My Make-Up Collection Part I

I had forgotten to write a post of my make-up collection, but here it finally is! I decided to start with my eyeshadows, which are my favourite products.

400 Readers Giveaway!

I know I'm a bit late, but January was super busy for me! I've also taken the time to get wonderful prices to thank you, my lovely readers, for your interest in my blog :) So, here they are!

The grand prize consists of the following:

A Real Techniques stippling brush (my favourite for putting on BB-cream)

Halloween earrings from Bijou Brigitte (these are only available on Halloween, I've held on to them for a while ;P)

Glittery earrings from Ice in a Bucket, Iceland (got myself a similar pair but in a different colour, they are very light and confortable)

Nine full sized loose eyeshadows from Detrivore Cosmetics (hand picked by me! Most are very usable browns, but there's also Livor Mortis, a gorgeous blackened burgundy, and Bog Body which is a pretty unique light turquoise)

To participate, simply follow my blog (if you follow via some other media than Google Friend Connect, just mention it in the comment) and comment on this post. I would love to make another post answering reader questions, so ask me anything!

The giveaway will be open until 18.2.2013 and it's open internationally!

Bat earrings from Bijou Brigitte

Glittery earrings from Ice in a bucket, Iceland.

Real Techniques stippling brush (made of Taklon, cruelty free!)

Detrivore eyeshadows, they didn't photo well due to the shrink plastic seal,
but the shades are gorgeous!

Outfit of the Day

Outfit from the first day of the Game Jam! It was quite cold outside so I opted for a knit dress and warm stockings. (And a ton of Sugarpill eyeshadows ;P)

Dress - Seppälä

Belt - Only

Stockings - A gift from my Mom

Shoes - New Rock

(Top under the dress, actually a woollen  undershirt - Cubus)

Outfit of the Day

Well, not actually a full day's outfit, but one I wore to a friend's birthday party a week before the last! It had a Japanese theme and there was super delicious sushi and other Japanese delicacies. I love sushi, so there was no way I'd skip the party, even when it was at the same time as the Global Game Jam. I just left the programmers to work their magic overnight and updated a few excel sheets after I got home from the party ;P

I wore very light make-up (and could hardly recognize myself in the mirror ;P) and even took the time to put my hair in piggy tails and curled it! I think this dress is the most expensive item in my wardrobe and I almost never use it. I've tried to sell it, but haven't found a buyer, so I guess I'll just keep wearing it to Kerttu's b-day party every year ;D Last year the theme was Wonderland and I wore the same dress!

Dress - Angelic Pretty

Shoes - eBay

A Billion Photos of Iceland

I'm home! My flight landed half past three yesterday, and I only ate, took a shower and headed right to bed. The trip was tiring, but fun! I was working at Paradox Convention 2013, arranged by the publisher my company works with, Paradox Interactive. The convention is all about showing off new and upcoming games, so if you are interested in games, have a peek! I'm working on Cities in Motion 2 but there's no release date yet, so you have to wait a little longer for that one :)

The highlights of the journey to Iceland would include:

1. Cuisine
Icelandic people eat basic anything on the island, but fish is the most important part of their diet. I happen to love fish (and my other half hates it, so we almost never have any fish meals at home) so having many different kinds of salmon in the hotel breakfast buffet made me super happy! I also had at least three meals of sushi during the trip ;P

2. The landscape
Finland has so much forest area that the whole country could be considered one big forest, basically ;) So for me, seeing the treeless tundra of Iceland was an intense experience! Also the black volcanic rock, green moss and huge rough mountains looked gorgeous.

3. The Blue Lagoon spa
This was totally the greatest place ever! It was the last stop on Saturday's sightseeing tour and everyone was a bit tired, so no one was really expecting anything grand. We were so wrong. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa, where visitors bathe in an outside pool filled with hot water heated with geothermal energy. The water is rich in minerals, and is milky white, which is nice if you feel a bit shy in a swimsuit. No one will see any parts you keep under the water ;P And the deepest part was only up to my neck, which was good, since I'm not a good swimmer. The Icelanders must be geniuses, because they had a bar set up so that you could buy beer, smoothies and ice cream without even getting out of the water! I can't think of anything nicer than being in warm water and drinking cold beer at the same time ;D I didn't even mind the short time when it hailed, it nicely cooled the beer.

4. Hanging out with the Swedes
I've studied Swedish for six years (it's mandatory in Finland) but had totally forgotten it because I never needed the language after my studies. But after being surrounded by many Swedes for four days, it started to come back to me! I understood most of what they said if they spoke slowly, and could form short sentences, like telling how I constantly woke up fifteen minutes before my alarm went off. Now I'm planning to visit Stockholm or ask my Dad to speak only Swedish to me, so I could brush up my skills ;P

Now on to the pictures!

This was the theme of the sight seeing tour at first, it was raining
and super windy!

This is the same waterfall I posted earlier, but the pic is taken with a better
camera. The waterfall was huge and the guide told us the water is mainly
melting water from the mountains, and that in springtime there's much more
water going through it.

Early morning landscape. It became light only after ten o'clock.

A view of a mountain from a geyser field.

The geyser field again! All of the geysers had names, and this one had
a tiny house-shaped structure built on top of it so that it looked like steam
came out of its windows. There was also THE geyser, the one that gives its
name to the whole phenomenon.

Another hot pool, it was constantly bubbling hot water.

Pretty, pretty mountains. I think this was the mountain a fabled king was
buried under, but I ended up with like a hundred pictures of mountains so
it might be a different one. Pretty impressive, still ;)

More mountains.

A wet Icelandic horse and a mountain.

The locals grow vegetables in huge hothouses, naturally heated with geothermal
energy. They do need some artificial lighting still, since it's so dark in the winter months.

A small town and a mountain.

Yet another mountain ;P

I liked this mountain, too ;)

This is from the Blue Lagoon! That's not the pool where you bathe, but
it's a similar one, with the milky water with an impossible blue shade.

This was some of the youngest lava in the island. It's covered with evergreen
moss. There's also some mountains.

Look, more mountains! 

Waterfall, Icy

Today I'm on a sightseeing tour! It's raining horizontally and everything is covered in slippery ice. But I saw some wet ponies and an awesome waterfall ;)

What Make-up to Pack on a Five Day Trip

I had a few hours of free time before rushing to work a bit more, so here's my guide to packing make-up for a trip. My trip is business, so it affects my colour choices, but otherwise I think these products will get you through short trips just fine!

1. Brushes

I packed six. The first one is a stippling brush I use for foundation, the second a powder brush and the pink-and-black one is for blush. There's also a narrow brush for doing eyebrows and two fluffy eyeshadow brushes.

Yogurt, Shale and Pincurl

2. Eyeshadow

I like colourful shadows and usually use loose eyeshadows, but for travelling I pack pressed shadows to prevent spilling the loose ones. For a business trip I tone my look down, so I took with me only three fairly neutral MAC shadows. The colours are Yogurt, Shale and Pincurl. Yogurt is a pale matte pink, it matches my skin well and I use it for a base or just to make my lids look neater. Shale is a metallic brown shade, but quite light, so I can do a faint smoky look with it on use it as a crease colour with Yogurt. Pincurl I don't use as much, it's a silvery metallic shade, but it looks really nice for inner corners or in the middle of the lid with Yogurt in the inner corners and Shale as crease shading. I think having a light, dark and medium shade that go well together give you the opportunity to do many different looks easily!

3. Other make-up

Here you can see my concealer, blush, BB-cream, powder, black eyeshadow (for brows), eyeshadow primer and mascara. Nothing too fancy and not too many options, only products that are quite neutral and work well.

4. Lips and Perfume

I packed only the lip stain to go with me, but actually had the tint gloss in my purse, too. I think you can totally manage with just one product! If you like to use perfume like I do, solid ones are the best options for travelling. They don't spill and a light to carry with you.

Before packing, consider what kind of a trip are you going on. If it's business, do you have formal parties to attend that would need heavier make-up? If not, your make-up bag will be a lot lighter! You can also try and pick colours and products that work well together. For yesterday's evening party I worked from the light smoky eyeshadow look I did for the day and just added a faint layer of black shadow on top to make it more intense. Also the lip stain I have is fairly natural with only one coat, but bolder with two coats. As for blush, mine isn't highly pigmented, so swiping on just a thin layer gives you a good day look and a few more will do for the evenings.

PS. Yesterday was awesome, the party was at the oldest stone house in all of Iceland on an island. There was a viking fighting show, three course meal and I just caught a glimpse of the Northern Lights as I headed out for the boat back to the mainland. Magical!