Highlighter love - Guerlain Meteorites cruel gardenia

A while back I spotted the new limited edition Guerlain meteorites cruel Gardenia on a blog as a pre-release, since then I have been ruthless hunting it down. Guerlain in Kuala Lumpur had no idea what I was on about, then last weekend after the Roxette concert at Sydney Entertainment centre I indulged in a spot of shopping as is compulsory when you have kid free time.  Imagine my delight when I finally spotted it at Grace Bros in the inner city.... delight which was marred by the heafty price tag of AUD $102 ( damn it ) After wandering aimlessly around Grace Bros trying to decide if I should bite the bullet and get it anyway...... Desire eventually won out and I walked out very happy but feeling slightly guilty about spending that much on one single item. The lovely SA did throw in some samples of Guerlains different foundations and some samples of Mens fragrances for the poor long suffering Hubby who grudgingly parted with the $$$$ to buy his slightly obsessive and addicted wife YET more makeup :)

The Cruel Gardenia is a super soft  golden pink highlighting powder, one tiny gentle swipe of a fingertip picks up so much product.  I have yet to use it on my face partially because it's SOOOOOO pretty and partially because I am still using up a Lancome highlighter and an Etude House one as well.  I might have to put together a FOTD just to show you what it looks like on.

The pressed powder is artfully designed with  raised floral design, housed in a sleek rounded twist top pot with the same floral design on the lid.  The powder is a 9gm weight which I should imagine that with the teeny tiny amount you would actually use will last a very long time.

And the swatch, the camera really doesn't pick up on just how gorgeous this really is!

I think I'll just be  opening this  one up and staring at it for the longest time before I finally get the courage to actually use it.

Do you have any products you have bought simply because they are pretty?

Urban decay, Book of shadows IV ( 4)

; ) Back again with more goodies Hauled from the recent O/S trip, this time it's the Urban Decay book of shadows IV ( or 4 for those of us who can't be bothered to work it out )

I bought this one in the Sephora store in KLCC ( Kuala Lumpur ) for $219 Ringgit which is approx $67 AUD, it was selling at $69 USD originally on the Urban Decay website, but it has been reduced to $44 recently, which would be an awesome price to snag it at, otherwise I am pretty happy that I managed to score  it at $67 AUD.

The Palette itself is HUGE, really, really bulky, but has Urban Decays trademark trendy look to it which makes the size easy to overlook.

  It contains 16 eyeshadow colours 10 of which are brand new to the book of shadows mark 4.  The case itself once you pull it out of it's cardboard sleeve looks a bit like a jewellery box in my opinion.  The upper lid flips up to reveal a mirror, and has the new style cards with a code that you can scan through your phone if you have the right app, you then get 5 how to videos using the colours from in the palette, which you can also hook up the mini speaker included in the kit to for better sound on the videos.  There is also a spray of pop up butterflies, unnecessary but cute anyway.

Closing that up you have a pull out drawer with the eyeshadow colours, a 24/7 mini waterproof liquid liner in perversion ( 1.7ml ) a Supercurl mini mascara (5.4 ml ) and a mini primer potion (3.7ml )

The 16 colours are arranged in 4 rows of 4 colours in each row

1st row contains Blue Bus ( bright blue with purple shimmer ), Gunmetal ( dark metallic silver w silver sparkle), Cobra ( sooty black with gold shimmer ) and Baked ( shimmering bright copper)

2nd row is Bender ( shimmery dark moss green ), Gravity ( bright purple w multi glitter ), Lost ( dark brown shimmer) and Hijack ( grey green with blue and green shimmer )

3rd row we have Midnight cowgirl ( gold shimmer with gold sparkle ), Sin ( champagne shimmer ), Midnight Rodeo ( metallic brown w gold & silver sparkle ) & Crystal ( light silver blue with multi shimmer )

and the 4th row is Bust ( taupe brown with grey shimmer ), Missionary ( light taupe with pink shimmer ), Skimp ( shimmery light nude ) and Zephyr ( off white shimmer )

Personally the palette itself is just that bit too big for easy everyday use, but it does have all the handy little extra mini/travel sizes.  There is no applicators or brushes, but that doesn't bother me at all seeing as I don't use them anyway.  On the upside the colours are really pretty and I might see if I can keep the eyeshadow tray pulled out of the kit just to make it easier to use.

What do you think are Book of shadows sets too bulky or are they worth the size solely because they are so nice to look at?

Valentines Nails

Hi guys

Even though hubby and I aren't into Valentines day, I thought I might still pretty up my nails for it.  For this graduated glitter nails I have used 3 colours from Etude house's party graduation nails.  Basically you apply the first sheer pink all over, then take the pale fine glitter polish down 2/3 of the nail, and finally apply the chunky glitter to the last 1/4 of the nail tip.  Then pop on a quick dry  top coat and TA-DA super pretty nails!

The chunky glitter has taken a silvery tone in the flash of the camera but in reality it is a pastel pink.

Just to surprise hubby the kids and I made him a yummy cupcake cake.... looks just like my nails YUMMY :D

What is everyone doing to celebrate Valentine's day?

Inglot, Freedom system 20 pan eyeshadow palette

Today I have yet another post on the palettes I purchased while in Kuala Lumpur, this time it's the first of the 2 twenty pan Inglot Freedom system palettes I got.  This one is a nude/neutral palette and the other one which you will see another time is a brights one.

Going through the Inglot online store here, or in store in 1 of Australia's bricks and mortars stores a 20 pan eyeshadow palette plus the shadows to fill it will cost a minimum of $225 filled or maybe a bit more if you were to add the 3 strip mosaic style pans to the palette, the empty palette retails at $25 AUD and the pans are $10 each, or $13 for the rainbow refills.  SO assuming you are filling it only with the single colour pans it works out at $225 ( if you feel like waiting and buying at Sydney IMAT's though they are dramatically cheaper with the discounts available there )

In KL  I paid $1300 Ringgit, which roughly translated to AUD is $410 AUD so it was marginally cheaper than buying online or in store here.

For anyone who hasn't looked into Inglot they have a system called The Freedom system, which means they manufacture palettes of varying pan sizes, which for eyes are 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20 and 40.  The 20 pan palette is approx 20cm square, and the 40 is double that.  The reason I didn't simply buy the 40 pan is that it was just that bit too big to handle comfortably, and the costs between buying 2 x 20 or 1 x 40 was almost the same.

Each individual pan weighs in at 2.7 gm and actually really quite big for a single shadow, and come in a choice of 4 finishes, AMC shine which is a shimmer finish, pearl is the obvious pearl finish, or matte again self explanatory, and one named D.S ( although I haven't confirmed I'll take a random guess at perhaps this meaning Diamond shine????  Anyone who knows better is free to enlighten me though ) although if you are interested in mattes the 3 colour rainbow pans are matte, and for the $3 more that you pay you get 3 colours to a pan as opposed to a single colour.

You can also use the Freedom system for blushes and lipsticks, the palettes and pan sizes are different though, and seeing as I didn't look into that too closely ( I almost left with a 6 well lippie one as well ) I won't go into the details of those.

The palettes are a matte black with dividers separating each colour, and the lid is a thick hard plastic that is strongly magnetised to snap it shut, to remove the lid you simply slide one corner of the lid sideways then lift it off.

For my palette of neutrals I chose the following colours.... and for some odd reason I took the photos round the wrong way and swatched it all the same way, so the rows of swatches aren't in their colour families like they are in the palettes DUH ( smacks forehead)

For row 1 of my neutral palette I have left to right
1 - D.S 501, 2 - pearl 402, 3 - AMC shine 31, 4 - AMC shine 46, and 5 - Matte 373

For row 2 we have
1 - Pearl 454, 2 - AMC shine 42, 3 - AMC shine 25, 4 - Pearl 397, 5 - Matte 350

Row 3 is
1 -      , 2 - Pearl 419, 3 - AMC shine 43, 4 - AMC shine 08, 5 - Pearl 395 ( woops I know I am missing the number of colour no1 but I couldn't get the pan out of the palette )

And Row 4 we have
1 - AMC shine 47,  2 - Pearl 433, 3 - AMC shine 49, 4 - AMC shine 07, and D.S 463.

And jsut quickly a couple of photos I took this morning of an eye look I created using the gold/greens in this palette :)

At the moment I am loving the Inglot shadows, and now I have this palette I really don't think I have any need for the Urban Decay NAKED 2 palette..... OR DO I ??????

Too Faced - In Your Dreams Palette

The Too Faced in your Dreams Palette is another of my buys from my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur and Sephora at the KLCC.  After checking the Too faced website, I've discovered this is another of the LE palettes from Too faced's Holiday 2011 collection, at the time of release it was retailing at $39 USD in sephora stores. I paid $135 Ringgit for it which equals approx $41 AUD so that's still not too bad seeing as if I'd bought online I would have had to pay shipping as well, I have seen it on EBay for anything between $35-$65 USD, but of course I have no idea if those sellers ship to Aust.

What I just love about Too faced is that their packaging is just go god damned pretty, and this ones no different, if anything it's prettier than normal.

The palette looks like a glittery picture frame, in shades of pink with a image of a stunning woman on a swing in a birdcage surrounded by pink snow covered pine trees and white peacocks.

The centre of the frame opens out to reveal the palette and leaves the palette framed like a picture.

On the inside of the flap you have instructions on how to use each set of colours to create a simple, no fuss look.

The 3 looks featured are - Natural Beauty, Feminine flirty and Seductively smokey.  Each set has 3 colours of shadow ( 2 Lid shades and a highlight ) a blush and a lip gloss. Everything you need in one spot, Simple! The instructions explain how to create the looks plus have a handy picture to show exactly where to place the colours..... it's a no brainer, great for those "I can't be arsed thinking about it" days.

Lets take a closer look at the colours in the palette.

Row 1 is Natural Beauty and this set of colours are basic simple neutrals with a shimmery pink blush and a pale pink gloss with silverish undertones.

Row 2 is Feminine Flirty, it has a pinkish toned highlight and a light and a dark grey with a pale pink blush that's a little less shimmery than in the Natural beauty set, and a more sheer nude gloss.

and Finally row 3 is Seductively smokey, these are deeper colours that have more impact than the others, there is a pale silver, a deep purple and a very deep navy blue, paired with a bronze blush and a nude gloss that has a hint of pink to it.

All in all, it is a great palette, very all inclusive, easy to use, well designed. Obviously it's on the bulky size with it being a large rectangle that's approx 1 cm thick, personally I'll happily overlook the size of it, because it's just so damned pretty!  the only thing it doesn't have is applicators, but lets face it I never use those anyway and they eventually end up in the bin.

I also grabbed one of the single shadows from Too faced that was on sale, the colour is called Glamazon and it was 40 ringgit which puts it at $12 AUD but again it was too pretty to pass up :)

I love those little sayings Too faced adds to their products....

I love Too Faced it's such a girly glam brand that plays on my love of cute packaging, it's such a shame that such a great brand is so hard to get you hands on here!