Want to get Naked 2?

First of all, if you read the title... I'm not a perve, haha!

And secondly, yes, I'm still talking about make up on this blog: I'll be sharing my thoughts on the Naked 2 palette by Urban Decay! :) I think I'm probably the last make up lover on this planet who finally got her hands on one of these babies!

Urban Decay Naked palette

For all the make up lovers out there, if you haven't heard of this palette before, you must have disappeared for a couple of years :)

Urban Decay was very well known for their primer potions. I got a sample before, but unfortunately my oily lids kept the make up away in spite of using a UDPP (=Urban Decay Primer Potion).
Then they released their first Naked Palette. It's a neutral palette which has 12 neutral warm shades, a brush and the original primer potion. Beauty guru's have been raving about this palette, so - as smart as UD could be - they released their second palette. Again, this was a HUGE must have in the make up world. This palette contains 12 shades as well, including a white and a black matte shade (yay!), a double-ended brush and a travel size lip gloss.

UD upgraded their packaging and made a tin case instead of the brown carton which didn't always close properly. Next to the packaging they enlarged their mirror, and you know we, beauty lovers, can never have too many mirrors :)

Anyway, on to the colors!
This is the back of the palette. There's an attempt of displaying the colors in powder with their names below. These shades are all for neutral looks and the finishes are matte, shimmer and glitter.

Sorry for blinding you with the mirror on this pic, forgot to turn off my flash, but at least you're assured the mirror's big enough :)

Here's a zoom on each six colors of the palette:

• Foxy: matte cream
• Half Baked: metallic gold
• Bootycall: satin champagne
• Chopper: metallic rose gold with silver micro glitter
• Tease: matte, taupe with purple undertones
• Snakebite: satin deep bronze

• Suspect: satin light taupe
• Pistol: satin warm steel grey
• Verve: icy silver
• YDK: metallic mauve with micro glitter
• Busted: satin plummy dark brown
• Blackout: matte black

A lot of people were contemplating on whether to buy the original or the Naked 2.
Even though I don't own an original Naked palette, the Naked 2 seems to be more my cup of tea. There's a bigger variety in colors and finishes.

For those who are still on the fence:

Naked 1:

* warmer golden shades
* brown colors

Naked 2:
* cooler shades
* metallic taupe colors

It really depends on which colors you prefer. By reading blogs, watching vids and testing out I can assure you the quality is exactly the same from both palettes: PERFECT! The shades are extremely creamy and pigmented!

I'd say: no need to buy them both, just think it through on which colors you'll be using the most.

So beauties, tell me, which one do you prefer? :)

Clarisonic Mia

Thanks to technology people have been able to use an electric toothbrush instead of a regular one. It's supposed to clean more thoroughly and (hopefully) it does the job faster!

What about having an electric toothbrush for your face? I'm talking about the Clarisonic. This little thing has been a hype in the States for a LONG time, and it's still a favorite of many beauty guru's.
As soon as I saw it was on sale, I had to splurge on one. Most of the time I don't really invest in skin care but I was just to curious about this item that I had to try it.

I bought the blue Clarisonic Mia, which comes with a little international plug (handy for traveling). And I got the brush head for sensitive skin. You can also get brush heads for acne, delicate, normal skin or you can get body brushes as well. These Clarisonic Mia's are available in several colors as well, and with Spring they've launched a Spring collection with fun bright colors!

As you can see it comes with a charger, an international plug and a cleansing product.

Here's a clear picture of the cleansing product. I'll give this cleanser a try, but I've heard that this isn't that good of a product. Most people use the Clarisonic with Purity by Philosophy.

I'll have a go with it and keep you updated on whether I like it or not. Since I haven't been using it for a long time, I prefer not to write a review about it already.

To be continued...

NOTW: Play Day

This week's color is coral (yaaaay!)

Play Day

I simply LOVE coral. It's just the perfect color for my taste :)
This color reminds me a lot of Essie's Tart Deco, which is just a tad more orange than Play Day. I did notice the camera didn't do justice to the polish color, it's coming over way much lighter than it is.
It's got a creamy texture and the first layer may be very sheer, the second does the job.

I borrowed this one from my friend and she told me this is a LE, so if anyone knows any dupes for this one...please feel free to share!

NOTW: Bourjois no16

Hi there!

A bit late with posting my picture up, but here's the color I've been wearing this week.

It's a gorgeous red with gold sparkles in it. It reminds me of Chanel's distraction because of the texture and subtle sparkles in it. This is definitely one of my favorite reds out there!

Here's a picture of the beautiful red by day.

Bourjois no16

And here's on took after wearing this for almost a week, by night.
You can see it has chipped around the cuticles, but overall... not bad at all!

Bourjois no16

The Bourjois polishes are pretty much available everywhere since they're a drugstore brand. Honestly, I've tried high end that can't last longer than this baby!

Without a doubt, for those red polish lovers, give this one a try! :)

NOTW: Perle de Jade

Since most of you know I'm quite the nail varnish addict, I decided to start my series of nail of the week :)

This week: Perle de Jade from L'Oréal is up!

Perle de Jade (602)

This is a minty green from the new L'Oréal Color Riche collection. Although it's a beautiful color, the creamy formula isn't all that great. It goes on quite streaky and you should leave enough time between two layers. The brush is a quite wide one, which for some will be a big no no, but I actually kind of like it.

Overall, like the color (yay pastels!), like the brush, like the price (paid 10,99 for 2!), don't like the formula that much. Won't be repurchasing it, but will be rocking this color A LOT this summer!

I bought some other polishes from the collection as well. Will keep you beauties posted on those! :)

Elf haul

Ask any beauty guru this question: what's the cheapest online make up brand you can get? That's right, ELF. This brand stands for eyes lips face and it's known for its quality and cheap make up goodies. You can easily get items for 1$, and for those who can't afford high end products this is a great brand to express your love for make up!
I've heard so much about ELF and since I got a discount for my bday, I decided to get myself a treat :)

I got 2 eye shadows, 4 nails polishes and 3 blushes:

ELF haul

The eye shadows I got were 1 powder and 1 creamy one. They're both neutrals, and both have a nude and a brown color.

both: Butter Pecan

Below you'll find the swatches of these eye shadows.

creamy nude - creamy brown - nude powder - brown powder

It's quite obvious that the only pigmented one is the powdery brown/bronzy one. The rest is quite sheer, which was quite disappointing. But could I get really disappointed for a 1€ make up item?

The creamy one is very sheer and in spite of good reviews I'm not sure whether I'll be able to use this since I already have oily eye lids. I think this product will just slip away from my eye lids! I'll give this a try with and without a primer, we'll see what the end result will be.

The powder eye shadow looks quite good, it makes a good natural eye look, so yay for this one!

Then I got 4 nail polishes for 10€ for 4:

Mango Madness, Fuchia, Dark Navy, Mint Cream

They all look like the website displayed them, except for Fuchsia. I expected something more purple-like, this one's more on the pink side. I tried Mint Cream and it'll probably be needing 3 coats to have an opaque color. I will try Mango Madness very soon, so pics will be coming up soon! Nevertheless, I like all colors and can't wait to give these a try!

Last but not least: blushes:

Candid Coral - Peachy Keen

These blushes were 4€, which is still peanuts for a blush. I had quite high expectations for these, but unfortunately these were very VERY sheer. It gives a nice sheen on your cheeks, but that's it. I prefer to have some color on my apples, but these are okay for those who like the subtle look.

Glow

This blush is probably the cheapest pigmented blush I own. I paid 1€ for it, yes you read it correctly: 1€!
Since I was quite let down by the pigmentation of the blushes above, I didn't have high hopes for the cheaper one, but man oh man...do I like this blush! (too bad it doesn't show up on the swatch below though, boo!)



Here's a swatch of the 3 blushes:

Candid Coral - Peachy Keen - Glow

I tried to photograph the swatches properly but since I don't have good lighting the colors aren't shown very well :(

You can see that Candid Coral has more of a yellow undertone, while Peachy Keen is more on the pink side.
Glow on the other hand is just very pink. It's a very lovely color, but you have to be easy on this one when applying it to the cheeks, because you can easily put too much of this product which will make you look like a clown (a pretty clown though!)

It all comes to this: don't let the price decide whether the product will do the job or not. A big thumbs up for ELF for making this available as well for those who are on a lower budget...hip hip hooray!

Favorites of the month: April 2012

April 2012, 'till never!
I had a great month: first dance lesson in years, first Emeli Sandé's concert, started working again, birthday, got to see my great friends, ... overall, great month!

I don't have a lot to show for this month, because I've been using a lot of the same products from last month.

Let's start off with eyebrows. I've always used drugstore eyebrow pencil, but unfortunately they were always a bit too brown for me. I just never found one that was a bit grey/light black, until I found this eyebrow pencil from Lioele...yay! It's got a pencil on one side and a spooly on the other side. Lovely pencil!

Lioele Auto Eyebrow pencil

Then off to eyelashes! I've tried a lot of mascara's, and I now know for sure that European drugstore and high end mascara's (YSL, Maybelline, Bourjois, Yves Rocher, ...) don't do the job for me. Asian mascara's on the other hand actually do keep my keep my eyelashes curled, lengthens and gives volume to them. One of my HG mascara is definitely the Fairy Drops mascara.

Fairy Drops Scandal Queen

Next up is blush! I've been a huge blush freak lately and I own mostly drugstore blushes aside from my MAC blush. I've read a lot of good reviews on the Shu Uemura Glow On blushes, so I decided to spoil myself with one of these babies! I intended to get the Soft Coral one, but the sales guy recommended me this pink one. If you want some more information on this one, go ahead and check out my review :)

 

Shu Uemura blush pink 30

And I'll end this fav of the month with nail polish! I was always the girl who loved neutral colors and was afraid of using brighter colors...until 2012! I love wearing bright colors on my nail such as red, brighter pink, green, blue, purple, ... all the colors of the rainbow :D If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably know where I got these 2 Sasatinnie nail polishes from...yup, from Hong Kong! They have this huge drugstore called Sasa, and you can honestly find EVERYTHING there! It's been one of my must go's whenever I go to the other side of the world, haha!

Sasatinnie nail polish: left: P573 Rose - right: Q23

I must admit that it looks paler on the picture than in real life. It's this beautiful toned down hot pink...aah, just love it! But seriously, if anyone ever goes to Sasa...get these nail polishes. They need 2 coats, but they're cheap as hell and have an amazing color range!

Sasatinnie Rose

Anyways... that was it for this month! Hope you all enjoyed it and stay tuned for more beautilicious goodies! :)