NOTD -Opi sparkle-icious

Hi everyone,
Hope all of you have had an amazing holiday season. Hope you've had a good Christmas and will have a great new year's. When I think of New Year's celebrations I think of glitter and shimmer, so OPI sparkle-icious comes to mind nail wise. It took me ages to buy this polish mainly because I do not like glitter polishes. I have a ton of them but never wear them. I really love the look of cream polish. Cream polishes can look so sultry, sexy but yet sophisticated and glitter polish can sometimes look so ..well cheap! However after reading a million and one good reviews on this polish, I caved it and bought. I must say I love it! It's not a polish I would wear all year around but it is perfect for the holidays.

So this is what I'll be wearing for new years on my nails. Hope you all have a great New Year's and may the new year bring prosperity love and wonderful things to all of you.



Help me decide

Hi lovelies....so I have been going thru a bit of "hair crisis" lately (not to be dramatic or anything haha) but I can't decide what color I want my hair to be. I have been a blonde for about two years now, and keep varying from dark blonde to light blonde ( I know...huge risk-taker, aren't I?) but have been thinking about going back dark for a while. My natural color is somewhere in the family of brown/dirty blonde. I got a bunch of dark low lights put in last month just to test out dark shades but kept a lot of blonde highlights, and as much as I thought I wanted dark hair, I didn't love it all that much.
I have an appointment soon and I want you to tell me which color you recommend.
So here are some pictures of me as a blonde, and the one with a bit darker hair which happens to be my natural color. Which one gets your vote?

Let me know which color you recommand.
Thank you xoxo

Eyeshadow of the day -MAC gleam

So I'm sort of really missing summer right now...sure of course I'm on a Christmas mood and love this time of the year and the holidays but I'm a summer baby. Give me sunshine and the beach any time of the day! One of the eyeshadows that makes me think of summer is MAC gleam. It's such a soft pinky gold color. I love these sort of multi-dimensional, multi-color eyeshadows. They look different depending on how the light hit, and anything with gold or yellow gives a glistening effect. I love this shadow. It's a luster and sort of like MAC tempting it looks chalky when swatched but applies great. Here is a swatch of it. Note: this is depoted. I depot all of my mac shadows unless they come with special limited edition packaging. I love this color. It makes me think of spring and summer. Beautiful and it looks very pretty with any chocolate eyeshadow on the crease.

Do you own MAC gleam?

Hope you all have had a lovely week.



For all the animal lovers

I love animals and am always looking for ways to help them. I came across this sanctuary called Tara's Babies Animal Welfare www.tarasbabies.org and I thought it was an amazing organization. They are a no-kill dog shelter that help rescue dogs that would otherwise be euthanized. They are working to win a $250,000 Pepsi grant and we can help.
                                        I copied this from their website because I couldn't say it better myself:

"Have you heard about Tara's Babies Animal Welfare, a No-Kill Dog Rescue and Sanctuary in Arizona? They started rescuing dogs left homeless and injured by Hurricane Katrina, after their founder, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, felt compelled to act on seeing the devastation and suffering in the Gulf. They have continued rescuing dogs on death row in overcrowded shelters ever since.
Tara's Babies Animal Welfare is working to win a $250,000 Pepsi Refresh grant by receiving the most votes for their project in the month of January. The grant will allow them to improve the care they provide to dogs at their beautiful, off-the-grid Sanctuary.
I am going to help Tara's Babies Animal Welfare by voting for them daily in the Pepsi Refresh grant program and hope that you will too. Please visit www.tarasbabies.org to check them out. You will be able to sign up from their website to support their application to Pepsi Refresh.

The dogs need your vote!"
All you have to do is vote to help them get this grant. I hope you all will take a minute out of your day to help.

Thank you for reading.

Love
Ansa

MAC Amber Light eyeshadow

I'm an eyeshadow type of girl. I love to play up the eyes and go with a nude lip. I've decided to make some quick posts of some of my favorite shadows and am going to start with MAC amber light. This is a gorgeous color. It's a peachy/goldish brown. It's perfect for blue and green eyes, but I find that this looks beautiful on anyone. It's a frost so it is very shimmery but the texture of this is like butter. It's so soft and it blends wonderful.

Absolutely love this color. Do you own Amber Lights?



NOTD-OPI "You don't know Jacques!"

I'm sure a lot of you have this color and I've had it for a while but I thought it was note worth to post a picture of this polish mostly because of how glossy the top coat is on this polish. For reference I used Orly glossier and I'm completely loving this top coat. I love a glossy coat on top of a dark polish. It gives a more sophisticated feel to it.

What is your favourite top coat? 

 Hope you all had a wonderful day.

November faves

Hello lovelies,
November is over already...I say this every month but this month truly flew by. :) Here are some products I have loved using this month:

1. Starting with face, I've absolutely loved Laura Mercier mineral powder in Real Sand. I love the feel of this powder. It feels much  more luxurious than Bare Minerals. Like any powder, you can get sheer, medium or full coverage depending on how much you want to put on. One of the things I love most about this, is that I do not have to retouch during the day. On me, it lasts all day much like a foundation would. I use Sephora Professionals Mineral Powder brush to apply this powder which is also one of my favorites.
2. Sephora Mineral powder brush. This brush is great for mineral powder. It works similar to a kabuki brush in that it holds product in and distributes it evenly and can really pack it on if you're having a bad skin day. Also per sephora's website, this brush's bristles have undergone a hypoallergenic, nontoxic, antibacterial treatment that helps to keep skin healthy and suits all skin types, even the most sensitive. Both of these are like a cocktail of goodness for my skin. My skin loves them.

2. I love eyeshadow and love to play up the eyes. I'm a very much nude lip kind of girl so the eyes are the feature I love to play up on myself. When I apply others makeup, it's a whole different story.
This month I have used a lot of the NARS Modern love palette. I love this palette. You can create so many different looks using this palette.

On top from left to right there is Alhambra a gorgeous shimmery peach, Jezebel a gorgeous cranberry color (perfect for the holidays) and India song which is a beautiful khaki brown/green.

On the bottom is Tokyo which is a white with a lilac undertone (camera does not pick up the lilac), Habanera which is a gorgeous purple with tons of silver shimmer (this does not have fall out like some of NARS shadows do) and Pandora which is a classic matte black.

3. My favourite lipstick and one that I have worn the most this month is a discontinued MAC lipstick (MAC and their limited editions...GRRR) but one that I love so much. The color is "Style it up" from the Barbie collection. It's a soft nude and a mixture of pink, gold and coral much similar to NARS orgasm gloss. This is perfect for those days when you want to focus on your eyes and you want a soft lip. The colors that have a little bit of gold in them, really soften your lips but also give a gorgeous shine much like gold jewelry does.





These are the products I have loved the most the month of November. What have you enjoyed this month?

I hope you all have had a lovely week.



NOTD-METRO CHIC BY SEPHORA BY OPI

Love Metro chic by Sephora by OPI. It's a mixture of gray/purple making it one of those fun dirty colors. Sephora describes it as opaque dark smoke with a hint of purple. It's such a unique color and one that I get the most compliments on. This is a holy grail product for me, and one that I'll repurchase as long as Sephora/Opi do it. It's perfect for fall. If I had to pick the perfect fall/winter color and one I would purchase over and over again, this would be it.

What is your favourite dirty/dark polish for fall and winter?

Hope you all have had an amazing week.



Loving and missing right now...

Here are some things I'm missing right now..

1. My natural hair color. I've been a blonde for two years now and I recently had a whole lot of low lights put in my hair. I use to love the look of dark color hair on me, but now I sort of don't want the dark or the blonde....craving just my natural hair color. I think I'll drag hubby with me to the hair dresser since he has the exact same color and demand they bring my natural hair color back. =)





2. The beach. I grew up by the beach and I love to live by water. I miss it dearly and can't wait to move back by the ocean. This is a picture I took last time I went to Florida. =) Beautiful

These are some of the things I'm missing and wanting really badly right now. Here are some thing I'm loving and are making me happy =)



1. MAC peachstock lipstick. The perfect nude in my opinion. This gives that nude without the "dead look". Enough said...

2. Urban Decay eyeshadow in half baked. Could I have one more gold eyeshadow? I think I have them all by any brand, but I love gold shadows. These look gorgeous on green and blue eyes. Let me know if you have any gold favourite shadows.



3. Egyptian Magic cream. I just got this last week so I'm sort of rushing on this but I knew the first day I put it on that I loved it. I use this before going to bed and the next morning my skin feel softer than it's ever felt. It's a multi use product but I'm recently only using it on my face.



What are you loving or missing right now?

Hope you all are having a lovely day.



My favorite MAC holiday palette

So I recently trotted along to check the new MAC holiday collection and major disappointment is how I felt about it, which is exactly how I felt about last year's collection. I didn't buy a think from their holiday collection. I know this must be how a lot of people feel because I always find a lot of MAC holiday kits at the CCO. MAC need to step up their game next Christmas...please. =)
There is one MAC holiday palette though that I absolutely love and it was from a couple of Christmas ago. I normally try not to post anything about limited edition items (because what's the point of review something if you guys can't get it) but this palette has a lot of permanent eyeshadow and I will try to post a dupe for each limited edition shadow. I think everyone needs a palette similar to this. You can buy the shadows in pan form, and the small palette on the mac website and create a palette similar to this (minus the very goddy packaging)
What I love the most about this palette is that it has a lot of natural shadows and a good mixture of matte and shimmery colors. It can be easily used to transform your look from day to night. It's perfect for both a daytime and nighttime smokey eye because it has three brownish colors to create a soft smokey daytime look and three gray/black shadows to create a nighttime smokey eye.
The three brown colors are:

• Scant (LE) Scant is your average skintone color, and can be duped by Brule, Bisque or kid depending on your skin tone. Kid will be for the darker skintones. This is your average all over the lid color.
• Satin Taupe (permanent) This is perfect on the crease or all over the lid. It is a very shimmery taupe color.
• Dark Devotion (LE) but any dark matte brown will do. Charcoal Brown and Embark are great but MAC do a lot of brown matte colors.

The three gray and black colors are:

• Gorgeous (LE) which is a light silvery gray. Electra would be a good dupe.
• Ambiance (LE) is a bit of darker gray with silver sparkles. Silver Ring would be a good dupe.
• Carbon which is a dark matte black (permanent) Everyone should own carbon in my opinion, as you should have a little black dress in your wardrobe.

 Here are some pictures of this palette. This is one of the palettes that always travels with me. =)



Hopefully MAC will do another "holy grail" palette next Christmas. What do you guys think about MAC's holiday collection?

Hope you all have a lovely day. 

Bedazzling MAC woodwinked and other finds from Laura Mercier

Hello lovelies,
I recently had the chance to speak with a makeup artist from Laura Mercier and influenced by her suggestions, I came home with a couple of items that I absolutely love. I have had this for a few weeks now but wanted to try them out before doing a review, and I'm pleased to say I love them both. The first item I got was the Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Colour in Gold. As soon as I sow this I thought paired with MAC woodwinked it would be "a marriage made in heaven" and I do love them together.

Swatch of Gold by Laura Mercier

Swatch of Laura Mercier creme color with woodwinked on top. Doesn't this make a gorgeous gold color?

I also got Laura Mercier Mineral Powder in Real sand. One of my beautiful followers Marisa and whom I follow also http://anne-marie-bardot.blogspot.com/ asked to see a swatch of this. I prefer this to the Bare Minerals mineral powder. It is very light on the skin but it provides good coverage. This does not provide the coverage of a foundation but if your skin is good and you do not need that coverage, this would work. If you have oily skin, just a word of warning, this has a bit of a shine to it. It initially applies matte, but in an hour, you can see the shimmer. I love it though, and I have normal/combination skin.

I'm very tempted to check out Laura Mercier blushes because I don't own any of them. I'm very tempted by the color "Lotus" especially. It's a gorgeous pink.

Do you use Laura Mercier?

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.



NOTD Essie's East Hampton Cottage

I love a "natural but better nail" look and love colors that you can wear with anything. I love color polish as well but every once in a while I want a soft sophisticated nail color. Essie's East Hampton Cottage is one of my favourite colors to get a soft pretty natural nail. It's an off white with a very slight hint of pink. It has a little bit of frostiness and pearliness to it. I usually like cream colors and stay away from any nail polishes with frost or glitter but the frostiness in this color is very subtle.

I love this color. Love the name and love that is simple enough to wear with anything. What is your favorite "my nail color but better" polish?

Hope you all have had a great week.



My current routine

I read this in one of the blogs I follow, and thought was pretty neat to share what we're currently using so I am reposting it. Here is my current routine:

FACE

01. Cleanser
Origins "never a dull moment" face wash. Love this. I'm a devoted Origins user
02. Toner/lotion
Dickinson's original witch hazel
03. Serum
Origins Mega Mashroom serum
04. Moisturiser
Origins Mega Mashroom oil free moisturiser

05. Facial mask
Mega-Mushroom Skin-Calming Face Mask

06. Exfoliator
Kate Somerville ExfoliKate
07. Make-up remover
Don't use any

BODY

08. Shower gels/soaps
The Body Shop Soap Free Passionfruit Showergel
09. Body lotions/creams
Burt Bee's Milk and Honey body lotion
10. Hand cream
Lush Helping Hands
11. Lip balm or lip treatment
Dr. Andrew Weil for Origins Conditioning Lip Balm with Turmeric

12. Perfume
Juicy Couture Peace Love & Juicy Couture


HAIR

13. Shampoo/conditioner
Moroccanoil shampoo and conditioner
14. Mask or other treatments
Marcoon oil or Shu Uemura Esxsence Absolute oil
MAKE-UP

15. Foundation
Laura Mercier mineral powder in real sand or Bare Minerals
16. Powder
No powder
17. Blush
This changes daily but MAC well dressed is one of my faveourites
18. Mascara
Covergirl cover lash
19. Lipstick/lipgloss
NARS orgasm
20. Eyeshadow
MAC tempting
21. Eyeliner
Bobbie Brown gel liner
I'd love to hear what your routine is so link me if you decide to do this list!

Thank you for reading and hope you have had a great week.

In and outs number 4

Hello lovelies,
I have been so bad about posting lately. So sorry...have been extremely busy but have still been reading all of your lovely posts.

Here are some of my recent ins and outs.

Ins:
1. Rosy cheeks. I was all into corals and peaches all summer but have totally switched to rosy cheeks. Two of my current favorites are MAC swoon and Bare Minerals Cheerful blush. These are both very similar in the way that they provide that cool precious pink color to the cheeks.

MAC swoon swatch

Bare Minerals Cheerful swatch

2. Highlighters. I have been all into highlighters lately as it is so cold and dreary outside so I need that extra ump in my skin. One of my favourite things to do is use a light off-white or yellow in my tear duct to open up the eyes. My all time favourite is MAC's nylon. Another one I have been using a lot is Illamasqua slink. This is a such a beautiful soft yellow. It really opens up the eye and it's not super shimmery. 

Another highlighter I have love using is Illamsqua cream blush in Lies but I only use this to highlight the top of my cheeks. Love this so much.

3. Eating healthy. I have always loved eating healthy but recently I have been stepping it up and trying to eat mainly organic food and avoid processed food. How pretty is this salad? This was at a French restaurant while on vacation. I do enjoy eating healthy. It makes me feel great inside and out. After all beauty starts on the inside.



Outs

1. Not having enough time to do a day's work. I'm always running out of time to do all that I need to do lately. I suppose I need to start doing some "time management" reading and practice. I'm currently in the process of deciding if I want to go to cosmetology school. That will limit my time even more.

What are some of your ins and outs?

Hope you all had a lovely week and happy Friday everyone. xx

October Favourites

Hello lovelies,
I can not believe October is over already. It's been so warm here, it's hardly felt like fall but my makeup has still been inspired by all the fall natural colors so here is a list of products I have loved using this month.
1. MAC paint pot in Indianwood. This is gorgeous. It's a very dimensional color. It's a bronzy gold with a bit of a brown undertone. If you want a "fun" painpot that will liven up any eyeshadow, try Indianwood.

2. My favourite eyeshadow this month has been MAC mulch. Mulch is a gorgeous purple/brown shadow. I love these sort of dirty colors. They are perfect for all over the lid or a smokey eye. I've been wearing mulch on top of indianwood and it creates a beautiful golden/brown/bronzy purple color. Indianwood livens it up and helps reflect light. In the picture below, mulch is by itself in the left and mulch over Indianwood paint pot on the right. 

3. Bobbie Brown gel eyeliner in Black Mauve Shimmer Ink. I'm in love with Bobbie Brown gel eyeliners. They stay put and do not smudge, and come in a variety of colors including shimmery ones (Love). I have been reaching for the black mauve shimmer ink the most cause it compliments Mulch so much. It's in the same dirty purple color. I took this picture in direct sunlight so it can pick up the shimmers. Gorgeous.

4. MAC pro lash mascara. I am a mascara junkie. I've been blessed with thick and long lashes, but they are blondish and invisible without mascara, so mascara is a must for me. This is hands down the best mascara I have ever tried. This is a favourite among MAC makeup artists. It doesn't smudge, it's richly pigmented, it lengthens, and it gives a bit of a thick effect. However, while several mascaras do all of the above, this manages to make it look the most natural.This doesn't get enough love in my opinion.

5. One of my favourite lipsticks this month is actually an all time favourite. MAC lipstick in hug me. This is just a pretty nude brownish color. It looks boring but it's so beautiful on. The darker your skin, the more nude this will look in your lips. On the days that I have actually worn lipstick this month, this has been the only lipstick I have worn.



What have you enjoyed using this month? Hope you all have had an amazing month.



NOTD Sephora By OPI I'm with Brad

The weather is cooling off putting me on the mood for some dark wintery colors. One of my favorite is Sephora by OPI in the color "I'm with Brad". This is a gorgeous black with tons and tons of red shimmer running thru it. I love to do "black" with a twist. Here is how it looks in direct sunshine:

And in the shadow

Love this color. What are some of your favourite fall colors?

Hope you all have had an amazing week.

Organization and a closer look of my gel eyeliners, paint pots and random bits and pieces

Hello lovelies,
I am going to do a quick series of how I organize my makeup and thought to start with my paint pots and gel eyeliners as these are my current obsessions. I set mine in these clear white containers (I got mine from Target) and set them upside down where I can see the name of the color I want to use. I have a couple of these, and you can put these on top of each other, but I just keep mine in shallow drawers.

Here is a close look of my paint pots and gel liners and there is a couple of concealers here as well.

MAC indianwood, coral crepe,soft ochre, and blackground

MAC groundwork, stila kiten (use this as a base not a gel eyeliner), stila black and brown gel eyeliners.

MAC bare study and painterly, MAC NW20 and NC 30 concealer

Benefit skinny jeans, birthday suit, RSVP (sample) and a randon Lancome one.

These are my gel liners. MAC blacktrack, blitz and glitz, shade (discontinued), rich ground (one of my all time fave),dipdown, waveline, microviolet (perfect for green eyes), Clinique true black, Egyptian, and black honey)

I hope you found this helpful. I love to see how people organize their makeup.

I'm currently obsessed with gel liners. What are some of your favourite gel liners?

Thank you for reading.

Sephora Friends and Family Sales Wish List

Hi everyone,
Rumor has it that Sephora F&F event is tomorrow (20% off any online orders) and I have my wish list ready. From what I have read online the cupon is going to be FF2010.
Here is what I'm hoping to get:

1. NARS sex appeal blush from the new holiday collection. This is such a gorgeous peach blush (at least what I've seen from the swatches) and I love peach blushes.

2. Thierry Mugler Angel. Absolutely love this perfume. Perfect timing to get a refill.

3. Bobbie Brown gel eyeliner in Black Mauve shimmer ink. I'm so into gel eyeliner at the moment and really want to try this

4. Laura Mercier Mineral Powder - Totally anti-foundation at the moment and mineral powder is now my new love. I love Bare Minerals but have heard amazing things about Laura Mercier's mineral powder so I really want to try it.

5. Sephora by OPI limited edition nail polish in Merry Me! Beautiful red cranberry color packed with glitter. Gorgeous for the holidays. Although I am not a fan of glitter in the nail polish, Christmas is an exception. Love glitter red polishes during the holidays. I love China Glaze "ruby pumps" and am so excited to try Merry Me!

Do you have a list of items to buy tomorrow?

Thank you for reading and hope you're all having a lovely evening.

Jazzing up natural eyes

I love a natural eye especially for an every day office look but sometimes crave a little bit of color. For those days, when I want a natural eye makeup, with an understated amount of color, I always turn to gel eyeliner. One of my all time favorite eyeshadow combinations is MAC retrospeck all over the lid with sable in the outer V. Here is a swatch of retrospeck and sable. If you have green or blue eyes, give retrospeck a go. When you first swatch it, it looks very chunky because it is a luster but on it's absolutely beautiful. It is such a pretty soft golden color. It opens up the eye and gives that wide wake look to the face. You won't regret it. It's gorgeous.

To get the colors to "pop" I have been using Benefits "skinny jeans" as a base. This works brilliant as a base. The shadows do not crease, and it makes them look very vibrant. I plan to get a few more of these because I'm utterly impressed with the couple that I have.

And lastly to give this natural look a pop of color, I have been using MAC fluideline in Waveline. This is such a beautiful royal blue. I use several eyeliner brushes, but 210 works best for this because it gives a very thin line and I only want a little bit of color and nothing dramatic.

What do you use to get a little bit of color to a natural look?
Hope you all have had a great week.

Love you Francois!

After months of lusting after NARS Rajashtan shadow, I finally got my grubby mitts on it and it was worth the wait. I absolutely love it!!!This shadow is gorgeous! It's a duo with one side being a golden almond color and the other side a gorgeous green with a black undertone. This shadow exudes such a sexy sultry look. Perfect for a smokey look and it's so easy to use.

Here is a swatch of it in direct sunlight. I took this in sunlight so you can see the shimmer of this shadow and the beautiful dimensions.

And here is a swatch of it with regular lighting.

Gorgeous. I can not believe I waited this long to buy this. What makeup items are you currently lusting over?

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday.