Disco nails + bright lips

I feel bad for not having posted all weekend, so here's a quick nail swatch of OPI Mad as a Hatter - at least it coincides with the DVD/Blu-ray release right? :)



It is basically a clear base with suspended multicoloured glitters, most of which are predominantly purple. I used 3 coats for these pictures.



As with most glitters I've tried, the polish dries super quick so I don't have to wait long before I can apply the next coat. Wear is normal for a glitter, it lasts fairly well as long as I'm not doing any heavy duty work. Removal is normal for a glitter - meaning its a total pain :P


Also a quick summer look featuring bright lips:





I used:

Lunasol Water Cream foundation
Canmake cream cheek blush 07 Coral Orange
OCC Lip Tar in Pageant (love!)
Annabelle Volumelip gloss in Sweet Tweet

Best and Worst of 2009

I must admit I did not stick to my resolution of sticking to a makeup budget this year...on the contrary I went way over it :( On the bright side, I did discover several gems I will be repurchasing, but there are also a couple of products that I wish never to see again!

Lets start with the good stuff...

Best eyeshadow

Yaby Pearl Paints



Gorgeous shimmery colours that are pigmented and easy to work with. I will be reviewing these shortly!

Best mascara

Lorac Visual Effects mascara - lengthens AND thickens! The only drawback is that it does get clumpy with age.




Best coloured liner

Lunasol Geminate liners



Ok this is cheating a little since I got my Geminate liners end of 2008 but because I hadn't really used them as much then I did not realise how awesome they are until this year :) The metallic/subtle glitter in these are so unique and undupeable. They bring a subtle sparkle to the eye without being too obvious unlike glitter liners (eg. Urban Decay's)


Best glitter liner

Too Faced So Smurfy liner in Smurf You (glittery smurf blue)



Yeah I know I just bashed glitter liners above but this is one I really like to use over black liquid liner to jazz it up with more obvious sparkle.


Best concealer

Cle de Peau concealer stick in Beige



Goes on super creamy. Colour matches my skintone once blended right.


Best foundation

Lunasol Water Cream Foundation




This purchase was of course influenced by Fuzkittie. I had been debating this purchase for ages, and was not disappointed as the formula feels divine and glides on beautifully with fingers or sponge. Coverage is excellent since it is a cream but does not feel heavy at all. Best of all, it does not oxidize!


Best tinted moisturizer

Cover Girl Smoothers SPF 15 Tinted Moisture



Finally got to try this (because its not sold in Canada) and was blown away by how well it matched my skintone without oxidizing. Coverage is like a typical tinted moisturizer so that was to be expected. It trumps La Mer and Laura Mercier in that it contains UVA and UVB protection (both LMs have only UVB).


Best blush

Jill Stuart Mix Compact blush in 07 Lovely Tulip



Subtle cool pink perfect for spring.


Best highlighting product

MAC MSF in Refined



Gorgeous peachy glow without shimmer or glitter! Can also be used as blush.


Best drugstore lipgloss

Marcelle Vita Lip Plumping Gloss



Fragrance free, non sticky gloss that gives the illusion of fuller lips without any chemicals to sting your lips. Love it!


Best drugstore lipstick

Joe Fresh cream lipstick in Strawberry



Creamy, pigmented goodness in a tube for CDN$6 - what more could you want?


NOW for the bad...

Here are a few things I regret purchasing - not necessarily for poor product performance but also the price.

1. Guerlain le2 mascara in Bleu Cerise



Too expensive. Even though I hardly used it the formula went clumpy after 3 months. That may sound normal but considering I hardly opened the tube (like 4x in the 3 months) it really sucks!


2. Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer



It looks great at first and gives a lovely glow that I got complimented on. However after a few weeks of use I noticed it tends to oxidize and make my face look darker :( For the price I was expecting better...


3. Urban Decay Box of Potions



Already went over this one here - do not recommend! All the products besides the famed UDPP failed to perform for me. Fortunately I was able to return the set.

4. Lunasol Full Glamour Gloss



Pretty to look at but wasn't much different from a regular clear shimmery gloss. Not to mention I paid well above retail, silly me.


What about you? Feel free to share yours in the comments or on your blog, and let me know! :)

Lunasol Full Glamour Gloss and a mail package!

Spring is finally almost here - it was a whopping 9 degrees Celcius today, haha :D Any day with a >0 Celcius weather is good for us Canadians :P I have a lot to catch up with blogging and comments! One of the things that I will tackle this weekend :)

Anyway for today I'm going to finally post about Lunasol'd Spring collection lipgloss :D I know its been a while since I bought it, but hey I'm not too late, at least spring is only just starting!

This is the Lunasol Full Glamour gloss in Lucent Purple 05




What attracted me most to the gloss was the swirly pattern, and the purple tones. I have a thing for collecting lip products in strange shades, such as MAC Spring Bean lipglass which is a nice bright green in the tube. It goes on sheer though so it looks more honey-ish....but I digress :)




The colour when swatched is quite sheer, and gives only the slightest hint of purple shimmer. In fact once on my rather pigmented lips it looked just like a clear gloss with multicoloured sparkle. It actually looks similar to Chanel's Galactic glossimer, but is slightly less shimmery.

Taken with flash - very subtle shimmer that is hard to capture in pictures.




Compared with the Chanel Glossimer in Galactic:

Similar effect, but the multicoloured shimmer is much more apparent than Lunasol's



In terms of Lunasol's Full Glamour formula, I do like how the gloss is only slightly sticky, as I can't stand super sticky glosses! Thats why I've stopped buying MAC lipglasses. I got tired of getting gloss all over my hair :P

The staying power is alright, nothing spectacular but its to be expected of non-sticky glosses. One thing that I'm sad about is that once you start using the gloss it mixes up the colour swirls. After repeated usage it will probably be evenly mixed and turn into a plain lilac colour...

Since the main featured colours from the Lunasol Spring collection were the purple shades, its not surprising that the gloss is now sold out in many locations. Right now the only place to purchase this that I know of, is Bonbon Cosmetics.

Overall I'd say the novelty and LE factor of the gloss is exciting, but the gloss itself is just a nice indulgence which is average in terms of formula. Its not bad, but its not mind-blowingly amazing either. For the price I would recommend Chanel's instead, but both products are LE so they're both hard to find.

Price: 2.5/5, typical HE gloss price
Packaging: 4.5/5, elegant packaging as usual
Performance: 3/5
Would repurchase: No - one is enough for the novelty factor. Not something I'd want backups of.

***

I received a lovely surprise in the mail this week, courtesy of Mayaari :D She had offered to send me a sample of her Dr. Jart BB cream, as I found her review of it quite compelling. I did not expect all the other gifts in the package though, it really made my day coming home from work to this:



Some Sanrio goodies - the Hello Kitty marshmallow pop was the cutest thing I'd ever seen, I almost felt it was too cute to eat at first!




Face products to try and a cute pink nailpolish! :)




Lashes - she just knew I'd always been lemming crisscross style lashes, but never 't had the chance to get any yet!




BB cream samples: She included Skinfood and L'egere as well!



Am super excited to try everything out this weekend! :D

P.S. Don't forget, the CK One giveaway ends in less than an hour! Thank you for all the lovely comments so far :)

Lunasol X'mas coffret, Chanel glossimers

Sorry for the absence! I haven't been around much lately...mostly because of other complications. Thanks for voting on the poll, I appreciate the feedback because its good for me to know what you like reading. From the current results, it looks like there'll be more reviews coming up. Of course, if you'd like to see something else just drop me a line in the comments or email me :)

For today I'm going to post another haul from December, haha. I ordered the Lunasol X'mas coffret from Facial-Shop HK after seeing Lotus Palace's review on it. Also got some Chanel glossimers to go with it since I'd never tried Chanel's glosses before. Its nice how Facial-Shop will give a 5% discount if you buy 3 items (no matter how much each item costs).

Here is the set - it contains a gorgeous bronzy clutch with the following items:

Soft Silver Lightning EX04 eyeshadow palette
Soft Silver Brown Geminate Liner in EX02
Soft Silver Rose EX01 blush
glitter nailpolish




The eyeshadow palette and nailpolish are full size, while the liner and blush are smaller versions.








Chanel glossimers:




Swatches:

L-R: Soft Silver Rose blush on the left, followed by the 4 shades in the eyeshadow palette.



The blush is very light, its more of a highlighter. I used it with a duo fibre brush the first few times and it barely shows up. I'll have to try it with a traditional blush brush and see if it picks up the colour better.

The eyeshadow colours are typical Lunasol - soft understated colour with fine shimmer. The bottom right shade has larger glitters though without much payoff. The diagram on the box shows its meant to be layered over the other colours in the center of the eyelid for a shimmering effect.


L-R: Soft Silver Brown liner, Chanel Galactic, Chanel Amberlight



The liner, as with my other blue Geminate liner is gorgeous. Its a shiny brown colour with shimmer. As for the glossimers, I'm not too fond of Amberlight...its a bit too warm for my taste. I like Galactic a lot though, it has a faint pink opalescence, and contains multicoloured fine shimmers.


Look using some of the above products:


(not including the face products and mascara)

Eyes
Shiseido Hydro Powder in Bare Pink as the base
Pink shade from palette all over lid
Outer 1/2 of lid with the dark brown shade
White highlight under the brow
Finished off with the geminate liner and Lancome Oscillation mascara




Forgive the shine - I only got the chance to take these pictures after a few hours of wear.

Love this shade of brown :)




See how the blush doesn't show up at all in the photo? I'll probably just use this as a highlighter in the future.



Chanel glossimer in Galactic:

No flash


With flash - brings out the multicoloured shimmer



If the set interests you, check out Fuzkittie's look with the same eyeshadow palette and blush.

Guess thats it for tonight :) Have a great week!

P.S. Whoops almost forgot to say, Happy Lunar New Year! :D

P.P.S. I just noticed this blog has pictures of the upcoming Lunasol 10th Anniversary set! Check it out here.

My Favourite Products of 2008

Thanks to Grayburn, several beauty bloggers, me included, will be listing our favourite products of 2008 today:

I was originally going to just list 10 items , but it turns out that was quite diffficult, so I ended up with...a lot more :P Also, you'll probably notice as you read the list that 2008 was the year I discovered Japanese makeup as a lot of them made it on my list.

Eyeshadows

Lunasol Sheer Contrast Eyes in Lavender Coral



This was a Spring 2009 release. I first read about this on A Touch of Blusher, and just had to have it! The colours are slightly sheer, and have the perfect amount of shimmer without being over the top. The packaging is one of my favourites out of any makeup line I've seen - a simple but elegant metallic bronze palette.

See my review and look.


Coffret d'Or 3D Lightning Eyes in Blue Green 03



These were the first set of palettes released by Coffret d'Or, also from Spring 2008. These are not as sheer as Lunasol's but the shimmer is still just right. The colours consist of gorgeous green toned blues with a dark blue liner shade. The colours do stand out on my skintone more, so I prefer using it for days when I want something brighter. What I like most about the palette though, is how the white shades can be used as both a highlighter and undereye brightener.

Check out my review and look!


T'estimo Frame Impact Eyes in Green



My first Japanese palette! It was a 2007 release but I'm including it here because I only bought it in 2008.

T'estimo is actually now discontinued and replaced by Coffret d'Or. When I used it the first couple of times I was a bit disappointed with the fallout. However since then I've noticed that doesn't happen anymore, so I think once you use up the topmost layer the shimmer in the rest of the product is more finely milled and stays on better. Anyway the reason I love this is because the greens are super pretty, the best green colours I've ever seen (which is also why I haven't bought any green palettes since).

Review and look


MAC Naughty Nauticals pigments in Lovely Lily and Bell Bottom Blue



These pigments were the first ones I ever bought full sizes off! Don't regret it either because the colours are gorgeous and blend well. Lovely Lily is a warm toned lilac while Bell Bottom Blue is a deep blue with silver sparkles.

Review, Lovely Lily look, Bell Bottom Blue look


Shiseido Hydro-Powder in Violet Visions


The Hydro-Powders make great bases for coloured looks. I know, this is also from 2007 but I only tried it out in 2008 and it was love :P This vibrant purple shade is my favourite, it really brings out the colours in purple looks.

Review and look, another look


Liners

Kiss Me Heroine liquid liner



My HG liquid liner! I love how its so easy to apply compared with other liquid liners. The brush is fine tipped and has the right degree of firmness for control. Its also removable with warm water unlike say MAC Blacktrack Fluidline. Thanks to Chiara for her review or I wouldn't have heard about this.

See my review and look.


Lunasol Geminate Liner



My first experience with coloured liquid liner was a bad one (the NYX blue liquid liner) so I'd never been interested in trying any others, until Fuz did a look with this. So far no regrets, the colour is beautiful and the brush and formula is great.

See my review and look.


Blushes

The She Space blush in Recoil



My favourite matte blush of the year (not counting Everyday Minerals blushes I got 2007...)Colour description from the website is a cool raspberry pink. Its actually a brighter pink than this swatch shows when I apply it. The pigmentation is amazing, as good as Everyday Minerals and better than Silk Naturals. The only reason I don't use it more often is because I have too many blushes to get through...


Paul & Joe Disney Face Colour in Pink



The Paul & Joe Disney collection was released in Spring '08 in Japan. Initially I wasn't interested in it (don't know why) until I saw pics of it from Nic and Fuzkittie. I received mine literally yesterday and its so cute! The pink colour is a bright slightly cool toned pink with shimmer. My only complaint would be that the colored balls turned out to be mostly the same colour (not multicoloured like this stock picture shows).


MAC Petticoat Mineralize Skinfinish



My favourite MSF out of my collection! The pink shimmer can indeed be duped with other products I will admit, but the product itself is just so pretty to look at :P I've heard though that NYC does make a dupe of this with similar veining. Haven't seen it in Canada yet though.

Look and pictures of Petticoat compared with other MSFs.


Lip products

Lancome Color Fever lipstick in 302 SOS Pink


This was one of my summer obsessions :) The pink is a bright but not too obnoxious type of girly pink. The formula itself is great, goes on creamy with great colour payoff! My favourite way to wear it is on top of MAC 40s Pink Mattene as a base which brings out the pink even more.

Actual product pictures, Look 1 and Look 2.


Shiseido Maquillage Sheer Climax Rouge lipstick in PK730



My favourite pink lipstick for a natural look. Its not drying at all, and suits my skintone perfectly (NC25-ish with a yellow undertone).

See my look using this product.


Coffret d'Or Combient Rouge in 06 Peach Blossom



Another item I love by Coffer d'Or. Its a lipstick and gloss in one, which I find convenient for times when I'm using a small purse because its the size of a pen. The lipstick is slightly on the sheer side but is super easy to apply as it comes in a crayon-like format. The gloss is a pinkish colour, pleasantly UNscented and not sticky at all (major plus).

See my previous review and look.


Beauty Tool

Beauty Blender


I haven't even blogged about this yet but its definitely my favourite way to apply foundation now. So far I've used it for mineral makeup wet, and also with the La Mer tint and they both go on much more naturally than if I used brushes / fingers. In my opinion, this beats out any duo fibre brush for foundation application.


Skincare

Clarins Extra Comfort Toning Lotion



I know, this is something else I haven't mentioned previously before. Its a moisturizing toner (contains aloe) that I like using before moisturizer. I also found it doubles up as a nice finishing spray (like Fix+). Gives a nice dewy look when sprayed over mineral makeup. If not for the price I would be buying this in truckloads, but for now I'm just conserving what I have and using cheaper (but less effective) toners instead.


Fragrance

Masaki Matsushima Cherry



My favourite fragrance to date. Its a fruity type of fragrance perfect for day use. I also like unique bottle shape. However its been discontinued from Sephora so I will have to use mine sparingly...Wish I had gotten a backup!

See my previous post on it.


So...thats it :) Feel free to share any of your favourites or what you think of the items listed above!


Finally, many thanks to Grayburn for organizing this. Check out the favourites list of the other participating bloggers below:

Beautiful Makeup Search

Beauty 411

Beauty Talk

Beauty Tyrant

Binary Star

Grayburn

Life Of A Ladybug

lily loves mac

Make Do Style

Miss Whoever You Are

Perfume Shrine

Platinum Blonde Life

Searching the Inner Me

Slap Of The Day

The Beauty Alchemist

The non-blonde

Urbane Girl