DIOR 2011 cannage collection

A few weeks back I got back from Bali and did a bit of a post on some bits and pieces I picked up from IMAT's and other places and mentioned my big Bali beauty splurge was the Dior Cannage collection palette for 2011.  I'd love to Link you to the Dior site with all the info on products and pricing etc, but I still haven't had  any luck finding the cannage collections on the Dior website.

I spotted this baby at the duty free in Sydney selling for $99 AUD and had every intention of scoring it at Sydney airport on the way back in, but flight delays at Dempasar airport in Bali left me with just enough time to check out Dior duty free in Bali, which was a great idea as it was retailing at around $75 Aud when the currency conversion was done, so I was super pleased I made the effort to look for it!

I bought last years edition duty free while on a Royal Caribbean ship and the review and swatches are here. 

As with last years edition this one comes in a quilted re-useable purse for when you finish the products, unfortunately this one doesn't have the silver Dior logo on the front and it is housed in a slightly plastic shiny black quilted bag ( definitely not as pretty as last years edition )  The palette itself holds 6 shadows sorted in 2 groups of  3 colours with the colours set out so as you have a base colour, lid colour, and dark shade which is handy and really takes the guesswork out of what colour to put where.  One set is pinks and purples and the other is basic nude and smoky theme.  It also contains a small square of powder which is set out in 3 strips with the top colour designed as illuminator, then a sculpting shade plus a shade to unify the 2. In this small size those strips are pretty much useless on their own, which is how you are supposed to use the full size version, but with the small one its easiest to just swirl the colours together and use them as one.  This is followed up with 4 lipgoss shades set in 2 groups of 2 shades, the first being a balm and a sheer gloss, and the other set having a lipstick and matching gloss, again taking all guesswork out of what to use where.   It also comes with the stock standard and pretty useless applicators and a mini Diorshow Extase mascara.  This palette also comes with a nice little leaflet explain what all the colours do and where to use them, very handy if you are a little unsure.

 1st set of shadows

2nd set

3 colour sculpting and illuminating powders

lipgosses

love the cute Dior logo in the gloss :)

L-R, balm, lipgloss, lipstick and lipgloss

As expected the colours are gorgeous, and superb quality .... typically Dior!

OPI - Best of the best christmas gift pack

I've been jumping  on the OPI bandwagon a bit lately, but as much as I love their polishes I hate the high price tag that us nail addicts in Aus pay for them, so when I saw the Best of the Best gift pack advertised in the David Jones catalogue I felt I just needed to grab it.

As far as I know "the best of the best " is a DJ's exclusive gift pack, it sells in store here for $39.95 and contains 10 mini OPI polishes, each polish is 3.75ml or 1/8 F/L Oz. 

The colours included in the set are -
Alpine Snow - sheer white
Bubble bath - very natural nude sheer pink
Tickle my  France-y -  sheer pale natural taupe
Strawberry Margarita - mid toned cool pink
Cajun shrimp - hot Coral red
big apple red - true vamp red
I'm not really a waitress - deeper shimmery blood red
You don't know Jacques - mid brown taupe
Russian navy  -  deep purple blue
Lincoln park after dark - deep plum purple

Alpine snow, Bubble bath, tickle my France-y, Strawberry margarita and Cajun shrimp

Big apple red, I'm not really a waitress, you don't know Jacques!, Russian navy and Lincoln park after dark

When I hotfooted it into DJ's to pick this pack up they had none in stock and the SA took my name on a list  to give me a call when it arrived, which took approx 2 weeks, but was worth the wait after all 10 OPI's for 40  bucks :) that's a winner and seeing as I have never finished a full polish it's even better!

I'm not sure just yet what my favourite will turn out to be but Cajun shrimp caught my eye straight away  and I'm now sport ting some Bright coral red toesies :)

Does anyone have a favourite out of those 10 colours and why?

More Ben NYE

Just a quick haul and swatches of more of the Ben NYE Lumiere Grande shadows and blushes, ( my original post on those are here ) My first Ben Nye palette was purchased in October and I quickly fell in love with the high impact shades in the palette that I just had to grab some of the single shadows and a couple of blushes and pop them into a Z palette.  This time I was looking for some neutral shades, plus the blues and purples, along with a high impact pink blush and a subtle coral for day wear.

These babies retail at $7.99 USD and really are HUGE! approx the size of a rounded off Aust 50c piece, the blushes are the same huge size and I think were $6.99.

This time round the colours I picked up were
Bronze - (shimmer) LUR-5
Taupe - (matte) ER-34
Starry Night ( matte with glitter) LUR-20
Mossberry (matte) ER-62
Twilight sable (matte) this one came with no backing info so off the top of my head I dont have the colour coode for it.
Royal purple (sheen with glitter) LUR-13
Peacock (shimmer) LUR-19
Turquoise (shimmer) LUR-11
Golden apricot (shimmer) LUR-18
PLUS the blushes in peach and Fuschia

shadows

blushes, plus a small sample of body bling plantinum



sorry for the mess couldn't wait to use them :)

 swatches

left to right, Bronze( golden bronze), Taupe ( mid range grey brown), starry night( black with multi coloured glitter), mossberry (deep olive green ), twilight sable (med- dark chocolate brown )

left to right - Royal purple ( mid true purple with hints of glitter), Peacock ( bright shimmery blue verging on teal), turquoise ( bright teal blue green) and Golden apricot ( Goldy peach colour)

Blushes, peach and Fuchsia.... obviously they are applied heavily for swatching purposes and you'd never wear them like that unless you were aiming for clown, esp fuchsia!

Looking at these colours peacock and turquoise are very similar so it probably isn't necessary to own both,  and the matte neutrals are great crease style colours.  I keep loving the Ben Nye more and more with every use and I'm sure I'll find an excuse to go pick up more of these in the future, maybe from their other ranges, not just the Lumiere Grandes.

OPI Shatters haul

Hi guys, I'm still trying to play catch up on a few hauls that I haven't manged to photograph and swatch yet, so I thought I'd do a real simple and quick haul post on some OPI shatters I picked up a couple of weeks ago.  OPI is one of those deeply loved and coveted nail polish brands that are simply super exxy here in Aust, with them normally selling at department stores like Grace Bros and David Jones at ridiculous prices of $20 to $30 AUD per bottle.  Recently a friend alerted me to an OPI shatter sale on Adore beauty when they were selling the OPI shatters at $10 a bottle, shipping was around $5-6 and took approx 3-4 days (very quick!) As a result I felt the NEED to pick up every colour, with the exceptions being the black and gold shatters as they were out of stock.

The 6 shades they had in stock that I managed to get my hands on were White (NL E54), Silver (NL E62), Navy ( NL E63), red (NL E55), blue (NL E56) and turquoise (NL E64)

Navy, turquoise, blue

red,  silver and white

 Now unless you have been living under a rock, or just not interested in nails, you would know all about the shatters so just briefly the basic concept is to apply a  base coat in one colour then apply a contrasting shatter shade over the top, the shatter then crackles and what you see is a cracked finish with you base shade showing  through the gaps.  You can get some pretty funky colour combos limited only by your imagination.

For the ones on my nails this week I have used one base coat of Ulta 3's neon orange called Tahiti, then one coat of NYC nail polish in Crazy, which is a sheer shimmery citrus orange, the applied White Shatter over the top, allowed it to crack the top coated with Sally Hansen's Inst-Dry anti chip top coat.  At first I have to admit I wasn't quite sure of the white shatter, it kinda reminds me of painting my nails with white liquid paper when bored in high school, but it's grown on me :)

What do you think of the OPI shatters and do you have a favourite shade or colour combo in them that you love?

Fake Tanning adventures, ST Tropez bronzing mousse



picture taken from
www.sttropez.com.au



I was recently sent the St Tropez bronzing mousse as a Trial for the Great Tan test on beautyheaven,  this was one trial that was right up my alley as I'm constantly on the hunt for a perfect summer tan all year round.  As usual St Tropez has nailed it with their simple to use Bronzing mousse. It comes in 2 handy sizes of 120 ml for $43.95 or 240 ml for $65.95.

Getting your tan on is a breeze with this tinted bronzing mousse, it has a light airy look and feel, with no obvious fake tan smell, actually it has only the lightest almost un-noticeable smell so gone are the days of smelling like you have just topped up your tan from a bottle.

It's nice and simple to use, as with all fake tans it's best to exfoliate first and moisturize, then just work the tinted mousse into your skin area by area. The tinted nature of the product makes it a cinch to spot if you have missed out any areas and it applies really easily and covers well with no streaking.

The St Tropez mousse has to be one of the most natural bronze coloured tans I have used in a very long time, 1 application left me with a lightly bronzed glow and after I had used it 3 days in a row I found I was getting lots of compliments on my lovely Queensland tan. No fake orange tan in sight :)

I'll absolutely look into picking up another St Tropez product next time I'm buying a new bottle of fake tan, but just for the ease of application I'd probably reach for the spray on version, so I don't have to worry about trying to get the excess out of my hands afterwards.

I did end up investing in a tanning mitt as the St Tropez website suggests and that makes application so much easier and even with no messy fake tan marks on my hands afterwards.

I thought I might just pop up some before and after photos, even though I'm not sure you can see the difference, but there really was one in real life

What's you're favourite fake bake range or product?  mine is easily now ST Tropez :)

Finally, Sydney Imats Hauls - 28 Neutral palette

Hi guys, sorry for being MIA  for a while, anyone who follows my Face Book page as well will know I headed off overseas for a well deserved trip to Bali with the Hubby and no kidlets in tow.  I'm back now and starting to get back into the swing of things, I did manage to pick up a couple of items while away most importantly this seasons DIOR cannage collection and some GUESS shoes, but I'll have to work my way through the IMATS haul first and a couple of other things before I get to the DIOR.

Today I've been working on the photos from the 28 Neutral palette I got at IMAT''s, now my details are a bit sketchy seeing as I have had so much going on, but I believe I bought it at the Crown brushes stand, and I paid $35, they had a deal going of 2 palettes for $50 as well but unfortunately ( or fortunately... whatever ) I already had all the others.

The palette measures approx 22cm x 15 Cm's and is in a matte black casing with no interior mirror on the lid.  There is 28 neutral shades varying from light beige's and hi-light style colours to deep browns and some with reddish or purplish undertones, there's also a variety of finishes from mattes to shimmers.  The pans in this palette are bigger than those in the 88 palettes with each colour being approx the size of an Aussie 10c piece.  It's a very versatile and useful palette for those looking for a stack of neutrals all in one place.  The texture of the colours is soft and colour payoff for the most is pretty good, very similar to the texture of the 88 palettes.

So Onto the Pict's :)

The Palette

Row 1

 row 1 swatches

row 2

 row 2 swatches

row 3

 row 3 swatches

row 4

 row 4 swatches

row 5

row 5 swatches

row 6

row 6 swatches

row 7 ( last one )

row 7 swatches

Basically it's a nice  easy palette with a bunch of neutral all in one place, great for creating completely natural looks or for grabbing when looking for a neutral crease colour. Not really a stand out fave palette for me but very useful all the same.

What is your favourite neutral palette that you own?

A new obsession - Ben Nye Lumire Grande

After spending the last 2 years IMAT's eyeing the Ben Nye products a friend finally bought some and gave me such rave reviews ( waves Hi @ Su ) that I finally decided I needed to check them out properly, after doing some googling I set my eye on the Lumiere Grand collection in pressed palette form.

 There are a few websites around that sell it, with most Aussie based sites retailing it at around $90 AUD with approx $10 shipping, then I stumbled across Camera Ready Cosmetics in the US, they are selling 2 versions of the Lumiere Grand, the 6 colour palette is approx $35 and the 12 colour ( which is the option I chose) at $60 with a shipping fee of approx $10USD.  I also decided to add 2 small bottles of the Ben Nye LiquiSet into the order, these were $4USD each.  Shipping times from the Us were pretty reasonable (2 weeks ), despite the site saying anything up to 60 days was possible.

The Ben Nye palettes come in this great palette that looks very much like an old art watercolour set with each individual colour clipping into place in the tin and a flat tipped square FB-7 brush.

 Pictures of how they clip into the palette

 The FB-7 flat tipped brush

 The individual Ben Nye pans are HUGE! almost the size of a 20c piece and quite deep, they are also stamped with the Ben Nye logo.  These colours are nothing short of AMAZING with the metallics being crazy shiny and the brights being incredibly pigmented and oh so bright. When you then add the Liquiset, it turns each colour into kind of a watercolour eyeshadow and the vibrancy and hold just explodes and intensifies insanely.  I haven't tried it out yet but using the LiquiSet they could make for intensely bright liner colours as well. I think these are easily set to become a new favourite :) Keeping in mind though these are super bright colours and aren't for everyone, but if you get a kick out of bright eyeshadow they are well worth looking at.

As always onto the swatches, cause that's where the fun's at!  For these swatches I have done them slightly different to usual the top swatches on each image are the colours dry on a base, and the bottom row of each image is the colours swatched wet with the LiquidSet.

Top Row... woops it's round the wrong way :(

 The swatches in order, left to right are RL-6 (sun yellow), RL-12 (cosmic blue), RL-16 ( Azelea), RL-4 (silver), RL-3 (Aztec gold), RL-1 (ice)

Bottom row... also backwards, oh well.

Colours in order left to right - RL-17 (cosmic violet), RL-14 (amethyst), RL-10 (jade), RL-8 (chartreuse), RL-7 (tangerine), RL-2 (iced gold)

Favourites????  Hmmm silver, iced gold, cosmic blue.... ah screw it... all of them :D
I've already indulged in another order from camera ready, with some more single shadows, a couple of Ben Nye blushes and some empty palettes to hold them all!

Has anyone else tried out Ben Nye and what do you think of them?