Lightscapade, Lightscapade, What Has Happened To You?

When I first heard about Lightscapade MSF being repromoted, I was very excited, because as you know, I love my MSFs and my highlighters and Lightscapade is one of my prettiest MSFs. It was first released in 2006 with the Danse collection and I was lucky enough to buy it a couple of years ago for not too crazy money. My old Lightscapade is a mix of pink, blue, yellow, orange and cream, the colours are quite vivid, but still give a very subtle colour making it one of the prettiest highlighters I own. So I was very excited to purchase some back ups when Mac's Fall Collection came out last week.

Unfortunately, it seems that this time around Mac didn't manage to produce the same powder. I ordered 2 from Debenhams online and then went to my local counter to see if I can pick out one with more colourful veining, but as you can see from the picture above, I didn't really succeed. The powder on the top is the one I hand picked and possibly has the most colour, but still is mainly beige and the veining is very pale. I literally looked through several Lightscapades at the counter and they all looked like the ones above. Quite disappointed really.

You can see in the picture below how much more colourful my old Lightscapade is (the one in the top right corner in case you haven't guessed). Fortunately I still have plenty of left of my old Lightscapade and despite the new ones looking quite disappointing, they swatch quite similarly, so the overall highlighting effect isn't that different. I've included a swatch picture at the bottom of the post, so make sure you scroll down all the way.

All in all, I am pretty disappointed not to have been able to buy another pretty colourful Lightscapade, but at least I have managed to pick up some which was already quite a big achievement considering how quickly it had sold out online. All in all, it's still a lovely highlighter and I hope everyone who wanted it managed to pick up one (or two).

See lots more pictures including a swatch picture after the jump!

FOTD: Guerlain Fall 2011 Collection

Here's the look I did with my new Guerlain fall 2011 products, in fact I also wore Guerlain foundation, mascara, blush and setting powder/complexion highlighter but that's mostly just because I love Guerlain products. :) In most pictures I'm wearing Rouge G in 71 Girly, but I included a picture at the bottom wearing 25 Garconne as well. (I did take that one with a slightly different camera setting, hence the cooler colours, but it's the same look.) Hope you like it.

To create this look I used the following products:

Eyes:
Barbara Daly (Tesco) Eyeshadow Primer
Guerlain 4 Colour Eyeshadow Palette 08 Les Perles light pink colour on inner half of lid
Guerlain 4 Colour Eyeshadow Palette 08 Les Perles grey/taupe colour on outer half of lid
Guerlain 4 Colour Eyeshadow Palette 08 Les Perles dark grey-purple in crease
Guerlain 4 Colour Eyeshadow Palette 08 Les Perles white gold on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Zero on lower lashline
Guerlain Le 2 Waterproof Mascara in Black
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Parure Gold foundation in 02 + 03 mixed together
Guerlain Meteorites Voyage Powder in Radiant Butterfly
Guerlain 4 Eclats Blush in 04 Rose Plein Vent on the cheeks

Lips:
Guerlain Rouge G lipstick 71 Girly (and 25 Garconne)

See more pictures after the jump!

Guerlain Fall 2011 Collection Haul and Review Part 2 - Rouge G Lipsticks Girly and Garconne

As promised, here's the second part of my Guerlain fall collection review. In this part I'd like to show you two of the three Rouge G lipsticks that were released with the collection: 71 Girly and 25 Garconne. As you may know, I love Guerlain Rouge G lipsticks, they are just so creamy and smooth and luxurious. (If you haven't seen it, I have swatched all my Rouge G lipsticks here.)

Girly is a bright pink shade, it's very girly as the name suggests, it's bright and cheerful, but very wearable. Garconne is possibly my new favourite red lipstick, it is an amazing shade that lit my whole face up! I couldn't not stare at my reflection every time I passed a mirror! I think it's what's called a blue based red as it made my teeth look whiter as well. Both lipsticks wore very well on me, Garconne lasted for 4 hours without even fading, Girly didn't have all that long time as I had lunch about 3 hours after I applied it, but up to then it lasted wonderfully and there was still some pink tint left after lunch. Girly also felt a bit more slippery than Garconne, and didn't apply quite as opaque, so maybe it would last less long. Both feel very comfortable on the lips and there was no bleeding at all despite wearing Garconne without a lipliner!

Guerlain Rouge G lipsticks cost a whopping £28.50 (used to be around £25 when they first came out) and you definitely pay a lot for packaging (they come in state of the art, very heavy cases with fold-out mirror), so if you don't mind not having the fancy packaging, you can always check eBay for testers. I usually pay around £7-£8 for testers of Guerlain Rouge G's. I find that the testers on eBay are genuine (haven't come across a fake tester yet), but unfortunately I have seen fake Rouge G lipsticks with very flimsical cases and shades that don't compare to the real shades, so as always, be careful when buying from eBay!

See below for more photos, including arm and lip swatches! I will post the look I did with the eyeshadows and the lipsticks tomorrow.

Guerlain Fall 2011 Collection Haul and Review Part 1 - 4 Colour Eyeshadow Palette 08 Les Perles

Today I have Guerlain's fall collection to show you, or rather the few items I have purchased. It's not actually a huge collection, although there are 9 new eyeshadow quads coming out, they are actually permanent, so no need buy all the ones you like at once. Therefore I only picked up one of the eyeshadow quads and two of the Rouge G lipsticks. I skipped on the third lipstick as it's a dark plum colour and I don't often wear dark colours like that plus I already have plenty of them anyway.

I'm going to review them in 2 parts, so first I'm going to focus on the eyeshadow palette first. The one I got is 08 Les Perles. The other quads named after the colour they contain, like Les Violets and Les Bleus (the two on my wishlist actually), but Les Perles is actually named after the finish of the eyeshadows which is as you have probably guessed, pearly. Most of the other quads include at least a matte shade, but this one actually has 4 pearly / satiny finishes. The colours are taupy grey, white gold, dark grey-purple and light pink. The eyeshadows are nicely pigmented, smooth, easy to blend, as you'd expect from Guerlain. They didn't crease on me at all and lasted through the whole day. I will post a look I did with these in the next day or so.

The palette costs £37.00, so is on par with Chanel, Dior and other luxury brands. You do get a good amount of product for your money (7.2 g) which is in fact the same as the 6 colour eyeshadow palettes that cost way more (£52.50). I think you pay more for the packaging there and also the fact that you get 6 colours instead of 4.

Right then, enough of the chit chat, there are loads of pictures including swatches waiting for you after the jump!

Lancome Fall 2011 - Le French Touch Absolu Lipstick Review and Swatches

This autumn Lancome came out with a lovely collection called 29 St Honore and as part of that collection released 3 gorgeous red lipsticks: #100 Rouge 29, #102 and #104 (I'm sorry, I don't know the names for those shades). I bought #100 from Boots (actually got it free with my Advantage Card points, thank you very much) and managed to buy the other two from eBay in the form of testers. Those don't have the names on them, so I can't tell you I'm afraid.

These lipsticks are the cutest things ever, they are very small (although at 3 g they're not actually that much smaller than your average lipstick (most are around 3.5 g)), but the tube itself is very small, which makes you wonder what on earth you just paid £23.50 for! But then you apply them and realise that little actually goes a very long way as these lipsticks are super pigmented. Very smooth and silky, they are really lovely. I have one little problem with them, and it's the scent. I don't mind scented products as long as they smell nice, Mac's vanilla and Guerlain's flower scents are my favourite. Unfortunately these Lancome lipsticks have a very similar scent to those sweet plasticy smells a lot of drugstore/high street brand lipsticks have, like Maybelline. Although this isn't too strong, so I can live with it, but it's certainly not my favourite.

If I have to pick a favourite, I have to go with #100 Rouge 29, it's a gorgeous pinky red and it's just beautiful. But in all honesty I love them all. So if you also like the look of them, don't delay, these are all limited edition, so make sure you buy your favourite(s) before they're gone. And don't forget to let me know in the comments which one you like best.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. 4 Review and Swatches

So here it is, Urban Decay's latest offering, the Book of Shadows volume 4. Well, really it's 5, because there was also the Alice in Wonderland palette, but anyway. It cost £46 and for that you get 16 just over half size (of the Urban Decay singles) eyeshadows as well as a full size 24/7 Waterproof Liquid eyeliner in Perversion (black), a travel size Supercurl Curling Mascara (black), a travel size Eyeshadow Primer Potion (original), as well as a mini speaker and cables to connect your smart phone, and a card with 5 QR codes. I don't have a smart phone, so can't test the technical side of it, but I will tell you all about the make up.

First of all, the palette is HUGE. It's probably one and a half times the size of the original Book of Shadows and some people tought even that was pretty big. This one measures 22.5 cm (length) by 15.5 cm (width) by 4.5 cm (height), so it is pretty bulky. The palette comes in a cardboard box which is different from the older Books of Shadows because those came in plastic sleeves with an extra card showing the contents of the palette, whereas we have that all printed onto the bottom of the box. The design is butterflies and rays of light, which is actually very pretty. Inside the box you have the palette with the same design which is nice. It's got a pop-up lid with a smallish mirror and a fold-up pocket for your smart phone as well as the Get the look card, and some more butterflies that are supposed to go boing up at you when you open the lid, but mine are just flat, sitting still at the bottom. Ah well, never open the lid of my Books of Shadows anyway when applying my make up. You also have the usual drawer with the eyeshadows and extras.

Now the eyeshadows are a bit dull to be honest. The bottom half of the palette is practically just neutrals (which is great I guess if you love neutrals, but you have the Naked Palette and half of the 15 Year Anniversary Palette for that already). The top half has some colours, but it's greys, blues, greens and browns and not really the vibrant variety either. There are some shades I like a lot, including Gravity, a blueish purple, Blue Bus, a nice blue, Baked, a lovely orangey copper (permanent by the way), Sin, a gorgeous pink champagne (permanent), and Skimp, a flesh toned satin textured highlighter. The good thing about this palette is that it's not glitterfest. It does include some shimmery shades yes, and it does include Midnight Rodeo (from the 15 year anniversary palette) which does have major glitter fallout, and Midnight Cowgirl, but most of the shades are not glittery. I have to be honest, when I hear the words Urban Decay and Midnight, I immediately know there will be lots of glitter involved, but Midnight Cowgirl is actually a pretty good distant cousin of the Midnight Cowboy family and is a very pretty, only slightly glittery shade.

I did have some issues with Crystal which just doesn't seem very pigmented at all, and Blue Bus needed a few layers to make it work, but most of the eyeshadows are pretty good quality. I personally would say if you can only buy one palette and you have to choose between this and the 15 Year Anniversary Palette, then I would definitely recommend skipping this one in favour of the other one. At £46 however, it's still good value, since the 16 eyeshadows (0.8 g each) would already add up to £110.93, plus the eyeliner is worth £14, the mascara worth around £8.50 (don't know how big the full size one is, but this is pretty decent size), and the Primer Potion, so we are easily looking at £140 or so. I think the question is whether it's worth £46 to you? I bought mine mainly because I have all the other Books of Shadows and thought I'd probably regret skipping this, but in all fairness, you could quite happily live without it.

As for the extras, the eyeliner is very nice and easy to apply, lasts all day and is definitely waterproof (took a while to remove with my Estee Lauder Gentle Eye Make Up Remover, probably need something like Lancome Bi-Facil instead). The mascara doesn't do it for me I'm afraid, it doesn't add any volume and only adds a little lenght, and since my lashes are naturally curly, no matter what mascara I use, I don't really need a curling mascara (and can't really say if it does a good job at curling or not). The Primer Potion is a very good base, I use it all the time, and it's nice to have a travel size one to take on holiday, etc.

Okay, enough of the rambling, there are lots more photos, check them out after the jump! I will be posting a couple of looks soon, so be sure to check back!

NOTD: Chanel Peridot - My First Ever Chanel Nail Polish!

I was very excited when I first saw pictures of Chanel's fall collection, especially when I saw pictures of Peridot nail polish. It instantly reminded me of Scarab beetles, it being green-gold with blue sheen. Never seen a nail polish that colour before. So I bought it last Monday and I've finally got around to wearing it. 

I love it, it's so beautiful. In the bottle it's green-gold with blue around the edges of the bottle, and I was a bit afraid this wouldn't transfer as well onto my nails, but it did. Depending on how the light hits them, my nails are gold, green, even blueish green, or all of the above. Not easy to catch in photos, but I have sort of managed, be sure to check out the pictures after the jump! (Sorry about the picture quality, I used my phone to take the photos as I was pressed for time.)

Formulawise it's lovely. Goes on like a dream, not too thick, not too runny, dries quickly and it's soooo shiny! It took only 2 coats to be completely opaque. Unfortunately it did chip me within the first 24 hours, but I always like to point out that almost everything chips on me within a day, that's because I have crappy soft, bendy nails. It costs £17.50 for a 13 ml bottle, so it's not cheap, but it is Chanel after all. Is it worth it? It is a very unique shade, so I would say it is, but if you're on a tight budget, you might just want to wait and see if cheaper brands come up with a dupe as they often do. Of course there's also the small matter of this shade being sold out already, as unfortunately it's a limited edition shade.

Don't forget to let me know in the comments if you bought this and whether you like it or not. 

See lots of pictures after the jump!

Guerlain Fall 2011 Make Up Collection Preview

Guerlain is one of my favourite make up brands and I'm always happy to find out about upcoming collections, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I came across some promo photos and collection details over at Marina's website. Although I am usually most excited about Guerlain's holiday collections because of new Meteorites, Voyage Powders and Sublime Radiant Powders coming out, I can see a few interesting products in the fall collection as well.

Firstly, just how gorgeous does Natalia Vodianova look in this promo picture? To be honest, I have not seen a promo picture where she didn't look gorgeous, I really like her style and I think she really fits Guerlain's image, very classy and beautiful, just like Guerlain's products.

Here are the details of the collection:

Rouge G de Guerlain lipsticks

• 25 Garconne (red from the promo)
• 70 Gigolo (plum)
• 71 Girly (pink)

Ecrin 4 Couleurs eye shadows (they will become a part of a permanent line)

• 01 Les Violets
• 02 Les Bleus
• 03 Les Verts
• 04 Les Bois de Rose
• 05 Les Gris
• 06 Les Fumes
• 07 Les Cuirs
• 08 Les Perles
• 09 Les Noirs

Last fall Guerlain released the 6 colour eyeshadow palettes which are a very similar, obviously with 2 more colours. I wonder if these new eyeshadow quads will replace the current permanent 4 colour eyeshadow palettes? We'll see.

Eye Liner Liquide in 05 Brun Cendré

Khol Me

• 20 Khol Me Navy (navy blue)
• 30 Khol Me Ebony (brown)
• 40 Khol Me Jungle (green)

Parure Gold Powder, new shades in 02 Beige Clair and 03 Beige Naturel.  Plus light shades in 00 Beige Ivoire and 01 Beige Pale for Asian market.

Anything tickle your fancy? 

See more promo pictures after the jump!