Elle article on the Chanel 2.55

Thank you for all the well wishes and encouragement from my last post :) Well things will still be pretty busy but I thought I'd share an article from Elle Canada on the history and manufacturing process of Chanel 2.55, one of my dream bags :D

Each page is enlargeable by clicking on it. Sorry I couldn't get better scans - I actually don't have a scanner, these were taken with my camera.







If you enjoyed that you might also be interested in this article on the making of Mulberry's Alexa bag :)

Summer nail colours

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I've been busy with some changes in my life, namely quitting my job so I can do graduate school. I also haven't really felt like buying any makeup lately, just mostly clothing, probably because I feel that my wardrobe is sorely lacking in some aspects for the program I'm in :P

Anyway, before summer is over I thought I'd share swatches of 2 very summer-appropriate nail polishes:

MAC Seasonal Peach





This was 4 freaking coats! I wouldn't recommend this polish at all, the colour is quite sheer and streaky. I'm sure I've seen dupes of this colour from China Glaze or Essie.

American Apparel Butter



2 coats only! Love how pigmented this polish is. I don't think I've seen a similar colour from other brands but this polish priced well enough (US$7.50) you don't really need to find a dupe.

So what have you been wearing on your nails lately?

Cargo Classic Lip Gloss - Dusseldorf

At the Toronto blogger meetup a few weeks ago, Farah and Cargo Cosmetics kindly organized a little something for each of us. I got the chance to try Cargo's lipgloss in Dusseldorf:



The applicator doesn't pick up very much product, which I find a tad annoying because I have to double dip to get enough gloss out.



Dusseldorf is a sheer berry with micro shimmer.



It is more of a MLBB colour if you have pigmented lips like me. For others it would most likely be a sheer gloss perfect for transitioning from summer to fall.



The texture is lightweight, and not too sticky, just slightly. As with all Cargo glosses it comes with a timestrip indicator to remind you how long your gloss has been opened and when it expires in 3 months.

I haven't yet activated the indicator on mine, partly because I don't use my glosses often enough to have just a 3 months shelf life on it, but I could see it being a useful reminder if you use this gloss daily.

Gold & pink summer

What I used:

Face
Biore UV milk base
Mix of Guerlain Parure Extreme 02 & Lunasol Water Cream foundation YO-02
Cargo blu-ray concealer 02

Blush
MAC So Ceylon MSF
MAC Emote blush

Lips
MAC Jazzed lipstick

Eyes
UDPP as base
Maybelline Amber Adventure quad
Annabelle Pinked eyeshadow
Kate Super Sharp Liner BK-1
Mary Kay Ultimate mascara

Marcelle Climatik Lip Balm SPF 30

Climatik is Marcelle's line generally targeted for use during outdoor activities, particularly during the cold winter months. However, the Climatik Lip Balm is one of the products from the line that you may wish to have on hand all year long. It is one of the few drugstore lip balms that contain SPF 30, not to mention UVA and UVB protection.




The packaging is similar to La Roche Posay and Vichy's lip balm sunscreen.




It has a retractable mechanism which allows you to apply the lipbalm with one hand, quite useful for on the go.




The balm is colourless as you can see however I found that depending on how much you apply there might be a slight white cast, due to the sunscreen ingredients.




Ingredients




What I liked

- Higher SPF protection
- Sunscreen ingredients offer both UVA and UVB protection. Most balms just have UVB
- Priced better than other known brands with similar products ($6.95 for 4g tube)
- Protects lips as it claims
- Whitish cast lightens lip colour - I could use this as a base to make lip colours pop more (similar to MAC Lip Erase)

What I didn't like

- it left a slight whitish cast, which is ok if you're using lipstick over it but would look funny on its own
- no tinted shades available. I think that would fix the issue with the white cast.

Overall

Great buy if you are looking for a sunscreen for lips higher than SPF 15. However best used under another lip colour due to the whitish cast of the sunscreen.

message in a bottle

My favourite summer lipstick of all time would have to be the Lancome Color Fever lipstick in 302 SOS Pink:



The packaging is simple and feminine - metallic with translucent pink sides. The tube has a nice weight to it without feeling cheap.

Swatched:



Colour is a bright pink that is neither cool nor warm so I think it complements most skintones.



The lipstick has a cream finish that is quite pigmented. Texture wise it isn't as creamy as the MAC Cremesheens but the intensity of the colour makes up for that, as Cremesheens do tend to be a bit sheer.

Here's one of my past looks (from this post) with SOS Pink. I usually wear it the same way, paired with simple eye makeup since the pink is quite bright.




So do you have a favourite summer lip colour? Feel free to share! :)

Maybelline Eyestudio - Green with Envy

Of the 3 quads I've tried, this is my favourite quad from the Eyestudio line so far. The colours are soft and swatch easily.




Simple basic look using Green with Envy:



The colours are pigmented and easily blendable, yet each colour stands out on its own without looking muddy. There is a bit of fallout but not so much that you look like a confetti accident.



This was taken at the end of the day so unfortunately most of my makeup already wore off. For the record I was wearing MAC Refined MSF and Jazzed lipstick as well as the concealer and foundation.





If you're wondering why my lip colour changed in the last picture its because I was trying out MAC Honeymoon lipstick. It doesn't really go with this look though, seems to wash me out. A pink lip colour definitely complements the green tones more.


Icyswirls got me in a recent post with a 'Would you Rather' tag, so here goes :)

1.Would you rather go out with messy hair and nice makeup or nice hair and no makeup?
Messy hair + nice makeup! No great hair day can hide my pores and redness...

2.Would you rather shave your eyebrows or have your eyelashes fall out?
Assuming the eyelashes will grow back again (since shaving brows is temporary) I would go without lashes. Mostly because brows frame my face and my lashes aren't even noticed by anyone unless I curl them. I'd rather just use fake lashes.

3.Would you rather be forced to only shop at MAC or Sephora for the rest of your life?
Sephora! MAC has really tempting LE products sometimes but it gets boring. At least Sephora has variety.

4.Would you rather wear lipgloss/lipliner look or 80's perm?
Lipgloss/lipliner.

5.Would you rather leave the house with an obvious foundation line or overdone blush?
Foundation line...I've probably done it before unintentionally with foundation that oxidized on me

6.Would you rather wear mc hammer pants or biker shorts in public?
Mc hammer pants at least I could claim it was a fashion phase.

7.Would you rather have a bad orangey spray tan or really weird tan lines that cant be covered?
I can't decide! Maybe the tan lines...

8.Would you rather have a bad haircut or bad hair color?
Hair colour

9.Would you rather HAVE YOUTUBE or TWITTER taken away forever?
I use Twitter way more often than YT...but YT has tutorials on anything and everything so probably would give up Twitter.

10.Would you rather give up using makeup brushes or mascara?
Makeup brushes. When I first started using makeup I was too cheap/ignorant to buy brushes so fingers were my tools of choice :D

Toronto Beauty Bloggers meetup

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting a group of talented beauty bloggers / makeup artists in the Toronto area for brunch, organized by Farah. Here are some 'paparazzi' shots of the others :)



Waitress was taking orders above.



This time I was at the same table with Xinarox, Ande, Marianita, Jenn (So Very Fabulous), Jenn (Spiced Beauty), and Enrica.




What I ordered: Black forest ham, red bell pepper & Brie cheese omelette.



I was also eyeing Xinarox's french toast breakfast with peaches and ice cream...might have to get that the next time!




Group pic:



After lunch we hit up a number of places - the Cargo counter, Sephora, MAC, and Make Up For Ever. Had lots of fun discussing makeup! I was good though and didn't buy anything :D See, we're not all enablers!

Blue Slush

Did my nails over the weekend using the following 2 colours:



- Del Sol nail polish in Electrick as the base, 2-3 coats
- Claire glitter polish in Glam for the gradient glitter tips








The Del Sol polish is supposed to change colour in the sun to a green shade, but it didn't work for me and I'm not sure why :( I wonder if either the sun was not intense enough this weekend, or the top coat I used (Seche Vite) was intefering with the process.

In any case I haven't been too impressed with the wear on the Del Sol polishes. I noticed that the polish dents and chips easily. The formula on Electrick also shows up streaky easily due to the metallic finish. I found I had to be careful with application to prevent the brush strokes from being too obvious. Still not convinced I'll repurchase these polishes!

Pretty in Pink: Cargo Catalina

When it comes to blush, one of the first brands that comes to mind for me is Cargo. Unlike Nars with their rubbery black packaging, Cargo blushes are packaged in a unique metal tin embossed with the Cargo name.



The blushes are quite generous in size, containing 9 g of product for US$24. Nars in contrast, contains only 4.54 g @ US$26 and MAC 6 g for US$22. In fact I didn't realise until writing this post that Nars gives you less than half the amount of what Cargo gives (?!)

Anyway, I picked up Catalina sometime last year from Nic's blog sale, and have not regretted it at all. Catalina is a soft matte baby pink, that warms up a bit on my (redness prone) complexion but remains neutral to cool toned on my forearm. Thus even if you have cooler toned skin the pink colour would probably stay quite cool toned as well.



Since it is a matte blush, and the pigmentation is on the lighter side, I find I can get more use out of it either on its own, or under highlighters / bronzers to get a slight flush. Here's a look with me wearing it on its own, with just some Emote to contour.


(Sorry for the tired look. I was...tired :P)

So have you tried Cargo blushes before? What's your current favourite blush?

Tokidoki - the Smashbox edition

By now I'm sure you've seen and checked out the Tokidoki collection at Sephora. Perhaps even indulged in a few items. But I would urge you to also check out the old Smashbox collection, as there are quite a few quality items that were released still available on some websites.

I indulged in 2 of the Smashbox Tokidoki glosses last year, and haven't regretted it at all. Here they are:





The tubes are oversized, and look about 20% larger than MAC lipglasses. They have different illustrations on each tube. The applicator is a brush, which helps dispense a generous amount at a time.




Swatches:

Top is Drammatica, a bright pink laced with subtle shimmer.
Bottom is Dolcissima, a light peach infused with the same subtle shimmer



The glosses are only slightly sticky (major plus), which allows them to have some staying power, but they are not so sticky that hair gets glued to your lips (unlike MAC). They are also odourless (another major plus).


The colour is slightly sheer, which works well for the Drammatica, the bright pink. However I find the light peach of Dolcissima gets lost on my lips as my natural lip colour just takes over it...

Drammatica, once applied is a wearable pink that brightens up my look.


Dolcissima, applies more like a sheer glaze best for a natural/toned down lip. (Yes that is my natural lip colour...sucks because its so overpowering)



The Smashbox Tokidoki glosses are long gone from stores, but can still be found on eBay and other online discount stores for half of what they used to retail for. I noticed my first tube of Dolcissima had a slight colour change when I received it, but all I did was contact my seller and they sent me a new one without the colour issue. No issues with Drammatica at all, so the formula seems to be better.

What I bought on my trip

Here's what I picked up on my recent stay in Chicago:



Ulta:
Mario Badescu Drying Cream
Mario Badescu Drying Lotion
Sample of Mario Badescu Aloe moisturizer

CVS:
Milani 3D Holographic polishes in Cyberspace, Hi-Tech, and Hi-Res

Sephora:
Kate Somerville sunscreen sample

I also picked up some M&Ms Pretzels which were surprisingly good! They're not yet available in Canada, and now I wish I had gotten more. I like the sweet + salty combination. Although I am slightly disappointed they are pretzel chunks in the chocolates, not actually a whole mini pretzel as the M&M x-ray suggested :P

The Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale was on that weekend, and while I checked it out I wasn't too excited about the offerings as most of the sets were quite expensive. Even though some of them are packaged in large sizes as value sets, since they weren't staples for me it didn't make sense to buy them.





Oh and remember how I did a post on the cosmetics I brought on my trip? It worked out quite well, since I was always too lazy to use eyeshadow and just stuck with blush & lipcolour. The only thing is I got SO BORED with alternating the same 2 colours over and over again! This is why I have such a large stash...I get bored easily :D


For the weekend, I tried the Milani 3D polish in Hi-Tech, which is a really awesome holo green!



It looks like a normal sparkly green in daylight:



But check out the holo effects at certain angles:






The above pictures are with 3 coats. The wear on the polish isn't the greatest unless you use a top coat, as I originally had 2 coats which was sufficient, but it started coming off in some areas so I added 1 more coat for these pictures.

Oh by the way have you ever wondered how holo polishes would look matte? I just tested it, since I'm removing the polish tonight anyway and the matte-ness just kills the holo effect. It turns into a flat mass of green specks. So yeah - there isn't really such a thing as a matte holographic effect since the 3D effect is removed.