Red & Crackles

Recently, I've started to like Rimmel London as a makeup brand. I never really liked it, because their eyeshadows weren't very pigmented when I bought them, so I never really bothered to try anything else.
I've been wanting a nice red lipstick for quite some time, but they're quite hard to find. They're usually either orange-y, or they lean more towards a bordeaux shade. But finding a true, stylish bright red? That's quite a mission!

Rimmel London came out with a Kate Moss lipstick line a while ago. I don't care for the name, but the #10 looked so nice that I had to buy it. It's a very deep, true red. I love it! The only downside is that it's quite hard to apply nicely, so I ordered a lipstick brush for it. Also, it doesn't stay in place very well, it really rubs off to anything that touches your lips. But it's nice, and the color is amazing!

Crackling nail polish seems to be quite the trend at the moment. I had already seen it before online, but I don't like to order makeup, because I like to be able to hold it in my hands the moment I buy it.
But now, you can basically find the crackle nail polish all over the drugstores! I was hesitating between the drugstore's own brand, Miss Sporty, or Rimmel London. Since Rimmel London is the most expensive of the three, I decided to go for that one. I must admit, I'm not one to buy very cheap or unknown brands. They tend to be quite disappointing.

Anyway, I decided to try the polish out, and I really like it! The application takes some getting used to. When you apply a thin layer, you get small crackles, while you get big crackles when you apply a thick layer. I'm not very good at it yet, so it became a little messy, but it's not bad for a first try!

Here's how it looks. I applied it over my Max Factor golden glitter nail polish. I like the effect!

All in all, I think I'm starting to like this brand. I might buy more from it in the future!

Do you have a favourite red lipstick? And do you like the crackle nail polish trend? Share your opinions!

Glittery scents

This winter holiday season, shimmering powder in a nice bottle with an atomizer seems to be quite the trend. Personally, I LOVE it. A bottle with an atomizer looks so pretty and cute!

I already saw two different ones in my local stores. Here's one from Catrice, which retails for only €4,99. So even if you don't like shimmer powder, the price is low enough to simply buy it for the bottle. It looks nice as decoration on your make-up table.

Of course, also high-end brands have released a shimmer powder in an atomizer bottle. Here's two examples. L'Or Celeste by Givenchy, and Vol de Nuit by Guerlain. I love them, so chique!
In addition, these high-end brands have also added a fragrance to the powder.

Do you like them as much as I do?
I'm going to check out my local drugstore tomorrow, to see if they restocked the Catrice Shimmering Powder. I wanted to buy iy today, but sadly it was sold out. They usually restock on Tuesdays, so let's hope for that!

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Anyhow, since I mentioned fragrances: I'm quite obsessed with them. I have managed to control myself and not buy any fragrance so far (can't spend money at the moment), but I do go to the perfumery store all the time to try out some. I'm the worst!

The ones I like most so far are:
- Chanel Coco Mademoiselle
- Miss Dior Chérie
- Lancôme Trésor in Love
- Nina by Nina Ricci

There is a special winter edition of the Nina Ricci fragrance, called Snow Princess. It looks very appealing to me, because the bottle resembles a pearl apple with golden leaves. And I happen to love gold and pearls.

I haven't found this edition in the store yet, but the fragrance is said to be similar to the original one, which I love. So far, this one seems to be the most afforable one, so I might get myself a bottle of it. Whether it will be the Snow Princess edition, or the original Nina.

Which is your favorite fragrance for this season?


Love, Nonette

Failed drawing

So, I tried to draw a horse today for the first time in about a year, and... it didn't turn out very well.

The nose is way too small, the ears aren't in the correct places, nor are the eyes and cheek. And what can I say? I simply suck at drawing manes.

Here it is:

The last drawing I made was in August 2010, which was this one. I must say I was more pleased with this than the drawing of today. But again, sucky manes. I've never been good at drawing hair!

Yesterday I rose on a horse called Proud Lady. To be honest, I'm a little scared of her, because I don't have very good experiences with her. Every time I brushed her she tried to bite me the entire time, and the last time I tried to lead her to the pasture she started rearing. Now, a rearing horse is a very beautiful sight to see and it makes great poster prints and such, but when you're walking next to a rearing horse, it definitely isn't something desirable!

Riding Proud Lady went pretty well yesterday, though. Actually, I think it's been a while since I had such a good lesson! Especially canter was very nice. Proud Lady is, from what I've heard, an anglo-arabian horse, so in canter it feels as if she's walking on clouds!

I conquered my fear by riding on her again, and it went so well that I wouldn't mind if I'll have to ride her again next time. But I will need to work on my fear of being around her at the stable. Because she still tried to bite me a lot.

Frills or Manes?

Okay, so I thought I'd be motivated to write about lolita fashion again, but it seems I'm not that much into it anymore. I do still like the fashion a lot, but I don't care for it on a daily basis. There used to be a time when I'd feel special or like a princess in lolita, but I think I've grown past that. By now, it's just clothing to me. Very pretty and expensive clothing, which I only wear for special occasions.

Lolita fashion isn't the thing that makes the world a better place for me anymore. What really makes me happy, are animals. Particularly horses. When I ride a horse, nothing else exists that moment. Just me and the horse, even if we're surrounded by other people. While in lolita, all I worry about is the other people. "What would they think of me, what will they say behind my back?"

Generally, I'm not exactly a people person. I distrust people. And I believe that's what I like so much about animals: they have a pure heart, they're always honest. They won't ever pretend to like you, they will either like you or they won't. And they will show it to you, they will never hide the way they feel about you. And if you do something they don't like, they will let you know. But if you treat them correctly and with love and respect, they will give you so much back in return.

I suppose you could say that my world is about animals. And it's my dream to someday mean something to them. I would love to someday start a barn for old or mistreated horses. For horses who just need a place to spend their old days, and for horses who need to recover. I think that is my dream.

One of the earliest pictures I have of myself with a pony

The last photo taken of me with a horse

Lolita fashion and brands

Hello everyone,

After some time, I decided to write an entry again, because I've been thinking about the following for quite a while: Lolita fashion and brands. And with this, I don't just mean brand clothing inside of lolita fashion, but the way lolita fashion has influenced the way I feel about wearing brand or non-brand things in general.

Before I got into lolita, I don't think I ever wore brand clothing. Sure, it was nice for me if I'd have an expensive brand item every once in a while, but I never paid much attention to it. The same goes for makeup: as long as it did its job, I was fine with it. I didn't care about brand names at all.

But now I have noticed that I don't like to buy offbrand things or replicas anymore.
For example, there's a bag from Dior which I'd really like to have. You might know it, it's the well-known Dior Saddle Bag. I completely love horses, and what's more awesome than owning a designer bag which is equestrian inspired?

Saddle Bag by Christian Dior

However, these bags are insanely expensive, the prices of lolita bags are nothing compared to it. But I don't want to own a replica of it. I want to own the original.

Also, I've been shoe shopping a lot lately, and I noticed that if the shoes are just from a random store which doesn't sell any well-known brands, I don't like to buy them. It's quite ridiculous thinking about it, but I think of such nameless shoes as bad quality. I really prefer to wear brand shoes now.

Equestrian inspired Miss Sixty boots

 I would really like to own this pair of boots by Miss Sixty, once again equestrian inspired. The bit clasp around the ankles is just so cute! I love it. I think Miss Sixty has become my favorite brand when it comes to boots. I ordered myself a new pair today, in brown. I am in desperate need of new boots, but I didn't want to settle for any other brand.

For make-up, I also prefer to buy brands now. I remember the simple days when I'd just buy a 15-euro foundation at the drugstore. But now, I won't go for anything less than high-end brands. Foundations I have been using lately are from Clarins, Lancome, or Yves Saint Laurent. I did buy a drugstore foundation a while ago because I wanted to try it out, but I just don't trust it somehow.
Also, it doesn't help that most foundations from the drugstore don't contain any SPF. Could be easily solved with a primer or moisturizer of course, but somehow it doesn't feel right to wear a foundation which doesn't even contain any SPF.

One of the foundations I use

When it comes to things such as lipstick, eyeliner or eyeshadows: I don't feel the need to buy high-end brands of that stuff, thankfully. But I will not settle for a drugstore's own brand, or something like that. I only buy from L'Oreal, Bourjois and sometimes Maybelline. Those are my three favorite drugstore brands.

Now I wonder, how does it work for you? Did you also start to pay attention to brands in general, because it's such a big deal in lolita fashion? I think it has hugely influenced me.
Don't get me wrong though, I don't look down at all on people who don't feel the need to wear brand. In fact, I sometimes wish I wouldn't care so much about it. But once you start to care, it's very hard to turn back again. Especially if you're already a shopping addict, like me.

The replica-hate in lolita fashion also made me care more about wearing brand things. One person once told me she thought I looked ridiculous in Moi-meme-Moitie, because I carried a replica bag from Bodyline with it. Such things make me very insecure. So maybe that's also why I started to care about brands more and more.

Long entry, sorry!
But it would be interesting to hear about other people's experiences and opinions on this matter. Feel free to leave me a comment, and have a nice weekend!

Nieuw speelgoed!

Zoals ik laatst had geschreven, ben ik gezwicht voor de Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens. Afgelopen week heb ik hem opgehaald, en ik ben er heel blij mee!

De lens op mijn camera, de Canon EOS 550D:

Het is een standaard portretlens met een vaste brandpuntsafstand, die iedere fotograaf eigenlijk in zijn bezit zou moeten hebben. Een super lens voor portretten, vooral door de hoge lichtgevoeligheid. Ik ga hem denk ik vooral gebruiken voor portretten van mensen en dieren, maar ook wel voor andere dingen zoals stillevens en natuur.
eigenlijk wil ik ook nog eens graag een macro lens hebben, want ik vind het erg leuk om close-ups te maken van de natuur. Maar die zijn nog wel een flink stuk duurder dan dit lensje, dus voor nu moet ik het hiermee doen.

Genoeg gekletst, hier is een 'zelfportret' die ik met deze lens heb geschoten. Met zelfportret tussen haakjes, omdat ik hem via de spiegel heb genomen. De onscherpte in de foto vind ik erg mooi.

En hier volgen nog wat meer foto's, die ik vandaag heb genomen om de lens voor het eerst echt uit te proberen!

Ik had geluk dat er een vlindertje neerstreek op een bloemetje binnen mijn bereik:

Deze foto leek mooier op mijn camera preview, maar ik post hem toch:

Spelen met onscherpte:

Spelen met het felle zonlicht:

 En een super lief ezeltje! Ik hou van ezels ♥

Ik hoop dat je de foto's een beetje mooi vond, opbouwende kritiek is welkom! Maar vergeet niet dat dit de eerste keer was dat ik met deze lens schoot. Ik weet dat ik nog veel moet leren ^^;

Oh, en ik wou nog zeggen tegen mijn volgers: dank jullie wel! Leuk dat jullie mijn blog willen volgen ^^

X Japan Live at Tivoli in Utrecht

Last Saturday, I went to Utrecht to see X Japan perform at Tivoli Oudegracht. I had been waiting so long for this, so I was very excited!

Me and my friends arrived at the venue around 3:00 PM. Standing in the queue was nice actually, we had fun and prepared ourselves for the concert by adding some studs to my t-shirt and fixing make-up and hair and such. Time passed pretty quickly.
While waiting, we also got filmed by X Japan's staff. They decided to interview us for the DVD... It seemed like a nice idea, being filmed for their DVD, but once they had the camera's pointed at us I got a blackout and didn't know anything at all to say. So I basically said nothing and looked like an idiot XD

Here are some pictures of what I and Scarlet Penta looked like that day:

(Click for Full-size)

Fixing my make-up:

And here's a picture taken by Leyla, who wrote a great article about the concert and the visitors on her blog. You can find her blog here: http://www.leylafashion.blogspot.com

At around 7:30PM the doors of the venue finally opened, so we made our way to the hall. My friends wanted to stand in the back, but I really wanted to stand a little more to the front, because I hadn't been waiting since 3:00PM for nothing, right? Thankfully my best friend was happy to accomodate to my wish, and we managed to get a spot on the 4th row, all the way to the left. I could see the entire stage perfectly.

Me inside the venue, with my awesome red breaklights:

By that point I was still excited and enthusiastic, but after an hour of waiting that started to fade. I was getting pretty annoyed. They were supposed to start at 7:45PM, but it already was 9:30PM when they finally made their appearance on the stage.

Here's a screenshot on which you can see where me and Scarlet were standing. It may not look like it, but we had a great view!

When they finally started playing I was so happy, that I had already forgiven them for being so late. The intro started, and the sound was LOUD. It was so loud my ears started to itch out of irritation. Thankfully it soon got better.
They started off with their latest single, Jade. I really love that song, the lyrics are wonderful! But I must admit I mostly like their older stuff.

I liked all songs they played, I don't think I could've wished for a better setlist! The more rough songs, such as Rusty Nail, Silent Jealousy, Kurenai and X were some of my favorites. I was surprised that they played an English version of Rusty Nail and Kurenai, though. That was kind of disappointing to me, it just sounded way too strange.

Sugizo played a nice violin part, and I think he is very charismatic on stage! He played it very elegantly, and the wind blowing through his costume added to that. Yoshiki later joined him on the piano, and slowly they built towards the intro to Kurenai, one of X Japan's classics. I loved that part, it was beautiful.

During the interlude to I.V. some Spanish fan threw a Spanish flag on stage, which Toshi and Yoshiki held up together. And right at that moment, a Dutch fan threw the Dutch flag on stage, right on Yoshiki's face/shoulder. That was just EPIC. And when Yoshiki held up the flag, the audience cheered loudly. Another Spanish flag was thrown on stage, and Yoshiki and Toshi fooled around with them for a bit, which was hilarious. It was great to see how much fun they were having with the performance.
Eventually, Yoshiki went back to his piano with the Dutch flag still wrapped around his shoulders.

And I believe it was after they had played 'X' when Yoshiki suddenly dived into the audience. It was such a sudden action, no one had been able to prepare for it at all! From a distance it was pretty hilarious, but I'm sure the people in the center front were a lot less pleased by it. The security, too, wasn't very happy about it. But Yoshiki himself thought he was pretty awesome XD

I found a video on youtube of the stage dive:

All in all, it was a great concert! They played really well! It was one of the best concerts I ever attended. Not that I was expecting anything less. They're X Japan after all!

The setlist was as follows:

New Intro S.E
Jade
Rusty Nail (English version)
Silent Jealousy
DRAIN
Kurenai
Born To Be Free
I.V.
X

Encore:
ENDLESS RAIN
Art Of Life (2nd movement)
ENDING SE (Forever Love)

Sadly, I had to leave before the concert ended, because they started playing so late and I had to catch my last train back home. Finding a place to sleep wasn't even an option for me, as I had a return ticket for the train.
I'm very sad that I had to miss out on Art of Life, because I consider that song to be a real masterpiece. I've always wanted to see them playing it live. So the ending was kind of bittersweet. This live was an absolutely amazing experience, but with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Either way, I'm really happy I was able to see them, I'm still excited when I think back to the evening. I keep watching the videos made by fans on youtube all the time, it's great for my memory of it! This night rocked!

WE ARE X!

Rainbow Curls

Zoals je misschien al hebt gemerkt, ben ik gek op My Little Pony. Nu zou je denken dat ik dan vast een hele verzameling heb, maar dat is helaas niet zo. Lolita fashion, paardrijden en fotografie zijn hobbies waar ik mijn geld liever aan uitgeef. My Little Pony's koop ik maar heel zelden.

De allereerste My Little Pony die ik ooit kreeg, was Streaky van de Rainbow Curl serie. Zij was een paarse eenhoorn met een afbeelding van muzieknootjes. Ik was nog heel klein toen ik haar kreeg, en natuurlijk had ik -zoals de meeste kinderen- het geniale idee om de haren te knippen en met een roze stift erop te tekenen. Ze ziet er nu dus niet erg fraai meer uit.

Maar omdat het mijn eerste pony was, wil ik heel graag nog eens een andere kopen die er nog wel mooi uitziet. Dan zou zij er ongeveer zo uitzien:

Foto is eigendom van Vettens Collection

En van diezelfde serie is er nog een pony die ik heel graag zou willen hebben, namelijk: Stripes. Vroeger had ik een Stripes gekocht op de rommelmarkt, en ik ben jarenlang gek op die pony geweest. Ik heb er zoveel mee gespeeld dat de haren helemaal frizzy zijn, en de helft van de manen eruit zijn getrokken door het kammen.

Hierdoor wil ik ook nog eens een mooie van die pony willen hebben. Zij ziet er zo uit:

Foto is eigendom van Vettens Collection

En gezien ik er dan toch al twee wil, en de serie uit 4 pony's bestaat, wil ik ze eigenlijk gewoon allemaal. Ik denk dat dit mijn favorite serie is van alle G1 My Little Ponies! Ik hoop dat ik ze ooit voor een leuke prijs kan vinden op Ebay. Vaak zijn ze niet goedkoop, vooral niet als ze in goede staat zijn.

Tot slot heb ik nog de commercial gevonden van de Rainbow Curl ponies. De Franse versie.

Let's talk photography

Hallo allemaal,

Vonden jullie het ook veel te warm vandaag? ik vind het echt helemaal niks! Dit warme benauwde plakweer staat mij niet toe om leuke kleding waar ik mij prettig in voel te dragen. Spaghetti-topjes en korte broeken zijn absoluut niet voor mij weggelegd, en mijn make-up (waar ik in de ochtend zó mijn best op heb gedaan) smelt in no time van mijn gezicht.

Nee, de zomer is wat mij betreft geen pretje.

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Over naar een leuker onderwerp: fotografie.

Ik heb besloten dat ik hoogst waarschijnlijk een nieuwe lens ga kopen voor mijn Canon EOS 550D camera. De lens die ik in gedachten heb is de Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II.

Ik heb deze lens al heel lang op het oog, omdat ie lekker goedkoop is en naar wat ik heb gelezen een leuk starters portretlensje is.

Maar de voornaamste reden waarom ik hem aan wil schaffen, is dat ik het enorm leuk vind om te experimenteren met scherptediepte. Met een maximale diafragma opening van f/1.8 valt hier zeker veel mee te spelen!

De vaste brandpuntsafstand zal wel even wennen zijn, maar voor een lage prijs kan je natuurlijk niet alles verwachten.

Ik wil ook nog een Speedlite flitser aanschaffen, maar hier heb ik voorlopig nog geen geld voor. Dit lensje lijkt me eerst een betere optie.

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Ook heb ik vandaag een foto ingestuurd voor een wedstrijd van Nikon, via de Mediamarkt. Helaas is de deadline er al bijna, en heb ik niet veel tijd om stemmen te verzamelen voor mijn foto. Ik verwacht dus niet dat ik iets zal winnen. Maar er is altijd een kleine kans!

Als je mij wil helpen, klik dan op 'stem'! Je zal dan naar Facebook geleid worden, waar je je stem kan uitbrengen. Ik zou het heel erg waarderen!



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Dankjewel!