Sticks & Stones

I like to think that I'm all shopped out for a while.... now that I have basically anything I've ever wanted to add to my collection there is no need to buy anything for a loong time. Everyone was right about shopping in the US, everything is so cheap! Except there's one little thing that is not mentioned to often and that is service tax, a % charged on top of your purchase, for those who didn't know. But in the end that doesn't really matter too much because everything is much cheaper than home & it's just like if the GST wasn't included in our products. So anyway, in almost each place we visited I went to Sephora more than once. My Fiancee didn't mind once he found out they had free Wifi so that was good to keep him happy while I shopped, and in some places where wifi was harder to find, he actually asked if we could find Sephora which is something I never thought he would say! So we both won. I also enjoyed visiting MAC on a few different occasion...

So I've already done the first part to my blush collection over here but here is my current High End blush collection, although I will be updating soon to accommodate the new ones I have recently purchased. I am super happy with my blush collection now although you can never have too many blushes! MAC Sometimes the quality is really noticeable with higher end brands, as I've found with MAC their blushes have great pigmentation & amazing lasting power. I'm hoping to expand with a couple more of their mineralize skin finishes. I also have a couple of Cream Colour Bases but I consider them to be highlighters although can be a base for blush. Out of the powder blushes I prefer the normal formulation as the sheertones obviously don't turn out as pigmented as they look in the pan & in a finger swatch. L-R: MAC Mineralize blush Warm Soul {Satin w/ hint of shimmer}, Pink Swoon {Sheertone matte}, Peachykeen {Sheertone Shimmer} Dollymix {Sheertone shimmer, Her Blooming...

Going through my older FOTD's, I found this summery peachy look that I wore a little while ago. I noticed I had followed through the peachy look with the lips & cheeks onto the eyes with a touch of a warmer colour in the crease, and paired with dewy skin & keeping the lower lash line clean adds to the summery look, which was not my intention haha.   Face | Rimmel Wake Me Up + MAC Strobe Cream for a really dewy look topped off with NARS Laguna Bronzer & MAC Lightscapade to add an extra glow. Colour to the cheeks is achieved with Milani's Baked Blush in Coralina Eyes | After a primer apply a shimmery skin-toned colour to the lids such as Stila Kitten . Blend lightly into the crease with a fluffy brush so there's no harsh line with a brighter corally-red, such as Makeup Geek's Razzelberry eyeshadow. Make it so you can just see a pop of colour with the eyes open. Line the eyes, I used Maybelline's Line Allure, go as thick or thin as you like & simpl...

My lovely Mother-in-law got me the Lancome Travel Chic palette from her travels in Europe which is exclusive for Duty Free at the airports. I actually included this in my What's in My Makeup Travel bag post but then decided afterwards, is it worth me taking? I was always going to bring my Naked 2 palette but I thought I'd better test it out to see if I would actually use it. Firstly how stunning is the case!! It's a beautiful sequined gold clutch with a mirror basically the size of the lid, which is perfect for traveling. It has everything that you may need for a couple of days; a variety of 6 eyeshadows, a mini mascara, two lip glosses, a blush & a translucent face powder & also a few mini brushes. The eyeshadow choices are perfect for creating simple looks and when you're on holidays you rarely want to spend a lot of extra time doing your makeup. The mascara you get is a mini version of the famous Hypnose mascara (I haven't tried it before so I can't c...

Soo this is a really old FOTD that I posted to my Instagram probably a few months back & also in my MAC Samples post to showcase the gorgeous Blue Brown pigment from MAC. It is full of duochromey goodness with a two-in-one colour effect that you can apply & blend, adding more dimension while cutting out on application time. So this lip colour is probably a bit too muted out, especially as I am not wearing much blush but something like Revlon's Matte lipstick in Smoked Peach may have been more suited to add a bit more colour to the lips. Face | Rimmel Wake Me Up + Bourjois Healthy Mix , Rimmel Stay Matte , Nars Laguna, MAC Lightscapade , MAC Pink Swoon Eyes | Too Faced Shadow Insurance, MAC Blue Brown pigment, Urban Decay Naked 1 Naked {blending}, Virgin {Highlight}, Maybelline Master Precise Eyeliner, Maybelline The Falsies, Vau Beauty lashes , Nyx Eyebrow Cake Powder Lips | MAC Myth lipstick So I've kept it pretty simple this time with only a couple of eye...

Another inspiration of mine on Youtube is Sharon Farrell. I've only just discovered her in the last couple of months but she has a nice variety of tutorials, from Beauty Icons, Celebrities, basic makeup tutorials & improvised tutorials that she makes up on the spot. This one day I decided to try her Teal & Gold Peacock Eyes , well this is actually again my second attempt, as I had (again) forgotten exactly how she had done it the first time! She used some amazing MAC eyeshadows in hers so I had to try and match it as well as I could! Where I've listed what I used I added her products (next to them). Face | Rimmel Wake Me Up + Stay Matte powder, NARS Laguna , MAC Lightscapade , Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso Eyes | Chi Chi pencil eyeliner in Caribbean Queen [as a base, ended up creasing a bit] (MAC Minted)  Makeup Geek e/s Mermaid [1: Lid] (MAC Steamy) Bh Cosmetics Day & Night palette [2: Crease, lower lash line] (MAC Tilt) Skin tone colour from same palet...

So I've done my lipstick collection and that was over 5 parts sorted by their colours, now I'm doing my blush collection. I was actually going to do my nail polish collection first but that one will probably take the longest so I might leave that one till last. Not that I plan on doing it on absolutely every type of product you can have, I want to do the ones that I seem to collect haha such as lipstick, blush, nail polish, perfume & maybe eyeliners, but we'll see as I go along. I have decided to break this up into 2 parts, Drugstore & High End. I definitely have a lot more drugstore blushes as obviously they are cheaper so I don't feel as bad to have multiple colours by the same brands. It would be way to hard to go by colour, and I was going to go by brand but since I only have a few of some brands & more of the others I thought it would be easier to group like this. Some of the swatch pictures have been enhanced the tiniest bit with contrast as my camera ...