My Current Favourites - Part 1 : Make Up

As it's been a long time since I last blogged frequently, I thought I'd put together a couple of posts about the products I currently use the most. I'm starting off with make up and will also show you some of my nail related favourites.

First up is Chantecaille White Tiger powder which is just possibly the most luxurious face powder you can find. In the picture below it looks a little sad as the gorgeous picture's almost completely disappeared, but you can see a picture of how it used to look here (need to scroll down a little). I love this powder, it's really nice, well, I guess it had better be anyway since it cost £88! It appears to have been discontinued now, which is a shame, but luckily I have a few back ups of it.

While still on the subject of face powder, my favourite brush to apply it with has been the Guerlain Meteorites brush. This particular one is an older, limited edition one, but they're pretty much all the same except for their colour.

See what else I've been loving lately after the jump!

Want It! Chantecaille Wild Horses Palette for Fall 2013

You know me, show me a pretty palette and I'm all over it. So of course I want to get my hands on Chantecaille's newest palette for the fall/autumn, called Wild Horses. As ever, 5% of proceeds will go to charity, this time to the Humane Society to help their efforts in conserving the land on which the animals roam.

Included in the range is the Wild Horses Palette, £74 containing a quad of warm, neutral eyeshadows, with a chestnut golden brown, creamy beige, a dusky flush of pink and a strong black which can also be used as a liner. With a slight shimmer, a super creamy powder texture and effortless blending qualities, it's all you need to evoke a sunset-inspired look for next season. The pretty casing is also a keeper - a refillable compact that you can use again and again. - See more details at Get The Gloss!

Available from September 2013 in Space NK, Harrods, Fenwick Bond Street and Liberty.

See more pictures after the jump!

Chantecaille Save The Sharks Palette Review and Swatches

Here it is, the newest Chantecaille palette, this time it's in aid of sharks. Probably not the species we think of when we hear about endangered animals, but according to Chantecaille, up to 73 million sharks are killed every year for their fins. As with every special edition palette, Chantecaille donated a percentage of proceeds to the relevant charities. This time 5% of proceeds from the Save The Sharks Palette will be donated to the BLOOM Association to ban unregulated shark fin trade.

The palette features 3 eye colours and a cheek colour, all of them made up of two colours (there's no overspray here!). Great White, the highlighter is a sandy beige with a white fin in the middle, Grey Reef is a glistening sandy grey with a lighter brown fin in the middle and Black Tip is a deep ocean blue with a black fin in the middle. Also includes Sea Anemone Cheek Shade, a golden coral color that is universally flattering on all skin tones, inspired by the underwater gardens of the tropical seas.

Despite reading not very positive reviews about the palette, I'm actually very happy with it. The eyeshadows aren't particularly unique, but they are nice colours, and they are smooth as butter. I did have some blending issues with the darker colours, but nothing major. The blush is my absolute favourite of the whole palette, it's a gorgeous coral shade, very pigmented and easy to use. It also has a light pink highlighter fin in the middle, but it's too small to use alone with a blush brush so I just mix the two shades together usually. The highlighter could be used with an eyeshadow brush though.

The palette costs $83 (approx. £55) in the US and £75 in the UK (I'll never understand why Chantecaille is so much more expensive in the UK), but I luckily managed to get mine for £40 on eBay. I'm very happy with it at that price, but I'm not prepared to pay the full UK retail price for Chantecaille products. Available from Space NK, Harrods, Liberty, Harvey Nichols.

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

Chantecaille The Evening Duo Review and Swatches

As you know, I love Chantecaille palettes, especially the pretty ones. The duo I'm going to review today I wasn't sure about buying for ages. Normally Chantecaille palettes retail around £75 for 4 shadows, whereas this duo retailed for £70. Ouch! However, since it was reduced to half price in the SpaceNK sale, I finally decided to buy it. So was it worth it?

The palette comes in a box about twice its size which causes a bit of a surpise when you pull the compact out of the box. The compact itself is shiny pewter decorated with 7 large(ish) and 7 small Swarovski crystals. Inside you find the two eyeshadows (Charmeuse and Carbon), as well as an eyeshadow and an eyeliner brush, and a full size mirror in the lid. The eyeshadows appear quite large (maybe because the palette itself is so small?), and in fact they are 2 g and 1.5 g each respectively.

Charmeuse is a light metallic pinky-nude colour with tiny sparkles and Carbon is a matte jet black. They are both smooth, they glide on effortlessly, blend really well and are well pigmented. You can use Charmeuse as an all over colour and Carbon as a liner, or crease colour which is what I did (plus used Freesia in the middle of the lid to blend the colours together and Perle on the browbone to highlight). You can see the pictures of the look at the bottom of this post. The eyeshadows lasted on me all day on top of a primer and looked really lovely.

All in all, this is a lovely palette, but not for £70. I know it's Chantecaille, but still, £70 for 3.5 g of eyeshadow is a bit pushing it. I'm happy I got it for £35 though. Sadly I don't think it's available anymore, but you might find it on eBay if you're lucky. It is still available on the Chantecaille website (US) at full price.

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

Want It! Chantecaille Save The Sharks Palette for Spring 2013

Chantecaille is releasing yet another stunning palette for Spring 2013. This time they are donating 5% of proceeds from the Save the Sharks Palette to the BLOOM Association to help ban unregulated shark fin trade. I know most people wouldn't think the sharks needed saving as they get a lot of bad press, but I guess they are just another species humans are killing off for their own gain.

The palette features three eye shades Great White, an all over white sandy beige, Grey Reef, a glistening sandy grey and Black Tip, a deep ocean blue, and Sea Anemone Cheek Shade, a golden coral color that is universally flattering on all skin tones, inspired by the underwater gardens of the tropical seas.

It retails for $83 in the US, so I'm guessing it will be around £75 in the UK. Chantecaille is available from Space NK, Liberty, Harvey Nichols and Harrods in the UK.

Chantecaille Painting in Venice Palette Review and Swatches

If you've been reading my blog for a while you will know that I love Chantecaille and have quite an extensive collection of their pretty palettes and powders. I also have a couple of big palettes that I've managed to buy on eBay for much less than their retails price (which is somewhere around the £130 mark here in the UK) and now I have a new addition to my collection: the Paining in Venice palette.

I believe this palette was released in 2003 and it contains 7 eyeshadows and one blush. Most of the shades are actually permanent, but the beauty of this palette is that even though it's really expensive, it's still a great value. Refills for Chantecaille palettes cost $25/£23 each, that makes $200/£184 plus the empty "Ma" palette (the large 8 pan palette) costs an extra $52/£48(?). So $135/£135 is really a bargain, right?

Of course it's not just about the money, Chantecaille products are very high quality and the colours in this palette are really lovely. You get cheek shade in Joy which is a bright rosy pink colour, and 7 eyeshadows in Lasting and Shine finish: Agate, Freesia, Pyrite, Lemongrass, Peony, Patchouli and Perle. They are all really lovely and well pigmented, smooth and blendable, plus they stay on all day without creasing (over a primer).

I bought this palette on eBay and paid $80 plus $15 shipping, so it was certainly a lot cheaper than even the original retail price. Plus this isn't actually available anymore, although most of the shades are. Anyway, I'm very happy with it and will be keeping an eye out for other palettes on eBay.

You can see my rather out of date post on my Chantecaille collection that also contains my other two big Chantecaille palettes by clicking here.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Chantecaille Les Fetes Trio Review and Swatches

Chantecaille released a cute little palette for the holidays called Les Fetes and I have it here to show you. "The three festive shimmer shades will inspire anyone to celebrate the Holidays with glamour. Colours glide on seamlessly and adorn your lids with a joyful glow." - Space NK

The palette contains the following 3 shades:
Moonstone - a soft pearl with hints of gold and pink highlights
Diamond - a silvery slate infused with diamond-like sparkle
Pink Sapphire - an effervescent rose to brighten the eye

The trio is actually a great little palette, very nice for a smoky eye with shimmer, perfect for a night out. Moonstone is a beautiful highlighter colour with a pinky-gold sheen, Pink Sapphire is a lovely rosy pink with a slight sheen and Diamond is a dark grey with a sequin/sparkle/stardust formula, it's a very shiny, almost wet finish.

The eyeshadows were very nice and smooth, and nicely pigmented Moonstone and Pink Sapphire especially. I found Diamond had to be packed on a bit more, but once it was on, it lasted well. I had no creasing from any of them and the look stayed vibrant for hours.

The palette also comes with a double ended brush/applicator and the compact has a full mirror in the lid. It costs £65 from Space NK, I luckily managed to buy it from eBay for around £41. You get 5 g for your money which is not huge, but decent.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

For Your Eyes Only - Chantecaille Les Petales De Rose Powder

Aah, Chantecaille. You always come out with the prettiest powders and palettes just to tempt me. Which is not good, seeing how all these pretties are actually very expensive. Thanks crunchie for eBay is what I say.

"Inspired by the gossamer, soft color and texture of crushed rose petals, Chantecaille has created a limited-edition highlighting powder that will brighten up your powder room as well as your face."

"Les Pétales’ kaleidoscope of colorful powders blend together beautifully to impart a sheer, flattering glow on all skin tones. Unique light perfecting powders provide a veil of subtle radiance, while flexible polymers help provide lasting, comfortable wear."

This is such a lovely, soft, finely milled, slightly shimmery, light pink illuminating powder. It really only has very very fine shimmer, it gives a subtle sheen to the skin. I haven' worn it, it's simply too pretty to distroy, but I did swatch it carefull to see what it was like. I would liken it to the Guerlain Meteorites, they give similar effect.

Les Petales De Rose costs a whopping £64 and you get 12 g for your money. I bought mine off eBay for around £45, it didn't come boxed and the label's missing from the bottom,but it's the powder that matters.

See more pictures including swatches 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!

Chantecaille The Elephant Palette Review and Swatches

I've got it! The gorgeous new palette from Chantecaille is finally here. Isn't it just so cute? I love the little chunky elephants on the eyeshadows.

The colours included in this palette are:

• Ivory: a soft, pearlybeige inspired by the African Elephants tusks
• Grasslands: an on trend green inspired by the colour of the lush savanna grass after the rainy season
• Iron Ore: a glistening deep gray with flecks of gold, mirrors the way the mineral shimmers in the bright African sunlight
• Red Earth: a strong copper whose colour mimics the rich, red African cliffs

There is a shimmery overspray on the elephants, but the rest of the eyeshadows show the true colours. While I have not used the eyeshadows, I did manage to swatch them (not the overspray, but the actual shadows) and I have to say, I wasn't bowled over. I like Ivory and Red Earth, they are both very smooth and well pigmented, especially Red Earth. Grassland and Iron Ore were both quite hard to swatch, they weren't very well pigmented, especially Iron Ore. I must point out, I haven't actually worn these yet, sometimes eyeshadows apply better on the eyes than they swatch, so we'll see. I still love it because it's so beautiful, and one of my weaknesses are Chantecaille powders and palettes, so I'm happy with it anyway.

The quad costs a whopping £74 although I managed to buy mine from eBay for a lot less. You get 12 g for your money and a lovely refillable dark green compact with a full size mirror in the lid. Chantecaille donates a measly 5% of the proceeds to the The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an organization that rescues, fosters and release baby elephants orphaned by ivory poaching. I feel that when charging this much for an eyeshadow palette, they could at least donate a bigger chunk, say 15-20%, but in the end of the day I guess it's better than nothing.

There is also a blush with the same elephant motif that I have literally just bought, so I have not had the chance to photograph or swatch, but I will do it as soon as possible.

In the meantime, take a look at more pictures of the palette including swatches after the jump!

Chantecaille The Coral Reefs Palette

As you probably know by now, I love Chantecaille's gorgeous powders and palettes, and every time a new one is released, I get very excited. Sadly these palettes are very expensive (this one retails for £73 - ouch!), so I tend to wait for them to pop up on eBay for usually about half the price. That is how I got hold of mine.

When I saw the promo pictures I instantly thought of the limited edition Coral powder that came out a few years ago. You can see it below on the right:

If you'd like to see pictures of my entire collection (as of December 2010), click here. Now onto this palette. Firstly, I apologise, but there won't be any swatches just yet. It's such a pretty thing, I'm not ready to destroy it yet. Yeah, I know, I'm crazy. Anyhow, the palette contains 3 shades of eyeshadows and one shade of blush. On top of each there is a raised coral pattern with gold overspray on top which should disappear after the first use. The compact itself is white with the same coral pattern and the word Chantecaille printed on it. Mine didn't come in a box. There is a full size mirror in the lid as well.

I now cannot wait for the Elephant Palette to make an appearance on eBay, although it is already available from Space NK for £74 if you want it right now.

See more pictures of the Coral Reefs Palette after the jump!

Want It: Chantecaille Safari Fall 2012 Collection

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you will know how much I love Chantecaille's limited edition beautiful palettes (check out pictures of my collection here - although it's not up to date). So when I saw the details of the upcoming fall collection, of course I knew, I have to have the gorgeous Elephant Palette. And not only that, there's also a blush with elephant pattern. I'm in heaven!

Here are the collection details:

The Elephant Palette – Limited Edition

The Elephant Palette helps raise awareness and funds for baby, orphaned elephants in Kenya. The refillable dark green palette contains four new eyeshades, each embossed with an endangered African elephant. The eyeshadows were inspired by the trends seen on the fall runways and the lustrous colors found in the Kenyan landscape. Five Percent of proceeds will be donated to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an organization that rescues, fosters and release baby elephants orphaned by ivory poaching.

Shades:

• Ivory
• Grasslands
• Iron Ore
• Red Earth

Elephant Cheek Shade – Limited Edition

Fun – soft apricot

Lip Chic

• Amour – soft pink
• Isis – shimmering light bronze

Luminous Gloss

Fig – earthy berry

Gel Liner Pencil

Bronze – shimmering copper brown

High-Definition Perfecting Powder

See a picture of the blush as well after the jump!

Want It: Chantecaille Coral Reefs Palette For Spring 2012

You know how much I love my pretty Chantecaille palettes and powders. So it won't be a big surprise to learn that I really want to get my hands on Chantecaille's new palette for the spring. Isn't it just gorgeous?

It contains 3 eyeshadows in Pink Pearl, Reef, Driftwood and a cheek shade in Coral, and they all have the same coral design with gold overspray. The design is in fact the same as the Coral face highlighter that was released a few years ago. You can see pictures of it here (together with the rest of my collection of pretty powders and palettes).

Chantecaille is donating 5 percent of the proceeds to the Marine Conservation Institute in an effort to protect 10% of the world’s oceans by 2020. This is now available from the Chantecaille website and will hopefully come to the UK soon. It costs $79, so I expect it to be around £75. Unfortunately Chantecaille products seem to have an awfully big mark up in the UK compared to the US, which is really not fair on us. I'm hoping to pick this up from eBay as I usually do.

2011's Favorite Products: Part 2 - Face

To continue from yesterday's favourites post I have the face products I loved the most this year to show you. Like I said in yesterday's post, it's hard to compose these lists because current favourites can easily make it in there even if you were using something  else for 11 months. Despite me not wanting to include products that have only recently made it into my most used and well loved products, I have gone against it and included a couple of products that are very new to me but have become firm favourites. Read on to find out what they are.

First up is my favourite face primer, Guerlain Meteorites Perles Light-Diffusing Perfecting Primer. It smells amazing and gives a smooth base, it's not slimy and slippery like some silicone based one, love it. I have reviewed it, so click on the link above.

Keep reading to find out which other face products I loved this year!

FOTD With Barbara Daly Satin Swirl Eyes Eyeshadows

This is the look I did with my new Barbara Daly eyeshadows, Navy Reflection and Cinder Shine. I used Cinder Shine all over the lid and Navy Reflection in the crease.

Here's a list of all the products I used to create this look:

Eyes:
Barbara Daly Even Smoother Eye Base
Barbara Daly Satin Swirl Eyes Eyeshadow Cinder Shine all over the lid
Barbara Daly Satin Swirl Eyes Eyeshadow Navy Reflection in the crease
Chantacaille La Baleine Bleue Eyeshadow Palette light grey shade on the inner corner of lid and above crease
Chantacaille La Baleine Bleue Eyeshadow Palette highlighter shade on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Zero on waterline
Gosh Velvet Touch Waterproof Eyeliner in Cool Mint on lower lashline
No 7 Exceptional Definition Nutrient Enriched Mascara in Black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
17 Blemish Balm (will review this soon)
Guerlain Radiant Butterfly Meteorites Voyage Powder
Chantecaille Blush in Laughter
Chantecaille La Baleine Blanche Face Palette

Lips:
Chanel Rouge Allure in Belgravia

See more pictures after the jump!

Chantecaille The New Classic Palette Review and Swatches

Even though I'm a huge fan of Chantecaille's palettes, I wasn't going to buy this palette because it's very expensive (as all things Chantecaille are) and also it didn't seem that exciting to me. Palettes with fish, sea turtles, butterflies, tigers are always appealling to me, but this particular palette doesn't feature any animals for a change. I ended up buying it on eBay for just over half price (it retails for £75) as I can't say no to a bargain.

The shades included in this palette are Valerian, Thistle and Lavender, and the blush is called Rose. Valerian is a really nice highlighter shade with subtle shimmer. Thistle is a lovely taupy grey. I had a bit of trouble with Lavender as it was the chalkiest of the shadows, but I imagine it would look very nice asa liner. I found it a bit hard to blend into the crease. The blush is really pretty, it looks very natural with very subtle shimmer.

The palette is a very shiny grey square palette with a C and Chantecaille written on it. It is a fingerprint magnet, if that bothers you, you might not like this packaging. I personally don't mind it. The palette is refillable, which is a bonus. You also get a full sized mirror inside the lid. All in all this is a nice palette and you do get 12 g which is a lot of product, but to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't pay £75 for it. But then you pay for the brand name, and Chantecaille is a luxury brand after all.

See lots more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Finished! The March edition

I had quite a successful month as I managed to finish 7 products. First up is Avon Shimmer Swirls Face Illuminator. I actually finished 2 of these as I had one upstairs and one downstairs with not much left in either. This has long been discontinued, but I wouldn't repurchase anyway because it's not that good. There was a time when I thought it was great and bought tons of it, but back then I didn't even wear foundation just used this, however, this isn't even a good base, let alone good illuminator. Doesn't blend very well and ends up quite patchy, plus it's quite drying on my skin. I have since managed to flog my remaining stock on eBay, I was surprised how many people still wanted them and they soldat quite a good price. Originally I think they cost £10, I sold mine for £5-6 which isn't too bad. 

This is what they looked like when full(ish):

Find out what else I managed to finish after the jump!

Chantecaille Sea Turtle Palette Review and Swatches

I am a big fan of Chantecaille's gorgeous limited edition palettes and was very excited when I heard that a new one featuring sea turtles was coming out this spring. My obsession with the brand started in 2008 when they released their Protected Paradise face and eye palettes, simply the most gorgeous pieces of make up I had ever seen! Although they are extremely expensive, I still managed to get my hands on them and every subsequent palette Chantecaille has produced since. If you haven't see my collection yet, take a look here!

Chantecaille gives 5% of the sales price of every palette to a charity, this year the money goes to Widecast to ensure the survival of sea turtles. This is a great cause, although I know some people think they should give more seeing how expensive these palettes are (£73 in the UK), but I guess not a lot of brands donate money to charities in the first place, so let's not grumble. Anyway, the new Sea Turtle palette is another beauty. It features 3 eyecolours and a blush, with a sea turtle on each. The shimmery colours on top are just oversprays, but the turtles should survive for a good few uses. I actually try to use the sides of the pans since they are actually a very generous size (you get 12 g in the palette), but of course the blush wouldn't work like that.

The colours are Sand, Turtle, Sea Grass and Coral, they are actually specified as Base Colour, Eye Colour, Eye Definer and Cheek colour (obv). Sand also makes a good highlighter and Sea Grass would be a gorgeous crease colour. I haven't used them yet, but as with other Chantecaille palettes, the shadows are soft and easy to swatch and true to colour.

See below for some more pictures!   

Purple look with 17 Vintage Love Perfect Pastels Palette

Last week I reviewed 17 Vintage Love Palettes here and today I would like to show you a look I created using the purple shades in the Perfect Pastels palette. Unfortunately the pictures don't do the colours justice (I really need to get a better camera!), but here it is anyway. I would appreciate if you let me know what you think of my eyebrows, I've done some DIY work to them, I think they do look a bit better.

To create this look I used the following:

Eyes:

Barbara Daly for Tesco eyeshadow primer

17 Vintage Love Perfect Pastels Palette (see picture below)

Shade 2 (pinky purple) all over lid

Shade 1 (dark purple) in outer lid and crease

Shade 3 (light violet) inner lid and above crease

Marks & Spencer Jewels eyeshadow quad light pink shade below browbone to highlight

Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencil in Perversion on lower waterline

No 7 Candy Lavender eye pencil on lower lashline

DiorShow Black Out mascara in Black Khol

Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:

Avon Shimmer Swirls Face Illuminator

Collection 2000 Illuminating Touch concealer

Chantecaille White Tiger face powder

Accessorize Starlet baked blush

Lips:

Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in Rose Sorbet

See more pictures after the jump!

Mac Peacocky Looks Part 2

Sorry it's taken me a while, but finally I've managed to write up this second post with 2 more looks I've done with my Peacocky eyeshadows and Kissable lipcolours.

First up is a look featuring Dalliance, Odalisque and Peek-at-you and also So Vain lipcolour:

For this look I used: 

Eyes:

Barbara Daly for Tesco eyeshadow primer

Mac Chilled On Ice Paint Pot (Cham Pale collection)

Mac Botanical Blue eyeshadow (from Graphic Garden palette) all over lid and above crease

Mac Odalisque eyeshadow in outer corner and in crease 

Mac Dalliance eyeshadow in inner corner and above crease

Mac Peek-at-You eyeshadow below browbone

Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencil in Flipside on lower lashline

Guerlain Le 2 Mascara in Black

Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:

Guerlain Meteorites Pearls face primer

Givenchy Photo'perfection Foundation in #04 Perfect Vanilla

Chantecaille White Tiger face powder

Mac Global Glow MSF

Lips:

Mac So Vain Kissable Lipcolour

See more pictures and find out which products I used for the second look!