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.

Hello Kitty Mac release party

It was a cold and snowy night. I stood in line for about 30 mins so I could attend the Hello Kitty release party at the Mac store in Soho. There were 2 half-naked models wearing large Hello Kitty heads, no shirt and pleather pants. I saw one when I was standing in line and I burst out laughing. I felt so bad for them. It was more funny than cute.

The store only had 2 displays for the Hello Kitty collection and 1 display for the Creamteam (cremeteam) items so it was insane trying to test things out. I didn't actually get my hands on everything since it was such a madhouse. I was a part of the first group who got in but they continously let people in and soon enough it was packed in the little store with hardly any room to move. I grabbed the things that looked liked I would like it and tested it quickly and moved on. I ended up getting HK lipstick in Lavender Mews (Frosty lavender pink) and Cutester (beige with a gold shimmer; HK lipgloss in Mimmy (pinky coral with gold shimmer); HK lashes; HK brush set with holder; HK purse mirror, and HK keychain. From the creamteam collection, I got the lipstick in Lavender Whip (lavender cream) and Creme Cup (beige pink). I also grabbed the cremesheen lipgloss in Melt in Your Mouth and Petite Indulgence. I though I would get a HK eye shadow palette but the colors didn't really scream to me. I also passed on the pigments since I don't usually use them. I was tempted to give the glitter liners a shot but I didn't get to test them out.

Top row: Melt in Your Mouth and Petite Indulgence
Bottom row: Creme Cup, Lavender Whip, Lavender Mews, Mimmy and Cuteser

Close-up of the HK Lavender Mews lipstick
Isn't the HK stamp on it cute?

I was mainly at the event to get my hands on the HK accessories. I didn't think I would like the HK brush and holder since I thought it would be a fairly large thing, but it turns out it was pretty tiny. The brushes are nothing amazing, I've seen all three in previous mac brush sets.

I had already made my purchases in 30 mins but I stayed around because I really wanted a balloon. I finally got it after waiting around forever and ran home so I could play with my stuff. The BF thought I was crazy, oh well.

Stila + Barbie Collection

Stila has recently come out with a set of collector cans celebrating Barbie through the decades. I decided to get the 1980 foxy can and the 2000 Jewel doll can. Each can comes with a light color eyeshadow, a darker crease eyeshadow and a cheek color in the palette. There is also a lip glaze and mascara included.

Foxy has a beige with a golden sheen, a medium brown color with a golden sheen and a matte deep peach cheek color. The lip glaze is a sheer tangerine color with a fruity scent.

Jewel has a cool pale frosty pink, a dark brown with a subtle sheen and a shimmery pale pink cheek color. The lip glaze is a deep pink color with a rosy scent.

Top: Foxy Doll; Bottom: Jewel Doll

I liked the shades in the palette. They are good neutrals with a nice shimmer. Both cheek colors are pretty nice, although the pale pink of the Jewel barely showed up on my skin tone. I was surprised by the gooey-ness of the lip glazes, both colors are nice but the texture was a bit slimy and the fragrance, especially the Jewel pink, was a bit strong.

Sephora-New items for Spring

I've been sephora.com stalking for the past few days. New items from Stila, Urban Decay, Tarte and Givenchy are available. I was lamenting the fact though that none of the store had any of the new items up so I would have to guess which color I would like best. Hardest thing to try and pick was a foundation. I gave Tarte's new anti-aging foundation a shot but I guessed wrong and got a shade waaay too dark. I ordered the 2 shades under in hopes that I would get a nice match but before my order has shipped I found them in one of the sephora stores and checked out the testers-none of the shades suited me blah. So now I will have 2 foundations to return when I do get my order.

I also found a sephora that had the new pearl shimmer lip glosses from Stila. I ordered kitten (a bronzey shade) and ocean current (a berry shade) judging from the online color swatches. When I did test out all the lip gloss shades. The kitten and south sea pearl were completely lost on me. They gave my lips some shimmer but really showed no color. The ocean current gave a nice tint of berry and the pearlescent pink gave a tint of pale pink. The glosses were very smooth and non-sticky. I like that they gave shimmer but not the glittery kind. I tried to capture a hand swatch in the store but my phone did not cooperate. I will post a pic of the 2 colors I got soon.

Urban Decay Primer Potion - Sin (First Impression)

I got my Sephora goodies today. It was one of the fastest orders I've gotten from them. I had jumped at the chance to order the new Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin. I just recently started using the regular potion primer. I was always skeptical of primers and I figure using them would just be adding another step to my make up routine, but lo and behold I am a believer now after testing out the trial sizes provided with the lastest Urban Decay eyeshadow palettes. It helps to bring out the color in many shadows so I don't have to pile a lot on and my eyeshadow stays on much better and doesn't crease (ok, after a looong day there might be a teensy bit of creasing).

The primer in sin is a pink beige champagne color with a nice sheen to it. It would be nice by itself and as a base for other shadows. I dusted some purple shadow over my hand swatch and it became a nice metallic lilac purple color. I will definitely have to play with it a bit more but here is a preliminary pic:

The packaging is a bit different from the other UDPP. Instead of a matte/gloss box. This primer comes in a plastic clear box with a fuzzy purple tray. It's about the length of a ball point pen and I do believe it's the same as the deluxe size of the regular UDPP. I will compare when I get home.

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. :)

Clarins Natural Temptation Palette

I saw the Clarins Natural Temptations Palette online and I thought it looked like a great set of shadows. I've never used Clarins make -up before and I figure I would give it a try. When I took the compact out of the box, it was nice to see that it had a very nice design-shiny silver with a pink floral design. I was trying to take pics of the outside but all I would get was a reflection my camera or glare, but here's the inside of the palette.

The eye shadows were more matte than I expected and when I was trying to do the hand swatches it felt like I had to apply a lot for the colors to show up. When I tried wearing the shadow, it had pretty poor color pay off too. It was better when I used some urban decay lid primer but still kind of sheer. I might have to play around with this palette a bit more before I write it off completely but it's definitely not a stand out for me.