NARS x Guy Bourdin: One Night Stand Cheek Palette

Swatches & Review

Two years ago, NARS came out with their first Cheek Palette that contains six cheek colors in them. They have always been the first to sell out so when I heard they were making one this year, I knew I had to get it. Unlike the two released in the past, the One Night Stand Cheek Palette has three exclusive limited edition shades. The Guy Bourdin One Night Stand palette is exclusively sold at Sephora for the Holiday season.

The box that this palette comes in.

The palette taken in natural daylight.

The palette taken indoor with light.

The six shades in this palette are:
Devotee, Laguna, Mistinguette, Deep Throat, Orgasm, and Goulue.

Devotee: Frosty highlighter with a slight pink sheen. Devotee is very pigmented and a little goes a long way. This is a nice highlighter to pair with matte shades.

Laguna: Bronzer with golden shimmer. In previous palette sets, Laguna applied patchy for me, however, this barely even showed up on me at all! This was stiff and a bit hard to apply. I used many layers before it actually showed up a bit. In my swatch, it does not look like anything is there, but it is.

Mistinguette is described as a bright pink, but on me, it is more like a pale light pink. This is the only matte shade in the palette and this was quite powdery and chalky for me when swatched. When applied with a blush brush, it is not as powdery, but it definitely emphasized the dry patches on my cheeks.

Deep Throat: Sheer peach with slight golden shimmer. If you compare this to Orgasm, you can definitely see that Deep Throat is more peachy, while Orgasm is more pink. I feel that the individual blush of Deep Throat is more pigmented and smooth compared to what is offered in this palette. However, it is still a nice subtle blush for a natural look.

Orgasm: Peachy-pink with golden shimmer. The shimmer in Orgasm is more noticeable than in Deep Throat. This also was not as pigmented and smooth when compared to the individual blush and the other Orgasms I own from other palettes, but the shade is buildable.

Goulue: Medium pink with subtle golden shimmer. This was the most pigmented shade in the whole palette. This was buttery smooth and a light-hand is definitely needed with this if you do not want to overdo it. This is my favorite shade in the palette.

Overall, I feel like this palette is a good value if you do not already have the shades that are permanent in here (Laguna, Deep Throat & Orgasm. NARS definitely needs to stop putting those shades in everything). Although they did not perform as well as they do individually, Deep Throat and Orgasm are build-able to achieve the color that is in the individual ones. Laguna just did not work for me at all, and Mistinguette is a bit too light for my liking, but I did really like Devotee, and Goulue, which are exclusive to this palette. Each blush contains 0.14 oz of product, while each blush sold individually contains 0.16 oz of product, so it is almost full-sized, and buying it for those two almost justifies the price (if you do not mind another Deep Throat, Orgasm or Laguna).

The One Night Stand palette retails for $65 and is exclusive to Sephora (Online & In-Stores although it is listed as "online only" on their website, it is not).

What do you think about this cheek palette? Would you buy it for the exclusive shades?

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Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette

Preview:

For a few weeks now, I have seen some pictures about the Vice 2 palette and I have been super excited about it because I really like that the last Vice Palette was not as bulky as the previous Book of Shadows palettes. This Holiday, Urban Decay is coming back with Vice 2, which is the second year of them making Vice! The outside of the palette is kind of like a tie-dye look compared to a solid color from the first version. I found a few pictures on instagram, but these two were the best that shows the inside of the palette.

Credits to the Instagram of SephoraMX (Sephora Mexico) & fer_rosas29

From the looks of it, some of the shades seem to be new shades because of the shade names that I was able to make out from the pictures.

The few shade names I was able to get from this are:
Coal, X-Rated, Poison, Derailed, Rewind, Ambush, Betrayal, Stash, Voodoo, Habit, Strike, Dope, Radar, Prank, Smokeout, Toxic & Damaged.

It also seems that this palette, like the Vice Palette does not have much matte shades, which is a bummer because Urban Decay has had amazing matte shades that they have discontinued & it seems like half the shades are also neutral, which is like almost all their palettes now. I would love more color & mattes (maybe Vice 3? I will not give up hope!), but this looks nice enough to grab too! I heard the release for this is not until November, but the date can always change since it is not official yet & for the last few years, their Holiday sets are usually offered around mid to late September.

I have also heard that this Holiday, they may be coming back with their old beloved face palettes. Here's a few images of the face palettes Urban Decay has offered in 2010:

Image from makeupandbeautyblog.com

& the ones from 2004:

Image from londonbeautyreview.com


So far, what do you think about the Vice 2? Does it look pretty enough for you to indulge? & what do you think the return of the face palettes would be? :)

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NARS Pierre Hardy Blush: Rotonde

Swatches & Review

Rotonde is one of the two blushes released for NARS x Pierre Hardy Summer 2013 collection. When I first saw the blushes online, I thought that they looked amazing, but the price tag on these made it hard for me to order them immediately. When they were released at Sephora, I swatched them at the store and I knew I had to have them. NARS Rotonde is described as "tiger lily."


The front of the packaging says Pierre Hardy on it.


This blush was incredibly hard to capture on capture, no matter what lighting I used indoor or outdoor. It is definitely brighter in person. It is a bright orange with golden over-spray to create a pattern on it. It was too pretty to touch so I waited a week before messing it up :P


On the left, it is swatched without the over-spray and on the right, it is swatched with the over-spray. It is a bit hard to see, but you can kind of see some shimmer with the over-spray. Without the over-spray, it is a matte vibrant orange.


Left is without the over-spray and right is with the over-spray.

Although it is $41 the one thing that made me have to have this was it was incredibly pigmented. This blush is very very smooth, pigmented, and easy to blend. When I swatched these, only one swipe was used and it stained my finger. I have tried these on my cheeks and on the cheeks, it looks a bit like a bronze-ish orange, which does not look bad at all. It is important to use a light-hand with these because it can easily be overdone & just a dab with a brush onto the pan is enough. After using it twice, the golden over-spray on the parts I have been using is pretty much gone. It lasted about seven hours on me before it started fading, which was really good for a blush.

For $41, you get 0.45 oz of product, which is not bad considering one NARS blush is $29 for 0.16 oz of product, so this is about three times the amount of a regular NARS blush.

What do you think about NARS x Pierre Hardy collection for Summer?

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Tarte Amazonian 12-Hour Clay Blush: Amused

Swatches & Review

After my last haul, I told myself I was not going to buy anymore makeup, but that was definitely a fail. Yesterday when I went to the mall, I picked up Tarte's Amused blush. At first, I was not sure if I wanted it, but after trying it on in the store, I wanted it so my boyfriend bought me it. Amused is a bright pink blush.

Like always, the Tarte blushes packaging is the color of what the blush is supposed to be like.

Since it has been raining all day in the Bay Area, it was kind of hard to capture how bright this blush is. On the left, you can see the pink glowing from the pan. It is a bright pink!

I swatched it over two different lighting's. Even when it is a bit dim in the room, you can definitely see the pink glowing off my skin.

Amused is a bright cool-toned pink. It is very smooth and pigmented so this blush can be easily overdone. With a light-hand, this blush gives a very nice flush to the cheeks, which I really like.

Overall, I really like this blush. This blush kind of reminds me of NARS Gaiety & Desire, but Gaiety is a bit cooler and Desire is a bit pinker. It stayed on my for about 6-hours before seeing it noticeably fading from my cheeks. Although Tarte claims these to last 12-hours, the ones that I have tried has not lasted over 6 hours without fading. However, I am loving Tarte blushes, I'm becoming a Tartelette! In the beginning of the year, the only blushes I had were NARS, MAC, Urban Decay, Milani, Tarina Tarantino & theBalm, but now that it's the end of the year, I have about 9 Tarte blushes!

What do you think about Amused? Have you tried Tarte's Amazonian 12-hour Clay Blushes? What is your favorite Tarte blush?

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Tarte Amazonian 12-Hour Clay Blush: Flush

Swatches & Review

Tarte's Amazonian Clay blush in Flush is a bright berry pink color. I purchased this in the Balanced and Beautiful set from Ulta on Black Friday.

In the pan, the blush looks very intimidating since it seems so bright, but it is not as bad as I thought it was just looking it from the pan.

It is very pigmented. I just swiped the blush once with my finger and I was able to do a hard swatch AND a blended out swatch from that one swipe. It was easy to blend and with a light-hand, this blush will definitely look good on the cheeks.

Since the weather in North California has been sucky lately, I had to use flash to show you how it looks like on my cheeks. What I noticed when I use flash is it makes the blush on the cheeks look more harsh when it really isn't. There were times when my boyfriend and I would take pictures with flash and he would be like "whoa, your cheeks look so red here," but it was just the flash that makes the blush stand out a lot more, and makes my skin look very pale.

Without flash, you can see that Flush gives a nice glow to my cheeks. I applied it with a light hand and it was more than enough for both my cheeks with one swipe onto my blush brush.

Overall, I like this blush a lot! I have ordered more full-sized blushes from Tarte's Amazonian Clay line with my Sephora's VIB reward card & I can't wait for it to come! The only downside to this is that it does not last for 12-hours like it claims. For me, it lasted for a good 6 hours before you can noticeably see the fading.

What do you think about this blush? Have you tried Tarte blushes? Which one is your favorite?

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Is Tarina Tarantino Getting Discontinued?

This is all up in the air right now for me. I have talked to a SA from Sephora & they have confirmed that the line is being discontinued // I went to check out their page on Sephora today, but many of the Tarina Tarantino's line has been marked down. Since they are a Sephora brand, I would not be surprised if their contract is up, just like Tokidoki leaving Sephora. Yes, some of their items are not marked down, but that was the same with Tokidoki. If anyone can confirm this, it would be wonderful!

The some great deals to get from this line is of course, their cheek palette. I have owned mine since last December and I love it! I do not use it on a daily basis (because I do not bring much makeup with me while I'm in school), but I use it from time to time and the pigmentation of it is amazing! Same goes for their individual blushes.

The original price of the Cheek Palette is $45, which is now $27. That is FORTY PERCENT off! Although it states that the value of the palette is $100, it is actually around $65, but it is still not bad! AND since Christmas is around the corner (not really, but time flies by quickly), these will be great gifts! Do you think you will indulge in this sale?

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NARS Joie De Vivre Cheek Palette

I have reviewed it here. :)

Remember the Danmari Cheek palette from NARS that was sold exclusively at Sephora last Holiday season? Well this time, there is a palette that looks exactly like that with different colors (well.. Orgasm is in there, yet again) for Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale! This palette is called Joie de Vivre, which means Joy of Life (in French & correct me if I'm wrong, I only took French in High School =x). The colors included in the palette will be Laguna, Orgasm, Luster, Angelika, Gaiety, and Albatross. I wish they included something else instead of Orgasm, although that is one of their "best selling" shades, and I feel like Gaiety and Angelika are very similar to each other. However, I might end up just buying it anyway if I get the chance to & if it doesn't sell out by the time the Anniversary sale starts for the public since there is a pre-sale for Nordstrom cardholders. Here is how the palette looks like:

Exactly like the Danmari, right? Just different colors and no Super Orgasm! Each shade contains 0.12 oz of product, whereas one full NARS blush contains 0.16 oz of product, so it is almost full-sized.
What do you think about this palette? Would you be getting it?

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