A few new MAC goodies

Last week, I went and picked up a few MAC items that had been on my wishlist for a while.




Copperplate eye shadow
I've been hearing rave reviews about this shadow for a while, I'm happy to have finally purchased it. It's so smooth!


Trax eye shadow
This shadow can be a bit tricky to work with. It's sheer, but buildable. It'll work best if you use a good base underneath.


Beauty Marked eye shadow
I really love the colour of this in the pan, though it doesn't swatch as vibrant as that. It's more of an almost blacked purple with some really subtle reddish plum shimmer. I'm looking forward to using this for a smokey eye or over liner.


Beauty Marked, Trax, Copperplate


Copperplate, Trax, Beauty Marked

I've been hearing great things about the MAC Studio Moisture Tint SPF 15. I figured I'd give it a go because I'd rather use a tinted moisturizer than a foundation. The makeup I wear to work is very minimal. I have to wake up very early in the mornings and keep my beauty routine short, as I don't have much time before I have to leave for work. I'll try this out for a while and write a review on it in the future. Have any of you tried this?

There's always a ton of stuff I'd like to get at MAC, but I tried to keep it to a minimum this time because I know I'll be spending a small fortune on the upcoming Colour Forecast Collection. I was invited an unveiling event on Tuesday. I've never been to one before, so I'm excited! I'm sure it'll be pretty chaotic in there, hopefully not too much so. This is one of the biggest collections to come out at once that I can remember. I'll be sharing what I get! Have you been to an event before?

NOTD: China Glaze Four Leaf Clover

I really wasn't expecting to like this colour as much as I did when I saw it in person. It's really unique.


China Glaze Four Leaf Clover
It was so hard to capture the exact colour, this was as close as I could get. It's a bit darker and greener on my nails in real life, but the bottle colour is pretty close to accurate.

The formula is really smooth and easy to apply, I did 2 coats here.

What's on your nails today?

China Glaze Up & Away Collection

I finally got my hands on some of the polishes from the new China Glaze Up & Away collection! I've been seeing swatches online for a while and am so glad I picked these up.


Four Leaf Clover, Re-Fresh Mint, Light As Air, Grape Pop, Heli-Yum

I'm in love with these colours! There were some others from this collection that I wanted to get, and I may get them in the future, but for now, I'm happy with these.

You can bet that I'll be doing NOTDs of these in the coming days, so look out for them!

Did you get anything from this collection?

NOTD: China Glaze Watermelon Rind

Aren't you glad it's Friday? I'm wearing China Glaze Watermelon Rind to celebrate. It came out with the Summer Days collection last year, but I only picked it up recently.


China Glaze Watermelon Rind

Any plans for the weekend?

What's on your nails today?

NOTD: Claire's Dream Catcher

I know I'm totally late to the party with this one. I've been seeing it on blogs and message boards, people saying that Claire's nail polish in Dream Catcher is supposed to be a dupe of the highly sought after and extremely hard to find Chanel Jade polish.


Chanel Jade

I looked at a Claire's a couple weeks ago and they didn't have it, but then I happened to be walking by a different location and decided to pop in to see if they would have Dream Catcher. I managed to snag the last bottle they had. I believe it was $4.50CDN. They were having a buy one get the 2nd half off, but I didn't see anything else I wanted.


Claire's Dream Catcher

I'm really liking this colour. The first couple of coats were a bit streaky, but a third coat smoothed things out.

What's on your nails?

LUSH Oatifix Face Mask Review

Until recently, I had never purchased anything from LUSH. There always seems to be a ton of hype behind this store, and I walk by them often enough when I'm out shopping at malls, but I never really had the urge to go in and look around. I find the smell of the store to be a bit overpowering, to be honest. However, I am glad that I decided to go and try out a couple of things.

I've been hearing good things about all the different masks they offered and I figured it might be fun to try one of them. I decided on the Oatifix Face Mask, the sales associate recommended this for dry skin, my skin tends to get really dry in the winter so I thought this would be a good one to try out.


LUSH Oatifix Face Mask
Here's the front of the product.


Here's the back. As you can see, it has a best before date, and these masks need to be kept in the fridge.


You can see what it looks like inside. The consistency is quite thick, but it does warm up in your hands making it easy to spread.


I only needed this small amount to cover my whole face. I absolultely loved the smell of this! The directions said to keep it on for 5-10 minutes, but I think I had it on for about 15. After washing and drying my face, it felt so smooth and soft! A bit of the smell lingered for a while after as well, which was great seeing how yummy it was.

Using this mask was definitely enjoyable, I think it was a nice treat for my skin. The best before date is in a couple of weeks and that one use barely made a dent in the pot, so I will try to use it often over the next little while and not waste any of it.

I am looking forward to trying other masks when I'm done with this one as well. They retail for $5.95CDN. A bonus is that if you bring in 5 empty black pots from LUSH, you can get a free face mask.

I also picked up the Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter while I was there. I'll be reviewing that soon!

Have you tried any of the LUSH masks? What are your favorite products from LUSH?

NOTD: OPI Mod About You

It was my 6 month anniversary with my boyfriend this weekend, and we went out to dinner to celebrate. We both always have such a hard time figuring out where to eat that will have something for both of us - he's a big meat eater and I'm vegetarian. I was reading The Asian Pear's blog where she had just written about going to a Mexican restaurant called La Mexicana. She included a link for more informantion about the restaurant where I saw the menu and there was a ton of yummy looking stuff that I was sure that both me and my boyfriend would like. We were not disappointed. The food was great! I only wish I would have had room for dessert, they have fried ice cream on the menu and I've never had that before, it intrigues me. I hope to go back soon enough!

Anyway, my NOTD was OPI Mod About You, very fitting for the occasion :)


OPI Mod About You


The first picture is the one that is accurate for colour (as this one is pretty washed out), but I just wanted to add this one because you can see one of my kitties begging for attention while I was trying to take pictures. Perhaps it's starting to become evident that I'm quite the cat lady, I've got 3.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Do anything fun? What was your NOTD?

My Collection and How It's Organized

My trip to Ikea last weekend was a success! My boyfriend took me first thing in the morning and we ate breakfast there before shopping around. I can't believe how cheap the breakfast is! Walking around the store didn't take as long as I thought it might. It was probably a good thing that I had in mind exactly the kinds of things I was looking for. The biggest thing on my list was something to organize my make up and nail polishes in. I looked at the Helmer, but I found it to be quite flimsy. It was also a lot smaller than what I was looking for. The 9 drawer Alex caught my eye. It was a bit more than I was hoping to spend on something like this, but it was a lot bigger and sturdier than the Helmer. I also picked up a table mirror, a couple of lamps and tea lights in a few different scents. They smell so good!


Ikea Alex
My boyfriend was sweet enough to put it together right when we got back to my apartment.

It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to organize everything in there, and I still may make some changes. Here's how everything is in there now.


Here's the first drawer. Right now, it's just random stuff I've bought over the last couple of weeks that I haven't tried out yet. I've had a thing for buying purple nail polishes lately, can you tell? :)


One of my kitties wanted to get in on the action.


My lipglosses and lipsticks.


Eye liners, mascaras, fluidlines, eye lash curlers etc.


Blushes, MSFs, MUFE HD powder, MAC loose blot powder, concealers and such.


My MAC palettes, quads, paint pots & paints, UDPP, strobe cream, foundation, eye shadows that need depotting.


Here's what my MAC palettes look like open. They're supposed to hold 15 shadows, but I take the seperators out and they can hold 26 instead. A lot more convenient when you're trying to find colours! Not to mention it saves space.




My nail polish drawer. Wow, it sure looks like I've got a lot of pinks!


This is how I store my brushes. I bought this holder at Ikea as well. I think it's supposed to be meant for kitchen utensils.


Here's my kitty again, tired out from all the excitement!

NOTD: China Glaze VII

Here's my nail of the day.


China Glaze VII

This colour came out with the China Glaze Anniversary X collection to celebrate China Glaze's tenth anniversary. It's a dark plum creme. It's my first time wearing it, and I have to say that I'm really liking this colour!

What are you wearing on your nails today?

MAC All Ages, All Races, All Sexes Collection Haul, Review and Swatches

It took me forever to put this post together, but better late than never, right?

These are the things I picked up from the MAC All Ages, All Races, All Sexes collection that came out January 7th.


Personal Style Beauty Powder Blush
This colour is described by MAC as a light mauve taupe. It looks so gorgeous in the pan, that I just bought it without really considering what I'd use it for. I tried to get swatches, but it seems to blend in with my skin so much that it doesn't really show up. I'm NC25 for reference. I may just try to use this as a highlight or even a setting powder. Paler gals might be able to get away with using it as a contour.


All Races eye shadow
This shade is very light but not quite white, it has a bit of a mauve undertone with a matte finish. It's a pretty unique colour in my opinion. I have been loving it as a lid colour.


Cross Cultural eye shadow
A nice matte medium chocolately brown. Makes a nice crease colour.


Showstopper eye shadow
I didn't pick this up with this collection, I've had it for a while in the Diana Eyes:2 quad that came out some time ago with the Diana Ross collection. It's a nice blackened brown that I like to use in my outer v.


Cross Cultural, Showstopper, All Races (clockwise from the left)


Showstopper, Cross Cultural, All Races


Showstopper, Cross Cultural, All Races

Banshee eye shadow (not pictured) I purchased this a few years ago when it came out with the Rebelrock collection, but I swapped it away soon after. I am really not a fan of lustres, and the colour pay off wasn't very good.


Glamour For All lipglass
I wasn't originally planning to get any of the lipglasses from this collection, as I'm trying to use up the ones I currently have, but Glamour For All caught my eye. It's a nice milky pink colour that isn't very similar to any of the glosses I have in my collection right now. It would go great with a variety of looks from an every day neutral look to a more dramatic smokey eye.

Did you pick up anything from this collection? What do you think?

Stay tuned for an update on my trip to Ikea this weekend with pics of what I purchased and how I'm organizing my collection now.

How Do You Store & Organize Your Make Up?

I've recently been trying to organize my collection of make up and nail polishes a little better. I keep everything in one of those plastic drawer things, it has 4 small drawers that currently contain make up, and 2 bigger drawers. One of the big drawers contains my nail polish. The other big drawer just has a bunch of random junk in it. Anyway, the nail polish drawer is starting to overflow, and a lot of my cometics are outside of the drawers, there isn't room enough for everything. Of course, the problem just keeps getting worse the more I buy. I happen to be on a bit of a buying spree too, whoops!

My boyfriend is taking me to Ikea this weekend, and I know a ton of girls seem to rave about storing everything in the infamous Helmer.


Ikea Helmer

It's definitely going to be on my list of things to check out while I'm there, and may very well end up coming home with me. It comes in 3 colours too - white, silver (pictured) and red. I think I'd get either the silver, or red if I do end up getting one of those.

I also want to get a new make up mirror and lamp to go on my desk where I put my make up on. I'm not too happy with my current set up, it's way too dark and my mirror is tiny!

I'm excited to go to Ikea in general, I could spend hours in there! For the sake of my boyfriend's sanity though, I'm going to try not to take too long... hehe.

So how do you all store your make up?

NOTD: Essie Mint Candy Apple

Here's my nail of the day, one of the polishes I got on a recent haul.


Essie - Mint Candy Apple

I've been a tad obsessed with cream nail polishes lately. Are you guys as excited for the new China Glaze Up & Away collection as I am? The colours are gorgeous and I want pretty much all of them! I'm hoping I'll spot them in stores soon because I like buying things in person, but I might cave and order them online if I can't find them soon.

What's are you wearing on your nails today?

I still have to do a post on my haul from the MAC All Ages, All Races, All Sexes collection, that will be coming up soon!

MAC in Lillyland Haul, Review and Swatches

I suppose it's about time that I got around to posting my MAC in Lillyland haul. I originally only purchased Florida Cremeblend blush, but I loved it so much that I went back and got So Sweet, So Easy as well.



Florida Cremeblend blush
This is a gorgeous shade of bright fuchsia. It can look a little intimidating in the pot, but if you just use a tiny bit, it's quite easy to sheer it out. I've worn this a couple of times already and it's great. I simply apply and blend with my fingers and set it with powder. It lasted all day on me.



So Sweet, So Easy Cremeblend blush
A nice bubblegum pink. Would work well for just a hint of colour if you're going for a more natural look. You could also intensify the colour by setting it with a powder blush.



So Sweet, So Easy (left), Florida (right)

These are the first creme blushes that I've purchased. My skin gets so dry in the winter, and creme products are great for this.

I do also have Rubenesque paint pot that came out with this, though I got it a long time ago, as it's part of the permanent collection.

I didn't pick anything else up, though the Lipgelees are quite pretty. I recently took inventory of my lipglosses, and I have far too many, so I skipped those. The Pearlmatte Eye Shadow is faily sheer, so I passed on that. The Pearlmatte Face Powder is one of those items that is really pretty to look at, but I'm not sure how often I'd actually use it, so I skipped that as well.

What does everyone else think of this collection? Did you get anything?

Happy New Year! & A New Start?

I know I'm a few days late, but I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! What did you all do for New Years Eve? I think I'm getting too old to do much of anything anymore. I went to a club with my boyfriend and I was ready to leave before midnight! haha :) It was still a fun night though.

I started this blog in January of 2009. I wrote in it for a couple of months before just... stopping I guess. I have kept up with a ton of other blogs and am always on the hunt for new ones to read. I guess I just didn't feel like I had that much to write about, or much of a focus on any specific topic.

I've since deleted most of my previous posts and figure maybe it's time for a fresh start. I'm not sure how often I'll end up writing, but I'll try my best to update once in a while at least.