November 30, 2009

Since today is the last day of this month, I thought I post my favourites for November; though most of these products/items are in general my favourites for fall 2009. I have listed these in random order as I thought of them, hope you don't mind.


1. Essie Nail Polish in Angora Cardi
I have actually worn this nail polish at least 4 times since I got it in October which is a record for me. I cannot believe I haven't yet posted the swatch on my blog though. This is a gorgeous dusty mauve colour and perfect for those cloudy November days. It's a muted colour so it's very work appropriate.


2. Kiehl's Scented Lip Balm in Coconut
My lips get incredibly dry as soon as the temperature falls below zero deg and this lip balm has been a life saver for me this fall. I have tried loads of lip balms before and this has been the best so far. It's incredibly moisturizing and the scent is so yummy, which is of course a bonus.


3. MAC's Night Violet Mattene
This gorgeous dark burgundy/plum colour was released with Style Black collection and is an ultra-flattering dark lip colour (at least on me). It applies evenly and does not budge. It's also not very drying. I think I've been wearing this at least once a week.


4. MAC's Black Greasepaint Stick
Another staple in my makeup routine for fall. This is a great base to make your eyeshadows pop and is a great tool for fall smokey looks. This base does not budge once you apply it so make sure to blend quickly to avoid having harse lines.


5. Big Sexy Hair Spray
I got a giant bottle of this hair spray at Chatters and am quite pleased with the result. I have wavy hair that I can pretty much shape into any style I like. But my hair is also a little fine overall and sorta of flat on top. I just use a little bit of this spray and tease my crown and I'm ready to go. Glad I got a big bottle when I could!


6. Nars Desire Blush
With the dark lips and smokey/glittery eyes of this season, one needs a nice matte blush. Desire a very pigmented bubblegum pink blush that can be applied sheered out or intense as desired. I mostly apply it with a powder blush to get a nice flush of colour. All Nars blushes are great but this one is my fall 2009 staple.


7. Danier Black Zippered Motorcycle Jacket
This cropped jacket has been on my back all the time this fall. I love looks that have a little bit of rock and roll and this jacket is just the ideal fall coverup. You have probably seen me wear it in pretty much all of my FOTD's as we had a milder fall here. It's a great jacket to throw on top of jeans and your party dress.


8. MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation (NW25)
I actually like this foundation as my everyday coverup for colder months. If has a gel like consistency and holds well when it's windy and dry. I still love my MUFE HD for night outs, photography and special occasion but Studio Sculpt is amazing for everyday. It's also a bonus that NW25 actually matches me perfectly. I had to mix NW25 and NW30 in Studio Fix to get my perfect match.


9. MAC Smoke Signal Pigment
Ok, I'm sorry I know this is an old LE product but honestly Smoke Signal is the most gorgeous matte burgundy colour ever. It's prefectly in tune with the smokey looks I crave in fall. If you cannot find this pigment, check out Burnt Burgundy; it's a Pro product and incredibly similar.


10. Ben Nye Invisible Powder
As I had mentioned in my IMATS post, I purchased a huge jar of this powder at the trade show and have been using it with a mini kabuki to set my foundation. I gotta say this powder is the bomb! My makeup absolutely does not budge even after an hour of workout at teh gym. I no longer have to blot in the evening. Two thumbs up! I mean I know this is not really a season specific product, but I just discovered it now and I love it!


What were/are some of your fall essentials? Please share in comments.

November 29, 2009

As I mentioned previously in my IMATS haul post, I purchased two sets of Naked Cosmetics pigments from their booth. They have these pigments on their website for $59.99 a set but the show price was two sets for $50.00 and no taxes so I thought that was a good deal.

Naked Cosmetics website describes these as: "Naked Cosmetics Mineral Pigments. 100% Oxidized Mica. 6 colors come in a collection. All colors are individually lidded". And these babies are pigmented! You need the smallest amount to get the affect needed. Also, I use pigments a lot on a daily basis so I'm used to bit of fallout with MAC, OCC and NYX pigments but the fallout with Naked pigments was very minimal. The individual pigment jars in each set don't have a name, just a number, so I will review them by just describing the shade.

Ebony Set

Ebony set is much like the MES in MAC's Style Black as in all the pigments have black undertones and hence are dramatic bold colours. I would say these are superior to the MES as they do not require a black base to reach opacity. I have layered them over Black GPS just so you see that it doesn't really make a difference. These colours are ideal for a night out smokey look and the ladies who love dramatic looks like myself are very much drawn to the black base in these. All colours apply beautifully and effortlessly; I would say only the black had to be layered twice the get the desired affect. The bronze and blue colours have a sheen to them and the rest have small glitter particles but are not as glittery and gritty as the MES.


Left to right: dark gold bronze, dark blue, blackened silver, blackened purple, black with silver reflects, blackened forest green.

Ivory Set

The Ivory set consists of ivory coloured pigments that each reflect a different tone. For those ladies who are a fan of MAC's duochrome eyeshadows and pigments, you know exactly why I got this set. I have been using at least one these colours in my look every day as they compliment any look you have in mind. You can also layer this over coloured bases or apply them damp to get the duochrome to show up more; though they are already quite pigmented. These colours are ideal for highlighting the brow bone and tear duct. Most of these are either matte or have a soft sheen.


Left to right: ivory, pale yellow, pale peach, icy blue, mint green, pale lilac/pink.

Hope you enjoyed this review. If you get a chance at purchasing these pigments, I definitely recommend them.

November 28, 2009

I did a look with my Naked Pigment Ivory set and some of my new and existing MUFE eyeshadows for a shopping trip this morning. This look was much brighter in real life. For some reason, I feel like my camera always washes out the colours; it even makes me look pale :(

Anyway, I continue to be impressed with these Naked pigments; full review on these is coming tomorrow. Also, MUFE #75 is so friggin bright! I barely touched it with my 224 and got so much colour on, I had to really blend it. I also love the MUFE #83 as I love all teals.

Face
Lise Watier Concealer wheel
MUFE HD 118
Ben Nye Powder
Sculpt
Pleasantry mb

Eyes
Painterly p/p - base
NYX Horse Radish JP - base for lid
Naked Ivory Set, reflect lime colour - inner lid
MUFE #83 - outer lid
MUFE #92 - crease
MUFE #75 - above crease
Blanc Type e/s - highlight
Young Punk MES - to line
Feline
Lancome Hypnose

Lips
Cream Cup l/s
My Favourite Pink d/g

November 28, 2009

I'm gonna have a house full of ppl in a couple of hours as the hubby and I are hosting a game night. But I have a few posts planned for this week so I thought I post at least one of them.

I'm wearing China Glaze Frost Bite which has been in my possession for about a year now but I never got a chance to swatch it. Weirdly enough, this is the nail polish the MEN compliment me the most on every time I wear it. Yes, you heard right; I wear louder and bolder colours than this but this one actually earns me thumbs up from the guys, lol! The hubby says maybe coz this is the colour of Rally Blue. I guess that could be it. Anyway, it's a gorgeous blue and looks stunning under the sunlight. I did have application issues though as I usually have with China Glaze. It applies a little unevenly for me but the wear was good. I've had a on for three days with no top coat and you see only a little bit of tip wear.

Here it is on my nail, 3 coats of it:

November 27, 2009

Yay for Friday and yay for being in the office on this awful rainy day and not on site! I'm hosting a game night tomorrow night so I'm quite excited for that. I'm hoping to do a dramatic look for that with some of my new goodies. But for this rainy and chilly day, I did a warm and soft somkey eyes using fall colours. Hope you guys like this. Please excuse the lack of close-ups; as I mentioned, it's raining and I had to use the flash :/

Face
Cover FX Primer
Lise Watier concealer wheel
Studio Sculpt Foundation NW25
Eversun bpb
BB Apricot shimmer brick

Eyes
Artifact p/p - base
Off the Radar p/m - lid
Cranberry e/s - crease
MUFE #158 - crease
Dark matte bwron from Kryolan Cairo palette - deep crease and to line
Blanc Type e/s - highlight
Evening Aura e/s - above crease
Coppering e/s - outer lid

Lips
Up the Amp l/s

November 26, 2009



Lovely Jennifer at a Beauty and Fashion Blog has tagged my blog as one of her frequent reads. Thank you so much girl, I always love doing these tags :)

Ok, so on to the rules:

- To accept this award: Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

- Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.

- Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award

And here's a list of my favourite blogs (which are also my frequent 15):

Shayla - her blog is the first blog I started following and is still on top of my most read blogs. She does great makeup combinations and has also inspired me to finally try out Konads on my nails. She also has a great sense of humour so her posts are always so enjoyable to read.

Michelle - I love her blog as she's the queen of randomness with a passion for makeup. Reading her blog always makes my day better. She's also a great source of makeup info for all other Canadian bloggers.

Jennifer - the gorgeous lady who tagged me is an amazing makeup artist. She recently started working for MAC but have a look at her FOTD's and you will see that she's a seasoned makeup artist with great blending skills.

Adina - I love Adina's blog as it's full of information about various cosmetics brands. If a new collection is out, run to her blog to get the dish. She's also great with bright colour combinations and is a total sweetie.

Jacqueline - I love every single look she does. She's amazing at bright and neutral looks alike and nobody inspires me like she does.

Clara - She's defininetly the queen of blending in my world. She has the most amazing soft looks that look effortless but trust me it takes work to get your makeup as gorgeous as hers.

Beda - I love Beda's blog for her great review and swatches. I also admire her as a fellow makeup loving engineer (trust me, there are not that many of us). And somehow this busy mom makes time to upkeep a great blog.

Stephanie - another gorgeous girl with beautiful soft makeup looks. I wish the products she uses looked half as good on me as they do on her.

Cosmetosaur - this is the most glamourous dinasuar you'll ever see. I love the swatches Smanatha puts on her blog and it's a bonus that she's very talented lady with great blending skills. Her random jokes work great on me too. I'm a sucker for bloggers with a sense of humour.

Polish Pixie - I love her nail polish swatches. She usually has a nail swatch per day followed by Konad on the same polish so you really can see what pattern work great on which polishes. Highly recommended.

Andee Layne - I recently discovered this gorgeous lady's fashion blog and she's quickly become my go to for anything fashion. She also has great health and wellness tips.

Karla - who doesn't know her or stalks her blog? For all your swatching needs, look no further than her very informative blog. Karla's blog really is the next best thing to ging shopping yoursef. Maybe even better than that!

Ren - I love Makeup by Renren's blog as she's talented makeup artist who's been around the block for a while and does gorgeous looks on ladies of various skintones. She has a great YT channel as well full of tutorials and honest reviews.

Zerin - another beautiful canadian blogger with great FOTD's and tutorials. She does not shy away from bright lips and I dig that :) She also always includes swatches and reviews with her hauls which is highly appreciated by readers like me.

Arshia - another gret makeup artist with beautiful bold and subtle looks. I do not get tired of her FOTD's. Always inspirational and always gorgeous.

Hope to see you guys do the tag :) If anyone has more great blog recommendation, please include them in comments.

November 25, 2009

How is everyone on this fine Wednesday? We're having overcast skies here in Ottawa but I'm in a good mood as after 4 nights of bad sleep, I finally got a good 7 hours of shut eyes. I decided to try some of my new goodies that I acquired from IMATS for my FOTD. I am so in love with my Naked pigments. I have only used the Ivory set so far but every colour I've used is soooo pigmented. You really only need a little bit. I actually used it dry today and still got amazing result. I will do swatches for your guys this weekend so you see. I really hope we'll have some sun though. It makes a difference in the way colours show up!

Anyway, I also used one of my new OCC pigments, Lafayette, with this FOTD. I kinda just threw some colours together but was happy with the result. I really wish it was sunny so you could see more IRL colours :(

Face
Lise Watier concealer wheel
MUFE F&B #32
Ben Nye setting powder
Stark Naked bpb
Petticoat MSF

Eyes
Bare Canvas paint - base for crease and up
Greenstroke p/p - base for lid
Naked Comsetics Ivory Set (used pale yellow colour) - inner lid
OCC Lafayette p/m - outer lid
Smoke Signal p/m - crease
Beauty Marked e/s - outer v and to line
Your Ladyship p/m - highlight
UD 1999 24/7 - lower lashline

Lips
Nars Sex Machine vlp

November 24, 2009

How's everyone's week going so far? It seems like my work week has finally slowed down some. I get to be in the office more often and finally catch up with hundreds of emails from last week and send out the reports from last two weeks' site visits. Since I have an actually hour for lunch (yay), I decided to finally review my Lise Watier Portfolio Corrector which I refer to as concealer wheel in my FOTD's. I've been using it since late September so I feel that now I can give it a fair review.

So this is what the Portfolio Corrector looks like:


As per Lise Watier's website: "A five way concealer spectrum designed to correct and conceal skintone irregularities and under-eye circles. The soothing properties of chamomile and Vitamin E and C provide Skin smoothness and comfort". There are currently two wheels available. The one I have which is for light skin (which I assume anyone under NC40 should be able to use) and now they have a new wheel for dark skin.

The Portofolio corrector has five concealing/correcting shades:

- Ivory - hides under-eye circles
- Green - conteracts redness
- Yellow Beige - hides blue veins and under-eye circles
- Lilac - radiance affect
- Brown - corrects and sculpts

All of these colours can be used separatley or mixed together based on your skintone and needs. I use the green on its own on my red spots and small scars, a mix of ivory and yellow beige under my eyes (I don't do this often asI don't have undereye circles), lilac to highlight my nose and brown to sculpt. I actually don't use the brown that much since I prefer to sculpt with a powder as it's faster. I have used it for more detailed looks though and was pleased with the result. I also used the brown on my mother in law's dark spots - she's about an NC42- when I was doing her makeup and it worked great.

There's quite a lot of product in this corrector, 25 g to be exact. I don't seem to have put a dent in it since I started using it and I have been using it everyday. I even caked the lilac and ivory on my face for my Edward Scissorhand Halloween look. I would say this is the most perfect all-in-one concealer I've come across. It does a great job of hiding impefection though learning to work with it takes some experimenting. The formula is a little dry and takes some getting used to but once you get the hang of it, it's perfection. What I do is that I take some more concealer for a spot that I think I need with my brush, place it on and blend slightly, then use my fingers to blend it entirely into my skin.

As I mentioned the formula is a little dry, ensure that you moisturize the skin before you apply this. On the upside, I find that the dryness nature of this concealer makes for a longer lasting effect. Costwise, I paid about $29 CAD for this and I feel like that's a fair price for the amount of product you get and the functionality/performance. I definitely recommend this to anyone interested in an amazing concealer. You can purchase Portfolio Corrector from Shoppers, the Bay and Lise Watier website.

November 23, 2009

As promised yesterday, I'm posting pictures of makeup I bought with quick initial thoughts. I will be doing swatches and full reviews of everything I bought as I use these and get a better feeling for the products. Oh, I took all these pics on our drive back from TO, so that's why you can kinda see the car seat in some of them. I had to take the pictures then as it's now too dark by the time I get home from work. I wanted to make this post early this week and not on the weekend.

Ben Nye


As mentioned in my previous post, Ben Nye was selling their products from Malabar as they are the official distributor in Canada. My local Malabar usually has only a few Ben Nye products on hand so it was nice to be able to test more products in person. I ended up getting a huge jar of their translucent setting powder in shade invisible, Final Seal spray as well as Tangerine Lumiere eyeshadow. I wanted to buy the Grand Lumiere palette but let's face it I have the dupes for more than half of the palette so it didn't seem that reasonable. Tangerine is a beautiful orange shimmery colour. I don't have many oranges so I thought this one was a nice addition. I was in need of a setting powder and I got a great deal on the huge jar I got ($16). I also heard great things about Final Seal and I'm hoping it's all I heard and better.

Kryolan


I have wanted to try out Kryolan for ever so this was a great opportunity. I did some research on their website prior to attending IMATS and saw that they have these gorgeous eyeshadow palettes in matte or shimmery finishes. Each palette contains 5 eyeshadows that apply very pigmented. I swatched them all and ended up with the most neutral palette called Cairo. Most of my stash consists on shimmery and bold colours and I needed more matte and neutral colours. Once again, the swatches for this palette will be coming up in the next week or so. I wanted to try out their Eye Dust too but they hadn't brought any to the exhibit.

Makeup Forever


My list for MUFE was not very long as I already have a full palette of MUFE eyeshadow as well as HD and Duo Mat foundations. I wanted to give their Face and Body a shot though so I bought a bottle of that in shade 32. I was told by the MA's that I can wear both 30 and 32 but I should stick with 32 as 30 might be too light in the summer. I also bought eyeshadow refills in #75 and #83. I will be swatching the eyeshadow with the rest of my MUFE colour collection soon. MUFE offered 40% of their retail price and as a result their counter was extremly busy.

Naked Cosmetics


Naked comstics makes beautiful pure pigments with no fillers. Their pigments come in stalks of 6 mini pigments organized by collections based on a theme colour. I picked up the Ebony and Ivory collections (haha!). Ebony reminds me of MAC Style Black in terms of the darkness and glitteriness of the pigments. There's dark blue, dark purple, black with silver glitter, dark green and dark burgundy. The ivory set has 6 nude pigments that have various duochrome effects like reflections of pale yellow, pink, lavender, blue and green. I love these two sets. I took me a while to decide which sets I wanted though as they were all gorgeous. These sets were $30 each or two for $50. This is the purchase I'm the most excited about. I cannot wait to play with these babies!

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics


I already have a few of the OCC pigments and quite like them so I was excited to try out more and also test the lip tars. To my disappointment, they didn't have any of the pure colour pigments. But I did get some regular pigments (Lafayette and Clove) and two of the lip tars (Pageant and Plum) and a nail polish (Something). The lip tar packaging is much smaller than I expected but they are insanely pigmented! I wanted to get more of the tars but honestly I'm a little lazy with mixing lip products so I got only the two. I love Lafayette pigment as it's the exact colour of my eyes. I have a weakness of taupe eyeshadows and anything blue, hence the purchase of Clove p/m and Something nail polish.

Crown Brushes


The price of these brushes was amazing. I wanted to buy one of each brush! The selection is very sizable so it took a while again to come up with a decision. As I'm pretty happy with my MAC brushes, so I bought a few of these to compliment my existing stash. I purchased a shading brush, a 242 lookalike (I cannot find my 242 half the time I'm doing my makeup), a fluffy 217 lookalike (this one I will give to my mom) and a less fluffy two ended brush (concealer/lip brush). The price range for these was between $2 - $5.

Royal Brushes



As per above, I also picked up some brushes from Royal brush. I purchased a mini angled kabuki brush. This brush is so soft and efficient (I used it this morning to apply powder). I also got a bent eyeliner brush, and angled shading brush like the 272 and a fluffy angled blending brush. The price range for these was between $2 - $7.

Pari Professional


I purchased bottle of brush cleaner from these guys as they had excellent reviews online and I had grown tired of the old school shampooing method of brush cleaning. They demonstrated the method to me before purchase. You spray some product into a paper towel, dip the dirty brush in and make some quick circles, wait about a minute for it to dry, et voila! This should make life so much easier for me.

Nars


Nars was not actually having a discount sale but I wanted the Sex Machine Velvet Matte pencil for a while so I thought I might as well pick it up at IMATS. I had tried this shade on at Sephora before and loved the texture and the feel of it on my lips. I also wanted Dragon Girl and Dolce Vita but I will go back to Sephora for those at a later time.

Ok, that's all for my IMATS haul. Full review and swatches are still upcoming starting this weekend. Hope you guys enjoyed my rambling :)

November 22, 2009

As promised, I took many pictures when attending the IMATS show tried to take in as much as I could so I can share it with you guys. First of all, the day started kind of stressful. The hubby and I got lost as we went to Princess Blv instead of Prince's blv. It wasn't really our fault though the website for the IMATS venue (Heritage Court) had the incorrect address. We did get there at around 9:30 am.

I was overwhelmed at the beginning as I was trying to run to all the counters at once, lol! I noticed immediately that there's a huuuuge lineup in front of the MUFE counter so decided I don't want to start with them. The venue actually seem smaller than what I had imagined but it was still pretty roomy. I met up with a fellow blogger, Nepenthe, and hauling with her made the experience so much more fun! I ended up hitting OCC, MUFE, Nars, Crown brushes, Royal brushes, Ben Nye, Kryolan, Pari and Naked Pigments. I also attended the MAC Pro and Enkore Makeup seminars and I would say I learned a lot from both. If I wasn't only there for one day of IMATS, I would be attending more seminars as they really completed the event. Oh, I got to meet Enkore Makeup as well, he's very sweet and down to earth in person.

MUFE had a great deal on their product by offering 40% of their regular price. As a result, they had the busiest counter. Ben Nye sold their product through Malabar and I would say they were also doing pretty well. My top two brands to try were Kryolan and Naked Pigments and I was pleased to see that they had good deals as well. In general, all exhibitors were very friendly and helpful. My favourite exhibitors were OCC and Ben Nye mostly in terms of friendliness of the staff. I guess most of the exhibitors were pleasantly surprised about the nice weather in Toronto. Seem like they were all expecting a snow storm, haha!

I was there till 12, then left to have lunch with the hubby. I came back at around 3 pm and by then the place wasn't as busy. I was able to wrap up my shopping, and chat with more exhibitors before they closed down. Overall, I would say this was an amazing experience for me. I got the opportunity to meet some amazing makeup artists, the talents behind many fabulous brands (like OCC and Yaby) while enjoying great deals on tried and true and new brand makeup.

I will be making another post tomorrow with my haul and more details on the deals we got. But for now enjoy these pics, I'm off to bed :)


inside the hall


body painting


Ben Nye counter


Kryolan


Crown Brushes


movie head samples


with Enkore Makeup


Enkore doing makeup on Pursebuzz


End of show, with my bag!

November 22, 2009

I literally got back to Ottawa about an hour ago. I had a great time at IMATS and am still excited about it (even though it's passed, lol). I wanted to start sharing the experienced right now though I'm still tired from the trip back to Ottawa. This is gonna take a few posts over the course of today and tomorrow so please bear with me.

I'm gonna start by posting the look I wore to the show. I decided to go for my best colours, green and teal. I took these pics when we left for lunch so the eyeliner is a little bit smudgy :/

Face
Cover FX Primer
Lise Watier Concealer Wheel
MUFE HD 118
Nars Deep Throat

Eyes
Bare Canvas paint - base
Bio Green e/s - lid
Plumage e/s - to cut and blend crease
Gulf Stream e/s - above crease
Blanc Type e/s - highlight
Blacktrack f/l
Feline
Lancome Hypnose mascara

Lips
Blankety l/s
Rags to Riches d/g

November 20, 2009

Just a quick note to let you guys know that I'm leaving Ottawa in about an hour so there will be no posts from me this weekend. I will be attending the IMATS show in Toronto tomorrow so stay tuned for pictures to come once I get back to Ottawa. Right now I'm just running around the office trying to finish loads of work before I take off.; it's 3:00 pm and I haven't had lunch yet. I'm soooo gonna relax this weekend!

Will be posting again soon. Hope everyone has a great weekend :)

November 18, 2009

I did a warm combo on my lids today and used my Annabelle Lapis kohl liner to line. I recently purchased a bunch more of Annabelle lip liners and kohl liners as I continuously have great experience with this Canadian drug store brand. I have been using their black and brown kohl liners since high school and I still love them. I'm glad they've added more colourful options to the line. Btw, I also made my own lipgloss with MAC's Clear gloss, 2 part Rose p/m and 1 part Melon p/m. I think this combo looked much better on me back in the summer when I had a tan. It's kinda sad when I'm back to my natural colour and can't pull of some colours. Though on the other hand I wear dark berries and burgundies better with my natural tones.

Here's the look, let me know what you think:

Face
Lise Watier Concealer Wheel
Studio Sculpt Foundation NW25
X-Rocks blush - holly I haven't worn this since the summer. It's super pigmented, need a light hand!

Eyes
Painterly p/p - base
Vanilla p/m - lid and tear duct
Bright Fuchsia p/m - crease
MUFE #5 - above crease
Blanc Type e/s - highlight
Annabelle Lapis k/l - to line

Lips
Clear l/g
Rose p/m
Melon p/m