Mac Tropical Taboo Mineralize Collection for Summer 2013 Promo Pictures!

Finally we have promo pictures of the upcoming Mac Tropical Taboo collection. I was loving it before I saw the pictures, but I'm loving it even more so!

Due to be released in July in the US (and I'm guessing August in the UK), here are the collection details:

Mineralize Lipsticks

• Lady at Play – Mid-tone cool tangerine
• Divine Choice – Mid-tone cool pink cream
• Midnight Mambo – Intense violet
• Luxe Naturale – Light beige cream
• Glamour Era – Mid-tone warm brown frost

Cremesheen Glass

• Calypso Beat –Pale neutral pink
• Fever Isle – Bright red coral
• Japanese Spring – Pale mid-tone pink
• Narcissus – Mid-tone eggplant

Lip Pencil

• Hip ‘n’ Happy – Mid-tone blue pink
• Have to Have It – Soft warm beige
• Heroine – Bright purple
• Ablaze – Bright apricot

Mineralize Skinfinish

• Adored – Coral with light beige pearlized pigments
• Rio – Bronze with bright pink pearlized pigments
• Lust – Pale pink with cranberry pearlized pigments
• Soft ‘n Gentle (permanent) – Gilded peach bronze
• Gold Deposit (permanent) – Soft reflective golden bronze

Mineralize Blush

• Sweet Samba –Dark pink with tan pearlized pigments
• Exotic Ember – Orange with bronze pearlized pigments
• Simmer – Burnt rose with peach/gold pearlized pigments

Mineralize Eyeshadow

• Dare to Bare – Light cream with gold pearlized pigments
• Carribean – Rose with pink and red pearlized pigments
• Cha-Cha-Cha – Deep blue green with green pearlized pigments
• Time to Tango – Lavendar with silver pearlized pigments
• Bossa Blue – Royal blue with brown pearlized pigments
• Tropica – Silver blue with purple pearlize pigments

Kohl Power Eye Pencil

• Feline – Rich Black
• Orpheus – Intense black with gold pearlized pigments

Brush

• 187 Brush – Duo fibre face brush
• 159 Brush – Duo fibre face brush
• 287 Brush – Duo fibre eyeshadow brush

In Extreme Dimension Lash

• Black

See lots more promo and individual product pictures after the jump!

My Mac In Extra Dimension Haul and Swatches - Blushes

Another post about my Mac In Extra Dimension haul, this time it's the blushes. While I'm not doing an in depth review, I have included the swatches for you to see. All of these have now sold out on the Mac website, but are still available from Debenhams and House of Fraser among others.

Although I'm not doing a proper review, I have to add that I'm not too happy about these blushes, they swatched badly and don't seem to apply much better with a brush either. I haven't tried them all yet, but the ones I've tried hardly showed up on me and those were the brighter ones! They don't have that soft, cream-like texture as the skinfinishes, which I guess is good on one hand, especially if you don't like metallic looking cheeks, but also not that great on the other hand.

Anyway, these cost £19 for 6.5 g and are all limited edition.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Laura Geller Blush n Brighten in Bora Bora Review and Swatches

I was going to have this review up last night, but I had such a hectic day, I was pooped by 8 pm, sorry. Nowadays I try to do at least one post a day, but some days it's just not possible with 3 children and housework, shopping, other commitments.

Anyway, here we have another lovely blush form Laura Geller, a light peachy pink colour with subtle shimmer called Bora Bora. Once again, it's a baked formula which I really like, it's very similar to the Mac mineralize blushes. This one doesn't have any veining, only some suble light gold shimmer. Very soft, but not too powdery, pretty pigmented and despite it being quite a light colour, it still shows up very well on my skin. It gives a nice natural flush and the shimmer isn't too noticable, so it's a very wearable shade for lighter skin tones.

This one is a slightly smaller size from the usual Laura Geller blush size which is normally 9 g, but I guess that's probably way more blush than you would need in one colour anyway. This one is a 6.5 g size, which is about average. The blush comes in the usual black compact with half a mirror in the lid (the other half is clear plastic, so you can see the colour). I believe this was part of the Glow-n-Behold collection, but I bought it separately from eBay. I paid around £11 including postage which is not too bad, although I have actually seen it for quite a bit less too. 

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

VIVO Baked Blush in Rouge Shimmer (Shade 4) Review and Swatches

As you can see, I'd bought a few blushes lately, I have another beauty to show you. In fact you will have already seen swatches of this with the Mac Supercontinental blush swatches (I was lazy to do two sets of photos), but you will see those at the bottom of this post again anyway.

You can buy VIVO blushes in Tesco, I'm not sure if they're actually Tesco's own brand, but in any case, VIVO products are very affordable and actually really good quality. As you know I'm a sucker for baked and mineralize products, so I find it very hard to walk past a VIVO stand wihout picking up one of their baked products. At £4 a pop it's really not a bad addiction, and this shade is particularly lovely and the blush is a nice addition to my stash.

Rouge Shimmer is a soft raspberry pink shade, it is quite a bit lighter than Nars Outlaw and doesn't have any of the gold shimmer, so this is actually more cool toned. It has a nice sheen, perhaps a little bit frosty, but there's absolutely no glitter. It is very soft and nicely pigmented. You get 8 g for £4 which makes it a very good value.

Have you tried VIVO products? What did you think of them?

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

Nars Outlaw Blush Review and Swatches

Nars Outlaw blush was a new addition to the line this autumn/fall and it is just perfect for this time of the year. Nars describes it as "soft rose tone with golden shimmer" which is about right, I also think golden raspberry pink when I look at it.

It's a little bit scary in the pan, but isn't actually overly pigmented, so can be used lightly and sheered out. It has very fine gold shimmer that gives it a gorgeous gold sheen, it's not glittery like Super Orgasm or Angelika for example. There are a few flecks of very very fine glitter, but it's definitely more of a sheen. It is such a gorgeous shade and actually quite unique, I can't think of another blush that's similar. It is soft, but not powdery and applies very nicely.

As with all Nars blushes you get 4.8 g of product in their standard black compact with a full size mirror in the lid. The outside of the compact is rubbery matte black with NARS written on it in white letters. My problem with the packaging is that unless you look at the bottom of the compact, you have no idea which shade is which. I like having a little window, like the Laura Geller blushes to see what colour it is.

Nars blushes cost £21 and are available from a variety of retailers, including Nars online, Space NK, House of Fraser and Selfridges.

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

Nars Foreplay Blush Palette Review and Swatches

One of Nars's new offerings is this gorgeous blush palette featuring their (in)famous Orgasm blush (peachy pink with golden shimmer), 2 matte blushes (pink and peach) and a yellow gold highlighter. I already owned Orgasm blush, but really liked the look of this and wanted to try it.

You get a good size Orgasm, and 3 small blushes/highlighters. I'm not too sure if the Orgasm is full size, it doesn't day on the packaging, but the regular blush is 4.8 g and you get 10 g of blush altogether in this palette (Orgasm being the biggest), so it seems about right. The other blushes and the highlighters are rather small and it's not easy to get your brush in to pick up the colours, but at least they're not too close to each other. You just have to be a bit careful.

The blushes are nicely pigmented and are soft. I like them both very much. They are both matte and it's nice too have some Nars blushes without glitter, although Orgasm isn't too bad at all, it's just a bit shimmery/frosty. I think it would be nice to see these matte shades in single form as well. The only product I don't like in this palette is the yellow gold highlighter. To me it's just too yellow. I much prefer Nars Albatross as a highlighter instead. However, I guess it could make a nice eyeshadow.

All in all, it's a nice little palette. What I especially like about it is that between the 3 blushes you are pretty much covered and if you only took this with you on holiday (for your blusher needs, obviously), that would be just fine. It's quite small and easily portable and you get a mirror in the lid.

You get 10 g for £39.50 so that makes it cheaper than buying 10 g of other Nars blushes (they cost £21 for 4.8 g). It's still not cheap, but if you're looking for a portable blush palette with a good variety of shades, this might be the answer for you. Plus it is just so pretty.

In the UK this is exclusive to Nars (online) and Space NK. I actually bought mine from Sephora France. 

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Guerlain Fall 2012 - Rose Aux Joues Blush Duo 02 Chic Pink Swatches and Review

Hope you're not sick of all my Guerlain fall collection reviews, because I have more to come! It's pretty much the only autumn/fall collection I have bought anything from, other than the gorgeous Estee Lauder Vivid Shine and Cyber Metallic eyeshadows. There are just so many lovely products and a lot of them were available on eBay for around half the actual price, so I couldn't resist.

This time I actually managed to buy the proper compact rather than a tester, so I can finally show you what the blush duo compact looks like. This is shade 02 Chic Pink, that contains a very wearable slightly shimmery rosy pink shade and a very light peachy pink matte shade. The top half is really pretty and well pigmented, but unfortunately the lighter shade doesn't really show up on me. As it's matte, I don't find it very useful to highlight and is obviously way to light to contour. The darker shade shows up well, but is subtle enough for an everyday look. I guess lighter skintones would make better use of the lighter shade.

In the compact you also get a small brush which is pretty useful for picking up blush from the smaller pan as it's a bit small for a regular size blush brush. The small brush is also useful for contouring. There is of course also a mirror in the compact and it comes in a velvet pouch inside the black outer box.

I'm not sold on these blushes yet to be honest. For starters they are really expensive at £32.50 for 6 g. I also find that some of the shades don't work well for me, so while you get 2 blushes in one compact, one might not be all that great. I do like Peach Boy and Pink Punk the most (check out this post for swatches), although the darker shade in Chic Pink is also very pretty, it's just not £32.50 pretty if you see what I mean.

Have you bought any of these yet? Let me know what you think in the comments!

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Laura Geller Blush n Brighten in Dreamsicle Review and Swatches

As you (might) know, I really like Laura Geller's blushes and I'm happy to show you my newest acquisition: Dreamsicle. A peach base with yellow and pink marble. When mixed together it makes a lovely peachy pink shade with a subtle sheen.

Laura Geller Blush n Brightens are really nice blushes, and I have a big collection of them (last updated collection post can be found here, although I have quite a bit more now). Just like the other blushes, Dreamsicle also comes in a round compact with mirror in half of the lid. You get 9 g for your money.

I usually buy my Laura Geller blushes on eBay and I think a lot of these aren't normally available in the UK (the ones that are you can buy from QVC). I paid around £13 plus postage for this which is a great price for the amount of product you get and the quality. It's very finely milled and nicely pigmented, not glittery at all, just has a subtle sheen and gives a nice glow. This shade is a very natural one and would suit lighter skintones very well.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Guerlain Fall 2012 - Rose Aux Joues Blush Duos Review and Swatches

Guerlain has lunched 6 new blush duos this fall/autumn and I have 3 of them to show you. I didn't actually buy the blushes with the compacts, because I felt that £32.50 was a bit steep for them, instead I managed to get my hands on 3 unused testers on eBay for about half the price. They are still full size, only they come without the fancy compact. Still fully portable as they come with a secure plastic lid.

I got Peach Boy, Over Rose and Pink Punk as you can see in the picture above. Peach Boy and Pink Punk were the ones I was particularly interested in trying out.

Peach Boy is a nice peachy coral blush duo. The bigger half of the duo is a satiny finish coral-peach blush and the smaller half is a shimmery more peachy shade. I would use the smaller half as highlighter, but it could also work as blush on its own.

Over Rose is the least interesting one of the three I got. The top half is slightly forsty, but not really shimmery, and the bottom half is satiny light pink shade. It is also quite poorly pigmented, I need to pack it on to make it show up properly.

Pink Punk is more pigmented, although it isn't as scary as it looks in the pan. The top half is a bright pink shade, the bottom half is a darkish dirty plummy shade. I used the bottom half as contour as well as on its own and it works well both ways.

Do I think these blushes are very special and worth £32.50? If you don't have a lot of blushes already, it's not too bad value as you get 6.5 g which is a regular size for a blush, but you get two colours to use together or separately. But in all fairness, I don't think they are that special. Peach Boy and Pink Punk are lovely shades and you might not own anything like them, but Over Rose is a bit dull in my opinion.

These blushes are part of the permanent line as the old 4 colour blushes have been discontinued, so no need to rush out to buy them immediately. However, if you have or planning to, let me know which ones you got!

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Mac Heavenly Creature Mineralize Collection July 2012 Promo Pictures and Details

Finally! The Mac mineralize collection I've been waiting for is almost here and now I have the full details and promo pictures to share with you. As a massive mineralize fan, I will be buying every mineralize product from the collection. I am also considering buying a few more of the Volcanic Ash Exfoliators as I really like them, but I still have a good few back ups from two years ago, so we'll see.

I love this promo picture with the products looking like planets, don't you? Will you be getting anything from this collection?

Find out all the details about the collection and see loads more promo pictures after the jump!

Mac Naturally Mineralize Eyeshadow and Blush Swatches

As promised, here are the swatches of the Mac Naturally mineralize goodies I picked up last week. I swatched In The Sun twice, once swirled all the shades together and once I sawtched the yellow and the rusty brown separately as there are quite big chunks of the different colours in mine, so it would be possible to use the shades separately. I swatched the blushes twice too, once lightly with a brush and once heavily.

Carry on reading to see all the swatches after the jump!

My Mac Naturally Collection Haul

I have so many things I want to share with you, but not a lot of time, so over the next few days I'll be doing some rather quick posts about some of the lovely make up I've bought from the newly released spring collections.

Today I would like to share with you the lovely Mac mineralize goodies I picked up this week. Mac Naturally launched online last Tuesday/Thursday (depending on the retailer) and I believe this Monday at counters. I ordered most of my stuff from Debenhams because I wanted to make use of their 10% beauty offer, but they couldn't send me one of the eyeshadows, so I picked that up on Thursday from House of Fraser. And here they all are:

I bought Early Morning and Summer Breeze mineralize blushes, and all 5 mineralize eyeshadows: Cloudy Afternoon, Summer Haze, Daylight, In the Sun and Twilight Falls. I also got the 286 eyeshadow brush (not pictured). I didn't pick up any mineralize skinfinishes, because I own them already from when they first came out, and I thought Fresh Honey mineralize blush was too orange for me. I also didn't get any lipsticks or lipglasses because I'm not a big fan of nude lips, besides I already have plenty enough nude lipsticks and lipglosses anyway.

I apologise for the lack of swatches, but I just haven't had time to do them. I will try my best to swatch them in the next few days, but sadly as these are all limited edition products, that might not be too helpful for you. I do have a photo of me wearing Subtle Breeze mineralize blush at the bottom of this post though, so be sure to scroll all the way down.

See more pictures after the jump!

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!

Mac Quite Cute collection is now available on maccosmetics.co.uk!

They are releasing the collection early and it is now available HERE! Use code SPRING at the checkout for free shipping! Let me know if you're buying anything!

Click here for the collection details!

Laura Mercier Silk Road Spring Collection Eye and Cheek Palette

When I saw the photos of Laura Mercier's spring collection, I knew I wanted to get this palette, as I love purples very much (I'm wearing purple eyeshadows right now). I was lucky enough to buy it one day before it's official release because I asked at the counter since it wasn't out yet, but they'd already had it in the drawers, so they let me take one. It launched on Saturday 15th January (in the UK).

This is a limited edition palette featuring 4 eyeshadows and 2 powder blushes. I'm not too sure if all the shades are new and/or limited edition, but I definitely didn't own any of them. Palace Pink blush is a light pink shimmery blush, probably works better as a highlighter. Persian Rose is a lovely pinky coral blush with good pigmentation. The four eyeshadows are all pretty shimmery and frosty, except for Regal Violet which has beautiful pink specs of glitter in it in the pan, but it doesn't seem to transfer onto the skin, it just comes out as very dark and a bit dull purple. Maybe using it wet would help. The other shades are lovely, especially Rare Taupe and Lavender Silk, but Golden Sands is a bit sheer (would make a good highlighter though). The palette costs £37 and it's a good deal considering that one eyeshadow costs £18 (although the Laura Mercier single eyeshadows are 2.6g whereas the eyeshadows in this palette are 1.4g each, but you also get two 3.4g blushes).

See more photos and swatches after the jump!

My In The Groove and Superglass haul (updated)

I went to my local Mac counter yesterday morning to check out the new collections. I was pretty sure I wanted all the mineralize eyeshadows and blushes as I have all the other ones from past collections (yep, I am a collector, I just love mineralize make up). I also wanted to pick up a Stereo Rose although I already owned it, but wanted to see how different it was (it's pretty much the same by the way). I wasn't sure which lipsticks and superglasses I wanted to pick up, I always check out lip products in person, I find they're not as easy to pull off as eyeshadows and blushes. In the end I bought 3 lipsticks: Go For It, Jazzed and I Like It Like That (all Cremesheen) and 5 superglasses: Superflash, Cherry Electric, Totally Bang, Gift Wrap and Fab Frenzy. My initial opinion is that the eyeshadows are a lot smoother than previous releases, they are very easy to blend and have no fallout. I haven't even swatched everything, but love all the colours. I did try out Togetherness today and will post pictures of my look later. The blushes are very nice too, again haven't tried all of them, only used Hang Loose today and it's really pretty and has a good colour payoff, although it is pretty light, so would probably be more of a highlighter for darker skintones. The lipsticks are all Cremesheens, although I Like It Like That has the best colour payoff, the other two are pretty sheer. I love the superglasses, they are pigmented and very longlasting (for a gloss anyway), although quite sticky (not more so than normal Mac lipglasses though). I don't find them gritty at all and in fact they're not even that glittery on the lips. Here's a picture of my haul in all its glory. See more pictures including lipstick and superglass swatches after the jump!