new neutrals

While I think Clinique's skincare line is top notch (love their Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief moisturizer and All About the Eyes cream), I'm not too familiar with their makeup line except for their Black Honey Almost Lipstick and Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss, both of which I have in my collection. When I was in high school, I tried on my mum's purple eyeshadow from Clinique and I vividly remember the eyeshadow having massive fall out and looking like someone punched me in the eye. 

One night, I happen to be casually browsing through the Sephora website, as one with a makeup addiction does and this popped up in the New Arrivals section. I was intrigued and decided to take a closer look in-stores. After the first swatch, I HAD to have it. Unfortunately, it was sold out at my local Sephora. A couple days later, I was downtown and checked out the Sephora there and they had it in stock! I threw it into my basket, booted to the cashier and 5 minutes later, I walked out with a new palette. 

It's very sleek and compact, fits nicely in the hand, comes with a dual-sided brush, and a full mirror. The eyeshadows are very creamy and blend perfectly with one another. I don't really use the dual-sided brush that it comes with but if I was in a pinch, it's not horrible to use.

I'm glad to have this is my collection and I think it's a great palette for travel and will look good on anyone, from a classic work look to a dramatic smokey eye.

don't hate me cuz I'm beautiful

Another eyeshadow palette to add to my growing stack and this one is from NARS.  It's called the NARSissit and it's a 15-eyeshadown palette that ranges from neutrals, warm to cool tones and darker colours for a night-time (or day, depending on your preference) smokey eye look.

This palette contains 15 of NARS best-selling eyeshadows and there's a good mix of shimmer, matte to frost finishes that will satisfy everyone and their needs to make a variety of eyeshadow looks. I love the large mirror and the fact that it's incredibly slim in packaging, which makes it great for travelling. While you are getting a lot of colours in this palette, the size of each individual eyeshadow is quite small, if you were to compare it to other palettes like the Urban Decay's Naked palettes. The packaging does get dirty very quickly, but it's nothing that a wet wipe can't solve. The only real downside of this palette is the price: this palette retails for a whopping $85 at Sephora. Otherwise, if you're relatively new the the NARS brand and want to try a little bit of everything, and you don't mind spending a little more money, than this is a great palette for you. If you're looking for alternate options, I'd check out the Urban Decay, Stila, Clinque or Too Faced.

get it before it's gone

It's sad when you see a cosmetic line leave Sephora, but it's even more sad when it's name brand that you have always wanted to try but never really got around to it. The only good thing out of this scenario is the discounted prices when Sephora puts it all on sale to get rid of leftover stock. So, before everything disappeared for good (as you won't be able to find Lorac Cosmetics in Canada anymore, boo!), I picked up a few items to try out.

The Lorac POREfection Baked Perfecting Powder is smooth to the touch, not too powdery and really nice but it's just a tad shade darker than my current skin-tone. I think once the weather gets warmer and I start getting a "glow," this colour will be perfect me.

I checked the swatches on-line for this product, but I didn't realize how bronzed this highlighter was until I had it in my grubby paws. It's a lovely colour and kinda reminds me of the Dior Amber Diamond Skin Shimmer (which I can't seem to find on Sephora... is it discontinued?!)

Last but not least, is the Lorac Pro to Go palette, which is essentially THE perfect all-in-one travel palette. It comes with 4 natural eyeshadows, 2 highlighting shadows, 2 matte blushes (coral and pink), a matte bronzer and 2 small brushes. The design of the palette separates the eyeshadows from the blushes and bronzers, folds up into a sturdy, compact palette with magnetic closures and is pretty much all you need to create a day to night look.

pretty in pink

The launch of the Naked 3 palette at my local Sephora.

It has the same packaging as the Naked 2 palette, but a more textured design. 

From left - right: A matte ivory, a frosty icy pink, a rose satin shade and a matte rose 

Buzz is a rose shimmer, warm bronze, matte mauve and a taupe shimmer

Factory is a mid-tone brown satin, a browny taupe colour, Darkside is a dark grey purple and a black shadow with red shimmer.

The Urban Decay Naked 3 palette has finally hit the shelves at my Sephora and while I wasn't impressed with the colour palette when I saw the initial swatches online, I did end up toting this baby home with me.

This eyeshadow palette definitely leans to the more rosy side with a few hints of bronze, browns, taupes and greys to break up the pink hues. I do like the matte shades offered in this palette. I think they are a nice compliment to the rosy shimmer and satin shades. All the eyeshadows are pigmented but with the exception of Dust. There's not a lot of colour payoff, but you do get a lot of glitter in that eyeshadow.

I'm still loving my bronze and golden shades for the winter, but it'll be fun to experiment with this palette when it gets closer to spring...

fancy face

I stopped by Holt Renfrew to check out the new collection from Lancome designed by fashion icon Alber Elbaz (Lanvin) and ended up bringing a few goodies home with me.

I thought the packaging was really cute and I love the taupe-y shades of the eyeshadow palette. I can see it getting a lot of use during the fall months (I'm still into bronze and gold eyeshadows for the summer).

With the purchase, I got a little gift and it was a travel-size brush set! I thought that was really handy. It comes with a powder brush, foundation brush, eyeshadow brush and concealer brush. There's also room to fit in a lip brush or maybe a crease brush.

While at the Lancome counter, I did get a makeover done and decided to go out of my comfort zone and do a navy smokey eye, which I really liked. I don't know if I will be able to re-create the look at home but it's nice to know what I need and how it's done with this face chart.