MAC Warm natural 15 eyeshadow palette swatches

Hi guys,
Along with the 15 cool palette, MAC also released a 15 eyeshadow warm palette. I gravitate towards warm colors mostly so I'm really excited to have this palette and start creating some looks with it. Below is a video and swatches of this palette:

1. from right to left, Lemon Tart - gorgeous shimmery gold, Brule - beautiful off white matte and Hey - Gorgeous shimmery champagne.

2. Creative Copper - Bronzy gold, Vanilla Extract - Shimmery Gold and Warm Breeze - a duo-chrome peachy gold.

3. Butterfudge - a dirty olive brown, Honey Lust - a warm honey golden luster, Gingersnap - gorgeous shimmery purple. 

4. Divine Decadence - gorgeous shimmery dark brown, Amber Lights - beautiful orange gold, and Dark Brew - Purple deluxe finish.

5. Unwind - green golden shimmer, Saddle - beautiful red orange brown, and In the Dark - Matte brown almost black.

Overall, I love this palette. The colors are beautiful and warm, the pigmentation is amazing and the texture is very easy to work with. I can't wait to use this to create some looks.

Hope you all having an amazing day.

Sephora Formula X Perfection Nail Polish Swatches

When I heard that Sephora was discontinuing the Sephora by OPI nail polish range, I was really sad specicially about one amazing color...metro chic. The likes of the taupe purple mushroom shade is easier to find now than when metro chic first came out, but I loved it so much and I always get a bunch of compliments when I wear it. The new line however, formula X seems to has a very close dupe called Perfection.

Formula X is meant to be very gel like and last on the nails for a more extended period of time than the regular polish. I do think this looks very gel like in the fact that it looks very shiny and it curves your nails much like the gel polish. Perfection (just like metro chic) is a gorgeous purple taupe mushroom shade, in the dirty family that looks amazing with short nails and it's perfect for fall and winter. Overall, I'm very happy that Sephora is offering a pretty much exact dupe and highly recommend this shade.

Hope you all have had a lovely day.

Loads of love

Ansa 

MAC 15 COOL NATURAL PALETTE SWATCHES

Hi everyone,
MAC just came out with a new cool natural palette that contains 15 eyeshadows that are natural but on the cooler side. This palette retails for $100 which  makes these shadows $6.6 dollars a piece plus you get the palette. These shadows however do not come out like they would in a traditional palette. See swatches below:

The first three colors are:
Flounce - Gorgeous matte pink; Pick Me Up- White matte and Silver Fog - Gray luster

Second group of colors are:

Sweet Allure - Gorgous pink shimmer; Cozy gray - beautiful matte gray and French clay - shimmery gray frosty shade.

Third group of shades are:

Sun Tweaked - Gorgeous shimmery frost finish, Crushed Clove - Bronze shimmer frost, Cumulus - gunpowder gray frost

Fourth group of shades:

After Dusk - purple shimmer veluxe pearl finish; Deception - a shimmery taupe frost finish and Pearled Earth - eggplant purple veluxe pearl finish. 

The last group of shades:

Blackberry - matte purple; brun - satin dark brown and black tied - gorgeous black infused with silver glitter and a veluxe finish. 

Overall this is an amazing palette. Most of all of these shades are limited edition. They were very pigmented and amazing colors for natural lover that prefers shades on the cooler side.

Hope you all are having an amazing day

BENEFIT'S Life on the A list lip gloss - Review and swatches

One of my latest purchase and obsessions is Benefit's "life on the A list" lip gloss. The color is a peachy pink that leans on cotton candy, so girly and beautiful. The consistency is light and not tacky but very moustierzing. The scent is deliciously sweet, to me it smells lightly of peaches and it gives the lips such an amazing ultra shine. I love this gloss and it's the perfect pick me up...it makes me happy every time I apply it.

Overall this is an amazing gloss, and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a spring color that's easy to wear, provides some moisture and gives a very glossy finish.

Hope you all are having a great day

Healthy January - Sweet potato fries recipe for beautiful skin and hair

Hi everyone,
Now that the holidays are over and december was full of indulging food for most of us, I'm starting January focusing on healthy eating. One of my favorite healthy foods are sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are great for both youthful skin and beautiful hair. They are full of vitamin C which aids in collagen production to keep the youthful skin elasticity. The orange color is derived from beta carotene the precursor or Vitamin A which among many things protects against the effects of aging. They also have Vitamin E, K, B6, as well as zinc, iron, copper, calcium, potassium, magnesium and niacin. I love sweet potato fries as they provide the sweet and crunchy taste but are very healthy (see recipe below). 

Eat your way to healthy skin and hair with this quick and simple recipe:

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Drizzle canola oil on the pan and place it in the oven while it preheats to thin the oil.

2. Cut sweet potatoes in wedges.

3. Season with cayenne peeper, cinnamon and a little bit of salt

4. Bake for 20-25 min.

Enjoy 

Hair Diary January Series - Growing long healthy hair

Hi everyone,
One of my new years resolutions for 2014 is to get my hair stronger and healthier. My hair had been colored so much in the last few years and wasn't in the best condition. Here are some pictures (all from old blog posts) of all the transformation of my hair. It had gotten brittle, dry and damaged and I was in need of a hair intervention. In the last 7 months I've focused in helping my hair get healthier and stronger. I've changed a lot from nutrition to products and what I do to my hair. But most importantly, last weekend I cut about 6 inches of my hair. In the next few months, my goal is to focus on getting some of the length back and get my hair healthier, shinnier and stronger and I want to share with you my progress including new products and nutrition tips.

Below is the before and after my hair cut picture.  

Hope some of you who are also interested in growing your hair out and getting it healthier, will find this information helpful..future posts to follow on the progress.

Happy 2014! 

Lots of love

Ansa

RiRi Hearts MAC Phresh Out Swatches

MAC released their holiday collection and it's a collaboration with Rihanna. The collection is gorgeous. The packaging is a beautiful winter white with R in rose gold and RiRi hearts MAC in white. One of the items I purchased was the eyeshadow palette in the color phresh out.

First impressions are this is a good natural shimmery palette. There are two glitters that are of poor quality but the other three I love. There is a shimmery golden shade much similar to MAC's nylon, the kind of shimmer that looks amazing in the inner duct to open up your eyes and make you look wide awake. The second shade is a glittery peach which swatches mostly of glitter. The third I'm afraid is much the same...a champagne glitter that swatches quite sheer and mostly glitter. However, I think these two would look gorgeous as a shimmer wash for the holidays. The last two are gorgeous...the fourth is the perfect shimmery purple taupe much similar to MAC's satin taupe but so shimmery and soft. The last one is a gray that swatches very dark but it's metallic and I think it'll offer a depth to the crease that some mattes may not be able to do due to it's shimmer effect. 

I think overall this is a great palette for a soft natural smokey eye and the glitter would be ok to wear during the holidays.

Hope you all are doing great. 

Loads of love

Ansa

Deborah Lippmann Bitches Brew

Ok the name of this polish is very clever and funny- I admit it was one of the reasons I wanted to see what this polish was all about but wow the color left me speechless. Deborah Lippman's Bitches Brew is a deep berry color that looks very luxurious and sultry on the nails. It is so glossy, sophisticated, chic and sexy all in one. It looks gorgeous on the nails and while it's deep it maintains it's berry color whilst a lot of darker polishes look black in some lights.

The above swatches are two coats. This was very easy to apply and it does need two coats to get to the true berry color as one coat wasn't enough. Overall, I think this is a must have for fall and winter.

Hope you all have had a great day.

Ansa