Wednesday, October 19, 2011

I've moved!

Hey everyone, I know I haven't posted on here in ages. I have been working on a new website though, and it's finally up! I will continue blogging over there. I hope you'll come over and join me. I'll be posting the same sort of thing there, product swatches and reviews, tips and tricks and all that good stuff. Here's the link. Hope to see you soon!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

China Glaze Holiday 2010 Swatches

Though there were plenty of shades from the China Glaze Holiday 2010 collection that I wanted, I only picked up 2.


Sugar Plums, Little Drummer Boy


Little Drummer Boy
A gorgeous navy shade. 2 coats.


Sugar Plums
This is a beautiful plum shimmer with subtle sparkles throughout. I'm obsessed with colours like this right now for both the nails and the lips!

Both of these applied wonderfully in 2 coats.

Did you pick up anything from the China Glaze Holiday 2010 collection?

Thursday, November 18, 2010

IMATS Toronto 2010 Haul!

Here it is, my haul from IMATS!


I did the most damage at Make Up For Ever. I am disappointed that they weren't selling their eye shadows individually, I had made a list of all the ones I wanted to get. Instead, they were selling 4 different premade palettes of 10 eye shadows. I ended up getting one of them. A few colours were shadows on my list but unfortunately, the famous #92 wasn't included in the palette I picked. I also got their HD Foundation, an HD Primer (the green one), a Rouge Artist Intense lipstick and 2 Aqua Creams.



My next stop was the Face Atelier booth. I knew I had to pick up some of their Ultra Foundation, I've been hearing rave reviews about it for ages. I also bought the Ultra Sheer in Champagne - this seems like a similar product to MAC Strobe Cream, it'll be great to give some extra glow and highlight. The Ultra Camouflage Duet, Ultra Loose Powder and #4 foundation brush also came home with me.



I've been wanting to try Embryolisse products for ages and was excited to visit their booth and pick up some products. I got the popular Lait-Creme Concentre, Rich Moisturising Cream, Exfoliating Care Cream and Smoothing Eye Contour Care.


Look at all the samples they gave with my purchase!



My one unexpected purchase of the day was from the Stila booth. When I heard they were giving 40% off their products, I couldn't resist picking up the #33 One Step Complexion Brush.

So far, I've used the Embroylisse Lait-Creme Concentre and Face Atelier Ultra Foundation a few times and really like them so far, but will wait until I've been using them a bit longer to give a review.

I went to IMATS with a mental list of all the brands I wanted to purchase things from, and I pretty much stuck to my list. I am kicking myself for not getting some OCC Lip Tars though. I tried to convince myself that I didn't need any, but the more swatches I see of all the gorgeous colours, the more I wish I would have picked some up! There's always next year, or maybe I'll cave and order a couple from the website at some point.

Stay tuned for reviews of some of these products coming up!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

IMATS Recap!



Last weekend was the International Makeup Artist Trade Show in Toronto. I attended on Saturday. It was my first year going, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I did hear that Make Up For Ever was going to be 40% off so I decided it was a good idea to get there early and hopefully avoid crazy crowds.


I got there right at opening and as you can see, it was still quite crowded. I even made up a list of what I wanted to get before going in hopes of being in and out of there quickly. I was disappointed to find out that they were not selling their eye shadows individually, only in pre picked palettes of 10.

I ran into Enrica pretty soon after I arrived and we browsed the booths together until it was time for Kandee Johnson's Q&A session. We were hoping to run into some other Toronto Beauty Bloggers there, but it was hard to find anyone because it was so crowded. We were lucky to get the last couple of seats available.


YouTube Guru Kandee Johnson

Kandee spoke about how she got started and answered audience questions about things ranging from getting into the industry, to air brushing and she gave makeup tips and tricks along the way.

Next, we went to a MAC presentation by Nadine Luke.






Nadine is MAC's Director of Makeup Artistry. She's the artist that did the famous Pamela Anderson Viva Glam ad campaign. She talked about the Fall and Winter trends, and also demonstrated some techniques on a model.

There was an Alice in Wonderland themed student competition and awards show going on, and I was able to get pictures of many of the entries.












The winner!

It's absolutely amazing how great everyone looked!


Body painting


Enrica with one of the fabulous models.

I had so much fun, I'm already looking forward to next year.

Stay tuned for my IMATS haul post!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

MAC Dare To Wear Haul

On Saturday, I met up with Naomi for a lunch date at Fresh. Love it there! It was great to catch up with her.

Of course afterwards, we headed over to the MAC Pro store. We checked out the new Dare To Wear collection, and I did end up buying some a couple of the shadows from the collection. I got Shock-A-Holic and Louder, Please. I also wanted to get the Gimme That lipglass, but they were sold out.

I picked up a few things that weren't a part of the collection as well - Aqualine Liquidlast Liner, and Vegas Volt and Impassioned lipsticks. All of those had been on my wishlist for a while.




A closer look at the lipsticks - Vegas Volt, Impassioned

I had Free To Be from when it was previously released with the Liberty of London collection, so it's in special packaging. Though it was re-released with both of these collections, it was originally released in the Free To Be quad with the Naturally Eccentric collection in 2005. It is now a part of the permanent collection and can be purchased at any time.


I was trying to take pictures of the 3 shadows together, and one of my kitties wanted to take a closer look at them.


Free To Be, Louder, Please, Shock-A-Holic


Free To Be
A matte coral colour. Beautiful in the pan, but a little hard to work with. Not the greatest colour payoff, but it is buildable. A good base helps, especially something like Coral Crepe or Perky paint pot.


Louder, Please
A gorgeous bright fuchsia colour with a matte finish. I don't have anything like this in my collection. It's weird, I'm not usually drawn to such colours but I couldn't resist this one. It applies and blends well, especially for a matte finish. I'm looking forward to experimenting with this one.


Shock-A-Holic
This is a deep purple. It's listed as a matte, but it does have a very fine red shimmer to it. The shimmer isn't really noticable when applied though. Shock-A-Holic was the colour that I had most wanted to get from this collection. I think it'll make a great crease colour with a wide variety of shadows.


Shock-A-Holic, Louder, Please, Free to Be

Did you buy anything from this collection?

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Essie Turquoise & Caicos


Essie Turquoise & Caicos

Essie released their Resort collection back in May, and I immediately knew I had to get this colour. It's gorgeous! It doesn't have the greatest application, the consistency is a bit thin, but I was able to get opaque coverage in 3 coats.

Every single time I've worn this polish, I've received compliments. Even my male dentist commented on it! This is definitely one of my summer faves.

Do you have any recent favorite nail polishes? What's your favorite colour to wear for summer?

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Weekend MAC Haul

On Saturday, I met up with Jill and Naomi for a trip to the MAC Pro store.



From the permanent line, I got Paradisco, Haux, Coral and Parfait Amour pro pans and Fascinating eye kohl.

I was excited to get some things from the new To the Beach collection. They were already sold out of a few things I wanted to get - Marine Life High-Light Powder and Temperature Rising lip pencil. I was also thinking of getting the Scorcher nail polish, but that was gone too and the collection had only been out at the pro store for a couple of days at that point. I guess I better hurry up and get the other things I want once the collection launches tomorrow!

I picked up Hipness blush, Rosemary & Thyme and Float on By eye kohls, and Firecracker, Sweet & Punchy and Sand & Sun eye shadows. Look out for a post with more pics and swatches of my To the Beach haul soon!