making faces :: naked days with urban decay

i usually try not to get sucked into hype, but i'd heard so many people go on about the magical urban decay naked palette and how it was basically the holy grail of versatile, neutral shades of eye shadow that i couldn't help being curious. compounding this, there's the fact that, although it's permanently available from urban decay and from sephora, it's been out of stock at the sephora web site for about the last hundred years... so it has the allure of something that doesn't want you to possess it.

add to that the fact that most urban decay shadows are made of large quantities of win [except for the shades with glitter, which are decidedly formulated with fail, but there's none in this palette] and one of the colours included in the naked palette is "sin", which is one of my favourite shadows ever by anyone and which is disappearing at an uncomfortably fast rate from its pan and i basically got myself into a frenzy of consumer madness.

thankfully, a very nice lady in the united states took pity on me and ordered me one. so for the last several days i have been trying out variations on the neutral eye with all the different colours included.

when you can get your paws on one, it's a pretty sweet deal. there are twelve different colours- all neutral, but ranging from light to dark with both shimmer and matte textures- plus a full size brush, plus a miniature bottle of urban decay's "primer potion", which helps eye makeup go on better and stay on better. all this will cost you $48, which works out to $4 a shadow, even assuming the brush and primer are free. of course, the shadows in the palette aren't nearly as big as a regular urban decay shadow, but those will run you $17 a pop for only 0.2g more worth of product [according to the u.d. web site, the fill weight per shadow on the naked palette is 1.3g, on a regular shadow, 1.5g]. so for this not to be a good investment, there would have to be something seriously wrong with the product.

l to r :: gunmetal, hustle, toasted, sin

fortunately, that isn't the case. i compared "sin" to the remains of my individual pot and they seem exactly the same in terms of colour, texture and durability. so occasionally when things look too good to be true, they're still true. doesn't that just make you feel awesome about everything for a moment?

moving on.

the idea behind this palette- which really does seem to have turned into a license to print money for the california company- is to give a range of basic shades that can be used in combination to go with virtually any sort of look. they are mostly shimmery [although there is a matte beige and a matte medium brown], mostly warm [particularly the mid-tone shades] and, yes, they are extremely versatile. a number of the shades are ones that you might have seen before, but the point here is that they're all assembled into one perfect little package.

l to r :: virgin, naked, sidecar, buck

i agree that these shades will suit pretty much any skin tone, dark or light, warm or cool. and each shade exhibits the typical incredible pigmentation of urban decay shadows, so you really get some bang for your buck. if i had to criticise, and this would be under some duress, i'd say that i wish that they'd included one or two less shimmery shades [there's a lot of frostiness, which can be a challenge for those of us over twenty-five]. i hadn't actually "met" urban decay's matte shades before and now i'm happy i did. i'm pleased that they did not include any "glitter" shades, since those were the ones that made me want to write off the brand when i tried them. in fact, there's not a single shade i don't like and wouldn't use here. [the sparkly black "creep" doesn't do much for me, since it's a dead ringer for a lot of "black with silver sparkle" shades that already exist, but the very popularity of those types of shades makes it obvious why it would be included with this set.]

ultimately, this is the kind of thing that almost every woman who wears cosmetics would benefit from having in her collection. for those who want something simple and basic, it offers a lot of alternatives at an excellent price. for those who like to have a variety, it offers the opportunity to grab a dozen urban decay shadows for barely more than the price of two regular ones. plus, of course, the shades are ridiculously easy to use. and you get a brush and a tester bottle of primer. what could possibly go wrong?

l to r :: half-baked, smog, darkhorse, creep

here are a few looks i put together with shades from the naked palette. i'd like to add that, in all of them, i used the primer potion underneath. my initial experience with primer potion was not great, but i put that down to the fact that it was a sample and it was a gold-coloured shimmery version rather than the regular one. and there may be some logic to that. i liked the primer potion much better in its "regular" form. personally, i prefer a primer with a little more colour, because my lids are fairly dark [i look like a racoon in the mornings] and i didn't find that primer potion made shadows last as long as my usual base- mac's painterly paint pot- but it did prevent creasing and it did make the colours nice and intense, which is what a base is supposed to do.

because all the shadows were coming out of a single palette, each of these looks took ten minutes tops to complete. 





"naked matte"
like i said earlier, i really loved the matte shades [naked and buck] included with this palette and so they were among the first ones used. as a lady who loves her dark lips, this is the sort of understated eye treatment i often do, so that the focus can be a little lower. this is also the first look i did with musky amethyst, one of the new lipsticks from mac's "semi-precious" collection.

face ::
nars sheer glow foundation "mont blanc"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"

eyes ::
urban decay e/s "virgin"
urban decay e/s "naked"
urban decay e/s "buck"
mac superslick liquid liner "on the hunt"
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks ::
mac beauty powder "her own devices"
mac blush "darkly my dear"

lips ::
mac l/s "musky amethyst"






"naked smoky"
one of the suggestions on the packaging for use of this palette is that you can do "smoky bronze" looks. i went for more of a "smoky gold", which was exciting to me, because i've never had enough gold shades before to do this sort of thing. again, i went with a very pigmented lip, because, despite the "smoky" effect, i felt that the eye was fairly subtle and could deal with a deeper lip colour. on the other hand, i can also see doing this with a more restrained lip colour. hurrah for versatility.

face ::
nars sheer glow foundation "mont blanc"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"
lush colour supplement "jackie oates" [as a highlighter]

eyes ::
urban decay e/s "virgin"
urban decay e/s "half-baked"
urban decay e/s "smog"
urban decay e/s "darkhorse"
mac eye kohl "smolder"
diorshow mascara

cheeks ::
mac mineralize skinfinish "new vegas"
mac blush "bite of an apple"

lips ::
chanel "rivoli




"naturally naked"
so the whole point, supposedly, of having a naked palette is that you can do very natural looks. i actually find that the shimmer in a lot of the colours makes this trickier than you would think, but there are definitely shades [hint- the ones i've used here] that capture that nice, slightly pinky flesh-tone and make it into something quite lovely. [note- if your flesh tone isn't pinky, there are probably shades in here that will be a better match for you.]

face ::
lush colour supplement "jackie oates"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"

eyes ::
urban decay e/s "virgin"
urban decay e/s "sin"
urban decay e/s "hustle"
urban decay e/s "gunmetal"
mac false lashes mascara

cheeks ::
nars blush "deep throat"

lips ::
mac l/s "made to order"

making faces :: hot stuff

it's hot in here. it's not you.

ah yes, it's that time of year when the sun is strong, the humidity is high and most people are a little leery of putting a layer of paint on their faces, even a light one. after all, the inclination in the summer is to remove layers rather than add them and hot, humid weather has a way of taking your nicely done makeup and turning it into something from the climax of "raiders of the lost ark" in a hurry.

if you live your life moving from one air-conditioned spot to another [home, car, office], that's very comfortable for you. but chances are that you're going to have to sit on a terrace to have a drink or visit a friend who find that air conditioning aggravates their asthma [me] or get on a bus because your brakes are being repaired. and there are a lot of people [me included] who just have to do battle with the elements every day.

no one is likely to force you to wear makeup [put on the mascara or we'll kill grandma!], so a lot of people just don't bother with it in the warmer seasons. but there are places- often workplaces- that do sort of tacitly expect that you make some attempt to hide the embarrassment of morning face and, if you're the kind of person who likes to put on makeup anyway, you're probably not interested in just stowing your collection until the mercury drops.

so, here are a few things that i find work for me... feel free to agree, disagree or add your own.

1. hot weather tends to make you perspire. i don't think anyone is going to disagree with that, but a lot of people use cosmetic products- creams, colour cosmetics, anything- that are actually intended to be quite moisturising. unless your skin runs quite dry [in which case, for once, you can laugh at the rest of us] you're at least going to want to move away from putting a lot of products on your face that are too rich or sebaceous. anything that has the keyword "glow" in it is suspect, because products that make your skin "glow" do so by imparting it with rich, nutritious oily goodness. doesn't mean you can't wear them [i've stuck it out with my nars' sheer glow foundation], but keep in mind that you'll be compounding what nature is doing to you anyway.

one thing that you can do is get yourself a nice mattifying primer. yes, it's another layer, but the whole point of these is that they help absorb. there are a lot of them around and i don't claim to have tried all of them, but nars has a very nice one that's light without being drying and neostrata in canada has one that leaves the skin feeling quite velvety. for a cheaper variant, apparently using milk of magnesia accomplishes the same goal, although i'd really recommend this only for oilier skins.

2. it's bright. again, probably not a lot of people are going to disagree with this one. the fact that you can't really do anything about the fact that you're under bright light all the time, though, means that there are a few things to keep in mind. very elaborate, detailed makeup under bright lights tends to look a bit overdone. keeping things simple- fewer shades, less blending, etc., tends to work better for me.

of course, that doesn't mean that you have to be overly subtle. under bright conditions, bold colours can really work. simple can mean one big punch in the nose of colour. 

3. heat makes things messy. makeup is certainly no exception. to get around this, i usually try not to get around it at all. bring on the mess and make it your friend. i like to do things that start out looking a little smudged and imprecise, because that way, when the heat inevitably takes its toll, it at least won't be quite so obvious. mac's sadly discontinued greasepaint sticks are amazing for this sort of work and give you the awesome sensation of literally colouring your face with big crayons. benefit's creaseless cream shadows and armani's eyes to kill powder-that-you'll-think-is-cream shadows are also very effective. essentially, a creamier product can go on looking a little blurry and inexact, but still look good. if you want to put shadow or liner over top of that base, it'll also help them last longer.

4. moisture feels good. i'm not being really controversial here, am i? but one of the things that i avoided for a long time, but now keep as a staple for everyday use is mac's fix+ spray. it purports to make your cosmetics last longer and is perfect for applying powder products [especially loose pigments] or priming your skin. i don't know that my makeup lasts longer with it, but what i will say is that it definitely keeps it looking fresher for the time it does last. it really seems to stop the fading that occurs, especially in warmer times. i also find that it softens the appearance of makeup slightly, making it look a little more natural and relaxed.

and you can spritz it on your face when you start applying and when you finish, to give an incredibly refreshing feeling. i swear i'm going to start carrying bottles of this stuff in my purse for those moments when i need something to relax me. it's probably better than vodka. well, the two go hand in hand, really.

here are a few things that i've done to my face that illustrate these points...

this is a sort of hot-weather variant on a smoky eye, where i just smudged a cream shadow over my lids, set it with a bit of a darker pigment and was basically ready to go.

face ::

nars sheer glow foundation "mont blanc"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"

eyes ::
benefit creaseless cream shadow "skinny jeans"
mac pigment "the family crest"
mac eye kohl "smolder"
inglot e/s "352"
diorshow mascara

cheeks ::
mac blush "my highland honey"

lips ::
mac l/s "out-minxed"



here's one using one of mac's greasepaint sticks. i basically just used it all over my lid- more towards the outer corners, since that's where i like to concentrate colour- and the quickly blended a shadow over it. this actually held up remarkably well during a particularly hot day and i credit that to the fact that it looked all mussed-up to begin with. i only put eye kohl [also known as "liner", but i like to talk fancy] on my upper lash line, since, when it's really hot, it lasts less time on my water line than it takes me to apply it.

face ::

lush colour supplement "jackie oates"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"

eyes ::
mac greasepaint stick "french quarter"
mac e/s "patina"
mac e/s "dazzlelight" [as a highlight along the brow bone]

cheeks ::
mac mineralize skinfinish "by candlelight"

lips ::
urban decay l/s "voodoo"


this is the sort of thing i was talking about in terms of using bold colours very simply. i'm kind of proud of the fact that this looks complicated, but actually took all of five minutes to do. because the colours are separated into blocks, there was really nothing to do other than just apply. they more or less blended themselves, clever buggers. i think that this shows off the lovely, intense pigmentation of the shadows that came out with mac's "surf baby" collection. there's a reason i got almost all of them.

face ::
nars sheer glow foundation "mont blanc"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"

eyes ::
mac e/s "saffron"
mac e/s "sun blonde"
mac e/s "manila paper"
mac greasepaint stick "dirty"
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks ::
mac cheek powder [aka blush] "my paradise"

lips ::
ysl rouge pur shine l/s "blood orange"


and, finally, another more colourful look. normally, i don't do this sort of pronounced liner in the summer, because it ends up looking a hot mess in short order, but one of the nice things i've noticed about the armani "eyes to kill" shadows is that they actually hold other products in place fairly well. it's like they're having a little colour competition on my face. these photos were taken not long after application, but i was floored six or eight hours later to notice that i looked more or less exactly the same. no summer-smudging, no fading, no creasing. i also decided to take another of the dangers of summer in hand when i did this by anticipating that i was going to get flushed in the heat. i started out with a fairly bright pop of blush on the cheeks and presto- i meant to look like that.

face ::
lush colour supplement "jackie oates"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"

eyes ::
armani eyes to kill e/s "pulp fiction"
nars e/s "dogon" [dark side only]
mac mega metal e/s "prance"
mac e/s "all races"
mac fluidline "blacktrack"
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks ::
guerlain blush g

lips
nars l/g "strawberry fields"

making faces :: product review [givenchy, urban decay, makeup forever]

as per my last post, i indulged in my lip colour fetish again and placed an order with sephora. this was my first time ordering on line from them, something borne of just not wanting to make my way all the way out to pointe claire [although seeing the employees there would have been nice]. overall, the service was a little slow [i'm comparing here to other on line retailers based in the united states] and they made a small mistake in my order. [sephora offers free samples with each order, which you can choose. they got mine wrong. i'm not about to raise a huge fuss over something i got for free, but still, what was in the box didn't even match the invoice included, which was correct.]

all of the products i ordered and paid for were included, which, true to form, were very lip-heavy. i ordered an eye shadow duo and lipstick from hourglass, which i'll address separately, since it's my first experience with the company. in this round, i'll cover the others...

givenchy gelee interdit "celestial black"

givenchy gelée interdit "celestial black" :: this was sort of an odd purchase for me, because i knew from reviews and from reading about the formula that these brand new jelly-like glosses from givenchy were going to be sheer. normally, sheer isn't a big thing with me. but the images of celestial black just looked so gorgeous [in spite of the fact that you already have about a half dozen black-based sparkly glosses? -ed.] that i couldn't resist.

true to what i expected, the formula is quite sheer. on my hand, it looked like a slightly greyed clear gloss with a couple of sparkles. not so exciting. on my lips, i was surprised that the pigmentation seemed better. it seemed to make my lips pinker [fuchsia, almost!], as well as giving a darker cast. because of the settings i use on the camera to get clear photos, i didn't capture the plumminess it adds, but trust me, it's there.

the colour and, to a certain extent, the texture, reminds me of Mac's "Dazzleglass" lip gloss formula and, in this shade, i'm particularly reminded of the colour "date night". however the magic in this gloss is in the formula. and magic it is.



i didn't put much stock in the fact that givenchy claimed that these glosses were moisturising, because, in all of my makeup wearing life, i don't think i've ever come across a gloss that wasn't moisturizing. it's a gloss, they make your lips feel softer. it's what they do. however, the second i applied this one, i could feel that there was something different. my lips almost immediately felt "plush", the term i'll use to describe the condition between extremely moist and plump.

there is some science at work here, although how much is subject to debate. givenchy claims that "hyaloronique microspheres" create a plumping effect by, basically, causing the lips to retain water. sounds weird, but there is some reason to believe them. hyaluronic acid is naturally present in the body as an industrial-strength lubricant [in cartilage] and in the basal layer of the epidermis helping, among other things, in the healing of wounds by promoting the skin's inflammatory response. [inflammation means plumping. and don't worry, it's in a good way.] hyaluronic acid is a popular skin care ingredient because it is so good at carrying moisture and at hydrating basically everything it touches. the effects can are immediate, but can be long-lasting if they form part of an ongoing regimen.

i agonised over describing the scent as fruity vs. floral for a while before i happened upon givenchy's own description "lychee-scented". yup, that's it. smells like a lychee martini pretty much exactly. unfortunately, there's a strong undercurrent of vinyl when you first apply, which is about the only thing i didn't like about this gloss. yes, part of me kinda hoped it would be more pigmented, but it more than met my actual expectations, so i can live with that.

the bottom line? there are enough interesting colours in this line [and enough standard colours, including a transparent one if all you want is the feeling] that it's definitely worth picking up at least one. if you're a fan of sheerer, more sparkly glosses, grab more than one, because they're as good as having a medicated balm and coloured gloss in one.

$29cad/ $26.50 usd [rates them a "medium" on the currency gouging scale- extra taxes in canada do make things more expensive, but not much]

available at sephora

urban decay lipstick "voodoo" :: i swear i had this colour a while ago- back before i moved to montreal from toronto- but it went totally awol. i remembered it being a somewhat frosty, very orange-tinged deep rose-pink and, now that i have it again... yup, that's what it is.

although i wouldn't think of this as being a really hard to duplicate colour, i have to say that, in my 200+ lipsticks [yup, that many, accumulated over long years], i don't have another colour like it. i think it's because it occupies such a strange "no man's land" between pink and orange. most shades will pull some red in, but this one truly doesn't. as a result, this shade is a perfect medium-tone that can go pretty much anywhere, isn't light but isn't super-dark and is different without being shocking.

urban decay have a real thing for scenting all their lip products differently, for better or worse. "oil slick" has a delicious caramel scent. "voodoo" smells like licorice allsorts. it's a bit candy-sweet for my tastes at first, but i found i minded it less the second time i applied.

i am a big fan of urban decay lipsticks since they reinvented them a few years back. i feel like they have so many cult products and that their eye shadows are so revered that the lipsticks get forgotten. and that's a loss. i have no idea what happened to my first tube of "voodoo", but damn i'm glad i have it again. the kind of shade that every woman should have in her arsenal.

as an aside, one of the "freebies" i got with my order was urban decay's cult favourite "primer potion" [primer for eyelids to keep makeup from creasing or applying unevenly] in "greed". ok, i give up. what is the fuss about? the stuff caked onto my eyelid unevenly as i was applying it and creased before i applied makeup. i do not need a "pre-crease" treatment. yikes. glad it was a sample. 

$26cad/ $22usd [moderate on the currency gouging scale]

available at sephora

makeup forever rouge artist intense #15 :: the first time i had any experience with makeup forever was when i got my makeup done there for a friend's wedding. she and her bridesmaid were getting made up there, so i figured i'd join them. what i chiefly remember is that the girl spent a long time on me- longer than anyone else, which is enough to make you feel a bit insecure- and that what she tried was different than anything i had done before. different. i'm not sure that i liked it better. but i ended up trying a few of their products and having a mixed reaction. i still have one of those products- a flesh-coloured lip and eye pencil that is truly a godsend. since then, however, i've been a little iffy to embrace them because some of the other products seemed way too heavy and stiff, the kind of thing that one could work with in a theatre, but not in real life.

i was drawn into their revamped lipstick line with its massacred french/ english name because there seemed to be so many beautiful intense colours. the shades fall into frost or semi-matte finishes and are known, as i might have expected from my previous experience and the name, for being pretty intense.

shade #15 is one that drew me in because it's a beautiful purple base- a bit like mac's "violetta", but cooler- with blue early shimmer throughout. hot dammit, count me in.

i found the formula runs dry- not so dry it was hard to work with and not drying which refers to how it feels on the lips, but dry in the sense that it didn't spread incredibly easily and that it required a couple of passes to get even coverage. evenness was a bit of an issue, because i also found that it wore a little unevenly, so that when i reapplied, i had to sort of dab carefully to get colour only where it was needed. however, like most drier lipstick formulas, it had good lasting power. even after a drink and a snack, i only had to reapply because i wanted the nice blue sheen to be more visible- there was still plenty of colour left.

i've heard that the frosts in this line can actually be a bit more difficult to work with than the other shades, so i might not have gotten the best impression of the formula. not that i hated it, but it wouldn't make me rush out to buy another. the reason i chose this one was because, of all the ones i'd seen, it struck me as being the most unique. the matte shades, while they might be easier to work with, also seem to lack depth. we shall see.

$22usd/ $19usd [moderate on the currency gouging scale]
available at sephora

and here are a couple of looks that show the products in action...

"voodoo"
this was something i did in five minutes because i wanted to snap pictures of both the lipstick and the funky new haircut that dom and me did. that said, for five minutes, i think it's pretty cool. it says something about the power of palettes- having colours laid out in front of you, rather than having to hunt for little individual pots- because that was how i got everything i wanted. i looked down and it was there. the per'fekt cheek colour was included by accident in my order, so i thought i'd try it out. not bad. probably wouldn't buy it, though. there are enough natural gel cheek colours and none of them really excite me.

face ::
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"
nars sheer glow foundation "mont blanc"

eyes ::
mac e/s "family treasure" e/s
mac e/s "gaelic gold"
mac e/s "heather belles"
mac superslick liquid liner "on the hunt"
makeup forever concealer pencil "ivory/ beige 100"
yves rocher lash-plumping mascara "grey-black"

cheeks ::
per'fekt cheek perfection gel "blushed"
guerlain terra inca sublime radiant powder [really, this went everywhere]
mac blush "clove"

lips ::
urban decay l/s "voodoo"

"15"
i have just got to work on my titles. the photos here are a wee bit crappy, but i just was having no luck. and aside from the bad luck with the photos, it was a dry, hot, dusty day in montreal, so my eyes were puffed like i'd been punched. hoorah. i chose to keep some of the clumsy photos, because i do find that it gives a good sense of the shade of the lipstick and how it catches the light.

face ::
nars sheer glow foundation "mont blanc"
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"

eyes ::
mac e/s "crystal avalanche"
mac e/s "illegal cargo"
mac e/s "vile violet"
mac e/s "restless"
mac eye liner "black swan"
stila sparkle eye liner "curacao"
makeup forever concealer pencil "ivory/ beige 100"
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks ::
per'fekt cheek perfection gel "blushed"
body shop bronzing powder "01" [note- this is old- i've no idea if it corresponds to what's currently available]
mac blush "new vibe"

lips ::
makeup forever rouge artist intense "15"

mufe #15 + givenchy celestial black

one note: i thought that the mufe lip colour would look just freakin' awesome with the givenchy gloss. and at first, i thought i was right. then i noticed that, when i applied the gloss, it made the lipstick, already prone to unevenness, more uneven. splotchy, in fact. so i wiped away the lipstick + gloss combo and started over.

Immediately upon application, Hyaluronique Micro Spheres create a plumping effect on the lips by holding naturally present water within the skin's surface.

Source: beautycrazed (http://s.tt/12qCv)

Immediately upon application, Hyaluronique Micro Spheres create a plumping effect on the lips by holding naturally present water within the skin's surface.

Source: beautycrazed (http://s.tt/12qCv)

Immediately upon application, Hyaluronique Micro Spheres create a plumping effect on the lips by holding naturally present water within the skin's surface.

Source: beautycrazed (http://s.tt/12qCv)

today happiness is...

a big box of goodies

trying out new crayons

making ourselves look scary in the name of research and beauty

and a cat who finds you a little bizarre at the moment...

needless to say, reviews will be forthcoming...

making faces :: lips locked

mac :: mystic [the lipstick, not me]

well, the cycle is complete. if you've been checking in at on my 30 days of lips page, you'll note that yesterday was day 30 and i did indeed complete my objective to go a full month without a repeat- even including a couple of days where i changed makeup to go out at night. [i have to admit, one of those times i did it so that i'd be able to squeeze an extra look into the month.]

i could keep going, but i have a few new things that i'm really eager to try out, whereas i was trying to concentrate on the unsung heroes of my collection rather than the flavour of the week, which would be getting attention anyway. and i think that that's pretty much what i did.

a lot of the colours i selected have been with me a long time. i chose to end the experiment with my very favourite mac lipstick ever, mystic. it's a satin finish colour, meaning it's richly pigmented with just a hint of a sheen. the colour is a deep plum-red, not dark enough to be a really "vampy" shade, but quite intense. one of the things that i find makes it unique is the fact that, despite being a deep plum, it's not warm or brick-toned. rather than brown, it seems to have a little deep grey mixed in so that the colour stays comparatively cool. it does make a very nice nighttime shade, but i also find that it's conservative and classical enough for wear during the day or at the office. unfortunately, i guess i'm the only one who thinks of it that way, because mac has chosen to discontinue it, along with many of the satin finish lipsticks that have been part of their lineup for years. i guess that in comparison with newer, creamier, more lustrous formulas, those dusty old satin finishes just don't measure up. i wish someone had pointed out that most people are more concerned with the colour of lipsticks even more than the finish, and that it might be a good idea to make sure that you weren't removing a bunch of unique shades because the finish wasn't as popular. whoops.



if you're one of the few and proud who are mystic fans, you can feel free to chime in with any dupes you've found. so far, in my esarch, the closest i've come up with is yves st. laurent's rouge pur couture #4- rouge vermilion. it's a smidgen warmer, but it'll do in a pinch. i didn't have it to compare side by side, but i swatched revlon's colorburst lipstick in plum and that also seemed like a reasonably close approximate.

speaking of yves st. laurent, i feel like i owe them a wee apology for excluding them entirely from the lip sweepstakes this month. while i was trying to balance my choices, i did end up giving preference to mac, because they still represent the lion's share of my lip colours. but somehow ysl got ignored entirely and chanel got grossly underrepresented. ah well, no system is perfect. i've heard tell of people who use random number generators to determine choices when it comes to using items from a large collection equitably, but i really don't see that working for me. i'll spend twenty minutes flipping through songs on my iphone before finding one that suits my mood. applying tactics of randomness to clothing, shoes, makeup or anything would be dooming me to a sort of paralysis. some day, though, i am going to put together a database that can make suggestions based on me entering a few key factors- my mood, the weather, what i have to do that day... and i'll still probably reject them.

i know that over the last month, i've ended up using a lot of colours [not just mystic] that have been limited edition or that are discontinued. i didn't want to bog things down by offering alternates for all of them, but if there are any that interested you in particular, i'm happy to give it my best shot. on the other hand, if you notice that there are some i used that are now unavailable, for which you've already found a good duplicate, please feel free to share.

big, multi-coloured kisses to all. i'll have to think of a new challenge for myself.

for the moment, i'm testing out samples of mac's new "big bounce" mousse-cream eye shadows. i have a few colours to try and i'll let you know my detailed findings within the next few days.

making faces :: spring lips for vampy ladies

the wrong of spring

every year it happens. you've had months to indulge your love of deep, dark, come-hither lips and then
suddenly, the mercury starts to rise. sure, you can still get away with those vampy looks at night- that's always when they're most appropriate- but during the gradually extending daylight hours, those blood red or eggplant purple lips look less elegant and more emo kid. all around you, people are doffing heavy coats and black leggings in favour of featherweight fabrics and pastels. but if pink and peach make you shrink and screech, what are you supposed to do?

no! no no no no no. n-o

well, i've long since made my peace with the girlie spectrum of tones, but i still feel more like me wearing a colour that's quirkier. luckily, the world of cosmetics is no longer trying to force us into a single spring mold. there are lots of colours available that are perfectly appropriate for a balmy spring day without making you feel like you sold you dark, misunderstood soul.

in choosing a few recommendations for the rest of us, i limited myself to colours that form part of the permanent range of colours each company has available. there's no point offering help if i'm just pointing you towards things that you have to buy from scalpers on evil-bay. that said, trolling on line can be lucrative and not everyone is selling deleted items for an arm and a leg, so it's always worth keeping an eye out.

HELP IS AVAILABLE! SEE OPTIONS PLUS A SPRING LOOK



urban decay :: oil slick :: hey, haven't we seen this one recently? yes, it was getting oil slick (reviewed in detail in my last post) that got me to thinking about this subject, but i did want to underline it's post-vernal equinox appropriateness. it's black, but it's sheer enough and has that dewy sparkle that gives the impression of being ready for sunnier weather. by the time they've figured out you're wearing a vampy lip colour, you'll already have bent them to your will... or whatever you were intending on doing. [$22cad, exclusively at sephora locations or on line at sephora.com]

mac cosmetics :: date night :: this is actually a gloss, part of mac's "dazzleglass" range of products. these are very sheer, to be sure and feature a ton (not literally) of sparkle and shimmer. most are quite

date night

pastel and therefore useless to someone looking for something darker, with the exception of this one colour. while it's far from being intense, the gloss has a cool purple base that does lend a darker cast to the lips and has a lot of blue and purple shimmer (don't worry, it's not gritty), that make your pout subtly cooler. of the selections i've made, it's probably the one that's furthest from those ultra-opaque matte tones, but it does make for a hint of something a little mischievous. the formula on these glosses is quite slippery, so it requires reasonably frequent touch-ups if you want to keep it looknig fresh (and keep the pigment at its most intense). like all glosses, they are quite moisturising. i've noted in my own collection and read reports from others, that these glosses are subject to "evaporation", meaning that once you open them, they have a tendency to deplete faster than you use them. given the price, that's more than a little annoying, so keep the cap on tight and feel free to use them often over the course of the warmer months. it's not like you're going to want a gloss come september anyway. [$22cad, available exclusively at mac stores and counters and on line at maccosmetics.com]

good to be bad

mac cosmetics :: good to be bad :: i have no idea why, but it seems like someone discovered a burning need in the hearts of cosmetics consumers sometime last year: women everywhere were tired of having to choose between the pigmentation of a lipstick and the soft, moist feel of a gloss. and so, this spring, every company in the world seems to have responded with their own version of a hybrid product. chanel launched their rouge coco shine collection, guerlain's rouge automatique is hot off the presses and dior, not to be outdone by anyone, has just revamped their entire dior addict line with an overwhelming 50+ shades as a gel-based hybrid product. the thing is, the huge majority of those products (editor's note- i haven't seen guerlain's in person yet) are pastels.

as usual, it's mac to the rescue with a smaller collection of a new product called "sheen supreme", which has a nice range of colours from soft pinks to this shade, a vampy dark red that any black-clad girl would love. the colour can actually get pretty intense on this one, but it can be applied sheer as well (i'd say the image on the right represents a medium between the two).

these products are super-soft and moisturising, but i find that this also makes them prone to melting. it's not a product i'd recommend carrying in your purse if you're going to be out and about in the summer sun all day. that softness can also make them a bit messy to apply if you press too hard, so a light hand is always a good idea. the pigmentation is excellent and it actually lasts longer than most gloss-type product. [$17.50cad, available exclusively at mac stores and counters and on line at maccosmetics.com]

nars :: fast ride :: nars has a whole collection of sheer colours that are often quite pigmented and warrant a look from anyone searching for a decent pop of colour that isn't heavy. fast ride looks almost intimidating in the tube (or at least it would to people who don't normally wear dark lips), but in fact it's colour is an inviting currant red that seems to blend with the natural lip colour of the wearer. the pigmentation is good, although you're not ever going to get it close to opaque and it glides on easily.

fast ride

compared to the other products mentioned here, i found this less moisturising on the lips. it did have a bit of a tendency to settle into lines a little, although it's far from uncomfortable. it also has less of a sheen than the other products mentioned here and tends to look more like a nice stain, as if you've been drinking a little red wine, or the blood of your enemies. because it blends with one's own lip colour, i can picture this working on warm or cool skin tones, although i think on very dark lips, it wouldn't show up as well.

for a fairly sheer product, the lasting power is very good. i didn't find i needed much in the way of touch ups unless i was eating and/ or drinking. it's a lovely colour that feels very "me" without calling a lot of attention to itself. [$29cad, available at nars counters in major department stores, murale locations in canada and, for u.s. customers only, on line at narscosmetics.com, also available through nordstrom.com]

if none of these grab your fancy, here are a few suggestions from old mac collections that you might be able to find through the magic of the internet ::

overdone :: originally released in 2006 with a collection called "rockocco", it was described as a "smoky plum". it's a brownish berry tone with hints of purple in a lustre finish (look here if you're confused about what that means) with a faint shimmer. it's fairly light and sheer in texture, but it's still definitely the kind of colour you don't see every day. i almost cried when i finally had to admit that, yes, i'd used it all up.

jampacked :: this deep grape coloured gloss was released in 2008 with mac's "cult of cherry" collection, also known as the greatest cosmetics collection in history. any lady who likes deep lips should own at least a few items from this. although it was released for fall and the colour is pretty deep, i find jampacked looks sheer and juicy enough to work just fine in the spring.

boys go crazy :: released as part of the 2010 "digi pops" collection, this is a dazzleglass, like date night, but it's more like date night's cousin from the wrong side of the tracks. it has the same sparkle effect, but deeper, darker, and an overall bluer shade of purple. apparently, there are a lot of women like me, because when the collection launched, this sold out in about a week.

and, to wrap things up, here's just something that i did for a spring day that i think still sticks pretty close to the look i have regularly (insofar as i have a regular look). all products are from mac unless otherwise specified ::

face
nars sheer glow foundation mont blanc
prolongwear concealer nw20

eyes
painterly paint pot as base
unbasic white e/s
silverthorn e/s
fashion e/s
shu uemura metallic olive e/s
carbon e/s 
blacktrack fluidline eye liner
ysl faux cils mascara

cheeks
vintage grape blush ombre
springshine blush ombre

lips
nars fast ride l/s

making faces :: product review [sephora haul]

if you're a lady or a lad who's into making yourself look good, sephora is sort of like the antechamber to paradise. it has everything you need to make yourself look, smell and probably taste perfect in every way before you make your big entrance. unfortunately, and for no reason i can understand, when sephora opened stores in the montreal area, they put them in the suburbs of laval and pointe claire, rather than establishing a presence downtown. well, i suppose that keeps my wallet happy, but it means that going there is something i can't do very often.

but this week, for the first time, i made the pilgrimage out to pointe claire to see what i'd been missing- all those brands for whom sephora is the sole distributor in canada. and, yes, i was like a kid in a candy store. i decided to let myself have a couple of treats, because what's the point of making the trip if you aren't going to come back with some kind of trophy? i also decided that i would stick exclusively to things that i can't get closer to home. i did pretty well on both counts. i don't know why i ended up with only lipsticks, but i do find that they're just such a good way to get oneself introduced to a brand...

i would like to take a moment and say a big thank you to heather and daniel who were way beyond helpful and truly did make the outing there like a fun adventure in toyland. who doesn't enjoying a few moments of escapism on a dreary day in march?

SEE WHAT GOODIES I RETURNED WITH AND MY THOUGHTS ON THEM



here are the trinkets i returned with [pics are clickable]:

oil slick

urban decay :: oil slick :: this is actually not my first experience with urban decay by a long shot. i have a couple of their eye shadows (sin and asphyxia) at the moment and have had more. i even owned one of their lipsticks before, a lovely (discontinued) shade of greyish lilac called "pallor". back when they started, urban decay embraced their name, featuring colours that oozed with the decrepit beauty of the inner city at a time when everyone else was still introducing six new shades of soft pink a season. but, as often happens, others noticed what was happening and soon they had a lot of competition. with the originality of their colour palette diminishing, urban decay was left to fight on the strength of their products, which, at the time, was not great. however, they've made incredible strides in recent years and are now one of the most respected brands around, particularly among the younger demographics (which wouldn't include me, but anyway).

oil slick

"oil slick" is actually an old colour for u.d., but it has, like the rest of their lipsticks, undergone a reformulation. where older lipsticks tended to be dry and cakey, the new formula is unbelievably moist. it smells faintly of caramel, which doesn't bother me, although it does make me crave creme brulee at the most inappropriate times. it's a sheer colour, which means that a lot of your natural lip colour will show through. i've seen pictures where it looked almost colourless, but in fact, it can be built up with a couple of passes to a very visible stain. the base colour is a blackish brown shade and there is loads of silver shimmer added. the shimmer and the moist texture combined mean it's incredibly reflective and catches the light just beautifully. the shimmer isn't gritty, although you may notice little flecks of it in odd places on your lips.

given the sheerness of the shade, it doesn't have great lasting power, but i wouldn't really expect it to. the only thing i found myself wishing was that, given the name, they had made the shimmer multi-coloured, like the rainbow sheen on an actual pool of oil. but perhaps that's for another revision. until then, i'm happy with this sort of "summery vamp" shade. ($22cad)

candide tangerine

givenchy :: rouge interdit candide tangerine :: well, as you can see, i'm still getting over my orange crush from last week. i didn't really see myself as needing another bright orange shade, but the second i laid eyes on this one, i knew that i had to either wear it or eat it, which meant that one way or another, it was coming home with me.

i have to say that i wasn't really aware of givenchy's cosmetics. while i expect that lesser-known brands like urban decay will only be available at sephora, i see givenchy's perfumes everywhere (dom actually wears their men's scents fairly regularly), so when there was no adjacent cosmetics counter, i just figured that they weren't in the business. in fact, they seem to have a small but beautiful selection that i wished i'd met sooner. their pricing is actually a little lower than chanel or yves st. laurent, who i would see as their natural competitors, so that's a welcome surprise. it's not a lot but, hey, i'll take it.

candide tangerine

"tangerine" is an absolutely perfect name for this shade, because it's exactly what it looks like. an intense reddened orange, tantalisingly juicy, different than any shade on the market. it's a limited edition from what i understand, part of the company's spring collection. i'm late getting to it and, for those in the montreal area, i grabbed the very last one at sephora pointe claire, so you'll have to take your chances at the laval store (or online at sephora.com). it's a luscious shade and a wonderful, moisturising formula. it's not quite opaque, but a couple of passes basically meant there was nothing of my natural lip colour peeking through. applying a single layer would give you more sheer covereage, obviously, which might be preferable for those who like their lips a little tamer. there was a very faint "cosmetic" scent on application, but that faded very quickly. i can't say whether the rest of the rouge interdit lipsticks are the same quality, but i can guarantee that i'll be checking them out.

as a shade, "candide tangerine" is deeper and much shinier than mac's "neon orange", brighter and redder than guerlain's "gipsy". i also found that it was less warm than either of those shades, which probably makes it a better bet for those who have cooler complexions. delicious. ($32cad)

drop dead red

too faced :: drop dead red :: ok, if there is one thing i do not need in my life, it is more red lipsticks. but put one like this in front of me and i'm just a girl who can't say no. this goes double if dom is around since, as i've mentioned, he's a man who loves the bright lips.

i'd heard of too faced, but i had never bought anything from them before. they're overall look reminds me a lot of benefit in its cuteness and cheekiness- it looks a little like something old-fashioned, but viewed through a modern eye. they have a number of well-priced kits that allow you to sample a number of their products at once, all of which are housed in adorable, music box-like packaging. for individual products, their pricing falls around the same level as mac.

as a colour, this one is killer. even for an intense shade, the pigmentation is incredible. it stained my hand when i swatched it and removing that stain took some work with makeup remover. on the lips, that translates to maximum staying power. it goes on shiny, but settles pretty quickly to a semi-matte finish. while it's not drying, it doesn't add any moisture to the lips, so if you might want to apply a light coat of balm first.

drop dead red

the colour looks more red in the photos (particularly the close-up) than it does in real life, i find. to me, it looked like a very strong reddish pink, a deep berry colour, rather than a true red, although it's close enough to go either way. it's quite cool and it's a colour i really can't see working on warmer tones. on fair skin, as you can see, it makes a real statement. on darker complexions, it would be a strong shade as well, but not as "shocking". the pigmentation is pretty much completely opaque, even with a single swipe, so i don't think that it's going to vary much from person to person. personally, as a lover of dark, intense lips, this is perfect for me. ($18cad)

the awful part about this is that i already have a list of things that i want to go back for. normally, you'd have a lot of trouble getting me to go near a suburb (particularly since i have a bad tendency to get lost in them). now, all of a sudden, i can't wait. hurry up and open a downtown store already, sephora. just make sure the staff are as awesome as the place in pointe claire.