spring is in the air

... kind of. It's sunny but freezing cold. And we still get torrential downpours. But I like to think Spring is coming soon *cross my fingers*, so I thought I should update my makeup and buy myself a coral lipstick.

This is a big step for me. I am a lipgloss girl. Always have been, always will be. But lately, I've been exploring lipstick territory, and I have to admit, I kinda like it. I feel a little more mature/professional/grown-up when I swipe on some lipstick before my morning rush to the bus stop. I have a few tubes of lipstick in my collection, but those were included in gift-with-purchase deals, so I never wore any of them because they were too red, too dark, or too brown.

But now that I have a few mauve and berry lipsticks and one cool pink colour under my belt, I thought I go "out there" and get myself a coral colour, since that seems to be the colour for spring/summer 2010. It also gave me an excuse to check out the latest MAC collection: Give Me Liberty of London. Love the print. I'm also thinking about getting a cosmetic bag in the Liberty print for my make-up stash... and at this point, I probably need it!

mac attack

MAC cosmetics came out with a h-u-g-e makeup collection for February, one of the biggest collections that I've seen from them in a long time. I'm sure anyone and everyone can find at least one thing that they like in any one of these colour schemes:

Spring Colour 1 Forecast: If it giggles, tickles, teases, it's PINK.

Spring Colour 2 Forecast: If it's tawny, sensuous, glowing, it's CORAL.

Spring Colour 3 Forecast: If it's wicked, noble, naughty, it's PLUM.

Spring Colour 4 Forecast: If it's precious, excessive, golden, it's AMBER.

For me, I was mostly drawn to the Pink, Plum and Amber colour schemes. I really, really liked the promo images of both eyeshadow quads for the Plum and Amber collection. When the collection came out, I was on a mission to get both quad palettes, but ended up just getting the Amber quad. When I swatched the Plum eyeshadow quad, I found the colours weren't as pigmented as I would have liked them to be and the texture was a little grainy. But, I really loved the colours in the Amber eyeshadow palette. I thought the colours were great when I swatched them and they felt velvety to the touch. Definitely a must for my ever-growing make-up collection.

Starting from the top right corner and going clockwise (in the first picture above):

Manila Paper: pale frosted white gold - Veluxe Pearl (LE)

Flip: bronzed gold - Frost (LE)

Aztec Brick: frosted true copper - Veluxe Pearl (LE)

Creole Beauty: frosted dark golden brown (LE)

I might go back and re-visit some of the other items in the Spring Colour Forecast collections, namely:

From PINK:
Laugh A Lot lipstick: mauve pink - Lustre (LE)
Da Bling eyeshadow: pink with gold pearl - Veluxe Pearl (LE)

From CORAL:
all the lipsticks!
Colour Me Coral: frosted light coral - Frost (LE)
Fresh Salmon: sheer bright pink orange - Lustre (LE)
Rose Maiden: frosted bright berry - Frost (LE)
Victorian: frosted light golden pink - Frost (LE)
Straw Harvest eyeshadow: frosty light yellow-orange - Veluxe Pearl (LE)

From PLUM:
Radicchio lipstick: sheer mid-tone blue mauve - Lustre (LE)

Also purchased the Viva Glam Gaga lipstick. It's a light blue pink colour in a Lustre finish, so you can build up the colour for more intensity. It's definitely a colour that I normally wouldn't choose for a lipstick. I tend to stick to berry and mauve-y tones and be a little more outrageous with my lipgloss choices. But, I thought I try something new this time around. And it's Lady freaking Gaga!

 

For more detailed descriptions, photos and swatches, check out Temptalia.

it's done!

W00T! It took some time and research, because I really wanted a palette of colours that I would actually use on a daily basis, but it's finally done! There are some that I've had for years and years (Nocturnelle and Motif) and have yet to use up. I've bought some new ones that I absolutely adore and pretty much wear every day (looking at you Woodwinked!). I've already hit pan on Schroom, which is the one in the very top left corner. I'm definitely going to restock that colour, since it's what I wear as a base eyeshadow for everything. Even if it's the weekend and I'm going out with a very casual makeup look, I still apply Schroom.

I also have a list of eyeshadow colours that I want to try once I've used up some of the colours. I especially like the Veluxe Pearl finish because of the colour payoff and the staying power. Who knows, I might start another palette!

From left to right:
Top row: Schroom, Woodwinked, Tempting, Shale, Nocturnelle
Middle row: Motif, Romp, Knight Divine, Satin Taupe, Florabundance (limited edition)
Bottom row: Honeylust, Amber Lights, Typographic, Sable, Expensive Pink

happy hallow's eve!

As part of my costume tonight, I bought two MAC lipglosses to complete my look (I was going as a hippie). Unfortunately, I ended up going as a zombie hippie since I was tired of redoing and fixing my makeup for the 4th time! But, I really like the lip-glosses that I picked out. Maybe because it's not the usual colours that I would generally gravitate towards.

 

 

 Baby Sparks is pale pink with violet pearl which is the perfect lip-gloss for my zombie hippie costume.

Ever So Rich is a sheer creamy lilac. It applies on with a very sheer hint of colour. I like it because it's a colour that I don't have in my vast lip-gloss collection.

fashion's night out

While New York City was having their huge bash today (gawd, I wish I was in NYC today), the Bay had their own little Fashion's Night Out shindig. After a short class today (I can't believe I'm back in school), we meandered through the mall, making strategic stops along the way (Holts, anyone?) before arriving at the Bay. We bought our gala tickets ($10 with $8 going towards whatever purchase you make that night, and $2 donated to Canadian Breast Cancer Society), and went in search for appys and drinks. Spinach filo patries, spring rolls, cheese, fruits and sweet pastries were washed down with a cup (or two) of surprisingly strong Cosmopolitan martini. After satisfying our hunger, we made our way to the MAC makeup counter to use our $8 coupon. I was able to convince my friend to get out of her eyeshadow rut and try other colours beside pink and bronze and I got Woodwinked and Typography to add to my collection.

There were other events being held at the same time, but today being such a long day, I just wanted to go home and snuggle under the covers.

A model getting her makeup on... I like how she's got "DKNYC" spray-painted on her left cheek. Now, that's classy.

New makeup line was being debuted. It's called Mica Bella Cosmetics and it's sparkley mineral makeup. A little too sparkley for me.

DJ, keep playing my song!

My purchases of the night: Woodwinked (above) and Typography (below). It looks like I'll be depotting this weekend.

mac-centric

I'm not a huge MAC user/abuser, or at least I thought I wasn't. I was riffling through my makeup bags, looking for 6 MAC products to recycle to get a free lipstick which I thought would be hard to do, since I don't own that many MAC products. Then I realized that I had quite a bit of MAC products. Enough for 2 free lipsticks, actually.

So I traded in my 12 used MAC products (!) for 2 lipsticks:

From left to right: Sweetie, Capricous and Zero (which I got in a gift bag)

I also bought the and plan on adding more eyeshadows to my MAC collection.

I bought this eyeshadow. It's called "Tempting" and it's my new favourite eyeshadow.

Sweetie is a medium rose mauve pink, with a slight shimmer.

Capricous is a "fanciful rose plum" according to their website.

"0" is a metallic bronze glaze and I'm not sure if I can pull this colour off. I'll probably wear lipgloss over top to play down the metallic.