Huge blog change

From today our blog won't be called 'LovelyDazzling' anymore, but...... 'BloggingBlondes'. We were desperate for a name-change, because we weren't flattered by the name anymore. The process of the change was really hard, because we knew we were going to lose all our followers and comments.

We are really happy with the fact that we are able to keep our social media accounts, because lately we discovered that 'www.Bol.com' is following us......... seriously?! That is so amazing. We hope to gain our followers back soon.

We thought if we do a name-change, we have to change our lay-out as well! We are really happy with how our blog looks right now. We hope you all like it as well!

So we just wanted you to know about our huge changes, so that nobody would get confused.


Rianne, Calden&Mariska (BloggingBlondes)

Purchased treasure

Yesterday I went to an electronic store to buy a camera. I was actually going to buy the Nikon D3200, but I came home with an other treasure. The Sony α58. This happened all because of the salesman. Who was explaining a lot about SLR-camera’s. This camera is designed for beginners who want a multifaceted and fast camera. It has a really fast focus , burst mode and you can shoot 8 frames per second! Apart from that this camera has a really fast recognition and it will always retain the full resolution. Which is really amazing as well. I almost forgot to tell that you can also film with this camera and plug in a microphone! I mean….

This treasure can also be really professional for the people who are more advanced with capturing pictures. With every experience you gain more knowledge about the camera. I still have to learn a lot about the camera. I am going to follow a really cool workshop in the store where I bought my camera, but I don’t know when yet. I hope I will learn a lot more about it then!

For accessories I bought an extra protecting bag, in case I am going to be clumsy again; a lens protector; an extra battery pack; a special cleaning set for the camera, if the camera is really dirty and needs some ‘outside’ cleaning; And last a lens cap non-looser, in case I will also be clumsy in losing my lens cap... So here are some pictures of my beautiful treasure!

Let me know what your favourite SLR camera is and maybe you got some tips for sharing. Stay tuned, maybe pictures made by this camera will appear in other posts!

Mariska

Flormar Amsterdam

Last month I went to Amsterdam with Mariska. What did we do there? Shopping of course. We walked trough the Kalverstraat and almost at the end I saw Flormar. I had heard about this store, so I said to Mariska: “ We have to go in.”

The store comes originally from Milan, and has a few foreign stores. One of them in The Netherlands. The price of the make-up variations: lipsticks can be 3-6€ and face powder can be 8-12€. I would say drug store prices. I have to say that the store reminded me a lot of Kiko Cosmetics (also Italian). I liked the way they structured all the make-up, it was not at all too much to take in. They have all kinds of eye shadow palettes and I think they had like hundred different kinds of lipstick. The only disadvantage is that no product has a name, they call it a letter and two numbers.

The Flormar store also offers skin care products and perfumes. They have so much different things, It’s unbelievable. I am very enthusiastic about the store and their products. I don’t know if you already know but I am addicted to lipstick. It’s starting to become a little sad. I just keep buying it and I cannot stop. So, you can guess what I bought!

In the middle, we have the Long Wearing Lipstick and on both sides the Revolution Perfect Lipstick with their beautiful packaging.

Flormar Long Wearing Lipstick ( I believe this one was €4,99)

L07 is a light pink colour with a blue under tone, with a little brown in there. It looks a little peachy, but that disappears on my lips.

Flormar Revolution Perfect Lipstick ( €6,99 apiece)

R06 is a dark pink redish colour with a hint of purple. This is definitely my favourite colour of the three I bought.

R12 is a bright pink colour almost purple. I would wear this in the evening because it’s very striking.

I have to say I was impressed by these lipsticks, especially the Revolution Perfect stays on my lips for ever. When I made these swatches I couldn’t get the whole lines of my arm. I would love to go back to the flormar store to buy lots and lots more. But I have to retain myself.

Thank you for reading! :)

Calden

Trip to Schiphol

Today we went to Schiphol for an English assignment. It became a day trip and we had a lot of fun. So here is a little photo diary of this trip.

Posing as real tourists in our own country.

The one and only in The Netherlands: turns out there were no bras :(

We found this cute cupcake bakery and Calden bought the red velvet creamcheese cupcake.

Look how cute!

Lunch at Burger King.

On our way home.

At Albert Heijn we saw this deliciousness. We always eat this when we're on holidays and now we found it here! ;)

We had so much fun today, with a lot of food.

Calden, Rianne & Mariska(BloggingBlondes)

Favourite apps

I have had my Iphone a few months now and I am really obsessed with it and the apps that I couldn’t download on my android phone. I really love apps a lot and I am seriously finding new ones every day... So I am going to share my favourite apps!

I will start off with my photography apps, because I have downloaded almost all of them. Don’t ask me why, but I just like them and I always pick one randomly for editing my photos. Or you can just smash a ton of filters on your picture and share it on ‘instagram’! ‘Instagram’ is definitely my all-time favourite app, because it’s like a photo diary of your life and it’s just really awesome. My first photo-editing app is ‘VSCOcam’. With this app you can put filters on your pictures, but it also has a ‘community-part’. Personally, I don’t have an account but I just use this app for filters. Another editing app is ‘Rookie’. This one has a lot of great and beautiful filters. But you can also change contrast, temperature, colour and sharpness. Apart from that you can add doodles and text with this cool app. Last I have ‘Pixlr-o-matic’ and ‘Hellocamera’ for photography apps.

For music apps I have ‘Sing’ by Smule, ‘youtube’, ‘stereomood’ and ‘Shazam’. ‘Sing’ is a really cool global karaoke community. You can sing songs with other people and it’s really funny. The app is for everybody, you don’t need to be good and that is why it’s so funny. ‘Youtube‘ is just a general app I have on my phone like ‘Facebook’ and ‘Whatsapp’. ‘Stereomood’ I actually downloaded today. Which is crazy, because I am already obsessed with this app. You choose or search your mood and then you’ll get a whole playlist for your mood, so you can listen to music that you prefer when you are in a certain mood. ‘Shazam’ is literally a life-saver for me. In the past when I heard a song that I didn’t know the name of and that I really liked, I used to throw all the words that I heard in the ‘youtube’ search bar and then after a lot of searching I would find the name of the song. But now I can just turn on ‘Shazam’ and it finds the song for me. So really awesome, thanks to the inventor!

I am not really a gamer, but these games have to be on my Iphone: ‘Temple run’, ‘Flappy bird’ and ’Fruit ninja’. ‘Temple run’ is more of an adventure game and is really awesome. ‘Flappy bird’ is a game that I actually don’t like and I really fail at. But for some reason I am scared to delete it, because then I won’t be able to download it again. ‘Fruit Ninja’ is a game that I really love to do as well.

Other apps that I love are: ‘Weheartit’, ‘bloglovin’’, ‘Druppel’ (weather app) and ‘Duolingo’. ‘Weheartit’ is a sort of tumblr where you can share and ‘heart’ pictures and follow other people. This app is just really lovely and I am on it almost every day. ‘Bloglovin’’ is a great app for the ‘blogging-world’. You can read, follow and like blogs and articles from others with the same or a different blog platform. ‘Druppel’ is a really nice dutch weather app, it tells you if or when it is going to rain and when it stops while it’s raining. So it’s really handy. My last favourite app is ‘Duolingo’. This app is not for fun, but it is really nice to learn English or other languages. Even Chinese! It is really amazing!

Mariska

Make-up brushes I use

I thought it would be interesting to show you which make-up brushes I use on a daily base. Before I start I like to point out that everybody can use brushes the way they want to. I do that as well; the packaging can say whatever, when I discover something else is easier , I will use it my way.
Face brushes:

120 Kabuki by Zoeva

What a kabuki brush needs, is a lot of hair very close to each other. That’s exactly what this brush offers. This brush can only cover large areas of my face, because it’s very big. I use this brush to apply loose transparent powder over my foundation. Oh, and that is Sensai by Kanebo loose powder (translucent), not the cheapest but a very good quality powder.

127 Luxe Sheer Cheek brush by Zoeva

This is the softest blush brush I have ever felt. What I really like about this one is the angled shape. The shape makes it so easy to apply blush, and I also use it for shaping with bronzer. This brush allows me to blend as well, it is such an amazing quality. The only disadvantage; the hairs are white, meaning when I wash this thing and I use it once it looks like I haven’t washed it in months. But I don’t mind, because this brush is just amazing.

122 Petit Stippling brush by Zoeva

This brush is perfect to apply cream-blush, highlighter and concealer. I use this blush for highlighter (MAC mineralize skin finish soft and gentle), because the brush is so small I can apply the highlighter to the exact right zone of my cheeks.

Eye zone brushes:

MAC 263 Small Angle brush

Five years ago, when I went to a MAC counter for the first time, the lady that helped me, told me that my eye brows would be way prettier with a little colour. So she sold me this brush and some powder. But after a while I realised that, for me, this brush is not easy and a little small for the eye brows. Now a days, it’s still a very good brush that I use to make an eyeliner with eye shadow.

Anastasia angled cut duo brush #15

Anastasia is the eyebrow expert from America, so it’s no surprise that she created the best eyebrow brushes ever. This one has the brush to fill in the eyebrow on one side and a bristle on the other side. So when I used a little too much powder on my eyebrow I can comb it out. I have this brush for 2 years now and wash it every week, the quality of the hairs is unbelievable.

231 Petit Crease Shader brush by Zoeva
234 Smoky Shader brush by Zoeva
235 Contour Shader brush by Zoeva

These are all eye shadow brushes, depending on what kind of eye look I want, I choose the brush. Every brush has his own effect, but I do have a favourite and that’s the 231. I use this brush for applying eye shadow and blending as well, It’s a 2 in 1 awesome brush.

MAC 224 Tapered Blending brush

I bought this brush the same time I bought the other MAC brush, and I am not very happy with this one. The brush got old very fast and for that price, I have to say it hurts my heart. The hairs are very thick, when I’m blending eye shadow one hair falls out and it just sticks to my eye shadow. It’s so annoying because I try to remove that one thick hair from my eye shadow, and then I remove half of my eye shadow.

These where the brushes I use, I think you noticed I have a lot of brushes from Zoeva. But let me tell you, these are the best brushes I have tried and I have tried a lot of them. Check the brushes out at www.zoeva-shop.de or www.themakeupspot.nl (where I bought my brushes). I didn't write the prices down because they vary on every website.

I hope you enjoyed reading this! See you next time!

Calden

Things women should know

• Generally we use bobby pins to hold our hair in place, but you can also use them as hair accessories.

• What a lot of people don’t know and what I actually recently discovered is that you use the bobby pins with the wavy side down.

• When you have just washed your hair and you’re sensitive for frizz hair, don’t dry it by rubbing your wet hair with a towel. Dry your hair by pressing it with a towel instead.

• Use shimmer eye shadow in the inner corners of your eyes, so your eyes look brighter and more noticeable.

• Flat iron your braids to create beautiful waves. Do this with around five braids, depends on how thick your hair is.

• So we women want our perfume to last all day. The best places to apply your perfume are: base of your throat, behind the ears, inside your wrist, inside your elbow and behind the knee.

• The metal things on elastic hair ties will pull your hair out. So use hair ties without metal, because it’s a lot better for your hair.

• We blow dry our hair because that’s how we style and dry our hair. The heat is very harsh and damaging for your hair though. So when you’re done with blow drying your hair, finish it off by blow drying your hair with the ‘cool option’. This causes less damage and makes your hair shiny. 

“Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It's about knowing and accepting who you are.”  ― Ellen DeGeneres

Mariska

High end wish list

So, I’ve been dreaming about a lot of ‘way-to-expensive’ stuff. It’s just beautiful when you google the products you love and you watch the pictures of it. I do that a lot haha, dreaming on and on about that product and then I see myself walking around with that beautiful bag or shoes. But afterwards I am so sad that I can’t pay for it. But anyway, it seemed a fun tag to me. Without further ado, here we go.

First off, the Guardian Angel bag in purple from Vlieger en Vandam. I love the whole collection with the fake guns on the outside of the bags. But this one is just GORGEOUS to me but unfortunately it costs €359.

Something that could absolutely not lack this list, is Nars Albatross. Unfortunately Holland has no Nars counter, that means that everybody who sells this product asks way too much money for it. And shipping from somewhere will be way too expensive as well. So that means I have to wait patiently, because one day I will go to London or New York and buy this beauty. On Sephora.com $30.

The Jeffrey Campbell Lita’s are so beautiful. Because they are very striking for the eye, I like the ones that are totally black. These are made from black cow suede and are a little different from the normal Lita’s. Jeffrey Campbell calls it higher quality leather and a slightly thinner heel. Anyways, I love them! It depends on which website you want to buy them but their around €180,-.

I have heard from various bloggers Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupté lipstick is the best high end lipstick there is. Well, I must say I am very curious now. They told me the pigmentation is beautiful and the texture is very soft and smooth. And look at the packaging, I mean: Isn’t that just WONDERFUL? I really love to try these. But unfortunately it costs €33, 95 per piece.

Every time I walk into a perfume store, I just have to smell Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb. They call it: flower explosion in a bottle, then you understand the name. The fragrance is flowery but fresh as well and it includes: freesia, bergamot, green notes, patchouli, jasmine, orange blossom, rose and orchid. It costs € 92,50 for 50 ml.

I hope you enjoyed reading my (pretty pathetic) wish list.
Thank you for reading and I will see you soon.

Calden

The fight with liquid eyeliner

Liquid eyeliner makes a huge difference and is a gorgeous make-up look. But everyone who uses eyeliner probably has (had) a battle without honor or humanity with it. Finding the exact right liquid eyeliner and the most important thing: being able to apply it. Surprisingly, I got used with applying eyeliner pretty fast and it didn’t took me very long with finding the right one.

I used ‘the Rimmel London exaggerate eyeliner’ in black 001 (€7,49) for about three years. This one is so good, because it gives a beautiful thick pigmented black line en dries very fast. Apart from that it makes it so easy to apply. The applying stick is a sort of stylus, so you have a lot of control over your hand. But for the last three months I wasn’t so flattered by this one anymore, because it dried out really fast and it literally crumbled when I put it on my eye. This eyeliner is great for beginners though, because you can really get used to the applying very easy.

So those months I had to find another eyeliner that I would fall in love with. I didn’t have to look far, because I saw the’ Rimmel London Glam’ eyes professional liquid liner’ (€7,49) and wanted to try this one out. I’ve never regretted that decision, because I am really happy that this one draw attention to my eye. It’s really pigmented, deep black and doesn’t crumble at all. You can make very thin lines and thicker ones. The only drawback is that this is a professional one and the stick consists of a little brush, so it’s a little bit harder to apply the eyeliner. But I think everyone can get used to the applying.

How I apply my eyeliner:
In the first period when I started using eyeliner, I really had to get used to the way of applying it. What I thought was the easiest way. For this way, you’ll need an eye make-up remover of your choice, a cotton pad and of course your favourite eyeliner.

You just start with applying the eyeliner on your eye. It makes it a lot easier when you rest the elbow of your ‘drawing hand’ on a sink, crane or table or something. This ensures that you have a lot of control over your arm. Start with drawing a line on the inside of your eye and stop when you get to the outside. You can make it end with ‘a wing’ or without one. Make sure you draw the line as close to the eyelashes.
If the line isn’t beautiful and there is some eyeliner above, then you can easily use this way to remove those ‘outliers’ or to make your line straighter.

Grab a cotton and put some eye make-up remover on it. Then fold it in half and now you’ll have a nice point with remover, so you can easily remove the remains on your eye and get a straighter line when you go along the drawn line. Hopefully, a beautiful line is the result.

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

Mariska

Review Essence all – in - one CC cream

Hi there, the new collection of Essence is in store now. I had heard a lot about their CC cream, so I just had to test it. There was a sale and I got another foundation for 1 euro more. That’s when I figured it would be fun to review them in one article.

What they promise us:

“The future belongs to multifunctional textures that conjure-up flawless results instantly and pamper your skin. As the name reveals, the all-in-one CC cream clear & correct covers irregularities of the skin, spots and redness as well as providing a smooth and soft complexion. The formula is airy and light, yet offers a high coverage. With an SPF of 30, it is the foundation for a fresh complexion in the springtime.”

Well, that are a lot of promises. Let the testing begin.

What mostly surprised me about this foundation, is that there is a SPF 30 in it. That’s a full sun protection. This also means that this foundation is not suitable for a photo-shoot.

It only comes in the shade “10 Natural” and honestly it’s a little too dark for me but I can make it work . The coverage is high, and I get a beautiful healthy glow out of it. This foundation feels very soft on the skin, and blends in very easily. You have to powder it off because It’s shiny.

The package was supposed to be clever thinking because the tube is very thin. But unfortunately it’s not ideal, the hole is to big because the foundation is very liquid. Before you know it there’s a big puddle of it all over your hand (yeah, I speak from experience here).

Ingredients:

AQUA (WATER), DIMETHICONE, ISODODECANE, NEOPENTYL GLYCOL DIHEPTANOATE, TITANIUM DIOXIDE (NANO), GLYCERIN, DIPROPYLENE GLYCOL, ETHYLHEXYL METHOXYCINNAMATE, SORBITAN ISOSTEARATE, HYDROGENATED TETRADECENYL/METHYLPENTADECENE, C15-19 ALKANE, DIMETHICONE/VINYL DIMETHICONE CROSSPOLYMER, SORBITOL, CETYL PEG/PPG-10/1 DIMETHICONE, BUTYL METHOXYDIBENZOYLMETHANE, DIETHYLAMINO HYDROXYBENZOYL HEXYL BENZOATE, SODIUM CHLORIDE, SILICA, ROSA GALLICA FLOWER WATER, PRUNUS AMYGDALUS DULCIS (SWEET ALMOND) OIL, PRUNUS AMYGDALUS DULCIS (SWEET ALMOND) PROTEIN, BUDDLEJA DAVIDII EXTRACT, MANNITOL, METHICONE, MICA, ALUMINA, TALC, PENTAERYTHRITYL TETRA-DI-T-BUTYL HYDROXYHYDROCINNAMATE, CITRIC ACID, POTASSIUM SORBATE, SODIUM BENZOATE, PHENOXYETHANOL, CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 (IRON OXIDES), CI 77891 (TITANIUM DIOXID.

When you need a new foundation with full coverage for a low budget price, you should definitely try this one. Swatch it before you buy, there is only one shade. I think this is a very good foundation for the price of € 3,99. You can buy it at Kruidvat (NL).

Calden