BENEFIT'S Life on the A list lip gloss - Review and swatches

One of my latest purchase and obsessions is Benefit's "life on the A list" lip gloss. The color is a peachy pink that leans on cotton candy, so girly and beautiful. The consistency is light and not tacky but very moustierzing. The scent is deliciously sweet, to me it smells lightly of peaches and it gives the lips such an amazing ultra shine. I love this gloss and it's the perfect pick me up...it makes me happy every time I apply it.

Overall this is an amazing gloss, and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a spring color that's easy to wear, provides some moisture and gives a very glossy finish.

Hope you all are having a great day

Healthy January - Sweet potato fries recipe for beautiful skin and hair

Hi everyone,
Now that the holidays are over and december was full of indulging food for most of us, I'm starting January focusing on healthy eating. One of my favorite healthy foods are sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are great for both youthful skin and beautiful hair. They are full of vitamin C which aids in collagen production to keep the youthful skin elasticity. The orange color is derived from beta carotene the precursor or Vitamin A which among many things protects against the effects of aging. They also have Vitamin E, K, B6, as well as zinc, iron, copper, calcium, potassium, magnesium and niacin. I love sweet potato fries as they provide the sweet and crunchy taste but are very healthy (see recipe below). 

Eat your way to healthy skin and hair with this quick and simple recipe:

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Drizzle canola oil on the pan and place it in the oven while it preheats to thin the oil.

2. Cut sweet potatoes in wedges.

3. Season with cayenne peeper, cinnamon and a little bit of salt

4. Bake for 20-25 min.

Enjoy 

Hair Diary January Series - Growing long healthy hair

Hi everyone,
One of my new years resolutions for 2014 is to get my hair stronger and healthier. My hair had been colored so much in the last few years and wasn't in the best condition. Here are some pictures (all from old blog posts) of all the transformation of my hair. It had gotten brittle, dry and damaged and I was in need of a hair intervention. In the last 7 months I've focused in helping my hair get healthier and stronger. I've changed a lot from nutrition to products and what I do to my hair. But most importantly, last weekend I cut about 6 inches of my hair. In the next few months, my goal is to focus on getting some of the length back and get my hair healthier, shinnier and stronger and I want to share with you my progress including new products and nutrition tips.

Below is the before and after my hair cut picture.  

Hope some of you who are also interested in growing your hair out and getting it healthier, will find this information helpful..future posts to follow on the progress.

Happy 2014! 

Lots of love

Ansa

RiRi Hearts MAC Phresh Out Swatches

MAC released their holiday collection and it's a collaboration with Rihanna. The collection is gorgeous. The packaging is a beautiful winter white with R in rose gold and RiRi hearts MAC in white. One of the items I purchased was the eyeshadow palette in the color phresh out.

First impressions are this is a good natural shimmery palette. There are two glitters that are of poor quality but the other three I love. There is a shimmery golden shade much similar to MAC's nylon, the kind of shimmer that looks amazing in the inner duct to open up your eyes and make you look wide awake. The second shade is a glittery peach which swatches mostly of glitter. The third I'm afraid is much the same...a champagne glitter that swatches quite sheer and mostly glitter. However, I think these two would look gorgeous as a shimmer wash for the holidays. The last two are gorgeous...the fourth is the perfect shimmery purple taupe much similar to MAC's satin taupe but so shimmery and soft. The last one is a gray that swatches very dark but it's metallic and I think it'll offer a depth to the crease that some mattes may not be able to do due to it's shimmer effect. 

I think overall this is a great palette for a soft natural smokey eye and the glitter would be ok to wear during the holidays.

Hope you all are doing great. 

Loads of love

Ansa

Deborah Lippmann Bitches Brew

Ok the name of this polish is very clever and funny- I admit it was one of the reasons I wanted to see what this polish was all about but wow the color left me speechless. Deborah Lippman's Bitches Brew is a deep berry color that looks very luxurious and sultry on the nails. It is so glossy, sophisticated, chic and sexy all in one. It looks gorgeous on the nails and while it's deep it maintains it's berry color whilst a lot of darker polishes look black in some lights.

The above swatches are two coats. This was very easy to apply and it does need two coats to get to the true berry color as one coat wasn't enough. Overall, I think this is a must have for fall and winter.

Hope you all have had a great day.

Ansa 

Lush Fair Trade Honey Shampoo review

I love Lush for their soaps but haven't tried their shampoos till this year. I've tried their bar shampoo called New), Honey Shampoo, Blousey and Rehab. All great but of course I have my favorites.

The honey shampoo, I'm close to using up so this is a good time to review it. 

The Fair Trade Honey Shampoo is meant to very moisturizing, provide luster and shine to the hair. The weather has gotten quite cold so I've been focusing on putting some moisture back into my hair and this shampoo really does that. It keeps my hair healthy and soft. Below is a picture of how my hair behaves after washing it with this shampoo.

 What makes this shampoo so moisturizing is of course honey. More than half of this shampoo is honey which has antibacterial properties as well and hence this shampoo has no preservatives. It has other amazing ingredients such as Bergamot Oil, Sunflower Lecithin, Linseed Mucilage etc...all very moisturizing and perfect for dry hair or if you live in areas with hard water (where calcium build up can be so harsh on the hair)

Overall I love this shampoo especially for fall and winter when your hair needs moisture the most. I do wish this was LSL free as typically I use shampoos that are LSL free but overall great shampoo.

Hope you all are doing great. 

Loads of love

Ansa 

Essie's Rock The Croc Swatch and Kate Spade Bow ring

Hi everyone,
I have two current obssesions. Essie's nail polish in Croc The Rock. This is one of my all time favorite nail polishes and it's from an old old Essie Collection (2006 collection). This is a smoke red polish but what makes this unique is that it has a jelly finish. It is so glossy and it stays that way until I remove it. Amazing. This polish holds a very special place in my collection. It's one of the best fall and winter polishes I've ever tried. I wish Essie would bring old collections back the way MAC sometimes does.

Another thing I've been obsessed with is Kate Spade Rose Gold Bow Ring. I love this ring so much I have it both in gold and rose gold. It's so girly and pretty and so simple.

Hope you guys are having an amazing day.

Loads of love

Ansa

NARS Mississippi Mermaid eyeshadow swatches and review

NARS recently released the Guy Bourdin Holiday Collection. As part of this collection, there are four eyeshadows in shades inspired by legendary fashion photographer Guy Bourdin.  They are all goregous but the one I picked was the most natural one called Mississippi Mermaid. 

This shade was very hard to photograph as it tends to photograph white. This is a gorgeous shimmery peach, and why I think this is a bit more unique that the other champagne shades I have, is that this has a very distinct peach undertone which looks very well on my skintone. I have yellow undertones and this compliments it very well, warming up my eye look. Sometimes champagne shades that lean more pink, do not translate on my complexion and just make me look tired.  

Overall this is a gorgeous shade for those who like the warm shimmery shades on the lid (and I love them).

Hope you all are having a great start to the month of December.