Favourite highlight eyeshadows / pigments

So I'm on a bit of a roll with the swatching and after doing the blush swatches I thought I would go ahead and do some eyeshadow and pigment swatches.  Now for me light coloured eyeshadows really get me excited.  I love to put them all over the lid for an everyday look.  Here are some of the ones I own.  I'll talk a bit more about my favourites after I list the colours...

From left to right -

1. NYX Ultra Pearl Mania Pigment - Nude
2. Stila eyeshadow - Starlight
3. MAC pigment - Naked
4. MAC eyeshadow - Retrospeck
5. MAC eyeshadow - Naked Lunch
6. MAC eyeshadow - Dazzlelight
7. Urban Decay eyeshadow - Virgin
8. Urban Decay eyeshadow - Sin
9. Urban Decay eyeshadow - Sidecar

Now I know I shouldn't really have put side car in there but I just love that eyeshadow so I wanted to put it in.  It is glittery but it's just gorgeous.  Do skip on it though if you aren't into shimmer.

The one that is definitely disappointing is the MAC pigment.  It is gorgeous but not very pigmented.  It does give a gorgeous iridescence though.  It would probably work really well over another eyeshadow.  But like you can see in the photo it hardly shows up.

Overall the Urban Decay eyeshadows have the best pigmentation, extremely creamy.  They're just gorgeous. 

For a price point the NYX pigment is very surprising, quite nice but a lil difficult to use with its packaging.  

My favourite colours thought are Naked lunch and Dazzlelight from MAC.  Dazzlelight is simply gorgeous, a very frosty light pink highlight, but for a frosty colour its very wearable.  Naked lunch is also pinky but much warmer.  Naked lunch is like my natural skin colour but shimmery.  Dazzlelight is more on the cool side, but I tend to prefer cooler colours rather than warm colours.  Virgin is also a really gorgoues highlight and inner corner tear duct colour.

Stila is also very surprising in terms of pigmentation and colour.  It makes a really nice highlight.

You can also use any of these eyeshadows and cheek highlighters.

Hope you enjoyed this and hopefully it was helpful to someone!

Blush swatches

I've been searching on the net for swatches lately for things like concealer, foundation etc and I just thought that it might be really helpful for others like me if I posted swatches of some of the things I own! So just to start off with, since I have quite a few blushes I thought that I would do swatches of them.  I hope this is helpful to someone!  I might talk about my favourite ones also.

From left to right:

1. Smashbox (the blush side) - Baked cheek due on On the town
2. NYX Rouge Cream blush - Rose Petal
3. NYX Rouge Cream blush - Glow
4. M.A.C - Well Dressed
5. Smashbox - Famous
6. NYX - Pinky
7. Clinique - Bashful Plum
8. E.l.f - Fuchsia Fusion
9. Sleek - Rose Gold
10. Sleek - Pomegranate.

The only ones I really don't like unfortunately are M.A.C well dressed, but only because it hardly shows up on my skin tone.  I'm not all that tanned, medium tan in the summer and quite pale in the winter.  I will still keep this blush but perhaps only use in the winter time.  It's a bit like Dandelion from Benefit which I haven't swatched yet.  Its really gorgeous but hardly shows up even if you are a little bit tanned.  (If you're wondering I'm about a NW25 in M.A.C)

The cream blushes from NYX are awesome for their pigmentation, although they do take a little bit of work to blend them nicely.  I want to eventually get some MAC ones to compare.

My favourite smashbox blush has to be famous, it really warms up your face and looks just gorgeous.

The sleek blushes are also really really nice because they are so smooth and apply so nicely to the cheek. 

If you are going for a natural flush, clinique bashful plum is great as is NYX - Rose Petal.  But I think my favourite of this bunch is Fuchsia Fusion.  It does have a lil bit of sparkle but I always feel really pretty when I wear it :)

So I hope that's helpful for all of you.  If you're wondering where I get my products from please have a look at this post.

Random post - Friends baby Kasandra ;)

Short vid of my friends lil bub.  She's sooo cute - only 2 days old.  Well done Michelle! Welcome to the world Kasandra xoxo

Chanel Blush deals

In summer I like to wear minimal makeup and focus on mascara and blush.  Chanel makes gorgeous blushes and although they are expensive they are simply gorgeous and look soo nice on!   Go here for some great deals =)


Happy Holidays!

Some favourite makeup looks

Just wanted to post some looks that I found online that I really like.  They are all a bit similar haha. oh well.  I want to try them out :D


Dior:

Givenchy:

YSL:

Guerlain:

Nars:

M.A.C:

Tell me which is your fav :-)

Awesome makeup sites

I just wanted to do a quick post to just let you (the few people that follow :P) the websites that I like to buy my makeup from. 


1) TRADEME


Trademe is a good place to find bargains if you don't mind buying second hand stuff.  I don't mind second stuff but I do usually buy brand new things especially lip products and foundation.  But its good if you are just starting out and want some quality eyeshadows but don't want to pay RRP.  What I do is I save my search on MAC, Benefit and other brands I like, so that when new stuff is uploaded I am notified via email.  Great way to just keep your eye out for bargains!


2) Ebay


Now you have to be very careful with ebay because there are alot of sellers selling fake stuff.  But all in all I've had good experiences with ebay.  You generally get a cheaper price from ebay just because there are so many different sellers.  I've gotten some neat stuff off there.  Just be sure to check sellers feedback percentages.


3) Crush Cosmetics

This is an Australian site that ships to NZ.  They have some great stuff on here like NYX, Milani, Elf and others.  Their products are pretty good quality and reasonable prices as well.  The shipping is slightly expensive but well packaged and it usually arrives from 1week to a week and a half so not bad.


4) StrawberryNET

One of my favourite places to shop.  There is so much stuff on this site and they ship extremely fast.  They have alot of high brand cosmetics and discounted prices.  Sometimes you can find some really awesome stuff on there as well.  They sometimes offer cosmetics like 20-50% off which is awesome.  I got a Bobbi Brown shimmer brick from there for only NZD$50 I was like wow.. they're usually so expensive.  I buy my foundation from this website and also my face care stuff.  (I love dermalogica! :-))




5) GracieLou


They lady that owns this lil online shop is a kiwi and she's super nice.  I actually won a perfume from her website as she was doing a little competition for FB fans at the time.  I was so surprised and even skeptical that I had won anything.. but sure enough it came in the mail all wrapped up nicely :D.  She has some good stuff at very good prices and she ships super super fast.  I like her Smashbox stuff because its very good quality and pretty cheap too!


Well those are the main sites that I use.  I hope its helpful to someone :D

My new lip combos

I'm a big fan of lipsticks and lipgloss.  No matter where I am going, they are a must have in my handbag.
I just thought I would do a quick post about the new lipsticks and lipglosses I've been combining lately.


I like to have a few pale lipglosses in my collection, just to tone down some of the very bright coloured lipsticks I have to make them more wearable for everyday.


Right now I'm wearing MAC fleshpot with Smashbox's lip enhancing gloss in sand.  I love it., its a neutral lip but its sheer.  I make it sheer by not piling on the lipstick., I kind of tap it on to get a thin layer rather than it being really opaque.  Then I layer the gloss on top and it gives a light glossy look, but also neutralises the colour of my very pigmented lips.. Just love it!

MAC fleshpot

Smashbox lip enhancing gloss in sand

Sometimes I use MAC lip erase to neutralise my lip colour, but MAC's fleshpot kind of does the same thing but with a slightly pink undertone.  Its a little bit more pretty as well with a satin finish.


Anyway that's my post for today! Hope its helpful to someone.


xo
Kirst