Nivea Milk & Honey

I love watching youtube and reading beauty blogs, that was what inspire me to start my own.  So I could get in on the action. *wink*  

But after many years, how come I've never heard much about one of my favourite lip balms?  I always listen to my favourite beauty gurus and buy the newest bestest lip products, but no matter what is the hottest product of the time, I always go back to Nivea Milk & Honey.

Its my go-to daytime lip balm.  Hydrating, but not too thick.  Perfect to apply right before makeup, and your lips will be just the right softness when you put on your lipstick.  Great stuff, that's all I have to say.  :)

Do you have a staple that you always go back to?

Year End Finish = the Balm nude'tude :] and Swatches

Finally year end has finished and I can take a mini breather.  To celebrate, I dropped by my local Pharma Plus and to my surprise found theBalm products.  I was quite surprised because I never noticed their product at downtown Toronto location near my workplace.  But when I went to the one near my house, in the middle of nowhere it seemed, there it was.  And what a seemed like a pretty complete collection too.

So, I know this is completely late in the game, and its so 2012, but I couldn't help but pick up the nude'tude palette.  And without further ado, here is my little humble review.

The packaging is nice and slim.  It is just as long as the Naked palette, and a bit wider.  It's around the same size as the Lorac Pro palette.  As with the thickness, the Nude'tude is just between the two. The material is a sturdy type of cardboard with a really nice mirror inside.

I have chosen the "nice" palette without the cheek girls on them.  The eye shadows are incredibly silky and the colours are very pigmented.

Sassy is a satin finish true white.  The colour payoff is very good, with just a hint of frosted sheen.  This makes the shadow very wearable, especially for the inner corners of your eyes.  Snobby is a light gold with shimmer.  It is the less pigmented shadow of the palette, and comes off as a slightly golden beige with one or two swipes.  It is definitely more shimmery than Sassy, but can still be used to pull of a natural look due to it's shade.

  

Stubborn is a frosty light peach.  It is not as sheer as Snobby, but not as pigmented as Sassy.  Stubborn is quite similar to it's neighbour below, Stand-Offish.  However, Stand-Offish is very shimmery with a yellow-toned base.  

Frosted is a satin taupe and is my favourite colour from this palette.  It has a reddish warm undertone to it.  Very soft and nicely pigmented, it seems like it would make a great crease colour.  Sultry is a reddish matte brown.  The texture is very powdery.

Sophisticated is a bronze brown with a slight satin finish.   It is very pigmented and is considerably cooler than the Selfish shade.  Seductive is a red toned brown similar to Sultry but with shimmer.

Sexy is another matte colour, this time a burgundy.  When swatched it is less red than the in the palette and is very pigmented.  Silly is dark brown with shimmer.  It definitely looks prettier in the pan.

Serious, is a seriously dark matte black.  It is not the blackest black I've seen, but it is still pretty impressive. I was almost able to match the pan's darkness after 3-4 swipes.  Also, very silky.  Lastly, is Sleek.  Sleek is probably the most pigmented shadow of the palette.  With one swipe, it is dark dark matte brown.  Very dark, but still definitely brown.  

Below are pictures in sunlight, indoor light, and with flash.

1st Row: Sassy, Snobby, Stubborn Stand-Offish

2nd Row: Selfish, Sultry, Sophisticated, Seductive

3rd Row: Sexy, Silly, Serious, Sleek

Overall, I think that since I have quite a few neutral palettes already, I could've skipped this one.  But if you don't have any, or only have the Naked 1, I think this one is different enough that you could justify the purchase.  The quality of the shadows are great, and it is still cheaper than Urban Decay. (in Canada at least)

My favourite shade was Selfish, followed by Sleek and Stubborn.  Which one was your favourite shade?

Also, can anyone tell me if I can rotate pictures in blogger?

Julep Michelle and Vivien Swatch and Review

During Julep's Christmas sale, I did a really good job and only restricted myself to 2 nail polished.

The first one is a deep navy blue named Michelle.  It is an extremely opaque creme finish.  As you can see below, one coat is all you need to get that deep almost black navy.  Although almost black, you can definitely tell that it is not black.  Also, in some lighting there can be a greenish tint to it, which I was not a fan of.  However, overall outdoor sunlight and most indoor lighting will give you the true navy blue that matches the bottle.

It is definitely a shade that I would wear again for the winter.  What colours do you pull out the most during winter?

On top of the blue, I layered this pretty gold sparkle called Vivien.  This is a clear base polish with large gold hexagons mixed with golden shimmer specks.  Although it is a clear base, the golden specks are so dense that it can be worn without a base coat.  The below pictures are with one coat only.  This is definitely my favourite of the two polishes.

Both of these nail polishes have no problem with streakiness in application.  I find the application to generally be pretty good for Julep nail polishes.

Please leave me a comment as I would love to know which polish do you like better. :]

Top Box Jan 2013

Yesterday I received my January Topbox in the mail.  To be honest the previous boxes were starting to disappoint me but sice they are introducing the Prive box I decided to give it another month.

This month's box focuses on Clinique. 

First item is the Clarifying Lotion for dry and combination skin.  It is suppose to be used as a toner after cleanser.  The product had a very strong alcohol scent.  It did not give a dry tightening effect as expected, however its also not moisturing either.  Overall, not a product I would purchase.

Next up is the Rinse-off Eye Makeup Solvent.  I am actually using Clinique's Take The Day Off remover and quite like it.  This has similar chemical scent with the one I'm using but not as strong as the toner above.  I feel like the Take The Day Off does a better job, but that I will give it a few more tries.  Overall, nothing special about this.

Next is the Color Surge Eyeshadow Duo.  I quite like the colour, it is definitely colours that I most gravitate to.  That being said, I do have an overwhelming about of these colours at home, but that should not effect the product review itself.  The colour pay-off, especially for a high-end brand is not great.  The texture of the eyeshadow is pretty smooth, and seems to have little fallout.  And I can easily rub off my swatch with my dry hands.  This makes me think that it would probably not be too long lasting either.  The lighter colour barely shows up on my skin (the swatch is to the left of the brown colour).  I think it will be good as a mixing blending colour for a simple eye look.  Overall, I think this is the favourite part of this month's Top box.




Last but not lease, we have the Even Better Dark Spot corrector.  Obviously I cannot see any result, especially with such a small sample.  However, I like that the texture is very light, not greasy or sticky at all.  Also, it feels like my skin quickly absorbs this serum and does not produce any balls of build up when I rub my face.  I think this is the product that I will most likely purchase from this box.

As I've mentioned before, I think that Top box, and just these subsrciption boxes in general are going downhill.  However, I think this Prive box concept might be a good way for me to get a guarantee of what I do like.  Although, I do like the surprise in the mail.  I think I will keep this subscription for a few more months to test out these Prive boxes, for February I have picked the Benefit one.  Can't wait!

What do you think about this new Top box?

Butter London Queen Vic Review + Swatches

Lets start off this blog with something easy.  My current nail colour is Queen Vic by Butter London.


The formula of this polish is very smooth and I only need to thin coats for it to be opaque.  The brush is smaller compared to OPI, which I like because I do have small nails.

Queen Vic is medium - dark cranberry colour.  It has ever so slightly more of a red undertone when swatched then on the bottle.  I did not expect it to be this red-toned as I don't usually wear red nail polishes.  But this is a welcomed surprise.  It's kind of like a beginner red, if you don't normally wear red colours but would like to get into the trend, I would definitely recommend this colour.

What do you think about this shade? 

my first post

What can I say, I'm excited.

Hope this blog will inspire me to play around with my make up instead of simply at them in awe.  Hope this can document my improvement in application.  And just a place to share with the world instead of boring my boyfriend with these "girly things".

sincerely,
mistyufo