Beauty Goods On My Radar

Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a great Halloween! We didn't do too much for it since my hubs had to work over the weekend. We dressed up the little one as a dinosaur and masqueraded him at a friend's house. He didn't really put up with his costume all too long but just long enough to show off his cuteness.
On to the pretty stuff. I'm always wanting to try new things so here's my current lists of wants:

Z Palette: Currently I'm using MAC's palettes but after seeing Z Palettes online I really like the clear lids. One of my gripes with MAC palettes is that I have to search thru them all to figure out what I need. I hear they're made of cardboard but hopefully their construction is sturdy. You can purchase them for yourself here.

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circle Treatment Concealer: I think dark circles are starting to creep up on me a little bit (can I blame the baby???). I'm really intrigued by the design and treatment promises of this concealer. So far reviews are saying that although the sponge tip looks like something you'd be grossed out with, it actually works very well to apply concealer. It's antimicrobial so you can't get too grossed out with it. You can purchase this bad boy here.

CoverGirl Lash Perfection: I'm a HUGE fan of CoverGirl Lash Blast. This promises to individualize and volumize lashes. My one gripe with original Lash Blast is it seems to wear off a little bit towards the end of the day but it's so dang cheap I don't care. You can buy this stuff for yourself here.

Do you have any current beauty wants that I should want too or have you tried any of these beauty goodies? Let me know in the comments! I love STUFF!

Coolest Makeup Ad

This is quite possibly the coolest makeup ad I've seen in a while. Don't let Zombie Boy scare you though. Dermablend can cover just about anything, huh?

FOTD: Hocus Pocus

Happy Labor Day everyone! This was a "lost in blogger" post back from 7/2. I figure why not post it anyway. Hope you enjoy!

I also picked up Hocus Pocus from the Bloggers' Obsessions collection from MAC. It swatches beautifully but falls flat on the eye. To pick it up a little, I added Daliance from the Peacocky collection very lightly just to add some shimmer and depth. I loved the smoky look Hocus Pocus gave me. The Duke of Puke only gave me 20 min so be nice with your comments. I'm just impressed I'm wearing makeup!

Face

Lancome Dual Finish Foundation Powder Matte Buff II

YSL Touche Eclat #2

MAC Mighty Aphrodite blush

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish By Candlelight

Eyes- All MAC unless noted

Urban Decay Virgin (highlight)

Vanilla (all over)

Hocus Pocus (lid)

Daliance (over Hocus Pocus and inner corner)

Wedge (crease)

Powerpoint Eye Pencil Engraved

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Lingering brow pencil

Fairydrops Scandal Queen Mascara

Lips

Dior DiorKiss Luscious Lip-Plumping Gloss in Hawaii Coco 681

Disclosure: I bought everything featured

Box of Organizational Fun

For a while now I've been quite envious of other bloggers and their organizational skills. Organization is a foreign word to me. I keep all my makeup in a drawer and under my bathroom sink. It spills out and has also found it's way on top of my dressers. It's a big ol' mess. I'm really not an organized type of person. Usually things end up in piles but I know exactly where everything is in those piles. I decided I really need to clean up my makeup so I can find things a little more easily.

If I had an extra $300 I'd buy the clear cube. to house all of my makeup goodies. Everything would have a home and it would make me oh so happy. It would also make a great birthday gift .



First up on the list to organize: lipstick. I found this gem of a box when searching out organizational tools online. It holds 50 lipsticks, and is like a tackle box for lippies! Now all my lipsticks can have a home. The box features plastic cut outs that fit even my big YSL lipsticks. This fits all of my MAC bullets wonderfully but it will not close if I put a MAC Lipglass into it.

Next up on the list to organize: makeup brushes. They're just sitting in an plastic box, buried underneath each other...

Do you have any tips and tricks for organizing your makeup stash? Feel free to send me some links to help a sista out!

The lipstick organizer box is $14.95 and available here for purchase.

Disclosure: I bought this myself.

MAC Me Over Haul and Swatches

Yesterday I packed up the baby and headed down to MAC to check out the new MAC Me Over Fall 2011 collection. I thought I'd be able to shop while he slept. Haha fat chance. Midway through swatching baby boy woke up and said oh heck no. Actually, he said wah wah wah pick me up, mommy. I still was able to do significant damage as you can see.

I ended up getting the new 226 brush, Stunner Blush, Lady Grey Eyeshadow Palette, Social Lite (top) and Spirit Lipglass (bottom), Outre, Carbonized and Creamy Bisque Eyeshadows.

Outre, Carbonized and Creamy Bisque Eyeshadows. Outre is a yellow brown that is an excellent crease color. It looks like it would be great on everyone. Carbonized, a deep brown, swatched very creamy in texture. Creamy Bisque is a pretty frosty ivory color but has sparkles like Vanilla eyeshadow.

Stunner Blush. This is described as a light coral pink. It reminds me of Well Dressed and swatches very pretty. Honestly, I like how Well Dressed looks on me more. Stunner just looked super powdery on me.

Social Lite and Spirit Lipglass. Social Lite is a very reflective neutral pink. Spirit is a muted plum brown color. Don't rush to buy Spirit since it's permanent.

Lady Grey Eyeshadow Quad. This quad swatches beautifully. On me it looks a bit too cool. I wore it today and just felt like my eyes looked ugly. I could see this quad looking beautiful on ladies with olive skin tones, or just anyone darker than my light butt. If you're going to buy this quad, buy it for Hazy Day (mid tone grey) in the bottom right. It reminds me of a lighter colored Smoke and Mirrors. It definitely has a hint of taupe.

Top row: Stunner, Outre, Creamy Bisque. Middle row: Lady Grey Eyeshadow Palette. Bottom row: Social lite, Spirit

MAC Me Over is quite a big collection. Weirdly, I was the only one crowded around the three displays. I'm used to having to take turns at a display since so many people crowd my local MAC store. If you end up checking out this collection, swatch the Evil Eye Eyeshadow Quad. For lack of a better term, its quite horrid, and very chalky. Why would they even try to sell it is beyond me.

Did you end up hauling anything from this collection or are you passing?

Disclaimer: I bought everything featured.

MAC Semi Precious Haul, Swatches and Comparisons

I'm sure you thought I'd fallen off the Earth by now. Nope, just had a baby and I've been a little preoccupied with the Prince of Poopie. So preoccupied that makeup has been the last thing on my mind, shocker! I'll post soon about his royal cuteness.

I did venture out of the house with the Duke of Barfington to check out MAC's Semi Precious collection when it launched. I ended up hauling Mineralize Skinfinishes in Semi Precious Crystal Pink and Rose Quartz and the 234 split fibre eye blending brush. I wasn't too keen on the mineralize eyeshadows or the skincare this time around. The $20 price tag per eyeshadow just made them not worth it since they had a bit of fallout.

Top: 234 Split Fibre Eye Blending Brush, Bottom left to right: Semi Precious Rose Quartz, Semi Precious Crystal Pink

Semi Precious Rose Quartz

Semi Precious Crystal Pink

I compared Semi Precious Crystal Pink to the Mineralize Skinfinish By Candlelight. The outer circle is very close in color but way more glittery. When blended together it looks like a slightly darker more glittery By Candlelight.
Left to right: Crystal Pink center, Crystal Pink outer ring, By Candlelight, Crystal Pink mixed.


I also compared Semi Precious Rose Quartz to Stereo Rose and Petticoat. I found Rose Quartz to be much pinker than Stereo Rose. It's much more of a match to Petticoat but still ever so slightly pinker and tons of glitter again.
Left to right: Stereo Rose, Rose Quartz outer circle, Petticoat, Rose Quartz mixed.


I'm liking the new 234 dual fibre blending brush. It's supposed to be for packing on the color with the goat hair and blending out with the synthetic fibers. It performed nicely at packing on the color, about what I expect with a MAC brush. However, it performed awesomely with blending. I think this might be my new go to brush over the 239 just because it's an all in one brush.





Did you end up hauling anything from this collection?

PS does anyone know how to fix my right sidebar? I remember Blogger acting all jacked up months ago when I posted and somehow it moved everything on me...

Disclosure: I bought everything pictured.

MAC Cham Pale and Stylishly Yours Haul and Swatches

Happy Eve of Christmas Eve everyone! If you were nuts like me, then you ran to the mall last minute to see if MAC launched Cham Pale and Stylishly Yours early. I'm nuts apparently. These two collections launch officially on Dec 26th.

On to my haul!


Top left to right: Vintage Selection Paint Pot, Chilled on Ice pp, Dangerous Cuvee pp. Bottom: Chez Chez Lame Special Reserve Highlight Powder.




Left to right: Vintage Selection Paint Pot, Chilled on Ice pp, Dangerous Cuvee pp.


With flash- left to right: Vintage Selection pp, Chilled on Ice pp, Dangerous Cuvee pp.


Natural light- left to right: Vintage Selection pp, Chilled on Ice pp, Dangerous Cuvee pp.

Vintage Selection is a pinky peach, chunky glittered, frosty, sheer, paint pot. Got all that? These swatches are layered so they show up! Chilled on ice is a sheer frosted white gold with some chunkiness. Dangerous Cuvee is a sheer frosted cool grey with some chunkiness. You can use these as a base or as a shadow. I'm currently wearing Vintage Selection alone (see below) and love the result! I've experienced no creasing in the last 6 hours. Love the shimmer!



Chez Chez Lame


MAC Fail! Play it Proper Beauty Powder. Note to self, always check the box before you head home...


With flash- left to right: Chez Chez Lame, Play it Proper.


Natural Light- left to right: Chez Chez Lame, Play it Proper.

Chez Chez Lame is a soft gold with silver shimmer highlight powder. It feels super soft in the pan and goes on sheer and soft. I noticed it doesn't go on as strong or frosty as Mineralize Skin Finishes or as pearly as beauty powders.

Play it Proper Beauty Powder is a light pink with silver shimmer. I found it to be extremely powdery (haha well it is broken.... powder got everywhere!) This might show up ashy on some darker skin tones.



I'm wearing Vintage Selection on the lid and Chez Chez Lame on my cheeks on top of MAC Hipness blush. See how subtle Chez Chez Lame is? This was me piling it on with my newly acquired face brushes from Sigma (Thanks Productrater!!!)

So what do you think? Will you be picking up treasures from either collection or will you be passing? Keep in mind Peacocky and Mickey Contractor both launch January 6th... Don't you hate when MAC puts out large collections back to back?

Disclosure: I bought everything featured.

FOTD: Holiday Party Time!

Hi everyone! It's been a long time coming but here's a new FOTD. I hope you enjoy my chunky monkey preggo face. I'm 20 weeks preggo, halfway there! If you hadn't heard, we're having a boy! I've been feeling good but the back pain is starting to rear it's ugly head. It's just mostly aches and pains here or there. I sound like an old lady now...

This is a look I did for my holiday company party a weekend or so ago. Looking at these pictures and past pictures, I notice that I really need to toss my MUFE #117. It's just a bit too yellow and light for me (it's like an NC15-20 equivalent).

I really wanted to use my Family Crest pigment from the MAC A Tartan Tale collection since it was just collecting dust under my sink. Speaking of collecting dust, I really need to have a blog sale to unload some things before the new collections come out.

Be on the lookout for a giveaway in the new year!



Face
Make Up For Ever MUFE HD Invisible Cover Foundation #117
YSL Touche Eclat #2
MAC Dollymix Blush
MAC MSF By Candlelight

Eyes- All MAC unless noted
Family Crest Pigment (lid)
Black Tulip from Spring Colour Forecast Quad 3 (crease)
Jungle Moon from Spring Colour Forecast Quad 3 (outer V)
Beautiful Iris (inner eye)
Urban Decay Naked Palette-Virgin (highlight)
NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Milk
Urban Decay Primer Potion Original
Milani Liquif'Eye Black Eyeliner
Lingering brow pencil
Sephora Atomic Volume Mascara

Lips
MAC Bubblegum Lipstick
MAC Docile Lipglass

Ultraflesh Panthera Mascara Review

Ultraflesh Panthera Mascara just makes me giggle. It's a special mascara, it's made of bits of real panther and stings the nostrils, in a good way. They've done studies you know, 60% of the time it works every time. Wait that makes no sense.




Quick take: Ultraflesh Panthera mascara is AWESOME! It's totally deserving of a holy grail status- A+ indeed! It does it says it will and only took two coats to make my lashes look fake. I think I might like this more than Diorshow Iconic just based on it being much easier to remove.

Ultraflesh was recently introduced to Sephora as an exclusive brand. Only making one product, Panthera Mascara is a pretty strong entry into the makeup market.



What the product claims:
This volumizing, super-defining, and long-wearing Ultraflesh mascara gives the term "cat eye" new meaning. Formulated with a blend of natural waxes, it maintains the lashes' soft, pliable feel while keeping lashes conditioned and promoting healthy growth. The dual-purpose Panthera brush combines a full brush experience with a comb on the other side to create definition and length without clumping or smudging.

The good:
Does exactly what it says it will. This mascara leaves my lashes full, long and super jet black without flaking or fading throughout the day. My lashes looked the same at the end of the day as when I first applied it. I had no problems with smudging either. My lashes were left soft and the mascara was easy to remove.

The not so good:
The ears of the panther are kind of pointy so watch out! Some might not like the price.

Pointy ears!


The brush has a comb on one side to define your lashes.


One coat of mascara.


Two coats of mascara.



Available at Sephora, $26. Just look for this at the end of the aisles in the mascara display that houses Sephora's favorite mascaras.

Disclosure: I bought this myself :)

Review: Hourglass Cosmetics Child Lipgloss

I don't know what is. When I first reviewed Hourglass Cosmetics Extreme Sheen Lipgloss I wasn't a huge fan of the way it smelled since I wasn't into food smelling lipglosses. Fast forward to me being all knocked up and what not but when I applied their new color Child on my lips, I immediately wanted to eat another donut. It made my lips smell so delicious! Whacky hormones.

Anyway, back to the point. Hourglass Cosmetics has revamped their packaging for their line of Extreme Sheen Lipglosses. No longer is it a round tube that can roll off your table but it's a gorgeous flattened tube of fun. Along with the revamp, this winter Hourglass launched a new color in the line called Child described as a sheer nude.

Product Claims
*Laminactine™ deeply penetrates, reinforcing fragile tissues damaged by excessive sun exposure while enhancing collagen and elastin production to smooth fine lines and form definition.
*Provides intense hydration to keep lips from cracking or chapping.
*Treated with super-antioxidant vitamin E to nurture and shelter lips from damaging environmental elements.
*Wears alone or layers over lipstick and liner to impart instant shine.
*Paraben-, sulfate-, synthetic-dye, and phthalate-free.

Child is a milky sheer nude with a hint of pink to it so you don't end up looking like you have corpse lips.



I found all the products claims to be true for this line of lipglosses. What I really loved was that these glosses don't settle into lip lines like other brands do on me. I really thought Child would since it's kind of milky. I also loved how slick it felt on my lips, no tackiness. Lastly, my lips felt conditioned after I took the gloss off. So in a pinch, if you don't have chapstick, Hourglass Extreme Sheen lipglosses will work!

The only thing I didn't love about the new packaging is that they kept the brush applicator. I'm more of a doe foot applicator kind of gal.

Available in November for $28 at Sephora, Sephora.com, Barneys and Zuneta.com

Disclosure: I was provided a sample of the product by PR. I was not paid to do this review. My commitment is to my readers, and I will remain truthful to you.

Sephora Friends & Family Sale Starts Today!

Just an FYI, the Sephora Friends & Family Sale Starts today and goes thru November 3rd! Use the code FF2010 at check out! Happy shopping!

Tell me about your hauls! I just put in an order for my Caudalie eye cream (I need to do a review on this since it's one of my favorites) and Urban Decay's Professional Size Primer Potion.

OM-Prettiness.

Did you see this Stila Color Wheel Eyeshadow Palette??? I so don't need it but for $38 I want it! I love that the holiday products are starting to hit the shelves.


Stila's palette contains the colors and tools necessary to create countless looks for day and night. It includes 37 eyeshadow shades, a mirror, two double-ended eyeshadow brushes, and a 16-page lookbook with tips and tricks from Stila's Pro Artists and step-by-step instructions.

Available at Sephora

I'm still around. I just needed a little blog break but I'm back. On the attack. I'll post my Venomous Villains haul soon. I was bad.

MAC Fabulous Felines Haul and Swatches

Happy Friday everyone! As many of you know because you stalk the message boards and MAC site like it's your second job, the MAC Fabulous Felines collection launched yesterday. I'd gotten a sneak peak at Nordstrom's earlier this week and fell in love. When I had more time to try things on I kinda fell out of love with all the lippies and the quads, mostly everything. Sad I know, but my wallet thanks me. I just thought this would be my favorite launch of the year... not so much. I'm hoping to get a FOTD or 2 up soon.

What did you end up hauling from the Fabulous Felines collection? Let me know in the comments!

Anyway, here's the goods. As always, click on the pics to make them biggins. Swatched on NW20 skin.

Top left to right: Mauvement and Lithe Pigment, Docile Lipglass
Bottom left to right: Palace Pedigree Eyeshadow Quad, Utterly Game Mineralize Blush


Palace Pedigree Quad swatches left to right: Courtly Life, Palace Pedigree, Quite Spoiled, Russian Blue. Courtly Life kind of blended in with my skin tone.



Natural light, swatches from top, clockwise: Lithe Pigment, Mauvement Pigment, Utterly Game Blush. Utterly Game is supposedly a peacher version of Ripe Peach blush. UG turned kind of orange on me, no bueno.

With flash, swatches from top, clockwise: Lithe Pigment, Mauvement Pigment, Utterly Game Blush


Docile Lipglass swatched lightly. This reminds me of Icescape Lipglass.

Docile Lipglass worn heavily so you can see the color. This is a very sheer light lavender pearl lipgloss.

Disclosure: I bought everything in this post.