Tag Archives: Mac

Beauty Spot: MAC Screaming Bright nail polish review

Posted on January 31, 2013 | Leave a comment

mac screaming bright swatch

Metallic polishes are ten a penny and dime a dozen these days (phrases which would both make for decent metallic nail polish names actually!), so it takes something pretty special for me to sit up and take notice of one. And with a name like Screaming Bright – and a colour that lives up to it – MAC have achieved just that!

MAC’s Screaming Bright is part of their recent permanent collection of polishes – a pale yellow gold that is SO bright, it almost starts to look silver… if that even makes sense! This is some seriously SHINY shizzle.

mac screaming bright nail polish

Simple golds, silvers and coppers are the staple of all nail polish brands, but Screaming Bright is far from your average straightforward metallic and consequently, it happily surpasses all expectations. It’s a chilly pale buttermilk gold, but with an almost celadon green cast to it from some angles – and from others it’s just so damn shiny, that’s it turns into a practically blinding silver. As ever, you can click on any of my photos to enlarge them to freakish levels in order to take a peek for yourselves.

Screaming Bright’s formula was similarly interesting… it felt almost like it was already dry on the brush, meaning you have to make sure you’ve got plenty of polish on there or else it seems to set even whilst you’re working with it – resulting in weird little specks of dried up polish appearing, playing havoc with achieving that much-desired slick and smooth finish. So aim for the lacquer to be near enough dripping off your brush and go against all your better instincts to swipe off excess on the sides of the bottle!

mac screaming bright

Unlike many metallic lacquers, Screaming Bright dries with a resolutely brushstroke-free finish; no polish can quite compete with Minx’s uber-shiny liquid metal finish, but for ease of application (and a MUCH cheaper cost per mani), Screaming Bright does the trick well enough for me. [And yes, I have tried Minx – they looked great but started peeling badly within a few days, and one whole nail came clean off when I was tying up the back of my friend’s wedding dress! Not cool.]

The number of different metallic casts peeking through Screaming Bright keeps it interesting… and when it hits the sun – KACHING! If robots could wear nail polish (and somehow had their own autonomous sense of style), I’m sure they’d all be sporting Screaming Bright. It’s total sci-fi chic with its start button set to brilliance. This is one polish so metallic, you can practically hear it clinking!

Looks good with: Barbarella fantasies, sci-fi chic, not wanting to stump up for a Minx mani
Drying time: 1 min
Coats required: 2
Chips: 3 days

MAC Screaming Bright nail polish, $110, see all MAC locations in Hong Kong here

Note: this product was provided for my consideration.

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Beauty Spot: MAC Endless Night nail polish review

Posted on November 2, 2012 | 2 Comments

Sometimes I fall in love with a polish because of the colour. Sometimes I fall in love with it because of the name. And sometimes, it’s a little bit of both in just the right amount – and such is the case with MAC’s Endless Night. It originally came out with Daphne Guinness’ rather underwhelming collection earlier in the year, but as since been re-released in MAC’s holiday Glamour Daze Collection – making it the perfect opportunity for me to pull out a polish that has been haunting me for months with its soft intriguingly understated beauty.

Endless Night is a beautiful work-safe neutral – a pink/lilac leaning greige that’s the perfect palette cleanser (yes even I need one once in a while!). But this is not just your average boring beige… oh no! This stunner has the tiniest flash of pretty pink shimmer hiding beneath its deceptively calm exterior. Of course, it’s an absolute bugger to photograph, so you can see it more in the bottle than you can on my nails in the pictures, but trust me – it’s there in real life and it is awesome.

This also brings me onto why I love the name, which instantly reminded of the Agatha Christie novel of the same title, and the quote that inspired it (from Auden’s poem Auguries Of Innocence):

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

Having read all of Agatha Christie’s novels (apart from the last Poirot – I just can’t bring myself to do it!), I can safely say that Endless Night is my least favourite of the lot, yet that beautiful quote has always stuck with me. My simplistic interpretation is that some people are born into light and others to darkness; without spoiling too much, the book contains one character who conceals his hidden depths of ‘endless night’ with fatal consequences.

Rach’s literary class over and just how does this relate to nail polish? Well, with a name like Endless Night, you would expect the colour to be a deep mysterious black or a dark midnight blue, but instead here we have this light clean crisp neutral. Yet there, lurking beneath its surface, is that gorgeous unexpected flash of pink shimmer – and it’s exactly those secret dangerous hidden depths that play into my whole envisaging of the ‘endless night’ concept. And yes, I probably do read too much into these things!

Back to the facts and what is undeniable is that MAC have pulled out a winner in the formula department. A slightly streaky first coat build easily into a smooth, glossy, opaque finish by the second, and it glides on like a dream – where it stays, chip-free and beautiful, for at least five days.

Endless Night is classic with an edge, beige but quietly rather brilliant. It’s also one of those shades that’s the polish equivalent of some immense body shaping underwear – namely, it makes your nails immediately look longer, prettier and in better shape!

A neutral with hidden depths and an opportunity for me to prattle on at length about Agatha Christie? No wonder I love it!

P.S. Google tells me the quote is also in a Doors song. Blast. Leave me with my dreams of MAC’s creative department being full of secret Christie addicts as opposed to Jim Morrison fangirls!

Looks good with: libraries, cardigans, literary allusions
Drying time: <3 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: +5 days

MAC Endless Night nail polish, Daphne Guinness/Glamour Daze Collections, $110

Note: This product was provided for my consideration.

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Beauty Spot: Mac Mean & Green nail polish review

Posted on October 18, 2012 | 4 Comments

DUOCHROME ALERT! DUOCHROME ALERT!

Today, I have one of the most beautiful nail polishes ever to show you – MAC’s Mean & Green. Originally released with their Disney Venomous Villains Collection, and promptly selling out quicker than you can say ‘Mirror mirror on the wall’, this beauty was one of MAC’s most highly coveted polishes, much-duped and much swindled for on eBay after it was consigned to the deep dark depths of the MAC vault.

But rejoice! MAC have just launched a permanent nail polish line of thirty lacquers, bringing back many of their much-loved favourites to sit on the stands full-time… and Mean & Green is one of them! That’s right, this iconic duochrome is now available permanently for your purchasing pleasure (a pleasant change from cosmetics companies discontinuing items for them never to see the light of day again) – so suck on that, eBay hawkers!

Remember my rant about nail polish by non nail polish specialists generally not being worth it? Well, MAC are primary offenders. A lot of their polishes are easily dupe-able crèmes except at a much higher price point… but Mean & Green is awesome enough to undo any of MAC’s previous polish shortcomings.

I took about thirty photos of this baby, each more beautiful than the last, and none quite as magical as it is in person. Mean & Green is a stunning oil spill of a duochrome (nail polish lingo for shade-shifter), starting off as a blackened murky purple before skidding off into a coppery pink, a bronze-y copper, a green-y bronze, a gold-y green and so much more. It’s entirely fitting that it came out with the Venomous Villains line, because you can well imagine that some special sprinklings of Disney dark magic went into its creation.

Again, it has that amazing grown-up blackened metallic shimmer finish of the likes of Chanel Graphite and Butter London Wallis – I really need to think of a name for this, as I’m going through SUCH an obsession with it that I’m having to reference Graphite on a near weekly basis!

Mean & Green has a thin but great formula, allowing for easy smooth bubble-free application. MAC’s formulas can be a bit hiss and miss but this was definitely one of the winners; the initial coat is thin and somewhat watery in colour, but it builds well to bring out that amazing multi-dimensional depth, all with a flawless finish.

I can well imagine my favourite and the ultimate Disney villain, Maleficent, sporting Mean & Green on her nails. It’s a total magic spell of fish scales, starling wings, cauldron drippings and rainbow puddles. Thank God MAC gave us all a happy ever after and made this permanent, as you have NO idea what you’re missing out on until you spend hours gazing in wonder at your nails in different angles. However did my polish collection exist without it?!

Looks good with: ‘Touch the spindle, touch it I say!’
Drying time: 5 mins
Coats required: 3
Chips: +5 days

MAC Mean & Green nail polish, $110, see all MAC locations in Hong Kong here

Note: this product was provided for my consideration

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Beauty Spot, Coral Cray-Cray: MAC Stay By Me Pro Longwear Blush & Coral Bliss Cremesheen Lipstick review

Posted on October 10, 2012 | 2 Comments

There are a couple of colours that I think you all know I’m obsessed with. Turquoise. Purple. Glitter (oh wait… glitter isn’t a colour?!). However, there is one minor obsession that I had managed to keep under the carpet – until now! Step forward, coral!

Coral is my unsung hero. I wear it nearly every day in the form of Benefit’s pale peachy and sadly discontinued Georgia blusher, a little box of powder that takes me from rough to radiant in a matter of seconds. I have worn it occasionally on my nails (see here… and here). And over summer, I wore the hell out of it on my lips (reviews for which will filter through eventually, but basically MAC’s Watch Me Simmer = WIN). So I think it’s finally time to give coral some love on my blog with this all coral look, courtesy of MAC’s Stay By Me Pro Longwear Blush and Coral Bliss Cremesheen Lipstick.

The discontinuation of Georgia (I will save my hymn about that make-up miracle for some other time) has meant that I’ve been collecting a much-bigger-than-I-will ever-possibly-need stash of potential peachy coral dupes (plus a large pile of panic-bought Georgias… if I haven’t opened them, they’ll keep forever, right?!). Stay By Me is another to add to the arsenal of my pretty in peach options – a pale peachy-coral that brings the perfect amount of light to my corpse-like complexion. Obviously, this is a very light shade and best suited on my fellow pale and interesting sorts; frankly, it ain’t going to show up on much else.

Stay By Me has a powdery texture (quite a lot of dust gets thrown up when you sweep it with your brush) but it’s oh so soft, giving it a lovely lightweight feel once on. It was released as part of MAC’s Office Hours Collection, with one of its main selling points being its supposed long-wearing colour, so it could clock in a full day at work without needing reapplication  (cue me caterwauling 9 To 5 and doing my patented typewriter dance upon reading the press release). Personally, I found that it lived up to this claim nicely and was impressed at how long its sweeping radiance stayed on my cheeks. I loved it.

Going coral cray-cray, I teamed Stay By Me with Coral Bliss lipstick, from MAC’s Cremesheen & Pearl Collection. This is a soft romantic coral blossom colour, warm, pink leaning and with a subtle shine. On my lips, the colour doesn’t show up quite as vividly as the swatch on my hand, but this is an easy everyday kind of lipstick that’s realllly very pretty.

Although the lipstick feels quite soft and creamy on first application, I do find it quite drying after sustained use. Less pigment also equals less wear time, and this averages around the four-hour mark (give or take a few cups of tea or gobbled up sandwiches!). The whole of the Cremesheen & Pearl Collection is well worth a look if you enjoy subtle pretty lipsticks in softer colours and in my opinion, Coral Bliss is definitely one of the stand-outs.

So now you’ve probably heard enough of the word coral to last you a lifetime. Sorry about that! But coral’s too pretty a colour and too long-lasting a love affair for me to let it hide under the shadows for too long. Stay By Me and Coral Bliss both give my complexion that perfect touch of summer… colour fads come and go but these lovelies are keepers. Gotta coral ‘em all!

MAC Stay By Me Pro Longwear Blush, $210, Office Hours Collection
MAC Coral Bliss Cremesheen Lipstick, $145, Cremesheen & Pearl Collection

Note: these products were provided for my consideration.

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Beauty Spot: Sneak peek… hello my pretties…

Posted on September 29, 2012 | 6 Comments

Lots of exciting beauty stuff crosses my path far too frequently for my wallet’s liking! Here’s a few of the things that have me excited this month (plus the fact that I have finally learned how to use Instagram ha)…

bareMinerals Pure Transformation Night Treatment is an intriguing one – apparently, it’s a sleep mask in powder form! A finely milled tinted powder in a jar with a buffing brush inside the lid, you sweep it on just before bed using their signature ‘Swirl, Tap, Buff’ method of application. It’s meant to reduce the appearance of pores, imperfections and fine lines, rejuvenate skin and give you a more glowing appearance.

I’m really interested in seeing how this one pans out; it’s definitely an unusual twist on your average beauty product and should be quite fun to use! I’m also slightly worried that it’s going to stain my pillow… stay tuned for the full review after a few weeks!

As a genuine Marilyn Monroe fan and not some bandwagon jumper, I was fully expecting the Marilyn Monroe MAC Collection to be a total tack-fest… but when it arrived for me to trial, I instantly fell in love. I WILL NEED ONE OF EVERYTHING.

Beautiful Milton Greene photos? Check. Products in era-appropriate colours that actually stay true to Marilyn’s whole look? Check. Classy rather than tacky packaging. Check, check, check! Collectors (like me) are going to go cray-cray for this.

After initial testing, the lipsticks are the star of the collection, and the pretty blushes are lovely for those of you (like me) with fair complexions. Bizarrely, for someone that has never used a lip liner with any real conviction before, the ones here are truly stellar. Disclaimer: by the time I get my reviews up, the collection will have probably sold out, sorry. So here’s a sneak peek at the nail polish in Kid Orange to tide you over!

Crabtree & Evelyn has upped their game recently with much more modern packaging… and their new Himalayan Blue range may just be THE prettiest packaging they have ever made. I’m going to have real difficulties chucking the boxes away (to be honest, I may not be able to!).

I’m not too keen on some of Crabtree’s heavy floral scents (if you feel the same, try their Pomegranate or Avocado ranges – both smell truly scrumptious), and luckily, the Himalayan Blue range is more musky than sweet. If I ever manage to part with the boxes and properly break open a bottle, that is.

A while ago, I felt that Benefit had got themselves into a bit of a rut but they’ve recently re-found their mojo with some great palettes and new products (their Hello Wow Oxygen Foundation – which is more like a tinted moisturiser – has become a new staple of my make-up bag), and their latest beauty kits are possibly my favourite cosmetics launch of the year (until all the Christmas gift sets get unleashed, of course).

The Complexion and Lip & Cheek Kits come in the most adorable, cute, gorgeous, girlie boxes – the former designed to look like books! I LOVE them. I’m not going to ruin the suspense by telling (or showing!) you what’s inside… full reviews to come…

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Beauty Spot: MAC Casual Colours in Keep It Casual and Relaxation review

Posted on July 2, 2012 | 6 Comments

I’m a big fan of multi-tasking products. Vaseline? Tell me somewhere I don’t use it! (No… not there though… snigger). Blushers slash highlighters? Can’t get enough of ‘em. Bacon? I put it on everything. (Sorry… just had to get my love of bacon in there.)

But lip/cheek stains generally don’t rock my world. Let’s face it – the skin on your lips is extremely different in terms of texture, colour and just about everything else from that on the rest of your face, so for a product to work equally well for both areas seems a bit of a stretch. So although I liked the idea of MAC’s Casual Colours – lightweight pots of creamy colour for both lips and cheek – I can’t say I was expecting great things.

Left to right: MAC Casual Colours in Keep It Casual and Relaxation

In fact, I ended up loving these little multi-tasking lovelies a lot more than expected! The whole aim of the collection is effortless easy make-up (I love MAC’s tagline for this, ‘Stilettos off! Hair down!’) so most of the Casual Colours come in neutral shades for perfecting that carefree au naturel look. Of course, the one I liked the best was the least au naturel in the bunch… well, I do always have to be different!

Keep It Casual is a warm red wine shade, a super-flattering crimson and the type of red lippie that I have basically spent all my life hunting for. As previously discussed here, most locals are afraid of sporting bright red lips (thanks to the commenter on Sassy who told me that Asian girls can’t pull off red lips because of ‘our yellow undertones’… every make-up assistant I’ve ever met told me my skin pulled towards pink or red but never mind, random commenter you know best!). However, rather than making me look like a ghost from a Japanese horror movie (thanks for that comment Mum!), Keep It Casual instead made me feel like Snow White; hair black as ebony (dark brown really but who’s keeping count?!), skin white as snow, lips red as blood… the whole shebang. Now where’s my Prince Charming?!

Keep It Casual has an awesome slightly muted quality, meaning it’s immensely wearable rather than an intense stark statement lip. I’d happily sport this for everyday wear – so suck on that, Sassy commenter!

However, let’s now address the elephant in the room – are Casual Colours any cop as a cheek stain?! Keep It Casual gives a natural red flush that reminded me of the colour you get using Benefit’s Benetint, but texture and looks wise, these aren’t going to be for everyone. The downside of the Casual Colours being a lovely creamy consistency that’s soft and sumptuous on the lips, means it comes across as rather sticky and potentially the wrong side of dewy on the cheeks. I would not recommend this to girls with an oily complexion, nor is it really a natural fit for days spent in sweaty sticky Hong Kong summers.

It’s also intensely pigmented so a light hand and intense blending skills are required! My tip is to use a brush to get the merest swipe of product onto the apples of the cheek, then go full-throttle with your fingers and blend away. Despite the vaguely sticky sensation, once on, it is astonishingly lightweight, meaning you almost forget you’re wearing it – living up to the Casual Colour name!

In an effort to not totally detract from Casual Colours’ theme of au naturel easy beauty, I will also say that my other favourite was Relaxation. MAC claims this is a warm pink, which is a lie, because even I can tell that this is a cool mauve-based pink – and all the prettier because of it. Honestly, I’m not the hugest fan of light lip colours because not only do they tend to blend in with my fair skin, but also my lips are quite pigmented meaning pale colours either give up the ghost and stop trying, or look creepily un-natural (as opposed to au naturel) once on.

Well, it’s not only me that likes to be different! Relaxation surprised me by looking… really rather ravishing if I do say so myself. I thought it looked absolutely lovely as a blush (it’s probably very close to the colour my cheeks would go if I actually bothered to exert myself to any physical exercise) and really pretty and delicate as a lip colour too. This really is an easy effortless everyday look, made all the more easy by the fact you only have to use one product, so (in true Apprentice style) MAC really nailed the brief here… au naturel look, you’re hired!

Top to bottom: Keep It Casual, Relaxation

I do love how lightweight the Casual Colours are, both as blushes and as lip colours, so they’re great for getting that ‘no make-up’ light feel. Wear-wise, they perform almost like stains – as a blush, at least six hours; as a lip colour, around four to six, depending on what exactly you’re letting your lips get up to (keep it clean, guys!). Because of how fabulously-pigmented they are, a little does go a long way – so, despite the fact they are all-in-one multi-taskers, they will also last you aaaages (especially compared with how much product you get to one pot) so I think we can also proclaim these good buys too if you can find a shade that works well for you (and of the four I tried, one looked like death on and another you couldn’t even tell I was wearing anything, so they’re not all winners!).

One pot wonders, MAC Casual Colours are great for the days where basically, you can’t be arsed. A few swipes and you’re ready to get up and go; you can sling ‘em in the handbag for easy touch-ups (if you can even be bothered with that) and lo and behold, you’re ready for your close-up!

MAC Casual Colours in Keep It Casual and Relaxation, MAC Casual Colour Collection Summer 2012, $180

I received these products for my day job at Sassy; read that review here.

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Beauty Spot: MAC Viva Glam makeover for World Aids Day plus giveaway!

Posted on December 26, 2011 | 26 Comments

How many companies make a huge fuss about ‘giving something back’ only for you to read the small print and discover charitable donations are limited to a small percentage of profits or a tiny fraction of the selling price?

Well, not MAC. I was invited to be part of their World Aids Day initiative to coincide with the launch of two new Viva Glam lip products fronted by Lady Gaga – where I discovered that every single penny/cent from the SELLING PRICE of their Viva Glam items goes directly to the MAC Aids Fund. Pretty impressive… and in Hong Kong alone, they’ve raised over $5.3 million over the past five years.

But a bit more about that later. On December 1, World Aids Day itself, MAC artists around the world gathered to distribute red ribbons and condoms to raise awareness about HIV – and I was amongst them! Alongside two of my beauty besties, Danielle and Jenn, we braved the elements (and the indifference of the general public) to hand out condom packs to passers-by outside iSquare in Tsim Sha Tsui.

An interesting experience to say the least. Given I generally get ogled if I expose just one inch of general chest area, I knew we’d be in for a bumpy ride – Danielle even more so when she decided to station herself outside Chungking Mansions! The high/lowlight was one man coming up to ask for seven packs ‘one for each day of the week… every time I change my clothes, I change my women’; oh well, at least he was planning on using condoms! Then there was the man that put his arm round Dani and asked if they were for use with her (balk)… and then there were the Muslims we managed to insult by insinuating they might have sex before marriage.

Having done the best we could, we were then led into the much safer waters of the MAC Training Studio, for a Viva Glam masterclass and make-up demo by MAC artiste extraordinaire, James Molloy.

I think I may love this man. In the past, I’ve found MAC staff somewhat scary and intimidating with their wild make-up looks, but James was so down-to-earth, lovely to chat to (gotta love hearing a Northern accent in HK!) and, most importantly, a dab hand with make-up! He demonstrated three looks using different Viva Glam lipsticks and lipglasses – the latest, Viva Glam Gaga 2, a creamy peachy nude lipstick with an ‘amplified finish’ and a matching beige-nude lipglass; mine and Dani’s favourite, Viva Glam I, a classic matte old-Hollywood scarlet and the very first creation in the Viva Glam line; and Viva Glam V, a neutral pink with a slight shimmer.

He stressed the importance of priming the lips first (using Mac’s Prime & Prep, a soft lip balm-like product that smoothes the surface and makes the colour last longer), advocated the use of blotting and reapplying to create a colour that stays put and generally made Queenie, the model, look rather fabulous (even if she doesn’t look too happy about it in the photos!)… and made it all look very easy!

We also had a chat about Viva Glam in general – in case you didn’t already know, Nicki Minaj and Ricky Martin are the most recently announced spokespeople (and I’ll put money on Minaj doing a bubblegum pink) for the line and Gaga had definite creative input into her choice of colours. I also learnt that ALL of Viva Glam sales, not just profits and not just some piddling percentage of the price, goes towards the MAC Aids Fund, which supports HIV sufferers worldwide and helps fund direct care, prevention and global fight against the disease. Whatever you think about MAC and its products, I don’t think anyone can doubt that this is a really brilliant initiative for such a worthy cause.

No-one else being up for it, I offered myself as guinea pig to James’ capable hands for a quick make-up demo! I rarely wear lipstick (instead going all out on the eyes front), so if I do, I want to make a splash with it – hence my choice of the Hollywood red Viva Glam I! We learnt from a Chinese journalist that local women generally steer clear of such bright lip colours, as they think their lips are too big, and that the colloquial phrase for wearing this lipstick colour is ‘a big basin full of blood’ (血盤大口, ‘huut pun dai hau’), like a monster who’s gorged on some animal! Great!

I personally loved what James did. It might be a little bit more vampire than vamp given how pale my skin is and how long my very dark Morticia Adams hair has become, but it was such a striking look that immediately made me feel gorgeous, glammed-up and red-carpet ready! I usually have difficult finding a red that doesn’t lean pink or orange on me, yet Viva Glam I seemed to do the trick nicely! I will say that I do think you need real confidence to wear bright red lipstick as it tends to magnify any other blemishes or flaws in your complexion and in Hong Kong especially, I’ve noticed it gets you many more stares than usual (or maybe I just notice them more?!).

Dani mentioned that whenever she wears red lipstick, it never lasts the distance and instead, ends up all over her face (what’s she been doing?!). So I decided to put Viva Glam I to the test and wore it for the rest of the day post-makeover. My photos show it after two hours wear, where it’s clearly as strong and saturated as ever. I then went to the Jack Wills opening party later that night; it was still very obvious, if not quite as freshly bloody, so I spruced it up with a slick of Lanolips Lip Tint (in Apple, an amazing product that I will be reviewing properly later) – you can check out some photos of me at the event on Jasmine’s fab blog here, which shows how Viva Glam I was holding up some 4-6 hours after application. If you can’t be bothered to look, the answer is pretty bloody well! By 8-10 hours, it was wearing off, but my boyfriend was still able to detect I had some red tint to my lips. Viva Glam I is obviously intensely-pigmented and boasts a gorgeous matte finish, but the downside to this is that it’s slightly drying – one coat of Prep & Prime beforehand does help matters significantly!

I’ll have separate swatches and full reviews for the two new Gaga Viva Glam lip products, but first I have a fantastic MAC giveaway for you all! You lucky devils can win the MAC goodie bag shown below for your make-up pleasure – including a fluid line gel eyeliner, mascara, mineralize blush, duo eyeshadow, lipglass, lipliner and a MAC World Aids day t-shirt. All you have to do is leave a comment saying who would be your ideal Viva Glam spokesperson and make sure you enter a valid email address in the comment form (so I can contact you if you win!).

The winner of the giveaway was Miss ChicMcMuffin – congrats girl, and enjoy the make-up!

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Here Today, Haul Tomorrow

Posted on September 10, 2011 | 15 Comments

It’s that time again… another EPIC haul post. So here’s what I’ve been buying over the past few months. Non-shopaholics look away now!

I loved the look of the Chanel’s Fall 2011 Illusion D’Ombre Collection, which marks their first foray into cream eyeshadows in nearly ten years (and as we know, I’m currently loving my cream shadows), plus some of their highly-coveted limited-edition sell-out nail polishes. The eye shadows are all kinds of gorgeous – shimmery, lightweight and extremely easy to use – and I picked up Illusoire (a smoky mauve), Epatant (a silvery khaki) and Emerveille (a shimmering peach). I have, wonder of wonders, actually swatched these so you can expect a review soon! I also got the nail lacquer in Graphite and a free sample of eye make-up remover.

These Stila Beach Palettes are the result of ‘which one should I buy… oh, I’ll just buy them all syndrome.’ Which happens to me a lot! They contain four eye shadows and two blushes/highlighters each, they’re super-cute and they were only £10 quid each. What’s not to love?

They’re from Lookfantastic.com, who I’ve already sung the praises of in my previous haul, who have since gone one better – by crowning me the winner of a competition to win a £75 beauty hamper! The spoils of my victory are shown here and I’m most excited about the mini bottle of Moroccan Oil, which I have been dying to try for ages yet never dared take the plunge full-size – and full-price!

My latest beauty discovery is Nars, thanks to the bessie beauty blogger Jenn. I love bright non-neutral colours, and it seems Nars does too! I picked up eyeshadow duos in Noveau Monde, Eurydice and Sugarland, plus a single in Strada, this amazing gold-dusted lavender. My wonderful boyfriend then bought me some goodies from their limited-edition Night Series collection – the Night Series Palette and two nail polishes, Night Flight and Night Rider, which are based on the eyeshadow colours and are seriously STUNNING. As usual, reviews to come!

Illamasqua had a summer sale so I used this as an opportunity to try my first make-up from the brand, which launched in the UK after I left. Service was brilliant – the order was beautifully-packaged, came with a catalogue, arrived by registered delivery and came within a week of ordering! I got two nail polishes – Raindrops (which I’d been lusting after since this post) and Poke, the Liquid Metals Palette, a Loose Pigment in Involve and a Liquid Metal in Stoic, both of which were on sale. Can’t wait to try these as they look all kinds of intensely awesome.

Clinique also have a new range of cream eyeshadows out – the deliciously-named Lid Smoothies. Colours, as ever with Clinique, are un-exciting but the formula and quality is great – I got Bit O’ Honey (a glistening light gold), Cashew Later (a super-versatile neutral) and probably the star of the collection, Born Freesia (a light lilac). I also stocked up on their Anti-Blemish Foaming Cleanser, one of my make-up miracles, and their Derma-White City Block, a great anti-pollution base with a high SPF that I loved from a free sample. Mega-spend with Clinique equalled a pretty awesome bag of freebies too!

I also got my Mum to send me over some stuff from Boots – can you guess which item I might be stocking up on because it’s been discontinued?! Yes, my make-up miracle, the Benefit Get Bent Eyeliner Brush SOB. I also got two of Benefit’s Creaseless Cream Shadows in Skinny Jeans and Birthday Suit, a load of toothbrush heads (which I’ve spared you) and some super-moisturising Lanolips stuff, another brand I’ve been dying to try. I got the Intense Rose Balm For Very Dry Hands & Nails (remember how my hands are falling apart?), Lemonaid Lip Aid, 101 Ointment and their coloured Lip Ointments in Dark Honey, Apple and Rhubarb (my lips are now falling apart too). Lanolips will be launching in HK soon, but as usual for mega-bucks…

After Benefit also discontinued my holy-grail, one-and-only blusher/miracle, Georgia, I’ve been one the hunt for a suitable replacement. And ever since Mac’s Semi-Precious Collection, I’ve been obsessed with baked, marbleised make-up. Enter Laura Geller, a brand which comes with great word-of-mouth Stateside and again, posted over by my Mum via QVC. I got Blush N Brighten blushers in Golden Apricot and Pink Grapefruit (I love that these come with brushes too!) and the Backstage Beauty Kit, which includes a Blush N Brighten Highlighter Duo in Como/Portofino, a Baked Eyeshadow Duo in Rome/Milan and a Lip Lights Lip Gloss in Dewberry. Can’t wait to try these stunners either!

Another Mac haul from their latest Mac Me Over Collection. The Icelandic Cool section was, sadly for my wallet, totally my colours! Again, amazing boyfriend gifted me the Lady Grey Eyeshadow Palette and four Shadesticks, in Tundra, Cakeshop, Heirloom and Street Cool (Butternutty is still to come, thanks to the lovely Vicky!).

I also won a Lush competition to win their Limited Edition John Burgerman Bath Bomb Set – I absolutely love the colourful tin, which is definitely a keeper, and the bath bombs look like sweets! Is this a bad time to admit I don’t actually have a bath?!

What haul post of mine would this be without some nail polish! Zoya’s Smoke & Mirrors Collection is one of my favourite collections in ages – two halves, one with a dusty murky shades (Smoke), the other with glimmering glittering smoky shades (Mirrors), and a ridiculous amount of purples. I picked up Jana, Neeka, Yara and Jem – how could I resist a polish named after Jem & The Holograms, only my favourite cartoon of ALL-TIME! Spot the odd OPI out, Grape… Set… Match!

And finally, the piece de resistance, the Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Eyeshadow Palette. Ugh… how GORGEOUS is this?! Thanks to my lovely Mother I’ll leave you with a few pics revelling in its ultra-luxeness… try and keep your drool to yourselves!

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