My Giveaway Prize from BirkinBagbeauty!!

I won her back to school giveaway! & I want to share with you all because...she is such a sweet person and operates a very lovely beauty blog! I highly suggest you go over and take a look-see if you can!

What I won:
Paul & Joe summer 2009 Gold bronzer in 01 Deity
China Glaze Nailpolish in Strawberry Fields.
Marbled (baked) blush from Second Love in Sunset.
Manglaze Nailpolish in The Death Tar
theme fragances in Sarong...roller
mini opi polish [unknown..supposed to be here today aragon tomorrow but doesn't look green?]
Illamasqua [!!!!!!!!!!! SOO EXCITED!] eyeshadow in Cry [pink]
Amuse l/s and liner mini duo in F4
7 Meow cosmetics loose e/s samples
Lotree nude lip color





I swear I will take better pics for a review :) Anyways, I'm quite excited to use it all, especially the Manglaze nail polish, Illamasqua eyeshadow and P & J bronzer!! What reviews are you looking forward to?

EOTD: Smokey Taupes

What I used:

shu uemura cream e/s p taupe,
Bobbi Brown black ink gel liner
shu uemura me850 [inner half only]

What do you think? I'm on the fence about the cream e/s, took a fluffy brush and a bit more of product than I was happy with to get it nicely dark. I hope I'm not boring you all with all this smokey and neutral EOTDS!

Review: RMK Gloss Lips 35 Translucent Shiny Pink

This review has been a long time coming!! :X Sorry! But I've finally gotten around to it, so let's begin.

When I was in Tokyo's Narita Airport, I was wandering around the duty free and came upon RMK gloss lips. I had been meaning to check it out while in Taiwan, but the counters were always missing testers and they never had a GWP to tempt me with. But now, seeing the range in the duty free section, I immediately wandered over to see the colors.

I have been wanting a pink gloss for awhile now, and since I had heard Gloss Lips are sheer I tried to pick up a darker color. I ended up with 35, a color from the Spring collection [full name 35 Translucent Shiny Pink]. It's indeed pretty and totally lives up to its name.

Here's a terrible picture of how it looks on lips [it actually doesn't look so peach, more pink and MUCH shinier, like a mirror shine]. I bought this gloss duty free for 20USD.
Anyways, more about the gloss. It comes in a nicely sized tube with a silver handle/wand that looks very classy. You get 6.8 grams for your money, but wait! Look! I've used this about 3-4x and the product level has already gone down!

As much as I hate how the product gets used up so quickly, I LOVE the super shine. [I wish I could post a pic, but they won't come out right! FuzKittie has some pics of Gloss Lips on her lips if you want to get an idea :)].

This isn't really pigmented at all! It's definetly just for the shine. It gives only a bit of color, which is to be expected considering that the Japanese favor that kind of light translucent look. The formula is also sort of slick, not too tacky and thick like MAC's but it does last awhile.

Last of all, I LOVE the brush! It's such a nice applicator, I think Western brands should definetly adopt it [Bobbi Brown, this is what your brush should look like, thanks :D]. It's not too stiff, flexible enough to deposit enough color and to get it everywhere you want.

I would love this even more if there were a bit more pigmentation, but I like it alright. Would I rebuy it? Probably not. It's a great gloss, but not for this pigmented lip'ed girl.

Your thoughts?

Dior Holiday Pics

Original link here. All pictures are taken from that link.

OH MY GOD !!!! This is the first holiday collection that I'm really excited about--just look at that quint! *faints*




Saving the best for last....
I'm so excited! That quint on the left will surely be mine! What are you looking forward to?

Oh man...And Another One Bites The Dust

As most of you have probably already heard, Estee Lauder is shutting down Prescriptives this January. They'll continue selling Px through their site until stocks are all gone.

"In a long-anticipated move, the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. said Thursday it will shut down wholesale distribution of its 30-year-old Prescriptives brand by Jan. 31. Products will continue to be available through the brand’s Web site for consumers needing replenishment, until supplies run out.

“A core component of the Estée Lauder Companies’ corporate strategy is to evaluate, and where possible, turn around underperforming brands with the goal of improving return on investment. After a thorough analysis of the Prescriptives brand, management concluded that the brand’s long-term business model is no longer viable given the current market environment. We believe that the difficult decision relating to Prescriptives will allow us to redirect our resources to key strategic imperatives where we see the highest growth potential,” said Freda."

I'm saddened that Estee Lauder is shuttering Px down because, though I've never tried them, I thought they had decent quality and a nice concept. I know they never had the biggest following, but its sad to see them go anyways.

Read the original article here.

It's magic! Revive me!

The title of this post doesn't seem to make sense hm? Don't worry, I hope to explain that very soon.

This, is MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator. Before this little experimental revival [courtesy of Alyheartsyou on MakeupAlley], it was plain thick black liquid. All the scrubbies had disappeared! [Please take this as a warning that if you buy VAE this time around, don't keep it in the shower! I suspect the heat and humidity had melted them].

Of course, when I discovered this, I freaked out and posted on Makeupalley about this. Well, Aly calmed me down when she said that I could simply add sugar to the exoliator and stir it with a toothpick, because that's what the original scrub particles had been made of.
Guess what? She was right! Simply add sugar until it gets to be that thick and 'rough' consistency--it'll be the sugar particles that you see
[here's a more accurate spi
Be warned, don't add too much sugar! Remember that it will settle at the bottom of the jar! I forgot this and ended up with quite alot of sugar at the bottom and the liquid almost overflowing--oops. :X. At least I won't have to worry about the scrubbies being melted for a long time!

And voila!
Has anyone else had this happen to your VAE? Will you be buying one this September 24th?

Review: MAC Euristocrats Lipsticks Patisserie and Cockney

Another review that is long overdue! So...MAC Euristocrats. The original collection launched in 2008 [spring] in Europe, Asia, everywhere except North America. That collection consisted of many more lipsticks than were released in the Euristocrats 2 collection that was launched in the US a year later [July]. But anyways, I ended up finding these two lipsticks in Taiwan [along with Milan Mode, that I wanted but decided to save for 'next time'] and pounced.
Pretty, eh? Cockney is the warm red and Patisserie is the pinky peach color. They are both lustres and have cute 'European names'--Cockney is the name of an accent in Great Britain and Patisserie is like a French bakery that specializes in desserts and sweets. Yum!

'Kay anyways, back to the colors....

MAC lipstick are not known to be moisturizing. But who honestly cares that much when you can use a balm underneath? And even though these are lustres, I find them nicely pigmented [I own mostly lustres out of all MAC l/s!].

Possible dupes:
Patisserie is by no means unique, just very pretty. I'm sure you could find many of these sort of colors, but I don't know one off the top of my head.
I hear that Cockney has a dupe in the permanent MAC line--Ladybug, but I can't confirm this.

Cockney compared with Port Red: Sheerer, more wearable and more warm/orange. Love!

Once applied, Cockney goes on quite red. You need to be careful in applying it, like all reds. It's a translucent look, but I'm still not quite that comfortable wearing it out. Will have to play with it more...

Patisserie is one of my new favorites. It's like a my lip but better nude/peachy color and so easy to swipe on. Only problem is, it's a bit sheer so I need an extra layer to cover my pigmented lips.

Anyways, I give these Euristocrats lipsticks thumbs up and I have my eye on Rue D'bois, Milan Mode and London Life next!

Swatches: Requested New MAC hauls

This is a requested post :) My hauls from MAC recently--Rated R starflash, Strike A Pose starflash and Push The Edge pigment.



Push The Edge looks much more like how it really applies on my eyes in the 3rd pic, on my finger. I didn't pick up enough of the product in the 2nd pic. It's more of a chunky pigment, and a tiny bit chalky, but I really love the color.

The two starflash formula eyeshadows are a bit sheerer than I remember Starflash to be but I like them alot too! Very unique shades in my opinion.

NOTD: OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow

Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow is part of OPI's Spain collection for fall 2009. I was unsure about it when I first put it on, but guess what? It's actually noticeabley green, dark enough to be sophisticated but green enough to be a bit edgy without a fungus tinge. LOVE it. My only green I think that I'll be wearing.

What do you think? Will you be wearing green this season?

Let's Talk Jewelry

Taking a quick break from makeup here--What kind of jewelry do you wear? What kinds are you always attracted to?


I always wear the same pair of Givenchy earrings that I scored on sale for twenty bucks. LOVE them. Also wear a set of Swarovski rings that were given to me by a family friend. I hate wearing bracelets--I can only wear rings or necklaces or earrings.

How bout you? Any favorite brands, any favorite pieces?