Nars Holiday 2011-Color Collection

Here are items from Nars Holiday Color collection. It's a nice collection, the only letdown for me was the trio-the promo pics seem so awesome but when applied it's just not as vibrant. Anyway here's what I picked up:

Arabian Night Trio
(I wished the colors really did apply like it looks in the pan)

Swatches:

Much like other Night Series shadows-the Arabian Nights colors look very sooty when applied dry and without primer.

Ponderosa Cream Shadow
(I always think of the word "steak" when I hear Ponderosa)

Swatches:



L->R: Ponderosa, Arabian Night trio over Ponderosa
The cream shadow definitely helped to bring out the glittery color more in the Arabian Night Shadows although all three still looked very similar.


Top row: Ponderosa and Arabian Night over Poderosa
Bottom Row: Arabian Night dry swatches

The new multiple in G Spot was an item I wasn't sure if I would pick up but once I swatched it, I really liked the color for fall. It has a subtle shimmer and the color a pretty rosey color (not as brown as the picture looks)


My weakness in life is colored eyeliners:

Top: Campo di Fiori
Bottom: St. Marks Place

Swatches:

L->R: St. Marks, Campo di Fiori and G Spot (light swatch)

And the last item is the Mandchourie eyeshadow duo
(shimmery golden olive blue and matte navy):


Dry swatches

Swatch on the right is the shimmer shade layered over the matte shade. I'm still undecided about this duo. The shadows felt smooth but color payoff was a bit iffy. I'll have to play with it more and test it with some primer :)

So, the cream shadow, eyeliners and multiple were hits for me but the trio and duo haven't quite won me over. I wished the trio wasn't black based and showed up as the pan color. I'm also debating on the Joyous Red lip color. I'm normally not a red lip wearer but I liked that it fell on the more warm brick vibe which I think I could pull off more easily for daytime. All items are now available on sephora.com and narscosmetics.com and I've spotted them in store at various counters too.

Bobbi Brown Fall '09: Metallic cream eyeshadows

It's hot and humid but I wandered over to Bloomies to take another look at the Make-up Art collection from MAC. I decided to hold off on getting anything but I decided to wander the cosmetic area to see if anything was new. I normally just take a quick glance at Bobbi Brown-a lot of times the colors are pretty but they don't scream to me, but I noticed they had put out the new metallic cream eye shadows-yay!

Luckily the associates were busy with other customers so I could swatch in peace. First pic is in natural sunlight inside the store near the front windows, second one is with flash. There are 8 colors in all for the metallic cream eye shadows, swatch on far right is the new gel eyeliner.

(ok, it's late and I didn't notice that "mercury"
was really big till I posted. oops)

These eye shadows are shimmery metallic goodness! Each has multi colored sparkle to them (click pic to better see it), have a super smooth texture (although not as buttery as the gel liners) and are really long wearing. After having the swatches on my hand for a few minutes, it definitely took some rubbing with make-up remover to get it all off. I was trying to resist Starry purple but I couldn't. I also bought chrome patina and black pearl. I am so tempted to get more.

I also picked up the new gel eyeliner in forest shimmer ink. It's a nice dark brown with a golden shimmer to it. I'm definitely glad I made a pit stop at the Bobbi Brown today to pick up these gorgeous new colors.

Jill Stuart Summer 2009-Eye jelly and lip jelly

It was an icky rainy day in NYC, I was cheered up by having access to waffles near the office and the fact that I had gotten a few of the new Jill Stuart items in the mail.

I couldn't resist getting some of the new eye jellys. I loved the shimmer that they give and they last quite a long time. I ended up putting on 2 colors this afternoon and they held all day (I did have some udpp and eyeshadow on as well). I ordered the 3 eye jellys: berry sparkle, crystal sky and midnight shine. Berry sparkle is a bright pink color, crystal sky is a mauve-y color and midnight shine is more of a dark indigo (purple/blue) than a dark navy as the swatch online shows.

L-R: Berry sparkle, crystal sky and midnight shine

Crystal sky is the eye color worn in the JS advertisement for this collection along with Dimond snow (pearly white, not pictured). On lips, the model is wearing the lip jelly in Sensual Nude, which I also fell in love with. The jelly has a very nice texture, it gives your lips lots of shimmer and shine without being sticky.

Swatches! Sensual nude on top.
Berry sparkle, crystal sky and midnight shine on bottom, L ->R

In case anyone was wondering, the new eye jellys have the same fruity scent consistency as the old jellys, but there are differences in the packaging.

Overall, new container is smaller and more decorated than old container.

The opening is also smaller in the new container.


However, both containers are label as 6g. Upon closer inspection, the new container is actually deeper than the old container and goes pass the part with the grooves for the lid while the old container was more shallow.

For summer 09, there was also a new illuminance eye shadow palette released but it didn't catch my eye enough to purchase. I am looking forward to perhaps getting more jellys =)

Urban Decay Cream Shadow

I was glad that when I went to Sephora today, they had the new cream shadows from Urban decay so I could test out all the colors in person. The shadows are very vibrant and there is a good range of colors. I have not worn them for a full day but once dried they didn't smudge on my hand and needed some make-up remover and rubbing to take off. Sorry the pic is blurry-the bb has a crappy camera.

(Going from top to bottom)
Left column: radium, weeds, grass, suburbia, rehab
Middle column: sphynx, delinquent, mushroom, midnight rodeo
Right column: whipped, underground (liner, not shadow), asphalt, moonshine

Same pic as above with flash

I ended up getting sphynx, asphalt, weeds radium and mushroom. Midnight rodeo was tempting but it's very much like the urban decay primer in Sin-just with more glitter. Not all of them have glitter and they are at varying degrees. i.e Moonshine and asphalt are very glittery. Delinquent, rehab and whipped have a just a metallic sheen. Radium and Grass did not have much sheen imho. These are nice shadows as stand alone or to be used as a in combination with other shadows.

Laura Mercier Satinee Creme Eye Color

I had seen Laura Mercier Satinee Creme Eye Color on the Nordstrom website. I had liked the Metallic Cream Eye colors that this company offers so I figure I would give this product a try.So when I was at bloomies I stopped by the Laura Mercier counter even though it seems that this bloomies never has all the new make up in stock, to my surprise they did have Satinee Cream Eye Colors.

Just like the Metallic creams, the Satinee Cremes come in a little tube-in fact I thought they didn't have the Satinee cremes because they were displayed right next to the metallic creams and blended right in with them. Although once I swatched them all on my hand, they are very different. The metallics have a nice sheen to them, while the Satinee are much more matte. They do have a very soft pearl shimmer to them. The shadow was very smooth and you didn't need very much to get a strong color. The staying power was also impressive. I had walked away from the counter with my hand full of swatches and went to the 2nd fl to take the pic before I wiped it off and It took some rubbing to get all the color off. I ended up using some lotion to help make it give a bit. I'm thinking this will be a good base color or for days when you want a simple matte color for the eyes.

Sorry, the pic is a bit blurry under strange store lighting.

Here are the colors currently available (From top left, going clockwise):
Cocoa velour was a dark brown
Pink Chiffon was a warm pink with subtle golden shimmer
Peach Organza was a bright orangey peach
Stone Suede was a smokey grey
Rum Satin was a medium brown
Ecru Silk was an off white with a subtle gold shimmer

I had thought I would like the Stone Suede but it was a bit of a boring gray to me. I ended up getting Pink Chiffon and the Ecru Silk and the SA congratulated me as being the first to purchase this product. :)