Get In My Closet ASOS Skater Midis

So tomorrow is a boring day as it involves a lot of airports and flying. What is entirely not boring is the destination- New York baby! Ohh I simply can not contain myself!

Regarding my vacation to the big apple I was on a spending ban until I can buy (as Simone would say) ALL the things in NYC. However Simone also wore a superduper pretty skater midi dress to our last get together which swiftly sent me to browse ASOS the next day.  I hadn't opened the site for a month so I was kind of taken by how many gorgeous midi dresses are in stock.

The only thing I could do was play window shopping with you guys. So here is my currect 'I want them all' skater midi dresses:

1. The dress that started it all Textured Midi Skater Dress with Floral Print (Link)- take a look how gorgeous Simone looks in it and you see why I want it. In real life this dress is so good quality, it has beautiful weight to it and I love the color!

2. Picnic Skater Dress in Texture (Link) - The V-neckline and the way it nips on your waist is what get me with this dress. Plus I always feel so pretty in white dresses (until I spill my lunch on them but still).

3.  Crepe Bardot Prom Dress (Link)- this is a dress I never thought would catch my attention. I dont own a single item of red clothing and generally never gravitate towards them. But every time I look around on Asos I end up looking at the catwalk video of this. I think I could totally work this with a red lip for an ultimate feminine combo. And it ticks all the boxes of fitted waist, box pleats etc etc..

4. Pleated Cami Midi Dress (Link) - we have addressed my obsession with pleated anything before. This beauty has been in my Save Items folder for some time. I love the bright color and the back detail equally as much as the spaghetti straps and the thin pleating.

5. Premium Embroidered Skater Dress With Blue Flowers ( Link) - well this one is just swoooooooon. Be sure to zoom in on it on ASOS to see the pretty embroidery. Also lets not forget to address the existence of pockets which instantly rockets any dress on top of my wishlist. Top this off with a collar and the details of a button down front and I will have some midi dress dreams for days!

6. Sunflower Bardot Midi Prom Dress (Link) - lets finish it off with this total babe of a dress shall we. Mad Men all the way this one is a bit more on a costume side of things but I personally love that. Its freaking expensive (95£ / 135Eur) which is why you dont see it hanging in my closet. Its a special dress but I dont think I would get to wear it enough to justify the splurge. Still a girl can dream..

So which one is your fave? Like in the case i dont find anything to buy in New York (hahaha yes I know this is fantasy talk) and I return home with all my money in the bank. Which one should I order?

P.s. there will probably be a bit of a silence next week. I will try my best do a few posts but its New York you know. So I urge you to join me on Instagram ( @thelauracarlson ) as it will get much more regular updates.

High maintenance much?

I got nothing to say to defend myself.  I am high maintenance and in beauty related subjects there is two that need to be perfect. Nails and lips- thou shalt not go out of home with a chipped nail or a smudged lipstick. Its just how it is for me.

For this reason I never used to wear bright lipstick. I would wishfully stare at women who wore full on red or fuchsia pink in the middle of the day. For me it was always about the fact that every damn lipstick I bought would sweep into the fine lines around my lips in a matter of a hour- lipliner or not. At that time I was in university so I couldn’t afford to try out Tom Ford and the likes but still. For example no red formulation of Mac lipstick would ever stay put. If I tried wearing it I would have to constantly check my lips and sure enough they would be a mess at some point. Oh those days of struggle..

So about 3 years ago I figured its time to give this bright lip thing another go and picked up NARS Red Square while in London. It actually looked flawless hours later and I couldn’t belive it. As my love for reds grew I started looking more into other products that would help me make any brand lipstick look perfect and stay without bleeding.

Nowadays I wear a full on red or pink lip to work most days of the week. I totally get if this is way to much hassle for most but I use the following products to make it perfect.
My lips are always dry so I make sure to scrub them twice a week. My favorite being the Lush Mint Julips Lip scrub. Its made out of caster sugar, jojoba oil, vanilla extract, tagates oli and peppermint oil and its lovely. I am soon out of it and next my eyes are on the Fresh Sugar Lip Polish.

Nuxe Reve de Miel is one of those cult products everybody loves and I can't fault it either. Best lip balm I have ever used and I dont go to sleep without a thick layer of this on. Its not sticky and has a thick matte consistency so works well under a lipstick as well. I will never be without it!

Mac Prep + Prime Lip is my main secret weapon and something I always wear under bright statement lipstick. This is a color free base that smooths lips and stops the lip color from bleeding. Its very lightweight but feels a bit sticky once applied, however once I put on lipstick you never feel it. It makes the color go on much more evenly and I think it helps with the longevity as well.

Too Faced Borderline Anti-Feathering Lip Pencil- this one is the latest addition to the lineup and I am so happy I decided to give it a go. Its a waxy colorless pencil you use as liner and it "creates a resistant barrier around the lips to perfect the shape and provide precise definition".  The pencil comes out when I want to wear the creamier reds as those are the fastest to bleed. I kind of half expected it not to work but it does exactly what it says. The barrier is there and no color bleeds past it.

Needless to mention I almost always wear a lip liner as well. You see..high maintenance.

Is there something you have tried that I dont know about? Another secret weapon?
Do you wear brights during day time at all?

Gimme More Neutral Eyeshadows

There are two products I have been meaning to tell you about for a month now. I bought them in July and have been using daily as both are fantastic. I have never done monthly favorites on the blog (only for nail polish) but if I did these two would be in it.

 Too Faced Natural Eyes palette (Link) and Urban Decay De-Slick Makeup Setting Spray (Link) are what this post is about.

The setting spray is something I was excited to try if only because the weather in Dubai is totally insane. In addition to the high temperatures, humidity in the last weeks has been just off the charts and everything melts of my face slowly but surely. No actually not that slowly..it melts off with one 7min walk to get coffee. I was between the All Nighter or De-Slick spray and ended picking De-Slick as my combination skin definitely needs help staying matte at the moment. There is not that much to say about it besides that it works great. I spray it all over the face once I have finished makeup and I love the results. Its weightless and keeps my foundation from melting into the fine lines. Its a must-have for summer months from now.

So the Natural Eyes then. Its an updated version of the old Natural Eyes which I never owned but always wanted. I also held back for a while when the updated version was released repeating to myself that I have too many natural/browny eyeshadows. In the end I just made up a reason because I wanted that pretty pink tin to be mine. I convinced myself my Naked palettes are just too big and bulky to travel with (weirdly this was not a problem before I started lusting after Natural Eyes) and having the vacations to Estonia and New York ahead I just REALLY NEED something more compact that covers all the bases. If you are rolling your eyes at this point I understand. But a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!

Luckily this does actually cover all my needs. For the past month I have barely used anything else and I'm still not bored. These 9 shades go from matte to shimmery, cold to warm and are all super easy to blend.

Top row has the mattes:
Heaven- a pretty ivory that is just perfect under the brow.
Cashmere Bunny- one of my favorites from the palette. Such a terrific soft taupe crease shadow to define the eyes ever so subtly.
Sexpresso-  deep matte brown. Super pretty smudged into the lash-line for daytime or used for a smokey eye.

Middle row is my most used shadows:
Silk Teddy-shimmering soft pink that blends so beautifully and works great in the inner corner of the eye.
Push-Up- my favorite. Slightly lilac toned bronze shimmer that is just perfection. Equally good as all over lid or blended into crease.
Erotica- a charcoal brown with gold flecks. Total beauty.

Bottom row gets the least use at the moment but there is no reason for it. The shades are gorgeous.
Nudie- matte greige I have mostly used to fill in my brows.
Honey Pot- very shimmery warm gold shadow. Maybe a bit too shimmery for me so I haven't used it that much.
Chocolate Martini- deep espresso with gold shimmer. Pretty but I prefer the other two dark browns.

Excuse me if I got a little too excited over a natural eyeshadow palette but I really really like this one. Im just saying that I will be going to my 20days vacation with only this with me and feel totally confident I can do any look I want. Thats pretty good for a tiny little pink tin isn't it?

What's your all time favorite neutral palette? Would love to hear about your gems..

Estonia Vlog #2

Second part of my vacation vlog to Estonia is now online.

Tallinn in the summer is kind of unbeatable if you ask me (yes I am probably biased but whatever). There is of course so many places in Estonia that are great but I like the city summers. It's jam packed with street food festivals, concerts, rooftop and other parties, picnics and outdoor dining. Tallinn is small so you can walk to most places. If you are super lucky like I was, all this will be accompanied with warm and sunny days and chilly but lovely evenings.



Hope you enjoy watching it and I cant wait to vlog again from New York.

Have a lovely Sunday! x

YSL Souffle D'Eclat Powder

Getting excited about new lipsticks is obvious, pretty eyeshadow gets my heart rate up easily as well. Heck sometime a great new foundation does it.

But getting excited about a powder has never happened before. Until Simone introduced me to YSL Souffle D'Eclat. Its a loose powder that promises to provide a luminous and lightweight finish. Now usually I would sum up a powder with something like- it mattifies and does the job.  Extra nice if it doesn't cake and stays put all day.

But this one..I think YSL Souffle D'Eclat contains a bit of a fairy dust because it has actual magic powers. It blurs the skin (I know it sounds crazy but reading reviews by other bloggers reassured me I'm not the only one that sees this effect) to make it look even and glowing and mat at the same time. I dont know how that is possible hence I suspect magic. Because in theory it doesn't make sense that your skin can be glowing and mat at the same time does it? However that is the only way I can describe it. It takes away the greasy shine but leaves a beautiful light reflecting veil that feels super silky. Apparently the special ingredient is micro Mother of Pearl particles in case you were wondering.


Not a day has gone by without using this powder and swooning over the results. It really works well with my combination skin. Lets just say how it is. This is hands down the best finishing powder I have ever used. Then again note that I haven't used that many. In any case it comes in 4 shades and looks pretty translucent once applied. I have the shade 02. 

I think I need to wrap this up because how long can one rave about a product like this. Do try it if you are on the lookout for a new loose finishing powder.

You can find it online at Selfridges (link).