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!

October Favourites Video

I did a little video about the products I've enjoyed using this month, check it out!You can also subscribe to my channel by clicking here!

Urban Decay Smoked 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Set Review and Swatches

This is the second 24/7 eyeliner pencil set Urban Decay has released for the holiday, and even though it's not as exciting/great value as the Ocho Loco set, I thought I'd show it to you, because this is also a good one and still very good value.

This set is supposed to complement the Smoked Palette released earlier this year, which I didn't buy, but you don't need that of course, you will still enjoy this set if you like dark, smoky colours.

The set contains 6 travel size 24/7 glide-on eye pencils and they come in a variety of colours and finishes. You have Uzi which is a dark shimmery grey, Zero, a black, Demolition, a cool toned matte dark brown, Smog, a light metallic brown, Empire, a dark aubergine with satin finish and Mainline, a dark matte teal. Out of the 6 shades 2 are permanent (Zero and Demolition), 2 have been included in other sets (Uzi and Empire) and 2 are brand new (Smog and Mainline). I only owned Uzi and Zero, I wasn't even aware that Demolition was permanent.

It's a lovely set with really nice colours, my favourites are definitely Empire and Mainline, but I also really like and regularly use Uzi. Demolition doesn't seem that pigmented to me and Smog is a little light to be referred to as a smoky colour, but it's still nice. If you don't have these colours yet, this set would be a great one to buy.

The eyeliners are 0.8 g each which is 2/3 of full size and the set retails at £26, but it's actually worth £52 based on the price of the full sized pencils (£13). So it's still a great value and it also means that you don't have to commit to buying full sized products, because let's face it, who can get through eyeliners quickly enough anyway?

All in all, I would happily recommend this set especially as Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencils are one of my favourite eyeliners.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

NOTD: Color Club Wild And Willling

Since I've been buying so many nail polishes, I'm trying to do a nail post a week, although I actually have quite a backlog of pictures since I change my nail polish 2-3 times week and most manis are actually worthy of sharing on here. Would you like me to do more nail posts in the future or not? I know I'm still not that skilled when it comes to painting my nails, although I have got much better. Let me know in the comments what you think!

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

Today I have this gorgeous Color Club nail polish to show you. It's called Wild And Willing and it was part of the Wild At Heart Collection from 3 years ago. It's a beautiful shimmer polish which is also duochrome, it's pink and orange, with some yellow and a bit of green thrown in for good measure. It looks great both in the sunlight and in shade.

The formula was very thin though, I think it took 4 coats, it was very sheer and runny. It dried pretty quickly though. It lasted okay on me with some very small chips on day 2, I ended up wearing it for 4 days. It's so pretty, I think I can forgive it for the thin, runny formula, but it would be just perfect if the formula was better.

I buy Color Club polishes on eBay from this seller or from TK Maxx (they sell Color Club box sets for around £8 which is a great deal!). I think I got this one on eBay for about $3 plus $4.50 postage to the UK. You get a very generous 15 ml for your money.

See more pictures 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!

My Guerlain Holiday 2012 Haul Part 4 - Meteorites Wulong Exceptional Pressed Powder

The most anticipated items of the new Guerlain Holiday 2012 Collection for me were the Meteorites Perles and Meteorites Wulong Voyage Powder. I collect these two powders and am always very eager to purchase them.

This year's Wulong Voyage Powder is very similar to the permanent Mythic powder and the limited edition Imperial powder form 2009, only the colours are different. I prefer these powders to have more intricate designs, like 2010's Poudre D'Or or 2008's Radiant Butterfly Voyage Powder, but I'll take what I can get anyway.

Voyage Powders are basically Meteorites in pressed form, which means they're more travel friendly. These powders are the ultimate luxury items, the powders are gorgeous, soft, velvety, and they come in gorgeous compacts. This year's compact is black with mother of pearl rosette detailing. These compacts are very expensive, with the product costing £110, the powder refills are around £30 so the compact is basically the difference. They are, obviously, refillable, but you can't normally get the limited edition refill, only the permanent Mythic powder refill.

You get 7.5 g of powder, so gram per gram these compacts are way more expensive than the loose Meteorites Perles, but they make an excellent collector's item and these compacts are just so cool to pull out in the ladies room. Incidentally, if you watch Homeland, did you notice Carrie had one of these (the permanent compact) in one of the earlier episodes?

I apologise I haven't swatched this yet, I didn't want to mess up the powder until I get myself a back up (yes, I am that crazy). I managed to get this one on eBay for quite a bit less than £110, so hoping to be able to score another one, if not on eBay, then in the after Christmas sales.

As you know, I collect these beauties and in case you haven't see my collection, you can check it out here, although it needs updating as those pictures don't include Poudre D'Or (which you can see by clicking here) or Wulong.  

PS. My computer monitor has broken, so I'm typing this on my laptop. Hopefully I'll be able to get a replacement monitor tomorrow, because I really hate editing pictures and typing on the laptop, but in the meantime, please bear with me.

See more pictures after the jump!

I've Been Busy - My Depotting Adventure

A little while ago, when using my Urban Decay Mariposa eyeshadow palette, I began wondering if there was a way to depot the eyeshadows in it and use the tin to hold some more eyeshadows. So I got a pair of nail scissors and started digging...

The eyeshadows came out really easily (they were only glued onto some cardboard) and the tin ended up housing not only the Mariposa palette, but also the Sustainable palette, the Deluxe palette and the Rollergirl palette. Talk about saving space!

I also decided to depot my many Urban Decay eyeshadow singles (same method as Mac eyeshadows - I use my hair straightener to heat up the bottom of the pans) and Stardusts eyeshadow singles (they just pop out with very light force), as well as all my big Mac eyeshadows (Mega Metals, Jeanius and Tartan Tale). I ended up purchasing my first ever Z Palette and now I have 17 empties waiting to go back to Mac in exchange for some lipsticks (my no-buy doesn't extend to free stuff - crafty eh?). Wish you could also return the Urban Decay empties, it felt wrong to throw them out.

There were a few casulties as you will see in the pictures below, nothing serious, just scrapes and bruises (the eyeshadows, not me). I enjoy depotting, I usually do it while watching a film on telly to keep me entertained. I'm now seriously tempted to depot a few of my bulky Book of Shadows as well, although the first one and the Alice in Wonderland ones are so pretty, I don't want to touch them, but the other 3 I might just have a go at. Just need to get another palette or two to put them into.

Do you depot your eyeshadows? Do you take your Mac empties back for free lispticks? What palettes do you put them into?

See more pictures after the jump!