September 14, 2009

I finally got my hands on Essie's Matte About You top coat that I wrote about here. I've been wanting to try the matte nail polish trend for a long time. I have the worst Trade Secret though, they only got these last week even though I had ordered them since late July. I was waiting for my bottle for so long that I thought I was over mattes already without even trying them, lol!

So I got the call that they had MAY in on Friday and I jumped in my car to get my bottle. I layered it over Orly's Country Club Khaki for my first try. Country Club Khaki is one of my favourite neutrals as it's kind of a mushroom-y colour, much like OPI's Tickle My France-y (another top nude for me). I loooove the affect of the matte top coat. I put on two layers of the Orly, let it air dry and then added a thin layer of the matte top coat. It dried to a satiny finish, not quite matte, but as close as you can get without your nails looking like a chalkboard. I seriously keep staring at my nails and touching them, they feel so freakin smooth. The top coat dries within seconds so make sure you definitly put on a thin coat and work carefully. It will look weird if you try to put on two coats of MAY.

I'm so glad I bought this top coat! It's the easiest way to try the matte trend as you can turn any of your nailpolishes (doesn't have to be Essie) into a matte one for $10.95 CAD. Here's the result of my experience:

Thought I make the second "Favourite" installment on my blog. The first one was my top 5 pigments. I have focused on the products available in the perm line so anyone can easily get their hands on them.

I will add lip swatches later. So here we go:

1. Up the Amp: If I were to keep one lipstick in my MAC collection, this would be it. It's a gorgeous purply pink bright colour in amplified creme finish. Being an amp creme means this lipstick is very pigmented and lasts a long time, has no shimmer but just looks creamy and delicious on the lips, lol! I get the most compliment when I wear this out and I just wear it on it's own. This lipstick has obvious blue undertones so if you are warm toned, you might need to adjust the colour with some lip pencil/gloss to make it suit your colouring.

2. Blankety: this is my favourite nude lipstick. I'm a sucker for the amplified creme finish and this one is a milky pink nude in amp finish. It looks great on it's own, lasts a long time and looks sexy with either See Thru l/g or Rags to Riches d/g on top. This is the only MAC lipstick I've ever finished and am now on tube #2. I would recommend this lipstick from anyone who's between NW20-NW35. I would say ppl with NC colouring should try this on before buying.

3. Ruby Woo: This is a true matte bright red with blue undertones. It's a very dramatic lipstick and ideal for the pinup type looks. I tend to wear this with a soft netral eyes and wing liner. The texture is matte so it's a bit drying, I would recommend wearing a lip balm under this. I don't use lip liners ever but this lipstick never bleeds on me. By far my favourite red lipstick and I have plenty of reds!

4. Please Me: This is a light pink lipstick in a matte finish. I would say the texture of this is a bit dryer than Ruby Woo but I still often wear this lipstick on its own. I'm not very big on lipglass in general and would only wear them when my hair is in a poneytail/updo. This is the ideal baby pink and looks great with pretty much any eye look. Looks absolutely gorgeous with Palatial l/g (if you can still get your hands on it).

5. Girl About Town: this bright fuchsia pink lipstick was my first MAC lipstick and it still is one of my favourites. It's another amplified creme finish lipstick and I find it particularly soft. This is a great bold lipstick for the spring with pink/purples/blues on the eyes.

Hope this post was helpful to someone :)

This review is a little bit late I know. By now there must be tones of other reviews about this collection out there but thought I still share my thoughts about it. It might help someone out there. I saw this collection yesterday and came out with only Saint Germain l/s, the only item in my opinion worth owning.

Tri Colour Lipglasses
These are extremely sheer. I didn't even bother swatching them as I don't even like the idea of the three colours mixing. Pass if you like your lipglosee to be pigmented.

Lipsticks
Touch: kinda of a brown-y lipstick. It's available permanently but oddly enough my counter didn't have it in stock. So that one is missing from the swatches.
Bubbles: This is a sheer beige lipstick with a glase formula. I don't know how I would use it. On its own it washes me out. I can imagine you could layer it over other lip products but I didn't see it worth the money at the end.
Saint Germain: this is a beautiful barbie type pink. I'm a sucker for pink lipsticks especially the ones that stand out like this one. I tried it on to make sure it works on my complexion and since it looked fab, I got it. For reference I'm about an NW25.
Sweet Thing: This is Pomposity in luster form. If you have Pomposity, you can safely skip, which I did.
Lollipop Lovin: I have this from last year's release with Heatherette. It's a beautiful sheer coral/peach colour with green duochromes. Only it seems like this time around there isn't much green in it. I think I prefer the Heatherette version.

Eyeshadows
The only one I was interested and hence swatched was Aquavert. It's a beautiful minty green but as I have both Warm Chill and Lusterleaf I skipped it. Club and Stars 'n Rockets which are also part of this collection are perm and Sugarshot to me looked like a boring goldish highlight colour. I much prefer Solar White and Blanc Type for highlight.

Shadesticks
These are creamy and swatch beautifully. I ended up not getting any of them thought I might go back for Red Velvet. I still prefer the paint pots as base or I go to my trustee Mehron palette for bright bases. Overall these are nice if you don't have a lot of bases like me. The only one I thought didn't apply as smooth as the others was Cakeshop.

MSF
Refined: This on didn't show up on me at all! I swatched it on my hand and my hands are kinda golden (as opposed to my pink face) so easy skip for me.
Perfect Topping: is a nice peachy nude colour and is beautiful as a highlight if you don't already have three highlighting products in a similar colour family like me. I was extremely tempted by this though as these MSF are a lot smoother than some of the older ones. But I managed to talk myself out of it. lol!

Here are some swatches:

from left to right: Lollipop Lovin, Sweet Thing, Bubbles and Saint Germain


from left to right: Penny, Butternutty, Cakeshop, Lemon Chiffon and Red Velvet

I cannot believe this, but I think I actually found a foundation that matches my skintone and feels great on. I went to MAC today to get a concealer. In fact, I wanted to try the new ones that came out with Studio Sculpt. There was a new MA there that told me that I need to get a warm shade (for me NC20) in concealer to even out all the pink I have in my face. I really liked this new concealer and you definintely couldn't see the pink anymore. I decided to also test the new Studio Sculpt foundation and ended up buying it in the shade NW25. I love the combo of the concealer and foundation I got. For the first time ever, my skintone looks even and also I don't appear orange. The MA told me that I was probably wearing a shade that was too dark (I used to wear NW30). This foundation feels amazing on. It's sort of dewy but not greasy. I've been wearing it since 11 am and it's still look flawless at 8 pm, and this is without a primer. Here's a crappy pic of me wearing my new HG combo:



What do you think? I think I finally have a winner combo. So glad these things are perm!

I did my nails with China Glaze Adore yesterday. It was my first time trying out China Glaze and chose this polish which was part of the China Glaze Spring Collection. I used to be a loyal OPI user but decider to expand my horizons. I actually liked this a lot. The application was easy even though this was a metallic finish (and metallic's aren't the easiest to apply). I still think I prefer OPI as it is thicker and I just love the wide brush. But I will be getting more China Glaze as well. Also, I generally prefer cream finishes but I really liked this metallic pink!

Here's a quick and dirty picture for you