Beauties in Bloom

Here's my second Nars blush post. I got Nars Madly a few months ago when I wanted to find a nice neutral blush. I'm always drawn to corals and pinks, so this was a big change for me! At the time I debated between mac blushbaby (still pretty!), nars douceur (didn't show up on me), then i discovered nars madly and i'm so glad i did... Nars calls it a "seashell pink" but on my skin it shows up as a beautiful, shimmery beige with a tiny touch of peachy-pink. Definitely more tan/brown than pink on my skin. In the pictures it does look like it could be worn as a bronzer, but it is a tad too shimmery for all over the face. It adds a perfect glow to the cheeks but I think it would be too much if used all over the face. It's also very pigmented so I have to be careful when applying it or it just looks muddy.  Madly is definitely a great, neutral blush for a little cheek definition but it may not be a must have if you have some shimmery bronzers already sin...

Here's my first look using Nars Nouveau Monde! Eyes: Mac Painterly Paint Pot Benefit creaseless cream shadow in skinny jeans Nars Nouveau Monde Mac Phloof as highlight Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner in black ink Covergirl lashblast I absolutely love this duo! I wasn't sure how these colors would look together, but I think this made for a nice smokey, evening look. The benefit skinny jeans really enhanced the colors, the green olive was much more intense in person. This is definitely going to be a favorite duo of mine, it's perfect for spring. Thanks for looking!

You'll have to excuse me, lately I've been on an intense Nars kick. I love my newly acquired shadows so much, I figured I'd go through and post some pictures and thoughts on all of my blushes over the next few weeks! First blush I'm going to show you is Nars Deep Throat. I've only had this one for about 2 months now and I really love it! Nars describes it as "peach with shimmer." The color is beautiful, it definitely shows up as the perfect blend of peach and baby pink. There's a very subtle shimmer to add a nice glow to the cheeks, but not enough to effect the texture: it's smooth and pigmented enough to just need a little bit on the brush. When I'm not sure what color to use on my cheeks, this one is usually a safe bet--it goes with nearly every look! As with all of my Nars blushes, it lasts the whole day on me. Check it out if you haven't, nars blushes are my favorite!

I have been waiting for this Nars order for over a week now (fedex smartpost should be called slowpost, if anything). It was worth the wait! Although it's the end of February, this is a very late holiday gift from my wonderful boyfriend. I refused to let him make an order until a coupon code for the Nars website popped up. I am a huge nars blush fan and am so excited to try more of his eyeshadows! Here's what i got... Swatches! The pigmentation on all of them is superb. I'm so excited to do some FOTD's with these shadows! I'll definitely post them this week! The texture on the single and both duos is wonderful: rich and buttery, they apply very smoothly. The pigmentation is really insane on all of them, especially mekong. You only need the tiniest bit on your brush and you have more than enough eyeshadow to work with. I know Mekong will go with all of my favorite neutral looks...Habanera and Nouveau Monde, I was actually apprehensive about: both d...

Here is Benefit's Creaseless Cream Shadow in "Skinny Jeans." On the Benefit website, it is described as "pretty pewter." I completely agree with that simple description. Although it is grey-based, it does lean a bit gold or green at times. It has really gorgeous and subtle shimmer to it as well (no glitter bits or anything). The color is completely stunning and the texture is wonderfully buttery, soft, blendable, and very pigmented. The only thing that is not so wonderful is that on my mildly oily lids, it is certainly not "creaseless." I always make sure to apply it over my favorite primer (mac paint pots) so there's no creasing issues! If you have drier lids, I doubt you will have issues with creasing, but you've been warned, you might need to start with a primer first! :) Personally, I love to use skinny jeans as a base for smokey eyes...pretty much any color, green, grey, gold, taupe, etc... When you layer other shadows over it, it reall...

Bare Escentuals Glimmer "Night Owl" all over the lid, Too faced Lap Dance on center of lid, Mac Signed Sealed on the outer v, Mac Shroom to highlight, Mac Wedge to blend crease I absolutely love using my bare escentuals "night owl" glimmer. I received this as part of a Sephora VIB gift a year or two ago and have been in love with it ever since. It's a really gorgeous shimmery grey amethyst color with a touch of brown. It usually pulls more grey, but for some reason over my benefit skinny jeans the color turns into a much darker taupe-y brown with a touch of purple. I will do some swatches for it later, but it's a beautiful shadow if you can get your hands on it! Then I just added a little too faced lap dance (from the Naked Eye palette) for a little dimension on the lid! Products Used: Eyes: Mac Painterly Paint Pot as a base Benefit Skinny Jeans all over the lid Mac shroom, wedge, signed sealed Bare Escentuals glimmer Night Owl Too Faced Lap Da...

Last week I did a Back2Mac at the MAC store the other day and decided to get a lipstick! I am a big fan of MAC's paint pots, eyeshadows, blushes, msfn, etc... but I had never tried any of their lipsticks before. I had my mind set on trying out a few of their very popular shades: creme cup, angel, russian red, cosmo, ruby woo, etc... but found that none of them were what I was looking for. I realized after swatching all these colors that what I wanted was an everyday type of lipstick...Fanfare was exactly that for me. Fanfare is a really pretty "my lips but [a million times] better" medium pink, with a touch of coral. It is also part of the Cremesheen category, so it has a smooth, creamy texture, wonderful pigmentation, and a bit of a sheen to it (definitely no glitter or anything!) It may look boring in the tube, but on my lips it's a perfect medium pink/coral color. The wear is lovely; it's very comfortable on the lips and lasts for a good few hours. Overall...

Nars Ondine is a beautiful taupey/purpley/brown with gold shimmer throughout. It's a sort of complex color to describe... at times it hints more plum, at other times it is more brown. The texture is buttery, pigmented, and not too sheer or too opaque...it is very easy to build the color. I love it as a lid color with a deeper purple or dark brown in the crease. It's also perfect in the crease with pretty much any lighter neutral on the lid. (L-R Satin Taupe, Ondine, Sketch, Purple Haze) You can see here it's not nearly as dark as sketch, not as purple as my UD purple haze, and pulls more plum than my satin taupe. I would definitely recommend this shadow if you're in the market for a unique taupey plum. Over my mac paint pot (my favorite product to use as an eyeshadow base!) I never experience any fading or creasing. I believe it retails for $23 but the Nars website often puts out coupon codes (recently they had an 18% off orders of $65). It is definitely a splurg...

Decided to try a look with the Blue Had Me At Hello palette and it turned into an effortless navy/gray smokey eye. It definitely looks more blue in person, sadly I couldn't capture the blue sparkles on camera (need to start taking pictures in natural light!) Products Used: Wet N Wild 8 pan blue had me at hello: right hand browbone on inner corner, right hand crease color on lid and crease, left hand crease on outer v, and then the right hand definer to deepen the outer v! Mac wedge (to help blend out the edges) Urban Decay 24/7 black eyeliner pencil Anastasia brow powder duo Covergirl lashblast From the pictures, it looks like the blue sparkles really stuck to the black eyeliner near my upper lashline, so i might try using that as a base next time to make the blue show up better. Eyeshadows applied and blended beautifully, I'm so glad I picked this palette up.

Hope these were swatches were helpful! I would definitely recommend this palette...based on swatching and wearing a few colors today, they are really wonderful quality for drugstore eyeshadow. Over my mac pain pot, I didn't experience ANY creasing. The colors are very, very smooth. I will admit I can be a bit of an eyeshadow snob (most of my eyeshadows are not drugstore),but these are very impressive and a similar quality for an amazing price tag! Definitely recommend! Let me know if you've picked up any of the palettes!

I of course decided to go with a pinkypurpley girly look for Valentines day this year. How typical. Was a good excuse for me to get out of my neutral rut and use my neglected pink and purple eyeshadows :) List of Products Used: Mac Bare Study as a primer Urban Decay Purple haze Mac Phloof, swish, signed sealed Bobbi Brown Gel Eye Liner in Black Ink Covergirl Lashblast Volume (2 coats!) and a little bit of Anastasia brow powder in brunette Hope you had a lovely Valentines Day yesterday!

This is my first post, hopefully I'll be able to beautify the blog soon AND keep up with it! I'll be posting looks, reviews and pictures of products I like (and don't like), comparisons, etc. I'm not a skin or makeup application expert, but I hope you enjoy! I'm excited.