Playing Around with Smudge Paint

My Saturday shopping trip yielded a few great purchases - one of which I am having lots of fun playing around with! That product is produced by Annabelle Cosmetics, a Canadian makeup company. The product is called a Smudge Paint, and I bought the shade Plummed - a pretty dark metallic purple (I bought a lot of purple/mauve makeup yesterday, lol). Annabelle Smudge Paint is a gel eye shadow/liner; a dual purpose product.

I've only done one thing with it so far. I created a super-duper purple 'night out' makeup look (in combination with two Annabelle Smudge Liner pencils, a MAC eye shadow, and some Cover Girl mascara) which I'll give you a peep of here:



I'm having fun playing with this, so I wanted to share it with you! I'll be posting a full review when I've had more time to do different things with it.

Palette Love

Lately I have been abandoning my eye shadow singles and duos in favor of using the palettes I have. I tend to neglect them because of their size (so big for a normal makeup bag!), but lately have favored using them because of the fact they're so much easier to pull out rather than 4 or 5 eye shadow singles.



You may remember that months and months ago (February or March, I believe) I put in order in with Sears for the CARGO PlantLove Green Glamour 100% Natural Origin Eye Shadow Palette. Yesterday (yes...a mere 5 to 6 months later) it finally arrived!



Here is what it looks like:





This palette contains all 18 of the CARGO PlantLove eye shadows. I am really liking the colors - so gorgeous! I was lusting after the Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Palette until this Green Glamor palette came.



Here's a close up of all three rows of shadows (including the shade names):



Row One





Row Two





Row Three





And I also have a 'preliminary' swatch set for you. I promise, there will be a much better set of swatches when I review the palette in the future:





Today I used one of the shades in the palette - the lovely taupe color in the top row, called Finch. I LOVE it! It lasted all day without creasing (on top of MAC Painterly Paint Pot). I'm looking forward to getting to try out more of the shadows in this palette.



The other thing that is neat about this palette is if you pick one of the colors in the palette and go either down two spaces (so there are three shadows in a line), across two spaces, diagonal two spaces, you end up with three shades that coordinate very well.



Here's a shot of all three lines of shadows.





Let's pick a color. We'll go with Beech, in the bottom row. Now go up and diagonally to the right two spaces - so now your row of three is Beech, Ivy and Finch. Gorgeous combination! How about Blue Jay, and we'll go up diagonally to the left two spaces - so now the row of three is Blue Jay, Peacock and Pelican - again, an amazingly beautiful combo! My favorite? Go to Marigold, and left two spaces - so we've got Marigold, Bamboo and Peacock. So pretty!



I am so happy with this palette. I sincerely hope I continue to be happy with it the more I use it.



Have any of you tried this palette? Let me know!

Urban Decay on TSC?

Good Morning!



I wanted to share something I stumbled on yesterday with you all.



I was channel surfing on Monday night and found out that Urban Decay is now selling on The Shopping Channel. The products are pretty limited, but there's some good stuff available.



Check it out!



http://www.theshoppingchannel.com/Urban-Decay/pages/productresults?nav=N:2040971



Happy Tuesday!

Blither Blither Blither #3

I woke up this morning compelled to write a random post, because I'm in a Review coma (but I promise I will be cranking out some more over the course of the weekend) and haven't published anything new for you guys since Monday.

I wanted to share a fun little tidbit for all of my Canadian readers who adore NARS. Guess what? We can now order directly from NARS! I went to the NARS website out of sheer boredom earlier in the week, hoping to read some reviews of the new Fall 2011 collection, and got redirected to their Canadian site. I was impressed. I was even more impressed when I found out that I can now order my precious NARS stuff directly from them instead of Sephora! The only catch is that we still have to pay exchange (same as Sephora), and duty. For more information about how NARS handles Canadian orders, check out the NARS Canada website by clicking here.

In other news, I finally worked up the nerve to buy my first Coach handbag. Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know that in November of last year, I was all pepped up to buy a Coach handbag when I was in Ottawa on a shopping excursion. That purchase fell through, because the location I wanted to buy from didn't carry any of the limited edition bags (which was what I wanted!). I've been lemming Coach for quite awhile, and my eye finally landed on a bag that I really like - so I bought it! I picked up the Coach Poppy Metallic Signature Poppy Cinch in the shade Silver/Ash. Normally I find the Poppy bags pretty juvenile looking and unattractive - but this bag drew me in. I really like cinch bags - they're functional and fun. I also found the price point of this bag to be pretty reasonable, compared to other Coach cinch models in their current collection. My bag arrived yesterday, and I am very happy with it! The customer service I received from Coach was phenomenal - my order was processed and shipped very quickly, getting from Florida to Montreal in (get this) 1.5 days! However, the third-party delivery company who was in charge of final delivery took their sweet time getting my purchase to me...I should have had my purse on Wednesday evening and it showed up on Friday. Oh well. It's not the worst delivery experience I've had!

Here is what my bag looks like:

Crappy yellow lighting makes this look more beige - it's not! For a truer reflection of the bag's color, look at the picture below!

The bag has fuchsia pink lining - and as you can see, I've already loaded it with all my stuff! If you want to see an updated 'what's in my bag' post, let me know!

Anyhoo, that's my big update for the week. Right now I'm getting ready to paint my nails with OPI's Stranger Tides from the Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides collection, and then I'll be writing up some more reviews - some of which will go up later today and tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

VIDEO: A Quick Hello and About Me

Happy Friday!

I am took a day off work today and decided it would be a great opportunity for me to try uploading the video I filmed last weekend (after 3 other failed attempts!).

The video is only 8 minutes long, but took 4 hours to upload.

You can watch it here:



Let me know what you guys think!

I filmed it on my MacBook camera, so if you feel the quality is shoddy that's why. I will also have a be filming in a different location for my next video - hopefully there will be a bit less noise.

I will be back with a post about my MAC Semi Precious haul tonight!

Enjoy!

Urban Decay Afterglow Cheek Tint

Happy Sunday, everyone!

I'm having mixed feelings about something I got recently from Sephora. The good thing is that it was technically free - one of the 100 point perks I got a choice in redeeming as part of their V.I.B program. I got a deluxe sample of Urban Decay Afterglow Glide-on Cheek Tint in the shade Quickie.

I had been going back and forth about buying this product, so I was glad to get a chance to test it out before deciding to purchase.

Now that I've had an opportunity to play with it, I'm not sure I would buy it.

Here is what the color looks like:



It's very creamy and does actually 'glide on'. To apply it, I just swiped my finger on the color and then dotted it on the apples of my cheek, blending it out with my fingers. Here's a swatch in natural light:



This blush is very neon. It's actually more neon than Desire, by NARS (which I already own). Both products are the same kind of neon pink color - Urban Decay just amped up the neon a bit more in theirs. Here's a side-by-side shot of the blushes:



My first thought when applying this blush was 'wow, this looks fake!'. I just saw that neon pink Barbie-esque shade sitting on my skin, and it did not look natural. Desire by NARS does a better job of blending and looking natural.

I'm going to give this blush a few more tries before I make my final like it or loathe it decision; I'll post a full review then, too.

Have any of you tried this blush? What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear your experiences with the product!

Urban Decay Feminine Palette

Urban Decay released three Limited Edition palettes this spring. The idea behind the palettes is that they represent personalities: Fun, Dangerous and Feminine.

Like all of the palettes Urban Decay releases, you get a miniature of an Urban Decay Primer Potion, and a 24/7 Eye Liner Pencil.

Here’s some tidbits about each palette:

Fun Palette - Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original, 24/7 Eye Liner Pencil in Oil Slick, Eye Shadows in Woodstock, Baked, Uzi, Sin, Flipside and Psychedelic Sister.
Dangerous Palette - Urban Decay Primer Potion in Greed, 24/7 Eye Liner Pencil in Rockstar, Eye Shadows in Haight, Mildew, Virgin, Oil Slick, Rockstar and Gunmetal.
Feminine Palette - Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden, 24/7 Eye Liner Pencil in Zero, Eye Shadows in Stray Dog, SWF, Midnight Cowboy, Aquarius, Darkhorse, and Ecstasy.

My favorite of the bunch is the Feminine Palette.

I did a lot of reading about the Feminine Palette and watched a few YouTube videos about it prior to deciding to buy it.

The shades in this palette really are very feminine - they’re soft but colorful. They’re also very neutral - and a lot of the shades are ‘cool’, meaning they’ve got blue bases.

All of the eye shadows in the Feminine Palette are shimmery; there are no matte shades. There are two glitter based shadows and one is more glittery than the other. SWF (acronym for Single White Female) is the shimmery baby pink and it’s got micro glitter in it. Midnight Cowboy (a shadow shade Urban Decay is famous for) is a shimmery off-white with loads of chunky glitter. Both of these shades are workable if you know how to apply them; tapping your brush will get all of the glitter to fall off your before you apply the shadow to your lids (unless the brush is wet). Some people don’t like any glitter in their eye shadow - but then I don’t know why you would buy some of Urban Decay’s eyeshadows; The company is very good about stating which of their shadows have glitter on them. In my opinion, if you know what you’re getting you shouldn’t be complaining.

My favorite Urban Decay eye shadow is Stray Dog, so I love that this palette contains it.

Aquarius is a gorgeous shimmery light aqua - so pretty!

The big surprise to me in this palette was the shade Ecstasy - a bright, crisp purple. In the palette the color appears like it’s going to be super intense and crazy powerful, but it’s actually very sheer. It is a super wearable bright color! I am going to use it a ton!

Last is Darkhorse, a shade that you can’t get in a single - it’s been featured in Urban Decay’s Naked Palette too.

The packaging of this particular product is a little ‘blah’ to me - it’s what has become their standard six-pan cardboard palette, with a slot between the two rows of shadow to hold the eye liner. This palette is a periwinkle purple and it’s got the brand name and product name on the front - the brand name is felted (velvety to the touch) and the palette name is in shiny purple with peacock feather detailing. On the back, there are felted peacock feathers with shiny purple detailing. The inside of the palette has a peacock feather print on the lid and rose patter print on the actual eye shadow palette.

Here is what the palette looks like outside and in:





Here’s a closer look at the eyeshadow shades, and a set of swatches (in the same order they appear in the palette: Stray Dog, SWF, Midnight Cowboy, Aquarius, Darkhorse, Ecstasy):





I am super happy with this purchase - it’s a very pretty addition to my collection!

Did any of you purchase one (or all?) of these Limited Edition Palettes? What do you think of them?

Blither Blither Blither #1

A picture of my critter, Darcy. She's fully grown, but still looks like this!

Hello My Lovely Readers,

I hope you are all having a good week so far.

I wanted to do a quick 'Ramble'-type post for you this morning just to give you a heads up about what's been going on with my blog lately and what's to come.

I am sure if you're following my blog, you have noticed that I have been cranking out reviews for CARGO and NARS products this week. There's a simple reason: I have a lot of them. Both companies are two of my favorite cosmetics companies, so I ultimately want to share why I love them with you. With that being said, I am going to taper off with their reviews starting at the close of this week. You will still see those reviews (I haven't even hit the half-way mark on my NARS eye shadow collection being shared with you all yet), but they just won't go up as frequently as they have been up this week.

Starting on Friday and Saturday, you're going to start seeing some of my other types of posts coming back again: Top 5, Tags, Combinations, Hauls (at least one!) and reviews on other brands - maybe even a tutorial or two (I do have to finish that NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil tutorial for you all!).

Another think you're going to start hearing more about is my First Annual Blog Birthday Giveaway. My blog anniversary is on July 30th, and starting on July 1st I am going to be holding a giveaway of some of my favorite products to celebrate that. The package will include products from the likes of NARS and Essie, and a few others. I am confident it's a prize package you are all going to want to win.

So, I hope that helps explain what has been going on lately!

Talk to you all soon,
Candice :)

Pretty & Fun - The Vegan Palette

I only own two palettes from Urban Decay; I recently bought the much coveted Naked Palette, but I've had the Vegan Palette for awhile now.

The concept of the Vegan Palette is that, like Urban Decay's range of products, the shadows inside it are cruelty free, and are 100% vegan.

I was drawn to the palette because of the packaging, really. Its a small cardboard palette covered in hippy-esque color sketches of cute critters. Here's what it looks like:



Then, there's the inside of the palette - which contains 6 eye shadows and one miniature 24/7 eye liner in Zero. There are three colourful shadows in the palette, and three neutrals - so there's a nice balance of every day shades and fun shades.

The top row of the palette contains Minx, Urb, and Gunmetal; the bottom row has Twice Baked, Smog, and Half Baked.



Here are swatches of each shade, in the order they appear in the palette:



Believe it or not, this palette was actually released at the same time the Naked palette was released; only, for whatever reason, the Vegan palette did not become as popular and sell as successfully as the Naked palette.

I have both palettes in my every day makeup kit.

If you want to buy a Vegan palette or learn more about it, got to the Sephora or Urban Decay website (note, if you are Canadian you cannot order directly from UD).

I hope you are all having a great week!

What's in my Travel Makeup Bag?

I was trying to think of a new post that nobody really does, and this is the first thing that came to my mind. A lot of people post what they carry in their regular kit, professional kit, and purse - but nobody really does their travel kit. So, that's what todays post is about!

The kit (brush roll + bag):

My brush roll is miniature; my mom got it for me for Christmas from Sephora; it's by Bare Escentuals and comes with four mini brushes (powder, blush, eye shadow, liner):

I love that the brush roll is lined with pink fabric and that the tips of the brushes are pink - the bright color makes me happy!

My travel makeup bag is actually a Clinique 'gift with purchase' bag that I got the other day, which contained minis and sample products. I took most of those out (left in a mascara) and replaced it with the contents of my rather run-down and old makeup bag.

Here is what is in my travel makeup bag:


- NARS Blush/Bronzer Duo in Sin & Casino - Full Size
- NARS Essential Eye Palette 9952 (Unconditional Love, Night Star, Galapagos, Nepal, Ondine, Thunderball) - Full Size
- NARS Bronzer in Laguna - Mini (.08 oz/2.5 g, same size as their single eye shadows)
- NARS Makeup Primer with SPF 20 - Full Size
- NARS Multiple in Orgasm - Mini (.14 oz/4g)
- NARS Illuminator in Orgasm - Mini (.29 oz/8 mL)
- The Body Shop Blush Dot in #4 - Full Size
- Clinique High Impact Mascara in 01 Black - Mini (.14 oz/4g)
- Smashbox Photo Finish Lid Primer - Mini (.02 fl. oz/.5 mL)
- Cover Girl NatureLuxe Foundation with SPF 10 in 305 Alabaster - Full Size
- Clinique Super Balm Moisturizing Lip Gloss in 01 Apricot - Mini (.24 fl. oz/.7 mL)
- Bare Escentuals Buxom Lips in Zena - Mini (12 mL)
- An Eyebrow Razor - Full Size
- Maybelline New York Gloss in Shade 130 (.8 fl. oz./2.4 mL) - Full Size
- DKNY Be Delicious Eau de Toilette (.05 fl. oz/1.5 mL) - Sample
- Marc Jacobs Lola Eau de Toilette (.05 fl. oz/1.5 mL) - Sample
- Tocca Colette Eau de Toilette (.05 fl. oz/1.5 mL) - Sample
- Lip Smacker Natural Lip Balm in Vanilla - Full Size
- Pantene Pro-V Mirror Compact (free with a bottle of shampoo!)

Here is a better look at what the Sin/Casino Duo looks like, as well as the 9925 Palette.

Sin is one of my favorite blushes, and Casino is an amazing dark bronzer, perfect for the summer or as an eye shadow!

This picture makes it look like I haven't used any of the shades, but I swear I have!

These products are both full size, but I don't mind carrying them because they both contain more than one product, which gives me lots of options while taking up less space than brining the individual items contained in the palettes.

Almost everything I carry in my travel makeup bag and in my toiletry bag (not pictured) is a miniature version of a full size product, or is a sample size. I try not to pack too many full-size items with me when I travel. The great thing is that a lot of cosmetic companies are recognizing this and they're starting to produce miniatures/travel sizes of their most popular products.

What does your travel makeup bag look like - or do you even have one? Do you just reduce the items in your normal kit to the bare necessities and take that with you?

I hope you are all having a good week - thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!

Monthly Faves: April

May first already! Wow! I swear that just a week ago, we still had snow on the ground where I live (no joke! we did!). It's time for my monthly favorites. Again, this month's offering of products is small.

Lets get started!



Rimmel London Sexy Curves Mascara - I really like this mascara. It does a great job of defining my lashes and doesn't flake off as the day progresses. Could this be my new favorite mascara? We'll have to wait and see! Purchased at Wal-Mart

Maybelline New York Fit Me! Foundation in Shade 135 Creamy Natural - I really thought that I would take the lightest shade in this foundation, shade 110 Ivory. I bought a bottle of it (and the matching pressed powder) and wore it a few times without noticing anything peculiar. Recently, I applied it again and discovered I was really making my skin much paler than it naturally is. So, I ventured out to my local drugstore and bought the correct shade for my skin - which turned out to be the one I am featuring here. This foundation has a built in SPF and doesn't oxidize on me. While my skin doesn't stay matte through the whole day like it does with my Clinique Even Better Makeup, I am not a complete oil slick either. I like that this foundation does not irritate my skin and that it blends very well - putting it on takes no work at all. Purchased at PharmaPlus

Maybelline New York Fit Me! Pressed Powder in Shade 135 Creamy Natural - I dust a bit of this on with a Kabuki brush to set my foundation. It helps to prevent creasing and does a decent job of controlling oil. My beef is the compact it comes in - not a fan of this packaging. Purchased at PharmaPlus

MAC Eye Shadow Quad: Copperplate, Smut, Haux and Jest - These are some of my favorite MAC shadows, which I have been using in their quad combination, or in conjunction with other shadows. I find these shades very versatile and tend to use at least one of them every day. Copperplate makes and awesome brow filler and crease color, Jest is the best highlighter color I have, Haux is my favorite lid color, and Smut is probably my favorite MAC shadow ever. Purchased at MAC.ca

NYC Blushable Créme Stick in 647U South St. Seashell - I am still neglecting my powder blush in favor of cream formulas. NYC makes a great affordable cream blush that I've been using more and more lately. They remind me a lot of NARS Multiples. This particular shade is a warm tawny coral - a wonderful neutral shade that adds a hint of sunshine to my cheeks. Purchased at PharmaPlus

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original - I am really loving Urban Decay's new packaging for UDPP. It makes it so much easier to control how much you want to use and it's also much more sanitary. I use the teeny tiniest amount of this every day - this tube is going to be around for awhile! While it still isn't as good as the NARS Smudge Proof Eye Shadow Base, it comes a close second - and it's a few dollars cheaper. Purchased from Sephora.ca

Physicians Formula Happy Booster Glow & Mood Boosting Powder in Translucent - This powder has been virtually ignored since I reviewed it. Lately though, it's been living in my makeup bag. I use this to add some shimmer to my face on days where I don't want to wear blush or bronzer - I also use it all over my lid before I apply shadow to add some shimmer. It's also great to use on my eyes when I just want my face to look fresh and I don't plan on wearing any other eye makeup aside from mascara. Purchased at PharmaPlus

I also have some 'randoms' I thought I would include. These are things that have also peaked my interest this month.

So I am a HUGE Gleek. I've been watching this a ton over the past month. My favorite character?



That's right, Santana Lopez. Her bitchy one-liners are awesome and I love her singing voice. I'm glad that the writers are giving her (and a lot of the other Glee club members) more story lines and songs this season. I also like Brittany and Artie, Mercedes, Kurt and Coach Beiste!

Another thing that I've been obsessed with is my Kobo e-Reader.



I just got it last week and I've been using it a ton. I am completely converted to e-reading now. It's like I was when I bought my first iPod - I've never bought a CD since! I doubt very much that I'll purchase a hardcopy book ever again...unless there are super special circumstances involved! My e-reader is 'pearlized lilac' - purple! and I have a nice black Roots leather case for it so that I can cart it around in my purse without damaging it.

I am itching to read everyone else's monthly favorites. It's great to see what everyone else is using month to month.

I hope you all have a lovely week! :)

What Do YOU Want to See?

Good Morning All!

I hope your week is going well so far.

I wanted to stop by with a quick ramble.

I am sure you have noticed lately that I have been posting a lot of reviews. I have SO MANY products stocked up that I bought recently and I want to share as much about them as I can with you.

But, I also wanted to ask you all what you want to see more of on my blog. I don't always want to be doing reviews for you - if you want to see something else, I want to show it to you! I love doing Hauls and Top 5, but is there anything else you want to see?

So, if you want to see more of something on my blog, leave me a comment and let me know! I am open to your suggestions.

Thanks!

P.S. Please enter my contest! Click the image on the right of the lady in purple for all the details!