February Favorites

My favorites for February!

1. Mac Marquised' Lipstick $15.50

Pretty and natural. It's on the sheer side but it has enough pigment to coat the lips with a nice natural pink color. It's sold out at most counters. I did see some last weekend in Dallas.

2. Mac Mighty Aphrodite Blush $25.50

	Pretty and pigmented. It's now sold out in most places.

3. Zoya remove+ polish remover 8oz for $9.99

Well worth the price! It's the best ever. I can't believe how awesome a nail polish remover could be. It smells nice, removes everything without need to scrub, and it leaves my nails feeling nice afterwards.

4. Chanel Black Pearl Polish $25

This is so pretty! I couldn't stop staring at my nails with this on. It would be a great first high-end polish to try.

5. Buxom Mascara

This is some awesome mascara! It glides on silky and does everything a mascara should. Volumize, Curl, and Define! Thank you JBreezy for this!



Have you tried any of these?

EOTD - Smokey Purple Eyeshadow

Eye of the Day - Smokey Purple

Lid - Mac Linear Lilac (purple)
Crease - Mac Graphic Garden (black)
Inner eye - Ulta liner pencil in Halo
Liner - MUFE black on top and outer 1/3 of bottom

Forgot what mascara I used... possibly the Dior Extase? I applied too much so it looks clumpy on the ends.
I think Ulta's Halo is a really nice inner highlight color. It would probably work pretty well on the waterline too instead of pure white. It should really get more love- I've never seen it mentioned on youtube. In fact I can't find it in stores b/c my Ulta never restocks. You can find it online here though.

Mac Graphic Gardens Palette

October Favorites

October Favorites! These were well received last time so I'm at it again!

1. Dior Quint in Ready to Glow - I've been wanting to splurge on some top notch eyeshadows for some time now, and why not continue my addiction to Dior? I LOVE every single one of these colors! If I was going to spend a lot on this quint I wanted to make sure I loved every single dang color, no exceptions. The texture is smooth and heavenly but not sparkle crazy like other quints I've seen. This retails at $58, but if you divide it by 5 it's $11.60 per color which ain't so bad.. okay it's bad BUT I bought this on ebay for $40. So that's about $8 per shadow which is more reasonable.

2. Batiste Dry Shampoo - I've tried many low end and high end dry shampoos but I'm always itching to get back to this one. I stopped using it for a couple months while testing any other one I could find just to experiment. When I finally used this again this month it was like night and day regarding the difference in effectiveness. Zaps grease, no residue left once massage in, smell manageable, low price. That's all I really need. $7.99 at Ulta.

3. Givenchy Play for Her - I got this deluxe mini size from Sephora with code "herplay" and I'm so glad I did because this fragrance is LOVE! The only downside is that it's not very long lasting. If you like the pretty and sweet florals then give this a whiff! It has Bergamot, Sweet Pea, Amyris Wood, Tiare Flower, Sandalwood, Musk. I dry down was a pleasant musk which surprised me b/c I usually do not like Musk but it really works in this case.

4. Milani Polish in Bare To Wear - The perfect muted purple light gray color. Good quality creme polish! Limited Edition but you can buy it directly Milani.

5. Mac lipstick in Innocence Beware - The perfect pretty light pinky nude color. I grabbed for this the most in October. Since it's a cremesheen there's a slight shine which is nice. It's limited edition, but Hue may be a good color dupe from what I've heard.

6. Neutrogena lipstick in Just Whisper - see my review here.

7. Isqueen Crystal White Series Pore Refiner - I like how it's pink.. haha, AND that nothing bad has happened from using it so far! It gets the grime that my cleanser may have missed. Not so sure about the "pore refining" bit but it leaves my skin refreshed. Def worth checking out.

8. Milani Liquif'eye pencil liner - no smuding on my eye so far! It's deep black and inexpensive, and goes on smooth. Possibly replacing my mufe liner. It's only $5.99!

9. OMI Ume Softcream lipbalm - waaay better than any EOS lipbalm. It smells like peach and ume (plum) but more so peach. It's not better than Espie but I really enjoyed using this all month! It's now sold out on sasa.com but there are similar ones on ebay if you search OMI lip.

September Favorites

My favorites for September. First time doing this!

Chanel Jade Rose Polish - My first polish spurlge! It's a beautiful light peach-pink nude cream color. It's the first polish that I wanted to keep wearing and stare at in a long time. There's gotta be a reason why this was released a second time! It originally came out with that Jade green polish that overshadowed this one. This year it came out with Paradoxal which also stole the spotlight. I even love this polish so much I need to get a backup. You can probably still find this at your local Macy's or Dillard's. And if you want to try a dupe...

Milani Bare in Mind Polish - This is close but not a dupe for Jade Rose. It's more pink toned and has slightly more shimmer. It's not exactly a favorite but it's still pretty!

Long handled mirror - I originally got a small mirror like this from Maggie's giveaway, and since I liked it so much I searched for a bigger one! It probably sounds stupid but the "design" of long-handled mirrors seems much more practical and easier to use than clam shell ones. Having a grip is nice and the mirror's not in the way.

Mac Notoriety Quad -Seeing that I liked Skintone 2 and Notoriety from the Felines collection I did some research and found that they are repromotes from this quad! I tracked it down on ebay for about $25ish including shipping which is similar to a CCO price I think. Yay for me! I really like the neutral colors in this.

Dior Addict Ultra Gloss in Negligee Pink 256 - It gives a beautiful pink glow to my lips. It's instant LOVE with this pricey gloss. It's opaque enough to wear alone even on my pigmented lips! <3<3

Dior diorshow Extase - I've been having fun playing with the sample. It works pretty well on my lashes. I'm not too picky. Thanks Cat! <3

Nars Orgasm Blush - I got this in a blogsale from Amy and I love it! Really lives up to the hype!

Rock and Republic shader brush - The cut on this brush is nice so that it picks up shadows really well. I like how thin it is too. I was not looking for a fluffy one. This brush is perfect! It's not worth the retail price though.

That's it for September. Thinking of doing a September Returns/Misses.

mac pigments and shady sellers!

I decided to try out some Mac Pigments. I didn't want to shell out $20 for a whole bottle of a pigment I knew I wouldn't finish so I went searching for sites that sold pigment samples. I ended up at a shop on ecrater.com. Not only did it take more than 3 weeks to arrive, there was no communication between the seller and I, plus 1/4tsp is really a very tiny amount! My goal was to find them for no more than $3 each including shipping. I managed to find a seller who had all the colors I was interested in at a great price... but service was just not there. It's a trade off I suppose since other sites charge $4-5 + shipping for the same amount. Ecrater had sent me an email to rate my transaction with the shop after a few weeks of placing my order. Since I had still not received the package or any response to my mail from the seller I left a negative feedback. Then suddenly I get a response! She e-mails me asking if I can remove the negative because she had a death in the family... and it will hurt her sales... I dunno if that's true or not but it's shady. She also said she'd refund me the money... Sounds like she'll give me a refund if I take back my review.. well sorry lady that is just wrong! If she had family problems she could have put a notice on her page or sent an e-mail. I ended up just ignoring her e-mail. Funny thing is the next day my order came!

I was curious about Melon and Mauvement at first, and then I added in Circa Plum for fun. I realize now I should've shown you the inside so you could see how little 1/4tsp is.

Turned out to be my favorite! I think this came out with the Rose Romance Collection. It also may be a Pro color? I would love some more- anyone want to share? :P

Awesome, but not particularly amazing. It looks different at different angles.

I was hoping this would be much prettier. It's not!

All three swatched here. Circa Plum, Melon, Mauvement. All in all the pigments in general are pretty cool. It's not something I'm going to start collecting or lusting after though. Actually I have been curious about how Lithe pigment is.. hehe :)

I used Mauvement and Circa Plum, plus I added About Face's The Big Guns to the lower outer corner. You can hardly see anything. My photos never capture the colors on my eye. I also used Milani Liquif'eye pencil in Black and Diorshow Extaste mascara (thanks Cat!).

The Milani pencil is nice but not completely smudge proof. It glides like an Urban Decay pencil but it's still prone to small amounts of smudging. I'd say it's pretty good for a drugstore pencil though.

 MAC pigments are the easiest to press so here's how they look. Even though I ordered 1/4 tsp of each I didn't get 1/4 tsp of each. As you can see I got the least of Circa Plum. :( Showing that you CAN press 1/4 tsp of pigments! Just add alcohol!

Here's the whole palette in case you were curious. It's really random stuff together that I don't even use anymore. Random Everyday Minerals and The She Space (about face) minerals.

Here is something that I've been working on. It's my Urban Decay Naked inspired palette! Using all About face minerals. I'm still trying to figure out what colors to put in. I need to pull up a picture of the Naked palette and try to pick out the ones I have. Pressing mineral shadows is another animal haha.

Secret Santa for the Summer- please join!

My friend Linda is hosting a secret santa in the summer called "Secret Angel or Devil" that can be found here. Please join! We are looking for more ladies to participate. You need to be an active blogger and the spending limit is $25-$45 USD including shipping.

So are you an Angel or a Devil? The angel and devil aspect involves the wrapping of the present, not the present itself. It's not limited to makeup- it can be whatever!

Today is the last day to join but she may be extending the deadline... please join asap!

On another note.. I've been really amused with this site I found called Quote URL where you can group together people's tweets and even embed it into your blog like so! If you don't get it you can watch the demo video on their site.

1. 
   
   
   MyMakeupBlog Latest: My Favorite Pair of Earrings from Julu Jewelry http://bit.ly/bZ0Nxw 11 Aug 2010 from twitterfeed

-- this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

 I made your favorite pair of earrings? What an honor!! I dunno if you know this but I started blogging because of you! <3

Shout out to Megan for sending me this gorgeous palette for my birthday! Mac Graphic Gardens. I finally made a proper whore look using this so thanks! :D

This is so gorgeous! It's everything I dreamed of and more!! Thank you!

You must join Milk and Cookiie's Giveaway! I love how they always make it a game. They even made a video this time! eek! I love seeing you bloggers "in person."

EOTD with prep for colour

So I picked up two shadows from Mac's collection, Prep for Colour, that came out recently. I got Hey and Prepped for Glamour. Hey is a Veluxe Pearl which I like and Glamour is a Frost finish which is just okay. I'm more used to the softer shadows which veluxe pearls are. When I got Hey I was frustrated b/c it looked just like All that Glitters which was my first Mac Shadow and Prepped for Glamour is supposed to be close to Satin Taupe. I don't have Satin Taupe but it was on my list of shadows to buy. So I finally buy some shadows and they end up being dupes? ugh, they did not have all that glitters and satin taupe at the store (lost!) so I couldn't do a comparison. I've seen swatches online but I'd like to see it in person.

Originally I liked All that Glitters but the more I look at Hey- the more I like it! It's still looks pink like All that Glitters but it's less red. Some say it's like Naked Lunch? I dunno. At first Hey wasn't soft like All that Glitters and it was pissing me off b/c my brush could not pick up and deposit it very well. Now I've messed with it enough to "break it in" and it's fine. Is this normal for Mac? So right now I'm not really liking All that Glitters anymore, and I may end up swapping it on MakeupAlley.

Then there's Prepped for Glamour. I'm not extremely happy about this color because I think pulls red when I put it on my eyelid too. I've read that Satin Taupe is more purple and that's what I've been looking for. So dang- I might just swap this for Satin Taupe... The last thing a poor girl needs are mac dupes. [karlasugar swatches]

In order to get a photo that had any resemblance to what it looks like I had to sit in front of a window even though it washed me out and makes me look like I have no eyeshadow on. But it is what it is...

MAC Shroom as highlight, Hey in inner corner, and Prepped for Glamour in outer crease.
MUFE black liner top, maroon (bottom), and Estee Lauder mascara (weak)
When looking at this photo I realize I need to tight-line and re-curl my lashes! oops.

MAC Peach Ombre blush- I love this blush!
Rose studs in denim blue. I've got a few new colors in! They go quickly.

Check out Dao's MAC discovery!

Dao's MAC discovery

She's reporting how you can see the model's real lashes under the fake ones on the mascara ad. I can't believe they did this! This is why I buy drug store mascara.

P.S. The holiday collections are ready for viewing.

Mac Custom Palette website feature

Who else loves the MAC website's newest feature?!

Visit THIS LINK to customize your very own palette by dragging and dropping pans into your palette. All of the palette sizes are available in this new feature. It is so cool, try it out!

I used to do this in Photoshop to help me decide on what to get, so glad they've made it much easier!