Pan Time!

Why do we get so excited about hitting pan? For me, it’s almost a proof that I was right, that it was a great product, and that I have stuck with something to the end. Weird, no? But we all feel it. Plus there’s that other element which is that it’s an excuse to go shopping, of course. I’ve been working away at a couple of products for the last couple of months that I’ve finished up (or are close to) in the last couple of months.

1.       Elf Studio Brow Kit – I’ve hit pan on the wax side, but the powder looks like it is going to be good for YEARS to come. This product can go on a little blotchy and uneven, but once you even it out with a wispy brow brush (I use an only mascara wand), then it’s actually really nice. I’ll keep using the brow powder but with some clear brow gel I have lying around.

2.       MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation – I got this in June of 2009, and I must have had a tan at the time, because it always felt a shade too dark. It also feels incredibly heavy. I got a nice finish out of it when I used it with a large, kabuki style brush spritzed with a lot of MAC Fix +, but even then I felt I was getting too much coverage. I then started mixing it with Kiehls Ultra Facial Moisturizer, which ended up being an amazing tinted moisturizer – a hint of color, a little bit of hydration while still feeling light. It did take me a whole year to finish the tube though, which drove me crazy. I have a bottle of Bobbi Brown Moisture Rich foundation which I also don’t love, so I’ll start mixing that with my Kiehls until I really need to get something with more coverage, in which case I’ll probably try NARS Sheer Glow or Bobbi Brown Skin. I don’t have perfect skin, but I don’t like my foundation to be too heavy. It just doesn’t wear well on me.

3.       MAC Paint in Bare Canvas. MAC Paints come in a tube form, and act similar to Paint Pots in that they are pigmented creams. This product was recommended to me by a MAC MUA as an eye shadow primer. I am so surprised that they are not more popular, because it works so well. Eyeshadows don’t budge at all when I use this, but colors remain blendable when they are applied. I have a hard time blending colors sometimes when I’m using Urban Decay Primer Potion. When I first got this, about a year ago, I wasted a lot of product because the tube form is not so easy to control, but once I’d used it a couple of times I got it figured out (be very gentle!), and fell in love. However, I’m not going to be replacing it any time soon, mostly because I have about 85 mini UDPPs lying around from the various Box of Shadows, so I want to use those up first. I also have an ELF Shadow Primer which is surprisingly effective, especially given the $1 price tag. Based on the number of primers I have in my dupes drawer, I won’t be buying any replacements for at least a year.

4.       NARS Orgasm Cream Blush – This is part of a duo with Laguna cream bronzer. I find the bronzer quite dark on me, but the blush is amazing, and completely lives up to its reputation. I’ve had this for about 18mths before I got to this stage, and for a good 9mths of that, it was literally the only blush I owned! Shocking, I know. Now I have about 6 or 7, including at least one other NARS one. Anyway, I still use this at least once a week, if not more, because it’s just a classic, flattering, easy color to wear. Although I’ve hit pan on this, I am sure I’ve got a good while to go yet before I’m actually all out. Then I’ll have to decide whether I want it in cream or powder form. Decisions!

At this point I feel like I should also confess that I’ve never, ever finished a lipgloss or lipstick. I’ve lost plenty over the years, but finished? None. And although I’ve been wearing a couple of shades again and again this summer (Hello Ever Hip by MAC, Perennially High Style again by MAC, and Tarte Raspberry Lip Stain), I’m months, if not years, away from finishing anything.

Have you finished up anything recently? Any products you think you might?

My Favorite Summer Highlighters and One That's Totally Lame-o

Summer is all about the highlighting. It’s time to take advantage of that gorgeous sun and make our skin literally glow! Highlighters are up there in my favorite products ever, so I wanted to share some of my collection with you guys and hear about which highlighters you really love. Highlighters can be used in a variety of ways. Traditionally, I wear them on my cheekbones, temples, down my nose and above my top lip on my cupid’s bow to give my skin a shimmery glow.

MAC Strobe Cream is one of my most versatile highlighting products. For a start – you get so much of it! I could literally be using this for years and not run out. It has quite a runny consistency, so a little goes a long way.  I break highlighters down into warm and cool for the most part, and this is definitely a cooler toned highlighter, throwing off a cool, pink-toned shimmer when the light hits it. It feels lovely and light to wear, and blends very quickly and easily. I have added MAC Strobe Cream to tinted highlighters, moisturizers, used it on my shoulders and my legs, basically everything, and it works like a dream. The running consistency does take a little getting used to, but I consider this to be one of those must-have MAC products.

NARS Albatross is frequently recognized as one of the best all time highlighters. I have to admit, I totally agree. It’s a simple, sheer powder with gold-toned iridescent shimmer. The gold shimmer works particularly well with my skin tone, and I love how flattering it is. I find powder highlighters slightly less flexible to work with than cream ones, but this product more than makes up for that with its beautiful, not too sparkly shimmer than instantly wakes up your face. I find that this looks particularly amazing at night, when you might be going for a stronger, more done look. It really does scream glamour!

Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips in Miami Strip are a recent discovery, and I’ll admit that the first time I wore them, I was a little overwhelmed. As you can see, it's one of the more shimmery ones I have swatched here. However, I’ve learnt that with a light touch, they can be an amazing, hard-working, multi-tasking super product, ready to give a natural, my face but better glow all over. They come in lots of different shades, so I’m sure there’s the perfect color out there for you, and at a price that’s hard to beat.

NARS Orgasm Illuminator came out last winter to much fanfare as an update to the ever popular Orgasm line. As a huge fan of the original blush in cream format, I was very eager to try it out. I’m not going to lie, at first I was disappointed and confused. The consistency is incredibly thin and sheer, so it can feel quite difficult to control. The color is gorgeous rose blushing pink with gold shimmer in the tube, but again, is so sheer on your skin. However, it’s gorgeous as a subtle glow from within look, and I love, love wearing it during the day as part of a natural, sheer look. 

All four highlighters compared

L-R MAC Strobe, NARS Albatross, Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips, NARS Orgasm Illuminator

I also feel obliged to post about one product which really didn’t hit the mark for me: Elf’s All Over Highlighter stick. This stick is modeled and marketed as a cheaper alternative to NARS’s Multiple, especially the incredibly popular Copacabana shade. There are Elf products that I love. This is not one of them. Even if you had had zero experience of NARS Multiples (I have, but not Copacabana), you would find this product horrible to work with. It is a sheer white cream based stick with shimmer through it. I have 2 HUGE problems with this highlighter. The first is the feel of the product – it is sticky!! It’s like putting lipgloss on your face! But less liquidy than lipgloss. Maybe more like glue? So that is very unpleasant. Secondly, the color is simply not sheer enough, and gives you a white cast wherever you use it. Again, maybe as if you’ve applied glue to your face? Either way, even though it is a dollar, it is most definitely a wasted dollar. 

So there you have it – a couple of awesome highlighting products, and one definite dud. What products did I miss, or do I need to try?

Sugary Sweet Pink FOTD

I wanted to see whether it's possible to do a pink-themed FOTD and not end up looking weird or ill. I think I more or less pulled it off, but mascara really saves the day here. I had a lot of fun experimenting with these colors.

Eyes:
Base: UDPP in Sin
Inner / Highlight: MAC Sweet Lust
Middle: UD Sphynx
Outer: MAC Da Bling
Crease: MAC Da Bling and Stars and Rockets
Mascara: Maybelline Full N Soft
Brows: Elf Brow Kit in Medium

Base: Tinted Moisturizer Mix

Cheeks: NARS Orgasm (Cream)

Lips:
MAC Hue
MAC Lusterglass Pinkarat

My Lips But Better?

One of the lipsticks that gets raved about a lot in the blogosphere is NARS Dolce Vita, and so my lovely husband got me a tube of it for Christmas. It looked gorgeous in the tube, and I was excited to put it on. But when I did, well, I didn't really notice any difference. It seems like my lips are exactly the same color. What's weird is that I haven't even bothered to try and return this color, and continue to put it on anyway, knowing it makes no difference apart from adding a very slight gloss, which is the same as using balm. I'm a strange girl...

Anyway, can you tell the difference in the two pictures? And do you have a lipstick that is exactly the same color as your lips?

bare lips

nars dolce vita lips

lipstick in question

Velvet Matte Makes My Day

One of my all-time favorite discoveries of 2009 was Mad Men. Oh! The dresses! The style! The old-fashioned manners and repression! Don Draper! The cinematography! And the patience as things actually develop. I only have seen season 3, so I know I have some serious catching up to do, but in the meantime, that doesn't mean I can't get inspired. A couple of months ago TalkingMakeup.com had a post up about the makeup used on Mad Men, and a lot of it was NARS. One of the key products was the Velvet Matte Lip Pencil ($24) in Calliope and Belle De Jour. Well, it took about 35 seconds between me reading that and ordering up a couple of pencils for myself. And so a beautiful love affair was born.

 

The Velvet Matte Lip Pencils are like jumbo, crayon-esque lip pencils. They go on lovely and smoothly, which is one of my favorite things about them. They are slightly drying, I'm not going to lie, but in a similar way to most matte lip products, and definitely not more so. They have a slight sweet scent and flavor that I personally like. Lip products have a habit of sliding right off me, but these last at least 3-4 hours. 

Belle De Jour is the most perfect nude lip I have ever found. It has just enough pink to keep you from looking dead, but neutralises any color and goes amazing with a smoky eye.

 

Calliope, as you can see, gets the most wear from me. This is quite often my wear to work lips. It's a gorgeous pinky-nude, and incredibly chic and sophisticated. So versatile. I can see me wearing this out and more. 

 

Okay, so Dragon Girl was not a Mad Men recommendation, but it's amazing!! It's a slightly pink red, very bright, and gives an awesome matte red lip. If you apply it lightly and blend it out, you can get a more subtly berry tint. Gorgeousness in a pencil. 

Dragon Girl, Calliope, Belle De Jour

 

I did see these NYX Jumbo Lip Pencils so I thought I'd give them a try. The biggest difference is that they are not matte, which for me is the whole point. They also have quite different pictures than in real life, so I've had some interesting experiences buying these! They are only $3.50, so it's not so bad if it all goes wrong!

 

What are your favorite matte lip colors? Any products you recommend I try?

This post contains an affiliate link. Affiliate links do not influence the opinion of reviews.

Nars Illuminates The Way

 

The NARS Orgasm line has become the brand’s biggest success stories, and every year it seems another Orgasm product is developed. The latest addition to the line is the Illuminator, a tube of pink tinged shimmery highlighter in the signature shade.

My first impression of this product is that there is a lot. The tube is 1.1oz ($29), which is comparable to a tube of foundation. It is a gorgeous shimmery pink with a touch of gold to it. This shade is known to be almost universally flattering. I do already have Orgasm in cream blush as part of a blush/bronzer duo, and it is one of only two products that I’ve ever hit pan on (All That Glitters MAC Eyeshadow is the other).

The picture is of two identically sized dots, one sitting on my hand, and one blended out. Once the color was blended out, it was incredibly hard to photograph – that’s how sheer this product is. It is an illuminator – it is not meant to be a blush or even a stain, but more like giving your skin that glow from within look. The liquid is incredibly light, and a little does go a long way, so it can take some getting used to in that respect. The pea sized dot shown on the back of my hand would be enough to sweep from my cheekbones up to my temples.

It can be used over or under foundation, depending on how much shimmer you like.  I think I prefer it under, as it is a little more subtle, and too much moves from “dewy” to “shiny”, and that’s not my favorite look at all. You will definitely need blush as well. It very much reminds me of MAC Strobe Cream, although the pink-tones make it so much more flattering. I do like Strobe, but it can come off as quite cool in some lights. Like MAC Strobe, it is also great for mixing with other products to create custom blend, and I can definitely see myself mixing up a tinted moisteriser with a drop or two of this in it in the summer as a light base that catches the sun. Finally, because of the lovely warm tone and the lightness, it is also great over shoulders and collarbones.

There are some people who may be put off the sheerness and thin consistency of this product. If that is the case, I would highly recommend checking out The Multiple in Orgasm instead. However, if you are looking for a subtle, warmed tinged golden highlighter that will add a healthy glow and gleam to skin, then this is definitely worth taking a look at.

Get the Base Right and the Rest Will Follow: Skin Primer Round Up

Can I look like this please?

I've mentioned before, and I'm going to say it again: I swear that what women want more than anything else in the world is their skin to look amazing. Young, fresh, smooth, radiant. We have tools to do that: cleansers, masks, and moisturizers before the makeup, and foundation, concealer and powder to improve on what Mother Nature gave us. One step that often gets skipped is primer. Primer goes on before foundation, and really provides a layer between your skin and the makeup. Why do you want that? Well, good primers make your foundation last longer, and more importantly to me, make you look better. I want a primer that smoothes the surface of your skin, evens out skin tone, and reduces the look of pores. Basically, I want magic.

Declaration: to help you guys understand my skin challenges, I have normal cheeks, a slightly oily nose, dry patches on my forehead every so often, rosy cheeks, and larger than I'd like pores. Yeah, I know, I really want magic to deal with all that!

My first stop was my own makeup cupboard. Everytime Sephora offers a sample or a 100 point perk, I ALWAYS pick the primer option. So I've amassed quite a few to try out during this little experiment. I don't know if these count as true samples in the FTC world when they are just consumer samples, but I guess I should state that not everything in this review was paid for. In the cupboard I found:

• NARS Skin Primer SPF 15
  
• Make Up For Ever HD Primer
• MAC Prep & Prime Skin
• Smashbox Photofinish SPF 15
• Smashbox Photofinish Original

I am trying all of these with the same foundation in the interests of being fair. I'm currently using Bobbi Brown Moisture Rich. I think that I've already said that I'm ambivalent about this product at the moment, but it's the best I've got right now.

Almost every primer "blurb" that I've read have all said that primers can be worn alone or under foundation, so I checked each of these for their immediate improvement as well as how they worked with foundation.

First up is the NARS Skin Primer SPF 15 ($33 / 1.7oz). When I put this on, it did nothing. I noticed no immediate improvement at all. When I put foundation on, still nothing really. Luckily I did not buy this product because I really could not see a single damn thing happening here at all. NARS = FAIL.

My next contender in the primer face off was Make Up For Ever HD Primer ($32 / 1oz). When I put this on, I did feel that my skin looked a little more even in tone, although not really smoother or any impact on my pores. It did make my foundation last longer though. Not bad, but nothing to really write home about.

Third up was MAC Prep & Prime Skin ($25/ 1oz). I bought this about a year ago and use it off and on. I thought it performed in exactly the same way that MUFE did - a little smoother, makes my make up last a little longer, but little in the way of va-va-vooming my skin.









Smashbox Photofinish SPF 15 ($42 / 1oz) was a product that I was excited about. I had tried this in store on the back of my hand and loved the instant smooth-glidey feeling that I felt when I put it on. And yes, this did make a difference. My skin was smoother, my pores were less noticeable when bare. This was even more apparent when I added foundation. Oh, and it has SPF 15 which is a score in my book, and something called Dermaxyl which apparently has anti-aging properties to stop me getting more wrinkles that I will have to disguise. Actual progress here people!

I next used Smashbox Photofinish Original ($36 / 1oz). Now we're talking. For some reason, unbeknowst to me, this felt slightly better and worked slightly better than the SPF 15 one. It went on super smooth, once I had foundation on it had a very nice finish as well. Foundation lasted a full day as well, and my skin felt nice and clean rather than cakey. I like having SPF in my face products though, as every little bit helps in terms of protection, so I'm not sure that the mild difference between these two products would warrant not getting SPF 15.

So, from all of my testers, Smashbox was an absolute clear winner, and I'll be using up my testers before scoring a full size one in the coming week or two.

Do you have a favorite primer? Think I should test a different one out before going for the big spend later in the week? Drop me a line in the comments! :)

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My Ohmigod I Have Too Much Stuff This is Embarassing Post

You know, this blog isn't just about rampant consumerism. I mean, everyone knows that in these hard times, making do with what you have is where it's at. And let's face it, a lot of us have too much and no idea what to do with it, and I am definitely included in that. Looking through my closet and in my makeup drawers, I can spot more than a few things that deserve more love that I have given them in the past. But maybe, just maybe, this blog can help me reconnect with hidden treasures and introduce some new favorites into my current rotation. And you know I can always use a little help in this, so here's a quick view of some of the purchased and never used stuff I have in my makeup drawer:

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Black Bean

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Gold

NYX Glitter Liner in Silver

NYX Glitter Liner in Blue
NYX Glitter Liner in Candy

MAC E/S in Swimming

MAC E/S in Mythology

MAC E/S in Expensive Pink

MAC E/S in Off the Page

MAC E/S in Crest the Wave

MAC L/S in Creme De Nude

MAC L/S in Myth

MAC Pigment in Cocomotion

MAC Pigment in Brash and Bold

MAC Pigment in Mutiny

MAC E/S in Samoa

MAC E/S in Shale

NYX Jumbo Glitter Pencil in Gold

NYX Jumbo Glitter Pencil in Blue

MAC E/S in Sweet Lust

MAC E/S in Copperplate

MAC E/S in Passionate

U/D Book of Shadows Vol II

MAC E/S in Twinks

MAC E/S in Freshwater

MAC E/S in Strike a Pose

MAC Eye Palette in Sorceress

MAC Eye Palette in Mystic Cool

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Lust

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Ransom

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Electric

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Binge

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Rockstar

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Stash

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Covet

U/D 24/7 Pencil in Graffiti

MAC Paint Pot in Artifact

Stila Smudge Pot in Kitten

Stila Smudge Pot in Violet

Stila Smudget Pot in Starry Night

NYX Glitter in Silver

NYX Glitter in Gold

NYX Glitter in Apple

NYX Glitter in Hot Pink

NYX Pigment in Nude Pearl

NYX Pigment in Pearl

NYX Glitter in Blue

Rimmel L/S Coral in Gold

MAC L/S Impassioned

NARS Matte Lip Velvet Pencil in Belle De Jour

MAC Dazzleglass Creme in Creme Allure

MAC Dazzleglass Creme in Totally Fab

MAC Dazzleglass Creme in Perfectly Unordinary

Stila Lip Glaze in Apricot

Stila Lip Glaze in Starfruit

Stila Lip Glaze in Apricot

MAC Lipglass in Elle

MAC Lustreglass in Wonderstruck

MAC Lipglass in Beaute

MAC Lipglass in Totally It

MAC Lustreglass in Morning Glory

MAC Lustreglass in Pinkerat

MAC Lipglass in Silly Girl

MAC Lustreglass in Ensign

MAC Lipglass in Cruise Control

MAC E/S in Cranberry

Okay, that is officially the most embarassing list of stuff I've ever seen. I'm mortified. I cannot believe I'm going to post this. I would like to clarify that the majority of the lipglosses from MAC are from the holiday sets which are smaller in size. So are the Stila Lip Glazes and Smudge Pots. 

So, I'm going to try and make sure that I include at least a couple of these items in a look or someway in the coming months, and post about it here. I'm sure I can do the same for my wardrobe too. 


Does anyone else have this problem too? Please admit embarassing stash problems here!