got a big smile on my face when I got home from work and realized that my palettes from Coastal Scents had arrived. Yaay!

I bought the 88 Original Palette and the 88 Ultra Shimmer Palette. The very lovely people at Coastal Scents gave me a great discount because I have a blog and want to give you guys lots of product reviews. Thanks!!

Coastal Scents 88 Ultra Shimmer Palette

Coastal Scents 88 Original Palette

The palettes are very, very nice! I tried a few on my eyes real quick and swatched another few on my hands and so far I'm super impressed! I'll be trying them out in the nearest future and give you a review.

The best thing about these palettes is the price. The palettes can be bought separately or as combo sets. The 88 Original Palette and 88 Ultra Shimmer Palette are sold as a combination set for $34,95. I mean, that's ridicolously cheap. 176 eyeshadows for $34,95!! Can't beat that!

Sleek Makeup Sweden

English:
A few months ago I asked my swedish readers if they'd be interested in buying Sleek Makeup from me if I brought it to Sweden. Because sadly, you can't buy Sleek Makeup in Sweden. And since then I get almost daily visits on my blog where people google Sleek Makeup and where to buy it in Sweden. So I thought I just had to do a quick post about this.

I know that this wont be interesting to my other readers across the world, but you'll have to forgive me. :) I'll be writing a more interesting post for you soon - I promise!! If you're curious I can tell you what I'm about to write is swedish, and that is that I have high hopes of starting to sell Sleek Makeup in Sweden really soon! :)  /

Swedish:
För några månader sedan skrev jag ett inlägg för mina svenska läsare och undrade om ni skulle vara intresserade av att köpa Sleek Makeup om jag tog in det till Sverige. Sedan jag skrev det inlägget har jag nästan dagligen besökare på min blogg som googlat på Sleek Makeup och vart man kan köpa det i Sverige.

Jag har goda nyheter till er! Jag planerar fortfarande att ta in märket till Sverige, så förhoppningsvis ska ni kunna köpa en del av deras produkter av mig inom kort. Det är en del steg kvar och jag har fortfarande något frågetecken kvar vad gäller finansieringen, men jag hoppas kunna lösa allt nu under hösten. Under tiden - gör gärna som vissa läsare redan har gjort: Hör av er till mig om ni har någon särskild produkt som ni gärna skulle se att jag tog in. Jag kan inte ta in hela deras sortiment med en gång av förklarliga skäl, utan kommer att fokusera på några produkter till att börja med. Deras ögonskuggepaletter är en stor och självklar del av det jag kommer att ta in från start.

You have the sweetest blog award

I really love awards...! Just that someone else enjoys my blog enough to give it an award makes me happy! The very lovely and funny Elle at Elle's Obsessions gave me this cute award:

You should definitely check out her blog! And her YT-channel too - this girl makes me laugh! :D

So now it's my turn to pass this award on to three other bloggers, and they are:

Delyteful Speaks

Make up by Thess

The Dark Side Of Beauty

Congratulations to you! I really enjoy reading your blogs!

When you have given the award you need to tell 3 things about yourself. Here we go:

1. I've only got one kidney
2. I've got four sisters and one brother.
3. I got married on new year's eve! It's my second husband and this one's a keeper! <3

Our hearts go out to Norway

I know this is a beauty blog and this post is going to be so OT, but I feel I can't have a blog and say nothing when such a terrible thing has happened...

Maybe you don't know what has happened, but I know a lot of you do. Three days ago, last friday, a man detonated a bomb in the center of Oslo (capital of Norway). The bomb killed 7 people, but the sad story doesn't end there... Two hours later, the same man responsible for the bomb arrived at an island just outside Oslo where a political youth camp took place. 560 people were at this camp. He was dressed as a police officer and called out to the young people and told them to gather around him. Then he started shooting...

Last I heard, 85 people died there, and many more are injured. Apparently the shooting went on for more then an hour as he was chasing people around to kill them. People jumped in the water trying to swim away from the island, but he got some of them too.

I simply don't understand how someone can do this. There are no words... Apparently he had planned this for 9 years... The pain and suffering this man has caused is enormous. My heart goes out to all of you - victims, family members and friends.

Norway is our neighbour country, but it's more than that. It's like a family member, and when our brother is hurting now, then so are we. About an hour ago there was one minute of silence here in Sweden and in Norway for all those who lost there lives in this tragedy.

I live about an hour from the norwegian border, and three hours from Oslo. The part of Sweden where I live used to belong to Norway. So this feels close to home. But all of Sweden are hurting with you now, as well as people all over the world.

You can show your support by "joining hands" on this page at a norwegian newspaper. Please click this page.

Take care of each other.
Love
C

Bikini photo shoot

A few weeks ago I did makeup on a bikini photo shoot. Soo much fun and boy did people watch and wonder what we were doing! Here are some pictures from the shoot.

I did a soft bronzed look for this shoot because I just wanted to keep it fresh with a summer, beachy feel to it. Please tell me what you think! :)

I thought MAC Woodwinked was the perfect eye shadow for this look. Bronzed and beautiful! I also used MAC Satin Taupe in the outer corner and blended it out quite far. I didn't want it to be too perfect looking.

Some of my own pictures from the shoot...

Makeup artist: Catharina Sundström

Model: Ulrica Hjelm

Photographer: Frank Hansen (except the last three which are my own).

The pictures are unedited. 

Fashion this autumn/winter

I'm really happy it's summer, even though it's not as hot and sunny as I'd wish it to be. But when the autumn/winter catalogue from Ellos (a swedish mail order company) arrived today I couldn't help but longing for autumn a bit. Just a liiiittle, tiny bit. There were some great stuff in there and I thought I'd share a few of the things I liked.

I'm not a fashion geek, at all, but I still know what I like.

Look at those shoes. Soo nice! And the bracelet!

Again... look at those shoes! And I think the skirt looks really lovely too. 

I thought that "Granny Glam" was a cool concept!

Don't know what it is about ponchos, but I just love them!

And cardigans... I could just live in them all winter long. I especially like these long ones.

I was mentioned on YouTube

Yesterday I was watching some YT-videos, when I suddenly heard my name...! Yaay - I had inspired a girl from Netherlands called Elle to buy a mascara. She had seen me use it in a tutorial and decided to get one too. That really made me happy! Thanks for mentioning me Elle! Here's the video.

She's really funny, so go and subscribe. And while you're at it - subscribe to my channel too!! If you want to read more from Elle - visit her blog: Beauty and Ramblings with Elle.

Have a great day everyone!

Top 10 Award

A little while ago the super lovely Delyteful Speaks nominated me for the Top 10 Award. So nice of her!! Now it's my time to pay it forward. Here are the rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Nominate 10 other bloggers
3. List your 10 favorite beauty products

And the bloggers I nominate are...

The Make up Fairy
Beauty and Ramblings with Elle
Beauty Addict Anonymous
Gaby's Beauty Blog
malikagodt
Red Lip Gloss
Rocaille
which way to wonderland
All Things Blogged and Beautiful
Confessions of a Beautyholic

They are all really great blogs that I enjoy reading. Please check them out!

Top 10 beauty products:

MAC 217 brush. The first quality brush I ever bought and I can truly say that if I could only keep one brush it would be one of my 217’s. Yes, it’s that good.

MAC Patina. Sheer eye shadow, but oh so nice! Brown with gold shimmer – you can’t go wrong with that. It’s so versatile and I’ve loved it since the first time I used it.

MAC Naked Lunch. Sorry, yet another MAC eye shadow (It’s not my fault they’re that good!) This e/s may not look that special, but it’s got the perfect pink-white-shimmer colour. I LOVE it as a base. It brightens up the eye so well without being too much or too shimmery. It gives the nicest shine. It’s just perfect.

Dior Shimmer Powder, Amber Diamond. Such a great highlighter. It’s just… wow! Subtle and lovely. It’s definitely worth the money!

Benefit Coralista. To me this is the perfect coral blush! Looove it! It’s slightly shimmery (and I do mean slightly) which means it also brightens your face.

Illamasqua blush, Lover.I won this in a giveaway from the lovely Delyteful Speaks and I'm so glad I did! Perfect peach coloured blush with such a smooth texture.

Dermalogica skin care. I can’t just name one product here… This brand has seriously changed the “health” of my skin. It used to be dry and flaky, but now it’s like Dermalogica brought new life into it.

MUFE Aqua Smoky Lash Mascara. Anyone who reads my blog knows how much I love this mascara. It’s BLACK and it’s immediately separates your lashes and makes them longer. It does the work for you. It’s so freaking good!

Chanel Vitaluimere Foundation. This is like a magical foundation. It’s sheer, but somehow manages to even out your skin tone and make it look so much nicer without covering it up. Your skin looks fresh and dewy. My absolute favorite foundation and I use this on my clients all the time.

Elisabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream Skin Protectant. I would not have survived this winter without it. It’s brilliant! My lips were driving me mad a few months ago because they were so dry and irritated. I’m used to dry lips, but this was something else. I bought this and my lips have never been better. Amazing!

Is it over already…? Come on! I’m not done! There are so many other products I really love!! Oh well… Next time…

My first makeup course

This autumn I'm planning on having some makeup courses since I've had a lot of requests to do so. Two of my sisters are among those people so I thought I would practise on them first. Since it's familly I thought I'd keep it simple and I invited them home. And we had a lot of fun! Just look... /

Nu till hösten planerar jag att hålla några makeupkurser eftersom jag har fått många förfrågningar på det. Två av mina systrar hör till dem som frågat så jag tänkte att jag skulle öva på dem först. Eftersom det är familjen tyckte jag att jag kunde hålla det ganska enkelt så jag bjöd hem dem. Och vi hade väldigt roligt! Se bara...

My sister Cecilia and I. /

Min syster Cecilia och jag.

My sister Maria and I. /

Min syster Maria och jag.