L'Occitane Peony Make Up Collection Haul

I told you about L'Occitane's upcoming make up collection here and now I'm happy to report that the collection has arrived in the UK. I have a L'Occitane in my town, so when I walked past it today I spotted the stand with all the pretty make up, and couldn't resist to check it out. They didn't have everything including the duo eyeshadows due to the recent travel disruption, but they should have the missing things tomorrow, so I will go back and check. I came away with the pretty illuminating powder, a blush, two lipglosses, the cheek and lip stain and the shimmering beauty powder (which I didn't know about until now). They're all packaged it beautiful flowery paper bags that remind me of the packaging of flower bulbs, and the powders are in cardboard boxes just like Paul & Joe powders. The lipglosses have paper/card on the outside of the top of the wand but plastic on the inside. They all look really pretty. The Beauty Powder is absolutely huge (40 g), it's for the body, but will last forever anyway, it comes with a huge fluffy puff and is housed in a tin rather than cardboard. I tested the lipsticks, but they are too sheer for my liking and the two lighter lipglosses weren't very interesting to me, but might suit others more who like sheerer colours. There's also a lipbalm that is a very light pink colour which I also didn't get. They were missing a blush (no. 03), so need to check that, they also didn't have the bronzing powder, but I probably won't want that. Below are some photos of what I did get and some swatches too. Couldn't really swatch the illuminating powder as it's very light and doesn't really show up other than a sheer glow. Tried to show you how gorgeous the shimmery beauty powder is, but the camera just couldn't capture its beauty. You need to check it out in person! ;) Oh and there's also a new perfume called Peony which smells absolutely gorgeous, but as I'm on a perfume no-buy until I use up at least 3 of my existing perfumes (honestly, I have at least 30!), I sadly have to give it a miss right now.

The collection is also available online on http://www.loccitane.co.uk/ and you get free delivery on orders over £59.

See photos of products and swatches...

Illuminating powder

Blush shade 02

Blush swatch

Lipglosses no. 03 and 04 and lip and cheek tint

Lipgloss and lip and cheek tint swatches (same order)

Huge powder puff for the Beauty Powder

Beauty Powder

Beauty Powder swatch

Rimmel Colour Mousse eyeshadow review take 2

A few days ago I told you about these new cream eyeshadows from Rimmel (you can find my initial review here) and promised I would let you know how they wore once I had a chance to try them out. Well, today is the day!

I don't normally use cream eyeshadows, or if I do, I use them as a base, but some mornings when I don't have time to do a more complex look, I just use one colour on my lids and if I have time I build on it later with powder eyeshadows. I normally use Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin or Urban Decay cream eyeshadows as they're both excellent bases and look lovely alone too.

But today I decided to try out my new Rimmel eyeshadows, so I can write up a review. The verdict: the are GOOD! I used 005 Glitz all over my eyelid and it applied pretty evenly (also, you only need a tiny amount, so these will last you ages) and didn't crease on me at all.

I took the following pictures after 3 hours of wear and there's really no creasing as you can see. Please do keep in mind though that my eyelids are quite wrinkly (and that is especially visible when using more shimmery eyeshadows) and I have hooded eyes and loads of folds, so if you think you see creasing, it's just my eyelids! :)

I decided to play with it a little and added 012 Mocha in the crease, although it was a little hard to blend because these shadows do dry very quickly. Although I suspect if I had done the whole thing in one go, it would have been easier to blend the two colours together. I do like it that they dry quickly though becasue it means that they don't crease once you open your eyes and with my folds and wrinkles that's a pretty useful thing! :)

Here are some pictures of how the two colours looked together:

Not too bad, but maybe a little rough around the edges. So to finish the look off, I used a highlighter (I used the shimmery side of my Mac MSF Natural and Shimmer powder, but any highlighter or light coloured powder eyeshadow would do) and voila! I think the finished look is really nice. Also, I took these pictures 3 hours ago and I've just checked, still no creasing. So that's 6 hours now since I applied the first colour. I think we're gonna be good for 8 hours (although I hope we'll be good for another 3 on top of that because that will take me right through to supper time and I normally expect my eyeshadows to last until then).

I would definitely recommend these mousse shadows, I think they're nice and make a good creaseless base, although a little hard to blend as they dry quickly. However, with a bit of highlighter, this can be remedied easily.

See photos of the end result and let me know what you think!

Edited to add: After 12 hours still no creasing or flaking. Yay! :)

Newly reorganised lipsticks and lipglosses

I've recently acquired a new empty icecream box due to eating a lot of banana splits lately (not good for my weight!), so I've decided to reorganise my lipstick and lipgloss collection. You might remember me showing you where I keep my lipsticks and lipglosses here and here. I was overflowing my lipgloss box, so badly needed a new one, but then I found that I didn't have enough lipglosses to fill two, so I ended up rearranging things. Here's the result:

All my lipsticks and some of my high end lipglosses (the short ones - the long ones are stored in a drawer)

Square tubes of lipglosses (Mac, YSL Golden Glosses, Givenchy, Lancome, Sue Devitt and Guerlain) All my Mac lipsticks and regular shaped lipglosses (my Liberty of London ones still in their special packaging, lol) High end lipsticks (Guerlain, Clarins, Chanel, Lancome, Urban Decay, Laura Geller, Dior, Givenchy, RMK, Laura Mercier, Bobbi Brown, Clinique)

Non-high end lipsticks (Avon, L'Oreal, Maybelline, No 7, 17, The Body Shop, Rimmel)

I also did a stocktake of all my lipstuff and have concluded that I have more lipsticks and lipglosses than I can ever use up. Does it stop me from buying more? No! :)

Here are the stats: I own 158 lipsticks and 398 lipglosses! Now my challenge is to use every one of them in the next year or two! We'll see how that goes.

L’Occitane En Provence Peony Makeup Collection

There is another collection coming out in May that I'm really excited about and it's L'Occitane's new make up collection. It contains gorgeous powders, blushes, duo eyeshadows and lip products in beautiful packaging, all named after types of peonies. Not available in the UK yet, but should be coming out in a few weeks time I believe. I got these images from the American website usa.loccitane.com and from Musings of a Muse . Aren't they products are just so gorgeous? They remind me a lot of Paul & Joe's powders and eyeshadows. I particularly like the pink Illuminating powder and the pink and purple duo eyeshadows. I'm very much looking forward to checking them out in person, and will be back with the details. See some photos...

Mac To The Beach collection UK release date 13th May 2010

Hello Everyone! I have just heard that Mac's new summer collection entitled To The Beach is going to be released on 13th May in the UK, two whole weeks before the US! While I'm not planning on buying a whole lot from this collection, there is one thing I really really want. This:

I mean just how pretty is this powder? I know it's an overspray on top and it will go away after the first use, which is why I will be buying two of them - one to use and one to look at! Call me crazy, but I just can't bear messing up such a pretty powder! (That is why I have backups of the crazily expensive Chantecaille powders as well.)

The other things I want from this collection are Hipness blush and possibly some lipsticks and lipglosses. I have seen swatches of Thrills lipstick and I'm pretty sure I'll want it. What are you getting from this collection?

See more pictures...

Thanks to Temptalia for the images!

Another Barry M Lip Laquer Crayon review

After saying (here) that I wasn't too keen on the more red shades of these, I decided to get shade no. 2 (Cherry Red) after all. This one is a pinky red, similar to Party Pink, just more red, and every bit as sparkly and pretty. Having tried it on, I'm happy I got it, although it is definitely a very loud shade of lipstick, it goes very well with the neutral eyes I'm wearing today. Definitely recommend this to anyone looking for an easy to apply pinky red lipstick. See some pictures...

Top Cherry Red, bottom Party Pink (with flash) Without flash

Without flash in natural sunlight

Rimmel Colour Mousse cream eyeshadow review

I purchased three of these eyeshadows for £4.99 each (2 for 3 offer in Boots) and I have to say I'm pretty happy with them. I bought a couple of the new Estee Lauder cream eyeshadows (blue and purple), but at £15 a pop I didn't feel like buying the beige and brown colours as well. But when I saw these shadows in Boots (especially the brown shade, Mocha caught my eye, which I couldn't buy as they only had some that were already open - hey guys, use testers!), I decided to pick some up. I especially like 006 Get Fresh, a nice light pink shade and 005 Glitz a beige/sandy shade, and while 004 Splash is nice too, it's the least pigmented. They are very soft and glide on nicely, but I can't tell you how longlasting and crease proof they are as i haven't worn them yet. They do claim to last for 8 hours though, so we shall see.

Edited to add: I've found 012 Mocha in my local Superdrug, so added some more pictures. I will let you know how they wear when I've used them.

Anyone's used them? Like them, love them, hate them?

See some pictures...

Barry M Lip Laquer Crayon in Party Pink

Look at this little treasure I've found! *drumroll* Introducing Barry M Lip Laquer Crayon in Party Pink (shade no. 4). What we have here is a lip pencil/crayon in a beautiful shimmery fuschia colour that is very easy to apply, is pretty long lasting (I didn't fully test it, but it did last for 2-3 hours on me with eating and drinking and I still had some left, but I had to remove it then), and is absolutely gorgeous! I picked it up in Superdrug and it cost £4.95, so it's great value as well. (It's also available on www.barrym.com ) They come in 5 colours (Scarlet Red, Cherry Red, Mandarin, Party Pink and Ballet Pink), but as I don't really use red or orange lipstick, the other colours didn't appeal to me that much (plus Ballet Pink is a very pale pink, again, not for my taste). But I do like this one very much. See some photos...