Scent Of The Month / Stash Highlight: Yves Saint Laurent Paris Eau de Printemps

This is a slightly different Scent Of The Month post as I'm going to show you more than one perfume. Yves Saint Laurent Paris was my first proper grown-up perfume, I always wanted one and my then boyfriend got it for me for Christmas when I was 18. So for over half of my life now I have loved and regularly used it. Every year YSL also release a limited edition springtime, lighter version of Paris. The original scent isn't exactly heavy, but the springtime one is even more suitable for warmer months.

As I am utterly rubbish at describing scents, I've copied the description of the original Paris EDP/EDT from the YSL website: "At the heart of this tribute to the city of love, the delicate rose reveals a profound and enchanting personality. Fresh and subtle, the top notes of Violet, Bergamot and Orange blossom flirt with tenderness and happiness. The intense floral middle note reveals all the splendour of Rosa Centifolia and Iris, warmed by woody and sensual base notes of Sandalwood, Amber and Vanilla."

As you can see, I have 7 different bottles of Paris Eau de Printemps, including the newest 30-year-anniversary one (second from top left corner of the picture above) called Premieres Roses (the name has been used in several years, but the bottles/boxes all have different designs, although I can't be certain whether the fragrances are the same as well).

They are actually really affordable at £30 and you get a massive 125 ml for your money, which means that it's not possible to use up during one season. That is why I still have so many unused ones, but I can't not buy them because they are just so lovely.

Do you have an all time favourite fragrance? Please share in the comments!

See another picture after the jump!

NOTD: Color Club Hot Couture over Oh My Gosh Electric Pink

Today's manicure is a lovely springtime one (although I actually did it back in November), it's very appropriate for Easter, even though the weather in the UK resembles more Christmas than anything else. It was 2.8 degrees at 9 am this morning. Brr!

I used Oh My GOSH Electric Pink polish as a base and then applied Color Club Hot Couture glitter top coat on top. The result: bright pink sparkly nails! Lovely.

Both polishes has a good formula, not too thick, not too runny. Hot Couture has a very good glitter coverage, you don't need to fish around for glitter. I only had a couple of tiny chips after the first day, but after 2 days I had loads of chipping and peeling. Still, it was very pretty while it lasted.

I bought Hot Couture as part of a set from TKMaxx and Electric Pink from Superdrug.

See more pictures after the jump!

Lime Crime Aquataenia Fantasy Palette Review and Swatches

I'd been lemming this palette for ages, and once when I was placing an order for a Z palette from Love Make Up I decided to get it. You see it was free delivery for orders over £50, and I ended up with this in my basket. As you do. I didn't own anything from Lime Crime before, but the reviews I'd read were positive, so I thought why not.

I'm happy I got it though as it's a lovely little palette. It contains 5 eyeshadows in gorgeous bright colours. The palette just screams spring to me. The colours included are Nautilus Prime (bright blue), Coral Of The Story (bright coral-orange), Seahorse Discourse (bright lime green), Pearl-ple (pearly lavender) and Atlanteal (bright teal). The eyeshadows are housed in a tin palette which doesn't include a mirror (I prefer palettes with mirrors).

So far I have only used Nautilus Prime and Pearl-ple, but I have swatched all the colours and they all seemed very smooth, nicely pigmented and not too powdery. I applied them on top of Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer as I always do, and my eye make up looked good and lasted pretty well, although I did see some fading after about 8 hours. I didn't experience any fallout and the colours were easy to blend.

The palette contains 7.5 g of eyeshadows and it costs £23.99. The eyeshadows are vegan and have not been tested on animals. I bought mine from Love Make Up, but Cocktail Cosmetics also sells Lime Crime.

All in all, it's a lovely palette with gorgeous bright springy colours. Now I'm interested in trying out other Lime Crime products!

See more pictures including swatches and the look I did with these eyeshadows after the jump!

Stila In The Moment Eyeshadow Palette Review and Swatches

Another day, another Stila palette. This is practically the same as the In The Garden palette, only it's purple. Okay, it's not the same, but very similar, it has the same issues (no mirror, useless quote from someone I don't know or care about for that matter) and it also contains 10 eyeshadows, a smudge stick eyeliner and a booklet.

Let's just talk about the colours rather than repeating everything I said about the In The Garden palette, shall we? This time we only have one matte (Desire) which is the same disappear-on-my-skintone shade as Nectar in the other palette, perhaps a bit pinker. It's pretty, but not very interesting. I do love the other shades very much, love it that there's several purples in the palette as well as a few neutrals. Glance (middle one on the top row) is a beautiful midtone purple with a subtle sheen, probably my most favourite shade in the palette. I also love Catalyst (top row, far right) which is a blackened purple with purple shimmer (think Mac Young Punk mineralize eyeshadow) and looks beautiful as a liner. I'm sporting it on my top lashline as I type. Instinct is a nice, although rather frosty highlighter shade. My least favourite is probably Improvise, a satiny plum colour that hasn't got a very good colour payoff and looks rather dull blended out. Perhaps this one will work better wet. Otherwise I'm happy with this palette, for me it's the nicer of the two Stila spring palettes.

Once again you get a full size smudge stick as well, this time it's Tetra, a dark purple one with purple shimmer. It compliments the purple shades well, although not sure how it would work with the shades in the bottom row. A more plumy eyeliner would work better with those I think.

Just like the In The Garden palette this costs £25 and you get 14 g of eyeshadows and 0.28 g of eyeliner. Available from BeautyBay, although I bought mine on eBay because I wasn't sure whether we were getting this.

See lots of pictures including swatches after the jump!

Stila In The Garden Eyeshadow Palette Review and Swatches

One of the Stila spring palettes I've purchased is the In The Garden palette. It is a very similar style to the Naturaleyes palette that I reviewed a few months ago. You get 10 eyeshadows (out of which 2 are matte) and a full size smudge stick eyeliner for £25. You also get a booklet with some suggestions for looks you can create. 

The eyeshadows are nicely pigmented, some better than others, but it tends to be that the frostier shades are the most pigmented. The two matte shades are alright, not chalky at all. The darker of the two (Nectar) is pretty much the same as my skin colour and doesn't really who up on me. The darker shades are more satiny than frosty except for Moss which is a really lovely dirty brown colour with gold flecks. There aren't really any true highlighters in this palette (I don't like highlighting with matte eyeshadows), but other than that it's a nice palette. The smudge stick eyeliner you get is in the shade Starfish which is a mossy green colour with gold shimmer. It is supposed to be waterproof and it does stay on through the whole day, once it's set, it's very hard to remove (make up remover does remove it easily though).

I did a look with Breeze, Sage and Moss, plus Starfish smudge stick and it was very pretty, the shadows applied and blended easily and everything stayed in place all day (used them over my trusty Barbara Daly eyeshadow primer). 

The palette is still lacking a mirror in the lid and it has yet another quote from Sarah Lucero whoever she might be (I need to look her up!). Otherwise it's a nice palette, although not as bright and spring like as I would have expected. For £25 you get 14 g of eyeshadows and 0.28 g of smudge stick eyeliner.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Bright springtime face of the day

It's been a while since I last posted on here (I've been busy with family stuff) and even longer since I did a look, so I thought I would show off what I'm wearing today as it is really pretty and springy. Unfortunately my camera is really rubbish on capturing bright colours, so what you see here is a bit of a toned down version of what it actually looks like, but this is the best I could do. :( Today I'm using make up from The Body Shop, these products are actually from their spring collection, but I'd never got around to trying them out properly, and also the weather is still definitely more springy than summery even though we're fast approching June. To create this look I used: Eyes: Urban Decay Primer Potion The Body Shop shimmer cubes no. 19 Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners in Covet and Ransom Guerlain Le 2 mascara in black Mac Show Off Brow Set Face: Guerlain Meteorites Perles primer Givenchy Photoperfection foundation Mac MSF Natural The Body Shop Kiss Of Colour blush in Vibrant Rose Lips: The Body Shop Love Gloss in Fuschia Flush (no. 16) See some photos (and let me know what you think)...

I have loads more posts coming up in the next few days, including my second Mac To The Beach haul and a very beautiful (albeit pricey) addition to my Guerlain Meteorites Voyage Powder collection. Stay tuned!

Face of the day - blues and greens with Mac Graphic Garden

I did this look on Wednesday, it was a lovely sunny day (not like today) and I felt like doing something springlike and cheerful. I went to my local Mac counter that day to pick up my Viva Glam Cindy lipstick and got complemented by one of the sales assistant girls on my make up. :)

For this look I used Mac Graphic Garden palette, Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Flipside and No 7 Extreme Lenght mascara on the eyes, Mac Summer Rose beauty powder and Mac Glissade MSF on the cheeks and Mac Electric Fuschia lipgloss on the lips.

After applying Guerlain eyeshadow base I applied Straight Hedge (light blue-ish green) eyeshadow in the inner corner, Botanical Blue (bright blue) in the outer corner and crease and Wild Wisteria (pinky purple) above the crease and slightly blended with Botanical Blue. I the applied Social Climber (pinky white) below the eyebrows to highlight. I used Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Flipside on the lower lashline and waterline.

I didn't include any close ups of my eyelids because for some reason they looked extremely wrinkly and creased, I don't know why as I took the pictures only about an hour after applying the eyeshadows. :(

These are the products I used:

Mac Graphic Garden palette

Mac Summer Rose beauty powder (this is coming out again in the Give me Liberty collection minus the rose design) Mac Glissade Mineralize Skinfinish Mac Electric Fuschia lipglass (from the Spring Colour Forecast collection)