MAC Venomous Villains Haul, Philosophy, Haighs and other faves!

Last week I checked out my (new!) local MAC counter in Myer and by Friday the majority of the Venomous Villains collection was sold out :-( But I got to swatch the things I wanted and prepared myself to pounce on the website as soon as online orders were up. They were up Saturday so by 10am Saturday I was a very happy lady! I didn't even mind walking down to the PO Box in the rain to collect my stash:

I wasn't planning on getting much from this collection, I was particularly interested in the nail polishes which are a Pearl finish and gorgeous by the way:

My MAC counter didn't have a display version of bad fairy (for some reason there was a dark cream purple looking polish in its place?!) but I ordered all three going on the first two that I saw. In order of preference we have Formidable! Mean & Green and of course Bad Fairy:

I cannot wait to wear these! One of the MAs at the MAC counter was wearing mean and green and it was so interesting!

I also picked up the Innocence Beware! cremesheen lippie, the Her Alter Image veluxe pearl eye shadow, the Oh So Fair beauty powder and the My Dark Magic mineralize eye shadow. I love Malificent so I had to get something with the special packaging! I opted for beauty powders because I prefer them for travel as they have a mirror and I cannot explain the eye shadow. It was simply me going me want :-D

While I'm at it I might as well mention things that I've been enjoying recently. It isn't limited to makeup :-P I mentioned in an earlier post that I went to Haigh's to stock up on choccy - well my cherry ripe bars are gone and this is all that's left of my assorted creams:

That rose cream would be done and dusted by now but that's the bf's :-( And what's with the tiny pink sugar candy on top? Those used to be huge! Ripped off I tell you. But my faves are: Violet, Rose, Lemon Myrtle, Lime, Strawberry, Peppermint, sigh the list goes on... but I really hate coffee, and I'm not the biggest fan of almond, passion fruit or mandarin. But I love dark choccy so it's all good. And I always get dark choc pastilles @_@

Next we have the Philosophy shower gel in unconditional love. Oh my gosh I cannot describe how much I love this scent. I received a sample some time ago from Meccacosmetica and I was in love! Then I went to mecca and they said we don't have a purple shower gel, and I couldn't remember the name at the time and I ended up going home with Falling in Love shower gel instead. While it's nice and somewhat similar, this is so much fruitier and just wonderful! I just purchased a new bottle :-D

Lastly we have the beauty products I've been loving right now. I'm someone that finds something and runs with it non stop for a good month or so and I've been doing that with the NARS rajasthan eye shadow duo, MAC MSF in Stereo Rose, Dior shimmer powder in Amber Diamond and I although I've been mostly using the Clinique long wearing mascara, I just fell in love with the Volume Million Lashes by Loreal. Despite its odd smell :-/ And oddly I'm using the benefit stay don't stray eye shadow primer as more of an actual concealer due to a bad pump where it ALL comes out at once. But I love Stereo Rose. It was nice and warm but now that winter's over I don't think I'll be getting away with it for much longer. Time to tone it down. Perhaps with the Dior rose diamond shimmer powder that I have :-D

Current favourites

This last month has been mostly about not wearing a lot of makeup.. yet I have so much of it to use up! Seriously though, I have been busy at work so it requires me getting ready in record timing which means no time to fuss about with 6 colour eye shadow combinations. Instead I've been using 2 :-P



Ok there's 3 shadows here but I alternate between shroom and hey all over the lid and satin taupe in the crease. Personally I like hey + satin taupe the best. No eye liner, just mascara.



Hey was a limited edition eye shadow from the Prep For Colour collection, and as a veluxe pearl, it's just lovely over the lid.



What I love about satin taupe is that you barely have to touch it to get that colour payoff. Next up we have a new eye shadow primer, Too Faced Shadow Insurance:



And yes I'm going to whinge about the smell. Seriously, it does not impress me and I wasn't so sure about the 'greasiness' of this formula but it *does* dry quickly and it's one of the best primers I've used to date. I will most likely repurchase when this one runs out, and I'm almost there :-S



Onto the 'mixed feelings'. I'm not going to say dislikes because it's simply not true. I just need to complain ;-) And I'm very sad that the By Terry Rose de Rose is here. Not for the formula, the gorgeous smell of roses or the beautiful colour this leaves on the cheeks but for the darn pump. If you use this every day it wouldn't dry up, but I left this for about a month and yeah, I had an 'incident' which involved a good amount of the product exploding all over my vanity. And that hurt because this liquid blush cost me $110. Worth it? Nooo but I love walking and having the smell of roses on my cheeks. I don't care if it doesn't last all day, I feel pretty. The shade I own is Coral Rose and it's lovely, but I feel pain every time I waste a bit. Oh well!

Next is the Covergirl lashblast volume. Sigh. This is brilliant on the lower lashes and picks every single one up but for my top lashes... I get it everywhere and it's not easy to remove so I have to put my mascara on *first* otherwise I take off my eye shadow before I can get the mascara off. And I do wait for it to dry. Doesn't help. I guess I'm one of those people that prefers 'lash separation' to volume. I think I'll either pick up the Loreal telescopic again or go back to my semi waterproof clinique mascara. I loved it dearly.



Whoopsie how did this get here!? I had the mp3 version of this album from my brother but I wanted my own copy. And I found it in JB Hi-fi for $10 so how could I resist. Excuse me now, I have to be domino dancing @_@

March Faves

I haven't been posting lately... the bf managed to get sick and I was busy preparing to catch it so I was doing everything before I became incapacitated... which hasn't happened yet so I thought I'd bulk post today :-) I don't have a lot of favourites this month, and they are all makeup related.

• Clinique Quick Eyes Cream Shadow (sparkling nude): I was very excited to try these as an eye shadow base. They are supposedly meant to last 10hours but I don't know if you're meant to use a primer. I would use a primer underneath these (whereby I managed to make it last 12hrs+). Without the primer, it started to fade and crease closer to 8hours. Overall I love this (also have starlit pink) and it really brightens your shadow. I tend to pack it on more in the corner to highlight better :-)


• MAC Crème d’Nude lipstick: If you can tell by the picture above, I was going for a very bronze and neutral look this month. I like a lippy I don't need to wear a gloss over. This one got a fair workout in March, but definitely had to condition the lips first!


• MAC Rubenesque paint pot: Ah paint pots. Luck of the draw really with these. Sometimes they're hard to work with, other times they're wonderful. Luckily for me, my rubenesque paint pot melts like butter and is very easy to apply. I cannot say the same for my Artifact paint pot which requires a brush and a LOT of patience. I am tempted to move it back into the bathroom near the heat lamps... Anyway, this colour really brings out the colours in the Spring Colour 4 quad pictured above. Simply stunning combination.


• MAC Gleam Eyeshadow: I haven't been wearing this for a while as it's a lustre but it's a gorgeous sparkly coral which I've been using to blend and bring out the colours of the quad pictured above. I also tend to use it with woodwinked and grand entrance.


• MAC Spring Colour 4 quad: Love love love this quad. There's no satin finishes in this quad so they all pack on a lot of colour, and they're so easy to work with. It's simply love. If you're like me and already have a bunch of neutrals to work with, you can vary your look throughout the week whilst still using the same quad.


• MAC Mineralize Blush (duo) in Rhapsody in Two: I have very fair skin but since I've been doing bright bronze eyes lately I've just been using this blush on it's own rather than a highlight. A few times I've put Benefit Coralista underneath. It's shocking that I have finally put down By Candlelight MSF for more than a week, but this is a good substitute for me :-)


• Benefit Powderflage: This colour correcting finishing powder is meant for under the eyes, under the nose on the sides and also above the nose. Together with my concealer, this adds a lot of light to the area and a bit of sparkle. The brush that comes with the powderflage is rubbish and I don't recommend using it. Unless you've got nothing else ;-) I just find that it's horribly scratchy on my skin. For me, it helps under the eyes but did wonders under the nose, where it tends to get red on the sides. Definitely a problem area for me so this works well.

Well that's it for my faves. Sadly a lot of MAC, but it's good to finally be using so much of it consistently. Purchases now justified :-D

February Faves... blog style!

I thought I'd do a quick blog post of my feb faves. More of a 2010 faves the way I've been going with these products ;-)



My faves include:

• MAC eye shadows in Ego, Shale and Shroom: I've been wearing this combo for a while now with Ego over the lid, focusing on the inner corner, shale on the crease and blending out towards the brow with Shroom. Shroom + Shale = really pretty. It's subtle but noticeable.


• MAC 239 brush. This brush really packs on colour. It's my new fave brush. Don't worry 213 fluff brush, I still love you!


• Hue lipstick - Brought this back from Perth and have been wearing it everyday to work since. Better swatch down below so you can appreciate its loveliness.


• Runway fave lipglass - A nude gloss that I was wearing before I got Hue :-)


• So sweet, so easy - Cremeblend blush that came out with the online only collection MAC in lillyland. VERY pink so you only need a little bit. It's nice on my pale white skin without my yellow based makeup. Gives a nice natural flush.


• By candlelight MSF - I wear this every single day, I love it. Mind you I don't have any others to choose from :-P Highlight across checks on top of the blush is just perfect. Photographs nicely too!


• Clinique bewitched eye shadow - I got this YEARS ago but I was rummaging around in my clinique drawer (yes there's a whole drawer) and I rediscovered this little freebie. It's nice because it has two shadows plus a mirror! I used to use the peach colour a lot but I was looking for a dark matte brown to use with my MAC 266 brush. I wanted to darken my brows with my new blonde foils. This colour has been really good for that.

As you can see above, so sweet, so easy is very bright. Although I imagine not as bright as florida would have been. I've been looking for a pinker blush, I seem to have mostly peachy corals. I'm planning on getting well dressed soon so I'll compare that to this blush.



Currently thinking I need to purchase an Ego backup. It was limited edition though but the starflash shadows are SO nice. Bit too much fallout, but nicely pigmented and shimmery. Got my grand entrance backup, Ego to follow? Hmm...

Well this will be the last from me for a little while. Probably til next weekend so not really that long :-P I have surgery on Tuesday (more info when/IF I come out ok). I have been freaking out for the last, oh, 2 months :-| Excuse me while I re-read this scary booklet titled Anaesthesia & you :-(

Currently listening to: Like a drug - Kylie Minogue