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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Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm & Lacquer Balms;Maybelline Gilded in Gold

Best Boyfriend EVER:

Since NouveauCheap has mentioned that these had landed, I HAD to look for them. Although I spent all weekend hunting, they were nowhere to be found. When it's the weekdays, I have no car, so I have no access to stalk products & normally by the time it's weekend, the things I want are sold out. Well, my boyfriend is the sweetest ever! Knowing that I have been looking for these & after showing him pictures while I was hunting over the weekend, he ended up going to look for them for me himself so I would not miss out on them. This morning when he told me they had it in & I was SO excited!

Here's some display pictures:

Revlon's new Lacquer Balms & Matte Balms. My boyfriend had a full display, but he took the picture after he took the ones that he was going to buy for me, which is why it's not full, but he did good! I like how half the display itself is glossy, and the other half is matte!

The next collection he found that I was looking for was Maybelline's Holiday Gilded in Gold collection. Normally, I do not use their Color Tattoos, but the fact that the ones in this display are matte and limited edition, I just had to have them, so he picked all three up for me as well.

The few that he purchased for me:

A few of both the Revlon Lacquer Balms in Vivacious, Provacateur & Enticing, Revlon Matte Balms in Standout, Shameless, Sultry & Showly, as well as the three color Tattoos in Matte Brown, Just Beige, and Nude Pink.

One thing I would like to note is that 6 of the 10 matte Revlon Matte Balm shades only have one for each display, such as Shameless (the purple) & Standout (deep red), so they may be harder to find. I was lucky enough to have my boyfriend be able to go look for these everyday & for them to put them up when he was there.

I cannot wait until I get to see him later on this week so that I can see these in person! & I will definitely try them out when I have the time to if I am not loaded up with homework this weekend so I can have swatches & review up for you guys! :) Like I have mentioned before, I appreciate my boyfriend SO much and for him to understand and be so helpful with this makeup obsession of mine is amazing! I seriously do not know what I would do without him because he seriously is the best I have ever had.

Do you think you will be picking up some of these new Holiday Collection items?

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Tarte Cosmetics Pure Delights 8-Piece LipSurgence Set

Swatches & Review

Another set I purchased from Tarte Cosmetics Holiday 2013 Tarte of Giving collection is their Pure Delights LipSurgence lip set. The past two years, Tarte has released LipSurgence sets that are full-sized, but this year, they made a set with eight deluxe-sized LipSurgence's. I was hoping for one that was all matte, but since half of this set is with their matte formula, I had to get it.

The four matte shades are: Glee, Generous, Destined & Cheerful.

Generous: Orange-ish, neutral. On their website, Generous is described as a pink-nude, but to me, it seems a bit more orange when swatched. I was surprised how wearable this nude was because nude lip colors normally wash me out.
Glee: Watermelon, coral-pink. This was very pigmented & glided on smoothly.
Destined: Raspberry pink. This was also very pigmented & glided on smoothly.
Cheerful: This is a coral shade, but it also kind of leans almost bubblegum pink on me. Out of all the matte shades, this shade seemed to show up dry spots on my lips more than the other three.

The four shades of their regular lip tint formula are: Enamored, Grateful, Believe & Lovely.

Lovely: Mauve-pink. It applied smooth & even on the lips.
Enamored: Cool toned red. After applying, I felt like this looks kind of uneven on the lips compared to the others I have tried. However, this was the most pigmented of the bunch, but was still a bit see through on the lips because it is more of a tint to the lips than to cover it up.
Grateful: Nude. Like Generous from the matte shades, I felt like this was more of a orange-nude, which made it wearable for me. This was one of the least pigmented ones in the set and seems more like a MLBB shade.
Believe: This is a medium pink & like Lovely, it applied smooth & even on the lips.

Comparison:

Compared to a full-sized LipSurgence, these deluxe-sized ones look a bit more than half of a full-sized. A full-sized contains 0.10 oz of product & the ones in the Pure Delights set contains 0.06 oz each.

Overall, I like this set more than I thought I would. When I first received it, I initially thought "Wow, these are SO small," but after comparing them to full-sized ones, I guess it really isn't THAT small. I really like the matte formula of LipSurgence's because they are not very drying & they pack a bunch of pigment as well. I feel like it would be faster to use up the regular formula lip tints because they use more products because the product itself feels very soft, while the mattes have a bit of a harder feel on the product itself. These have a slight peppermint scent to it & it feels kind of cool once applied to the lips, but the scent fades away after a while of wearing it. I believe the colors in this set are exclusive so once it's gone, it's gone. These are so cute, they would definitely make great stocking stuffers! The Pure Delights LipSurgence set retails for $34 and can be purchased from Sephora (in-store & online), Ulta (in-store mid October & online now) & tartecosmetics.com.

What do you think about this LipSurgence set? Do you like the matte LipSurgence formula?

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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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Nordstrom Rack Finds

Lorac, Smashbox & Urban Decay

The last few times I went to Nordstrom Rack, they had the same items as when I went at the end of January. Today, I decided to stop by to see if there is anything new & to my surprise, there was!



The items I saw at my local Nordstrom Rack were:
Smashbox Blush Rush Blush in Gingersnap & Bare: $12.97 (retail $24)
Smashbox Cover Shot Spring 2012 collection: $34.97 (retail $60)
Smashbox Studio Pop Eye Palette: $24.97 (retail $49)
Lorac Visual Effects Mascara: $9.97 (retail $20)
Urban Decay Stardust Eyeshadow: $8.97 (retail $20)
Lorac Couture Shine Lip Gloss: $13.97 (retail $28)
Lorac Eye Candy Eye Pencil set: $11.97 (retail $28)
Lorac Sweet Temptations Eyeshadow Collection: $17.97 (retail $36)
Lorac Eye Candy Full Face Collection: $27.97 (retail $59)

I thought the Lorac Sets are an amazing deal. They were recently on Hautelook as well (I'm not surprised it's at Nordstrom Rack since Hautelook is owned by Nordstrom), but I would much rather get it from Nordstrom Rack so I wouldn't have to pay shipping & use my Nordstrom card for it.

What do you think about these sets? :)

(this is the full post, the click more button still remains even when there is nothing else)

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Butter London at Nordstrom Rack

Deal alert!

I went into Nordstrom Rack today and spotted some Butter London holiday sets with a discount!
The items I saw were:

The Holiday Remover collection: $8.97

Rosie Lee, Fairy Cake & The Black Knight

Shambolic, Jack the Lad & Scuppered.
Both of the Holiday Sparkle Sparkle collection: $14.97

The Sparkle Sparkle Lippy Collection: $14.97

I think the Holiday Nail Lacquer is definitely worth it because each nail polish on its own is already $14, so a set of three for $14.97 is almost like buy one get two free! These are available at Nordstrom Rack.

What do you think about these? Are you thinking about getting them?

(this is the full post, the click more button still remains even when there is nothing else).

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theBalm: Balm Jovi Face Palette

Swatches & Review

When theBalm was on Hautelook on Thanksgiving, I purchased two items. One was the Nude'Tude palette, which I have reviewed (here) & the other was their Holiday Balm Jovi face palette. The packaging on it was so cute, I had to get it.

The Balm Jovi palette includes twelve eyeshadows, one highlighter, one blush, and two lip colors. The colors are divided into three music genre's: Heavy Metal, Classical, & Alternative.

The first genre is Heavy Metal. Heavy Metal consists shades that have a frosty finish to it.

Metal-ica: Frosty white. Kind of powdery & applied sheer.
Iron Maid-in: Metallic gold. Like Metal-ica, it applied sheer, but it is build-able.
Lead Zeppelin: Dark olive green with gold glitter. Kind of dry.
Alice Copper: Frosty burgundy-red. Really smooth and pigmented.

The next genre is Classical. In this genre, all the shades have a matte finish.

Adagio: Matte pale beige. Very soft and not powdery. Had a little bit of fallout, but the color payoff was good.
Allegro: Matte medium brown. It's soft, but it applied patchy on the first swipe. The color builds into a gorgeous brown.
Moderato: Matte eggplant purple. Kind of dry & applied patchy.
Presto: Matte dark brown. Kind of dry and hard to apply & blend.

The last genre is Alternative. It has one matte shade while all the others are shimmery/frosty.

Blink 1982: Shimmery plum-bronze. Was very soft and pigmented.
The Stroke: Matte dark navy blue. It was soft and pigmented.
rem: Shimmery golden-purple. Was kind of patchy, but buildable.
Third Eye Blinded: Frosty light peach. The texture was soft and easy to blend.

Solid Gold: Shimmery highlighter.

Don't You Want Me?: Matte pink blush.

Solid Gold: Frosty champagne. It is supposed to be their Mary-Lou Manizer. When compared to the full-sized, it seems that Solid Gold in the palette is not as smooth as the individual Mary Lou-Manizer.
Don't You Want Me?: Matte pink blush. This is smooth and is easily blend-able. It is supposed to be theBalm's FratBoy blush, but when compared to FratBoy, FratBoy seems more of a peachy-pink while Don't You Want Me? is more of a bubblegum pink. The texture on it is really good.

Overall, this is a good palette. There were a few shades that were not as smooth and as easily blend-able as others, but they are workable. My favorite shades from this is Alice Copper, Adagio, Allegro & Blink 1982 because they were the smoothest and the easiest to work with. I wish they included another blush in there instead of FratBoy though. FratBoy is my go-to blush, but I already have too full-sized versions of it, but I guess it is okay since it is a bit pinker? I really hope that theBalm will come out with a matte dusty-mauve blush someday because their blushes are really nice. I like how there is a variety of matte and shimmery/frosty shades in this palette because I like to mix and match finishes when I use them. I did not include swatches of the lip shades because I normally do not use them so I do not plan on touching them anytime soon. I really like theBalm's packaging because they also have a separate flap for lip/cream items so that powder will not get into it. This palette retails for $39.50 and can be purchased on thebalm.com, though it appears on Hautelook pretty frequently.

What do you think about this palette? Do you like theBalm cosmetics?

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bareMinerals: Moxie - Hot to Trot Lip Gloss Set

Swatches & Review

I have previously reviewed the other Moxie set, Cool as Ice. After trying out Cool as Ice for a while, I finally decided to get Hot to Trot as well. Hot to Trot is similar to Cool as Ice, but it has warmer shades than Cool as Ice does.

This lip gloss set contains six lip glosses that are almost half the size of full-sized Moxie lipglosses. Unlike Cool as Ice, all of the shades in this set are shimmery.

Maverick: Shimmery Mauve/Rose
Crowd Surfer: Shimmery Cotton Candy Pink
Smooth Talker: Slightly-shimmery Golden Pink
Smarty Pants: Shimmery Light Beige
Dreamer: Shimmery Golden-bronze
*I did not include Firecracker because I am planning to give it away to my friend.

I like this set. I feel like this set is more neutral than Cool as Ice is since Cool as Ice has a bit more bold colors, but the formula is the same. When I smelled it, I originally thought of Cherry Coke, but now, I think they smell like Root Beer (something is wrong with my nose!). These have a slight tingling effect, but nothing like Buxom's tingling effect, which is a bit more intense. The only complaint I have for this set, like the other set, is that it gets sticky after a few hours of wear. When it is wearing off, it feels uncomfortable on the lips, so unless you reapply it, you would probably need some makeup remover for your lips to wipe it off.
This set retails for $25 for 6 lip glosses where each contain 0.07oz of product, which is a little less than half of a full-size Moxie. The Hot to Trot set is sold at Ulta (both online and in-store), Nordstrom Online & BareMinerals (both online and in-store).

What do you think about these lip glosses? Have you tried any of BareMinerals Moxie line?

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Tarte Amazonian 12-Hour Clay Blush: Exposed

Swatches & Review

Tarte's Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed blush is a nude blush. After hearing many good things about Exposed, I decided to finally buy this since I have been loving neutral blushes lately.

In the pan, it looked like a muddy light brown shade when I first looked at it, but in different lighting, you're about to see the pink-ish tone to it.

Initially, I thought Exposed would be kind of like a light bronzer, but when swatched, it is a gorgeous pink-nude, so it does not look like a bronzer at all!

Overall, I think this is a nice neutral-pink blush shade as an everyday blush. It is pigmented, but this will not easily give you clown cheeks like Flush would, since it is more on the neutral side.

Also, Tarte is currently running their Friends and Family sale, which is 30% off their site so if you are interested in trying their blushes, you should definitely order now! Their Holiday sets are also included, such as the 4-piece blush set that I have reviewed in the past (link here). The code is FFDEC and is valid from today through the 13th of December at tartecosmetics.com

What do you think about neutral blushes? Are there any that are you favorites? What is your everyday blush?

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Lorac Sweet Luxuries Palette

Swatches & Review

Lorac's Sweet Luxuries palette was part of Ulta's Black Friday promotion. Although it was listed on the AD as a "2-day" sale, it was also a doorbuster, which totally contradicts each other. I waited outside Ulta for about an hour and purchased this and Tarte's Balanced and Beautiful set. I do not think they should have listed Lorac as a 2-day sale since the store only had 10 in stock. I wanted Urban Decay's $9 deal with the All-Nighter and Primer, but the store did not even have it in stock, which was upsetting since I called in on Wednesday and they told me they had everything in stock. Anyway, the Sweet Luxuries palette has five neutral eyeshadows. Three of them has a matte finish and two has a metallic finish.

Each of these eyeshadow are 0.05oz, which is a full-sized Urban Decay eyeshadow.

These eyeshadows do not have names on them so I will go from left to right.
1) Matte Beige: this was chalky and required a few swipes to show up on my skin. It is very sheer so you should pat this on.
2) Metallic Light Bronze: This was pigmented and soft. Has a bit of fallout.
3) Matte Light Brown w/ Shimmer: This was softer and a bit more pigmented than the Matte Beige, but was still a bit chalky and it has fall out. It has a bit of shimmer in it, but is is not noticeable once swatched.
4) Metallic Bronze: This is warmer than the Light Bronze, and is pigmented like the Light Bronze.
5) Matte Dark Brown: This, like the other two matte shades are a bit chalky and has fallout, but it is the most pigmented matte shade of the other two.
All of these were swatched over Lorac's Behind the Scenes Primer

This is a nice small little palette to carry around, which is convenient, but if you have a bunch of neutrals, this probably is not a "must-have." I purchased this on impulse since I was second in line and there was only 10 and the person in front of me grabbed about 3. For the price of $12, this is not a bad palette. I wish the mattes were a bit more pigmented, but they are build-able in color, but overall, it was good for the price. I like how none of these are glittery because I do not like glittery shades. Now, I have even more neutrals in my collection since I just ordered the Nude'Tude and I have both of Urban Decay's NAKED palettes.

What do you think about neutrals? Do you have a lot of them? Did you get anything from Ulta for Black Friday? :)

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Sephora Beauty Insider Reward Card

Information:

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving & a very good day of shopping for deals! :)

Every year, Sephora sends out a "gift card" to their Beauty Insiders and VIB's. It normally comes the first Thursday of December, but since November is a long month this month, I hear that they are starting on November 29 this year.

This is how the card came in the e-mail for the past 3 years:

2011: $15 off $50 (Beauty Insiders)

2010: $15 off $40

2009: $15 off $35

I heard some of my friends already received their invitation from the mail (in the East Coast). So this year, the promotion will run from November 29 - December 10. Since it is coming via snail mail, it probably wont get to me until the day before it starts since I am in the West Coast. This year, the card is like last years, depending on your Sephora Status (BI or VIB) you will either receive a $15 off $50 if you are a Beauty Insider or $20 off $50 if you are a Very Important Beauty Insider. So get your wishlists ready!

What do you think you are going to buy? Are you going to take advantage of the Holiday Gift Card from Sephora? Any wishlist items? :)

If you are planning to purchase online, you can always go through Ebates* to get some percentage back from shopping at Sephora and other online retailers, such as Nordstrom and beauty.com. To access Ebates, you can click here*.
*This is a referral link.

& I still have two giveaways running! If you are interested here are the links:
OPI DS Original
Models Own Purple Blue.

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