0 MAC A Novel Romance haulage and review

Initially, I was planning on passing on this collection, but when I saw the colors, I caved in to the inner shophaholic in me and ended up getting:

2 electric cool e/s in Gilded Thril and Coil (Coil was a repromote colour which i didn't buy the previous time it was launched as I wasn't so much into neutral eyes at that point of time)

2 lipsticks in A novel romance and Good Kisser

1 Blush in Fun ending

1 Eye quad in A Novel Romance (Same name as the lipstick and the collection)

Here are the pics of the items I bought from the collection

Good Kisser lipstick (Matte)

A Novel Romance lipstick (Cremesheen)

A Novel romanace eye shadow quad

Coil electric cool e/s

Gilded through electric cool e/s

Fun ending blush (Satin)

My personal favourite items of the lot has to be gilded through and Coil electric cool e/s, A novel romance lip stick and Good kisser lipstick. 

The electric cool e/s has a mousse finish (a hybrid of cream and powder in one) and is very smooth and blendable on the eyelids. I especially like the shimmers in them. 

Here's a pic of me wearing Gilded through electric cool e/s, Fun Ending blush and A novel romance lipstick

And in this 2nd pic, I added on Coil electric cool e/s at the outer corner of the eye

And as for A novel romance lipstick, I like it that it is a light sweet pink and that it is very wearable for both neutral eyes and stronger eye make up. I find myself reaching out for this colour very often these days.

And this is Good kisser lipstick, quite close to Pleasurebomb which was LE..but Pleasurebomb is slightly darker

Comparison swatch of Good kisser and Pleasurebomb lipstick

And as for the blusher, on first look it seems quite close to Pink Tea from the regular range, but when swatched, Pink tea is just a tad more pink than Fun ending which has a tad more peachy undertones to it. Both blushers are of satin finishes. Although it may seem powdery when swatched on hand, when applied, it does blend into the skin pretty well. A very good neutral color for daily use.

I haven't got about to using A Novel Romance eye quad yet, I will update a review of the quad and swatches once I've used it. 

0 MAC Nocturnal pigment sets haul

It's been quite sometime since I last updated this blog and during this period of time, I've acquired a no of new make up items, but have no time to review them as of yet due to work commitments. Anyway here are some of the cosmetics from my latest haulage.

From MAC nocturnals,

I bought the purple pigment set and the black and gold pigment set. For the price of one set of pigments, it's high value for money as compared to their full sized ones. So if u have not tried MAC pigments before, this is a good time to get their pigment sets and try them out while getting value for your money.

Each set contains of 2 glitters and 3 pigments. The pigments are multi purpose and depending on the color, u can either use them as eye color, highlighers for the face and even lip colors. As for the glitters, as they are really chunky i would advise using a synthetic damp brush to press them onto the eyelid (withe a GOOD eye primer). The pigmetns are pretty ok for me to handle, just that the glitters doesn't adhere too well to the skin and need a bit more work for me to apply without getting glitters all over my face.

Packaging

I prefer this packaging to the previous years packaging for the pigments (excluding the crushed metal pigment sets) as the opening of the bottle is bigger and easier for me to pick up the color using my brush and slightly more stable the the old pigment set bottles which were slightly thinner and more unstable. 

Will update this post for swatches of the pigments at a later time. =) Have a happy holidays!

0 MAC antonio lopez 6 eyes Teal Palette

As compared to the purple eye palette as previously reviewed, in terms of color pay off and texture, this teal palette from antonio lopez is much better in my humble opinion.

Of all the 6 colors in this palette, Freshwater and nighttrain are repromotes from MAC's regular/permanent line. 

Sex and Disco (Lustre): For a lustre e/s, it has pretty smooth texture. It's somewhat of a duochrome color that has grey and pink undertones to it. 

Colorful life (Veluxe pearl): Smooth, blendable texture with decent color pay off. This is the  star in this palette (Ok I love teal e/s so I maybe biased towards this color XD )

Freshwater (Veluxe pearl): Repromote. If u like bright colors, this blue is one of the must have colors from MAC permanent line up. Buttery smooth texture and good colorpay off

Nighttrain (Lustre): Has the typical lustre texture, sheer color with slight glitters 

Sketchbook (Lustre): Black with gold shimmer. Sheer buildable texture, not as smooth and buttery as the  Colorful life and freshwater but still workable without too much effort

Fashion Legend (Lustre) Looks like MAC's beautymark e/s  in the pan (black with purple glitter) but definitely more pigmented and not as chalky as beautymark which is also a lustre finish

Overall review: Definitely a better buy than the purple eye palette as most of the e/s in this palette are pretty smooth, blendable and with decent color pay off. And all the colors complement one another. U can do a bright colorful eye with this palette and as well as a smokey eye with this at the same time. 

0 MAC Antonio Lopez - 6 eyes violet palette

This was yet another item I purchased from MAC antonio lopez. I was very attracted to the packaging and color combination in the palette. The palette features another illustration of of one of Antonio Lopez muses on the cover (diff girl from the face kit) and it contains 6 shades of color in a very compact casing.

 

But as to color pay off, some colors in this palette needed quite a bit of packing it on (and with an eye primer below) to get it to appear stronger, so it was kinda a disappointment as I had hoped that the colors especially the pink and the purple one would apply more smooth and more intense.

Lithe Spirit (Satin): Some what reminds me of a cross of Brule and Vanilla e/s in MAC's regular colors. It says it's a satin finish, but i feel this comes across more matte abeit a bit chalky.

Envisioning Pink (Satin): Applies slightly better than Lithe Spirit, but i still have to use a synthetic brush like MAC #242 and pack it on to get the color to appear better

Violet Impact (Veluxe pearl): The most disappointment color in the palette. I had wished for this color to be stronger, and being a Veluxe pearl finish I had expected this color to be buttery smooth in texture just as with MAC's other usual veluxe pearl finish eyeshadows. But not so in this case. It is quite chalky and as with the previous 2 colors I had to put in a little more effort to get this color to appear true to its pan

Showgirl (Veluxe pearl): Applies much better than the other 3 colors mentioned above. Kinda reminds me of MAC silver ring e/s.

Graphic style (Veluxe pearl): Smooth and blendable finish, just slightly darker than Showgirl.

Carbon (matte): I still prefer the very very old batch of carbon which I bought many yrs ago and which I still have up to today. The carbon in this palette and the new batches just cannot be compared to the old batches.

Overall review: I bought this palette mainly for the pink and the purple, but the color payoff of these 2 colors kinda disappointed me even though I can still with GREAT EFFORT (with an eye primer and a synthetic brush) get the colors to work but still i would have prefered if the texture of the pink and the purple e/s were not so chalky. It is a shame actually as the packaging is really cute but the colors is just mehz.... : (

0 MAC Riri Loves MAC fall collection

It has been aeons since I last updated my blog and to all my readers I apologise for this as I have been having some personal issues of mine which has been somewhat settled. And as for my latest haul, Our country finally received the Riri Loves MAC collection and I got myself only 4 items from the collection. (I wanted to buy the #187 brush as well, But alas I busted my budget as I had  just earlier bought 4 kits from Antonio Lopez which cost me quite a bomb :( )

1. Riri Woo lipstick (Our country didn't receive this from the earlier collection so it was a 

   good chance for me to grab this lipstick before it flies off the shelves which it definitely

   would have by now

2. Good girl gone bad blush (MAC website describes this as a warm copper, for fair skinned

    ladies, this has definitely to be used with a light hand as it can look muddy if over 

    applied)

3. Hibiscus kiss powder duo (I only wished the blusher part was bigger for this, as the 

    countour shade took up 2/3 of the compact and and I'm not a big fan of contouring nor

    bronzing. But on a positive note, the brown side is not that pigmented, so I can still

    use that as a cheek color abeit a bit peachy-brown on my NC20 skin tone)

4. Her cocoa eye quad ( Consists 4 neutral colors in shades of brown. It is a quad definitely 

    suitable for everyday wear and for all skintones. I can see myself wearing this daily, 

    Hence i bought it. I predict that this will be the first eye quad to be sold out from the 

    collection as it has such wearable colors esp in my country where most people are not

    adventurous with colors and wear most only neutral colors like this quad)

I am really love the rose gold color packaging of this collection and of coz the pink color signature of rihana on them. It makes it look so ultra chic and classy with a femine touch. Only downside is becoz of the chrome like packaging, it tends to attract fingerprints very easily. But other wise no other rants. I can deal with that easily

Here are some close up shots of the products

0 NYX Beauty To Go box

Recently purchased Nyx Beauty to Go palette from a friend of mine. Here is the packaging and the contents:

 As u can see from the picture, the Palette consists of

1. 13 x 4 = 52 eyeshadows of different textures both matte and non matte

2. 6 blushers (the strips of pink in the small little pull out tray)

3. 6 lipstick colors (the strips of color also in the small little pull out tray)

4. 6 x eye base / concealer and corrector

5. 2 bronzing powders

6. 2 face powders

7, 6 lipgloss pots

8. 2 lip pencils

9. 1 mascara

10. 1 pencil liner

11. 1 liquid liner

The price I paif for this palette for SGD$80, I do not know how much this palette cost in the US, But I personally feel that for SGD80 it's quite value for money considering how mcuh stuff I get in side the box.

Here are some close up shots of the products

Overall, I am in love with this palette. I've swatched the eyeshadow colors by themselves (Will post swatches up later), the color payoff is decent and is buildable with an eye primer. The only gripe i have with is this palette is that the size of the blushers are TOO SMALL. WHAT  THE STRIPS OF PINK ARE BLUSHERS? HOW the hell am I supposed to get my big brush onto the samll rectangular strips of pink????? :X :X :X And the packaging is quite bulky, so its kinda hard to bring it for travel although it is possible to.  But I guess this is the only way they could get it to fit so many products in one beauty box. Overall, this is a good buy. I cant wait to use the colors in it.

0 YSL 5 Color Harmony for eyes palette in #3

Quite sometime back, I bought an eye palette from YSL but didn't get around to using it until recently. The palette I bought belonged to the range called  ombres 5 Lumieres (Color harmony for eyes) which could be used dry only. (The other range of eye palettes which YSL carried was the Pure chromatics which could be used both Wet and Dry.)

I was attracted to #3 because I have a soft spot for bronze, orange and brown eye palettes. They just look so good in the palette together and these colors are so wearable for everyday.

In terms of texture and color payoff, 3 of the colors in the palette are towards the sheer side and (as shown in the swatch pic - the 3 middle colors) and require a base for them to appear more intense. I am in love with the first- a strong bronze orange and the the last - a dark reddish brown. These two colors have pretty good texture and color payoff is excellent and blendable. If they didn't include these two colors in this palette, I probably would not have bought this palette. These eyeshadows have a sheen to them, but nothing too glittery. 

Packaging wise as with all high end brands, it comes with 2 small eyeshadow applicators (which I don't use as I use my good ol MAC eyeshadow brushes to apply) and in a sleek luxe metallic gold compact - the signature packaging of YSL.

Overall review: 7/10 

Overall this is a pretty decent palette as all the colors can easily be worn. Only downside is the sheerness of 3 of the colors in the palette, But tht can be easily corrected by wearing an eye primer below.

0 MAC Guilty Passions Haul - Crushed metal pigments

I swear this yr's Holiday collection has to be the biggest holiday MAC haul that i've ever hauled. I find it quite confusing that MAC has divided up the holiday collection in to two parts - Fabulousness (Face kits, brush kits, Eye bags, Lip bags) and Guilty passions (which consist of the crushed metal pigments & lipgloss sets) . Eh why can't they just launch everything in just one big collection XD...

Initially i had wanted to pass on completely Guilty Passions, But when i saw the crushed metal pigments, I fell in love instantly with the colors and ended up buying the Tenderly warm crushed metal pigment set (Gold / Brown) and the Sweetly Smokey set (Purple/Pink). So far I've only used the Tenderly warm pigment set and I'm loving it, especially Ever elegant (the dark brown color). It is a perfect combo with Silk stocking (Gold) from the same set The other colors in the set kinda looks similar to some other colors from other crushed metal pigment sets which I own previously. 

Without further ado here are pics and swatches of the products. 

I feel that the star color for the Tenderly warm crushed metal pigment set has to be Ever elegant. Even though it's still quite chunky, but as compared to the rest of the colors in this set, It's not as glittery and has very good color pay off and blends very smoothly. To be honest, the main reason why I bought this set was because of Ever elegant.

As for the Sweetly smokey set, my  colors has to be Feminity. Feminity kinda reminds me of MAC Stars N rocket e/s but it's like a more sheer and frosted version of it. I really like the blue undertone in Feminity. It is also very pretty when u apply a bit of it on the lips when wearing other pink or fuschia or purple lippies. Feminity pairs very well with Dusty Desire giving a purplish bluish kinda smokey eyes. 

Tips for applying the crushed metal pigments:

1. Apply excess loose powder under the eyes before applying the pigments, so that if there's any fall out, the loose powder is able to catch the fallout and u can easily dust it away after completing the eye make up

2. Use either fingers or a synthetic brush like the #242 to PACK / press on colors. Blend out softly and gently. Don't blend too hard as it may cause excess fall out of eye

3. Can be used wet for a stronger color intensit.

4. Eye primer is higher recommended to use with the crushed metal pigments so that it can adhere to the eyes better

And last but not least I won't suggest using more than 3 colors of  the crushed metal pigments together on the eyes as it may be a bit too glittery or frosted.