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!

Too Faced Sweet Indulgences Set Review and Swatches

I have always liked Too Faced, especially the special edition pretty palettes, but this year they've really stepped up their game. This is the second palette I've bought from Too Faced recently and this is yet another excellent value, fantastic quality palette.

In this set you get 16 eyeshadows, a full size Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer, 2 bronzers, 2 blushes, a highlighter and a double ended eyeshadow brush/applicator. Too Faced have also thrown in 3 looks cards. The whole lot comes in a double layer tin. The top layer includes the 16 eyeshadows, the bottom layer has everyting else. The top layer is easily removable, can just be lifted out of the tin. It's not portable on its own, but at least you can hold it while applying the eyeshadows, rather than having to hold the whole tin. The bottom layer is also removable, but less easily.

First of all, the eyeshadows are great. Most of them are shimmery or metallic, but there are a few matte/satiny ones. Some of these shades have been included in pretty much every holiday palette Too Faced have done, I recognise a few of the names, but some of them seem new. I can't find this palette on the Too Faced website (I think this might be a Sephora exclusive in the US) and the Beauty Bay website doesn't have much info. Anyway, the eyeshadows included are: In the Buff, Peach Fuzz, Marshmallow, Lovey Dovey, Copper Peony, Teddy Bear, Gum Drop, Malted Milk Ball, Satin Sheets, Nice Stems!, Nice Ash, Cherry Cola, Honeymoon, Pastille, Cop a Teal, Black Sugar. You get 1.6 g of each colour, so that's a total of a whopping 25.6 g of eyeshadow.

I haven't worn them all yet (in fact I've only worn 4), but I have swatched them all (see below) and they all swatched really nicely. The shimmery ones didn't have much fallout (if any) and the matte ones weren't at all powdery. The shades I've worn (Peach Fuzz, Gum Drop, Satin Sheets and Cherry Cola) stayed on my lids all day (with Shadow Insurance underneath, of course) and didn't crease at all. I hade some glitter fallout, I think from Peach Fuzz, but it wasn't too bad and I only noticed it several hours later.

The bronzers are both pretty nice, the exclusive shade is darker, more matte and less pigmented than the Sun Bunny Light Bronzer which is just gorgeous, smooth and pigmented. Another favourite of Too Faced's is La Vie En Rose blush, I'm sure I have it in almost every palette that's come out in the past 2-3 years, but it's a pretty pink slightly shimmery blush, so i don't mind. Papa Don't Peach blush is really nice, more pigmented than La Vie En Rose and has a lovely glow. You also get a small Candlelight Glow highlighter (another palette essential).

The brush/applicator is alright, I have only tried the brush, I'm not usually a fan of applicators. It's okay, but it doesn't add any value to the palette for me. The full size Shadow Insurance primer is great and I'm happy to own another one. The tube I'm currently using is several years old, yet it's still not empty and hasn't changed consistency one bit. I have now fully converted from Urban Decay Primer Potion.

The tin is a nice idea and could be used for storing other things when you used up all the products, but quite frankly, that's never going to happen, is it? There's no mirror in the lid, and the lid itself is a bit flimsical, mine has changed shape a bit, although still closes fine.

The palette costs £42 which might sound a bit much for some, but according to Beauty Bay it has an actual value of £133. Sephora says $381 value (approx. £236). Either way, it's a great deal. The primer costs £16.50 and a single 1.7 g eyeshadow costs £15, so that adds up to a £241.50 value alone. I think even Sephora has underestimated the value!

That's enough of the maths, let's see some swatches I hear you say! Coming up right after the jump together with lots of product pictures!

My Mac Holiday 2012 Collection(s) Haul

Just a quick post to show you all the goodies I bought from the Mac holiday collections: Glamour Daze and all the other collections with the sets, I've lost count of how many there are actually. I won't have any swatches or reviews today because although I've spend most of my afternoon taking pictures and swatching products, I haven't got around to cropping most of the photos, let alone actually trying on the products.

But for now, here are a few pictures to drool over. I especially love the packaging for the sets, they are so cute. Not sure what I will be using them for yet, but definitely wouldn't want to throw them out, they are too cute. I do remember throwing out last year's massive hanging Christmas decoration globes, but they were nowhere this pretty.

As you can see, I've bought all 3 crushed pigment sets, the coral lipgloss set and the pink brush set. 

From Glamour Daze I bought 5 Extra Dimension eyeshadows, all 3 fluidlines and Everything That Glitters nail polish.

Have you purchased anything from the Mac holiday collections yet? Let me know in the comments.

See more pictures after the jump!

My Guerlain Summer Collection Haul Part 1 - Perles d'Azur Meteorites Pearls and Meteorites Brush

I was really looking forward to the Guerlain summer collection, so of course I ended up buying a lot of products. I thought I'd split the haul post into a few parts and actually do proper reviews as well.

First up is the limited edition Meteorites powder Perles d'Azur and the Meteorites powder brush. As you might know already, I'm a big fan of Guerlain Meteorites pearls and I have a very extensive collection of them (I should take an updated photo of my collection, the last one can be seen here if you're interested).

This summer's Meteorites come in a beautiful container designed by Emilio Pucci and the case of the Meteorites brush has the same design (as well as the inside of the boxes every product comes in). This summer's Meteorites container is a lovely blue colour and the lid has the intricate detail, and the brush has matching blue hair. The pearls come in 5 colours: white, gold, copper, pink and blue, and as always they come in different sizes. Although there are blue pearls in there, the overall colour you get is just general skin colour. I would describe Meteorites as finishing powder, it gives a kind of glow to your skin, but it isn't glittery kind of glow. I didn't swatch it for you because it doesn't really show up in swatches.

The brush is really good for applying the Meteorites, but it  also works with other powders. It's very soft and quite dense, and the blue hair is just gorgeous! (The regular Meteorites brush comes with pink hair.) I love the pouch it comes with, the pattern on it is so pretty.

The Meteorites pearls cost £37 and you get 30 g, and the Meteorites powder brush costs £28.

See lots more pictures 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!

2011's Favourite Products: Part 1 - Eyes

As 2011 is drawing to a close, I decided to do a series of posts about my favourite beauty products of the year. To be honest though, I do find it quite difficult to do posts like this, because a year is a pretty long period and I often find if I think of my favourites of a certain period, the latest favourites will most likely be included rather than the ones I was crazy about 6 months ago. But I will try to be as objective as possible. I'm not doing detailed reviews on everything since I have actually reviewed a lot of these products, so I will just link them back to the posts if they've already been reviewed.

First up are base products. My favourites are in no particular order: Barbara Daly (for Tesco) Even Smoother Eye Base, Mac Paint Pots and Rimmel Colour Mousse 8hr eyeshadows. Click on the links for the reviews. The only one of these three that I haven't reviewed yet are the Mac Paint Pots. I don't know why, I've just never got around to doing it. I actually own a lot of them, having bought 10 with the last 2 Mac collections and also the permanent ones, or older limited edition ones that I'd already owned. They can be used as primers as they don't crease at all or just on their own for a subtle (or in some cases not so subtle) colour. My only problem with them is that my older ones are beginning to dry out, even though I keep them upside down and sealed properly. They are the most expensive of the bunch at £13.50 for 5 g.

Keep reading to find out what other eye products made it into my favourites this year!