A couple of new MAC items...Blue India and Creamsheen Glass in Deelight

Here it is! MAC Blue India! It's a MAC polish I actually LOVE. I have a few other MAC polishes, but the formula on this one is way nicer than the other 3 that I had..it's opaque in 2 coats, but I did 3 as usual. It's a beautiful dusty deep blue color. IMO Sally Hansen Gray by Gray isn't even close in person. Blue India is from MAC's newly released Liberty of London collection and retails for $12, which is kind of pricey..but I do think the color and formula are worth it this time.

So here's my first makeup related updated in months...I did my first B2M for Cremesheen Glass in Deelight. I wasn't planning on getting any more lip gloss for a while (or makeup for that matter), but I decided to get this one for the name since Dee is the name of one of my favorite people. Deelight is a nice, kinda mauvey neutral pink color a shade lighter than my own lips..it's got pretty decent pigmentation, and is much smoother and less sticky than MAC's lipglasses.
Here it is on my arm..I've gotten a lot lighter the last few months so the inside of my arm is probably around the 20-25 range now.

On the lips, natural lighting. You may notice that it appears to settle lightly into my liplines, though it's not really noticeable in real life...the macro setting on my camera just makes it appear that way. I has the same vanilla scent that I'm used to getting with MAC lipglosses. Overall, I'm pretty happy I picked it up, though I don't have any plans to pick up any of the other creamsheens.

Brush Cleansers--Parian Spirit, Smashbox, MAC

For the last 6 months, I've generally been really lazy about cleaning my brushes. Thankfully, many brands make brush cleansers that are great for light cleanings in between times that you finally get around to deep cleaning your brushes (which unfortunately for me has been a few months now...don't get grossed out though, I have a LOT of brushes so I've been on a rotation...) The three I've tried so far are Smashbox's, MAC's and Japonesque's Parian Spirit cleaners.

I'll start this post off with Japonesque's Parian Spirit Cleanser. This cleanser comes in 3 sizes, a 2 oz. bottle with a sprayer, an 8 oz size, and a huge 16 oz size. I was lucky enough to get a decent sized sample of this stuff from a friend of mine who picked this up from IMATS while she was there. (Thank you!) This cleanser is probably the quickest and easiest to use; you simply pour a little bit out into a small container, dip your brush in, and swirl it in there slightly and pigments literally just fall out of your brush. It's pretty interesting to watch. It has a lemony scent to it (Lemon Pledge anyone?) After that, just squish it a bit with a paper towel and it's good for use again. Out of the 3 cleansers I'll be talking about today, this is also the only brush cleanser I've tried that REALLY pulls all that gross gunk out of your lip brushes...and does so rather quickly at that (I think it took me less than a minute to clean 3 lip brushes) I like this one very much for that. However, overall, this cleanser is my least favorite out of the 3 because it seems to contain oil, which I don't think is something I like. This does make it so that scratchy brushes like the maxine mop are much much softer, but I think I'll skip on this for using regularly on anything except my lip brushes.

Next up is Smashbox. Smashbox is the first brush cleanser I ever bought, back in the day, when Smashbox was pretty much the only cosmetic line I used. (I was a die hard Smashbox fan back in high school and my early college years) Smashbox's Brush Cleaner comes in a 4 oz spay bottle and retails for $15. To use this product, you spray the brush cleanser on a paper towel and then sweep your brush over the moistened towel to remove pigment. It's a nice cleanser for removing pigment from your brushes as well as sanitizing your brushes, but I feel that MAC's brush cleanser does the same exact thing for way less money.

MAC's brush cleanser comes in a 7.9 oz bottle with one of those push top dispensers (like BBW lotion bottles) and retails for $11. One bottle lasts me a very, very long time (i think the last one lasted me about 10 months or so) I use this one in the same way that I use the Smashbox one, I spray/pour a bit of this stuff on a paper towel, run my brush over the dampened area, and then squeeze my brush slightly with a dry paper towel. My brishes are ready for use again within a few minutes. I'm generally quite happy with this cleanser, and out of the three I'm posting about today, this one is my favorite. It makes my life much easier since I can go just a little bit longer without having to deep clean my brushes. I think it's generally better to use on smaller brushes like eye brushes, but it can pull color out of cheek brushes as well, generally, I prefer to subject my face brushes to deep cleaning instead of using brush cleanser.

For deep cleaning my brushes, I like to run the tips of my brushes under warm water, then work in a mixture of antibacterial soap, baby shampoo/conditioner, and warm water, or just a mix of warm water and antibacterial soap. I then rinse out my brushes, squeeae out excess water, with a paper towl, and lay them flat to dry.

Rose Romance Nordstrom Exclusive Quad-Rose is a Rose

In addition to all the other goodies that came out with A Rose Romance, MAC also released a Nordstrom exclusive quad that came out about a month after the rest of the collection. This quad retailed for $36 plus tax and contained a repromote of Solar White (from last year's Cool Heat collex), one permanent shade (Contrast), and 2 new shades exclusive to the quad. I'm just now getting to posting my swatches of this quad, since for some reason I swatch things at an oddball pace...and then post them at an even odder pace. My opinion of this quad is a bit mixed, since the colors seem quite dupeable to me, but it's still a nice quad to have.

Solar White (Frost)- Both the name of this shadow, as well as it's appearance in the pan is decieving. This shadow is neither white like it's name indicates, or the pretty cream color it is in the pan. Instead, it's a nice beautiful pale yellow gold. I really love this shadow, and have already purchased a backup of this shade of ebay...it's more intense than Femme Fi, which pulls slightly pink on me for some reason.
Seeds of Love (Frost) - a nice peachy shade. On my skin, this color is nearly identical to Paradisco (which I own from the Lucky Tom quad) However the texture of this is much better than Paradisco, which was kind of chalky in my opinion
Petal Worship (Lustre)- described as a light, blue based pink. This description is fairly accurate in my opinion, though I feel like it leans a bit more towards purpley or lilac than just a blue based pink. It has a nice silvery sheen to it that I feel makes it kind of unique. I don't own too many MAC shadows, so I'm not entirely sure if there's a full on dupe of this, but I do own Lotusland, which Temptalia said was similar, and I don't feel bad at all owning both. I definitely wasn't super fond of its Lustre texture.
Contrast (Velvet)- Navy Blue. I find this color kind of boring actually..it just seems like your run of the mill navy blue shadow. I didn't notice any of the purplish cast that temptalia mentioned.
Like I said before, I don't find this quad particularly special. The colors in the quad itself are nice to have if you don't already own similar shades. The only color I felt was a must have in this palette was Solar White. If you got it at Nordstroms before it sold out, it's a nice quad to have, but if you missed out on it, it's not a big deal. It's definitely not something worth paying overblown ebay prices for...if you still feel like you must have it though...ask your Nordies MAC SA to check the warehouses for it. Chances are, there might be a few left somewhere.

Nail Polish Stash

So it took me a while, but I finally figured out how to add an email subscription box..so there it is..to the right of here. Today I have pictures of my nail polish stash for you. I didn't label them, but if you want them labeled, or just have a question about what a specific polish is, I'd be happy to answer your question. Also, the font I used to label my pictures has changed. If you find this is hard to read, please let me know (I guess it doesn't matter for this post though) The polishes are, for the mst part, sorted by brand and color.
Here they are in their drawer...the China Glaze and Misa boxes are empty..the Zoya boxes have polishes in them: OPIs..I'm missing Russian Navy

Sets of mini polishes...I really like these because I don't use a single color too often

extra minis
China Glaze:

Mini China glazes

ORLYs

Mini ORLYs

Finger Paints

Nfu Oh polishes..these are Korean polishes I got off FabulouStreet.com for $12.50. They're only about $7 in Korea though, so if you have a friend who's in Korea or going to Korea..ask them to get these for you..they're very unique and pretty.

Essie

Zoyas. This is by far my favorite brand of polishes. Right now Zoya is doing a "polish exchange" where you send in your old, unwanted, or empty polishes and they'll send you new Zoya polishes for a Shipping and Handling charge of $3 each...it may seem gimicky, but they'll dispose of your polishes properly for you. The exchange site is http://www.zoya.com/earthday

Color Club and Misa

LA Colors Art Deco and Nabi

MAC and CHANEL. I'm not a huge fan of MAC polishes, but I liked these colors.

Sinful Colors and Claires

Konad and Misc

Misc

MAC Hello Kitty Collection Haul

Originally planned to launch Thursday, Feb. 12, the MAC and Hello Kitty collaboration launched today, a couple days earlier than originally planned. I of course, went nuts over the stuff, with a purchase totaling over $260 in product. I bought both Beauty Powder blushes ($18 each), the Lucky Tom eyeshadow quad ($38), a Beauty Powder in Pretty Baby ($22), lipsticks in Strayin', Big Bow, Most Popular, and Cute-ster ($14 each), and my first lipglasses in Mimmy, She loves Candy, and Sweet Strawberry ($14 each), Tinted Lip Conditioners in Pink Fish and Popster ($14.50), and my first MAC nailpolish in On the Prowl ($11). I did the vast majority of my haul at Nordstroms, but a few things were bought at a MAC freestanding store (and the reason is at the end of this post!) Everything came in black packaging with Hello Kitty Written on it, kinda cute, and a welcome change from MAC's regular boring black packaging in this blogger's opinion.

Here's everything after it's been freed from the packaging (well except for the nailpolish, there was a mixup with my preorders, and one of them went missing)

A few items opened up..

Here's a close-up of the Lucky Tom Palette open. The palette is quite a bit smaller than I had expected, barely larger than the four eyeshadow pans squeezed together, and measures less than 5" in length, 1.25" wide, and less than 1/2" tall. Inside are four colors:

Creme Royale (Veluxe Pearl)- the smoothest of the four colors in this palette, a sheer shimmery yellow gold shade.

Paradisco (Frost)- a repromote from the permanent line. Paradisco is a sheer shimmery peachy pink shade. A pretty color, but it's a bit difficult to draw color off this shade, so I'm not fond of this.

Stylin' (Velvet)- Gorgeous blue purple color with sparkle in the pan, but the color loses the sparkle once on the lid. Also has somewhat poor color payoff, but the color builds up easily.

Lucky Tom (Luster)- A dark dirty taupe with glitter in the pan. The glitter also dissapears on the lid.

Overall, the palette isn't the best, but it's not the worst either. Unless you're in it for the cute packaging, I'd probably skip this palette. If you already bought it, it's still worth keeping, but the colors don't really go that well together either.

There were two beauty powders released with this collection, and quite frankly, like all beauty powders in my opinion, are not worth purchasing. I however, did purchase one of the powders, mostly for the adorable imprint on the powder. I chose Pretty Baby, the light pink matte powder because that one showed up a little bit better on me. It has the possibility for being used as a very very light pink blush, but I have my doubts about that. I'm not sure I intend on using it anyways ( I know, shame on me...)

I picked up both blushes in my haul today, Tippy, the pink blush, is a bright, slightly shimmery pink, that requires the use of a skunk brush to work on most skin tones. Otherwise, it'll just look clownish. Even still, it's quite bright

The second blush, Fun and Games, while looking somewhat orangey in the pan, ended up as a great subtle peachy glow on me. Out of the two blushes, this one is the most wearable in my opinion.

I also picked up both tinted lip conditioners, which are lightweight, have great color, and smell carry the scent of vanilla. The best part about them for me? When you run out of lip conditioner, you can probably switch the Hello Kitty imprinted lid with that of a regular TLC. Popster is a sheer coral shade. It isn't anything special, but it is definitely pretty.

Pink Fish is a light, slightly cool toned pink on my lips that I think would work well with played up eyes. However, I feel that it's also one of those things that isn't a must-have.

Next up are the lipglasses. The lipglasses released in this collection are all really sheer, and somewhat sticky. They don't carry the light vanilla scent that I've heard that all MAC lipglasses have. I picked up 3 out of the 6 that were released with this collection:

She Loves Candy- Sheer light pink with shimmer. It's not much on it's own, and it screams that it's dupeable to me, but it's quite beautiful over a couple of the lippies in this collection. It's definitely a nice addition to your collection if you're looking to collect one of the lipglasses.
Mimmy- Super sheer light peachy-pink/coral shade, this lipglass is fairly unexciting and imparts only the slightest hint of color and shimmer to your lips.

If you plan to wear this shade alone, then it's not worth purchasing. If you really want a color like this, Chanel's aqualumiere in Candy Glow is very similar in the tube, and goes on with a bit more color. I myself was thinking of taking this one back until I tried layering it on top of Cute-ster lipstick. The two go great with each other.
Sweet Strawberry- my favorite lipglass in this collection. Sweet Strawberry is berry toned in the tube, but once on my lips, is a mid-deep pink with a hint of berry. It's also sheer, but the color is quite pretty. It is definitely worth looking at.

Of the 6 lipsticks released with this collection, I purchased 4, 3 of which are much brighter than what I normally wear. All lipsticks came in a black tube with Hello Kitty design on them and a cute hello kitty imprint in the lipstick itself. The two I did not purchase, Fresh Brew (Lustre, repromote) and Fashion Mews, did not suit my skin tone and were left alone

Cute-Ster- is a sheer peach color with gold shimmer. This was my favorite lipstick of the collection and I have already purchased a backup. This was already sold out at my freestanding store by the time I went to go pick up a backup. I think this would not show up on a lot of people, but as I have pigmented, cool toned lips, this transformed my natural lip color quite beautifully. Other people have mentioned it didn't show up though. I think this one is fairly similar to Marquise D. from the Blonde, Brunette, Redhead collection, but cutester is slightly pinker, and less frosty than Marquise D., with more subtle shimmer.

Big Bow (glaze)- is a sheer bright blue pink on my lips. There isn't too much I want to say on this one at this time. It's pretty, and I'm decently happy with it, but it's not a must-have for me

Strayin' (Frost)- is a mid-toned brightish pink that seems perfect for Spring. Although it is a frost finish, the lipstick itself is not frosty at all, but instead has a slight sheen to it. It's also, in my opinion, the prettiest one to look at in the tube.

The last lipstick I purchased was Most Popular (Lustre)- which is a berry tinged pink shade, also much brighter than the colors I normally wear. It's similar to Sweet Strawberry lipglass, but with slightly more berry tones.

I had to go back to the store for my On the Prowl nail polish (which is why it was not in the first few pictures), and I'm glad I did. On the prowl is a light matte grey shade that I haven't seen anywhere else. The bottle is decorated with MAC's version of Hello Kitty.
Congratulations! you've reached the bottom of my long, badly written post! Here's the reason why part of my haul ended up being done at a MAC freestanding store versus a complete haul from Nordstrom's, which I prefer more for their great service and return policy: I recieved this tote for making a Hello Kitty collection purchase over $50. Yay! It's not the best made tote in the world, as it's made of this strange plastic-like material, but it's super cute and it was FREE.



Hope you enjoyed this post!