I’m taking a(nother) long weekend this coming one to head to Ottawa for Race Weekend.Last year I did the 5k, and this year I’m going back for the half marathon which my father will also be running! And what’s a weekend away if not to bring along some makeup products I want to get better acquainted with?
I’m only bringing along two small eyeshadow palettes because I find I never reach for these on a day to day basis, often opting for my larger palettes. The more neutral toned palette is Soap & Glory‘s Lid Stuff in What’s Nude and the NARS duo is Mediteranee (and the orange in that duo is everything). It won’t make for especially enthralling makeup looks while on vacation, but it’ll be fun for me to play with these shadows a bit more.
Two options for lips here, and I’m sure this is probably overkill for four days, but anyway…Too FacedMelted Coral (more orange than coral really) and Boots No7Sweet Copper. They’re both on the orangey-side of things, but I’m okay with that.
I love that ombre blushes give me the option between two colours in one compact (and a third if you swirl them together), so I’m bringing along essence‘s Heat Wave. My bronzer of choice lately has been Hard Candy‘s Hula Hula. I just can’t get enough of how golden and bronzey this makes my face.
And all the bits and bobs that finish my looks off:
I’m giving my Milani eyeshadow primer time to fully prove itself to me.
MAC‘s Prep + Prime for lips because I can’t live without it.
Urban Decay‘s Black Velvet liner predominantly for tightlining (if it even comes to that).
BenefitWatts Up because it’s tiny, compact and packs a punch for highlighting my cheekbones.
NYX Micro brow pencil in Taupe
Make Up For EverSmoky Stretch mascara (the love affair continues!).
essence‘s 2-in-1 liner because I’ve got a review coming up and I want to make sure I put this to the test.
And in looking at this stuff… jeez is it ever boring. I think next time I go somewhere I need to bring stuff that’s wayyyy more interesting to post about! Anyyyyyway, wish me luck on my half! My fingers are crossed that it’ll be cool, even slightly rainy on Sunday!
There’s an insanely cool look (to me) in this set amongst the usual ones. Read on!
Standard neutral lid with bright lip combo.
Eyes
e.l.f.Coral Reef gold shade all over the lid.
e.l.f.Coral Reef purple shade on the outer corner and lightly through the crease.
MACShroom on the browbone.
Tarte‘s black gel liner to create the wing with Urban DecayPerversion mascara on my lashes.
Rest of the Face
Foundation: Boots No7 Stay Perfect in Deeply Ivory
Bronzer: e.l.f.Surf’s Up
Blush: essencePinky Flow
Lips: Too FacedMelted Candy
I had a bunch of freebie items from No7 (well, FREE if I spent enough money on the brand… which I had) that I wanted to try out and this was the look I got out of them.
Eyes
I first lined my upper lash line and outer corner of my lower lash line with Boots No7 Metallic Eyes Pencil in Purple, then I applied:
Boots No7 eye shadow in Violet Shine all over the lid and over the liner.
MACSketch on the outer corner and through the crease.
MACShroom on the brow bone.
Urban DecayPerversion mascara is on my lashes.
Rest of the Face
Foundation: Boots No7 Stay Perfect in Deeply Ivory
Bronzer: Hard CandyHula Hula
Blush: Can’t remember!
Highlighter: MACSoft & Gentle
Lips: Soap & GloryRaplumzel
Playing around with e.l.f.’s Little Mermaid collection.
Eyes
e.l.f.High Tide gold shade on the inner third of the eye.
e.l.f.High Tide blue shade on the middle of the lid.
InglotMatte 338 on the outer corner.
Too FacedChocolate Milk through the crease.
MACShroom on the brow bone.
To line the outer corner of the lower lash line, I used MACPhone Number pencil and then layered InglotMatte 338 on top lightly. Urban DecayPerversion mascara is on my lashes.
I love how this look came out from a visual perspective. It’s in no way flattering on its own (even though I’ve given you somewhat decent photos above) but it was a lot of fun to create. I was looking for orange cut creases online for Halloween and I found this as a source of inspiration/outright copying.
Taken at the right angle, this look is BEAUTIFUL in photographs. I love the sharp edges and the vivid colour. I wore this to work the day before Halloween (hey, any excuse right?) and it sure did net me some reactions alright! lol
Eyes
I first applied NYX‘s Jumbo Eye Shadow Pencil in Milk all over the lid and blended it out with my finger. I then applied:
Sleek‘s neon orange from the Acid palette all over the entire lid, right up and over my crease.I then used Kat Von D‘s Tattoo Liner in Trooper and carved out the top of the crease (keep your eye open for this), and;
used Urban Decay‘s Blackout to blend out the edge of the liner upwards.
Urban DecayFoxy is on my brow bone.
I used Kat Von D‘s Tattoo Liner to create the enormous wing and dragged it into a tiny point on the inner corner of my eye. I lined my lower lash line and water line with Urban Decay‘sBlack Velvet pencil. Estee Lauder Sumptuous Infinite Daring Length + Volume Mascara is on my lashes.
Rest of the Face
Bronzer: NYCFire Island Tan
Blush: Hard CandySkinny Dipping
Lips: Benefit Ultra Plush Lip Gloss in Coralista
Totally falling in love with this lip colour! Too Faced Melted Berry is absolutely beautiful and goes with a whole variety of looks (+obvious observation that it’s fall and it’s a dark lip shade, yadda yadda).
Eyes
MACVanilla pigment all over the lid.
MACShag through the crease.
MACExpensive Pink on the outer corner.
Wet n WildBrulee on the brow bone.
Estee Lauder Sumptuous Infinite Daring Length + Volume Mascara is on my lashes.
Rest of the Face
Foundation: CoverGirl CC Cream in 110 Classic Ivory
Settle in folks, this is another doozy of a haul. I spent almost two weeks in September travelling in Europe and this meant getting to dabble in makeup brands that I don’t have access to in Canada. I picked up a lot of different brands and products overseas, as well as a few new releases here in Canada/US.
The most exciting thing I picked up was the brand new Makeup Geek Vegas Lights palette. I hemmed and hawed over this sucker for a little while, but in the end splashed out for it. I love Marlena of Makeup Geek, and I *love* her eyeshadows.
The colours in this palette are right up my alley – specifically Sin City and Roulette. The bottom row really helps ground any look you can come up with this palette. I’m impressed thatMakeup Geek managed to put out a palette that actually has serviceable neutrals along with some beautifully coloured shadows. I think this palette is limited edition, in which case, consider picking this up before it’s completely gone!
When I put in the order for the Vegas Lights palette, I also put a few shadows in the order. I have this (completely useless) idea of collecting all the Makeup Geek shadows so had to plug in a few more for this order.
For this year’s Halloween costume, I’m going as Gamora from the Guardians of the Galaxy. Because of Gamora’s green skin, I’m going to need a heck of a lot of coverage so I hopped on over to the MAC Pro store and picked up a Chromacake in Landscape Green. I’ve never used a Chromacake before, or any kind of body paint before, but I’m hopeful that this will turn out well.
The lady at the MAC Pro store was kind enough to give me an insanely generous sample of Landscape Green pigment to match my Chromacake. In fact, she gave me so much pigment I was actually able to mix it with alcohol and press it into an eyeshadow pan. Very handy!
I’ve been loving the Autumn Peach blush by essence that I was previously sent, that I wanted to check out the other shades. Life’s a Cherry is a lovely pink veering on red shade. I think the lighting on the shot above really doesn’t make it across right, but so far I am loving this other essence blush as well.
The Disney Ariel collection was never released in Canada as far as I could see, so a friend in the US shipped a bunch of the products up to me. The eyeshadows aren’t bad, but that eyeliner is absolute crap.
The brush on this one is far too scratchy, but the bronzer is fairly nice. Pretty glittery, but still useable.
And lastly from the Ariel collection, a couple pairs of false lashes. They’re regular Ardell lashes but specially packaged up for this Little Mermaid collection.
My wonderful friend Sara whom I was vacationing with in Prague managed to snag me a few goodies in the US that she very kindly brought over for me. She managed to get an awesome deal on the TarteRainforest After Dark palette.
Having only ever tried Tarte’s blushes and bronzer, I was curious how their eyeshadows would perform. There are some lovely shades in here, but the palette on its own needs help. There’s no matte brow shade that works for me (the light pink is too dusty of a pink colour) and the pale lavender-grey is actually quite sheer and requires a lot of packing on. That being said, this sucker is super handy. The browns on the right side are wonderfully pigmented, the bronzer and the highlighter are wonderful and the blush is like all of Tarte’s blushes – easy to blend and looks great on my cheeks. This palette is wonderful for a full face – something quite rare in a palette of this size.
I had bought NYX‘s Butter Lipstick in Fizzies back in March but had managed to mangle it when I took it out to a club one night with me. The bullet broke in half and no matter what I did, I couldn’t put it back together. Since NYX‘s Butter Lipsticks still aren’t available in Canada, once again Sara managed to pull through and picked me up a tube in the US. Here’s hoping I don’t break this one as well.
She also snagged me two of the newer shades of the Too Faced Melted lipsticks. I haven’t actually tried any yet, but I’d been lusting over them for several months. As they’re cheaper in the US, I broke down and had her buy me two – Melted Berry and Melted Candy. Melted Candy is AMAZING. It’s almost fluorescent and shows up amazingly in pictures.
And finally, she also kindly gave me a few products that hadn’t worked out for her. NYX‘s Soft Matte Lip Cream is a product I’ve heard about constantly over the years, but had never picked one up. The colour above is Istanbul and I’m excited to try it out.
And lastly, Sara handed over two NYX Butter Lip Glosses that hadn’t worked for her. (Shock, horror!) I’ll always happily add more of these to my collection!
I had a layover at Heathrow on my way to Prague and made a mad dash for the Boots they had in one of the terminals. Thankfully, this particular Boots had Soap & Glory makeup products and I was able to pick up their Lid Stuff eyeshadow quad in What’s Nude.This is a handy quad to bring along with a super bright palette, quite similar to one of the Urban Decay Naked Basics.
Also from Soap & Glory is their Sexy Mother Pucker Gloss Stick in Raplumzel. This is completely unlike any other balm sticks I own. It’s way more buttery and soft, very reminiscent of a Revlon Lip Butter except that this smells like caramel or something. Delicious!
Boots’ own brand No7 was having a deal on where if you spent enough money, you’d get a free goodie bag. I was interested in picking up more foundation from No7 as I already use their Instant Radiance foundation quite often. I got re-colour matched with their fancy handheld device and they paired me up with Deeply Ivory, two shades darker than what I had been previously using. I really love just how well the colour match seems to work with this brand, I’ve never been disappointed! I have zero idea if the technology is the same, but I’ve found that the Boots one gives me accurate results whereas the one from Sephora is seriously dodgy.
The lady at the Boots counter was doing colour matching to “find your perfect shade of lipstick”. I’m sure this suckers some women in, but it was really just about colour matching your skin and then finding a few shades that seem to match it based on some card they had. I thought it was basically a bunch of garbage, but I picked out a colour I didn’t think I had (yeah right) and it turned out to be Sweet Copper. Beautiful shade and I really love the consistency.
And because I’d spent enough money on their No7 line, they gave me this set. It includes a mascara, an eye pencil, a brush and a shadow.
I spotted the Barry M display and snagged the last two Diamond Glitters left on the display. I had previously gone through an entire bottle of it and I knew I loved it. I was happy to re-stock this in my collection because I can’t get Barry M in Canada.
Because I had loved the Too Faced Melted lipsticks that Sara had brought me up from the US, that I ran out at bought Melted Nude in Prague. Bonus being that it was on sale (price above is the non-discounted price) and it was cheaper than I could even get it in Canada. Sold!
This one was a necessity. I had forgotten my eyelash curlers at home and had to pick up a pair while on vacation. I’ve been using Tweezerman ones for years and I guess I just assumed eyelash curlers are supposed to pinch your eyes? Wrong, so wrong. I was happy to discover that Sephora‘s eyelash curlers are wonderful! No pinching of my lids at all! Think I’ll be throwing out my Tweezerman ones immediately.
Now this was interesting! I picked this up at Rossman, one of the drugstores in the Czech Republic, because I had read that L’Oreal regular liquid version was similar to Bioderma‘s micellar liquid. This is the gel format and I’m curious to see how this works in comparison with my other makeup removers.
Picked up Dermacol‘s Soft Heel Balm solely because of the packaging. I have nasty heels and anything I can use to repair them is definitely right up my alley.
I wish I’d bought more Dermacol, but I didn’t actually realize that they were a Czech brand until very late into my trip. This was another item bought purely because the packaging screamed at me. Not opened yet because I have a bunch of other mascaras I need to finish up first.
Snagged these two up because I’ve never seen them in Canada! Bush ombres are just way too pretty to pass up and the one on the left looks like a dupe for MAC’s Ripe Peach, a blush I had never managed to get my hands on.
Hot pink, slightly sheer and called Feeling Feline! We had to go to three or four DM stores before we finally found one that hadn’t already been used. I also like how it’s not cut at the top like all the other chubby stick lip products.
Nikkie of NikkieTutorials claims this is better than Make Up For Ever’s liquid liner. Sold!
Yet another 3D silver glitter polish to add to my collection! I think this one is textured though.
I really don’t need more black liquid liner, but this one claims that it’s matte. I’ve yet to meet a liquid liner that’s actually matte, but hey, I’m willing to give it a shot!
My brother brought this over from France as I was getting low on the one I had back in Toronto. I had thought this was around 7 or 8 euros, but it turns out it’s a lot more expensive than that. I wonder if the price got jacked up recently?
That’s it for this post! There were a few things I picked up in Vienna that I don’t have on me now (forgot them in the car, my friend in Germany is going to mail them to me) so they’ll be in next month’s post.