Some NOTDs: Konad, Muppets OPIs, etc

1 coat of OPI Going Gonzo! over 3 coats OPI Road House Blues

OPI Warm and Fozzie. 3 coats, very interesting multicolored foil.

1 coat of OPI Rainbow Connection over 3 coats of Orly Le Chateau. Rainbow connection takes some dabbing to get the amount of glitter you want. Orly Le Chateau is a very deep blue jellyish creme. It basically looks black after a couple of coats. It's opaque in 2 coats, but I usually use 3 coats for everything.
m57 over Ulta Acid Wash. Acid wash is a light blue with gold duochrome. The gold is prevalent on my nails irl and the result is a color that isn't quite gold or silver.

OPI Skull and Glossbones alone. I forget if this is 3 or 4 coats. It was a bit goopy to apply, but the color is beautiful.
With Konad and Out the Door Northern Lights
Orly Roccoco A-go-go. 3 coats, opaque in 2. Excellent formula, but it's not as cool on the nails as it is in the bottle. Still very lovely
OPI Wocka Wocka! 3 coats, but it's opaque in 2. It's a nice red, but nothing special.
Wocka Wocka! with Orly Prisma Gloss Gold on top.
Orly Androgynie. I used 3 coats. Very pretty black jelly with silver and gold glitter and multicolored hexes. I like it, but the bottle has to be closed and shaken up throughout the application.

Orly Androgynie close-up



Orly Fowl Play. 4 coats. It looks identical to OPI Merry Midnight, in the bottle, but for some reason I prefer the OPI.

Holiday 2011: Dior Couture Golds

Dior was a bit late in releasing their 5 color eyeshadows for this season, but I snagged one yesterday at my local Nordstrom counter. This was swatched in indoor OTT lighting.
The quint is of the newer formula and is a bit harder pressed than the usual irridescent quints. It still applies fine though

Holiday 2011: Laura Mercier Book of Nudes and NOTD OPI Meep Meep Meep

One of the things I bought for Sephora's Friends and Family sale is the Laura Mercier Book of Nudes. This palette contains 8 shadows, 1 cake liner, and 3 cream cheek products. Most of the eye shadows are smooth and buttery, but Tiger's Eye is an unpigmented, hard pressed mess. The other shadows are somewhat sheer, but very buildable. All swatches were taken in a mix of natural lighting and OTT lighting over UDPP, roughly 3 swipes each (except Tiger's Eye)

Buff is a matte beige.
Tiger's Eye is an warm brown with gold glitter. It's hard and unpigmented and easily forms a crust on top. I had to really dig in to get payoff. I think this was 6 swipes or so with my brush, and I had to really pack it on.
Sandstone is a shimmery beige pink.
Bamboo is a warm, slight antiqued bronzey taupe.
Baroque is a warm orange brown with gold shimmer
Fresco is a matte, pinked brown.
Granite is a deep, matte grey.
Cocoa Brown is a reddish brown with slight bronze shimmer. The shimmer doesn't really transfer onto the skin.
The cheek creams in the palette have a smooth, kinda oily texture. The only one I found somewhat pretty is the cheek veil which is a slightly corally peach shade. Bronzer veil reminded me kind of like baby diarrhea...it didn't look particularly pretty swatched onto my arm. Glow veil is a golden highlight shade. The only one of these I tried on my face was the cheek veil. It was easy enough to blend, but I didn't like the payoff on my face. Each of these swatches was maybe 4 swipes. They're definitely quite sheer.

I did neglect to swatch the cake liner, but you can find a swatch of it with the LM Luxe Color portfolio I swatched earlier this month if you're interested. Overall, the palette is okay, but the colors themselves don't particularly appeal to me. If you're torn between getting the luxe color portfolio or the book of nudes, my personal preference would be towards the luxe color portfolio. The Book of Nudes is quite a bit cheaper though, so if you like the colors, it's okay to get, but it doesn't excite me whatsoever.

Here's a look at yesterday's NOTD as weel; OPI Meep Meep Meep. This polish is a slightly pink red, that I found was somewhat jelly-like in color payoff (I can still see my nail line a bit after 3 coats). There's some multidimmensional shimmer to it as well that I feel like my camera didn't capture so well. This photo was taken under OTT lighting at the end of the day shortly before I removed it.

Cat + Lipstick= Cat Lipstick

The Paul and Joe lipsticks went on sale on urbanoutfitters.com so I thought I'd give them a try. They're actually quite nice. They're sheer, with good slip and decent lasting power (2-3 hours or so) I actually found myself really liking them until I figured out I was allergic to them. It was sad, but at least I save money by not falling in love with the brand. :)


066 is kind of a pinky-nude on me and my favorite of the 3.
067 is a light pinky peach.
068 is a medium pink with a lot of gold shimmer.

Pout Blushes

Today we're making a quick visit into the land of the discontinued as I've swatched the Pout blushes that I currently own. These lovely items retailed for $22 and are a whopping 12g (larger than the R&R blushes, which are 9g). This line is not to be confused with the Pout line that Victoria's Secret carries now. All of the blushes are wonderfully pigmented and blend like a dream. It's truly sad that these were discontinued.

I have 2 pictures for you as I couldn't decide which one I liked better out of the two. Swatches were done in a mix of indirect natural lighting and indoor lighting on bare skin. I used 2 swipes of each just for good measure despite the pigmentation of the blushes.


Blossom Belle is a peach/orange blush that has a lot gold shimmer throughout it. Despite the gold shimmer, it still avoids being frosty on the cheeks
Berry Babe is a red-coral shade with gold shimmer. It doesn't have as much shimmer as Blossom Belle.
Pearly Queen is a pigmented matte warm pink
Cherie Tarte is a matte rose/mauve shade.
Apricot Totty is a gorgeous coral with gold shimmer. It's my favorite out of the 5 that I own and consequently the only one I thought to back up. I did let go of the backup though as I don't imagine I'll ever be able to use these up.

If you can find any of these (eBay, blog sales, swaps) I highly encourage you to pick one up. They're honestly amazing.

Majolica Majorca Puff de Cheek Blushes

Matte blushes are a bit of a rarity when it comes to Japanese blushes, but Majolica Majorca released a few last spring so I snagged them. I bought all of the Puff de Cheeks except for the beige highlighter shade. I believe OR302 is still available (it's still up on adambeauty and ichibankao), but I seem to only be able to find the other two on eBay. The Puff de Cheeks are nice, but not horribly unique. They're fairly subtle on my face and I like the look of them. It took several swipes for them too show up this well on my arm.

Laura Mercier Holiday 2011-- Luxe Color Portfolio

Laura Mercier Luxe Color Portfolio- retails $98
Contains: 6 eyeshadows, 3 cake liners, 2 blushes, and 3 mini brushes

Laura Mercier Luxe Color Portfolio (close-up)

Natural Lighting + OTT light over UDPP

Primrose-Warm shimmery pink.
African Violet- Warm violet shade with gold shimmer
Merlot-Deep plum shade with mild shimmer
Truffle-Warm matte brown
Topaz-silvery taupe
Stellar-shimmering beige

Indirect Natural Lighting, no base

The Luxe Color Portfolio by Laura Mercier is my favorite palette so far this season. It's really the only thing I've truly been happy with purchasing in a while (with the exception of the Guerlain 4 pan palettes) and is well worth the hefty price tag to me. All 6 shadows are smooth and blendable, and carry medium pigmentation. The mini brushes are soft, and very useable, unlike a lot of brushes that tend to come in sets. The cake liners are fairly easy to use; lightly dampen an eyeliner brush and mix with the liner. If you dampen the brush too much, you won't get a nice, pigmented line. I wouldn't really purchase the cake liners on their own, as I prefer pencil/gel liners but they're nice to have in the palette and come in very pretty colors. Ground Espresso is even a bit taupey.

Burberry Blushes

I've recently (OK, maybe not so recently) become obsessed with Burberry's blushes. They're smooth, blend beautifully, and all of them are great, wearable colors. If you love super bright blushes, this probably isn't the line for you, but if you love blushes that give you a great, sophisticated, and natural glow, these are great for that. I've found every shade wearable, especially for my light/light-medium skin.

Rose is a bright-ish warm pink with a mild amount of warm pink shimmer. It's probably the brightest of the 8 blushes. It's not a horribly unique color, but it's really cute on the cheeks.
Cameo is a matte pink with mauvey tones to it.
Misty is a light, matte pink. I think anyone darker than the 20-25 range may have trouble getting this one to show up.
Peony is another light matte pink. It's similar to Misty, but it's a bit warmer and shows up just a bit better on me that Misty, but not by much.




Blossom is a warm coral pink with understated silver shimmer. It's nice and glowy on the cheeks, instead of frosty. find it a bit warmer in person than it appears on my monitor.
Russet is a orange-brown shade with shimmer. I don't see this working too well on light, cool skin, but probably looks nice on warmer skin tones.
Tangerine is a matte, peachy shade with some brown to it. It's not quite as brown as it is in this photo, it's closer to what's pictured in the first picture. It was my first Burberry blush, and I'm quite fond of it.
Earthy is a warm taupe. I like to use it for some light contouring, but on cooler skintones, this one will probably be closer to tan.

I Didn't Think It Was That Bad...

...but apparently I have way too many eyeliners!

Dior Holiday 2011--Celebration Collection Deluxe Palette and Eye palette

The last couple of years, Dior has managed to sucker me into purchasing their deluxe palette. This year I got suckered into the eye palette as well. The packaging for these was too adorable for me to pass up.

Dior Holiday Eye palette (outside)

Dior Holiday Eye Palette (inside)

The eye palette contains 3 eyeshadows and an eyeliner and comes packaged with intructions for creating certain looks with the palette. The eyeshadows themselves a beautifully pigmented and silky in texture. Each of these only took a single swipe to photograph well on my arm. The eyeliner is a cream liner that I'm not all that fond of. It stays creamy and never really seems to set, even if you press the dark brown eyeshadow over it to set it. Unfortunately, this means I had smudgy eyeliner under my eyes by the end of the day. I really wish Dior had gone with a 4th eyeshadow instead. I do however, really love the eyeshadow colors that were in this palette. They're shimmery without really being frosty this time. I'd say the lighter gold-brown shade is more metallic than a frost this time. I fell in love with it when I wore it. The darker brown is also beautiful. The eye palette retails for $44 (pretax)

Dior Holiday Eye palette over UDPP, natural+OTT lighting

This year's deluxe palette features 3 eyeshadows, a cream liner, 1 lipstick, 1 gloss, a lip balm, a miniature Diorshow Iconic, and a miniature Diorskin sculpting powder (020). My honest opinion on this one is that the eye shades are similar enough to last year's palette that you probably don't need this one if you bought last year's. Unfortunately for me I got suckered into this one for the adorable packaging, and ended up really liking the lip shade (Rouge Dior 644).

The eye shades are a pink-beige shade, a lilacky taupe, and a smoky plum shade. The eyeliner is a soft black, and unfortunately, like the one in the eye palette, smudgy. I probably would only use this liner in a pinch. The insert that comes with the palette gives you directions for 2 eye looks, as well as directions for using the sculpting Powder. The sculpting powder has 3 sections; the top section, which is lighter is for hightlighting. The middle shade is supposed to be for contouring, and the bottom shade is for setting/blending. It seems like it'd be a cute product, but unfortunately, with the powder being the size that it is, it's virtually impossible to use this powder the way it was intended. I attempted to just swirl it all together and use it as a setting powder, but the powder sits lower in the palette instead of at the surface, making it even more difficult to use. The lip balm, Creme de Rose, is decent; it's nothing special in my book, and carries a light rose scent. This probably would have been better if it had a more portable option. Either way, it was nice for Dior to add this in as I find the regular lipstick line kind of drying. The lipgloss (Ultra-gloss Reflect 246) is practically clear. It has a tiny bit of a peachy tint to it, but on my lips it might as well be clear gloss. I definitely wish Dior had chosen a different shade, as I can't really tell the difference between the gloss and the lip balm on my lips.

Dior Holiday Deluxe palette (outside)

Dior Holiday Deluxe palette (outside)

Dior Holiday Deluxe Palette over UDPP, natural+OTT lighting

I do like the big palette overall, and it's a nice little splurge if you don't already have a lot of Dior, but I don't really consider it a must-have. There's definitely other nice things that you can spend your money on this holiday season, but if you want to shell out the $77 for it, it's not a bad purchase either.