NOTD: Topshop Blitz Nail Polish

On a recent trip to Topshop I picked up a couple of nail polishes that I really liked the look of, both of them looking beautifully duochrome in the bottle. One of them is Blitz, a lovely fuchsia pink that promied to have orange/yellow duochrome to it.

Sadly, as you can see, it doesn't. By all means it is a nice nail polish and the colour is pretty, but duochrome it's not. Shame though, because I would've loved the effect on my nails, but maybe it's just how the bottle reflects the light or something. The blue one (Missile) has lovely purple duochrome in the bottle, but once again not on the nails. At certain anglesthe colour seems a bit warmer, bit more orangey, but it's not enough to qualify for being a duochrome.

All in all though Blitz is a nice nail polish, the consistency is just right, it took 2 coats to look opaque and lasted as long as most nail polishes (2 days or so) without chipping. At £6 for 8 ml it's not a bad deal at all. I do wish it was duochrome though...

See more pictures after the jump!

More Guerlain News: Rouge Automatique Shine for Spring 2012

Thanks to Marina for the heads up on this exciting piece of news. As you know I'm a big fan of Guerlain Rouge Automatique lipsticks, and it appears that Guerlain will be releasing a new formula called Rouge Automatique Shine. I don't have many details other than that there will be 9 shades and they all seem to be shiny shimmery gorgeousness. I think I might have to have them all.

The nine shades are divided into 4 groups:

Reds

• 121 Rouge D’Enfer, classic red
• 221 Rouge De Damas, red with silver shimmer

Oranges

• 240 Pampelune, bright coral
• 140 Mitsuko, reddish orange with shimmer

Pinks

• 164 Chamade, warm pink with glitter
• 263 A La Parisienne, bright dark pink with sheen
• 264 Rose Pompon, sheer golden plum with

Beiges

• 104 Jicky, sheer cocoa with contrast glitter
• 202 Mi-Mai, subtle milky beige with golden sheen

See more pictures after the jump!

News Flash! Guerlain Summer 2012 Collection Terra Azzurra By Emilio Pucci

I was Google-ing to see if I can find out about upcoming summer collections and I've come across these images of Guerlain's summer 2012 collection Terra Azzurra. This is alone enough to excite me, but what's extra exciting is that the packaging is designed by Emilio Pucci! This is actually the second time Guerlain teamed up with Emilio Pucci, there was a gorgeous collection in 2007 if I remember correctly. I wasn't into Guerlain back then, but I did manage to get the Meteorites and a few of the glosses. Anyway, here's the details of the collection, unfortunately it's all in Russian, but I've managed to work most of it out.

As you can see from the images, there will be a bronzer/blusher compact named Terra Azzurra, new Meteorites called Perles D'Azur and a new eyeshadow quad in Capri. There's also a Meteorites brush in special Emilio Pucci case, Le 2 Mascara in Blu 2 Pucci, a Khol eyeliner in Blu Acqua, as well as 3 Terracotta lipglosses (yes, a blue one too!) and 2 nail polishes! Isn't the packaging just gorgeous? Let me know what you think! I love it all!

Image source

FOTD with Accessorize Merged Eyeshadow in Purple Drama

This is the look I created with the Accessorize Purple Drama Merged Eyeshadow I showed you earlier this week. I really liked this look, I generally love purples and I especially adore Stila's Royal (purple) Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner which always makes any purple look pop. I used the pink part of the eyeshadow on the lid and the purple in the crease and it worked really well.

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Barbara Daly Even Smoother Eye Base
Accessorize Merged Eyeshadow in Purple Drama all over lid and in crease
Mac Vellum eyeshadow on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Zero on waterline
Stila Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Royal on upper lashline
Guerlain Noir G de Guerlain mascara in Noir
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Parure Aqua foundation in 02 Beige Clair
Guerlain Radiant Butterfly Meteorites Voyage Powder
Blush from Vivo Baked Shimmer Palette in Paparazzi

Lips:
Chanel Glossimer in #104 Astral

See more pictures after the jump!

Updated Blog Sale Now On!

I've added lots of limited edition Mac pigments and some new paint pots, so be sure to check it out by either clicking here or at the link on the top of the page.

Giveaway Time: Win An Accessorize Eyeshadow Palette! *CLOSED*

*** THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED ***

Every time I log on, I'm amazed by all the pageviews my blog receives daily and all the lovely followers I now have. I can hardly believe that Pleasureflush has been visited nearly 300,000 times (and more amazingly over 200,000 times just in the last year!) and that over 400 people are following me. Wow! So I thought, it's about time for another giveaway to say thank you to all you lovely people! The prize is a beautiful Accessorize Peony Union Jack eyeshadow palette (worth £6).

To win this gorgeous palette all you have to do is be a follower of my blog via GFC (new followers are very welcome) and post a comment below with your e-mail address. For up to 2 extra entries you can also follow me on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway (make sure you include me @Anitacska in your tweet) and/or post a link to the giveaway on your blog (make sure you let me know the link as I will be checking). You can do both or either for one extra entry each. Remember, you MUST be a follower via GFC or none of your entries will count! You must also leave a comment below with your e-mail address to enter. Competition is open worldwide! Competition closes at midnight (UK time) on Sunday 5th February 2012. Good luck!

See another picture of the palette!

Accessorize Merged Eyeshadows Shade 9 and 10 - Review and Swatches

I picked up these two new Accessorized Merged Eyeshadows in my recent trip to Superdrug. I owned a few of these already and being a sucker for all things baked/mineralize, I decided to pick these up too. If I remember correctly there were 4 new shades on the Accessorize stand, but the other two didn't interest me. I picked up Cosmic Rays and Purple Drama.

Cosmic Rays, Purple Drama

These eyeshadows are actually quite different to the the ones I'd ownded already as they have quite a lot of glitter in them. Cosmic Rays has gold glitter and Purple Drama has silver glitter. They are not fine glitter either, although I did find them quite easy to use and I just tended to avoid the big glittery areas when picking up the shadow with my brush. The eyeshadows are quite large (3g), so it's reasonably easy to pick up the shadow from just one side of the pan. There was quite a bit of fallout when I applied them, but I just do my foundation last in those cases and once it had been applied, I didn't experience much fallout at all.

I'd say these are not the best quality eyeshadows I've tried from Accessorize, but they're not bad, just more glittery than others. They are still nicely pigmented and I just love both colours. They cost £4.50 and are available from Superdrug and Accessorize.

I will post a FOTD I did with Purple Drama and I will be hosting an Accessorize giveaway very soon, so make sure you check back!

See more pictures after the jump!

L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows Review and Swatches

Having heard lots of good and some bad about these eyeshadows, I decide to check them out for myself. I was browsing in Superdrug and noticed that they were on offer (£3.99 down from £6.99), so I picked up four of them.

I like my Armani Eyes To Kill eyeshadows as well as Chanel Illusion D'Ombre eyeshadows, but let's face it, they are very expensive. Who would say no to a cheaper alternative, especially if they were just as good. But are they? I'm happy to report that these L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadows are really good. They are nice and creamy, but not too creamy, so while they apply and blend easily, they also dry down quite quickly, so they don't crease on my eyelids. Okay, that's not 100% true, I did wear Goldmine the other day without a primer underneath and it did crease a tiny bit after about 8-9 hours of wear, but do you know what, that's good enough for me. I wore Flashback Silver and Purple Obsession over my beloved Barbara Daly eyeshadow base and they did not crease at all.

So yes, I do think these are a very good alternative the more expensive eyeshadows, and they come in really nice colours too. The colours are very rich and well pigmented, so pretty in the sunlight (see the swatches at the bottom of the post!). Out of the four I like Bronze Divine most, but Goldmine is also beautiful. I wore it with Stila Curacao (bright blue) liquid eyeliner on the top lashline and it looked gorgeous. I have since picked up another two shades, I will try to review them too.

As I said before, these are on offer from Boots and Superdrug at £3.99 instead of £6.99! Available in 12 shades, most of them shimmery, but there seem to be some without any shimmer too.

Do you own any of these? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Chanel Knightsbridge Collection Rouge Allure Lipsticks Swatches

Chanel released a Harrods exclusive 5 piece collection back in September and at the time I showed you the gorgeous blush, Brompton Road that came with the collection, but never got around to reviewing the lipsticks. I believe this collection is not available anymore in the UK, but it is now available in the US from Chanel's website, so I thought I'd post these pictures anyway.

Kensington, Hyde Park, Belgravia

There are 3 limited edition Rouge Allure lipsticks in this collection as well. Kensington is fuchsia, Hyde Park is a coral based pink and Belgravia is rosy pink with gold and silver shimmer. I like Rouge Allure lipsticks out of Chanel's lipstick formulas the most, they feel very nice on the lips and last for a long time. 


I can't remember how much these lipsticks cost exactly, but Rouge Allure lipsticks generally retail at £24, and they cost $32 in the US. You get 3.5g for your money. 


Without further ado, let's see more pictures and swatches shall we?

Guerlain Spring 2012 Collection - Noir G de Guerlain Mascara Review

The spring Guerlain collection isn't released yet here in the UK, but luckily I managed to get my hands on the new mascara, so here is my review.

The new Noir G de Guerlain mascara comes in a heavy case just like the Rouge G de Guerlain lipsticks, with the integrated mirror that flips open once the mascara is opened. The case is gorgeous, luxurious and exactly what you would expect from Guerlain. It opens differently from the Rouge G lipsticks, first you need to pull the cap off a bit (which enables the mirror to flip open), then twist the cap to pull the wand out.

The wand itself is your traditional wand with medium sized bristles (rather than plastic spikes), it's just the right size for me and works really well to distribute the mascara. The formula is a nice consistency and it does a good job of making my lashes look longer and fuller, while the brush separates them nicely. Can't comment on its curling ability as my lashes are naturally curly. The mascara itself is scented, it has a slight flowery scent which is only obvious if you're actually sniffing the wand or the tube. It comes only in one shade, 01 Noir (black), for now anyway. You get 6.5g of mascara which I think is the usual amount.

This is apparently the first refillable mascara although I'm not too sure how you actually refill it, but I can see a little hole at the end of the tube and the top of the cap, so I'm guessing that's how you eject the old one. My mascara didn't come with instructions, but I got mine from eBay, so maybe that's why? It was boxed though and both the inside lid of the box and the sticker on the mascara show how to open it, but not how to refill. Anyway, I'll worry about that later.

Pricewise, I believe this will retail at £35 which is VERY expensive even for Guerlain, although the Rouge G lipsticks are now nearing £30, so I guess it's in line with those. Is it worth 35 quid? As nice as it is, I have to say no. I don't normally apply my mascara on the go, so I have no need for the mirror and nor would I want to carry it with me much as it's very heavy. There are other very nice mascaras around for a lot less, even Guerlain's Le 2 mascaras "only" cost £25 and I do love those a lot. But I have to say that Noir G de Guerlain is a really really nice mascara and I honestly can't fault it. Will you be indulging?

P.S. By the way, in case you were wondering, I wore Noir G de Guerlain in this picture.

See more photos after the jump!

Vivo Baked Shimmer Palette in Paparazzi Review and Swatches

I've recently reviewed the Chocolate Box Palette and today I have Paparazzi to show you. Like the Chocolate Box Palette this one also contains 4 baked eyeshadows (1g each) and a baked blush (2.5g).

The colours in the pan seem very vivid, but they are actually quite sheer, but of course buildable. They swatch quite sheer, but you can pack them on and they actually look very nice when worn. I've included pictures of the look I did with the pink and purple shades at the bottom of the post. The shadows are shimmery with fine glitter, but there was only minimal fallout during application and none afterwards, so that's not an issue. They also stayed on without creasing for 10+ hours. The blush is pretty much the same shade as the one in the Chocolate Box Palette, but this one has less bronze veining, so it appears a bit more pink and less coral. You can see a picture of me wearing the blush at the very bottom of this post.

I like this palette a little less than the Chocolate Box Palette, but it's still nice and for the price of £6 it's a total bargain. It would be better if the blush was different in every palette (not sure about the other two, I don't own them), but due to the difference in veining it still is a bit pinker than the other one.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Tutorial Videos From Urban Decay Book Of Shadows IV For The Technically Challenged

When I bought Urban Decay's Book Of Shadows IV with all the gadgets and QR codes, I was a bit annoyed that I couldn't use any of them. You see at the time I didn't own a smart phone, so all of that technology was lost on me. Annoyingly I also couldn't watch the tutorial videos it came with (quite a big change from the booklet with the second Book Of Shadows), but finally even I own a smart phone, so I thought I'd share the links to these tutorials with you in case there are still people out there who otherwise couldn't watch them.

The palette came with a card with 5 QR codes that you can scan in with your phone and it takes you to the Urban Decay website where you can watch the tutorials. Of course you can do that on your computer too, so here are the links for the 5 looks. Enjoy!

Monochrome: www.urbandecay.com/BOSIV1

Smoke Out: www.urbandecay.com/BOSIV2

Chrystallized: www.urbandecay.com/BOSIV3

Purple Cat: www.urbandecay.com/BOSIV4

Naked: www.urbandecay.com/BOSIV5

NOTD: Max Factor Max Effect Nail Polish in 45 Fantasy Fire

I wondered into my local Superdrug the other day and found that Max factor had come out with new shades of the mini Max Effect nail polishes (I've owned 3 of those already). This gorgeous shade immediately caught my eye, so I decided to pick up two. They are very small (don't know exactly how small as I can't see it on the bottle though), so I thought I'd make sure I don't run out anytime soon, plus there was a 2 for £5.99 offer (they are £3.99 each).

Natural daylight no flash

I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures, I had to use my phone camera as my normal camera refuses to pick up pinky purples, it just turns them into blue and this beauty is certainly not blue. The base is a lovely purple and it has loads of very fine red shimmer which also appear gold and blue depending on how the light hits my nails. On a cloudy day the polish is more bluey purple, but as soon as there's light, it turns more pinky and the red sparkles light up like little specks of fire. Absolutely gorgeous!

It does take 4 coats to achieve the colour you see in the pictures, the base colour is actually very sheer, so you really need to layer it to get the colour you see in the bottle. I guess perhaps painting it on top of a purple polish might work better, but I also really love the actual base colour, so you might lose that if you layer it on top of another purple polish. In any case it is gorgeous and well worth the time. It did dry pretty quickly and didn't chip on me for 2 whole days (which is pretty good for me as nearly everything chips on me within 48 hours) and now 3 days on it's still looking okay with just 2 chips and some tipwear.

As I said above, a bottle of this prettiness costs £3.99 and you can buy it from Superdrug, Boots and supermarkets.

See more pictures after the jump!

Kiko Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadow and Colour Sphere Eyeshadow Review and Swatches

I'm sorry this review is really overdue, I actually bought these Kiko products back in October (remember my October London Haul video?). But then better late than never, eh?

I got these products from the Kiko store in Westfield. Kiko is an Italian brand I believe and they have two stores in the UK (in both Westfields) and also a website* where you can order all their products from. The prices are pretty good and so is the quality of their products. I got two Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadows and one Colour Sphere Eyeshadow.

The Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadows are similar to Mac shadesticks (only better) and Topshop eyeshadow crayons. I got them in Lilac (15) and Nile Green (09). They are both creamy, well pigmented, soft, go on smooth and even. They dry down pretty quickly, so there isn't much creasing, but admittedly if worn alone they do crease a tiny bit. Not much, not enough for me to care, but just wanted to point it out. The Colour Sphere Eyeshadow is basically a baked eyeshadow, I got it in Sparkling Cobalt Green (27) which is a dark blue/green with lots of sparkles. You can wear it wet which makes it more intense. I also tried it over Nile Green Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadows and it makes the colour really pop (you can see swatches below). 

The Long Lasting Eyeshadows cost £6.90 each and the Colour Sphere Eyeshadows cost £5.90. As I said above you can buy these from the Kiko website as well as their stores in Westfield. *If you decide to order from the website, be sure to register your details first as you get 15 days free shipping that way! Otherwise it costs £5.90 if your order is less than £49.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Paul & Joe Sparkles Cat Collection Review and Swatches

When I first saw the images of Paul & Joe's upcoming cat collection, I knew I wanted to get some products just because of the cute design. I ended up buying Face & Eye Colour in 077 Kittycat, Lipstick C in 076 Meow! and 077 Catwalk. I'm still wanting the Matte Pressed Powder to hit ASOS or BeautyBay (I got the others from ASOS, but I never saw the Kitten collection up which has the face powder, nail polishes and blush sticks).

As pretty as they are, sadly none of these products lived up to my expectations. Firstly, the Face & Eye Colour and Lipstick C in 076 Meow! both have really ugly packaging. Red background with ugly floating heads - WTF? I really don't understand why they would use something that ugly for something this pretty on the inside. Lipstick C in 077 Catwalk has lovely packaging at least.

The Face & Eye Colour is pretty sheer. There's one really lovely shade in it (the shimmery purple one on the back of the cat), the pink (background) is okay if a bit sheer, but the front of the cat is a meh light beigy-brown matte colour. I do love the purple though, it reminds me of Urban Decay Crash 24/7 eyeliner pencil in eyeshadow form. There was some glitter fall out from it, but as it's very very fine glitter, it was hardly noticable.

The lipsticks have really cute paw prints on the all the way down the bullet, but sadly that's where the positives stop. The two shades I got are nothing unique, they are both pretty sheer and the texture's not that nice either.

All in all, if it wasn't for the cuteness of the design (and the fact that there is no way I could've swatched them), I wouldn't have got any of these products. I thought about returning them, but of course once you swatch them, you can't. I'm not saying they're awful, but other than the design there is nothing special about them. I think the promo images are way nicer than the actual products - sadly. They're not cheap either, the Face & Eye Colour costs £21.50 and the lipsticks are £16 each.The Face & Eye Colour is 12 g, the lipsticks are 3 g each.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Eyeshadows in Illusiore and Emerveille and FOTD

While I'm waiting for my eyelid to recover (dry patch is going away nicely), I managed to dig out these old photos I did back in October but never got around to putting up in a review. It's actually quite fitting as well, following yesterday's post on my Chanel eyeshadow stash. These cream/gel shadows came out last autumn and I have reviewed 2 other shades, so for more info please check out this post.

The shades I have here are Illusiore, a purple-grey/taupe, and Emerveille, a light peach colour. Both are really pretty with fine shimmer, well pigmented, smooth and long lasting. Emerveille is the perfect 5 minute make up solution, paired up with a brown or black eyeliner and lots of black mascara. I included some pictures of me wearing Emerveille, so be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post. I used them with and without primer and they held on perfectly, didn't even crease when worn without primer, so they would also make a good base themselves. They cost £22.50 each and you get 4 g, so they're not cheap, but you really only need a little bit in one go. 

I would happily recommend these to everyone, and I hope the rumours of Chanel bringing out more colours are true as these are really fantastic.

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with Emerveille after the jump!

Photos of My Chanel Eyeshadow Collection

I'm a bit frustrated at the moment because I have a very dry and itchy patch on my left eyelid and I've not been able to wear eye make up other than mascara, but there are so many products that I want to test and review and I can't. So I was scratching my head trying to come up with something to do a post about and I came up with this: I'm going to show you my Chanel eyeshadow collection. And here it is:

All my Chanel eyeshadows

As you can see, I own a lot of quads, but there are a few singles, a duo and some of the new gel/cream eyeshadows, Illusion D'Ombre. I have most of the latest quads and a good few older releases, some of those I bought from eBay, so some are more used than others. I also have a quad that I'm pretty sure is fake, but it is so pretty, I haven't been able to make myself throw it out.

So without further ado, here are some more detailed pictures, hope you enjoy looking at them. I'm not doing swatches as well, but if you have any questions/requests, let me know in the comments!

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette Swatches and Quick Review

Following on the success of their Naked Palette, Urban Decay has released their Naked2 Palette and it is now available in the UK. I bought mine on Friday night and it arrived in the post this morning. I've had a quick look and swatched it for you all, but I have not had time to use any of the eyeshadows yet (except those that are permanent or repromotes, but not from this palette anyway).

My first impression is that I like it, some shades more than others. My favourite is the right half of the palette, in particular Suspect, Pistol, Verve and YDK, they all seem well pigmented and smooth, and the colours are lovely. Foxy (first one from the left) is a very hard to see skin tone shade, pretty unremarkable, Bootycall (third one from the left) is a nicer highlighting shade. Half Baked is included in this as well as the Naked Palette which is totally unnecessary. All in all it's not a bad palette and if you don't have many neutral shadows, this might just be exactly what you need. There are some mattes included and some rather shimmery, frosty shades too. There's also a Lip Junkie gloss included which is pretty nice, it has a minty scent and sweet taste, and lasts well on the lips, but colourwise it mostly just adds shine as it's quite pale. I have not used the included double ended brush.

The palette is exclusively available online from Debenhams, but it will hit the stores in February I believe. It costs £36 and you get 12 good sized eyeshadows, the mini gloss and the double ended brush. Not a bad deal at all. Also Debenhams are giving 500 bonus points to their Beauty Club Card holders at the moment (that's £5 worth!) with orders over £30. Have you ordered it yet? Are you planning to? Let me know!

See lots more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Duwop Crush3 Eyeshadow Palette Review and Swatches

Duwop is not one of the most well known brands and I really only got into it because I saw their original Crush trio (Lava) featured on Musings of a Muse. Since thenI have bought a few other products from Duwop, but my favourite has to be that original Crush Lava trio. I don't think it's available separately anymore, but do not fear as it's included in this palette. Crush3 is basically 3 Crush trios in one palette. As well as the original Crush Lava trio, you also get Crush Emerald and Crush Amethyst.

According to Duwop "Crush3 is a palette of 3 trios of jewel toned, talc-free shadows that gives the look and intensity of a cream with the ease and convenience of a powder. A metallic shimmer breakthrough, these eye colours offer intense payoff and effortless applications." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Out of the three trios Crush Lava is still my favourite, the shades are vibrant, the colour payoff is excellent, and the application is smooth. I also really like Crush Amethyst, but Crush Emerald is a bit of a letdown. Emerald (the green shade) itself is nice, but the other two are not as pigmented as I would like. I have only worn Crush Amethyst so far, so I can't say how long all of them last, but Crush Amethyst stayed on my lid without creasing for 10+ hours.

The only trio available on BeautyBay is Crush 18 Carat, which retails at £21, so at £24.95 Crush3 is a bit of a bargain. I think it was £28 initially, but got reduced straight after Christmas which was when I scooped it up. You get 22.8g of eyeshadows for your money, so it's just over £1 for a gram! Good deal.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

FOTD: Too Faced Romantic Eye Palette

I wore this look in my Sales Bargains video, but I have to say, I wasn't sure whether to post this after all as it didn't look too good in the video. The pictures aren't great either, but it actually looked really nice in real life. I decided to post it anyway, if nothing else for the idea as I think the colours worked really well together.

For this look I used Too Faced Romantic Eye Palette which I have reviewed before, click on the link if you're interested. It's a lovely little palette and the shadows are really nicely pigmented, so I would definitely recommend it.

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Barbara Daly Even Smoother Eye Base
Too Faced Honeymoon eyeshadow (Romantic Eye Palette) all over the lid
Too Faced Ever After eyeshadow (Romantic Eye Palette) in the crease
Too Faced Soulmates eyeshadow (Romantic Eye Palette) on the inner corner of lid and on brownbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Mildew on waterline
No 7 Exceptional Definition Nutrient Enriched Mascara in Black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Parure Aqua foundation in 02 Beige Clair
Guerlain Radiant Butterfly Meteorites Voyage Powder
Blush from Too Faced Glamour To Go (French edition) Palette

Lips:
Mac Impassioned lipstick

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Zoya Adina

I haven't had much time lately to photograph and swatch products, so apologies for yet another nail polish post (these are quick and easy to do), but it is such a pretty one, I would've wanted to show it to you anyway. This is Zoya Adina from the Spring 2010 Reverie Collection.

Without flash

It's a gorgeous light purple and green duochrome, depending on how you look at it. My pictures don't really do it justice, but if you click on the link above, you can see some wonderful swatches Scrangie did.

I like Zoya polishes very much, they have a lovely consistency, this one took two coats, and they stay on my nails pretty well. I think I took the pictures on day 2 and there were no chips yet. I'm not too sure if this is available anywhere other than eBay, but I got mine from the US for a few pounds only, so if you're interested, it's well worth checking out.

See more pictures after the jump!

My Sales Bargains Video

Just a quick video I did showing you what goodies I got in the after Christmas sales. :)

Vivo Baked Shimmer Palette in Chocolate Box Review and Swatches

I'd heard so much about Tesco's new make up line, Vivo, so when I was doing some Christmas grocery shopping I decided to check it out. I brought home this lovely Baked Shimmer Palette in Chocolate Box. The palette contains four baked eyeshadows and a baked blush. The shadows are a mixture of two-three colours each, so it's a little hard to see what the mixed colour will be, and I was rather surprised to find that the eyeshadow on the right turned out to be a bluey lilac shade (not very chocolatey if you ask me), but it is actually really lovely.

All four eyeshadows are really pigmented and smooth, soft and buttery, they go on really nicely with minimal fall out and once on the eyelids, there is no fallout whatsoever. There was also no creasing at all. I created a look with the shade on the right and the third shade from the right (or second left, not counting the blush, if you prefer) and it was really lovely. (Sorry about the photos, I never got aruond to taking pictures of the palette before using it, so there's some powder around the shades I used.) The blush is a pretty pinky coral everyday blush, it's quite pigmented, but not crazily so, it's shimmery, but not glittery. All in all I am very happy with this palette and it has definitely made me want to check out the rest of the range. The palette cost £6 and there are 4 different shades in the range available from Tesco (sadly not online).

Do you own any make up from the Vivo range? Let me know in the comments.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Finished! The December Edition

Another month over, another post about products I've finished. There are a few included that I have reviewed a few times on here, so I will just link them to some earlier reviews instead of repeating myself.

First up - a confession. I'm probably the only person in the blogesphere that doesn't know what the big fuss is about Clarisonic. I got a Clarisonic Mia a couple of months ago and I've been using it religiously, but in all fairness, I just can't see what it does to my skin. My skin isn't clearer, my pores are still clogged up, nothing has really changed to be honest. I don't hate it, but I do wonder what on earth I spent all the money on. Okay, there, I said it. Let the stone thowing commence. Right, onto the products. I got this cleanser with my Clarisonic and I didn't like it. Luckily it was only a small sample, so I used it up, but it smelled funny and it did nothing to my skin. Won't repurchase (I don't even know if you can).

 See what other products I finished after the jump!

NOTD: Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique Colour Nail Polish in Beatrice

I had terrible trouble photographing this gorgeous nail polish. My regular camera cannot cope with pinky purples, turns them into bluey purples. So I tried using my camera phone which isn't that great, but the colour is much more true to real life. It's pinky purple with some blue/green duochrome. I managed to take these pictures during sunset by the upstairs window, so I still had some natural daylight, because that's the only way to show off the duochrome in this polish. You can see the duochrome best in the bottle in the second picture, but it transferred to the nails quite well too.

I really wish I could show you some better pictures, it's such a gorgeous shade and an amazing nail polish. I took the photos on day 3 and as you can see, I still only had a bit of tip wear (although I did have two small chips on my index fingers that you can't see) which is absolutely brilliant for me as pretty much everything chips on me within 24-36 hours. In the end I only took it off 4 days later and even then it didn't look too bad. Very pleased with it, not only it's very pretty, it stays on amazingly well and it applied well too. So far I've not been anything but amazed by the Andrea Fulerton line of nail polishes. £3.99 for 5.5 ml from Superdrug. 

See more pictures after the jump!

Estee Lauder Pure Color Cyber Eyes Gelee Powder Eyeshadows Review and Swatches

Ever since I heard about these amazing looking Estee Lauder eyeshadows I decided I wanted to get them all. At the moment I only have four of them because the lilac and teal ones are not available yet anywhere. According to Estee Lauder they've been delayed in production. Hoping to pick them up as soon as they're available.Out of the four I have I love Cyber Green the most which is actually not green at all, it's black with gold flecks. But I do love Cyber Lilac and Cyber Teal very much too and can't wait to pick them up.

These eyeshadows are gelee/powder hybrids, they certainly feel like powders, but don't swatch like them, swatch more like cream eyeshadows. You can use them wet for more intensity, but they are already very pigmented and apply very nicely even when dry. I wore the pink and silver ones the other day and they lasted all day without creasing or fading, so they are really excellent shadows. According to the packaging these are 0.9 g each which is weird as they aren't that small (same size as Estee Lauder single eyeshadows), but they must be very lightweight because usually eyeshadows of this size are more like 2-3 g. They cost £19 each which is quite a lot for a single eyeshadow, but then that's high end make up for you. Anyway, enough with the maths, let's see some more pictures, shall we?

2011's Favourite Products: Part 4 - Skincare

This is the last part of my favourites post for this year, and this one contains skincare. As I'm getting older and wearing more make up than a few years ago, I'm trying to take care of my skin better. I used to go to bed without taking off my mascara and used not to own any make up remover just a few years ago (I know, shock horror!), and I also didn't use any face creams at all. Of course that was a while ago and now my bathroom cabinet is full of skincare products. So let's see which ones I really liked this year. By the way I have reviewed most of these products before, so I will link them to the more detailed reviews.

First off, make up remover. My go to make up remover used to be Estee Lauder's Gentle Eye Make Up Remover, but I have discovered an even better one which is Clinique Take The Day Off Make Up Remover and I can happily say this is my new favourite. The Estee Lauder one doesn't remove waterproof mascara and neither does this, but it removes regular make up much more quickly. I use Lancome Bi-Facil for waterproof mascara that I only wear very occasionally, so for my everyday needs this is perfect.

Keep reading to find out which other skincare products I loved this year!