NARS Happy Days Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil

I picked up NARS Happy Days today when I wandered into Nordstrom to try to find a new foundation. Coincidentally, they had just gotten the Spring stuff in, so I picked up my preorder for NARS Calanques, as well as one of the new gloss pencils. In my opinion, Happy Days was the best one out of the bunch, and thus, it came home with me. I did think that Baroque and Frivolous were kind of pretty, but Frivolous was too sheer and nothing special to me, and Baroque, while pretty, seems a little frosty on my lips, but I didn't have a whole lot of time or attention to devote to deciding on it. I figured I'd pick it up later if necessary. Happy Days is a beautiful coral color with gold shimmer. It's really not as warm (or sheer) as my camera suggests, but my camera likes to wash things out sometimes.





I'm fairly happy with this, though I feel like it was a tad pricey at $24, as I feel like it's kind of similar to the discontinued Stila lip glaze sticks (which I loved...coincidentally, the 2 I own are MIA). I would probably say that I prefer the Stila ones though, as the Stila had a bit more slip to them and smelled nicer. They were also cheaper than the NARS pencils, even at full price. Happy Days has this slight chemical/waxy smell to it to me when I first apply it that I didn't notice when trying out Baroque. It fades off within minutes though, so it's nothing that really bothers me.

Overall, I'd say it's worth picking up and trying if the colors of the gloss pencils appeal to you and you have the cash, though it wouldn't be the end of the world if you couldn't get at them.

Tarte Jewelry Box

I've had these swatches sitting around for months, but never got around to uploading them on here. I figured I'd get around to it now, while Sephora was still selling these. The Tarte Treasure Chest retails for $52 and contains 32 e/s, a highlighter, a bronzer, 8, lipgloss and 5 eyeliners. The eyeshadows are less pigmented than their previous palettes, but I didn't have the same problem with them I did last year with them oxidizing on me. However, I didn't like the sheer quality of the mattes (the mattes last year were much, much nicer), or the bulky packaging of it all, so it went back to the store. I did really like the colors of the eyeliners, but it wasn't enough to get me to keep them. The eyeliners applied smoothly, but never fully set; they remained smudgeable throughout the day, but I didn't have too many problems with them as long as I didn't rub at it throughout the day. Besides the bulkiness of the packaging, I found that it had a similar problem to last year's palette where the drawer would slide out if you moved around; not exactly great for travel. I did find that the eyeliner drawer was a bit difficult to pull though. All around, this palette wasn't really worth the money to me, despite the large amount of product inside. I think I may need to accept that Tarte probably will probably never put out a palette on par with my beloved A-list palette.

A couple of new MAC items...Blue India and Creamsheen Glass in Deelight

Here it is! MAC Blue India! It's a MAC polish I actually LOVE. I have a few other MAC polishes, but the formula on this one is way nicer than the other 3 that I had..it's opaque in 2 coats, but I did 3 as usual. It's a beautiful dusty deep blue color. IMO Sally Hansen Gray by Gray isn't even close in person. Blue India is from MAC's newly released Liberty of London collection and retails for $12, which is kind of pricey..but I do think the color and formula are worth it this time.

So here's my first makeup related updated in months...I did my first B2M for Cremesheen Glass in Deelight. I wasn't planning on getting any more lip gloss for a while (or makeup for that matter), but I decided to get this one for the name since Dee is the name of one of my favorite people. Deelight is a nice, kinda mauvey neutral pink color a shade lighter than my own lips..it's got pretty decent pigmentation, and is much smoother and less sticky than MAC's lipglasses.
Here it is on my arm..I've gotten a lot lighter the last few months so the inside of my arm is probably around the 20-25 range now.

On the lips, natural lighting. You may notice that it appears to settle lightly into my liplines, though it's not really noticeable in real life...the macro setting on my camera just makes it appear that way. I has the same vanilla scent that I'm used to getting with MAC lipglosses. Overall, I'm pretty happy I picked it up, though I don't have any plans to pick up any of the other creamsheens.

Korres Lip Butters and NOTD Dorothy Who?

Today I have some swatches of my Korres lip butters for you guys. Korres lip butters are tinted lip balms with decent pigmentation. Color-wise, they remind me more of glosses instead of balms, but the texture is definitely that of a light balm.
Here are the usual arm swatches:
I'm also going to show you guys some lip swatches this time. Here are my bare lips for reference, since my lips are decently pigmented. All the swatches are a bit more vibrant rl than in photographs, but they still came out okay, so I'll show them to you guys. All lip swatches were done in warm indoor lightingJasmine is a very light milky pink. It's good for muting down pigmented lips. It has a scent to it, but it doesn't smell like jasmine. It's a somewhat sweet scent that I can't put my finger on, but it's not unpleasant.

Mango is kind of scarily orange in the pot, but it's not nearly as bad on the lips as it sheers out. The result is a peachy tint on my lips. The scent is mango-ish, but not quite mango. There's a perfumed quality to it.
Pomegranate is my favorite of the Korres lip butters. It has a light, kind of fruity scent to it (though I still can't place the scent, I think it smells the best). It's a nice warm pink
Quince is cooler toned pink than Pomegranate. I think it also lends a bit more pigmentation than Pomegranate as well. The scent is probably the lightest of the lip butters I own and is slightly floral.
A plummy-red in the pot, Plum swatches a fuschia-plum on my lips. The scent is similar to that of my Pomegranate lip butter.

NOTD is China Glaze Dorothy Who? from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz Collex (did I spell that right? probably not) This didn't photograph all that well..the blue is more vibrant in real life, though the frosty silver glitter is definitely still apparent. This is 4 coats, with topcoat.Anyways, now I'd like your opinions on something, so I'd appreciate a quick comment below if you can spare it. Are lip swatches helpful? Should I try to include them in future posts with lip products?

Tarte Treasure Chest

So I have to admit with a certain degree of difficulty that I've fallen pretty far behind on swatching..the problem being that I'm pretty much not awake during the day anymore except at odd hours like this where the sun really hasn't risen out of the sky yet...so I've made you guys promises I have yet to keep...the last big thing I swatched was the Tarte Treasure chest close to a month ago and just let sit for a while as laziness overtook me...my bad, and my apologies...
Anyways, today's topic is one of the more decent sets this holiday, the Tarte Treasure Chest. This baby retails for $52 at Sephora and unlike Tarte's more recent palettes and last year's failure of a holiday palette, the quality's actually pretty good (Though I will admit that the blushes in last year's holiday palette were so nice I almost kept the darned thing just for those) This year's palette is also a lot bigger than last years; with 32 full sized eyeshadows instead of 16.
The palette comes in bejeweled casing that imo, is somewhat cute, but in a tacky way. (I find it kinda festive...it reminds me of Christmas tree ornaments) There's unfortunately a near fatal flaw to this packaging; if you tilt this forward at all, the "drawer" like design of the palette sends the lipgloss and cheek color layers flying out at you at a somewhat alarming speed. Luckily, this palette has some redeeming qualities, so it missed getting the axe. Nevertheless, this is definitely not a travel friendly palette.

Here's the palette all opened up...it's certainly a lot of makeup in one go...
There are two layers of eyeshadows in this palette. The top layer contains the more colorful, shimmery shades. I swatched these in columns this time. Pictures were taken in warm indoor lighting. All shades were fairly soft and buttery. Pigmentation of the shadows is excellent and they swatch pretty close to what they are in the pan on my arm, but turn muddy on my eyelids for some reason. I know one other person with the same problem, while others have no issues with them
column 1 contains a shimmery, slightly bronzy gold, a brown with gold shimmer, a peachy pink with gold shimmer, and a dark taupey color with gold shimmer.
column 2 contains a warm brown with gold shimmer, a shimmer gold, a light, frosty peachy pink, and a lightish purple with gold shimmer
Column 3 contains a shimmery red, a black based dark gren, a slightly olive green with gold shimmer, and a black based blue
Column 4 contains a black based wine color with lighter burgandy shimmer, a light turquoise with gold shimmer, a red based purple with purple shimmer, and a somewhat sparkly light silver
Layer 2 contains the most buttery matte shadows I've ever come across and are IMO the highlight of this palette. These, unlike the layer above it, do not turn muddy on me. They're also the reason why I keep this palette despite my disappointment with the layer above.
Column 1 contains a matte beige, a dark purple taupe, a matte peachy pink, and a warm brown shade
Column 2 contains a purpley taupe, a warm taupe, a blackish purplem and a tan eyeshadow
Column 3 contains a matte light pink, a pinkish purple, a warm grey taupe and a dark blue that looks slightly greyish in the pan
Column 4 contains a pinkish tan taupe, a red based brown, a matte white, and a matte grey
The 3rd layer contains 16 potted lip glosses and are the top layer of the pull out drawer. These apply easily with a lip brush and are a lot nicer than the ones in last year's palette. They are harder to apply with your fingers. I chose not to swatch these. They few that I've tried have been fairly nonsticky and nondrying. Because of how the palette is designed this year, it is possible to access this drawer without opening the powder layers, or keeping just this section closed while you access the powder layers, making it easy to keep the powder products from mucking up the lip products.
The last layer contains the cheek products; 4 blushes, a bronzer, and a luminizer/highlighter
All 4 blushes are shimmery. From left to right the colors are a light, slightly peachy pink with gold shimmer, a mauvy pink with silver sparkle, an orangey peach with gold shimmer, and a red/rust colored blush with gold shimmer. The luminizer is light pink. It's ok, but I don't care for it it much myself. The bronzer is Park Ave Princess, which I usually like, but I feel like the one I own separate from the palette is a slightly different color.

Overall, the palette is pretty nice, though I wish that at least 1 of the blushes had been matte. Either way, it's a great buy for the price and I feel like it'd make a nice gift for someone without a lot of makeup.

Sephora Lip Service Lip Deluxe Sampler and Essie Mint Candy Apple

When I went to return the Stila Smudge pot set the other day, this set caught my eye in its place. It's a gift set of 8 lip products from various brands retailing for $38. 3 of the 8 items are full sized items too..so it's a pretty good deal. It contains DuWop Private red (deluxe sample size), Smashbox Lip Enhancing gloss in Sheer (clear gloss, maybe 2/3 size), Sephora Nano Lip Liner in Beau Bordeaux, NARS Velvet MAtte Lip Pencil in Roman Holiday (Full Size), Korres Guava lipstick in Wine Red (Full Size), Cargo PlantLove Botanical Lipstick in Muir Woods (Full Size) Tarte Vitamin Infused lipstick in Hatha (sample), and Laura Mercier Lip Color Creme in Pink Champagne (sample)Flash
No Flash
Swatches (L-->R): Du Wop Private Red: supposed to be a color changing lipstick. I don't really notice any real color change. It's a pretty red..unfortunately I don't feel like I love it...or hate it... it's got a good texture, is nondrying, and smells like Smarties candy.
Sephora Beau Bordeaux Nano Lip Liner: Reddish Brown. It looks kind of mauvey in the swatch picture, but I don't see any of that on my skin
NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Roman Holiday: Kind of a silvery pink. It looks like Pepto Bismo against my lips and skintone, but it'd probably look lovely on a lighter girl. It has an odd scent I can't quite place, but nothing too strong or lasting
Korres Guava Lipstick in Wine Red: Cute Pink-Red. Very good texture and moisturizing. I like this color best in the set and think it could be flattering for a wide set of skin tones.
Cargo Plant Love Lipstick in Muir woods- Sheer Mauvey Pink with an emphasis on sheer. Has a somewhat mild waxy scent. I find this color somewhat drying.
Tarte lipstick in Hatha-A nice pink with copper shimmer. It's a really cute color and decent formula.
Laura Mercier Lip Colour Creme in Pink Champagne- Mauvey Pink...a cute neutraly color and very work appropriate. Has a nice emolient feel to it too.
I was messing around with Private Red earlier..so I cropped out a lip swatch of it. It's not quite this warm RL:
Overall the set's really nice and would make a great gift for someone. Personally, I feel like the colors are a bit off with my skintone..but then again my skin tone's made another change and I'm now really warm, so I have to go through my stash and figure out what will work on me again.

Today's NOTD is from Essie's holiday collection. Mint Candy Apple. I found the formula a bit streaky..though thinning it helped a bit. # coats gave a smooth, opaque result: