Lancome Spring 2011 polish-Violet Groove and Le 54

I saw that the Ultra Lavande collection for Spring was available on the Lancome website and I couldn't wait to get my mitts on the nail polishes-Violet Groove (violet creme) and Le 54 (sheer violet with blue glitter).

Here are the polishes with flash:

L->R: Violet groove, Le 54

Bottle pic without flash:

Swatches!

Violet groove (2 coats)


Le 54 (4 coats)


Pinkie-1 coat of Le 54 over Violet groove

I love Le 54 even though you need tons of coats to make it look opaque. The coats dried pretty fast though so it wasn't that time consuming. Here's the final notd:

I also picked up the Ombre Magnetique in Disco Gold and Ultra Lavande. I really like the texture of these and they make nice eyeshadow bases. Will post pics soon!

Hello Kitty x Sephora swatches

The Hello Kitty x Sephora collection is now officially available online. I've seen a handful of items at one of the Sephora stores in town so the line should soon be in-stores as well.

The Say Hello Palettes has 4 eye shadows and 4 lip glosses. For the Super Fun palette (Click here for product pics) the eye shadows are: Sugar Plum (pale lilac), Raindrop (dark grey), Sweet Plum (smoky purple with silver sparkles) and Goodnight Dreams (black with silver sparkles); the lip glosses are: Snowflake (clear), Pink confetti (sheer pink), Strawberry Cookie(sheer mauve) and Sweet plum (sheer plum). The eye shadows were nice, but the lip colors were super sheer so they were a bust.

Top (l->r): Snowflake, Pink confetti, Strawberry Cookie, Sweet plum

Bottom (l->r): Sugar Plum, Raindrop, Sweet Plum, Goodnight Dreams

The kohl eyeliner set has 7 liners-Goodnight Dreams (Black), Grape Juice (Violet), Chocolate Milk (Dark Brown), Happy Cloud (Light Gold), Blueberry (Turquoise), Bicycle (Forest Green), and Blue Sky (Navy). The liners are super smooth and the colors are lovely but they do seem to smudge pretty easily.

l->r: Goodnight Dreams, Grape Juice, Chocolate Milk,
Happy Cloud, Blueberry, Bicycle, Blue Sky

I decided to try the eyeshadow stick in Cupcake (light gold) and Cream Puff (silvery purple). They go on very smooth and makes a nice eyeshadow base. Cream puff was a great base for the eye shadows from the Super Fun palette.

The Big Smile gloss is a bit sticky but gives has a nice pigmentation to it. Swatch below is for Cheery (Medium pink).

The Sweet glosses, on the other hand, are pretty sheer and only give a hint of color. Below are swatches for Pink Bow (Sheer pink), Peachy (Sheer coral) and Goldfish (shimmery gold). All the Lip colors have a sweet fruity smell to them that reminded me a bit of sanrio erasers when I was growing up.

Top (l->r): Cupcake, Cream puff
Bottom (l->r): Cheery, Pink Bow, Peachy, Goldfish

I also tried out the nail polishes and nail stickers. Will post up pics for those items soon!

Overall, the Hello Kitty x Sephora items are nice but not necessarily amazing. The best part for me was the packaging-it was cute but not too cutesy. I liked that the Hello Kitty motif was printed on the products and not stickered on. The packaging design was pretty clean for the items and not gaudy. As for picking up more from this collection, I will probably try a more eyeshadow sticks and nail polish. I did not get many of the accessories items since I knew I wouldn't really use them. Between this collection and the Mac one, I think I may like this one a bit more for the more pleasing packaging and variety of products. Which one do you prefer?

Revlon Not So Blueberry Scented Polish

During my latest drugstore hopping trip, I've noticed a mess of new Revlon displays. One was advertising their scented nail polish but it was interesting that on the display it said it was Revlon's first scented polish...I was a bit confused since I re-called Revlon releasing a scented polish last year. So I bought Not So Blueberry (to compare to the earlier release by the same name) and Mon Cherry.

I did some stash digging and found my original Not so Blueberry. The 2009 release actually spells it as "Not So Blue-berry" while this year's edition is "Not So Blueberry."

The 2 are a bit different. The 2009 edition is more silvery while 2010 edition has more blue/lavender to it. The scent seems to be about the same. Of the two, I like the 2010 one a bit more since I find the deeper color a bit more flattering for me.

Yes, my kitty was chilling in the sink while I took pics =)


With flash


No flash


With flash

Turns out there are 16 shades of Scented polish available. The Revlon website is a bit misleading, it looks like you can order online but when you checkout, you get pushed to drugstore.com....which doesn't at the moment seem to have the newer products so check out your local drugstore if you're interested in some scented polish. I got a few of the CustomEyes palettes and Colorburst lip glosses-both which I like a lot so far, more info to come =)

Chanel Spring 2011- part deux

Before the year ends (over in New York).....Here are swatches for the eyeshadow palettes along with pics for the nail polishes and a few lip products.

The Ombres Perlees de Chanel eyeshadow palette is so pretty, I almost didn't want to take the swatches off my hand. Each color has a gorgeous shimmer to them.

The colors are light white gold, warm pink, dark plum with pink shimmer, mossy green with multi colored shimmer and dark grey with multi colored shimmer. Pigmentation start off sheer but can be built up nicely.

(Without flash)

The Regards Pearle quad is not the most exciting quad and I almost passed on it; but it is a nice neutral set for spring. The colors are a shimmery black green, a golden peach, a rosy pink and a golden white.

(Without flash)

For lips, I decided to go with the Rouge Coco in Peregrina (light pink coral), the Rouge Allure in Coquette (red coral (a bit like Mac Viva Glam Cyndi lipstick)), lip gloss in Nakkar (golden red) and the Rouge Double Intensite in Cristal Rose (shimmery beige).

Top: Peregina; Bottom: Coquette


Top: Cristal Rose; Bottom: Nakkar




L->R: Peregrina, Coquette, Nakkar, Cristal Rose

Last but not least, here are the polishes from this collection. I thought I would be more in love with Black Pearl, but it really didn't wow me for some reason. I realized I didn't have a lot of white polishes/lighter colors so I decided Pearl Drop and Peche Nacree would be nice additions.

Hope everyone has/had a great new year!

Sephora x Hello Kitty Product pics

Sorry to interrupt the Chanel postings, but I need to re-do the swatches for the Regard Pearle quad anyway so I thought I would share some pics of things from the Sephora x Hello Kitty collection. I had taken advantage of the preview sale over the weekend on sephora.com for the Hello Kitty collection and to my surprise, an order arrived today! I have another order on it's way, since a few items got re-stocked on Sunday; but for now, please see below for pics of the brush set, eye/lip palette in Super Fun, the Charmmy Kohl Eyeliner kit, some shadow sticks, Pen Pal eyeliner and BigSmile Gloss in Cheery. I haven't tested any products out yet but so far the packaging is really nice ^^

Super fun palette-eye shadows (top tier)


Super fun palette- lip colors (bottom tier)


Hello Kitty brush set was smaller than I expected but still cute. It's a shiny plastic but not the finger print magnet type. The white cup that the brushes are in can be removed.


Brushes are travel sized. I'm doubting how effective they will be but we'll see.

Hope you liked the pics!

Chanel Spring 2011-Eyeshadow product pics

When I saw pics of the Chanel 2011 spring make up collection. I knew I had to have the Ombres Perlees de Chanel eyeshadow palette. It was the stand out item from the promo pics. I found the collection out at one of the Chanel boutiques and I couldn't resist bringing it home. I almost didn't pay attention to the Regard Pearle eyeshadow quad that was also released but I gave the tester a try and was wooed as well by the colors. I'm fighting a cold so I haven't done swatches yet but here are a few pics of the palettes.

Ombres Perlees de Chanel


1st pic and this one are both with flash.
I'm getting use to a new camera and adjusting settings.

No flash pic


Regard Perle eyeshadow quad


The Regard Perle reminded me of the Murano quad. So, in case anyone else was curious; here are the 2 palettes side-by-side. Murano on the left and Regard Perle on the right.

Swatches tk along with a few other products :)

Revlon Perplex vs Chanel Paradoxal

While browsing through a Duane Reade drugstore on the way home this week, I saw a display for a Revlon polish. It claimed to be one of Fall's hottest shades. When I picked up the bottle it immediately reminded me of Chanel's Paradoxal. The Revlon polish even has a similar name-Perplex. I was curious to see how close the two would be so I brought a bottle home. All pics are taken with flash.

Bottle to Bottle

Swatches:

To me, Perplex has a more dark purple feel while Paradoxal has a more dusty grey feel to it. The shades are close especially in regular lighting but Perplex does look a tad darker. Although both do have a lovely subtle shimmer to them. Of the two, I actually prefer Perplex, I like the deeper purpler. Here's my current Perplex manicure. Application wise, the polish was very smooth and went on easily. Tips are Deborah Lippmann Today was a Fairytale.