L’Occitane En Provence Peony Makeup Collection

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

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

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

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

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

See more pictures...

Thanks to Temptalia for the images!

Another Barry M Lip Laquer Crayon review

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

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

Without flash in natural sunlight

Rimmel Colour Mousse cream eyeshadow review

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

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

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

See some pictures...

Barry M Lip Laquer Crayon in Party Pink

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

Guerlain Meteorites Pearly White Light Perfecting Base

I ordered this gorgeous face primer from Hong Kong as it's another Asia exclusive from Guerlain as part of their Pearly White range and therefore not available in the UK. I already own and love the original version, so decided to try this one out as well.

This is such a gorgeous product, comes in a sleek glass pump bottle and is made up of little white pearls. When press down the pump, some of these pearls get sucked up and crushes, so you end up with a white shimmery liquid. I find that only one pump is enough to do my whole face, so a little goes a VERY long way. The regular version of this primer costs £40 for 30 mls, so it's not cheap, but as I said it does last a long time and it's a wonderfully silky smooth primer. Just feels really luxurious, as you would expect from Guerlain.

The Pearly White version is slightly shimmery, but once you've blended it all out, it just leaves a slight sheen on your face. As you would use it under your foundation and/or face powder, the shimmer would not be noticeable. It does help control shine and make you make up last longer.

Here are some pictures of this lovely primer.

Blended out, picture taken with flash

Blended out, picture taken without flash

How to buy high end make up for less

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you will have noticed by now that I have a lot of make up. And I mean A LOT of make up. Nowadays I tend to pretty much only buy high end make up, with the exception of a few lipsticks and lipglosses from Max Factor, Avon, No 7 and the likes. And let's face it, high end make up costs a lot. But there are certain ways of buying high end make up that can save you a lot of money, and I would like to share these with you. This is just my experience, and might not suit everyone, but I thought some of you might benefit from it. 1. Testers I buy a lot of testers, especially really expensive brands like Guerlain, who have lipsticks costing £25-27 where you pretty much pay more for the packaging and the brand, than the actual lipstick. I mean look at the G lipsticks, with such an extravangant case, even a mirror is included. And yes, it is nice, but seriously do you NEED it? Of course not. So if you don't mind not having the pretty case, you can get testers of Guerlain's G lipsticks on eBay for as little as £6. You still get a full size lipstick, but instead of the gorgous case, you get a little plastic cap and a coloured plastic end that shows the number of the colour. Exactly like the ones you can try on at the counter. Of course they are brand new, so as good as any other lipstick, but at fraction of the price of the original product. You can always buy one for the case if you really fancy it and get the other shades in testers.

Same goes for the Kiss Kiss lipsticks which normally retail at £20. You can get them for as little as £4! And because they all have caps, you can still carry them in your purse (if you don't mind pulling a tester out of your bag in the restroom - I don't).

Same goes for Guerlain's blushes and eyeshadow quads which come in neat little plastic cases with lids. You can get them for at least half of the normal retail price.

I also buy perfumes as testers. They usually come in the biggest size, or in some cases bigger than any of the "normal" products you can find, and usually come boxed in a plain box, often without a cap. If you don't mind not getting the pretty box and in the case of the Harajuku Lovers perfume the pretty doll that sits on the top of the bottle, then you can get yourself some excellent bargains. I mean sure, the little Gwen Stefani doll is cute, but what do you do with it once you've finished with your perfume? Instead I bought a 100 ml tester for a little over the price of the 30 ml product. Makes sense, doesn't it?

2. Preview/sample items

On eBay you can often find make up that was sent to magazines or bloggers for reviews and then sold on, usually brand new as they were only photographed and not even tested. They usually come with a sticker on the bottom stating that they are review items, but usually in their normal packaging, so they look just like the product you would buy in shops. And who cares about a little sticker when they can save several pounds? I have many Mac (and other high end incl. Clinique) items that I bought on eBay and are marked as samples, including lipglosses, lipsticks, eyeshadows and blushes. See photos below.

3. Trial size items

I use very expensive skincare products (Guerlain's Orchidee Imperiale range) and am of course more than happy if I can save money on them. One way of doing it is buying trial size items. You know the little tubes of creams, etc. that you are given with your purchase to try out. Guerlain Orchidee Imperiale Exceptional Complete Care serum costs £230 per 30 ml, which I have never paid for it, I would be mad to, when I can buy 10 little tubes (3 ml each) on eBay for often as little as £30-40. Sure, I don't get the fancy packaging, but then again, no packaging is worth paying £200 for, right? ;)

4. eBay

Now I have mentioned buying from eBay in every one of the points above, but I wanted to give it a separate mention, because you can find brand new items in normal packaging at a fraction of retail price as well, you just have to keep an eye out for them. If you don't mind it if something's used, items that have been tested sell for even less. (Although eBay is now not allowing people to sell used make up anymore, not that it stops people, lol.) There are fakes on eBay, especially high end make up (not just Mac, I have seen plenty Chanel, Guerlain, etc. fakes), but if you do your homework, you will be fine. I have bought over 500 items on eBay and only bought one or two fakes myself (and managed to get my money back anyway thanks to Paypal).

5. Sale / reduced items

And of course we all love sales, and you can always pick up some nice items at half price or less. Unfortunately that often means waiting for months and possibly missing out on certain products, but I have picked up a few limited edition items at half price that I never thought I would, including Guerlain's Meteorites Voyage Powder!

Well, that's it. I hope you've enjoyed my post and you can use some of my tips next time you are looking for something to buy.