Month: May 2015

Sunday Summary vol. 6

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Sunday Summary

This was another busy week here, and I must say that bloggers are quite the chatty bunch! It is unbelievable how quickly unread posts accumulate! Nevermind, I will persevere and go through my bloglovin feed.

However, of the posts that I have already read, there were some that grabbed my atention.

A couple blogs had pictures of the upcoming Miami Beach Babe collection by Kiko. If you have seen some lipsticks with polka dots on the lipstick itself, those are part of this collection. And when I saw these ink stamp tattoos I was immediately transported back to my teens as I used to have a beautiful butterfly stamp!

This week I have also been listening to musicals. I love Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express … but I swear I can still sing along all of the Lion King songs! If you wonder what brought this trip down memory lane, it is all Beautiful with Brains fault! I also couldn’t help myself and had to google some of the fantastic makeups on the Cats cast. Incredible!

And it seems that sometimes the same topic pops up in different blogs at the same time. This week the topic was brushes!

Dustin Hunter has a post on Besame Cosmetics Boudoir brushes. These look spectacular and he swears that they are oh so soft!

 The Beauty Codes is showcasing her best brushes, and this is the first post about it. After reading it I just felt that the Edward Bess crease brush had to be mine! Ouch at the price though.

Beautiful with Brains also has a post on brushes, in this case on eye makeup brushes. All the basic shapes and functions are covered here.

And finally, Snow White and the Pear has a very interesting and thought inducing post on hauls and how to buy responsibly. Go read it!

 Hope you enjoy your Sunday!

 PS: I am in the middle of my own #rainbowchallenge on instagram. Come admire the colourful pretty products!

Love at first sight: Mac Pro Longwear Nourishing Waterproof Foundation

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Mac Pro Longwear Nourishing Waterproof foundation

The new Mac Pro Longwear Nourishing Waterproof Foundation is love. It is also a mouthful to say so we shall shorten it to the new Prolong foundation. Better right?

So be ready for a long post as I have many nice things to sing from the rooftops about this foundation!

When I read about the claims of the upcoming new Mac foundation I was definitely interested as it seemed to be Mac’s answer to all (or most) of my requirements for my dream foundation.

Bloggers and MUA’s on instagram seemed to really like it, and I was even more interested once I read that it had been developed initially as a concealer. So it is pointless to say that I just needed to try it myself!

I went to my Mac store and came back home with two samples in my possession, one in NC20 and one in NC25.

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Mac Pro Longwear Nourishing Waterproof foundation in NC20 and NC25

Applying the foundation: the first day I applied the foundation with fingers, as I tend to do when trying something new, and I was not totally convinced. If you just slap it on your face you will pile it on and it will look more unnatural. Plus, if you have large pores like me it can happen that as you are not working the foundation properly into the pores they can be more apparent once the foundation is applied.

On the second day I decided to give brushes a try. As I was feeling lazy, I simply took my Mac 130, which was small enough, and dipped it in the product left on the lid of the sample container. And wasn’t this an inspired idea!

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First purchases from the Essie Professional line

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Essie Buy me a cameo, Chinchilly and Lapis of luxury

When I recently saw that at my local store that caters to the beauty industry professionals they were putting a new Essie display, I was immediately interested.

Once I asked the sales assistants, I discovered that this was not the regular Essie line that they would be displaying, but the Essie Professional Application line.

After a bit of google fu, I did find that L’Oreal does have both Essie and Essie Professional as brands. Also, I was told by the girls at the store that these Essie nailpolishes have some differences when it comes to formula, brush, number of shades available and production site when compared to the retail Essie nailpolishes.

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Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Paint

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Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Paint in Manganese Purple and Rich Russet

On a trip to the local drugstore, my eyes were drawn to these two beautiful liquid eyeshadows.

Yes, any kind of cream or liquid eyeshadow acts as a magnet for me and I end relieving myself from some of my hard earned money.

In this case, the formula that I got to try is the Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Paint. It has a creamy consistency and has a metallic sheen. It is important to know that it dries quite quickly so there is not much time to play with it before it sets. Once it does, it will endure many hours with little to no fading.

I have worn the bronze shade to work and after an eight hour shift I still looked put together and not, as has been the case with other products, like I was wearing the previous night’s make up.

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Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeshadow Paint in Manganese Purple and Rich Russet

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Loving the Mac Studio Sculpt powders

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Mac Studio Sculpt Defining Powders

 

I had been a Mineralize Skinfinish girl for a long time. That is until the Mac Studio Sculpt Defining Powders were released last September and gave them a run for their money.

I love this powder for its sheer and traceless application. It will set your foundation adding just a bit of coverage and luminosity to it. It is more subtle than the Mineralize Skinfinish powders so it gives you more options when doing your face.

In a way, the Studio Sculpt powders remind me of the Extra Dimension less sparkly powders: they are almost gel like pressed powders and not like your traditional dusty powder at all.

So, seeing as my light plus was just the tiniest bit light on me right now and that Mac released two bronzers in this formula in their Wash and Dry collection, a trip to my Mac store was in order!

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Mac Studio Sculpt Defining Powder in Medium and Mac Studio Sculpt Defining Bronzing Powder in Delicates

Above you can see the powder in Medium and the Bronzer in Delicates. The Bronzer of course came in the gorgeous packaging of the Wash and Dry collection, the feel of which is reminiscent of the Alluring Aquatics packaging.

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Sunday Summary vol.5

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Sunday Summary

This week has been an intense one at work. Days have flown by and it is a good thing that I tend to bookmark the things I want to mention on this Sunday posts or otherwise I would not remember a thing by now!

First of all, I was amused by my little island sneaking into some beauty blogs in different ways. Lisa Eldridge posted a photograph on instagram about being here for a shoot (and I may or may not have flailed) and it seems that there is yet another Charlotte Tilbury product with a name related to my home. Hey Charlotte, thanks for the love, but it would be really nice if we could actually get your products here!

This week I was also very very happy that the new matte lipsticks that Mac will launch soon will be permanent. That means being able to use my empty containers for the b2m program! I might even get the blue one just because 😉 Temptalia has swatches of of them here as does Karen here.

As for inspiration, this week I bring you three very different styles on instagram.

  • Silvia here is all about colourful! I love her bold and bright looks, how she might coordinate her lips with her eyes or even her hair with her make up and I really envy those fantastic and colourful cut creases!
  • Erica here is all about that Scandinavian flawless look. I sometimes am astonished at her skills with eyeliner which sometimes is more whimsical like here or her out of the box looks like here.
  • Finally, describing Andrea here is a bit more difficult. She has some unusual colour combinations like this one, a side of playful here, unexpected lip combinations like this geometrical one, spooky looks here or naif and elegant here. What is sure is that she is very creative!

My first Nabla cosmetics purchase

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Nabla cosmetics haul

 

A couple of months ago I went a bit crazy on Nabla cosmetics‘ website and this is the result.

If you don’t know who Nabla are, they are a small Italian makeup company that took the net by storm last year on this side of the Mediterranean.

Right now they offer different kinds of products: eye shadows, lipsticks, mascara, etc, but what really drew me in was the fact that the eye shadows could be bought as refills and the fact that they are 6,50€ each.

They are a cruelty free brand that aims to bring innovative and safe formulas to the consumers as part of their ethos. As such, you will not find many of the recurrent bad guys of the cosmetic world such as phtalates, parabens, edta, silicones, …

At the time of my purchase there was an offer going on, so I got the 12 pan palette for free when buying 12 shades. The palette can be found on their website at 10€.

I also received the translucent make up bag above, which retails for 2,90€ on their website.

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Nabla Genesis collection

 

They have two eye shadow formulas, the standard one and one they call H2O eyeshadow, which they claim to be pigments pressed with water

As an introduction to the brand, I am going to review the four shades that I got from their Genesis collection.

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Spotlight: foundations

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MAC F&B, Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum, MAC Prolongwear, LM Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide and Chanel Mat Lumière

 As I have explained before, my skin can be a bit tricky when shopping for foundations, so that might be an explanation as to why I have accumulated so many of them.

First of all, I have oily skin and I live in a place where it is very hot and humid in summer so it is a tricky combination as most foundations melt off my face. Also, my skin is sensitive, yellow toned but with redness on the centre of the face. And finally, I don’t really like mask like foundations.

All this means that many times I have been matched to a cool toned foundation or a darker foundation or one with high coverage only to apply it once I am home and cringe.

Let me tell you about my foundation journey below.

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New Mac brush: 135

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Mac 135 brush

My new addition to my brush collection is just gorgeous! Have a look at it!

I was really excited about the launch of the Mac 135 brush. You could say that I am always excited about new brushes (except those odd toothbrushes look alikes they launched a year ago) but I was specially excited about this one as it had a shape that I love and tend to go for.

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Mac 135 brush, Clinique powder brush, Dior blush brush

My current favourite setting powder is the Clinique powder brush pictured above. I like the flat paddle shape and use it to gently sweep and pat powder all over my face. As you can see the Mac 135 is very similar, just a tiny bit smaller overall.

I also compare it to one of the old Dior blush brushes. The Dior one is a fuller brush with a flatter top and thus picks up more powder. I use it for a higher coverage or even to apply blush with the tip.

In my opinion the hair feels like very nice goat hair. Perhaps the fact that it is not dyed helps in this regard. It feels the softest of these three if you gently swipe it, however if you hold it perpendicular to your face you will feel the bristles.

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Dipping my toes into La Roche Posay: an acid and a serum

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For many a blogger out there La Roche-Posay is a well known entity. For me however, until very recently, it was a brand that I saw everytime that I went to the chemist’s but that I was never drawn too. Maybe it was the wide range of products that they offer, but my eyes simply skipped the shelves with their products.

However, when I recently vowed to take better care of my skin and decided that I simply had to jump onto the cosmetic acids bandwagon, I found a fantastic glycolic acid on those often overlooked shelves.

The Pigment Control serum is a serum that contains glycolic acid and kojic acid and promises to treat dark spots and uneven skin tone.

The benefits of glycolic acid as a AHA are well known so I was sure to get an improvement in how my skin looked like. On the other hand I had not heard of kojic acid before, but it seems that while it has a lightening effect as well it is very unstable.

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