FOTD May 30/11

Went for a silvery kind of look today, using the Sephora 5-in-1 palette. I like these shades because they are silvery but have a slight taupe/brownish edge to them that makes them a little more day wearable and unique, I think.





Colours used (all from Sephora 5-in-1 palette):

-33 on the lid and under the lower lashline

-38 on outer half of lid and outer half of lower lashline

-a bit of 3 blended into the outer corner for more depth

-4 blended just above the crease

-5 on the inner corner and veeery lightly on the browbone, mixed with a bit of 10 there

FOTD May 28/11

A day late, but better late than never! Did a bronze and gold look yesterday! Love how it turned out. :)

As usual my hair is all over the freaking place, pardon all the random flyaways. I think it's time I started using a finishing cream. :|







Silly face in the last one! Not quite duckface... but perhaps a cousin of it.

Eyeshadow colours were all from the UD Naked Palette.... I did Smog on the lids, with Half Baked on the inner corner of the lid - but not the inner-inner corner, as in the tear duct... just on the very inner part of the upper lid, and blended above the crease. Then I added a little Darkhorse at the outer corner for depth. Also applied Smog under the lower lashline with a liner brush. Used Sin for inner corner and browbone highlight. Also should mention I used the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Pure Gold as a base!

Blush was NYX Rouge Cream Blush in Glow. :)

Teal Smokey Eyes, and a small clothing haul :)

The other day I wanted to play around with a colourful smokey eye look... not for any occasion, just for fun! I went with teal since I really wanted to try out a colour in my Sephora 5-in-1 palette, a gorgeous deep teal.









I did a little bit of layering here... I probably didn't really need to, but I did anyways... do you ever do that? Layer two virtually identical colours on top of each other, just because? Weird... anyways here are the colours used!

-Sephora 5-in-1 Colorplay Limited Fashion Edition Palette, shades 41 and 46

-NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Turquoise Pearl

-MAC Deep Blue Green pigment

And of course black liner, and mascara, same old same old there. ;)

Aaand I think "haul" may have been a bit misleading regarding the clothing... to be fair it was from a decent little haul I did a couple months ago, but I only ever took a picture of the one shirt! Well technically it's layered and both shirts are from the haul, so two shirts. ;) The white tank is from Bootlegger and the pink lace one is from Stitches. :)

Review: LA Girl Color Addict Nail Polish

Recently, the shoe store I work at got a display of LA Girl nail polishes. Weird I know, but I guess nail polish relates to toenail polish which relates to feet and therefore shoes... soo yes. Anyways when I first heard it was coming I wasn't too excited, I figured they'd be very cheapy crap quality stuff. But when it arrived, I couldn't help myself, especially when I saw the price!!$4.99 each or two for $7.99... plus I get my 30% staff discount! So I picked out four shades, and got them all for about $12.50 including tax!! STEAL!

All the colours in the Color Addict line (or at least all the ones we got) have a bit of fine gold microshimmer in them. It shows up more in certain shades than others.

Here are the shades I got:





This colour is called "Sensation". It's a very beautiful bright fuchsia pink. A real true Barbie pink, and although I would never have guessed it, probably my favourite colour of the four. That's the one thing that threw me for a loop with these four... I didn't like them in the "order" I thought I would! I think the gold shimmer also shows up best in this one.





This shade is called "Escape". It's a gorgeous peachy-pinky-coral shade, and the gold shimmer pairs really well with this one too. I thought this would be my favourite, and it probably is second favourite behind Sensation, but I have a feeling this one would look even better if I were more tanned! It's on my toes right now, but I'm sparing you pictures of the state they're in. ;)





This one's called "Habit". Purple is notorious for not photographing properly, and this one's no exception. It isn't NEARLY as blue as it looks here, in fact it's a much more "warm" red-toned purple in real life. It's a nice colour but it's probably my least favourite of the four, only because cool toned colours look better on me usually... if it actually were the colour it looks like in the photo, I'd probably be all about it!





This one is called "Disorder". It's a deep grey with the gold shimmer visible only from certain angles. This one is kind of neutral for me, as far as how I feel about it. Don't love it, don't hate it!! Update: After having this one for a while, I actually really do like it a lot!

The formula on all these is pretty good, especially for the price! One coat is very thin, and it's pretty watery. But 2-3 coats is perfect. A con is that it doesn't dry very well. Even a couple hours after I put it on, when it feels dry to the touch, it can still get nicked or creased by my sheets if I go to bed. Since I often do my nails in the evening, what I like to do with this stuff is put it on a few hours before bed, and then do topcoat the next day after it's inevitably creased on my sheets, to cover that up.

BUT... once it's dry, the lasting power of this is great!! I get VERY minimal chipping and tipwear! Honestly I would compare this favourably overall to nail polishes twice the price or more. I'll definitely be buying more shades.

Swatches hopefully to come soon! You can kind of see Sensation on my nails in the pics, I didn't post a straight on shot of them though because like my toes, my hands/nails need a little love right now before they're camera ready!

LA Girl Nail Polish is available at cherryculture.com as well.

I was not paid or given any product to review for this (obvs!), it was my purchase and my opinion.

FOTD May 5/11

This was actually a FOTD from a little while ago, I forgot it was on my camera. But I'm pretty sure I remember the products I used, and it made me remember I really liked this look and I want to do it again, probably tomorrow!! So consider this also a FOTD for the future, tomorrow! LOL But I'm skipping the rundown of skin products since it's just the usual!





Eyes

-NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Nude Pearl on inner corners and inner lids

-Urban Decay Naked Palette: Half Baked under lashline, Smog under lashline on the outer corners and in the crease, Darkhorse in the crease too to darken it up a bit more

-UD Zero 24/7 Eyeliner

-CoverGirl LashBlast Waterproof mascara

I also think I was wearing NYX Round Girls lip gloss in Whipped!

NOTD April 15/11

Got an awesome new nail polish last week! It's one of the new Revlon scented ones. I'm not too interested in scented nail polish for it's own sake, but a lot of the colours look great. The one I chose was "Not So Blueberry" which obviously, smells like blueberry! It actually does have a pretty nice smell. After the first day or so the smell mostly fades though. Doesn't bug me since that's not why I bought it though.

The shade is a foily/metallic silvery purple, sooo gorgeous and what you see in the bottle is what you get on your nail.

This is two coats (pardon the tip wear, this was a couple days into the manicure!)

Review: Sephora Collection Colorful Mono Eyeshadow in Wild and Precious #87

On a recent trip to Sephora, as I madly swatched everything in sight (seriously, whenever I'm in Sephora I grab a few baby wipes off the stand because I usually need to clean off my hand and make room for new swatches a couple of times!) this shade caught my eye.

Sephora describes it thusly:

"gray plum with iridescent shimmer"

To me, it is a medium-deep taupe brown with plum undertones, and silver glitter.







When applied, it gets a little tricky. The texture of this shadow is rather gritty, when you pass the brush over it, it tends to crumble, and then when you go to apply it, the payoff isn't quuuite there. Which is a shame because in the pan it's a gorgeous colour! There is one redeeming factor though - when swatched wet (get a regular eyeshadow brush slightly damp - I like to get my fingertips wet and then rub them on the bristles of the brush) the shade shows up much more true to colour.



Top: wet, bottom: dry



Dry, wet.

Yet another unfortunate thing though, is I'm not sure if the staying power on this is gonna be great, even WITH the wet brush. I haven't really worn this out yet (except layered over another shade in my crease once) because I couldn't get the colour payoff I was looking for - I only discovered how good it looks wet while doing these swatches tonight. But the wet swatch has rubbed off my hand already (which was done over primer) and it's only been less than half an hour.

So overall, even though in the pan and freshly swatched with a wet brush it looks good, due to the pain-in-the-buttness of getting it to apply properly and the not-so-great lasting power, I just can't give this one a great rating! Unfortunate, because my whole Sephora 5-in-1 Color Play Limited Fashion Edition palette is great!!

2.5/5 is my verdict!

FOTD April 6/11

This was actually what I wore yesterday, but who cares!! Post it anyways! I wanted to do something colourful but still work/daytime appropriate, so I went for lavender and purple!







Shades used:

-shade #24 from the Sephora Color Play 5-in-1 Limited Fashion Edition palette on the lid and under the lower lashline

-NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in True Purple Pearl on outer half of lids and outer lower lashline

-MAC pigment in Deep Purple on outer V/crease

-Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in Zero

-Covergirl LashBlast Waterproof Blackest Black!

What's on the Wishlist? Vol. 2

Alert! Alert!! Code Red!!

I have no idea if this is a recent development or I'm just oblivious, but I just found out that Sephora (at least online, I've never noticed it in stores) carries The Body Shop products!! *swoon* TBS is one of my favourite stores to go into, it's like everything they touch turns to magic. There is no better smelling store in the mall, no bath and body products I would rather see as I unwrap presents on Christmas morning (who hasn't gotten The Body Shop gift sets for more than a few Christmasses? Yet I'm never tired of them...)

Sure, I could go into the store... but since The Body Shop is a brand I trust, and Sephora.com is somewhere nice and central I often shop online from anyways, it's great to know I can get it all in one place!! So here's a wishlist of stuff I want from The Body Shop at Sephora.com! The Body Shop is an ethically sourced, natural beauty brand.... just one more thing to love.

So far there is only a small selection of The Body Shop products available on the website (none of the makeup line for example) but hopefully in the future there will be more!



Vitamin E Moisture Cream

I used to use this stuff in high school, and it is such a nice, basic everyday moisturizer. I would love to go back to it and try it again and see how it works on my skin now. Plus I don't know why this matters, but I love the soft pink colour of it... so pretty!



Vitamin C Skin Boost

I thought this was a toner of some sort, but apparently what this gel product does is smooth your skin and create a radiant glow that isn't just from the product itself, it actually helps create that glow in your skin itself with continued use - basically, it's a primer but more! You can wear it with or without makeup though. And apparently it has a gorgeous orange scent to it. Definitely a primer I want to try, see if it lives up to the hype!



Cocoa Butter Body Butter

The Body Shop's Body Butters are serious moisturizers. They are thick, luxurious, and smell AMAZING. Anyone who has ever smelled Satsuma knows what I'm talking about. But as much as I do loove the strongly scented body butters (I have a Coconut one - you put that puppy on and you smell like coconuts all day long) I want to try one with a more subtle scent, because I like wearing perfume and I don't want my moisturizer to compete. This Cocoa Butter one sounds like it fits the bill!

Urban Decay Naked Palette - Three Ways to Wear It

I'm one of the lucky ones who was able to find Urban Decay's Naked Palette fairly early, so I've been enjoying it for quite some time - since about September of last year. The thing I love about this palette (besides the buttery softness and excellent pigmentation of all the shades) is the versatility of the palette. You can create any kind of look with this one palette, from very subtle no-makeup eyes, to softly colourful looks for day, to dramatic smokey eyes for the evening. For about the first 5-6 months I owned this palette, I used it probably at least 5-6 days a week - and I wear makeup at LEAST 6 days out of the week.

So tonight I decided to play around a bit and create some different looks using only the shadows from the Naked Palette, to show off all the sorts of looks you can create! If you still haven't picked up this palette, what are you waiting for?!



Left to right: Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal.



The first look is a softly colourful look for day. Mainly soft shimmery pink and gold on the lid, and browns for depth in the crease.





-Naked between crease and browbone

-Virgin as highlight on browbone and inner corners

-Sin on inner half of lids

-Half Baked on outer half of lids, in the middle of the lower lashline

-Buck in crease, smudged under outer corner of lower lashline

-Darkhorse in outer corner, and smudged with Buck in outer lower lashline

-Whiskey 24/7 eyeliner



Second look is a slightly smokier and darker look that's still appropriate for day. It's a shimmery (a little glittery) taupe on the lids, with a plum-hinted brown on the outer lids and crease.





-Naked between crease and browbone

-Virgin as browbone highlight

-Sin as inner corner highlight

-Sidecar on inner half of lid

-Hustle on outer half of lid, in crease

-Buck blended above crease

-small bit of Creep blended into outer corner

-on the lower lashline a bit of Half Baked in the middle, Hustle on the outer corner

-Zero 24/7 eyeliner



Third look is a dramatic black smokey eye! I added falsies to this one for extra drama.





-Creep on the lid, up to just below the crease, and on the very outer corner of the lower lashline

-Gunmetal in and just above the crease, and smoked out along the lower lashline

-a blend of Toasted and Sin above the crease

-Virgin as a brow highlight

-Sin as the inner corner highligh

-Zero 24/7 eyeliner on upper lashline and waterline