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?

Elizabeth Arden nails it again - Prevage Day and night cremes

As some of you may know, from time to time I get sent products from a beauty related website (Beautyheaven.com.au) to trial and review, the latest one I did was for some Elizabeth Arden products.  I'm always really happy to open up a surprise delivery to find EA in it, seeing as their skincare items are just too damn Exxy to buy on a regular basis. 

I thought I might just pop my reviews for them up here as well, for anyone who has been curious about Elizabeth Arden.

Prevage DAY anti aging moisture cream with sunscreens

Image from Elizabetharden.com.au



The Elizabeth Arden anti aging day moisture creme comes packaged in a sleek looking brushed silver and yellow box, with a slide out insert containing a 50 ml jar that retails at $195.  On opening the jar it contains a flip top seal with a special spot for a small silver spatula to use instead of having to dip your fingers into the cream each and every time you use it.  This is a concentrated moisture renewal cream which is designed to nourish and reverse skin dryness, diminish the signs of aging and sun damage, reduce fine lines and wrinkles and reduce discolouration.  What sets this product range apart from many other age care moisturisers is the the inclusion of Idebenone technology, this is similar to the old Q10 ingredient but 1000x more effective.  it is the most powerful anti-oxidant technology available.  this ingredient will suppress the free radicals which are nasty little things that may cause cancer.  It also contains both UVA and UVB sunscreen filters with a SPF of 30.  Also included are restorative Hibiscus seed extract to maintain the skins collagen and give a firmer more resilient look, and an intense moisture complex containing Shea butter, cocoa butter and glycerin.  After using the product your skin should look and feel ultra smooth and soft, be healthier and more radiant.

The cream is a thick looking yellow/orange colour and is lightly scented with the same fragrance that all of the other prevage range has. On using though it doesn't feel as thick as it looks in the pot, it spreads out easily and absorbs in quickly leaving a light seen on my skin but with no oily feeling or residue.  I have found when using this I have no need for a makeup primer as well prior to applying my foundation.  For best results when using the day cream, apply it to a cleansed face preferably over the Prevage Anti aging serum ( I used any serum I had lying around and had no issues with this either) and massage it gently onto the face and neck area straight after using your serum. It is recommended to do a patch test and is not recommended for anyone who has recently undergone lazer resurfacing, dermabrasion or chemical peels as this can cause reactions.

It does live up to it's claims of making my skin feel much softer and smoother although I haven't noticed any visible reduction of fine lines & wrinkles.  I do think it may be fading some of my dark shadowing from old hormonal spots and marks.  Prevage it always a great product for my skin and I cant wait to see what other  positive results I get from regular prolonged usage of the day cream.

Prevage Night Anti aging restorative cream.

image taken from elizabetharden.com.au



The AE night anti aging creme comes packaged in a sleek looking brushed silver and blue box, with a slide out insert containg a 50 ml jar that retails at $215.  On opening the jar it contains a rubberised seal with a peel off foil seal similar to what you see on many tube style products, there is a raised kind of button that you press down on and the product comes up through the small hole left in the rubber seal.  I'm kind of on the fence about this system though as it is nice hygienic to use it also leaves me wondering how effective the dispensing will be as the pot becomes emptier.

The night cream contains the same Idebonoe technology as the day cream, which is similar to the old Q10 ingredient but 1000x more effective.  It is the most powerful anti-oxident technology available.  this ingredient will suppress the free radicals which are nasty little things that may cause cancer.  It also contains Lemon peel extract for reducing age spots and discolouration, Retinol to restore and condition the skin, and the same intense moisture complex of Shea butter, cocoa butter and glycerin.  The night cream is designed to work with the skins sleep cycles fighting the visible effects of damage from the day and optimising moisture and repair abilities while diminishing the look of fine lines and wrinkles, discolouration and sun damage, reversing the skins dryness with it's intensive moisture to restore the skins resilience for firmer more radiant and rested looking skin.

The cream itself is a thick looking yellow/orange colour and is lightly scented with the same fragrance that all of the other prevage range has. On using though it doesn't feel as thick as it looks in the pot, it spreads out easily and absorbs in quickly leaving a light seen on my skin but with no oily feeling or residue. To use the night cream you apply it to freshly cleansed skin directly over the top of your serum again ( for best results Prevage Anti aging serum is recommended)  I did have some issues with the night cream the first few nights.  It applied well and felt lovely but if I ran my finger over my face I got almost a pilling type effect, similar to eraser shaving you get when rubbing out a pencil, I managed to solve this by applying a serum first and using a LOT less product, so I can see how it would be easy to over apply the night cream.

As always I feel that a trial period of only a couple of weeks is not enough to get full benefits from a new skincare regime, but it has made my skin feel softer and smoother and has started to fade some of my shadowy discolouration from old hormonal spots.  I'm looking forward to seeing the results of the regime after prolonged usage.

Has anyone else tried these cremes out and how do you feel about them?

UH OH... not another palette. Yaby world of Pearls

LMAO Ladies it's that time again.  This time I'm professing my undying love for my new Yaby World of Pearls Palette.  I scored this baby the Saturday night of IMAT's using a 20% off code at Makeup and Glow's Website.  I believe it came to around $100 AUD and delivery as always from them is super quick approx 4-5 days to Sydney.

The palette itself is a sleek semi shiny hard plastic cased box with the Yaby logo printed in grey on the front. It measures approx 15cm x 10 cm, so it's not huge, but is a good easy to handle size.  The inside lid has a full sized mirror ( same size as the top of the case, it goes all the way to the edge) It contains 40 pearl shadows which are super soft, and all very shimmery, there are some magnificent duo-chrome colours in amongst them as well. Each shadow is slightly smaller than an Aussie 5c piece and are magnetised with a colour code and shade name on the underneath.  Only thing I can really fault with this palette is I wish there were a few more neutral colours because most looks need something like that for creases and highlights etc.

Well enough gabbing onto the photos, seeing as they really say it all....

Row 1

Left to right - pp080 (first snow), pp013 (pink diamond), pp012 (frosted rose), pp057 (strawberry), pp056 (dragon fruit)

Row 2 -

left to right - pp005 (pink tourmaline), pp038 (neon grape), pp045 (passionfruit), pp037 (amethyst river), pp049 (purple iris)

Row 3 -

left to right - pp017 (lavender snow), pp064 (violet crystal), pp060 (geranium), pp047 (eggplant), pp015 (sea turtle)

Row 4 -

left to right - pp024 (baby sapphire), pp052 (platinum), pp019 (antique), pp048 (chocolate smoothie), pp040 (cuppachino dream)

Row 5 -

left to right - pp009 (tropical ocean), pp070 (mermaid blue), pp036 (summer night), pp066 (butterfly blue), pp001 (midnight  blue)

Row 6 -

left to right -  pp031 (baby grass), pp071 (physcadellic Caterpillar), pp025 (spring garden), pp011 (emerald dragon), pp002 (emerald sea)

Row 7 -

left to right - pp029 (lemonade), pp054 (baby duckie), pp072 (gold bar), pp026 (amber rain), pp062 ( tamarind)

Row 8 -

left to right - pp008 (tangerine mist), pp053 (persimmon), pp041 (kamkuat), pp061 (copper ruby), pp082 (hematite)

Spot any favourites in there?  I think mine would have to be Row 3 (sea turtle), Row 4 (cuppachino dream) and Row 5 (midnight blue)