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.



Bare Minerals Pussycat eyeshadow Prrrrrrrr

I recently bought the Bare Minerals foundation (review to come later) and while in the store, I swatched a few of their glimmers. I love a shinny eye lid and was tempted by quite a few of them but pussycat is the one I came home with. I love this shadow. It's very simmilar to MAC's patina in the fact that it's a golden/khaki/brown shadow but this has a whole lot more shimmer to it. I wore this all over the lid, with MAC's fluideline in blacktrack and loads of mascara and it was gorgeous.

Swatch of Pussycat in sunlight:

I adore this shadow. Have you used any of the Bare Minerals Glimmers? Do you have any suggestions for me?



Fall Nails

Does certain nail polish color make you think of a season or event? It does for me...for example red always makes me think of Christmas, hot pink makes me think of summer, dirty darker colors make me think of fall and the classic french manicure is great all year around.
There are a lot of colors I love to wear during fall, and will do a mini series of some of my favorite fall colors.

Here are some I have been enjoying lately:

Illamasqua DWS. This is a gray polish. I don't have anything else like this. I love this color. It's so unique. This is a dream to use. I only had to use one coat to get perfect opaque coverage. This is my first Illamaqua polish but it won't be my last.

The second color is one that's quiet popular and it's OPI "You don't know Jacques". This is a dirty gray taupe color. Perfect for fall

The next color is a dark Burgundy color from Chanel called Vamp. I love this color. It's the perfect cream berry color. I have already posted about this color. It's just beautiful.

These are some of the fall polishes I have enjoyed this month. What are some of your favourite fall polishes?

MAC Venomous Villains "She who dares" eyeshadow and French Quarter greasepaint stick

I'm in love with these mineralized eyeshadows. I really thought "bite of an apple" was the star of this collection, and I still love that blush but the Venomous Villains mineralized eyeshadows have gotten a lot of use from me since I have gotten them. I already blogged about "My dark magic" mineralized eyeshadow but I love "She who dares" as much.

Picture of "Who she dares" mineralized eyeshadow. 

 Swatch

This has a blue black and a yellow/green black. I haven't tried mixing them together yet. I have used these to create a smokey look. On the eyes, this looks mostly black but you can still the undertone and the shimmer. I have experienced no fall out with these shadows, but this may be the base I'm using. I tried this on today with the the new "French Quarter" greasepaint stick also from the Venomous Villains collection and it really intensified the color. It made it stay put all day. The greasepaint sticks are designed to be long wearing and water resistant. Next time you're at MAC swatch one of these and try to get it off your hand. It won't come off easy. French Quarter is a black green with tons of shimmer running thru it. I wasn't able to get the multi faced shimmer though in this swatch. Sorry the camera just wouldn't pick them up.

Swatch of French Quarter

The mineralized eyeshadows on top of french quarter look amazing. Any dark base will intensify the color of any of the shadows you use. I love dark bases. How gorgeous is that?

Were you able to get this shadow. Do you like or dislike mineralized eyeshadows?



September favourites

Hello lovelies,
I can't believe September is over already. It has flown by. I am so excited to write this monthly favourites because I have loved these products so much and can't wait to share them with you. I have a bit of make up, skin care, hair care and other bits and pieces.

Starting with makeup. September has been all about naturals. I love soft brown  and nude colors in fall. The quad below has some of my favourite eyeshadows and the ones I have worn the most this month (from left to right : Woodwinked, Mulch, Jest and Brule)

Brule is a soft beige color. Perfect for all over the lid to open up the eyes.

Swatch of Brule:

 Jest is a soft peachy color. Beautiful in the tear duck area or all over the lid smoked out with a darker color.
Swatch of Jest:

Mulch is a darker brown/gold color. This is perfect on the outer V with either brule or jest all over the lid. Swatch of Mulch:

Woodwinked is perfect all over the lid or in the otter V with brule or jest all over the lid. It's a metallic bronzy/gold color. Swatch of woodwinked.

 My favourite lip combination this month has been MAC blankety and Stila lipglaze in Vanilla. Stila lipglazes are very sticky so they stay on for a long time. If you do not like sticky lipglosses stay well clear of Stila glazes. Vanilla is the perfect nudy peach and it looks gorgeous on. It's extremely glossy and shiny.

 I have not used any foundation in months now and all I have used on my face have been the MAC mineralized skinfinishes. As you can see to your left I have completely finished my medium plus shade, and since I have lost all of my tan, had to switch to medium light. I have already hit pan on the medium light. I love these.They truly are a "your skin but better" product.

 As far as skincare goes, I have dabbled a little bit on Kate Somerville's products this September but I'm truly an Origins' girl. I love Origins and have used some of their products for years now. They work really well with my skin. Two that have stand out this month are the Checks and Balances face wash and Brighter By Nature serium.
Checks and Balances I have used for a while now and love it so much. This face wash is for combination skin and it cleanses both dry and oily places without cancelling each other out. It has broad leaf kelp extract to help with the oil and wheat protein to balance and protect the dry places. This product is brilliant. It's one of Origins' best sellers. It gets great reviews online and for good reason. This product keeps my skin healthy and happy. I highly recommend trying it. My origins counter always gives out samples, so if anything try a sample of it. If you have combination skin, you will love this product. 

The second skin product that I have loved this month is Origins brighter by nature skin correcting serum. I have used this in cognition with Mederma to help with post acne spots (I had just a few that I wanted gone) and can honestly stay that they have worked miracles on my skin. Love them both.

 My favourite hair product this month has been the Shu Uemura Essence Absolute nourishing and protective oil. I have been using Moroccan oil since the first day I colored my hair back blond and it works beautifully in keeping the hair healthy and soft. In fact I have mentioned Moroccan oil before in my June favourites. However, at the begging of this month I got a hair trim in a saloon that sells Shu Uemura and the hair dresser recommended this oil. This is much more expensive than Moroccan oil. It works beautifully and it gives the hair an extreme and beautiful shine without wheighing it down. My hair was literally glistening the next day. However, it's not that much different from my Moroccan oil. It smells a little better, it feels more luxurious, it's a little lighter and it makes the hair just a tiny bit shinier. All of this things though are small differences for a big price difference.

My favourite book this month has been the new Sophia Kinsella book "Mini Shopholic". I won't say much about this book so i don't spoil for anyone that may be reading it, but I just love Sophia Kinsella as I'm sure may girly girls do. 

These are my monthly favourites. Have you tried any of these products? What were your monthly favorites?