MAC Cham Pale

I always feel almost apologetic when I do MAC posts as I am sure you feel somewhat inundated, I am therefore doing this as an extra post today.
I had made a mental list of what I would be buying from the Cham Pale and Stylishly Yours collections so I was thrown when my store had the Mickey Contractor collection instead of Stylishly Yours. I had been set on getting the Too Chic Beauty Powder to use as a highlight above Rose Ole Highlighting Powder (which I planned on using as a blush).
Scuppered, I swatched both Chez Chez Lame and Gana Blush, and made the decision to go for Chez Chez as it seemed less frosty, this it turns out was a mistake.
Chez Chez Lame Special Reserve Highlighting Powder is a sheer gold with a yellow undertone and a white sheen.
Applied on my cool toned, very pale skin, the yellow tone steps up a notch and clashes with my complexion. I gave this to my mother who is neutral toned and it works a lot better so I would be hesitant to get this if you are very cool toned like me.
Rose Ole Highlighting Powder is a mix of pink and copper with a golden sheen, its pigmented enough for me to use as a blush.
Both powders feel smooth, they are both high sheen though, so best applied with a light hand.

Swatches L-R: Rose Ole, Chez Chez Lame, I Get No Kick Eye Kohl (the Eye Kohl is a shimmery champagne, it feels quite smooth but is not long lasting).

Ingredients for the highlight powders:
Caviar Dreams Eyeshadow Quad contains Brule (neutral light beige), Retrospeck ( shimmery/glittery subtle gold) Caviar Dreams (cool-toned medium shimmery/glittery brown). Et tu, Bouquet? ( icy pink).
Given this contains 2 lustre shades I was surprised I didn't seem to get fall out. I like this more than I thought I would, its a pretty palette of subtle colours and the overall look is sheer but shimmery.
The Paint Pots are all sheer and very shimmery/sparkly, however because of their sheerness they are not over the top. They are easy to apply, blending nicely and they last all day without a base.
I would say that you can only apply one layer of shadow over them otherwise the texture seems to get a bit lumpy.
I got Chilled on Ice (very sheer white gold), Vintage Selection (pink beige) and Dangerous Cuvee (grey with a lavender tone).
Paint Pot Swatches:
Overall I do think the collection is worth checking out, of what I bought the paint pots and Caviar dreams quad are my stand outs.

Louise Young LY38 - Tapered shadow brush

Like many I first heard of Louise Young through watching Pixiwoo tutorials on youtube, where they use her brushes often. The one that stood out to me was the LY38 - Tapered shadow brush, as I thought it might be a replacement for my MAC 266 (great application of colour, however so scratchy and uncomfortable that I rarely use it). The LY38 cost £16 which I think is very competitive pricing compared to a lot of my brushes. The brush head shape is similar to the MAC but you can see the difference in the tip below as the LY one is slighter longer and slimmer.
This is how the brushes look after they have been washed and dried, the LY is at the top:
This is how the brushes look after they have been used, the LY one is on the left.
The LY brush is a lot softer and I was extremely surprised how much pigment this can pick up from a shadow, it also blends the colour out nicely. There is no scratchiness whatsoever. I think its definitely worth having a look at and I will be picking up some more of their brushes.
I also got the New Essential Eye Palette which I will show you as soon as I have worked out how to wear it, if you haven’t seen the picture on the site already it contains a terracotta shade which is not quite working for me (http://www.louiseyoungcosmetics.com/makeup.php).
My Husband bought these for me from the Louise Young site (http://www.louiseyoungcosmetics.com/index.php), the delivery was really quick and the postage quite cheap (£2.99).

Rouge Bunny Rouge Eye Liner Brush, Large Shader Brush & Loose Glitter Pigments EOTD

Adding to my RBR brush collection, I bought the eye liner brush 013 (£15) and large shader brush 003 (£25).

I wanted a brush to use with my gel liners and the 013 brush works a treat. The hair is natural sable and it has a a very thin long tip so is great to create a fine line. I would say that after your wash it you need to smooth the hairs down to make sure that when its dry it keeps its shape.
The shader brush is made of natural pony hair. Its quite a thick textured brush and the head size is medium (bigger than a MAC 239 but smaller than their 227). Its not too soft, nor too firm and I realised how versatile it was after I had unwittingly washed nearly all of my eye brushes and this was the only one clean and dry; it applied my all over shadow, lid shade and crease shade effortlessly.
I thought I’d show you a really simple look I have been doing of late with some of my RBR Loose Glitter Pigments.
Sleeping Under a Mandarin Tree on the inner lid, Wishing For Wings in the middle and Spun from Sunny Seawater on the outer lid, then I blend it all down so the colours are more subtle but I don't blend the colours too much into each other as I wanted to keep them quite separate. I really like these pigments, the application, colours and wear of the product beat all other loose shadows I have tried.

I bought all these items from Zuneta.com

GIVEAWAY: Rouge Bunny Rouge

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I am having another giveaway now that I have reached 200 followers. I really appreciate all the comments and being part of this friendly beauty community.
This time I have bought a RBR Long-lasting Eye Shadow in Periwinkle Cardinal. This is a shade I have and use a lot, I don't tend to see this mentioned much but its a beautiful wearable green.

Here are the rules:
1.To enter you must be one of my followers and just submit a comment on this post.
2.The giveaway will close on the 10th January 2011 5pm UK time, and the winner will be picked via a random number generator. I'll announce the winner on my blog so that you can email me your address details.

This is open to all countries x
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Le Métier de Beauté Radiance Crème rouge Whisper

Although the shade Whisper is marketed as a highlighter, on my very fair skin this imparts enough colour for me to use it as a blusher.
Its a delicate, slightly shimmered warm beige pink. The texture is smooth and the powder seems very finely milled. The finish is natural, imparting a subtle glow, fitting in with any look I do.
Just to note that this is the same size packaging as their eye shadows. Here are the ingredients:
This cost £21 and I bought it from Selfridges. I really want to get the much talked about echo shade next which I hear is a mix of pink/coral/peach with golden shimmer, sounds like a must have to me!

Dolce and Gabbana Smooth Eye Colour Duo Mystery

Is it me or are people not really talking about D&G makeup anymore ?
I’ve only tried a few things from the line and I do like the eye shadows as they are pigmented, smooth and blend easily. What has held me back a bit is their colour selection which I find a bit odd in some cases.
Harrods (who sell the makeup exclusively in the UK) added some of the shadows from collections released this year so I picked up the Duo in Mystery and Quad in Fabulous (I’ll review this at a later date).
Mystery (£22) is a combo of a slightly shimmered lilac paired with a brown with bronze tone and very subtle sparkle. The lilac has a brightness to it and the bronze/brown is a rich colour.
I wouldn't necessarily have thought to pair these shadows together as one is cool toned the other warm, however it does work well.

Sisley Nutritive Lip Balm

* I hope you all have a lovely break over the Christmas period x *

Priced at £37.50, I can safely say this is my most expensive lip balm. To be honest, when I picked this up it was because there was a very good skincare GWP on (this was a while ago before you get excited) which I wanted to give to my Mum. A skincare item was required so I scanned around for one of their more cheaper options and had remembered hearing a few raves about this balm on some of my favourite blogs. It was worth paying over the odds to get the GWP, “a Sprat to catch a mackerel” as my mother would say.
The texture of this is quite firm and it feels really smooth. There is no greasiness or overly slippery feel to it like a lot of balm's suffer from and it has no scent or taste. Its extremely comfortable, even on broken skin. As a result of the thickness it lasts really well.
Here is how it looks in the pot, it does come with a spatula but you can see I have rather ungracefully dunked my finger in it:
However, in terms of results, whilst this is the best potted lip balm I have tried I would not say that the overall effect of the product beats my Malin + Goetz lip moisturiser. I’ve used both as an over night treatment and would say that feel in a similar condition in the morning.
Ingredients:
This is a lovely balm but my Malin + Goetz costs £9 so the Sisley will not be a re-buy for me (unless of course I need to qualify for a GWP again).