For Your Eyes Only - Chantecaille Les Petales De Rose Powder

Aah, Chantecaille. You always come out with the prettiest powders and palettes just to tempt me. Which is not good, seeing how all these pretties are actually very expensive. Thanks crunchie for eBay is what I say.

"Inspired by the gossamer, soft color and texture of crushed rose petals, Chantecaille has created a limited-edition highlighting powder that will brighten up your powder room as well as your face."

"Les Pétales’ kaleidoscope of colorful powders blend together beautifully to impart a sheer, flattering glow on all skin tones. Unique light perfecting powders provide a veil of subtle radiance, while flexible polymers help provide lasting, comfortable wear."

This is such a lovely, soft, finely milled, slightly shimmery, light pink illuminating powder. It really only has very very fine shimmer, it gives a subtle sheen to the skin. I haven' worn it, it's simply too pretty to distroy, but I did swatch it carefull to see what it was like. I would liken it to the Guerlain Meteorites, they give similar effect.

Les Petales De Rose costs a whopping £64 and you get 12 g for your money. I bought mine off eBay for around £45, it didn't come boxed and the label's missing from the bottom,but it's the powder that matters.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

NOTD: Milani 3D Holographic Nail Polish in Cyberspace

As I said the other day, I might not be able to muster up anything other than nail polish posts for the next few days due to chronic time shortage. Thankfully I have plenty of pretty polish to show you, so hope you will enjoy them. Here's the first one, Milani 3D Holographic Nail Polish in Cyberspace.

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

I have already showed you another one of these polishes, 3D, a yellow subtle holo.Cyberspace is a light blue polish with a stronger holo effect than 3D, It looked especially pretty in the sunshine. I did 2 coats for this full coverage you see in the pictures. I added another coat on top of the topcoat to see if the holo effect got any stronger, but it didn't seem to matter. The formula was nice and quick drying. It started chipping on me on the first day, but actually then lasted really well even through scrubbing the oven! So I was pretty happy with it.

I bought this nail polish from Cherry Culture and it cost $3.99. You get 13.2 ml which is great. Their shipping is also very reasonable and they often have 20% off sales, so it's worth registering with them.

See more pictures after the jump!

Guerlain Rose Aux Joues Blush Duo 05 Golden High Swatches and Review

I have managed to get my hands on another shade of the new Guerlain blush duos, this time I have Golden High to show you. If you have missed my reviews of the other shades, you can check them out here: Peach Boy, Over Rose, Pink Punk and Chic Pink.

Golden High is a mix of reddish brown and light peachy pink. The reddish brown shade has a slight sheen to it, the light peachy pink shade doesn't. This blush is the worst texture wise of the 5 I have tried. The reddish brown shade is extremely hard and very difficult to pick up with your brush. The light peachy pink shade is softer, but even that's not very soft. I don't know if this is just a dud, or this shade is simply this hard to work with.

Then upside of the hard texture is that's it's really not easy to overdo this blush. I had to swipe it twice with the brush to get the colour you will see on my cheeks in the picture at the bottom of the post. It gives a very natural result. The peachy pink shade works well as a subtle highlighter, or if you're very light skinned, maybe even a blush.

These blushes cost £32.50 and you get 6 g of product which is not huge. I'd like to point out that I have not paid full price for any of them (thanks to eBay) and probably wouldn't, although they are nice, but I feel there are better blushes around for a lot less money.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Stila Luxe Palette Review, Swatches and a FOTD

Before I show you this lovely palette, I just want to say that I'm really struggling with writing new posts at the moment. Firstly, I am currently very busy with school and children related activities. Secondly, due to the gloomy weather we've been having in the UK, I've found it incredibly difficult to take proper photos of products, which means if I can't take pictures of my new acquisitions, I then can't start using them, and obviously can't review them in detail. So for the time being I think you might be seeing a few more nail polish posts, I have a big backlog of NOTD pictures that were taken back in the autumn when we still knew what the sun looked like. Hopefully I'll be back with some proper product reviews soon.

For now, here's a lovely palette from Stila to drool over. This one is called Luxe palette and it contains 3 matte and 6 sparkly eyeshadows, plus a smudge stick waterproof eyeliner in Ladyfish (an exclusive shade). You also get a small booklet with ideas on looks to create with the palette. I bought it with my £5 off discount code StilaKiss which is valid for another 3 days on the Stila UK website (minimum spend £25).

I have to say, I'm a bit on the fence about this palette, I'm just not sure about the matte shades. I would've preferred either 3 more sparkly eyeshadows instead of the matte ones, or at least shades that go better with the rest of the palette. Quality-wise I can't really fault the palette, because the matte shades are really nice, the sparkle shades are gorgeous and the eyeliner is lovely too.

I have only worn the eyeshadows over a primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance), but I didn't experience any creasing and there was only minimal fallout (usually during application). The smudge stick is really long lasting, even on the waterline.

The matte shades are a bit brown for my liking. Actually Bubble Bath is a pinky highlighter colour, it's pretty, but I prefer highlighting with more sparkly, satiny colours. I couldn't combine the two different finishes in the palette. I did do a look with the mattes, it was a nice, but rather boring look for my liking.

I also used the shadows in the middle row which resulted in a lovely pink/purple look. But my most favourite shade in the palette has to be ♥ Of The Ocean. At first it looks really dark and a bit dull in the palette, but on the skin it turns into an amazing teal/peacock green colour with loads of pearl. Absolutely gorgeous! I've included pictures of the look I did with it (actually not including any other eyeshadow from the palette, I used it with Sassy Marshmallow and Time Resist White L'Oreal Infallible as well as Stila Peacock smudge stick on the lower lashline). It was really lovely, probably even better in real life.

The palette costs £30, but you can get £5 off with StilaKiss on stila.co.uk. I'm too tired to work out how much value you get, but altogether there's 13.5 g eyeshadows and 0.28 g eyeliner, so you can be sure you're getting great value for your money. I also like it that you get a mirror in this one, definitely something that was missing form the other Stila palettes before.

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

Want It: Guerlain Spring 2013 Collection

I'm really excited about seeing the promo pictures and details of the Guerlain Spring 2013 collection, so I thought I'd quickly share them with you. Firstly, another gorgeous promo picture featuring the lovely Natalia Vodianova. Can't help but wonder how photoshopped those eyelashes are though...

So there is a new mascara coming out, it's a volume creating, curl sculpting mascara.

Cils d’Enfer – Maxi Lash (£22)

• 01 Noir
• 02 Violet

The secret of this brush is all in the three polymers. “The first one wraps the lashes in extremely adherent oils, coating and thickening the lashes. The second one, made with supple waxes, acts like a conditioner, softening the lashes so you can sculpt them into just the right shape and style. The last one forms a thin film, coating the lashes to trap the wax and set the amazing curve.”

This mascara also has an innovative brush which is described the following way:” full, round brush caresses each lash to thicken and lengthen at will. The volumising effect is accentuated by the new generation hollow fibres, capable of dispensing just the right amount of mascara with each stroke. Cleverly placed in a criss-cross pattern, they carefully separate the lashes and spread the rich formula without clumping.”

The other products in the collection are as follows:

Ecrin 4 Couleurs Long-Lasting Eyeshadows (£38)

• 501 Attrape-Coeur - mauve, violet, white illuminate, prima donna purple
• 502 Coup de Foudre - green, silvery patina, bronze-khaki, vibrant coral

Eyeliner (£24.50)
 
Ebony black liner with an ultra-thin tip (I think this is permanent actually).

Météorites Perles du Paradis (£43)

New Limited Edition of Meteorites come in XXL size with a pink powder puff with a black bow on top. These Meteorites come in a box adorned with an illustration of a boudoir. The pearles come in six shades.

Rouge Automatique Lipstick (£24.50)

• 601 Romance
• 600 Ballade

Shine Automatique Lipstick (£24.50)

• 762 Rendez-vous
• 761 Flirt

Kiss Kiss Gloss (£24.50)

• 870 Cherry Pink (repromote, see swatches here)
• 849 Fizzy Mango (repromote, see swatches here)

This collection will be out in January.

Pictures and information source

See lots more pictures after the jump!

Dior Holiday 2012 - Grand Bal Palette

Dior really know how to make you drool over their products, don't they? When they make it this pretty, how can you possibly say no? This is their newest holiday palette, Grand Bal.

It contains 2 eyeshadows (gold and silver), 2 lipglosses and an eyeliner pencil, housed in a gold clutch type compact with a full size mirror in the lid. The pencil holds the clutch closed as it's threaded through the two circular barrels in the front.

The eyeshadows are so incredibly beautiful, not just the colours but the pattern. I carefully swatched them, but I'm really not sure i want to use them much as it would ruin the gorgeous design. However, they seem so lovely, it would be silly not to use them. They are very pigmented, smooth, and the colours are lovely. The gold is a light coppery gold and the silver is a white silver. The eyeliner is a straightforward black, quite creamy and well pigmented.

I didn't swatch the lipglosses (a shimmery sheer golden colour and a medium reddish coral colour), because I really didn't want to mess them up, but they would be good to apply on top of a lipstick or wear alone. For those who don't like their powder and cream products in one palette, you'll be pleased to know that the glosses are hiding behind a little flap.

Not only the clutch itself is gorgeous, but it also comes wrapped in white tissue paper with gold CD printed all over it. The whole thing just screams luxury. Unfortunately the pricetag is rather luxurious too at £60. You get 5.3 g product (doesn't say individually) which isn't much, but like with many other luxury products you also pay for the name, the design and it doesn't get much more luxurious than Christian Dior.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

NOTD: Enchanted Polish Once Upon A Time

Time for another NOTD post. This time it's Enchanted Polish Once Upon A Time. Enchanted Polish is quickly becoming one of my favourite nail polish brands, their polishes are really gorgeous and quite different to everything I own. Although having said that, Once Upon A Time did actually remind me of China Glaze Liquid Crystal, only better.

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

The glitter particles in this polish are smaller than in Liquid Crystal, making the whole effect smoother, and this also has subtle holo, something I love in Enchanted Polish nail polishes. This was the polish I wore in my Nail Polish Stash And Storage Video if you want to see it "in action".

I used 2 coats for the coverage you see in the pictures,which is pretty opaque. I had a tiny chip after about 24 hours and managed to chip another nail quite badly the next day, but after patching it up I wore it for the total of 4 days. So all in all, a good little nail polish. I bought mine from Llarowe, it cost $15 for 15 ml, although sadly it's not available anymore. The only downside of this brand is its very limited availability. She only makes them in very small batches and once they're gone, they're gone. If you like this though, check out China Glaze Liquid Crystal for a similar effect.

See more pictures after the jump!

My Chanel Holiday 2012 Collection Haul - Review and Swatches

At last, the Chanel holiday collection has arrived to the UK as well. Must have been the last of the high end collections, it was released on 9th November. Yes, sorry, it has taken me this long to finally review it, I still have quite a backlog of things I haven't even photographed, or swatched or used.

But for now, here's what I bought from the Chanel holiday collection:

I got the eyeshadow quad, Harmonie de Soir, the blush called Star Dust and the new Illusion d'Ombre in Apparence. I knew I wanted the quad when I saw pictures of it sometime in the summer, it just looked so pretty, I had to have it. I was on the fence about the Illusion d'Ombre, especially after swatching it as it seemed to be pretty much the same colour as the gold in the quad. The blush I wasn't even going to get, but once I'd swatched it, I couldn't leave it behind.

So the eyeshadow quad. It's soft, silky, pigmented, gorgeous. Easy to use, blendable, long lasting, non-creasing shadows that look satiny. Love it. Only drawback is you only get 4 g of product which is teeny, especially considering the pricetag (£43). But then having said that, I'd rather pay that much for 4 g of loveliness than £30+ for a mediocre Mac quad. Anyway, I have used all the colours except for the gold one and they all looked great 12+ hours later, didn't crease (over Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer) and didn't lose their sheen. I apologise, I didn't take a picture of the look because that day was the gloomiest, darkest day and I knew the pictures wouldn't come out right.

The Illusion d'Ombre is a gorgeous not too yellow gold colour, it's also not very warm, so should suit people with cooler complexions. Not as yellow and sparkly as Vision Illusion d'Ombre, it's more of a muted colour. Still sparkly, but not as metallic as Vision. It's a very lovely colour. If you have the quad you probably don't need this as well, because the two golds are very similar, but Illusion d'Ombres are a different products, they are cream eyeshadows that don't crease and stay on all day (I only use them over primer). I love them on those days when I only have 10 minutes to put my make up on, they are just so easy. You get 4 g of eyeshadow for £23.

As I said, I wasn't even going to get Star Dust blush, but it's just so sparkly, I couldn't say no to it. Also, Stardust is one of my favourite films (watch it if you haven't see in yet!), so the name really appealed as well (yeah, I know, lame excuse). Star Dust is a very sparkly light pink blush, more of a highlighter really, and defitinely more for nights out than school runs (although I wear crazy colours to school runs, so whatever you want to do really). It's very finely milled and just lovely. It's not huge, you only get 4 g and it's pretty pricey at £31.

While the Chanel collection isn't my favourite of this year's holiday collections, the products I've bought are all really lovely. I didn't got for the lip products or nail polishes for obvious reasons (no-buy), but they also looked nice.

See more pictures after the jump including swatches and a look I did with Apparence Illusion d'Ombre and Star Dust!

My Lancome Holiday 2012 Collection Haul - Review and Swatches

One of my favourite holiday collections this year is by Lancome (obviously the other one being Guerlain). I've bought two of the Petit Tresor eyeshadows and the two khol pencils (which I wouldn't actually describe as khol, but we'll get to that later), as well as the gorgeous sparkly gift set I've already shown you.

The eyeshadows are really lovely and sparkly, even the compacts they come in are so glam. It's definitely 10/10 for packaging for Lancome! I bought Fil d'Or and Fil' d'Argent, the gold and silver ones. I also liked the bronze one, but decided to skip that as it was the least interesting shade for me. The silver one is actually more taupe than silver, which probably makes it more wearable, but if you're after a proper silver shade, this won't be the one for you. The gold one is a light yellow gold, very pretty. Both are sparkly, but not glittery, very smooth and easy to use. They aren't massively pigmented, but they give a very nice wash of colour to the lids.

The khol pencils are nothing like khol, they remind me a lot of Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencils. They are soft, smooth and really nice. They don't drag, but they're also not too soft. There are two shades: 015 Jazzy Taupe and 016 France In A Glance. The latter is a bronzy brown colour, Jazzy taupe is... taupe. They compliment the eyeshadows perfectly.

You get 1 g in each eyeshadow for £18 and the khol pencils are £16 for 1.2 g (same size as the Urban Decay ones). The eyeshadows are pretty expensive gram per gram, but I don't mind since I'm never going to use them up anyway.

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

Laura Mercier Petite Baked Eye Colour Trio in Golden Metallics Review and Swatches

This holiday Laura Mercier has released some very pretty palettes and I picked up this Petite Baked Eye Colour Trio. Although I'd already owned one of the shades, I thought it was still worth picking up.

The palette contains 3 baked eyeshadows in the following colours: Gold Leaf, Black Karat and Emerald. Out of the 3 only Black Karat is permanent. Because they're baked, they can be used both wet and dry, and usually look more intense when used wet. I tried Gold Leaf and Black Karat dry on the lid and then Emerald wet as eyeliner and they looked very pretty. I didn't take any pictures of the look, sorry.

Even when used dry they're nicely pigmented and there isn't much fallout from them, what little there was occured during application and not afterwards. I used them over primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance) and they stayed creaseless all day. There's a lovely shimmer to them, but no chunky glitter, so if you like some shimmer, these could be a good choice for you. I can see this as an option for a Christmas party make up look.

You get 3 x 0.5 g of product which isn't a lot, but it's worth keeping in mind that baked eyeshadows are often lighter than non-baked ones. The palette is slightly worse value at £20 than buying the eyeshadows individually (although technically you can't anyway), because the singles cost £18.50 and you get 1.8 g for that. If you don't think you want to fork out £20 for this, then wait until the sales because I have seen other Laura Mercier palettes go on sale after Christmas, clearly they are not as limited edition as Mac products are. If you like it though, best get it now, just in case.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Update On My No-Buy 2 Months On

In case you're not a regular reader of my blog (and why not?), to fill you in, 2 months ago I went on a no-buy for lipsticks, lipglosses and nail polishes (you can also read my original post by clicking here). Well, an intended no-buy anyway. I have been doing well in some areas (lips) and not so well in other areas (nails).

Firstly, the positives. I haven't bought any new lipsticks this month, so that's a definite well done to me. I have bought 6 lipglosses, but those were still (just about) within my limit, and now I've reached that, I'm not going to allow myself any more.

Secondly, I can't stop buying nail polish. I did better than last month (not hard), but still bought far too many. The picture below shows a small portion of my nail polish haul. I have to say, 9 of them came from my wishlist (those gorgeous holographic Color Club polishes on the front and left of the picture and the Enchanted Polishes on the right), and one was sent to me by the lovely Liloo as a prize (the other gorgeous holo by 17 on the right), so surely that doesn't count, right?

The trouble is, there are just too many pretty, glittery, holo polishes out there, and I'm too weak. But I'm trying. I have quite a long wishlist now and I have been better about not just buying things when I see them on a blog or in a shop, so hopefully it's a start. However, feel free to give me a kick up the bum and tell me to stop buying them since I already have enough nail polishes to last me 20 years or so!

Guerlain Rouge G L'Extrait in M27 Luxure - Review and Swatches

Probably one of my very last lip product reviews for a while since I'm now on a no-buy indefinitely when it comes to lipstick and lipgloss. Today I have Guerlain Rouge G L'Extrait liquid lipstick in M27 Luxure to show you.

I have reviewed these liquid lipsticks before, so I won't be doing a lengthy review today, if you would like to, check out this post. M27 Luxure is a darker, warmer red than M25 Colere which is very much a blue based red. This is still not orangey, it's probably quite neutral as far as reds go.

I got a similar wear time out of this as I did with the other shades, around 4 hours without eating, it does disappear while eating. It doesn't feel drying on my lips, despite being matte, although there is a slight sheen to it, so it's not a true matte anyway.

Guerlain Rouge G L'Extrait lip colours cost £29.50 and you get 6 ml for your money. They are expensive and you mostly pay for the fancy case with the mirror, but the case is very nice and the lip colour inside is pretty good too.

I included a quick lipswatch at the end of the post, no full face picture though, sorry, I was not looking my best that day. The lipswatch isn't great either, it was a dark, gloomy day I'm afraid. (Also sorry about the lip fuzz.)

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Illamasqua Nail Duo Bright - Glitterati and Viridian

I bought this set of two Illamasqua nail polishes from Debenhams, named Nail Duo Bright. The set includes Viridian, a metallic peacock green and Glitterati, a glittery plum shade.

My first impression was that neither of these polishes looked as bright or glittery in person as they did in the stock picture on the Debenhams website. Fair enough though, things never do. I still think naming them as "bright" is a bit misleading because they're not.

Viridian is rather dull, darker and a lot less metallic than I expected, even based on what it looks like in the bottle. I ended up jazzing it up a little by Zoya Maisie, a blue/green flakie polish.

Glitterati is very misleading in the bottle as you can see loads of sparkles, but they mostly end up being sandwiched between the layers you apply (I did two) and also just floating inside the polish. The end result was much less glittery than I thought it would be.

Both manicures took 2 coats to look opaque, the formula was nice, not too runny or thick and they applied evenly. Both started chipping slightly in the first 24 hours, even though these polishes are supposed to be "extremely hardwearing and chip-resistant" according to Illamasqua. Once I applied Zoya Maisie on top of Viridian, it lasted really well (3 more days), but that credit goes to Zoya Maisie. Glitterati was very badly chipped on me by the end of day 3.

The set costs £22 from Debenhams (currently £19.80 in the sale - ends tonight!) and interestingly £24 on the Illamasqua website. Single polishes cost £13.50 and as both are full size (15 ml each), this is a good value set. (I can't actually see Glitterati on the website, maybe it's exclusive to the set?) Whether I'd recommend it is another question. If you don't mind that they're not as bright as advertised and aren't chip resistant like Illamasqua claim, then I would. I'm myself a bit disappointed with this set, and since these are my first Illamasqua polishes, not sure this was the best introduction to the brand's nail polishes.

See lots more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Too Faced Shadow Bon Bons Review and Swatches

I have another pretty palette from Too Faced to show you, this time it's the Shadow Bon Bons palette. This one is also a very good value offering. Of course it's not just abut value, it's also the quality that counts. Luckily this is also a great quality palette. Well done Too Faced!

Shadow Bon Bons contains 12 eyeshadows, a trial size Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer and a full size LashGASM mascara. I have to admit, I actually bought this palette for just one of the eyeshadows (and the fact that I got £17 worth of points on my Advantage Card in Boots when I spent £50). I'm happy to say that all the eyeshadows in the palette are actually very nice, with the exception of Nude Beach which has quite bad fallout, although it's a pretty shade. This palette isn't as colourful as the Sweet Indulgences palette, so better for those who prefer neutral looks, but there's still plenty of variety in there. Not just colourwise, but also regarding the finishes, there are matte, metallic and shimmery shades.

Some of the shades in this palette can also be found in the Sweet Indulgences palette (Peach Fuzz and Lovey Dovey) and I'm pretty sure I've come across some of the others before too, but this is such a nice, comprehensive set, and not too bulky to travel with either.

The Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer has a nice golden sheen, so it's great under shimmery shadows. It grabs onto eyeshadows and makes them stay vibrant and creaseless all day long. The LashGASM mascara gives me nice lenght, although not much volume. It has those plastic bristles/spikes I like and the brush is a nice size, not too big at all. The formula is pretty nice too.

All in all, a great set and well worth the £33 price tag. According to Beauty Bay the value of this set is £130. It contains 10.8 g eyeshadows which is £95 value, plus the full size (12 ml) LashGASM mascara £16.50, and the 5 g Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer is an extra £7.50 value, which makes it £119 in my books, but either way, it's great value.

Have you bought anything from Too Faced's holiday collection yet? Or are you waiting for Santa to bring you something nice? Let me know in the comments! Also see if you can guess which one is my favourite shade in this palette? And which one is yours?

See lots more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Bobbi Brown 24 Karat Shimmer Brick Review and Swatches

Aah, I love Bobbi Brown's shimmer bricks, they are just so pretty. So of course I had to buy the newest one, 24 Karat, that was released for the holiday.

As usual, it contains 5 strips of shimmery colour that can be worn as eyeshadows or swirled together as a highlighter. It is quite frosty, but if applied with a brush, it can be sheered out. The result is a soft golden sheen.

I absolutely love the outer packaging, the compact comes in a cardboard box decorated with pearls. So pretty. The compact itself is the regular shiny black with the Bobby Brown emblem. You get 10.3 g for £35.

I have an old post that shows my Bobbi Brown collection, you can see it here. It doesn't include my most recent additions, I might have the time at some point to take an updated pictures.

For now see pictures including swatches of the 24 Karat shimmer brick after the jump!

Stila Positively Pink Powder Blush and Lip Glaze Set

Stila has released this gorgeous set of blush and lip glaze for Breast Cancer Awereness month (October) and as I'm a sucker for pretty powders, of course I couldn't say no. It also helped that this set was an absolute bargain at £12.50.

I'd like to apologise in advance for the lack of swatches, but I didn't want to mess up the powder (yes, I'm weird) and I have so many glosses right now, there's no point in opening another one. I think I will just keep the set nicely boxed up as it is.

A portion of proceeds will be donated to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (although Stila doesn't specify how big that protion is). The powder is 7.9 g and the gloss is 1.5 ml. The set costs £12.50, but the powder is also available on its own for £10.

And here's a £5 off code for you to use on orders of £25 or over at stila.co.uk, just enter StilaKiss at the checkout. It's valid until 30th November 2012. I've already ordered the Sparke Luxe eyeshadow palette, will review it as soon as I can.

See more pictures after the jump!

Mac Guilty Passions Crushed Metallic Pigments Review and Swatches

Sorry it has taken me this long to show you swatches of the Mac holiday crushed metallic pigment sets, but here they are finally. As you know, I bought all 3 of these sets because I absolutely love these pigments, they are just so pretty.

The packaging is adorable, they come in these cute mini sized "hat boxes" with a bow on top. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with mine yet, but they are good for storing little things you might have hanging around, although unfortunately due to the bow on top they can't be stacked, so they may not be that helpful. That aside they are very cute and pretty.

You get 4 pigments in each set and there are 3 sets: Sweetly Smoky, Brilliantly Cool and Tenderly Warm. There are a couple of repromotes, but most shades are new. Of course that doesn't mean they're not dupeable, although the testure of these is quite different, so the colours might look similar, but not the overall effect.

These crushed metallic pigments are all very high sheen, some are more than others. The sets contain a complete look with a highlighter shade, a couple of light/medium shades and a darker shade included in each one. Due to the nature of these pigments they are less finely milled than regular pigments which makes them less easy to blend and more prone to fallout. I have tried 3 of the shades from the Brilliantly Cool set on my eyes and I found the easiest way to apply these is with your finger. Another way is with a dampened brush. I used them over Too Faced Glitter Glue which made the blending even mor diffcult, and sadly there was some creasing too, not sure if it's due to the Glitter Glue or the pigments. Will have to keep experimenting. The set with the most finely milled pigments is definitely Tenderly Warm. I've found Brilliantly Cool the most "rough". Despite all this, I still love them because the colours are so pretty and the effect is so gorgeous.

The Guilty Passions set cost £25.50 each (Debenhams currently has 10% off beauty by the way) and you get 12 g of pigments in each set. That's good value since Mac pigments cost £16.50 for just 4.5 g (although these are not the same products and can't be bought individually).

See lots more pictures including swatches and a look I did with Brilliantly Cool after the jump!

Too Faced Sweet Indulgences Set Review and Swatches

I have always liked Too Faced, especially the special edition pretty palettes, but this year they've really stepped up their game. This is the second palette I've bought from Too Faced recently and this is yet another excellent value, fantastic quality palette.

In this set you get 16 eyeshadows, a full size Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer, 2 bronzers, 2 blushes, a highlighter and a double ended eyeshadow brush/applicator. Too Faced have also thrown in 3 looks cards. The whole lot comes in a double layer tin. The top layer includes the 16 eyeshadows, the bottom layer has everyting else. The top layer is easily removable, can just be lifted out of the tin. It's not portable on its own, but at least you can hold it while applying the eyeshadows, rather than having to hold the whole tin. The bottom layer is also removable, but less easily.

First of all, the eyeshadows are great. Most of them are shimmery or metallic, but there are a few matte/satiny ones. Some of these shades have been included in pretty much every holiday palette Too Faced have done, I recognise a few of the names, but some of them seem new. I can't find this palette on the Too Faced website (I think this might be a Sephora exclusive in the US) and the Beauty Bay website doesn't have much info. Anyway, the eyeshadows included are: In the Buff, Peach Fuzz, Marshmallow, Lovey Dovey, Copper Peony, Teddy Bear, Gum Drop, Malted Milk Ball, Satin Sheets, Nice Stems!, Nice Ash, Cherry Cola, Honeymoon, Pastille, Cop a Teal, Black Sugar. You get 1.6 g of each colour, so that's a total of a whopping 25.6 g of eyeshadow.

I haven't worn them all yet (in fact I've only worn 4), but I have swatched them all (see below) and they all swatched really nicely. The shimmery ones didn't have much fallout (if any) and the matte ones weren't at all powdery. The shades I've worn (Peach Fuzz, Gum Drop, Satin Sheets and Cherry Cola) stayed on my lids all day (with Shadow Insurance underneath, of course) and didn't crease at all. I hade some glitter fallout, I think from Peach Fuzz, but it wasn't too bad and I only noticed it several hours later.

The bronzers are both pretty nice, the exclusive shade is darker, more matte and less pigmented than the Sun Bunny Light Bronzer which is just gorgeous, smooth and pigmented. Another favourite of Too Faced's is La Vie En Rose blush, I'm sure I have it in almost every palette that's come out in the past 2-3 years, but it's a pretty pink slightly shimmery blush, so i don't mind. Papa Don't Peach blush is really nice, more pigmented than La Vie En Rose and has a lovely glow. You also get a small Candlelight Glow highlighter (another palette essential).

The brush/applicator is alright, I have only tried the brush, I'm not usually a fan of applicators. It's okay, but it doesn't add any value to the palette for me. The full size Shadow Insurance primer is great and I'm happy to own another one. The tube I'm currently using is several years old, yet it's still not empty and hasn't changed consistency one bit. I have now fully converted from Urban Decay Primer Potion.

The tin is a nice idea and could be used for storing other things when you used up all the products, but quite frankly, that's never going to happen, is it? There's no mirror in the lid, and the lid itself is a bit flimsical, mine has changed shape a bit, although still closes fine.

The palette costs £42 which might sound a bit much for some, but according to Beauty Bay it has an actual value of £133. Sephora says $381 value (approx. £236). Either way, it's a great deal. The primer costs £16.50 and a single 1.7 g eyeshadow costs £15, so that adds up to a £241.50 value alone. I think even Sephora has underestimated the value!

That's enough of the maths, let's see some swatches I hear you say! Coming up right after the jump together with lots of product pictures!

NOTD: Mac Everything That Glitters

Once again I got lured into buying a Mac nail polish, even though they're not famous for their quality. I bought Everything That Glitters from the Glamour Daze collection because it looked so sparkly and pretty in the bottle, even though I knew it would disappoint me.

Taken without flash in natural daylight

The sparkliness in the bottle didn't seem to translate to the nails, the formula was weirdly thick and it chipped on me within 24 hours. Not just one little chip, but 4! And now, on day 2 it's almost completely peeled off my right thumb. The thick formula at least helped to make it opaque in just two coats and it did dry fairly quickly, so that wasn't too bad, although application wasn't very easy due to the formula. It looked a bit flat without top coat, so I used Seche Vite on top of it and that made it much shinier. Still it didn't look very sparkly despite all the glitter in it. I'm now wishing I'd have bought either Butter London Black Knight or Zoya Storm (I can't compare as I don't own either of them, but they've both had good reviews).

Mac nail polishes cost £11 for 10 ml. Everything That Glitters is (of course) limited edition. For me I think this was the last Mac polish I've purchased. There's too much nicer stuff out there to bother with Mac polishes.

See more pictures after the jump!

FOTD: Mac Glamour Daze Plus My New Hair Colour

Here's the look I did with some of my Mac Glamour Gaze goodies. I think it looked really lovely. I also wanted to show you my new hair colour, well, it's not so new as it's the second time I've coloured it this colour, but I also decided to add some colourful extensions. I've had a lot of compliments and I really like them myself, so I thought I'd share.

Anyway, back to the look. To create it, I used the following products:

Eyes:
Too Faced Insurance Policy
Mac Ready to Party Extra Dimension eyeshadow in the inner corner of the lid
Mac Divine Blue Extra Dimension eyeshadow in the middle of the lid
Mac Stylishly Merry Extra Dimension eyeshadow in the outer corner of the lid and the crease
Mac A Natural Flirt Extra Dimension eyeshadow on the browbone to highlight
Mac Feminine Edge fluidline on top lashline
Urban Decay Zero 24/7 eyeliner on lower lashline
Cargo Lash Activator Mascara in Black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation in 02 Beige Claire
Guerlain Voilettes Invisible Skin Fusion Loose Powder in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac Gentle Mineralize Blush
Mac Whisper of Gilt Extra Dimension Skinfinish

Lips:

Mac Full Fuchsia Lipstick

See more pictures after the jump!

Mac Glamour Daze Extra Dimension Eyeshadows and Fluidlines - Review and Swatches

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post this review, but it's been pretty hectic in my house. So to speed things up I've decided to review the eyeshadows and fluidlines together.

As you can see, I bought 5 of the Extra Dimension eyeshadows and all 3 fluidlines from the collection. I decided to skip the silver, black and burgundy ones because I felt that I either have similar colours or won't wear them anyway. The fluidlines were just too sparkly to leave behind.

The eyeshadows I got are A Natural Flirt, Ready To Party, Stolen Moment, Divine Blue, Stylishly Merry. They are all pretty pastely colours except for Stolen Moment which is a gorgeous taupe. First of all, let me just say, these eyeshadows are absolutely tiny. The eyeshadows originally released in the In Extra Dimension collection were 2 g whereas these are 1.3 g, but the price remained the same (£16.50). Not cool, Mac. They are still bigger and cheaper than the Estee Lauder Gelee Powder eyeshadows which are only 0.9 g for £19.00, so I guess that's something. It's not that you necessarily need 2 g of eyeshadows, but if you reduce the quantity, then reduce the price as well!

Anyway, now that's out of the way, these are actually rather lovely and if you haven't tried the liquid powder hybrid formula, then they're worth checking out. These ones didn't feel as soft as the Estee Lauder ones to me, but I didn't actually re-test the EL ones, so my memory could be tricking me. They're not cream eyeshadows, but they are very smooth and buttery, and even the lighter colours are pretty well pigmented. I wore them over primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance) and they lasted well all day without fading or creasing. I wore Stylishly Merry in the crease by the way.

I also got all 3 fluidlines: Catch My Eye, Little Black Bow, Feminine Edge. They are all very sparkly, in particular Catch My Eye and Feminine Edge. Little Black Bow is the least unique, it's a dark grey with sparkles, pretty, but not that special. Catch My Eye is a gorgeous sparkly taupe and Feminine Edge is a very shiny, sparkly cool pink.

I've only worn Feminine Edge so far, it was a quite hard to spread smoothly and the line ended up broken with chunky glittery bits rather than a smooth line. I think that shade in particular would work better as cream eyeshadow/base. It stayed on my lids and didn't fade or crease as a liner, but I haven't tried it as cream eyeshadow yet. (EDIT: I've been wearing Catch My Eye as a cream eyeshadow today (Sunday) and it's stayed creaseless and hasn't had any fallout all day.) You get 3 g of fluidline for £15.50 which is definitely a better deal.

So here you go. I will aim to do a post about the look I did with most of the eyeshadows and Feminine Edge fluidline tomorrow and will also review the nail polish you can see in the pictures soon.

In the meantime, see loads more pictures after the jump!

Fantastic Lancome Deals At Debenhams!

I was going to blog about the Mac Glamour Daze eyeshadows today, but then I got so excited about the fantastic deal I came across in Debenhams, I just had to share (sorry, Mac swatches coming soon!). I don't know how long these offers last, so I thought I'd let you know quickly, in case you want to take advantage of them.

Today I bought two of the Lancome holiday collection eyeshadows and one of the khol pencils (I will do a proper review on those later) and as a result was given a really nice gift with purchase including a gorgeous make up bag, several skincare samples, a tiny lipstick, a sample size mascara, two make up brushes (which I forgot to photograph, sorry) and because I bought the third product, a full size Bi-Facil make up remover. I won't go into all the details here, but you can see the offer by clicking on this link. According to Debenhams the gift with purchase is worth over £58, although I'm not entirely sure if it includes the extra Bi-Facil, but it doesn't include the make up bag and brushes apparently. A full-size Bi-Facil alone costs £21.

I also purchased the Christmas Beauty Box for £45 (you can only buy this if you buy 2 or more Lancome products, and luckily you still get the gift with purchase, they don't exclude each other) which actually has a value of £165! The eyeshadow palette and blush alone add up to at least £45 and there's also a full size Bi-Facil in here as well as Genifique and Visionnaire samples, 2 tiny lipsticks (one is the same as in the gift with purchase), 2 sample size mascaras, an eye khol, a sample size cream, a sample size cream cleanser and toner, as well as a gorgeous big sparkly gold make up case.

The Christmas Beauty Box is actually a fantastic deal as it costs £75 on the Lancome website, although you can purchase it without buying other products, but to be fair, if you're going to buy something from the holiday collection (and there's plenty to buy from that as it's gorgeous!) or even some staples, you might as well buy it from Debenhams and get it for £30 less!

See lots more pictures after the jump!

Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr Gel-Cream Eyeshadow in 65 Pink Gold

I've been meaning to review this eyeshadow for ages, but only just got around to taking pictures, swatching it and wearing it. I hate not having time for my hobby.

Anyway, the good news is, the review is a positive one. I really like this eyeshadow, it performs very well. I wore it today for a run, had shower and washed my hair and it was still there on my eyelids, not creasing at all, although the edges did fade a tiny bit (which is fair enough). I tried it out with and without primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance) and it performed very well both ways. In fact it's still looking good 12 hours later.

I find the name Pink Gold a bit misleading, because it's not gold in the slightest, it's more of a muted rosy pink. Actually I wasn't sure if I needed this colour because I thought I'd already owned cream eyeshadows that were very similar. I was kind of right, it is pretty close to Mac Fresco Rose paint pot (discontinued), although Pink Gold has more of a sheen/shine. It is definitely more metallic and possibly a bit lighter. I also compared it to Rimmel Colour Mousse in 06 Get Fresh which is a lot more metallic and a bit lighter. I may have other cream shadows Pink Gold close to, but these were the ones that came to mind. Incidentally it's nothing like Mac Feminine Edge fluidline which is so frosty and sparkly, it cannot possibly compare to this.

So while I didn't exactly need this eyeshadow, it's a nice one to have. I like cream eyeshadows, I use them on days when I have little time to do my make up as a quick sweep on the lids is enough. Pink Gold actually needed a bit of building up, but it didn't take long and it didn't cake, was still very smooth to blend. It did dry down very quickly and when I swatched it on my arm, I needed make up remover to get it off, simply rubbing it didn't make it budge. (Or having a shower for that matter.)

Maybelline Color Tattoo eyeshadows cost £4.99 and you get 4 g (although it doesn't actually say on the packaging, but I have one of the US colours and that one says 4 g, so I'm assuming this is the same). There's currently a buy 1 get 1 half price offer on make up in Boots. It's a great price (considering that Mac paint pots for example cost £14.50 and you only get 1 g more), and finally there are 8 shades available in the UK (still not enough though if you ask me).

Have you tried these eyeshadows yet? Let me know what you think in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

My Mac Holiday 2012 Collection(s) Haul

Just a quick post to show you all the goodies I bought from the Mac holiday collections: Glamour Daze and all the other collections with the sets, I've lost count of how many there are actually. I won't have any swatches or reviews today because although I've spend most of my afternoon taking pictures and swatching products, I haven't got around to cropping most of the photos, let alone actually trying on the products.

But for now, here are a few pictures to drool over. I especially love the packaging for the sets, they are so cute. Not sure what I will be using them for yet, but definitely wouldn't want to throw them out, they are too cute. I do remember throwing out last year's massive hanging Christmas decoration globes, but they were nowhere this pretty.

As you can see, I've bought all 3 crushed pigment sets, the coral lipgloss set and the pink brush set. 

From Glamour Daze I bought 5 Extra Dimension eyeshadows, all 3 fluidlines and Everything That Glitters nail polish.

Have you purchased anything from the Mac holiday collections yet? Let me know in the comments.

See more pictures after the jump!

FOTD: Clothes and Jewellery Inspired Look With Urban Decay Book Of Shadows

I have pretty much run out of things to blog about other than a few random nail polish posts, due to the fact that it's been half-term school holiday and I haven't been able to take any pictures and do swatches. But fear not, my children are back in school and my husband is back at work tomorrow, so I will spend the day taking pictures, swatching products and there will be many new product reviews to come (because I have been buying things nevertheless!).

But for now, here's a look I did a month or so ago. This was actually inspired by the colours on my top and the necklace I was wearing that day. Do you do looks inspired by clothing/accessories?

To create this look I used the following:

Eyes:
Too Faced Insurance Policy
Urban Decay Shattered eyeshadow in the inner corner of the lid
Urban Decay Scandal eyeshadow in the middle of the lid
Urban Decay Last Call eyeshadow in the outer corner of the lid and the crease
Urban Decay Virgin eyeshadow on the browbone to highlight
Urban Decay Electric and Rockstar 24/7 eyeliners on lower lashline
Cargo Lash Activator Mascara in Black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Boots No 7 Beautiful Skin BB Cream
Guerlain Voilettes Invisible Skin Fusion Loose Powder in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac Pet Me Mineralize Blush

Lips:
Guerlain 166 Shalimar Rouge Automatique Lipstick

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: A-England Lady Of The Lake

Today I have Lady Of The Lake from A-England to show you, a dark greyish purple polish with subtle holo. This is the second shade I've tried out, if you want to see Princess Tears in action, click here.

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

I did 2 coats with Seche Vite on top, then the following day I added an extra coat on top to see if it made any difference with the holo (top coats sometimes dim the holo effect), but I couldn't see a difference. The holographic effect is quite subtle, not as linear as Layla or Glitter Gal polishes, but it's still pretty.

The formula was nice and it lasted on me for 2 days with minimal chipping (I wore it for 3 days). That's average for me.

A-England polishes cost £9 each and you get 13 ml. Available to order from the A-England website.

See more pictures after the jump!

Tom Ford Eye Color Quad 02 Emerald Lust Swatches and Review

I have to admit, a few years ago I hadn't even heard of Tom Ford. It's only because of beauty blogs that I came across his name and make up brand. Up until a couple of weeks ago I didn't even own any make up from Tom Ford, only two fragrances. You see, they are ridiculously expensive for starters.

But then I saw this palette and decided I really really wanted it. Soft as butter eyeshadows, gorgeous colours, turquoise is one of my favourites, so what's not to like? Erm, it costs £62. Gulp. I thought about getting it in Harrods on their 10% off day, but still, £56. As luck would have it though, I saw it on eBay and after missing out on one auction I managed to get this for £36. Score!

Is it worth £62? I honestly couldn't say that it is. The eyeshadows are lovely, very soft and buttery, they last pretty well and the colours are gorgeous. But they are not in any way unique and while the quality of the shadows is great, I'm sure I have some Accessorize eyeshadows that are very similar and cost something like £6. Obviously you are paying for the brand as much as anything, and it does look and feel very luxurious, but I cannot recommend, hand on heart, that you absolutely must go and buy this for £62. It was a good buy for £36 though and I'm happy I got it.You get 6 g for your money which is okay, but not that much (eg. Guerlain quads are 7.2 g and cost £37).

Do you own and Tom Ford products? Anything you would recommend? Would you spend £62 on a palette? Let me know what you think in the comments!

See more pictures including swatches and a look I created with this palette after the jump!

Stila Seeing Stars Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner Set

First of all, apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of days, but I've been very busy with my children. On Wednesday we spent the day preparing for Halloween, carved 4 pumpkins, decorated the house and I even did my first ever face painting. Today's been more about shopping, food as well as make up, I went to the Boots Points Event and to the Mac counter to pick up some of the new products from the holiday collection. Incidentally, I'm really behind with taking pictures and swatching, so there may be a small gap in posting, but normal service should resume come Tuesday.

Anyway, I'm pretty tired now, so this is going to be a very quick look at one of Stila's holiday offerings. What we have here is a set of 5 full size Smudge Sticks.

I just love great value sets and this is definitely one of those. You get £65 worth of eyeliners for £25. What's not to like? Smudge Sticks are very good eyeliners,they are waterproof and smudge-proof, they last for hours even on my waterline.

In this set you get Stargazer (black with gold and silver pearl), Angelfish (metallic pewter), Tetra (deep shimmery purple), Moray (golden olive shimmer) and Oscar Fish (warm brown with gold pearl). I believe that out of the 4 only Oscar Fish is limited edition, I only owned Tetra and Moray, so even that way it was worth buying as individually they cost £13 each. I can only see Moray listed on the Stila website, my Tetra came with one of the palettes, so I don't actually know if you can buy Stargazer or Angekfish separately. Maybe in the US?

My only criticism of Smudge Sticks is that you get very little for your money. While Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners contain 1.2 g, these Stila ones only contain 0.28 g each! However, these come in a plastic pencil and instead of sharpening them, you just twist them up as and when you need to. So I gues you save quite a bit that you would lose with sharpening, but I still think these could contain more product.

Other than that, Stila Smudge Sticks are great eyeliners and this set is certainly worth getting if you like them and don't already own many of the shades.

See more pictures after the jump!