Guerlain Ombre Fusion Cream Eyeshadow 01 Bahia Review and Swatches

Having already swatched it in America I was really looking forward to buying the new limited edition cream eyeshadow in shade 01 Bahia by Guerlain (part of the Terra Inca summer collection) when it came to the UK, but unfortunately I have mixed feelings about it now that I have it. I will start with the positives though because there are plenty. Overall it is a really nice cream eyeshadow, very long lasting and crease proof. I can't vouch for it being waterproof as I haven't done any swimming in it, but it did stay put for 12 hours and only came off with make up remover (my regular Estee Lauder one). I wore it underneath powder eyeshadows from my Dior Pink Idol quint and it didn't crease a tiny bit, and I applied it directly onto my eyelid, didn't use any primer under it. It also applied easily and pretty evenly, didn't take long to dry, but long enough to sheer it out with your fingers, if you wish.

The negatives: I don't like this shade on my eyelids. While it looked lovely when I swatched it on my hand, the metallic effect just doesn't seem to transfer onto my eyes. All I see is a bland pink shade that doesn't flatter my light to medium skintone at all. So I don't think I will ever wear this on its own, which is what I was hoping to do, you know on busy mornings when all you have time for is a quick swipe of eyeshadow. I don't own any other cream eyeshadows in this shade, although I think Mac's Fresco Rose paint pot comes quite close, however I do find that shade very wearable on its own. So for £20.50 (for 6 ml) this is a rather expensive eyeshadow base, even if it is brilliant as that.

Have you indulged in anything from the new Terra Inca range? 

See more photos and swatches after the jump!

Laura Mercier Portofino Summer 2011 eyeshadow palette and cream highlighter review

I've recently purchased these two products from Laura Mercier's summer collection named Portofino. I'm a big fan of this brand and have quite a few eyeshadows, palettes, lip products and face products (including her Shimmer Blocs which are a variation on Bobbi Brown's Shimmer Bricks). I bought Golden Pink Sheer Creme Glow and Riviera eyeshadow palette.

Golden Pink Sheer Creme Glow is a cream face highlighter in a light warm pink colour with slight golden shimmer. It's really pretty, so I just couldn't not pick up, even though I don't use cream highlighters much. It's housed in the same compact as the eyeshadow palette, basically the brown signature palette almost all Laura Geller products come in. You get 8 grams for £29.00, so it's likely to last a very long time.

Riviera is a 4 colour eyeshadow palette consisting of dark blue, sand, light blue and white colours which appears to have been inspired by the seaside. There is a wavy pattern on the palette like the one the sand has after the waves have washed onto the beach. Very pretty. The shades are a bit on the sheer side, I had to swatch both twice to show up properly, but I have to add that I have not tried them on my eyes, so I don't know what result you get with a brush. It's definitely a nice summery colour combination and easy to wear. You get 8 grams for £31.00 which is actually pretty big seeing that a Dior quint is only 6 grams and I would consider that already pretty good. (Mac single eyeshadows are 1.5 g for reference.)

As I said, I have not worn these products, so I can't really tell you how long-wearing they are, but I really wanted to show them to you and there are some swatches for you to see after the jump. Do you like Laura Mercier products? Are you tempted by any of these?

Swatching My Stash: My Nars Blushes and Highlighter

I thought I'd show you my small collection of Nars blushes today. I've just received my new Lustre blush and you might remember I pucrhased Deep Throat while in the US, so now I actually have quite a good variety. I find Nars blushes quite hit and miss, there are some lovely ones, but some of them are very very glittery (Super Orgasm I'm looking at you). Orgasm is a very popular shade and it is nice, but it does have a lot of glitter, so I've actually found a better and cheaper dupe from Sleek (Rose Gold, you can check it out here and here). I do love Albatross as a highlighter, Deep Throat is absolutely gorgeous and Lustre is a very nice shade too, no glitter in sight. Despite my better judgement, I have just ordered New Order highlighting blush from ASOS, which is extremely glittery, but is also a gorgeous light pink colour. I wasn't going to get it, but it was 20% off and I couldn't resist. Oh dear...

Top row: Angelika, Orgasm, Super Orgasm
Middle row: Lustre, Sin, Deep Throat
Bottom row: Albatross

Do you own any Nars blushes? Which ones are your favourites?

See swatches of my Nars blushes after the jump!

Yet another NOTD with Zoya Sunshine Collection - Faye swatches and review

I have already reviewed 2 nailpolishes from Zoya's Sunshine Collection, you can check them out here and here, and now it's time to show you possibly the coolest, prettiest shade from the collection. Faye is a gorgeous purple shade with lots of gold shimmer, or in Zoya's description: "a bronzed mauve with purple and brown undertones flooded with bright gold sparkle". It is absolutely wonderful and a very unique shade. I love the purple and I love the gold shimmer.

As I have already reviewed two of these shades, I'm not going to repeat myself, please check out my previous reviews. I will show you lots of pictures and swatches though as the true colour of this gorgeous nail polish is very hard to capture just from one angle.

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Revlon ColorBurst Lipgloss and SuperLustrous Lipstick Haul, Swatches and Review

I'd been eyeling up these lipglosses for a while now, but at £7.99 I wasn't sure I really wanted them, however, on my recent trip to Florida I finally bought one of them. I can't remember exactly how much it was, but I think it was around $7. The lipsticks I picked up at the same time. One of them, Cherries In The Snow I'd always wanted to try as I've heard a lot about it on other blogs. And somehow I managed to pick up another shade too, even though there were no testers in the store (I think it was CVS Pharmacy). I picked up the second lipgloss later on in the UK, right now it completely escapes me where though.

Hot Pink, Strawberry, Love That Pink, Cherries In The Snow

Anyway, these lipglosses and lipsticks are really lovely, not just their colours, but also their formulas. First of all, I love that they are unscented. It's not that I'm against scented lip products, in fact I love Mac's vanilla scent and Chanel and Guerlain's flowery scent, but I hate the cheap plastic smell of high street/drugstore brand lip products (yes, Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick, I'm looking at you!). I have other Revlon products that are scented and I don't like some of them, but I'm definitely very happy not to be put off such lovely products just because of the smell.

So I got ColorBurst Lipglosses in Hot Pink and Strawberry, and SuperLustrous Lipsticks in Love That Pink and Cherries In The Snow. The lipglosses are really nicely pigmented, they are pretty true to colour, you get on your lips what you see in the tube. They are non-sticky, fairly longlasting and comfortable on the lips. The lipsticks are also very pigmented, you'll see below that the swatches were all done with just one swipe yet the colours are vibrant and opaque. The glosses are quite glittery, in fact they feel a bit gritty on my lips, but it's not uncomfortable. The lipsticks are not shimmery at all, but they do have a nice sheen to them. They last for a good amount of time, and feel comfortable and not drying at all. They are creme formulas and feel really lovely on the lips, in fact I would compare them to Guerlain's new Rouge Automatique lipsticks as they have the same creamy formula. I don't own any lighter shades, but these two very bright shades last for hours and leave a nice stain behind as they fade. As they only cost £7.49, they are a good alternative to the Guerlain formula, but of course they don't have the shiny and cool cases. Question is, are they worth the extra 17 quid?

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Purple face of the day with Dior

I did this look the other day and really liked it, so I thought I'd share it with you. Sadly, my camera once again failed to pick up the pink tones, so the purple looks much coller than it actually was in real life, but it's still pretty, so here it is.

To create this look I used:

Eyes:
Barbara Daly for Tesco eyeshadow primer
Christian Dior Cristal Boreal eyeshadow 152 Purple Gem all over lid
Christian Dior Cannage Colour Collection palette mauve shade in crease
Christian Dior Cannage Colour Collection palette pink shade in inner corner and below browbone
Make Up Forever Aqua Liner in Iridescent Electric Purple on upper lashline
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Lust on lower lashline
Clarins Wonder Mascara in purple
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium
Mac Well Dressed blush

Lips:
Dior Addict lipstick in 579 Rose Vision

See more pictures after the jump!

Lancome L'Absolu Creme de Brillance lipgloss review and swatches

You know when sometimes you buy something and find that you really like it, then forget about it for a while (especially if you're buying make up like it's going out of fashion) and when you next use it you remember why you liked it so much in the first place. This happened to me with my Lancome L'Absolu Creme de Brillance. I bought it when it first came out and I remember I really liked it, but since then I have purchased probably 100 other lipglosses and this got put in the back of my drawer. Sometimes I think it's a shame I have so much make up because I keep forgetting to use the really good ones.

Anyway, when I found this lovely little beauty again, I decided I liked it so much, I ended up buying it in another shade. Why? It's an absolutely wonderful lipgloss. It's pigmented, non-sticky, yet really long lasting, moisturising and feels really lovely on my lips. The shade I initially had was 357 Rose Mythique, which I believe was the shade Kate Winslet was wearing in the promo pictures, a beautiful rosy pink shade with fine shimmer. There are only 9 shades in the range (except I can't find 357 anymore actually), so I was a bit limited for choice, but I ended up getting 132 Caprice which is a bit darker, bit more red and not at all shimmery. You can see in the pictures below that there isn't a huge difference between them. These glosses have doe foot applicators which are different from normal doe foot applicators, they are a teardrop shape and pick up just the right amount of gloss and are easy to apply it with. Similar to the L'Oreal Glam Shine lipglosses, but even better. These lipglosses retail for £18.50, but in my mind, they are really worth it. I would get more of them, but there weren't any other shades I fancied.

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Model's Own Smash Up Silver crackle polish review and swatches

You might remember me reviewing 17's gold crackle polish last month (see my review here). Although I wasn't that keen at first, I did get an awful lot of compliments on my nails and when I saw that Model's Own has come out with a silver crackle top coat, I decided to get it.

It is basically the same concept, you paint it on top of your nail polish and watch it separate, leaving the colour peeping out from underneath. Formulawise it is very similar to the 17 crackle top coat, it applies well and crackles quickly. This one is slightly more expensive at £6, but you do get 14 ml instead of 10. Unlike the 17 gold top coat the Model's Own version has tiny silver glitter which I think is very pretty, albeit not very noticable. I'm still waiting for a properly glittery gold or silver topcoat, something like the British Beauty Blogger wrote about back in March which is sadly still not available. In the meantime, this will have to do.

In the pictures I'm wearing this with Dior Love (LE) nail polish underneath. I have tried it with a dark blue polish too, but sadly it had chipped off before I could take pictures. Not the fault of the nail polish, it's my stupid nails.

See more pictures and nail swatches after the jump!

Make Up Forever Aqua Liner review and swatches

Make Up Forever has some new amazing liquid eyeliners called Aqua Liners and I have 4 of them to show you now. I've ordered them from Guru Makeup Emporium and they cost £16.50 each. They come in 15 shades literally in every colour of the rainbow. I got Diamond Lagoon Green, Iridescent Electric Purple, Iridescent Fuchsia and Diamond Multicolour Black. I was especially wowed by Iridescent Fuchsia and Diamond Multicolour Black as they are both very unique shades. I mean how often do you get a bright pink eyeliner? 

Diamond Lagoon Green, Iridescent Electric Purple, Iridescent Fuchsia, Diamond Multicolour Black

As their name suggests, these liners are waterproof, and they trully are smudgeproof and waterproof, once they dry (pretty quickly as well), they do not budge. However, they are easy to remove with a waterproof make up remover like Lancome Bi-Facil. The applicator and in fact the whole tube is very similar to Mac's Superslick Liquid Eyeliners that came out with Fabulous Felines which is by no means a critism as I love those eyeliners and own a good few myself. The applicator is very easy to use and it packs on lots of colour, but just the right amount of product! The multicolour black seems a bit light, dark grey rather than blck, but I can forgive its sheerness when I look at all the pretty multicolour sparkles it contains.

To be honest, there isn't really a big difference in the formula, but I have to say the MUFE colours are just so pretty and vibrant, and definitely more unique. These MUFE Aqua Liners are slightly more expensive at £16.50 compared to Mac's £15.00, and you also only get 1.7 ml instead of Mac's 1.8 ml, but in all fairness, I don't think that's going to make a huge difference, after all, I have never run out of liquid eyeliner myself.

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Cosmeticplatform.com - STOP STEALING MY POSTS!

I have just discovered that there is a website (named above) that keeps stealing my posts and reposting them as their own. They do link the post back to the original post on here, but the whole content is basically copied including some of my photos too. I am absolutely gobsmacked to have discovered this and have no idea what, if anything I could do about this. Of course there is no contact address of any sort on this website and I don't really know where I could go.

Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else and if so, can you advise me please? And Cosmeticplatform.com, if you're reading, STOP STEALING MY POSTS! And please guys, do not go over to that website, we don't want them to benefit from more traffic. Thanks.

FrontCover To Go Pop In Pop Out Compact Review

I was recently sent a voucher from Boots for FrontCover's new FrontCover To Go compact so I thought I'd try it out. The offer was that you get the FrontCover Pop In Pop Out compact and 4 eyeshadow singles for £10 (they would cost £21 otherwise with the palette priced at £5 and the eyeshadow singles at £4 each). My local Boots doesn't stock FrontCover neither do the bigger ones nearby, so I was happy to see that the Boots on Oxford Street had them when I was in London 2 weeks ago.

So what is it exactly? You get an empty eyeshadow palette with a mirror and double ended eyeshadow brush to fill with your choice of shades. You can choose from 25 different colours, but unfortunately the Boots on Oxford Street only had maybe half of them in stock. The eyeshadow singles come in a square base that you can snap into the palette. They are very easy to put in and take out, so in theory you can replace them with other shades if you desire (a selection of these eyeshadows came out last winter with the FrontCover To Go holiday palette), but I don't know where you would put the singles as they don't come with a lid so you could safely store them individually. The eyeshadow singles comes in 25 shades, but they are mainly only golds, neutrals, greys, some blues/greens and one (!!!) measly purple shade. I would really like to see a much bigger variety including more purples, some pinks, oranges, different greens and blues, or at the very least it would be good to be able to purchase any of the existing shades and not find the stand half empty. I ended up putting together a neautral/gold palette which is very nice, but I've since discovered that I'd already owned 3 of the 4 shades as they were included in the FrontCover To Go holiday palette. Actually, that's another thing, most of the singles are already in the bigger palettes of which I own quite a few myself.

So all in all, was it a good buy? At £10 it was okay. The eyeshadows are a really nice quality, the colours I chose are gorgeous and the palette is quite funky, although the brush is pretty manky to be honest. However at £21 I don't think it would be quite such a great deal especially if you already own a lot of the shades from other palettes. I wish there was a bigger selection and better availibility of the shades, I would've liked not to duplicate what I already own and I prefer brighter colours to neutrals.

Anyone tried this or other FrontCover palettes? What do you think?

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

My new Urban Decay goodies

When I went to Florida, I was very excited to be able to check out all the Sephora exclusive Urban Decay eyeshadows (little did i know that they'd immediately become available in the UK from Debenhams, they are still cheaper in the US though) and also some of the new releases that are either not available yet or I've not had a chance to check out in person as there's no Urban Decay counter near me unfortunately. So I came back with a whole load of Urban Decay goodies and I thought I'd show you in detail what I got. (You can also check out this post where I showed you my amazing huge US haul.)

So there they are: 5 eyeshadows, 3 eyeshadow pencils, a glitter eyeliner and Primer Potion in Eden. I'll start with the eyeshadows. There were 6 shades released last year as Sephora exclusives and I'd been wanting to get them ever since. Two of them, namely Psychedelic Sister and Haight were released in the newest Book of Shadows, so I had them, and I didn't get Woodstock in the end because it's coming out with the Rollergirl palette that I really want (anyone knows when it's coming out in the UK by the way?). So in the end I got Dashiki, Free Love and Aquarius, and also Hot Pants and SWF that were also not available in the UK before.

Find out what else I got, see lots more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Swatching My Stash Part 4: Lipsticks - My Mac Lipsticks Part 1

I started swatching all my lipsticks back in March and have managed to finish all my Guerlain lipsticks, which is my favourite brand for lipsticks and pretty much in general, so I thought the next brand I should swatch should be Mac since I own 78 Mac lipsticks. Or rather that was the case in April, since then I have now bought a few more which will not be included in these swatches, but perhaps once I've swatched through all my lipsticks, I will do an update post. I'm forever buying lipsticks, so no doubt I'll have plenty new ones.

All my Mac lipsticks (as of 5th April 2011)

In this post I will swatch about half of my Mac lipsticks. First up are the Amplified, Cremesheen, Matte and Satin finishes.

Sleek The Primer Palette review and swatches

I really like Sleek Cosmetics and especially their 12 colour eyeshadow palettes, I own almost every one of them, so when I heard about their new Primer Palette, I decided to get that too. It's also a 12 colour palette, but instead of eyeshadows, it contains 12 coloured eyeshadow primers.It also contains a full size mirror and a double ended brush for application (not too great quality though).

The colours are great, there's a very good variety, you basically get every colour in the rainbow and some. The quality of the primers, well, I'm less certain about. So far I have tried about 4 shades (apologies for not taking photos before I tried it out) and found that some were better than others. The blue creased somewhat rotten, the pink, beige and silver one worked better (crease free for 6-8 hours). I guess it also matters what eyeshadows you put on top, but in any case, a good primer should prevent the eyeshadows from creasing no matter whatthe qulaity of the eyeshadows is, right? I think all in all it's a nice idea and for £7.00 you can't go that wrong, but I personally would rather stick to my Mac paint pots and Urban Decay Primer Potions and cream eyeshadows for bases.

One more slightly annoying thing about this palette is that although they named the shades, they completely mixed them up, so the beige one is called Noir and the purple one is called Pink Frost, etc. Or maybe it was intentional, but in that case I don't get the joke.

Available from Sleek Cosmetics and Superdrug, RRP £7.00.

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

My Mac Surf Baby! haul and swatches

Mac's summer collection Surf Baby! launched last Thursday and I picked up a few things that I'd like to share with you. I only got a few things which is unlike me, but a lot of products in this collection are bronzers and I'm not really into them, so I didn't pick any up. In fact I've just realised that I haven't even used the cream bronzer that I picked up last year with To The Beach, so I think I'm okay for bronzers! I was more interested in the colour part of the collection, so got both of the crushed metallic pigment stacks, an eyeshadow, the gorgeous blush with the gold flower overlay, an eyeliner, a lipstick and an a lipglass.

My favourite item from the collection is definitely the blush, not just because it's so pretty to look at, but it is also a lovely peachy coral colour. I haven't worn it yet as I'm not ready to mess up the flower detail, but I did swatch it (see below). I also like Hibiscus lipstick, it's a nice redish coral. Another thing that made me go wow is the light green shade in Surf The Ocean pigment stack and also the dark from shade in Summer Stash. All in all I am very happy with everything I got. I also like the packaging, I think it's cheerful and reminds me of surf boards (I'm sure that was intentional), and the flower detail is cute.

In case you haven't picked up everything you wanted from this collection, Debenhams are offering 10% off ALL beauty products and 750 bonus points if you spend over £40, so now is the time to shop!

Find out which products I bought and see lots of pictures and swatches after the jump!

Guerlain Terra Inca powder and Terre Indigo eyeshadow compact

Another Guerlain post, this time with a couple of products from the summer collection, Terra Inca. I got the Sublime Radiant Powder and the 4 shade eyeshadow called Terre Indigo. I bought them both in Florida and if I remember correctly, the powder cost $70 and the eyeshadow compact was $45. I don't think this collection is out in the UK yet (it wasn't on Sunday when I asked in Debenhams), so not sure about the prices, but I'm guessing £45-ish for the powder and £30-ish for the eyeshadows. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though.  

The Terra Inca powder is a nice bronzy powder with slight shimmer, it's not really a bronzer more of an illuminator or blush for lighter skintones. The compact feels like wood, but it's not very heavy, so not too sure what it's made of. Instead of hinges it's held together with 3 magnets, so when you open it, the lid comes straight off. It has a nice big mirror in the lid. The powder weighs 14.5 g, so it's pretty big.

The eyeshadow compact contains 4 shades: orange, chocolate brown, dark brown, blue and some gold overspray. You get 9 g which is pretty good, it's even more than the 6 colour palettes Guerlain released last year (and those cost £52.50!).

I apologise but there won't be any swatches in this post as I haven't managed to test these yet, they are both so pretty, I don't want to ruin the lovely designs. You know me. I will be brave and use them some day, and will let you know what I think. For now, there are a lot of pictures below.

Guerlain Rouge Automatique lipstick review and swatches

Guerlain has released a new lipstick line called Rouge Automatique and I have 3 of the shades to show you today. I purchased one of them in Florida, but now they are available in the UK too, priced £24.50 each (ouch!).They cost £3.50 more than the regular Kiss Kiss line, I think the price difference is partly due to the case and partly the new formula. So what are these exactly? They are basically very creamy, soft, gorgeous, moisturising lipsticks in a quirky case which has no cap, instead you pull a button on its side down and that pushes the lipstick up. So if you need to, you can apply your lipstick one handed. (Only question is, just how often do we actually need to apply lipsticks with one hand? I'm perfectly capable of taking the cap off my lipsticks while doing pretty much everything, although I tend not to apply them while cooking/driving/wiping nose, whatever you need your other hand for.)

Anyway, it is still a very very lovely lipstick, whether you need one or two hands to apply it. The formula is soft, creamy, long lasting (especially the darker shades) and glossy. They last for about 3-3.5 hours on me depending on the shade and whether I eat/drink. Not quite as long as I have seen on some other blogs, but it's not too bad for me. I have 3 of them at the moment, but hoping to pick up a few more in the future, fortunately they are permanent. The shades I have are 141 Quand Viend L'Ete, 143 Nahema and 165 Champs-Elysees. Incidentally Champs-Elysees is the shade the gorgeous Natalia Vodianova is wearing in the promo picture above. You will see in the swatches that 141 and 143 are surprisingly similar, although 143 is pinker and slightly lighter. I bought 141 in Florida and 143 from eBay unseen, so that's how I ended up with two similar shades. They're both very pretty though, so I'm happy. The lipsticks seem quite small when pushed up, but they are the standard 3.5 g size, same as the Rouge G lipsticks, and in fact 0.5 g more than Mac lipsticks. The case is lightweight, unlike the Rouge G case, so much easier to carry around in your handbag.

Finally, see some more product pictures, swatches and a photo of me wearing Champs-Elysees.

L'Occitane Pivoine Flora eyeshadow palette, lipstick and lipgloss review and swatches

Today I would like to show you my rather small haul from L'Occitate's new summer collection called Pivoine Flora. I got the rather lovely eyeshadow palette (Petals Eye Quartet), a lipstick (Rose Pique) and a lipgloss (Pointe Grandine). There are also some nice eyeshadow duos in the collection, some of which I considered getting, but the shades weren't unique enough and there was no pretty pattern on them, unlike the Petals Eye Quartett.

The palette contains 4 soft, beige, pink and purple eyeshadows with raised flower pattern on them, and also come with a small mirror and double ended brush/applicator. The eyeshadows are nice and soft, and a bit shimmery, just as I like them. I haven't actually worn any of these products yet, so all my opinion is based on my swatches.

The lipstick is a nice rosy pink shade, it's nowhere near as bright as it looks in the tube, in fact it applies rather sheer. The lipgloss is more true to colour, it's a nice reddish shade, and it actually delivers quite a lot of colour. It also has a nice subtle shimmer to it and it's not sticky at all. The lipstick has quite a strong flowery scent (I think it's peony, it's very similar to their Peony shimmer powder's scent that I got last year), but it's fine, I don't mind it.

All in all, a nice little collection, worth checking out. Available online and in L'Occitane stores. The eyeshadow palette costs £22, lipstick £12, lipgloss £11.

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Christian Dior Summer 2011 Eyeshadow Quints: Rosy Nude and Rosy Tan

Dior is one of my favourite brands, I especially love their eyeshadows, so I always check out the new limited edition ones with every new collection. (If you are interested to check out my Dior quint collection, please click here! I do need to update it though as I now have even more of them.) This summer Dior has launched two new quints: 534 Rosy Nude and 754 Rosy Tan.

Rosy Nude (left), Rosy Tan (right)

Both of them are gorgeous, they both contain browns and pinks, but if I had to choose I'd say Rosy Tan is my favourite. Rosy Nude is probably more for daytime, and Rosy Tan is more suitable for creating a more dramatic eye, but they are both light enough to work for those looking for a work-friendly eyeshadow palette. I like it that they both contain a pink shade because I love my pinks and it makes them a bit more interesting and girly. I also like it that they've included a highlighter colour in both palettes, so you can use one (or the other) for a complete look. You can even use the darker shades as eyeliner and hey presto, all you need to add is mascara!

I wore these at the weekend and they both lasted all day, didn't crease or fade and there was no fall out. The eyeshadows are smooth, buttery and very easy to blend, they are pigmented and shimmery enough to look gorgeous, but not glittery. Both palettes contain a shade that's less shimmery, but not matte, more satin really. These have not been released in the UK yet (I bought them in Florida last month), but I'm sure it's any day now, and they're most likely to cost around £40 each.

See more product pictures and swatches after the jump!

Another NOTD with Zoya Sunshine Collection - Rica swatches and review

I'm really enjoying using my new nail polishes from Zoya's Sunshine collection and today I would like to show you Rica, a gorgeous coral with orange and pink sheen and gold sparkle. This is once again a shimmery metallic nail polish (not glitter!) and is a lovely lovely summer shade. Its texture and consistency is the same as Apple, so I will not repeat it, please check out my previous review here.

I really love it that it looks coral, orange and pink at the same time, it's such a gorgeous colour. Reminds me a bit of Mac's Bad Fairy although it's not a dupe by far (it is lighter), but it's almost duochrome like Bad Fairy and similarly pretty. Love it!

See more pictures after the jump!

FOTD with Lancome Color Design Palette 300 Amethyst Glam

I created the following look using my new Lancome Color Design Palette 300 Amethyst Glam. I mentioned in my review that the palette comes with a booklet showing two looks, a daytime and a nighttime one, and this look is the nighttime one. (I didn't actually realise there were two looks until I'd done this, the other one would've been more suitable for daytime, but it's not like I never wear bright, colourful make up anyway.) Once again the pinkiness is lost in the pictures, the lid colour is much pinker than it shows in the photos below, but my camera just can't pick it up. I need to buy a better camera, I know, I keep saying it.

For this look I used the following products:

Eyes:

Sleek purple eyeshadow primer (from the Primer Palette)

Lancome Color Design Palette 300 Amethyst Glam (see breakdown below)
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Ransom
Rimmel Exaggerate waterproof mascara in black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Meteorites Perles primer
Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac MSF Natural in Medium
Lancome Blush Subtil in Coral Marvel (LE)
Mac Lightscapade MSF (LE)

Lips:
Lancome L'Absolu Creme de Brilliance in #357 Rose Mythique

See more photos including the breakdown for the positioning of shades after the jump!

Lancome Color Design Palette 300 Amethyst Glam Review and Swatches

One of the products I was most excited to check out during my recent trip to the US was the new Lancome Color Design 5-Shadow and Liner Palette in 300 Amethyst Glam. These new palettes are not (yet) available in the UK (don't actually know if they will be at all), but thanks to the world wide web and fellow bloggers I already knew I wanted this. So I was delighted to find it in Dillards where they also offered a fantastic make up bag full of samples including a mini size Genifique serum and a smallish Bi-Facil, both my favourites.

This new 5 colour palette includes an all-over colour, a lid colour, a crease colour, a highlighter and liner, so it is a complete all-in-one look. I did think the names given to each shade were a bit mixed up, until I saw the booklet included with the palette (it contains step-by-step advice for two, one daytime and one night time look) in which the all-over base colour is applied up to the brow bone and the highlighter shade is actually applied to the inner corner and middle of lid to give some sparkle and lighten up the whole look. My swatches don't show it very well, but both the all-over lid colour and the highlighter colour are very shimmery, especially the highlighter.

Lancome claims the shadows are long wearing, they don't crease and the colours don't fade for 8 hours. Having worn them for over 12 hours I can confirm that this is in fact true. Moreover, the eyeshadows are wonderfully soft, blendable and true to colour or if anything, even brighter than in the pan once applied! Unfortunately, as always, my camera didn't manage to capture the true colour of this wonderful palette, the eyeshadows are more pink and less cool than they look in the picture. For more colour acurate swatches, please take a look at the lovely Karla Sugar's website.

So yes, the colours didn't fade, the shadows did not crease and there was no fall out. I would happily recommend this palette, I think it's gorgeous and wonderful. Hope Lancome brings these palettes to the UK too, I'd like to check out the rest of the line (there are 10 of them). They cost $48 each.

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Finished! The April edition

Despite thinking I might not have many empties this month, I still managed to finish 7 products, so that's pretty good. My first one is Avon Clarifying Toner Pads which are basically pads soaked through with toner that's supposed to help keep your skin blemish free. They were okay, but I always forgot to use them, it took me probably more than a year to use up 45 pads, and I don't think I'll bother with buying them again. I don't normally use toner and these pads didn't seem to make much difference to my skin.

See what other products I used up in April after the jump!

My holiday make up bag

Since I really enjoy reading about what make up people take on holiday with them, I decided to write my own post about it. As you know (or don't, but will now), I was away in Florida for 2 weeks last month. I always struggle with packing, usually end up taking far too much, clothes, shoes and make up alike, and while I will not go into details about the clothes and shoes, I can assure you, I did the same again - both for me and my 3 children (my husband packs his stuff). I swear we could have left at least one suitcase behind and not be without anything. I mean who would've thought you don't need long trousers, sweaters and raincoats in Florida at Easter? I always pack warm clothes just in case, but honestly, I didn't even wear a light summer cardigan, it was always over 25 degrees even at 10 o'clock in the evening. Anyway, moving swiftly on, here's what I took with me make up-wise:

My 88 Shimmer and Metal Mania palettes

All other make up products I took with me

As you can see, all of the products are fairly cheap, drugstore or similar products. I'm always really afraid to take expensive high end and limited edition products with me in case they get damaged or lost in transit. I find the 88 eyeshadows palettes (especially the Shimmer palette) very useful as they contain all the colours (including some really good highlighters) you ever need. Although the quality of the eyeshadows isn't that good, with a decent primer they lasted through most of the day, and it was usually over 30 degrees, so I guess that's not too bad.

So what else did I take? I managed to photograph it upside down, but you can see my Maybelline Dream Creamy Foundation (reviewed here) which I actually managed to finish on the last day of the holiday, talk about great timing eh? I took my Collection 2000 Illuminating Touch concealer (reviewed here) as well as my  Mac MSFN & Shimmer in Medium, great for setting foundation and highlighting. Not sure why I needed an extra highlighter, but I took a Ruby & Millie one, not sure what it's called though, it's from a set. I took 4 blushes: First Kiss and China Pink by 17, Sleek Rose Gold (see review here) and Laura Geller Tropic Hues (a handy travel sized one, full sized one reviewed here).

I took numerous eyeliners, all Urban Decay 24/7 ones, as I love their eyepencils and I like the variety of colours. I also took 3 mascaras: L'Oreal Telescopic Explosion mascara (reviewed here), Max Factor More Lashes waterproof mascara and a Rimmel waterproof mascara (its name escapes me completely, sorry). For my brows I took my trusty Mac Brow Set in Show Off. And of course my favourite eyeshadow base: Barbara Daly for Tesco (I've reviewed it here).

I took 2 lipliners and 8 lipsticks, plus 4 double ended lipglosses as well as several of my GOSH eyeshadow brushes, 2 blush brushes and a cheepo noname face brush. Oh and a double pencil sharpener.

Now, do you want to see how many of these products I actually used over the 2 weeks? See after the jump!

NOTD: Zoya Apple nailpolish - swatches and review

Today I'm wearing Zoya's new nailpolish called Apple from the Sunshine Collection which is a gorgeous apple green colour (hence the name) with gold sparkle. It is absolutely gorgeous, a very nice summer colour, bright and cheerful. I'm not a green person as in I don't often wear green clothes, make up or nail polish (I do recycle and try to do my best for the environment though!), but this kind of green I find very wearable. The formula is pretty good, quite runny, but the colour opaque enough to only require two coats. Dries fairly quickly too, but unfortunately as any other nail polish it didn't last for longer than 24 hours on me without chipping (my nails are very soft and bendy).

I'm not too sure where Zoya nail polishes are available to buy in the UK, I ordered mine (the whole set) from eBay. If you do know where they can be purchased in the UK, please let me know in the comments. They cost $8 each in the USA by the way which is a very good price for such a big bottle (I think it's 15 ml).

Finally I leave you with some more pictures after the jump!