Hands on the Naked 3

Being the makeup addict that I am, I purchased my Naked 3 palette online, but only received it on the day it launched in store at Sephora. I could have just picked it up then, but I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss the palette because of my hesitance.

I'm glad to say that Naked 3 has been a good investment. It is different from Naked 1, 2 and basic. I love the endless romantic looks this palette can achieve and more recently have chosen this over my Naked 1 or even over my Shiseido quad in Desert winds.

Favourite combo from this palette? Strange Limit Nooner Factory ;)

Naked 3 available on Urban Decay website!

Naked3 palette has launched on the Urban Decay website today, are you picking up one?

Unfortunately, they don't ship to Canada and to get our hands on one from the website requires jumping through loops!Anyways, does anyone know when it will launch on the Sephora website?

Lipstick Freebies

I've acquired two lipstick samples this past week and I thought I'd share some pictures of them with you. They are the Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Catfight and the Giorgio Armani Rouge Ecstasy in 400 Red Four Hundred (I'm not repeating myself... that the name of the colour!)

I had to redeem 100 Sephora perk points for the UD lipstick (so I guess it's not really free...) but for the Armani, I just had to show up at Holt Renfrew on Bloor to pick up the deluxe Rouge Ecstasy mini.

I love how the Giorgio Armani card has the ingredient listed on the back... but I also like how the Urban Decay has a list of the different colours on their info card...

I haven't had the heart to swatch them yet... unless you really insist ;)

Beauty Haul from Atlanta

Remember July's no-buy? Well, it was so that I can shop to my hearts' content when I travelled to Atlanta early August, and this was my damage / splurge on make up products. 

At CCO, I picked up MAC's Veronica's Blush. I swatched it at the store and really liked it but decided against buying it because I wanted to think it over. The next day I went back and purchased it.

On the day I purchased the MAC blush, I visited an Ulta store for the first time and ended up with some RT brushes that I had not seen in Tdot (or when I did, it was not at the the price I wanted to pay.) I was so glad that they had both blush and powder brushes. At checkout, I also picked up this cute Bare Mineral Ready touch up veil in translucent, I thought that it would be awesome for on the go and it came with a tiny brush and clear makeup bag.

My last stop was at Sephora. Even though I have an overwhelming amount of eyeshadow palettes, I decided I needed to have the Urban Decay Naked Basic after hearing quite a few YT gurus raving about it. Alas, I now have all three UD Naked palettes.. Suckered~ I hope I won't regret it, as I have yet to test it out. I have my doubts that it would be able to replace the Naked 1 palette.  

My next two products, were the only products on my to-buy list. The Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Diffused Light and its powder brush. I enjoyed Dim Light so much that I wanted to try the rest of the lighting powder, Diffused Light was the next on my to try list. I've tried it and to be honest, am not liking it as much as Dim Light. I will continue testing out with various foundations and see if I will come to like the result, will update!

Dim Light (barely made a dent and have been using it almost everyday for the past 2 months) and Diffused Light

I did surprisingly less damage than expected, but I think it is partly due to the fact that I did not encounter any Chanel counters, else the Les Beiges powder, the Tan de Soleil bronzer and the CC cream would put me way over... Perhaps I can continue lemming over them and keep the money in my pocket a little longer~

Week 2: Eyes painted

The first week I took up this challenge I did a lippies post, and for week 2 I chose shadows. As shown in my makeup storage and collection post (here), I have a lot of eyeshadow palettes, so I will be doing more posts in the following weeks of eyeshadows. Here are the eyeshadow palettes I've used in the past week. 

For reasons I cannot really explain, this picture makes me very happy :) I love eyeshadows

Monday: Smashbox Eye Shadow Trio (Vanilla, Champagne, Brazilian Bronze.)

• This was part of a Sephora VIB 500-points perk a while back. I love carrying this in my makeup bag until the darkest brown (Brazilian Bronze) popped out of the pan... So sad~~ Anyways, this is a lovely trio with great pigmentation, easy to apply and the colours were perfectly put together, definitely a fave for this eyeshadow addict. The fact that it was free, is pure awesome :)

Tuesday: Maybelline Expert Wear Eyeshadow in Designer Chocolates

• This is my favourite drugstore palette/quad ever! I would choose this over some of my high-end palettes. The cranberry/purple/red shade is one of my favourite colour. I bring this palette to work on days I'm too lazy to put makeup at home and eventually work these colours onto my lids over the day. Quick and simple, portable and beautiful! This palette is proof that you don't have to spend a fortune for great colour payoff and lovely quality. Picked this up at the L'Oreal warehouse sale a while back, best $3 spent :)

at night: Lancome Color Design eye palette (Filigree, Tropique Glow, Island Kiss, Simmering and Lézard)

• I changed my look for our Tuesday meet, kept it simple and neutral~~ Started the week off lazy with pretty fool proof colours :) This shadow palette reminds me of the Naked 1 palette, but with some pinks. Lovely palette I got from a Lancome gift set that was on sale at DFCC. Lovely steal :)

Wednesday: Clinique Colour Surge Eye Shadow (Pink lollipop, Sugarplum duo, Crystal berry and Come Heather trio)

• This eyeshadow palette started my collection. This palette is perfect for more playful and awake look. I love the purples in this palette (especially now that I'm back in my purple phase.)

Thursday: Smashbox - Heartbreaker Eyeshadow palette in Hot Date

• Of all the palettes I used this week, this has to be my least favourite palette. The shadows are too soft and therefore hard to apply evenly, another fault was the amount of fallouts, it was particularly disappointing considering how much I enjoyed my free Smashbox trio~ Another reason this was kind of a derp buy for me is because the teal colour was not very flattering on me if it decides to show up at all~ I couldn't wait to go home to take these shadows off~

Friday: Urban Decay Naked 1 palette - (Virgin, Naked, Buck, Darkhorse and Half Baked)

• I LOVE THIS PALETTE. I lusted it from the first day I set eyes on it, and it is still one of my most reached for palettes. My only issue with this is that on a weekend trip to my in laws, this is just too big a palette to carry around (I'm also paranoid that I might break one of the shadows if I move it around too much.) In any case, I had a lot of time Friday morning so I played with a few of my favourite shadows from this palette and created another daytime smokey look~ Darkhorse is such a gorgeous dark brown~~ *drools* I will stop here because I'm sure most people have heard enough about this specific palette. :)

Sorry that this post was a little late on being posted, the swatching actually took a long time to do and then the cropping and uploading... I have a new level of appreciation for bloggers who consistently do so many swatches on their blogs! Very time consuming!

Anyways, I was thinking that I will do blushes for week 3, what do you think?? Yay or nay??? It better be yay! JK :)

Hautelook haul from 2011 (Stila, UD and the Balm)

Before I knew I was going to put a limit on my makeup shopping (of course...), I made all these purchases on Hautelook~ None were things I really needed, but the price were too good to resist... so here goes!

From UD I got the Cowboy Junkie set ($24) and two 24-7 glide-on eye pencil in Dime and Baked ($2 each).

From the Balm, I got blushes in Down boy and Cabana boy ($10.50 each)~

And finally during the Stila sale, I got the Artist palette ($10), an eyeshadow pan in 14 karat ($7), and two smudgestick eyeliner in Koi and Silver Dollar ($8 each)~

was extremely excited to get this so that I can add to my Unii palette :)

When I saw this palette I knew it had to be depotted... first off, I could not close the cardboard flap thing after I took it out. Second the gaps between the palettes really bothered me... and so... this happened.

I'm so happy that I am getting use out of the Unii palettes ^_^

My Go-to products

Most MU addicts (like myself) own a lot of makeup... however, only a select few are used daily... Here is my list:

• Anastasia Go-To-Brow: quick and easy, I don't have to go hunting for a brush to apply it on and the highlighter on the other end :)
• shu uemura eyelash curler: one word, L.O.V.E! no pinching and beautiful curls for people with short lashes~
• eos lipbalm: my current fave is the mint one, because of it, my lips have never been softer! 
• Maybelline Line Stiletto in brownish black: so easy to use in creating clean thin lines, a product I will definitely repurchase~
• Almay one coat nourishing mascara: the mascara shows my curls beautifully and on most occasions does not leave me with raccoon eyes, but at times it might... I wish my eye area was less oily -__-
• Urban Decay Naked palette: the colours are neutral, which is perfect for work, yet there are colours you can use if you want a bolder look 
• Too Faced Shadow Insurance: this is a very important product for people with oily eyelids as myself, although I must say that I prefer the UD primer over this...
• Clinique mirror: it's a simple mirror that is slightly bigger than your palm, it does its job and it was free :)

My 'dailies.' Lately I've been using my October Luxebox as a tray to hold  frequently used MU

Due to hygienic reasons... I have to switch out my eyeliner and mascaras at the 3-6 months mark ( it really should be 3 months... but I pushed most to almost 6)... I feel that they were still okay, but I don't want to risk getting a stye... so here are the products I'm switching up with: 

Mini UD Haul from Hautelook~

I've been MIA from my MU blog for a while... I got busy >.< so... here's a quick post about a recent haul I placed with Hautelook, enjoy!

I placed this order before I was engaged... maybe I knew that it was coming ^_^ I'm psychotic! I mean... psychic! Anyhow, I bought the UD Urban Bride set, as well as some UD cream eyeshadows and liquid liners... The subtotal came to 60$, which I thought was a bargain for so much UD products~ Now onto some pictures (swatches to come later!):

FOTD - June 29, 2011 - Purple

I really like bright colours... Yet I'm too conservative to go all out... here's me playing with UD Purple Haze which is dampened with Sephora's Sweet Candy (it also helped blend the purple and white together) I had to do that because the UD shadow is extremely pigmented!

This is the order I did my look in... :)