Why swatching is important!

One of the reasons I love having a couple Sephora's accessible to me (one in the mall I work at, and one a few minutes from where I live) is I do less impulse internet buying. I'm able to go in the store, look at the product, swatch the product and see if it's worth it!

In some cases, doing this makes me realize that buying something from my wishlist would have been a big mistake! Such as in the case of the Sephora Collection Moonshadow Baked Palette in "In the Nude", which appeared on my most recent What's On the Wishlist? post.

I dropped into Sephora after work today specifically to swatch this, and I was capital-Disappointed. There was hardly any pigmentation!! If you're looking for some really sheer glitter bombs, this is the palette for you. Now I know some people may like sheer, glittery shadows and that's fine!! But according to Sephora's website:

• "Each formula features high payoff pigments and textures that blend easily. Its micro glitter adheres to the skin better than regular sized glitter. Used wet, the dark shades can be used as an eyeliner with an intensified, bolder effect. "

 So I was expecting pigmented, glittery shadows. Not sheer ones... I made sure to swatch a range of colours, from the light ones and the dark ones, and both were just as bad. I didn't even bother taking a picture...

So know that pigmented is not what you will get here, and you may not want to bother. It's possible these might foil well, but honestly I want the shadow to show up well without having to take any extra steps!

NOTD Aug 2/11

Vanilla ice cream sundae with chocolate sauce and a cherry on top!! Yumm!! Hungry yet?

(PS - drippy manicures are WAY easier than I thought they would be!)

FOTD July 31/11

Today's look is actually apparently very on trend for this season! My latest issue of Allure magazine says monochromatic looks are "in" and this look was basically all orange/coral/peach! I used oranges and rusts on the eyes, an orangey coral on the cheeks, and a peachy nude on the lips - it reads more pink in these pictures because the products I used were a bit sheer and my natural lip tone is pinky. Gotta get some Lip Erase!

The pictures aren't as clear as I'd like, it's fairly overcast today so even the light outdoors where I took the pictures isn't that great! But you get the idea! ;)

What's on the Wishlist? Vol. 4 + Acquisitions from past wishlists!

I thought I would start out this edition of What's on the Wishlist by recapping some of the wishlist items from past lists that I've since gotten! First, here are the past wishlists:

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3

So far, from those three lists, I've gotten the BareMinerals Purely Nourishing Moisturizer for Combination skin (as part of the Daily Duo with a cleanser, review here), MAC Eyeshadow in Print (swatch and haul here), and the Smith's Rosebud Salve (review here)! So not doing too bad so far!! So let's get a peek at some of the things that are currently hanging out on my wishlists!

Dior Diorskin Shimmer Star in Amber Diamond

This bronzy, beautiful highlighter breaks all the rules for me. You see, generally I'm more of a liquid/cream highlighter girl. But I kept reading about this apparent miracle highlighting powder on what seemed like every beauty blog on the universe. I finally swatched it in Sephora and had a lightbulb moment - I get it now!! It's very glowy and because it's made up of four different shades you can really customize the colour! It's like getting a few different highlighters in one pan, which helps justify the hefty pricetag of $45.

Urban Decay 15 Year Anniversary Eyeshadow Collection

For lovers of Urban Decay's incredibly buttery soft, pigmented eyeshadows, this new palette is a dream come true! And new is the operative word here - unlike many other UD palettes which recycle the same shades over and over, all fifteen shades in this palette are BRAND new! It's got a great mix of neutrals and colours, so there's something for everyone and every mood!!

Sephora Collection Moonshadow Baked Palette in "In the Nude"

A gorgeous collection of ten baked, shimmery eyeshadows in nude colours. This is right up my alley! It's fairly new out, so I can't wait to see some swatches, or swatch them myself at Sephora, whichever comes first!

Review/Swatches: NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils

 (image from NYX's website)

If you haven't tried the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils, you're missing out! And if you've never heard of them, get out from under that rock!

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils are awesome little cream shadows in chunky pencil form. Currently I own eight shades, seen here:

These are very pigmented and smooth shadows. They are prone to creasing when they're on their own, so I would recommend them as bases underneath powder shadows. They really grip powder shadows laid over top of them, intensify the colour a lot and make them last quite a bit longer. Milk is a good shade to use underneath almost anything. Cottage Cheese is great for a highlight shade. Iced Mocha looks wonderful under shimmery taupe shadows!

There's a great range of colours, from neutrals to brights to darks. The price is right too, I've gotten all of mine from Cherry Culture where they're only $4.50 but almost always on sale for $2.99 or even less. These are highly recommended! My rating for them would be 4/5 only because they can't really be worn alone, but I don't mind that myself since I always top cream shadows with powder anyways!

Review: Icing by Claire's Makeup Brushes

I was browsing at Icing the other day during a long lunch break at work, and decided to take a peek at some of the makeup and nail polish. Nothing was really catching my eye, but I noticed they had a selection of makeup brushes, some of which had black handles, and some which had bamboo handles. So here's what I hauled!

A Kabuki Brush, and an Eyeshadow Crease Brush.

The Kabuki is incredibly soft and thick! I took a few tugs on the bristles to see if they felt loose or like they would come out all over my face during use or when I washed it, and nothing budged, so this seems like a very sturdy brush. It picks up a LOT of pigment, so what I like to do is lightly tap it in the blush, tap it off, lay the colour down on my cheeks, and then wipe the brush off on a tissue and use the clean brush to blend out the blush! I like how soft and densely packed the brush is, it makes blending out the blush much easier.

Closer shot of the bristles.

(sorry this shot is a little overexposed! I really wanted to get the shot while the light was good and my camera battery was on its last legs!) This is the Eyeshadow Crease Brush, a fluffy topped eyeshadow brush. I have been looking for something like this, and since the deal at Icing was buy one, get one 50% off, this was meant to be! This is also a really soft brush, and the perfect size and shape for blending out the shadow in your crease. This one will definitely be going into heavy rotation for me!

Closer shot of the bristles.

Overall I think these brushes were priced very well! The Kabuki was $7.25 (I believe it was $6.50USD) and the Eyeshadow Crease Brush was $5 ($4.50USD) but it was 50% off so only $2.50! So I got both brushes for less than $11 including tax!! Well worth it! Next time I need to replace a makeup brush or just try something new, I'll definitely be checking out Icing!

NOTD July 29/11

I got myself one of my wishlist nail polished, Revlon Top Speed in Jaded! It's a beautiful pastel seafoam green! The formula was slightly funny to work with, but it turned out fine in the end! This is two coats. :) I loved the colour so much I didn't want to put any nail art over it, although I may end up adding something later.

Review: Bare Escentuals BareMinerals Naturally Luminous Daily Duo for Combination Skin

The Bare Escentuals BareMinerals Naturally Luminous Daily Duo for Combination Skin (from now on known as NLDD) is a two pack of a smaller-than-normal but bigger-than-deluxe-sample moisturizer and cleanser. For around $23 you get a 60 ml (2 fl. oz.) cleanser and a 30 ml (1 fl. oz.) moisturizer. The full sized Purifying Facial Cleanser is 177 ml (6 oz) for about $20 and the full sized Purely Nourishing Moisturizer is 50 ml (1.7 fl oz) for about $28. So if you were getting the full sized ones you'd be getting 227 ml/7.7 fl. oz. of product for $48 ($0.21/ml or $6.23 per ounce) compared to 90 ml/3 fl. oz. of product with the Duo for $23 ($0.25/ml or $7.67 per ounce). But as you can obviously see, you get not a whole lot more moisturizer in the "full size" but you get three times as much cleanser!! Wish it was more comparable there!

In any case, let's get to the goods! The Purifying Facial Cleanser is a gel with a slightly milky quality to it, and it smells quite nice, like Earl Grey tea with bergamot and a bit of lavender. It's one of my favourite scented products I've ever owned actually, slightly sweet but soft, not too flowery or anything. It foams up fairly well but it doesn't foam up like POOF and then all slide off your hands, its gel-like texture tends to cling to your hands so there's actual product for you to use to wash your face! It leaves my face feeling lovely and soft, no dryness or anything to speak of!

But for me, the real star of the NLDD is the Purely Nourishing Moisturizer. The scent is identical to the cleanser, and it has a light texture that blends into the skin very easily and absorbs very quickly, leaving my skin feeling soft and hydrated without being slick or greasy in any way. I honestly feel that I can see a difference in my skin from the moment I put it on. There is no tint of any kind in it, but I immediately see the overall tone of my skin look more even when I use it. I have no idea how it works, all I know is that it most definitely does!! I love that I don't have to wait for it to absorb before putting on my makeup, it's instant!

For where I'm at right now, this is probably gotta be my HG moisturizer! I would definitely recommend trying it!

For the Purifying Facial Cleanser I give a 4/5, and for the Purely Nourishing Moisturizer I give a 5/5! Go check them out! Although I can't vouch for them myself, BareMinerals does also make this duo (and individual products) for dry skin. If you've tried those, or the Combination Skin products, let me know how you liked them in the comments!

Review: Smith's Rosebud Salve

It's been a little over two weeks since I got my mitts on Smith's Rosebud Salve, that cult favourite lip balm you may have heard of!

More than just a lip balm though, this is what Sephora has to say about it:

• "This cult-favorite, multi-purpose lip balm soothes dry lips, calms and heals irritation, and soothes the sting of minor burns. Try dabbing on dry elbows or knees to condition, and relieve dryness. Also an excellent remedy for the treatment of diaper rash. "

Ooooh! Multi-purpose! I can't attest as to it's effectiveness in these areas though, since I have no burns right now (although I could try it on my boyfriend, he's a welder and always gets little burns) and I don't tend to have very dry skin anywhere. But in any case, you came here for the lip review right?

As a lip balm, I would have to give Smith's Rosebud Salve a 4/5. Not the holy grail yet, but not bad at all. It's got a petrolatum base, so it's got quite a bit of slip to it, not at all waxy like Carmex or Burt's Bees. It does last a fairly long time on the lips though despite the slippery texture, which is nice. And, you guessed it, it smells like roses! To be honest at first I thought the scent was a bit much but you get used to it very quickly. But if you have a strong sense of smell and don't like the smell of roses, this might not be for you.

But alas, my lips are still not quite where I want them to be. I don't know if it's me, or the climate, or something else but my lips are always so dry no matter how much I moisturize them, to the point of peeling on a regular basis. It's part of the reason why I don't wear a lot of lip products - lipstick doesn't look too great on flaky lips!

So the search continues! What would you recommend for extremely dry lips?

OOTD July 26/11

Here's a first! And not really something I foresee doing a whole lot, it isn't really my thing! But I bought this dress yesterday at Forever 21 and I looove it so much, I had to take a picture! But wouldn't you know when I left for work this morning I get outside and it's cold and rainy. :( I sucked it up though and wore it to work anyways since I'm indoors all day so the weather doesn't matter much! It was too cute to change out of (not that I had time to anyways!).

The necklace is also from F21! It's a gold chain with a little loop and then three gold leaves dangling from it. The shrug is from Dynamite.

Just a heads up though - there may be another OOTD tomorrow because I also bought a really cute top from Stitches and I may want to show it off!