Your daily dose of pretty: M.A.C Venomous Villains Maleficent Collection

If you're a beauty addict M.A.C's Venomous Villains collection will already be on your radar. Unless you've been living under a rock. And why anybody would want to live under a rock is beyond me. There's probably slugs under there you know.

Venomous Villains comprises four collections, each based around famous evil characters from Disney: Maleficent, Evil Queen, Cruella de Vil and Dr Facilier. Each collection has a variety of eye/face/lip and nail products with packaging featuring the eponymous villain.

There are products in each collection I'm lusting after but I particularly love Maleficent, not just because it's my favourite in terms of the packaging but also because those polishes look gorgeous:

 Picture: maccosmetics.com

Venomous Villains was released in New Zealand on October 4, and in the interests of having money for our soon-to-be-started-if-the-council-ever-gives-us-planning-consent renovations I think it's best if I avoid going anywhere near a M.A.C store for the forseeable future!

Check out the rest of Venomous Villains on the M.A.C website.

Your daily dose of pretty: Paul & Joe Sparkle Collection Lipsticks

Paul & Joe always do beautiful packaging, and the lipsticks from their latest Sparkle Collection don't disappoint:

Beautiful packaging and lipsticks shaped like cats! Total win!

And also completely pointless. After a couple of uses those cats are going to look like an accident in a nuclear power facility. Never mind how difficult the pointy ears are going to make actual application of the lipstick.

Still, practical aspects aside that is some seriously cute lipstick. A list of Paul & Joe Beaute stockists is on their website, or Zuneta ship them internationally.

I'm loving: Bourjois Mini Eyeshadow Powder No 5

One of my favourite drugstore brands (and therefore, obviously, a brand I can't get here in New Zealand - grumble grumble mutter) is Bourjois. Naturally when we were in England in July I stocked up on a few Bourjois products, and now I'm kicking myself for not getting more. Lots more.

I did get this: 

Mini Bourjois Eyeshadow Powder 05.

Mini Bourjois is Bourjois' range of mini-sized cosmetics; including eye liners and powders, lip glosses and balms, blush, nail enamel and accessories. The eyeshadow powders are packed in 1g / 0.04oz jars and there are 15 colours in the range. Now that I've tried 05 I want the other 14 as well. Sadly I don't think Eccentric English Boyfriend will see my desperate need for these as a vaild excuse for another trip to England.

Eyeshadow Powder 05 is a dusky grey/blue shot through with gold that proved nigh on impossible to capture with my camera, but here are a couple of jar shots:

The first is taken with flash, the second indoors with natural light, but neither of them show the gold reflect particularly well - it's warmer than it appears here.

And some shots of it applied on my upper eyelid and over the top of the eyeliner on my lower eyelid. (The other products used are an unnamed Vital Radiance beige eyeshadow as a base, Smashbox Creme Eyeliner in Picasso lining the upper eyelid, and LA Girl Eyeliner in Navy lining the lower eyelid.)

Because my eyes are heavily hooded the eyes open shot doesn't show much of the eyeshadow, but I've included it because it does show the gold reflect quite nicely.

Really well pigmented, this is a lovely soft eyeshadow powder which applies easily and blends well, and I think it may now be my favourite eyeshadow colour. At least until I find my new favourite eyeshadow!

So what about you my pretties - have you tried this range? Any favourites? It's my birthday in a month and a half, so if anyone's stuck for present ideas (hint hint) I want, well all of them really, but particularly:

This one:

And this one:

 And this one:

 And this one:

And most particularly of all, because seriously - WOW - this one!

 

Revlon Passion Fusion Collection for Autumn 2010

Revlon's Passion Fusion Collection is available now in Australia and New Zealand for Autumn 2010, with nail polishes, lipsticks, eye shadows and eye/cheek/lip stains in gorgeous pink and purple shades that I'm keen to get my hands on.

There are four shades of Super Lustrous Lipstick, all of which look very wearable:

The ColourStay 12 Hour Eye Shadow Quad promises colour that looks freshly applied for up to 12 hours, and I love the four colours (pinks and purples are my go-to eyeshadow colours):

Of the four nail polishes Plum Night is the one I want, I love the gorgeous deep purple:

The Illuminance Palette contains four shades suitable for use on eyes/cheeks and lips. Although I love the colours it's probably the one item I wouldn't buy, as my skin is generally too oily for these multi-purpose creme products:

What about you my pretties? Are there any shades that catch your eye?

Swatch love: Fyrinnae Lip Lustres

Indie makeup company Fyrinnae's products have been getting a lot of love around the makeup blogs recently, so I decided it was about time I tried them for myself. I bought some of their eyeshadows, primers and powders which I'll talk about in another post, but today I thought I'd give you a quick look at some of their Lip Lustres.

Fyrinnae's Lip Lustres are not lip glosses - they describe them on their site as lip colour stains - and they have a unique weightless, soft velvet-like texture on the lips that I absolutely love, with none of the stickiness that many glosses give.  I bought six colours, including two blues for 14 Year Old Daughter who snatched them as soon as I opened the package and took them with her to her dad's, so swatches of them will have to come later. In the meantime here are the other four:

Left to right: Lace Gloves, Flavor of the Day, Acidic Cherry, Glitter Kittiez.

Lace Gloves

 

A hard one to capture with the camera, described on the site as a sheer with pink and red highlights - I LOVE this one on me, and I think it's going to become my go-to neutral. The pink highlight is so pretty.

Flavor of the Day

Described on the site as a semi-sheer light peach-pink with gold highlights, in the tube I thought this might be a little too peach-leaning for my skin but actually it's just right - a barely there shade with a lovely shimmer running through it. Another go-to neutral.

Acidic Cherry

Oh Acidic Cherry where have you been all my life? My full lips and hard-to-match skin tone make it nigh on impossible to find a vampy lip colour that doesn't make me look like a jaundiced zombie hooker, but in Acidic Cherry I think I've found my Holy Grail. Described on the site as a deep, sexy, shimmer burgundy, Acidic Cherry has a gorgeous pink sparkle to it, and is one of the opaque lip lustres - and when they say opaque they mean it, one swipe of this puppy and you've got full coverage.

Glitter Kittiez

Described on the site as a deep, sparkly magenta pink, this is the shade my camera had the hardest time catching. It's darker and more magenta than this photo shows. When I saw it in the tube I thought it might be a bit too pink for me, but on the lip it's quite lovely.

All the lip lustres have their own subtle scent which is lovely and not too overpowering (I'm quite sensitive to scent and find some lip glosses too much for me). I bought all of these as mini sample sizes (3.5ml) which are US$2.50 each, and I'll definitely be visiting the site again to order them as full sizes (5.8ml) which are US$4.50 each. Oh and to order some samples of their other Lip Lustres because I'm hooked.

By the way, normally I would tell you to click on the pictures to enlarge them so you can see the colours in all their glory but actually ... ummm, well, quite frankly I need to wax my top lip! Don't say you weren't warned! (I have Italian ancestry, it's given me a fiery temperament, a love of food and an excess of hair!).

Today's nail: Napoleon Perdis Voodoo

I bought this polish as part of a gift set at the Napoleon Perdis counter in Farmers. The set contained a lip gloss and nail polish and was NZ$17.00 on sale, which is a great price considering the polish on its own normally sells for around NZ$17.00.

Now I have to say, I really think somebody was having an off day when they matched these two products. The gloss and polish are both called Voodoo, and I chose them based on the colour of the lip gloss tester - here's a sunlight pic of the gloss:

Pretty blue-leaning purple. Here's the swatch:

Yep, blue-based purple. Now, here's the polish:

 

 

Erm, I'm not going crazy am I? That's not a blue-based purple is it? Unless my eyes are deceiving me on an epic scale that's a vampy dark plum, reminiscent of O.P.I.'s Lincoln Park After Dark.

I wouldn't in a month of Sundays have matched these two colours and I admit I was a little disappointed when I realised what colour the polish was - I already have a couple of colours similar to this in my collection.

Colour matching issues aside, these two products are pretty good, especially at the price. The gloss applies nicely and is not excessively sticky, although it does wear off and require re-application quite quickly. The colour is very sheer and gives my lips a only a slight purple hue. It is very nicely glossy though, and would work really well over a lipstick.

The polish applied beautifully - although it's a jelly it only required two coats for absolute opaqueness, and it has a gorgeous glossy shine to it.

This is my first experience of Napoleon Perdis, and despite my disappointment with the colour match I'm keen to try more. In fact I might have to scope out Farmers to see if they still have these sets on sale.

EDIT: For all my Auckland-based pretties, I've just had an email from Napoleon Perdis advertising a sale at their Sylvia Park Makeup Bar - 40% off everything until 28 February. Yay! I'm going - who's coming with me?

In lieu of chocolate

Continuing with the theme of "Selina is all whiney because of her special diet and is going to go on and on about it until someone slaps her around the head with a baguette", I'm wondering whether these really do taste like chocolate:

They come in Caramel, Truffle, Chocolate Orange and Strawberry Cream flavours and contain extracts of rich cocoa and coffee seed, as well as sunflower seed, avocado and jojoba oils.

Hey here's a brilliant idea: since I won't be eating chocolate this Easter, perhaps The Eccentric English Boyfriend could buy me a set of these instead?

The ChocohoLICKS Lip Gloss set is US$44.00 from Jane Iredale.

New Zealand stockists of Jane Iredale are listed here.

Down the rabbit hole

Hands up those of you looking forward to Tim Burtons's Alice in Wonderland? Yup, me too. Tim Burton/Johnny Depp/one of my favourite books of all time - I cannot wait to see what brilliance comes from that combination.  Plus from the photos and trailers released so far it looks like the costumes and makeup are going to be something really special, and it's probably because of this that more than any other movie I can recall there are some really amazing beauty collections being released to tie in with the movie.  Here are some of my favourite Alice-inspired pretties:

First up is O.P.I.'s Alice in Wonderland polish collection:

The four colours in the collection are Off With Her Red (orange/red), Absolutely Alice (blue glitter), Mad As A Hatter (multi-coloured glitter) and Thanks So Muchness (red shimmer).  While neither of the reds appeal (and like many reviewers I'm a little disappointed that O.P.I. chose to have two reds in a four polish collection), the two glitters are on my Must-Have list. Check out All Lacquered Up for swatches of the four colours - Mad As A Hatter is particularly squee-worthy.

Of course once you've painted your nails with Wonderland-worthy colours you're going to want to have some equally pretty colours for your face, and Urban Decay have just the thing:

Pop-ups, people! Pop! Ups!  Even if the makeup in the palette didn't appeal I'd want it just for this utterly beautiful packaging. Luckily the contents of the palette are pretty awesome in their own right, with 16 of Urban Decay's best-selling eyeshadows (renamed with Wonderland-inspired names), two travel size 24/7 Pencils and a bottle of their primer potion.

The Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows has been released on Urban Decay's website, and will be available in America from Sephora, Ulta and Macys, from 1 February.  English Alice fans will have to wait until March, when it will be available exclusively from Debenhams. Of course none of these retailers ship internationally - *sigh* - so I've already bribed an English friend to snap one up for me!

Finally, Paul & Joe have chosen original Disney illustrations for their Alice in Wonderland collections, and I must have these too.

There are two collections in Paul & Joe's Alice in Wonderland range, Daydream:

And Fantasy:

Each contains a blotting paper, blotting paper refill and Lip Treatment Stick, packaged in an original container. I don't have much information on availability yet, what I do know is that it will be released at Harrods and ASOS in the UK on 5th March and will also be available in the US, although I don't have any US stockist information. More pictures of the collection can be found on Paul & Joe's Facebook page.

So what do you think my pretties? Will you be snapping any of these up? What other Alice tie-ins have you seen?

Review: Z Palettes

I've been seeing reviews of Z Palettes around a few blogs lately, and after I ended up with some loose Stila eyeshadow pans from a couple of StrawberryNET specials I decided to order myself some from Camera Ready Cosmetics (who by the way were excellent - great communication and speedy delivery to New Zealand). I got a large Z Palette which measures 8 inches x 4.75 inches and costs US$20.00, and a small Z Pallete which measures 3.8 inches x 3.8 inches and costs US$14.00:

Z palettes have a magnetic base which metal makeup pans stick to, a magnetic lid closure and see-through window on the top.

Here is the small Z Palette, which as you can see fits four Stila eyeshadow pans with room left over:

And the large Z Palette which fits five Stila eyeshadow pans horizontally and two vertically, plus I could fit another smaller pan at the bottom of vertical row if I wanted, or fit three Stila eyeshadow pans vertically by putting one at the bottom in between the rows. Stila eyeshadow pans are larger than many other brands too, so with smaller pans you would easily get three in vertically:

The magnetic base is strong enough that the pans are held in firmly, but not so strong that they're difficult to remove if you want to change things around, the window on the top makes it easy to see what colours you have and the magnetic closure means they're not going to fling open and leave your pans open to damage.  The palettes themselves feel fairly sturdy - I have a suspicion that carrying them around for long periods in a handbag might result in a little wear and tear but that happens to most things in handbags eventually, and personally I rarely carry my eyeshadows around with me. 

If you find that your makeup pans aren't magnetic, Z Palette also have pre-cut magnetic stickers.

My verdict: This is a great idea and a great product.

Available from Z Palette's website, and Camera Ready Cosmetics. Other stockists are listed on Z Palette's site.

Good things come to those who wait for the sale - Smashbox Cream Eyeliner Palette

How often does it happen that something you have been really, really - and I mean really - coveting comes up on sale? In my experience not very often, but somebody was smiling down on me today because while browsing the sale racks at Life Pharmacy I found the Smashbox Cream Eyeliner Palette for NZ$34.00, reduced from NZ$55.00.  Now I've had a serious case of the covets for this for the longest time, even though I've read some mixed reviews of it, but I could never quite bring myself to fork out the money considering how many eyeliners I already own.  But now it's mine, all mine! My Precioussssssss:

Top row left to right: Lava, Picasso, Midnight Purple, Midnight Brown and Putty. Bottom row left to right: Caviar, Thunder, Midnight Green, Deep Bronze and Cameo.

Here's the top row swatched:

Top to bottom: Lava is a charcoal with silver shimmer, Picasso is dark blue grey, Midnight Purple (which looked gorgeous in the palette) is actually a rather disappointingly sheer purple, Midnight Brown is a fairly standard dark brown, and Putty was the surprise of the bunch - in the palette it looks taupe, but it goes on a dark and quite intense brown. 

Bottom row swatched (I had to use my other arm, because the first lot were really hard to remove with baby wipes, which I guess bodes well for it's wear time!):

Top to bottom: Caviar is your bog standard black, Thunder looked boringly brown/grey in the palette but went on much darker - albeit very close in colour to Midnight Brown to my eye, Midnight Green I didn't think I'd like but it's actually a gorgeous dark forest green which unfortunately doesn't photograph well, Deep Bronze is more copper than bronze and has a copper shimmer, and Cameo (another one I didn't expect to like) is a lovely rust brown.

All in all I'm super pleased with my purchase - the formula on these is nice and creamy and applies well and the colours are overall very nice. Whether I would have been so impressed had I paid full price I'm not sure - I think I would rather have seen less browns and perhaps more variations on the blues and purples.

Oh, and the brush that comes with the compact? Throw it out - nasty synthetic thing with too-soft bristles.  I'll be using my trusty M.A.C. eyeliner brushes.

For my fellow kiwis - I got this from the Life Pharmacy in Westcity and it would be well worth your time to check your local Smashbox-stocking Life Pharmacy to see if they're having the same sale - there was a big range of Smashbox products on sale at roughly 40% off, including eyeshadows, blushers, foundations and lippies - I was very restrained just buying the one thing!

Look at all that stuff!

Between sick kids and sore teeth the last couple of weeks haven't been the most fun. But it wasn't all achey bits and cries of "mum, my tummy hurts". There were also a few parcels to open, and we know that's always good.

First up, my Secret Santa gift from the Nail Polish Bloggers Christmas Exchange organised by Nicole of Magic Maid. My Secret Santa was the lovely Rachel from Sparkling Pink Gorilla (awesomest blog name), and looky look what she sent me:



Barielle! I confess I squealed when I saw them. Slate of Affairs and Polished Princess, both of which I was coveting. And let me tell you they are gorgeous - Slate of Affairs has gone into my favourite polishes ever list - swatches to follow soon. Also in the parcel was a Dr Pepper lip gloss (shaped like a little Dr Pepper can and so yummy), LA Colors Art Deco nail art lacquer in Blue Glitter and Green Glitter (pretty), samples of Barielle hand cream and foot treatment, and 10 Year Old Boy's favourite part:


Bear in mind he was home from school with a stomach upset - he made a miraculous and speedy recovery when he saw these lollies all the way from America! Oh and I had a conversation with 14 Year Old Daughter later in the day that went like this:

14 YOD: Mum, I've eaten too many lollies and I feel sick.
Me: You're still eating them though aren't you?
14 YOD: erm ... yes ... but they're so yummy!

Then a parcel from Cherry Culture, who I had a discount code for:


LA Girl Rock Star Groupie (purple glittery goodness - yum), Kleancolor Twingkle Gold Star (I won't bore you with a rant about deliberate mis-spellings of product names but can I just say GRRRRRR), Kleancolor Sonic Bloom, Kleancolor Neon Sapphire and Kleancolor Blue Satin.


Amuse Sparkling Powders, which annoyingly don't have their names on the jars, but the colours are a champagne, bronze (much lighter than it appears in the photo) and dusky pinkish. These have little sponges on the top, beneath which are standard shaker openings. The sponges are pretty useless, too little of the powder gets applied over too great an area, so I'll probably end up taking them off and using a brush. Anyway, swatches:


I very cleverly used the little foil seal that was stuck to the top of each bottle to stamp these swatches on my hand. The pink is a lot pinker than it appears in the pic, and they are all quite lovely.


At front a Kleancolor eyeliner in Icy Golden Nugget, and at rear an NYX dual eyeliner sharpener, LA Girl Liquid Eyeliner in Silver, LA Girl Liquid Eyeliner in Purple and an LA Girl Mark My Eyes felt tip eyeliner in black (this one is a thick-tipped pen).

Swatches:


Top to bottom: LA Girl Purple, LA Girl Silver, LA Girl Mark My Eyes and Kleancolor Icy Golden Nugget.

I'm loving the purple, it's exactly the sort of purple I like to wear next to my hazel eyes. Mark My Eyes has a little bleeding at the edges on my hand, whether it does that on my eyes I don't know because I've mislaid it (by which I mean 'had it stolen by 14 Year Old Daughter'.)

And finally, some stuff ordered from New Look on sale:


A five pack of nail polishes by B Me. The polishes aren't named but I couldn't resist the bright colours, especially for only £4.00.


Star Gazer polishes, numbers 170, 105 and 131. I love the little round bottles, they make me think of little fat buddhas and I just want to rub their tummies. Not that they have tummies ...

And finally, the parcel from New Look totally didn't contain shoes. Couldn't possibly contain shoes, since I'm on a no-shoe-buy. And if it did contain shoes, it would be because they were too cute and ridiculously cheap at only £5.00.


Oh look, ridiculously cheap and cute shoes. Imagine that!

Last of all, I know I should be staying away from sugary treats since visiting the dentist, but I can't help myself:


Cute and sugary and covered with coconut. And they're called Fairy Mushrooms! With a name like that you know I love them. (The polish is Kleancolor Neon Sapphire by the way.)