Paul & Joe Spring 2011 + Crackle Notd

There was another bout of snow in New York today, it made me even more eager for Spring to arrive already. Until then, I'll have to settle for the pretty Paul & Joe Spring colors.

The new eye colors for spring are really interesting. They have a soft slippy texture almost like the ombre magnetique shadows from Lancome. They pack a lovely shimmer to them. The leaflet included suggest applying the shadow with your finger. Pics below are in natural light indoors.

Top: 002(Woman With a Parasol), 003(Sunbeam),
Bottom: 004(Pique-Nique), 005 (En Plein Air)




002(Woman With a Parasol), 003(Sunbeam)


004(Pique-Nique), 005 (En Plein Air)


Random eotd using 002~the flash washed out the color a bit :(

Pretty packaging-the nail polishes and eye shadow duos share the same design on their boxes

007 Dapple and 009 Ray


010 Splendor and 008 Sunshine

Indoor flash

Indoor natural light

L->R: 007, 009, 011 Prism (no bottle pic), 010 and 008

Polishes do have the signature Paul & Joe floral scent.

Last week I got my set of China Glaze Crackle polishes. I was on the fence whether I liked the look or not based on the OPI Black shatter pics I've seen, but being able to have different colored crackle seemed pretty fun.



I decided to test them out over the Paul & Joe polishes

L->R: Crushed candy over 008 Sunshine, Lightening Bolt over 010 Splendor, Fault Line over 007 Dapple, and Cracked Concrete over 009 Ray

My favorite was Fault Line over Dapple. Forgot to take a pic with my reg camera. I only had this cell phone pic:


Then after a few days, I decided to let 007 Dapple shine on it's own:

NY Fashion's Night Out~Mac Black Collection and Chanel Jade Polish

Looking at the list of participants for New York Fashion's Night Out, I was overwhelmed and didn't know if I would have the energy to check out too many stores, but I walked around enough to get a feel for things.

My first stop was the Chanel boutique. They were doing a manicure event and doing an exclusive release of the Jade nail polish. It's a really pretty shade of pistachio green with a green shimmer to it. There was also a color called Jade Rose that was a light nude color with a bit of rose shimmer to it (pretty as well but a bit *yawn*). I ran in, bought the polish and ran out. The manicure event had not started yet but a crowd was already forming.

Next stop was Mac, stood on line once again and waited for the doors to open. They were doing a preview of the Black Collection. The mineralized eye shadows were pretty but they reminded me of the Too Faced metallic metor eye shadows which I already have. I actually think the Too Faced shadows have more pigment to them. *Edit* It wasn't the Too Faced shadows I had in mind-the shadows are shimmery but not sparkly like the Mac shadows. I swear I've see dupes of these, I just need to think. The Mac shadows were black based but they seemed dusty, the shimmer in them was pretty though. The glimmerglasses were along the same vein, sheer black base with bright shimmer. I might go back after the official release to re-visit the glosses but eh.

A nice base for the eye shadows was the grease paintstick that was release, it was described as a deep black but I detect a faint purple shimmer to it. The paintstick comes in a shadestick type of packaging. It goes on creamy, but once set its suppose to be smudge proof.

There were also 3 polishes. Baby Goth Girl is a shimmery burgundy color with gold flecks, Nocturnelle is a black cream and Seriously Hip was a dark bronze color. I only picked up Baby Goth Girl, although I will probably go and get Seriously Hip later on. *Update: I added an additional pic of Baby Goth Girl so you can see the flecks more*

Top: Baby Goth Girl (I was hoping the flecks would show up more),
Nocturnelle and Seriously Hip
Bottom: Grease paintstick

Here's the EOTD I had today for work. I'm wearing the Stila Little Black Dress as my liner. I kept the line thin so it wasn't too sparkly. I have the pastel pink color on from the All Doll'd Up palette and a soft grey in the crease (which had faded by the end of the day).

I added on the grease paintsick and made a thicker line

I applied the Bobbi Brown metallic creme shadow in Starry Purple all over my lid. The grease paintstick definitely help the shimmer in the Starry Purple to stand out more. Lined the lower eye line with black liner (which I swear I could not easily fine. I have various colored eyeliner pencils but I could not find a black one) and added Mac pearlglide liner in Rave on top of the black liner. Can't wait for Dsquared collection to come out next month with the grease paintsticks in other colors.

Coffret D'Or -Purple, Visee, EOTDs and NOTDs

I liked the blue green Coffret D'Or Color Mixing Eyes palette so much that I decided to get the purple lavender one too.

Indoor lighting no flash and with flash

Swatches:


I actually put on this palette right away at work since I didn't get a chance to put on any make up in the am. Thank goodness I can close my office door at lunch and primp away.

Also wearing the Shiseido mascara base and MM lash expander-yay! for lashes that actually show up in pics!

On the topic of summer palettes, today I received 2 of the new Visee Brilliance Forming Eyes. I had really liked the Blackish Forming Eyes palettes and the blue (A-5) brilliance forming palette really called to me (even though I have a bijillion other blue palettes, lol). I also got the green shade (A-4) another color that I have tons of variations but somehow I think I will find a different one, lol. These palettes have very good pigmentation and the colors are very smooth and shimmery just like the Blackish Forming palettes. One difference is that the color on the lower left is a cream shade. I don't know what it is with the cream shadow kick going on for the summer collections.

Natural lighting

With flash

The green palette has a light green with yellow shimmer, medium olive green, a bronze-y green color and a golden white cream shadow. The first 2 two colors remind me of the Esprique Precious Dress On Shiny Eyes palette in C-4, go figure considering they are both from the Kose.

The blue palette has a light shimmery blue, a light cornflower blue, a dark indigo with multi color shimmer and a silver white cream shadow. The swatches are looking a bit more purple in pictures than in real life.

Natural lighting


With Flash

I couldn't wait to wear the blue palette:

For mascara-it's Shiseido base and Guerlain Waterproof mascara in Bleu Cruise (the blue color actually shows up!)

A few days ago, I wore the JS eye jelly in Midnight shine with Nars South Pacific eyeshadow duo. I'm also wearing Prestige Total Intensity eyeliner in Deepest Black. Mascara is Shiseido base and MM lash expander.

That's it for the EOTD's!

Moving on to nails! I had decided to try Calgel wraps earlier this month. I went to the same salon that M had gone to for her nails. It was a nice place but I was just ok with how my nails came out. I liked the base color but it wasn't as smooth as I would like since gel was near the end of the container, the color was uneven in spots.

I left the wraps on for about a week and I got tired of it. I also thought that it was starting to chip a bit. In the first week, the salon is willing to fix any chipping, but it wasn't worth the trek for me to go back to the salon and it was very minor. I think I just noticed bc I was staring at my nails all the time. The wraps did help my nails grow a bit and they were pretty easy to soak off although since I got glitter tips-it required a lot more effort since there were extra layers of calgel.

Anyway I got them off and painted my nails with a faceshop polish in a really pretty lilac color:

I added glitter at the tips and some konad stamping =)

Hope everyone has a good weekend!