Haul Pictures

I am so happy we can finally get Essence in the UK! In case you didn't know, Essence is now being sold in Wilkinson. My small local branch only has a small display, but I popped into a bigger one that had a much bigger one. Today I want to show you what I picked up as well as a couple of other bits from Topshop, Superdrug and Boots.

So from Essence I got these cute nail stickers for when I'm too lazy to do some stamping, and a nail polish called Laser Show which is a glitter topper with silver microshimmer and black glitter. From Topshop I picked up two glitter polishes called Dreamlike and Myth.

Also from Essence, I got their Blush Up powder blush that bears a very strong resemblance to Mac's blush ombres. It's very pigmented, just great for summer. I also got the new Sleek palette, Rio Rio and Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in New Moon, one of the new summer shades. I have another shade to show you, which I'll be writing a full review on very soon.

Have you been buying any make up or nail polish lately?

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!

Want It! Too Faced Hello Sunshine Collection for Summer 2013

There's another summer collection that has tickled my fancy this year and it's the Too Faced summer collection. I especially love those cute little heart shaped bronzing pearls.

Herer are the collection details:

Sweetheart Beads Radiant Glow Face Powder – New & Limited Edition

Catch the light with buildable color and a hint of shimmer. Inspired by nature’s most flattering pink and golden-light at dusk, these multi-colored heart pearls blend to impart a lit-from-within radiance.

Summer Eye 2013 Summer Sexy Shadow Collection – New & Limited Edition

A hand-picked collection of nine exclusive resort-inspired eye shadows will be your temptation to take a vacation. Like all Too Faced palettes we’ve included a show-and-tell centerfold we call a Glamour Guide to give you instructions and a start on creating three Summer Eyes looks.

The palette features 9 shades: Seashell, Plumeria, Cocoa Beach, Peach Fuzz, Coral Crush, Chocolate Sun, Sunbeam, Mermaid, Toasted Coconut.

Sweet Sun Shine Lip Gloss – New

Watermelon Ice – pink
Papaya Slushie – coral
Mocha Freeze – bronze

Endless Summer 16 Hour Long-Wear Bronzer – New

All good things don’t have to end. Get a lit-from-within bronzed glow that lasts 16-hours or more courtesy of our exclusive “Double Bond” formula that combines staying power technology with long wear pigments. It’s a bronzer that works harder than you play.

Bronzed & Poreless Pore Perfecting Bronzer – New

Create radiant-looking skin with all-over natural warmth. Bronzed & Poreless is infused with the same pore-banishing and skin smoothing properties that made our original Primed & Poreless famous—with an added warm matte bronze finish. It’s the must-have little black dress of bronzers.

Sunny Bunny Natural Bronzer – New

Our most popular, dual-toned bronzer is a silky combination of a rich, goldenbronze and a classic bronze with a touch of pink undertone to achieveyear round bronzed perfection that mimics a natural tan without any of the orangey ick!

Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer – New

Bronzing has never been so delicious. Our chocolate-scented, shimmer-free, matte bronzer is perfect for contouring and creating an all-over deep tan using real antioxidant-rich cocoa powder. It’s all the tan without the twinkle.

Medium/ Deep
Light/ Medium

Snow Bunny Luminous Bronzer – New

Four complementary shades are combined in this skin-perfecting bronzer to banish redness and rudiness, correct imperfections and add an all-over faux glow.

Pink Leopard Blushing Bronzer – New

Ourlovely little leopard bronzer combines gorgeous shades of goldenbronzes, gilded pinks and neutral fawns to brighten skin and create aglorious all over glow that will have you looking sun-kissed any time ofthe year.

Beach Bunny Bronzer – New

Our deep, illuminating bronzing powder is a silky combination of four rich, sun-kissed bronzers and shimmers that create a perfect, deep summertime tan anywhere, any time of the year.

See lots 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!

Sleek Make Up Aqua Collection Lagoon Eyeshadow Palette Review and Swatches

Nowadays Sleek Make Up eyeshadows are pretty much the only drugstore eyeshadows I buy (yes, I've turned into a make up snob). They are still great value for money and their quality is up there with Mac, Inglot, etc. eyeshadows. So as you can imagine, I was very happy to get my hands on the new limited edition Aqua collection, and in particular Lagoon eyeshadow palette (I will review Mirrored Pink blush another time).

The palette comes in a gorgeous cardboard sleeve, but inside the sleeve it's the usual matte black palette with a full size mirror in the lid, 12 eyeshadows and a double ended applicator. The eyeshadows come in a good variety of shades, you get yellow, green, teal, blue, coral, pink, the lot. Some (most) are shimmery/frosty and there are 3 matte ones too. They swatched very nicely, with the exeption of the matte ones which swatched okay, but actually all of them applied, blended and stayed really well on my eyelids.

I have done a few nice looks with this, although I still haven't used the bright coral shade (which I guess would also make a nice blush, if only the pans were bigger) and the black one. There isn't an obvious highlighter shade in it (the white one is too frosty for highlighting, better in the inner corner/tearduct area), but if your collection is even a quarter of mine, I'm sure you will own a highlighter shade to use with it.

All in all I'm very pleased with the palette and other than my usual compaints (put the shade names on the palette somewhere rather than the see through protective sheet, get rid of the applicator, stop putting the price up by a quid every year) it's a really nice one to have. I find some of my Sleek palettes a little hard to use due to the colour selection, but this one is really great, provided of course that you like bright colours. Other than the light purple and the rosy pink shadow, everything is pretty bright and loud in here!

The palette costs £7.99 for 13.2 g of eyeshadows. I bought mine from the Superdrug website, but haven't actually seen this on the shelves, also this doesn't seem to be on the Sleek website at the moment.

I'll leave yo with a picture of Paws, out gorgeous big cat who decided to "help" when I wanted to photograph the palette and blush! 

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Lime Crime Aquataenia Fantasy Palette Review and Swatches

I'd been lemming this palette for ages, and once when I was placing an order for a Z palette from Love Make Up I decided to get it. You see it was free delivery for orders over £50, and I ended up with this in my basket. As you do. I didn't own anything from Lime Crime before, but the reviews I'd read were positive, so I thought why not.

I'm happy I got it though as it's a lovely little palette. It contains 5 eyeshadows in gorgeous bright colours. The palette just screams spring to me. The colours included are Nautilus Prime (bright blue), Coral Of The Story (bright coral-orange), Seahorse Discourse (bright lime green), Pearl-ple (pearly lavender) and Atlanteal (bright teal). The eyeshadows are housed in a tin palette which doesn't include a mirror (I prefer palettes with mirrors).

So far I have only used Nautilus Prime and Pearl-ple, but I have swatched all the colours and they all seemed very smooth, nicely pigmented and not too powdery. I applied them on top of Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer as I always do, and my eye make up looked good and lasted pretty well, although I did see some fading after about 8 hours. I didn't experience any fallout and the colours were easy to blend.

The palette contains 7.5 g of eyeshadows and it costs £23.99. The eyeshadows are vegan and have not been tested on animals. I bought mine from Love Make Up, but Cocktail Cosmetics also sells Lime Crime.

All in all, it's a lovely palette with gorgeous bright springy colours. Now I'm interested in trying out other Lime Crime products!

See more pictures including swatches and the look I did with these eyeshadows after the jump!

ArtDeco Spring Collection Haul, Review and Swatches

This pretty magnetic palette is part of ArtDeco's spring collection and as I love butterflies, I of course had to snap it up. I also bought 4 of their duochrome eyeshadows to go with it and a pretty duochrome nail polish.

The palette takes either 4 eyeshadow singles or a blush and an eyeshadow, and I decided to get 4 of the new shades of eyeshadows. Of course you can buy it without refills and you also don't have to get the palette if you just want the eyeshadows, but I figured they would look lovely together.

I got 255 Aero Spring Green, 267 Fresh Water, 285 Lilac Passion and 297A Rosy Heart Throb. These are new shades for the spring, but I don't know if they are also limited edition or permanent. As I said, these are said to be duochrome eyeshadows, but with the exception of Rosy Heart Throb, I can't really see the duochrome in them. Rosy Heart Throb has a gold duochrome to it which is very pretty. The eyeshadows are very soft, a bit powdery and they are rather sheer as well. They give a very soft effect and look very springlike,but if you are looking for something more dramatic, more pigmented, then these are not for you. They did last well though and didn't crease at all, but due to their softness it was easy to overblend them, so you need to be careful when applying and blending.

Considering the price of the made up palette (£32.25) this is not as cheap as you'd think and for the amount of product you get (3.2 g) it's not the best value. I also found it a bit odd that the packaging of the palette shows an applicator, but you don't get one with it, which I probably wouldn't use, but for the price they really should've thrown in a measly applicator. 

I also bought Ceramic Nail Laquer 245 Iridescent Butterfly Wings which is a pretty blue with purple and teal duochrome. It seems very sheer, but I haven't tried it yet, so can't really comment.

The palette costs £10.25, the single eyeshadows are £5.50 (for 0.8 g) and the nail polish costs £9.50 (for 6 ml). I bought mine from BeautyBay, but Debenhams should be stocking the collection soon too.

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

Urban Decay Oz The Great and Powerful Glinda Palette Review and Swatches

There is a new big film out and of course Urban Decay has come up with a couple of palettes to go with it. I haven't seen the film yet (it's only out in March), but I remember well loving the story of The Wizard Of Oz as a child. I decided to pick up the Glinda palette more because I liked the products in it, rather than the film, and similarly I didn't pick up the Theodora palette because I wasn't very interested in the colours.

Anyway, the Glinda palette is really lovely, I'm very glad I've picked it up. It contains 6 full size (1.5 g) eyeshadows, a travel size (0.8 g) 24/7 Glide-on eyepencil and a full size (2.8 g) Super-Saturated pencil. The palette itself is the new style design your own palette, so you can pop up the eyeshadows and put different ones in if you wish. You also get a "Get the look" card to show you how you can achieve the look Michelle Williams is sporting on the box (and int he film).

The colour scheme is neutrals, pinks and purples, all very soft and feminine. You get Tornade, a very well pigmented, smooth reddish purple with a sheen, Aura, a split pan duo-chrome pink and blue frosty colour, Magic, a rosy pink with subtle gold shimmer, Illusion, a light frosty peach, Oz, a split pan frosty and glittery gold and silver and South, a frosty taupey brown. All the eyeshadows are very smooth and well pigmented, and apart from Oz, not glittery. You also get Rockstar 24/7 Glide-on eyepencil which is one of my favourite eyeliners ever (you can see swatches of Rockstar by clicking here) and Glinda Super-Saturated pencil, a glossy pinky nude colour which is very flattering.

I did two looks with the palette, one using the eyeshadows in the top row (pictures at the bottom of the post) and one using the eyeshadows in the bottom row (except the silver one). I especially liked the first look as it was so pretty and feminine. The only eyeshadow I had an problems with is Oz, the split pan gold and silver one, because it has a bit more gritty texture than the others and the chunky glitter is more fallout prone.

The eyeshadows last on me without creasing and fading for 10 hours or more. Glinda Super-Saturated pencil lasts on me for about 2-3 hours depending on whether I eat or not. It's a lovely glossy lipcolour and doesn't feel at all drying on the lips.

There are a few things I dislike about the palette itself. I don't like the make your own palette style, the eyeshadows feel quite wobbly in it and also it is extremely bulky for what it is. I also don't like that you can't see anywhere the names of the eyeshadows (other then the bottom of the actual pans and the outer box. I'm thinking about pulling th plastic insert out, depotting the eyeshadows and using the palette with magnets instead. I reckon you could fit at least 9 eyeshadows in the that way, if not more.

Value-wise I can't fault it, the set costs £35 and it includes over £107 worth of products not counting the palette itself. I can happily say that other than Oz that feels a bit too glitzy for every day wear and feels a little bit out of place for me, the palette is really lovely and I have really enjoyed using it.

See lots more pictures including swatches and a look I did using the 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!

Yves Saint Laurent Y Facettes Palette 4 Wet & Dry Eyeshadows Review and Swatches

Another pretty eyeshadow palette from the spring 2013 collection, this time it's from YSL. This is one of their hybrid / gelee powder style eyeshadows (Pure Chromatics they're called I believe), they feel quite creamy, but aren't actually cream products. They can be worn dry for a subtle look or wet for a more intense one.

I really love the colours in this quad, they are springlike, but not too pastely. You get a gorgeous frosty grass green, a shimmery light pink, a frosty mauvey purple and a frosty sky blue. Out of the four, the pink mostly just gives you pink sparkles, it's the sheerest of them all. The other three are nicely pigmented even whe dry (I haven't actually used them wet yet).

I have only used two colours at a time (blue and green, pink and purple), but I can definitely see using 3 or even all 4 at the same time, they go together really well. Despite their creamy formula they did not crease on me at all, but they did start to fade after about 8 hours. I also noticed some fallout, especially with the pink shade which is the most glittery. Nothing major though, and it's often expected with this kind of formula, and the glitter isn't chunky, so it doesn't bother me.

You get 3 g of product which isn't a lot, but I think these eyeshadows are generally more "fluffy" so they weigh less than regular powder eyeshadows. The palette costs £39.50. I think this is a limited edition, but not sure.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Guerlain Spring 2013 - Ecrin 4 Couleurs 502 Coup De Foudre Review and Swatches

This is the second limited edition eyeshadow quad from the Guerlain spring collection, if you haven't see the purple one, you can check it out here. Coup De Foudre contains 3 green shades and a bright coral.

The palette hasn't got any special packaging, it's housed in the regular gold compact. It comes with a double ended sponge tip applicator and a full size mirror in the lid. The colours are very pretty and springlike. The palette contains a frosty khaki, a satin bright coral, a frosty light silvery green and a slightly frosty greeny-grey shade. This one doesn't have a highlighter shade, which some people may not like, but the 4 colours work together well, so I'm happy. I haven't used the coral shade yet, but I can see it working well with the light green and the khaki colour. I have done a look with the three greens which you can see at the bottom of this post.

The eyeshadows are really lovely, smooth, buttery and pigmented. They go on and blend easily and stay put all day (I always wear Too Faced Shadow Insurance under them). I'm not sure which one of the two palettes is my favourite, I love purples, but these greens and the coral are so gorgeous as well.

It's really lovely to see two such great quality palettes out this spring, in fact I have found that Guerlain's limited edition palettes have been consistently excellent quality lately. Makes you feel better about forking out for them.

You get 7.2 g of product for £38. The Guerlain spring collection is available from all good department stores and Escentual.com (for a bit less).

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

Guerlain Spring 2013 - Ecrin 4 Couleurs 501 Attrape-Coeur Review and Swatches

Guerlain released two limited edition eyeshadow quads this spring and I have 501 Attrape-Coeur to show you first. This is the pretty purple one, I will show you the green one tomorrow. In fact you've already seen it in action in yesterday's post about the new Cils D'Enfer mascara. If you haven't, check out my post here.

The palette hasn't got any special packaging, it's housed in the regular gold compact. It comes with a double ended sponge tip applicator and a full size mirror in the lid. The colours are very pretty and springlike. The palette contains a muted lavender, a frosty white, a frosty dark purple and a pinky violet shade. I like purples like these that aren't mauvy or red, but true purples, they look better on me. (Mauves make my eyes look tired.) Unfortunately this is exactly the shade of purple my camera hates and doesn't pick up properly, the colours are much prettier in real life.

The eyeshadows are really lovely, smooth, buttery and pigmented. They go on and blend easily and stay put all day (I always wear Too Faced Shadow Insurance under them). I like it that this palette contains a complete look with a highlighter and a dark shade as well as two lighter ones, but equally I wouldn't mind to have a different colour instead of white. It's not too harsh for a highlighter though so it does work well with the palette. 

You get 7.2 g of product for £38. The Guerlain spring collection is available from all good department stores and Escentual.com (for a bit less).

See more pictures including swatches and a look I did with this palette 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.

Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Bronzed Green Eyes Review and Swatches

I was really interested in trying out this brand before I went to America last year and I did buy a few of their face powders and blushes, but never got any eyeshadows. I bought this palette in TK Maxx a couple of weeks ago together with a blush that I will review shortly. Although this palette is for green eyes, I decided to get it because it has a nice mix of colour and also because I don't believe in only wearing certain colours depending on your eye colour.

You get 9 eyeshadows (or rather 6 eyeshadows and 3 liner according to Physicians Formula) and they range from very subtle neutrals to darker, smokier colours. The colour theme is definitely neutral, but there are some nice pops of colour including a copper and a khaki shade. The eyeshadows are grouped into 3 groups of 3, the 3 on the right giving you the most subtle look and the 3 on the left the most dramatic look. You can also use them wet for an even more intense look.

The eyeshadows are nicely pigmented and smooth, all of them metallic, but there's no glitter. I didn't have any problems with fallout or creasing when wearing them over a primer. I used the 4 shades on the right to create the look you can see at the bottom of this post (not just 3 because I'm a rebel). I didn't use the liner shade as a liner, but as crease colour instead. Of course it's up to you what combinations you do with these, but the main thing is that you have a good choice with 9 shades.

The palette contains 7.5 g product and I paid £4.99 for it in TK Maxx. On the Physicians Formula website these retail for $10.95 and come in 4 variations. In the UK your best bet is TK Maxx or eBay.

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

Lancome Color Design Palette in 103 Golden Frenzy

I wasn't sure whether I should do this review since the product itself isn't actually available on its own or in fact anymore for that matter, but I decided to do it anyway because you can pick up practically everything on eBay plus this palette might actually be available elsewhere. Lancome don't sell these 5 colour palettes in the UK but they do in America, I picked up the purple one last year in Florida.

I got the palette as part of the Christmas Beauty Box back in November and sadly it isn't available anymore. It took me a while to get around to using it, but finally I have. It's a really nice neutral palette with some sparkle. The palette consists of 5 eyeshadows and they are labelled as: all over base, lid, crease, highlighter and liner. Of course you don't have to use the eyeshadows as they're labelled, I actually used the all over base colour as a highlighter and the highlighter colour in the outer corner of the lid because I don't think that such a dark colour would look good as a highlighter.

I found the eyeshadows nicely pigmented, soft and smooth, they stayed on without creasing and fading for 12 hours or so. I wouldn't say this is a must have palette especially if you have a lot of eyeshadows already, but it's a nice, all in one palette, and it certainly looks gorgeous too.

As these palettes aren't sold in the UK, I have no idea what they would cost if they were, but in the US they're around $48. You only get 4 g of product which isn't a lot, but I'm not really bothered about the weight anymore since I already have so much make up anyway, I will never use it all up in a million years.

See more pictures including swatches and a look I created using this palette after the jump!

ArtDeco Dita Von Teese Golden Vintage Eyelights and Blusher

This post is purely to show you these beautiful products I've got from the ArtDeco Dita Von Teese Golden Vintage collection. Since they are still available from Debenhams, I'm not actually being mean teasing you with something pretty that you can't have.

I got the Golden Vintage Blusher and Golden Vintage Eyelights. As you can see they are ridiculously pretty and me being crazy, of course I haven't actually swatched or used them. So there's no review today other than "look how pretty they are".

They both cost £25 and both are 10 g which is way bigger than you would need of blush or eyeshadows. They come in gorgeous gold boxes and gold compacts, everything about them is just gorgeous. What's not to like, eh?

ArtDeco products are available from Debenhams and BeautyBay (although the latter doesn't have the Golden Vintage collection).

See more pictures after the jump! 

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!

Looks Featuring Sleek Make Up Sparkle 2 Palette - Part 3

Finally, the third part of my looks post featuring the new Sleek Make Up Sparkle 2 palette. I really liked this one too, I actually wore this on a night out, with a bit more smokiness in the crease. I am sporting a few other products in these pictures which will also be reviewed soon, so stay tuned.

To create this look I used:

Eyes:
Too Faced Insurance Policy
Sleek Make Up Sparkle Palette 2 Tinsel eyeshadow in the inner corner of the lid
Sleek Make Up Sparkle Palette 2 Illusion eyeshadow in the outer corner of the lid and in the crease
Mac Mating Call Mega Metal eyeshadow blended above the crease
Mac Vellum eyeshadow on the browbone to highlight
Mac Designer Purple pearlglide intense eye liner on lower lashline
Guerlain Noir G mascara
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation in 02 Beige Claire
Guerlain Voilettes Invisible Skin Fusion Loose Powder in 03 Beige Naturel
Laura Geller Ombre Baked Blush in Pink Blossom (will be reviewed soon)

Lips:
OCC Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Metallic Liptar in Yaoi (will be reviewed shortly)

See more pictures after the jump!

Looks Featuring Sleek Make Up Sparkle 2 Palette - Part 2

Here's part 2 of the looks I did with Sleek Make Up Sparkle 2 Palette. Again as you can see, there isn't really any glitter visible (maybe a tiny bit in the crease) and the eyeshadows blended into each other really nicely. And that eyeliner (well, actually it's an eyeshadow pencil) stayed that vibrant all day. Although I have to add, I don't think those Urban Decay 24/7 eyeshadow pencils are very good as eyeshadow pencils, but they make nice eyeliners. Anyway... here's the look:

To create this look I used:

Eyes:
Too Faced Insurance Policy
Sleek Make Up Sparkle Palette 2 Tinsel eyeshadow in the inner corner of the lid
Sleek Make Up Sparkle Palette 2 Blue Spruce eyeshadow in the outer corner of the lid
Sleek Make Up Sparkle Palette 2 Twinkle eyeshadow in the crease
Mac Vellum eyeshadow on the browbone to highlight
Urban Decay Clash 24/7 eyeshadow pencil on lower lashline
Guerlain Noir G mascara
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Guerlain Parure de Lumiere Foundation in 02 Beige Claire
Guerlain Voilettes Invisible Skin Fusion Loose Powder in 03 Beige Naturel
Lancome Blush Subtil 02 Rose Sable (will be reviewed soon)
ArtDeco Dita Von Teese Illuminating Baked Powder

Lips:

Guerlain Rouge G in Grace

Part 3 is coming very soon. See more pictures after the jump!

Looks Featuring Sleek Make Up Sparkle 2 Palette - Part 1

As promised, here are some of the looks I did with Sleek Make Up Sparkle 2 palette. As you will see, none of them are at all glittery, but the colours are really vivid and the shadows were so easy to blend. Really love this palette and have enjoyed using it so much!

First up is the one you have already seen a few times, actually my favourite one of them all. Part 2 and 3 will follow very shortly. Let me know what you think!

To create this look I used:

Eyes:
Too Faced Insurance Policy
Sleek Make Up Sparkle Palette 2 Gold Ribbon eyeshadow in the inner corner of the lid
Sleek Make Up Sparkle Palette 2 Chocolate Penny eyeshadow in the middle of the lid
Sleek Make Up Sparkle Palette 2 Mulled Wine eyeshadow in the outer corner of the lid
Sleek Make Up Sparkle Palette 2 Festive eyeshadow in the crease
Mac Peek At You Mega Metal eyeshadow on the browbone to highlight
Urban Decay Eldorado and Crash 24/7 eyeliners on lower lashline
Guerlain Noir G mascara
Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:
Guerlain Lingerie de Peau foundation in 02 Beige Claire
Guerlain Voilettes Invisible Skin Fusion Loose Powder in 03 Beige Naturel
Laura Geller Baked Blush in Bali
ArtDeco Dita Von Teese Illuminating Baked Powder

Lips:

OCC Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Metallic Liptar in Super NSFW (will be reviewed shortly)

See more pictures after the jump!