Urban decay, NAKED 2

So, I wasn't really going to bother doing a review on the NAKED 2 palette, but I thought I might as well throw my pictures and swatches out there as well.  My opinion on Urban decays shadows hasn't changed at all from the very first time I used a palette of theirs, and for my review of the original NAKED palette you can check here.

Basically NAKED 2 is a welcome addition to the original, I prefer the colours in this one a bit more, they are a bit cooler toned than the other one and these are colours I see myself getting more use out of.  The 2 palettes have a couple of shades in common, which I think wasn't really necessary.  It would have been nice to see a completely new palette with all new shades, but I guess they have done this so people who don't own the older one can still get some of the more popular shades without buying 2 palettes.

NAKED 2 comes with a double ended smudge/shadow brush and a mini lip gloss instead of the eye primer and is housed in a metal tin, which to me feels like it would be more solid for travelling or handbags than the original.

Contained in this palette are 11 shades, which are, Foxy, half baked, booty call, chopper, tease, snakebite, suspect, pistol, verve, YDK, busted and blackout.

 Foxy, half baked, booty call, chopper, tease, snakebite, suspect, pistol, verve, YDK, busted and blackout.

 Foxy, half baked, booty call, chopper, tease, snakebite, suspect, pistol, verve, YDK, busted and blackout.

I think both palettes have some really pretty neutrals, I just wish they didn't have that small colour overlap, and you had all different shades between the 2 palettes.

Do you have both Naked palettes and which one is your favourite?

Innoxia Classic colour Lipsticks

Hi again ladies,

 I've been giving a bit of love to lippies lately, sometimes I spend months using glosses, then it's like I discover lipstick all over again.  Recently I fell in love with the colour range of the Innoxia range that is stocked at my local Priceline store, ( RRP $14.95 AUD) sadly their stand is always half empty or missing testers, but that hasn't stopped me from grabbing a few utterly fabulous bold colours.

I'm finding theses really creamy and smooth to apply, they don't settle into the lines of my lips or bleed at all.  They have a pretty standard lasting power, but what really caught my eye was the range of colours, can we say Va-VA-vavoom..... OMG so pretty.  They sent me into a 'Must have lipstick" frenzy.

The range comes in a variety of finishes from Matte, to Cremes and Sheen's.  I do have a couple of the matte finishes but I will pop those in a separate post.

Onto the pictures, always my favourite part.

pink peony, periwinkle, guava,plum, honeysuckle

lipsticks individually
Pink peony

pink peony

 Periwinkle

periwinkle

 Guava

guava

 Plum

plum

 Honeysuckle

honeysuckle

And the swatches

pink peony, periwinkle, guava, plum, honeysuckle

In my defence, I didn't actually buy honeysuckle, it was a freebie from one of the Priceline Beauty Bags, and it's a colour I doubt I'll ever use.  I most likely will melt it down, mix it with something else and re-set it so that I have a colour I can use.

Revlon Colourburst Lip Butters

Hi guys

I know it's been a seriously long time since my last post, unfortunately health issues have had me on the sidelines for a while, but hopefully all is looking up and I can get back into the swing of things properly soon.

I thought I'd do a super quick post with some swatches of the new Revlon lip Butters.  I have 4 of them in my collection now, and to be brutally honest I wasn't even going to bother getting any as they are expensive here at $21.95 each and were far too hyped up when they were released,  but I bought them on the spur of the moment on a rainy day in Nelson Bay as it was either shop or be stuck in a musty damp cottage with nothing to do.  I bought them at Priceline when they had the 2 for 1 deal on them, which I think is much more reasonable.

They are very shimmery with some even having noticeable glittery pieces, they are also quite sheer and glossy depending on the colour you have, which means you need to re-apply quite often and the pigmentation isn't overtly great on some shades, so for the most part you end up with a sheer slick of glossy colour on your lips.  Sometimes I really don't mind that though and the colour range is very pretty and girly.

The 4 colours I have are, Peach parfait, Cotton candy, Cupcake and Lollipop.  Lollipop is by far the most obvious colour with the best pigment and it actually lasts quite well too.

Onto the pictures, as we all know they are the best way of showing the colours off.

All four together

Peach parfait, cotton candy, cupcake, lollipop

swatches of all four

peach parfait, cotton candy, cupcake, lollipop

peach parfait

cotton candy

cupcake

lollipop

Personally Lollipop is my stand out favourite, as it has more pigment and lasts longer on my lips, not to mention there's just something super fun about a bright fuschia lippie to brighten your day up :)

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 ??????