MAC Daphne Guinness Pigments Review/Swatches

From left to right: Aurora, Nebula, Circa Plum

Lately I’ve found all the new MAC collections to be a bit lackluster, especially the holiday collection that I had high hopes for but the only thing I picked up was the Shimmermint Mineralize Eye Shadow because I’m a sucker for green shadows and this one I felt was unique and like nothing I already owned. The last MAC Collection that I had any real interest in was the Fall Colour Collection mainly for Lightscapade and the three limited edition pigments.

So when the Daphne Guinness collection launched on the 26^th the only thing that really grabbed my interest were the pigments, since I’m not really huge into lip glass products just because I don’t tend to wear them, the quality of the quads didn’t seem that great, and I’m not a huge fan of MAC polishes for one because of the quality for the most part and I think for the price they just aren’t as up to par as other brands that cost far less. Although I would recommend picking up the blush ombre’s as I own both from a previous collection and love them.

I only picked up Aurora and Nebula since I already own Circa Plum which is why the packaging is different.

All three pigments are limited edition, with Circa Plum being a repromote.

From left to right: Aurora, Nebula, Circa Plum

Top swatch is applied dry with no primer

Bottom swatch is applied wet with no primer

Aurora (pinked taupe) is a neutral-cool light champagne with a frosted finish that when applied wet translate more metallic.

Nebula (dark greyed brown with pearl) is a deep chocolate brown with light shimmers also when applied wet translates more metallic with more dimension from the light shimmer

Circa Plum (frosty dirty mid-tone lavender) is a rosy plum with a frosted finish, also my swatch may vary from the new release as mine is from a previous launch.

Overall these colors have good color payoff and pigmentation giving you an even finish. I found they both applied well wet or dry and the textures are soft and smooth allowing for ease of blending.

Availability: maccosmetics.com $20 each

Lush Boxing Day Haul pt1

I think I was one of the lucky few who actually didn’t encounter too many problems with ordering on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas sale. I stayed up till 3:00am for the start of the sale and already had all my items in the cart ready to go, although I did have to make a few slight changes in items since I went in assuming it would include more of the wrapped gifts than it actually did which was a little disappointing in comparison to last year but a sale is a sale after all. But switching the items wasn’t too painful and there was only a slight bit of lag, I did get fearful since my first attempt at putting in my info to check out didn’t go through but the second attempt went perfectly.

As you can see from my haul I was really only interested in bath bombs and bubble bars so I was originally hoping the selection for both would have been a bit better but I’m happy with what I got although I would have LOVED to have picked up a ton of the Snowdrops Bath Bomb since I ordered some of them a few months ago and they are amazing. I do wish they would make more wrapped gifts that contained only bath bombs and bubble bars, since for the most part it seemed the ones that did contain bath bombs all had either cinders or so white which while they are really nice it would be nice to see them switch it up.

This was also the fastest any Lush order has ever gotten to me, I did choose 2day (air) which is what I always select so it was a nice surprise to see it get here so quickly since they tend to take up to a week if not a little longer, I ordered on the 26^th and it got here on the 29^th, so I’m honestly amazed, haha.

What I got:

Rocket To Me x2 (plus two for free)

A Gold Star x2 (plus one for free)

Three Gold Rings x1 (plus one for free)

Golden Wonder x1 (plus one for free)

Abombinaball x1 (plus two for free)

Merry and Bright x1 (plus one for free)

Sigma Sigmax Synthetic Essential Kit Review

I absolutely love Sigma brushes I already own their regular line essential kit which I've owned for close to a year now and I use them almost every single day. What I really love about Sigma brushes is the value and quality you get; while I love my MAC brushes they can be pricey so I feel that Sigma’s brushes hold up really well in comparison and the price of their kits is reasonable.

The first thing I noticed about these brushes were the holographic logos which made me love them even more, haha and the handles are also much smoother than my other brushes.

What I really like about these brushes is that they are really dense which makes blending and buffing product into the skin effortless, they are also super soft and so far I haven’t experienced any issues with shedding. The only downside is the fact that they so dense the cleaning and dry time takes a bit longer than normal.

Left to right: F82, F80, F84, F86

Round Kabuki – F82 “Perfect to comfortably apply liquid and cream foundation on curved areas of the face, specifically around the eyes and nose, on the chin and the jaw line. This brush can also be used for all over application of mineral foundation.”

Flat Kabuki – F80 “Ideal for all over application of liquid and cream formulas in large and mostly flat areas of the face, such as the forehead, temples and cheeks. This brush is perfect to seamlessly buff foundation onto the skin.”

Angled Kabuki – F84 “The angled shape of the brush eases the application and blending of cream blushes onto the cheeks. It can also be used to apply and blend contour shades on the hair line, cheek bones and jaw line.”

Tapered Kabuki – F86 “The tapered shape effortlessly applies products on defined and hard to reach areas of the face. This brush is perfect for all over application of powder, cream, and liquid formulas. It is also ideal for all over primer application, contouring and highlighting."

Left to right: P84, P82, P80, P86

Precision Angled – P84 “The small angled top makes this brush perfect for precise contouring on the sides of the nose and contouring the hollows of the cheek bones. It can also be used to highlight the brow bone.”

Precision Round – P82 “The rounded top was designed to mimic your fingertips, making this brush ideal to apply eye shadow primers. It can also be used for the precise application of highlight shades on the bridge of the nose, cheek bones and cupids bow.”

Precision Flat – P80 “The small, dense and flat top is ideal to conceal blemishes, sun spots, and small imperfections on the skin. It can be used to stipple concealer on defined areas, followed by precise application of setting powder.”

Precision Tapered – P86 “The tapered shape of this brush is ideal for application of concealer under the eyes and on defined areas such as the sides of the nose, chin and around the mouth. This brush can also be used to perfectly apply concealer around the lips to prevent color bleeding.”

Availability: Sigmabeauty.com

The Sigma Essential Kit can be purchased for $99.00 or you can also purchase the Precision Kit and Kabuki Kit separately; the Synthetic Precision Kit retails for $49.00 while the Synthetic Kabuki Kit retails for $56.00.

Coupon Code NY2011 to get 10% off your order at Sigma Beauty expires the 31^st of December, 2011.

Nail Polish Collection/Storage

My current collection consists of three polish racks that hold approximately 90 polishes each, I purchased these racks from transdesign.com and while I absolutely love them as you can clearly see I’ve run out of room for my polish, I do have some additional stranglers currently stored in some plastic Sterilite containers; like the ones you can get from office depot, Wal-Mart, etc.

So I’m currently exploring different avenues in which to store them all since I really love my polish racks but I simply can’t justify having more than three polish racks on the wall, haha. I prefer the look and organization of polish racks since I can see them better and easily get to the polish I’m looking for and I really hate using the Sterilite storage containers since the organization looks messy to me so the plan I’ve come up with is to either buy or make some sort of wooden cabinet that a nail polish rack would fit in upright and on its side and to somehow attach the polish rack to some sort of sturdy track so I could easily pull the polish rack out and roll in back into the cabinet, this way I could possibly fit multiple racks inside the cabinet, now just to get the boy to build it for me, lol.

I think for the most part nail polish junkies seem to organize their polish by color, but I prefer organizing by brand and then collection since this way all the bottle shapes and sizes match up and appear more uniformed.

The first polish rack holds some Sally Hansen Chrome polishes, several drugstore brands, Color Club, excess China Glaze, Zoya, and a few Rescue Beauty Lounge polishes.

The second polish rack holds nothing but China Glaze.

The third holds OPI, Orly, Essie, Mac polishes and my Mac pigments and a few other random polishes as well as top coats/bases.