OPI Purple With A Purpose!

Last week I discovered Sally Hansen's Cyber polish, a gorgeous metallic purple. I bought OPI Purple With a Purpose almost a year ago but I never put up any swatches! So I took off the Sally Hansen (good staying power by the way, no chipping!) and put on another purple:

My personal preference is the Sally Hansen shade of purple, because it was a more blue metallic and seemed more of a 'pure' purple if you know what I mean? This is still a gorgeous shade though although it leans towards the pinkish purple side rather than the blue as you can see in the shot above.

This colour also seemed a little less metallic and more creamy. The flash shot is above. Oh and I ran out of my Seche Vite so I decided to use the Sally Hansen Double Duty base and top coat. Oh my goodness it took forever to dry. I waited ages then decided to open up my PC to check on my new video card and busted up my nails so bad! Dents everywhere as you can see in the sunlight shot below. Not happy at all. Seche Vite all the way people!

I was particularly ragey too because I hadn't taken photos before I wrecked my nails >_<

Currently listening to: Party all the time - Sharam

NARS Rajasthan Duo Eyeshadow Swatches ...and cupcakes!

The NARS fall collection fell a little flat for me. I wasn't going to purchase anything but I stepped into Meccacosmetica today anyway just to do some swatches... and I liked Rajasthan :-)

Of course what attracted me at first was the gorgeous neutral shade on the left. Check below for swatches. From what I saw online I thought the colour on the right was some sort of deep blue but it's more of a charcoal so the duo makes a good smokey eye.

The other duo was a similar combination but not nearly as nice and pigmented as this one. But I did like the neutral shade again :-)

Decent pigmentation, nice shimmer.

Whilst we were out and about the bf wanted to stop by Jazz Apple Cupcakes, which made a pretty big claim:

We shall see I thought. Tucked away outside the Canberra Centre this cute little cake/cupcake shop had so many flavours!

Although not many were left after lunch :-( We managed to pick up some tasty cupcakes nonetheless!

Orange and mint chocolate cupcakes. And they were delicious. Very full on though! *Almost* as good as cupcakes on pitt in Sydney :-P

I also picked up some cute PJ's for the bf and myself at Peter Alexander:

I got two little pairs of shorts. All in all a good shopping day. I was very naughty as you will see in upcoming posts but I couldn't help myself. Clearly I have a shopping addiction.

Sally Hansen HD Hi-Definition Cyber Swatches!

Oh my gosh. I was in priceline getting shampoo and a few other things when I spotted this amazing purple polish at the Sally Hansen stand. I have never really paid attention to Sally Hansen before (although I use the double duty base coat - which I recommend by the way) but I love purple. Particularly *this* shade of purple, and honestly I thought my eyes had died and gone to purple heaven. The HD Hi-definition shade in Cyber was love at first sight... and please ignore the horrid flash photo below and keep reading for non flash photo to see the true purple power!

I know these came out a while back but if I had seen the purple I would have purchased immediately. These were tucked away behind a pole in priceline :-P And they weren't cheap! $16.95 AUD, wow that's almost an OPI!

Do you see that? Oh it's sooo darn pretty. I think it beats OPI's purple with a purpose for sure. Ah I have no purple with a purpose swatches! I'll have to do some next :-D I applied three coats because I felt it was a little thin to apply, especially as mine didn't seem all that well mixed and I kept shaking it to get rid of the blue. But I think that's just the base colour of the polish. I must admit I was a little shaky applying with such a long thin brush but other than that, appeared to be a decent formula. I would expect that with any shimmer polish though.

See it even looks good in flash. Unfortunately my seche vite top coat has gone gloopy (tis a word) and am either in need of new one or product to de-gloopify it... that's also a word ;-)

Clinique GWP Colour Surge Eye Shadow Quad

Normally I don't mention the Clinique gift with purchase (GWP) but I was fairly excited to get the latest bag of goodies from the Clinique counter at Myer. Given that this quad is actually permanent shades (one duo and two singles) made into one quad, swatches seemed like a good idea. Especially as I don't mind this quad :-D

The top row of that brown and pinky coral shade is the Strawberry Fudge Duo (you have to click the one that says strawberry fudge) and the two single "super shimmer" shadows at the bottom are Daybreak and Gold Rush (oddly I only found gold rush on the Clinique Australia site?) Rotated below for a non flash picture:

The super shimmers are described as "creamy, intense colour in one stroke" and although they are super shimmery, colour intense, they are not. I do like them though for a shimmery neutral eye look. Here's some swatches where I layed on like no tomorrow:

I used all four colours today, daybreak for first third of my eye, then gold rush, then blended the strawberry fudge duo in the outer crease/V. Daybreak was perfect in the corner of the eye, the super shimmer really brightens the eye up. That pink is gorgeous layered on top of the brown. I'd give you a picture but it's the end of the day and my makeup has melted off :-P The brown is the least pigmented given its appearance of a darker brown, so it was a very subtle but pretty look over all :-) I don't know if they are worth $33 for the single eye shadows however it's definitely worth picking up this GWP if you're a Clinique fan - if only for the quad ;-)

OPI Diva of Geneva, Swiss Collection haul

I have been dying for the Swiss collection to come out. I am impressed with how restrained I was, I almost got two of the green/teal shades but realised I have enough already! But cuckoo for this colour *was* pretty in the bottle. This is what I picked up:

Restrained indeed. Of course I had to get the two glitzy ones :-) Lucerne-tainly looks quite unique, I'm interested to see how it looks painted on. It was a hard choice but I decided to go for Diva of Geneva first up:

Diva of Geneva is this deep burgundy that definitely has a purple undertone to it. I thought it looked more red in the bottle but definitely shows a bit of purple on the nail. The above was taken on another gloomy Canberra day so sunlight is MIA.

Here we have with flash and to be honest, I'm blown away by the flash photo, it looks drop dead gorgeous. This would have been the perfect colour to wear at my brother's wedding a long time ago. The dresses were so similar to this colour! The more I look at my nails, the more I think this colour might take over my love of Flashbulb Fuchsia... if that's even possible ;-)

New Chanel Paradoxal :-)

Oh I was excited walking through David Jones despite my winter sickliness - all new things with the Summer launch. I was after Chanel's paradoxal and I now have it :-)

Looks absolutely gorgeous in the bottle doesn't it? My apologies for the two coats of mess that are below, I'm sill infected with this nasty cold/virus and am not steady handed :-)

That is with flash and you can see the gorgeous purple shimmer that everyone is 'oohing and ahhing' over. But in reality this purple shimmer is not going to be obvious:

So that's without flash and the glare of any direct light. But don't get me wrong, step out into daylight and you see the shimmer:

Pretty isn't it? I also spied a nice peach lipgloss that I think I need....Petit Peche? Gorgeous. I like the enigma quad but me thinks it's too dark/bold for my taste. Well too dark to go spending $98 on anyway ;-)

By Terry Or de Rose Baume Precieux

I love my By Terry Baume de Rose lip balm. It's so moisturizing, smells divine and the frosted glass bottle is just too cute. When I saw the shimmery gloss like version, of course I had to have it.

Not only is this said to "rejuvenate and redefine lips" it also contains 24-carat pink gold with a blend of 26 anti-ageing ingredients. Hold it. Anti ageing? Pfft, you don't need this for anti ageing, you need this because it's one of the most deluxe lip balm / glosses you'll ever find! Ok you could go for a cheaper korres lip balm if you really don't like the rose scent but I find korres to be very over powering. Too strong for my big sensitive nose :-) This and Baume de Rose is delicate and soft and oh so moisturizing. I use Baume de Rose before bed and Or de Rose Baume Precieux during the day:

As you can see the Baume Precieux does not come in a frosted glass container but I imagine that is so you can be continually captivated by the pretty pink gold you see inside:

The shimmer of baume precieux is noticeable on the lips but doesn't look obnoxious like some lip glosses I won't mention :-P I've been using my By Terry baume de rose before bed for months and it's still going strong if you're needing help in the justification department :-P At 110AUD each, these products are ridiculously expensive for a lip balm but it's the grand-deluxe-mother-of-all lip balms. However if you know of more out there, please tell me I'd love to try ;-)

OPI Flit A Bit and breakfast at Artespresso, The York Canberra

This is the last of my OPI Summer Flutter posts and I'm wearing Flit A Bit, a very bright orange cream:

Cute colour, very bright! Two coats below in another gloomy Canberra morning:

I don't know what attracts me to orange but I always seem to go for it... eye shadow, nail polish but not lippy.  Bad colour for my lips. I have learnt, no orange lippy for Leanne! Not for my skin tone but hey I think you can get away with wearing anything on your nails.

Looks prettier in flash :-P I think I was expecting it to be brighter, if that's possible. More like Essie Bright Tights! Bit streaky but I was clumsily applying at midnight so it wasn't going to be perfect.

Well unfortunately I've gotten the cold that's been going around work at the moment. The problem with working in such a large building with so many people is that I almost get sick monthly :-| But it's the boyfriend's birthday tomorrow so we decided to try breakfast at Artespresso at the York Canberra.

Cute building but I've lost count of the number of these blocky brown buildings that have popped up over the last few years. I even live in one :-P

I had the wild mushroom omelette with herb salad. Whenever I'm out for breakfast I always give the omelette a go. I'm not a big egg fan so I can't get eggs on their own but in omelette form I can cope. Unless it tastes eggy. Well I don't have all my tastebuds with me at the moment but it still was nice from what I could tell, haha. The boyfriend got the chocolate crepe:

I tried a bit, it was nice. The chocolate was pretty powerful.

This is where we wanted to go for breakfast but it was shut :-( We've been there before and I didn't like the one omelette I had but I was going to try the other on the menu. I believe the first one was with some cheese I wasn't familiar with so that might explain my dislike. But they have some fantastic apple pancakes.

This is why I severely dislike Canberra from June to August. Gloomy, windy, rainy, cold and frosty. Back home in Queensland it never got below 14. I don't believe it even gets to 14 most days here :-| Homesick? Yes indeedy! Please spring come here soon I want to go to floriade and get my Vienna macadamia nuts!