In The Groove

MAC's In The Groove collection released in stores today and there's no other way to describe it other than a hyped-up frenzy.  MAC collections always release their products on their website about two days before they're released in stores.  Last Tuesday everyone was buzzing about the repromote of Mineralize Skinfinish (MSF) Stereo Rose.  I believe it was up on their website at 8:00 AM EST.  I was able to place an order for Stereo Rose, Jazzed lipstick (another hyped up item), In the Groove & Soften the Mood.  I ordered it at 9:20 AM.  I think by 9:45 Stereo Rose was listed as sold out on the website.  It was madness.  Everyone was tweeting about how they got it or how they didn't order it on time.  It was insane.

I don't know if I'll ever receive the backordered item but I was determined to get a Stereo Rose MSF when it was released in stores today.

I ventured to the Nordstrom MAC counter first because if they didn't have it there is a MAC store right outisde Nordstrom.  If the MAC store didn't have it I could go around the corner to the Macy's counter and get one.  

Luckily I snagged the last Stereo Rose from the Nordstrom counter!  

I ended up getting Stereo Rose, Togetherness, Calm, Cool & Collected & Jazzed.

Now here are my shitty swatches.  My Samsung dual screen camera is shattered and broken so I can't adjust any settings when I take pictures.  Sorry :(  I'll be getting a new camera soon.

Stereo Rose is a coral with golden/bronze shimmering nuances.  I think it's gorgeous and it will look great on medium skin tones.

Jazzed lipstick on the left & Stereo Rose on the right.

Calm, Cool & Collected  is a cool-toned green trio featuring a grayish-white beige with satin sheen, neutral spring green, and darkened gray-green.  I absolutely love this trio!  I can't wait to wear it.

Togetherness is a cool-toned purple trio that includes a soft lilac with a satin sheen, blue-based violet purple with a frostier finish, and a mid-tone silver gray. The pigmentation here was even and rich throughout the trio.  It's gorgeous.

I'll post pictures of In the Groove & Soften the Mood when they've been delivered.  Were you able to get your hands on Stereo Rose?

A Small Haul or a Smaul

I have a small haul for you all!  It rhymes!  :D  I ordered a few things from the Sephora and NARS websites.  I've been obsessed with expanding my NARS blush collection.  I'm drooling over a few more colors and when I have something in mind then I usually have to have it.

L to R: Illamasqua Milf (I'm not a fan of this name but it's a pretty color) vintage mint green
OPI for Sephora: Read my Palm - light jade green
OPI for Sephora: Havana Dreams - pale sky blue

The three of these are cremes and I can't wait to try them!  I especially love Illamasqua's nail varnish formula. I typically only need 2 coats and they're perfectly opaque.

Then from NARS I ordered these two cream blushes.
The left is Penny Lane and the right is Enchanted from the new Summer 2010 collection.
These are the first two cream blushes I've tried from NARS and I love love love them.
Penny Lane is a gorgeous nude pink and Enchanted is a soft peachy apricot with gold sparkles.  It's absolutely gorgeous!

You can click on the photo to enlarge.  I hope you can see the gold sparkles.  They aren't huge and chunky but it really creates the most gorgeous sheen on the skin.

That's it for my small haul!  I hope you all are having a lovely week so far!
xoxo

Urban Decay and China Glaze haul

Hello my lovelies!  I have a really exciting haul to share with you today!  My Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows arrived in the mail!  UD began selling it on their website last Friday, Jan 15th so I ordered mine right away.  It sold out online in one day!  It hasn't hit Sephora shelves yet however they are taking phone orders at 1-877-SEPHORA or (1-877-737-4672).

It comes with travel size Eyeshadow Primer Potion, 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils in Flipside and Zero.


The China Glaze Up and Away spring 2010 collection also became available to purchase last week so I placed an order with Head2Toebeauty.com.

From L-R: Peachy Keen, Lemon Fizz, Re-fresh Mint, Four Leaf Clover, Something Sweet, Light As Air, Grape Pop, Heli-Yum


I've been so excited for this collection to come out ever since I saw promo pics around Thanksgiving last year.  These colors are perfect creamy pastel shades for spring and I can't wait for the warm weather!


So now I'm off to do my nails with Four Leaf Clover since it's a shade I sadly cannot get away with at the office. :( 
Next week I think I'll rock the Re-Fresh Mint or Peachy Keen for work.   I hope you all have a lovely weekend!  Ciao for now XOXO

Happy Hauliday!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all had a lovely holiday!  There was some talk on Twitter this morning about how a few people don't like to see hauls of what they got for Christmas but I thought I'd share since I got a few beauty related items.  
My mother in law got me two gift boxes from LUSH!  She must have talked to my husband about what she should get me because you all know how much I love LUSH.
She gave me the Best Wishes Holiday Gift box and the Happy Christmas Holiday Gift box.

Contents of Best Wishes Holiday Gift:
Li'l Lush Pud Bath Bomb
Mr. Butterball Bath Bomb
Satsumo Santa Bath Bomb
So White Bath Bomb

Contents of Happy Christmas Holiday Gift:
Jingle Spells Bath Bomb
Snowcake Soap
Satsumo Santa Bath Bomb
Christmas Eve Bubble Bar
Cinders Bath Bomb
Karma Soap

Everything in both of these boxes smell amazing!  I love it!!


My sister in law gave me a bunch of goodies too!  She gave me Bare Minerals Lustworthy Lips & Lashes (mini mascara & gloss duo).  The lip gloss is super cute and smells like strawberries!  Yum!
She also gave me: 
ULTA Shower Smoothie in Berrylicious
ULTA Smoothies Body Swirl in Berrylicious
Stila Divine Shine: Kitten Lip Glaze & all over shimmer liquid luminizer
Viva la Juicy rollerball (my fav perfume!)

She also got me this super cute jewelry holder mannequin type thing.  Isn't that cute?!  Love it!

The in laws know me so well.  :)  They're the best.
Has anyone tried the Stila all over shimmer liquid luminizer?  Do you put it on your cheeks as a highlight?  The brush applicator is pretty big so I assume it's to cover a large area of your body like maybe your arms & décolletage.  Please let me know if anyone has tried this.  Thanks!


So I'm saving the best for last.  Are you ready??


Huz got me a new camera!!  I'm so freaking excited.  It has a dual LCD screen so I can take better FOTD's for you guys!  It's the Samsung TL220 that has 12.2 mega pixels and I can record videos in HD now.  I've been playing with it non stop.  

I decided to play around with my Make Up For Ever shadows and I came up with a bright magenta pink/purple smokey eye.  This could be a New Years look maybe?  I took a few pics of the look with just the matte shadows by itself then I added MAC's bright pink glitter to the outer corner.  You can't really tell from the pictures but it was super glittery IRL.

Finally, I was playing around with a few settings with the new cam.  Here are a few pics of me with Mochi & Chache.  I'm not wearing any makeup dun dun dun!

How about you?  Did you receive any beauty related products for Christmas?  If you hauled anything I'd love to check it out!  

Victoria's Secret makeup haul & EOTD

I received an email promotion from Victoria’s Secret about a 20% discount on your entire online order so I took this opportunity to experiment with their makeup line.  Yay for promo's right?!  I’ve only tried their lipglosses before but I was particularly interested in trying products from the Christian Siriano & Heidi Klum lines.  I’ve also had the VS Lipstick in Satin Sheets on my to buy list for months now so I also picked that up.

I bought the Heidi Klum eye shadow palette in Hidden Palace, a VS eye shadow in Pose, Christian Siriano eye shadow in Sahara & Perfect Lipstick in Satin Sheets.

I haven’t had a chance to try any of the products yet (except for the lipstick - which is really sheer btw) so I couldn’t tell you how well they blend but I was able to swatch them and that’s what I wanted to share with you.  I haven’t seen any blog posts or videos about the Heidi Klum line so I wanted to put the swatches out there in case anyone was interested in seeing them.  The packaging is gorgeous btw!

Off the bat I can tell you all of the shadows are pigmented and silky.  I particularly love the Christian Siriano color Sahara.  In the Hidden Palace palette I really like the gold/champagne & the plum/wine color.  I don’t have anything like it. 

Satin Sheets is a pretty pink nude but it's extremely sheer & lacks that creamy pigmentation I always look for.  It's nice for a subtle hint of pink for the office and it has a little bit of frostiness to it.  It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be so I don't think I'd buy this again.  I might try other colors but I'd have to go to the store to swatch it first.

Pose, Sahara, Satin Sheets

I also had a chance to snap a few photos of my EOTD from yesterday.  I used Maybelline’s trio in Positively Purple.

I like this palette.  Purples are great colors for brown eyes and this palette has a nice iridescence to it.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! It's been snowing all day here and tomorrow we're going to a Redskins game!  Woohoo!  Go Skins!

Thanksgiving Black Friday Haul

Every year my parents brave out the crowds on Black Friday for all the Thanksgiving sales.  I normally go with my guy later in the afternoon/early evening when the crowds have dissipated. 

The Gap had a really great deal of buy one sweater get a second sweater free so we took advantage of that. 

I popped into ULTA and they had buy 2 Essie nail polishes get 1 free.  I don’t think this was a special Black Friday promo as they always seem to have this deal whenever I’m at ULTA.  I bought Lovie Dovie, Mod Squad, & Lolipop.  I also picked up Essie’s Matte About You which is a top coat you can apply to any nail polish and it will give you a matte finish. 

Matte About You, Lovie Dovie, Mod Squad, Lolipop

I also picked up 2 Too Faced Girls Dig Pearls lip glosses.  I was telling bestie the other day that I will not buy any more lip glosses but I can’t seem to follow my own rules.  Smh

I picked up Shell and Pink Bling.  These are made using real crushed sea pearls.  It has vitamin E and peppermint extract for a slight minty taste.  It’s glossy & has a lot of shimmer but it’s not too tacky/sticky.

Shell and Pink Bling

Shell

Pink Bling

Then I ventured into MAC to check out the new Baroque Boudoir collection and to pick up Viva Glam V.  After reading Temptalia's posts on the collection I was convinced I wouldn’t haul anything but I swatched two of the lippies and I walked away with Prive.  The lipsticks in this collection are more expensive than normal MAC lipsticks but I’m happy I bought it.  I’m in love with the damask design on the tube!  :D

Prive

Viva Glam V

Swatches: Viva Glam V & Prive

For Thanksgiving I made mini pumpkin pie bites.  They were so delicious.  I was running late and had to jump into the shower so I had my guy pipe the chocolate drizzle.  It was supposed to look like this

But when I got out of the shower I went downstairs to the kitchen and found this lol!

I laughed so hard when I saw this.  I figured he must’ve gotten frustrated and impatient since the design had to be so small and intricate.  These bites wouldn’t be complete without the chocolate so I’m very proud of the huz for steppin up to the task.  :D  Doesn’t it look like plaid?  Hahaha.

Hope you lovelies had a great Thanksgiving!  Did you brave the Black Friday frenzy?