ArtDeco Dita Von Teese Illuminating Baked Powder Review and Swatches

I wasn't going to get this, I swear. I have plenty enough highlighters, I did not need another one. I certainly wasn't going to get this for £30. But then I saw it, swatched it, realised I had £15 on my Debenhams Beauty Reward Card and there was a 10% off event, and somehow this little beauty came home with me.

I have to admit, I don't know much about Dita Von Teese, other than that she always looks glamorous and gorgeous. I also didn't own many Art Deco products (until now), in fact I think I only had 2 or 3 eyeshadow palettes I've never used (they were too pretty). Until recently this brand wasn't easy to come by in the UK, but since Debenhams and BeautyBay started stocking it, I've been paying a lot more attention.

Hopefully you have seen my review of the Glam Deluxe Collection (if not, click here to read it), and there's even more gorgeousness to come, but for now, check out this beautiful highlighter. This is what Mac Lightscapade MSF should've looked like when it was re-released last year (?). The powder is a blend of beige, pink, blue, orange, yellow and mixed together you get a very fine slightly shimmery pastel highlighter. The effect is very similar to Lightscapade, but the powder is even prettier to look at. It also comes in a shiny black compact with a mirror in the lid, something Mac MSFs lack.

The powder is so soft and finely milled, but not powdery, it melts into your skin like butter. You get a whopping 15 g which should last a few lifetimes for £30, although currently you get 10% off at Debenhams. I believe this is a limited edition product, but unlike Mac MSFs, ArtDece seemed to have made plenty as it has been around for a few weeks now and is still in stock. It's really lovely and actually it's not that expensive considering its size, so pick it up while you can!

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Laura Geller Baked Blush in Bali Review and Swatches

As you might know, I'm a big fan of Laura Geller blushes and have a rather extensive collection of them. I often pick up the new shades from eBay as a lot of them are either not available in the UK or only available as sets, plus eBay is usually cheaper. I picked up this baked blush in Bali on eBay too, and while I expected it to be pretty nice, I was very pleasantly surprised by just how nice it is.

Bali is described as a "warm toasted apricot", I'd say it's a warm peachy-pink colour with just the tiniest hint of gold shimmer. It's very pigmented, so you need to be a bit careful, but it does give a very nice glow to your cheeks with a pop of colour. The texture is wonderfully soft, but not powdery, and it blends nicely. It also stays put very well.

You get 6.5 g which is a very generous amount for a blush. I don't know how much this costs in the UK or if it's even available, I've found some "mono blushes" on QVC for £17.75 (plus £2.95 postage), although neither of them seems to be this shade. I paid around £14 (shipped) on eBay.

I would definitely recommend this shade, this blush has really exceeded my expectations, even by Laura Geller's standards.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Laura Mercier Illuminating Eye Colour Review and Swatches

As part of their Art Deco Muse collection Laura Mercier came out with 4 new, limited edition eyeshadows for the holiday. The collection was inspired by the decorative architecture, style and mood of the Art Deco perios in Paris in the mid-1920’s.

These eyeshadows have "a multi-dimensional, luminous pearl finish with a soft, bouncy texture for excellent colour pay-off and a smooth, even application" according to the official description. I'm not sure about the soft and bouncy bit, but these eyeshadows are certainly very smooth, buttery, and indeed give a gorgeous luminous finish. They remind me of the Mac Extra Dimension eyeshadows, only better. Extremely smooth, pigmented, they apply and blend really well and look gorgeous on, they also last for hours on end without creasing and fading. They have a high sheen, but they're not glittery and there was no fallout from them either. While they're not cream shadows, they certainly feel creamy. They really are lovely, and will most probably be my choice for a Christmas party make up.

They come in 4 shades: Gilded Rosegold, Gilded Platinum, Gilded Bronze and Gilded Moonlight. Gilded Rosegold is a warm, coppery pink shade, Gilded Platinum is a shiny white gold, Gilded Bronze is a taupey bronze colour and Gilded Moonlight is a yellow gold shade. I've worn them all and they all have the same wonderful texture and colour pay off. I have to say I am now very happy I passed on the Dior holiday quints because these are possibly the nicest gold/bronze eyeshadows I bought this year - probably similar to the Guerlain Calligraphy palette if not nicer.

The eyeshadows cost £20 each and you get 2.5 g which isn't too bad. For the quality, I think these are well worth their price, honestly, they are really really fantastic.

See more pictures including swatches and looks I've created with them after the jump!

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick Cherry Blossom Review and Swatches

The other day I showed you the gorgeous pink glitter nail polish you can get for free (from Superdrug) if you buy 3 other Revlon products, so let me now show you one of them. I bought this gorgeous Super Lustrous lipstick in the shade Cherry Blossom.

I have said before, I absolutely love Revlon Super Lustrous lipsticks, especially the cream finish ones, but having said that, Cherry Blossom is a pearl finish and it's also very nice. Creamy, well pigmented, non drying and long lasting, Revlon Super Lustrous lipsticks have to be my favourite drugstore/high street brand lipsticks. Nowadays I actually very rarely buy non high end lipsticks (and not just because the no-buy I'm supposed to be on - oops), but if I buy some, they'll most probably be from Revlon. I also love it that these lipsticks are unscented. While I don't generally mind scented lip products, I hate that sickly sweet fake smell drugstore lipsticks often smell of, Maybelline being the worst offender for me.

So was this lipstick worth falling off the (no-buy) wagon for? Yes and no. Quality-wise I really cannot fault it, it's lovely, really great, beautiful shade, lasts for hours while feeling very comfortable on the lips. My only problem is that this is not actually a unique shade. By that I don't mean it's similar to 20 lipsticks in my collection, I mean that it's almost exactly the same as Revlon's own Cherries In The Snow (you can see my review here). I swatched them side by side and there's hardly any difference. So truthfully I didn't actually need it. The other weird thing is, there's apparently another shade of Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in Cherry Blossom available which is a pale pink colour. If you google it, you get two very different shades. I wonder whether the light shade is an old, discontinued shade, but what a weird way of recycling a name, especially when the colour is actually very different.

Anyway, this is a lovely lipstick in a gorgeous shade, so would definitely recommend it if you don't already own Cherries In The Snow. Revlon Super Lustrous lipsticks cost £7.49 and you get a generous 4.2 g. There's currently a 3 for 2 offer on all Revlon make up and you can get this gorgeous nail polish for free if you buy 3 or more Revlon products from Superdrug.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

ArtDeco Glam Deluxe Collection Review and Swatches

Once again apologies for the erratic posting, but I've spent the last couple of days Christmas shopping and rushing around. I'm slowly getting there, but to be honest, it'll take a few more days for me to catch up.

Anyway, let's get on with this. I have 6 eyeshadows and a blush from ArtDeco's Glam Deluxe collection to show you. The eyeshadows are another variation on the cream/powder formula, like Mac Extra Dimension eyeshadows and Estee Lauder gelee powder eyeshadows. The blush isn't the same formula, it's a powder blush, but it comes with a similarly pretty design.

Overall, the eyeshadows aren't as pigmented as I expected (except for Glam Bronzed Fabric and Glam Blissful Taupe), they are quite sheer. The formula is similar to the Mac and Estee Lauder eyeshadows, it feels quite creamy, but it's definitely powder. The blush I was a bit disappointed in as I thought it was the same formula as the Mac Extra Dimension Skinfinishes, but it's just a regular powder blush. It's actually a bit too powdery for my liking, although it is a nice, natural colour with just a hint of shimmer.

As I said above, other than the bronze and taupe eyeshadows the others are a bit sheer and rather similar as you'll see in the swatches below. The white shade has a slight shimmer to it, the others are mostly just metallic. The formula's good, they didn't crease or fade on me for 12+ hours (I wore them over primer).

The eyeshadows cost £16.50 each and you get 2.5 g. The blush is £21.50 for 10 g. I'm not completely bowled over by them, but the bronze and taupe eyeshadows are definitely worth having. Available from Debenhams and Beauty Bay. Debenhams currently have a 15% off offer going (until Sunday).

See lots more pictures, including swatches and a couple of looks I did with the products, 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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

My Guerlain Holiday 2012 Collection Haul Part 6 - Ecrin 4 Couleurs 500 Les Ombres Turandot

The last product I bought from the Guerlain holiday collection is the 4 colour eyeshadow palette #500 Turandot. The biggest reason for leaving this last is that it wasn't available when I tried to buy it at Harrods and I kept waiting for Debenhams to have it for ages, until I got bored and ordered it from Escentual. It was a good decision as I saved 10% as well.

Anyway, this year's limited edition eyeshadow quad has no special pattern or packaging which is a bit of a let down in my opinion, but I know that shouldn't be the reason why we buy make up. And it isn't, it just makes it even more desirable. Turandot has 4 rather warm shades, a shimmery warm gold, a satin orangey rosy pink, a matte plum and a metallic dark brown-taupe (a very hard to describe colour). All housed in the usual gold compact, which comes in a black velvet pouch with red trim and the usual black outer box (which also has red on the inside, like with the other palette and the powders in this collection).

The eyeshadows are nicely pigmented and easy to work with, they're soft and smooth. They stayed on my eyes without creasing and fading for 10+ hours. I admit they're all rather warm and might not be very easy to pull off for some skintones. The colours remind me of the Tsarina quad from 2009(?) which is also a very warm quad. It's actually quite funny as the Tsarina quad was part of the fall/autumn collection and Turandot also feels very autumnal, rather than Christmassy.

As I mentioned, I bought my quad from Escentual for 10% less than the usual retail price of £37 which I was very pleased about. You get 7.2 g of eyeshadows which is almost twice the size of the Mac holiday eyeshadow palettes for only £5 more. Just saying...

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

My Guerlain Holiday 2012 Collection Haul Part 5 - Eye and Lip Calligraphy Palette

I was going to do this review last night, but by the time I fixed up my new monitor (courtesy of a friend) and put children to bed, it was late and I was too tired. But now I have a nice new monitor, so I can get on with editing and typing at the desktop computer. I don't know why, I don't like using laptops. Maybe it's my age, haha!

Anyway, Guerlain's Eye and Lip Calligraphy Palette is a limited edition product for the holiday. It contains 2 lipsticks, 3 eyeshadows and a powder eyeliner (which you could also use as eyesahdow of course). I know some people aren't keen on having eye and lip products in the same palette and I'm not always myself, especially if the eyeshadows are very powdery as they end up in the lipstick, but this one works surprisingly well.

The eyeshadows in this palette are not at all powdery. They are soft and smooth, easy to pick up with your brush, but they aren't powdery. The lipsticks are also not very soft and sticky, so the combination of the two means that the products don't mix.

The eyeshadows were the main reason why I bought this palette (and the fact that I could pick it up on eBay for much cheaper than its retail price, you know me!), they are all so pretty. You get a very light golden beige highlighter, a copper shade, a gorgeous silvery taupe and a matte black powder eyeliner. This you can use wet as well for a more dramatic look. I have only tried it dry so far, but it works well dry too, although it's a bit on the sheer side that way. The rest of the eyeshadows are soft, buttery and nicely pigmented. The copper shade is especially amazing! The silvery taupe shade looks pretty unique to me, don't think I own anything else that colour. The highlighter is pretty, although not that unique.

The lipsticks included in this palette are a bright, dark pink and a brick red shade. I initially thought the red was very similar to Gardner Rouge G, but it's not that brown, it's mor of a cross between Gardner and Garconne. The pink shade is darker than Girly Rouge G, it actually reminds me of Mac Moxie lipstick. I did comparison swatches to the 3 Rouge G shades mentioned above. The lipsticks are not as soft and smooth as the Rouge G lipsticks and they're not very long lasting either, I only got 2 hours wear out of them, whereas Rouge G lipsticks last for 3-4 hours or even longer on me. The colours are lovely though and go really well with the eyeshadows.

I did two looks using the palette, you can see them at the bottom of this post. I apologise for the lack of close up lip swatch photos, but I have managed to develope a lovely (not!) cold sore, so I didn't want to scare you.

All in all, this is a lovely palette. I wouldn't say it's a must have, especially when you look at its retail price. It costs £54, although you do get 10.2 g of product for your money (5.6 g eyeshadows and 4.6 g lipsticks) which is a good amount. If it was cheaper, I would thoroughly recommend it, the quality is excellent.

See more pictures including swatches and the looks I did with this palette after the jump!

Chantecaille Cheek Shade Elephant in Fun - Review and Swatches

Here's the blush that belongs with the Chantecaille Elephant Palette. Such a pretty delicate little thing isn't it? Almost too pretty to use. Or in my case, way too pretty to use. But fear not, I still have swatches!

I bought this beauty a little while ago from Harrods on their 10% off day, but I also managed to pick up a slightly used one on eBay for a little bit less (half price), so I have used that to show you swatches and a look I've created with it. (Crazy? Me?)

The actual shade of the blush is Fun which I thought was a permanent Chantecaille blush shade, but I can't find it on their website so maybe I was wrong. It's a very subtle soft apricot colour with slight shimmer that is very hard to overdo. It takes a few layers to show up properly on my cheeks and the swatches I did on my arm show a couple of layers. The texture is very soft, but not powdery, it feels very luxurious. The blush comes in a silver compact with a mirror inside the lid.

I'm not bowled over by the actual shade, it is pretty, but it's a bit too subtle for my liking. The blush itself is so pretty though, the raised elephant pattern is adorable and looks gorgeous with the overspray on top (which completely comes off with a couple of uses).

The blush costs £30 and you get 3.8 g for your money. You are paying £7 for the elephant as the other (permanent) cheek shades cost £23. Ouch!

I wouldn't say this was a must have product, but it is very pretty and Chantecaille collectors will definitely appreciate it. In the UK Chantecaille is available from Space NK, Harrods, selected Harvey Nichols, John Lewis, Fenwick stores. I usually buy mine from eBay.  

See more pictures after the jump!

Too Faced Return Of Sexy Palette Review and Swatches

I've been meaning to show you this palette for a while, but never got around to it, which is a shame because this is possibly the nicest palette I've bought this year. When I first saw it and swatched it in Boots, I fell in love with it. You will see in a minute why.

The palette contains 15 eyeshadows divided into 3 sections to create looks suitable for day and night. You have neutrals, purples, greys and blacks for smoky eyes, so you can create work friendly looks as well as looks for a night out. It's like Urban Decay's Naked Palette, just better. Seriously. I like the Naked Palette, but this has so much more to offer. I could use this every day for two weeks and still be creating different looks with it and not get bored because it's not just neutrals.

The eyeshadows are buttery soft and smooth, and even those with glitter don't have fallout. Most of the eyeshadows are shimmery or metallic, but you can still create a subtle look with them, and of course you can go crazy. All of them are very nicely pigmented, don't fade or crease for hours on end (I wore them for 12+ hours). They can be used wet or dry.

You get 3 looks cards with the palette with look ideas for day and night that can be created using each section of the palette: The Ingénue (chic neutrals), The Icon (girly pinks and plums) and The Bombshell (classic smokey greys). Of course you don't have to follow them, but for someone who is a bit inexperienced in applying make up they can be very helpful.

You also get a trial size (5 g) Shadow Insurance Eyeshadow Primer and a full size Perfect Eyes Waterproof Eyeliner in Perfect Black, as well as 15 g of eyeshadows, so it's a great value palette. It costs £38.50. It's a little hard to work out its actual value because Too Faced doesn't do many single eye shadows, and these shades are not available separately, but based on the value of their Exotic Color Intense Eyeshadows that cost £15.00 per 1.7 g, that would make just the eyeshadows worth over £132. The eyeliner costs £14.50 and the primer is £7.50 for that size.

So as you can see, this is a great value palette, with great eyeshadows, a brilliant eyeliner and my favourite eyeshadow primer of all time. The eyeliner pencil is a great product, very pigmented and longlasting. My only complaint about the palette that it feels a little too bulky and heavy for my liking, but aestethically it's actually very nicely done.

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

Guerlain Holiday 2012 Collection Haul Part 2 - Meteorites Perles du Dragon

Part 2 of my Guerlain Holiday 2012 Collection haul is featuring one of the most iconic Guerlain products, the Meteorites Perles. This year's limited edition is called Perles du Dragon and it contains 6 different shades: pale pink, beige, white, gold, plum and rosewood.

There are quite a lot of white pearls in the mix, but mine isn't too bad, it also has a good amount of the other pearls. At first the colours reminded me of  Perles d'Or from 2010, but that mix seems quite a bit darker actually. The pearls come in a shiny black tin with removable lid and a black sponge on top to keep the pearls secure. (I'd recommend applying them with a brush, not the sponge though.) The lid has the gold signature Guerlain flower detail. The outer box is the usual black with red inside. Very pretty.

The overall effect is a shimmery light beige powder. I didn't swatch it because it hardly shows up on my skin, but you will see me wearing it in a picture at the bottom of this post and you can see it's quite shimmery. I can see a couple of big glitters on my face, but I'm not entirely sure they're from the powder as on my eyes I was wearing Urban Decay's Kiddie Pool eyeshadow which has got big glitter particles. The overall effect however is quite shimmery, so this wouldn't be suitable for those with oily skin. Having said that, today I'm wearing it on top of the new Parure de Lumiere foundation and Voilettes loose powder and it's not too shimmery. So maybe the key is to mattify first.

Guerlain Meteorites perles cost £37.50 for 30 g (that's another 50p rise since the summer) and Perles du Dragon is a limited edition shade. I bought mine from Harrods, but it's also available from John Lewis, House of Fraser, Selfridges and hopefully Debenhams soon.

See more pictures after the jump and if you'd like to check out my large Meteorites collection, please click here!

Looks Featuring Urban Decay's Vice Palette and Ocho Loco 24/7 Eye Pencil Set - Part 2

Here's another look I did with my new Urban Decay Vice Palette and Ocho Loco 24/7 Eye Pencil Set. This time I used some of the neutral eyeshadows, which are actually really really nice. Again I felt this would've looked nicer with a more shimmery highlighter, but I wated to stick to the palette.

To create this look I used the following:

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion in Greed
Urban Decay Vice Palette Echo Beach eyeshadow in inner corner and above crease
Urban Decay Vice Palette Nevermind eyeshadow in outer corner
Urban Decay Vice Palette Muse eyeshadow in crease
Urban Decay Vice Palette Anonymus eyeshadow on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 Eye Pencil Hustle on lower lashline and waterline
Cargo Lash Activator mascara (aren't my lashes looking great by the way?)
Mac Show Off Brow Set

Face:
Ginvera Green Tea Nude Cover BB Cream
Guerlain Voilettes Invisible Skin Fusion Loose Powder in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac Dollymix powder blush
Mac Perfect Topping mineralize skinfinish

Lips:
Nars 413 BLKR Velvet Matte Lip Pencil 
Urban Decay Stardust Sparkling lipgloss in Glitter Rock

See more pictures after the jump!

Looks Featuring Urban Decay's Vice Palette and Ocho Loco 24/7 Eye Pencil Set - Part 1

For the past week or so I've been playing with my new Urban Decay Vice Palette and Ocho Loco 24/7 Eye Pencil Set and this is one of the looks I did. I was quite happy with this, although I think it would've looked better with a shimmery highlighter, but since there isn't one included in the Vice Palette, I decided to just stick with what was available.

To create this look I used the following:

Eyes:
Too Faced Insurance Policy
Urban Decay Vice Palette Provocateur eyeshadow in inner corner
Urban Decay Vice Palette Rapture eyeshadow in outer corner
Urban Decay Vice Palette Vice eyeshadow in crease
Urban Decay Vice Palette Freebird eyeshadow above crease
Urban Decay Vice Palette Anonymus eyeshadow on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 Eye Pencil Psychedelic Sister on lower lashline and waterline
Cargo Lash Activator mascara
Mac Show Off Brow Set

Face:
Ginvera Green Tea Nude Cover BB Cream
Guerlain Voilettes Invisible Skin Fusion Loose Powder in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac Conjure Up mineralize blush
Mac Pleasureflush mineralize skinfinish

Lips:
Nars 413 BLKR Velvet Matte Lip Pencil

See more pictures after the jump!

Nars 413 BLKR Velvet Matte Lip Pencil

I bought this Velvet Matte Lip Pencil from Nars's recent collection 413 BLKR (released in celebration of Fashion's Night Out). The lip pencil is a blue fuschia colour, it looks pretty bright, but it's actually very wearable.

It's matte, but unlike a lot of other mattes, it's a lovely formula, not drying at all. It's not as long lasting as I thought, probably got through around 3 hours without eating and drinking, but it did disappear more quickly if I ate. I like the jumbo pencil, it's so easy to use, just outline your lips and fill in. All in all, I like this a lot.

You get 2.4 g which is quite a bit less than usual lipsticks size (3-3.5 g) and it costs £17.50. So it's not cheap, especially considering how much you get, but it's a lovely shade and nice formula, so if you don't mind the price, it's well worth checking out. I believe it is exclusive to Nars, so might not be available at counters, however, the Nars website offers free delivery every so often, so it's worth signing up to their mailing list if you're interested.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!