Nail It: Pacific

Hello and happy Hump day to everyone!

Being the last day of summer here in Australia I'm posting a bright and beachy shade of blue polish.  Pacific is the perfect name for this polish from Sportsgirl's Nail It! line.  It's the most intense aqua blue with a subtle green/blue shimmer.  I'm dreaming this really is the colour of the Pacific Ocean as it's so beautifully vivid.  As with all my Sportsgirl polishes application was a breeze and two coats provided smooth, perfectly even colour.  Bonus:  My Hubby approves of this blue too!

 Full Sun- Look at the shimmer!

 

Shade

That's all for summer!  Now I've got to start thinking about the autumn/fall shades again...

Vita :)

Japanese NOTD: Tokuya #40

As promised here's the first Japanese polish swatch post.

Tokuya's pretty pink #40 was requested by the lovely and very talented  Iris from Polish Amor.  This is such a pretty pink jelly with a sprinkling of dainty holo glitter.  I applied three coats to get a good depth of coverage and the result was quite delicate.  The glitter sparkles like tiny jewels on my nails but it's not OTT.  I thought this look was subtle enough to wear to work!  See what you think...

Full sun

Shade

Until next time.

Vita :)

Project 10 Pan update: finally hitting pan!

I thought I'd give you a quick update on how I'm progressing with P10P.

After feeling a little disheartened over the looong time it takes to finish makeup items my motivation to see this through has strengthened because over the last few weeks I've actually hit pan on a few things.  It's like seeing that light at the end of the tunnel!  Here's the proof:

Now, after being a blushing freak in the early 1990's (ya know, wearing the contouring "stripes") I gave up using blush altogether for years because I preferred to look natural and low key.  Well, I realised there's nothing unnatural about looking healthy so it came back into my makeup routine just over a year ago.  Anyway, the point is I haven't finished off a blush pan in years and now - look! - I think my little essence blush is gonna be the first to go in a long time.  Exciting!

Well, look at this one!  After daily use my MAC Select Sheer pressed powder has really copped a beating!  This isn't surprising because I usually go through a few pans a year so this one is guaranteed.  I can't wait to finish this because I'll have enough empties to go Back 2 MAC for a free lipstick.  I've allowed myself this one indulgence during my makeup and lipstick ban so I'm looking forward to that.  The tough decision will be which lipstick to choose?

Now just for good measure here's an old Revlon eyeshadow palette (Tickled Pink) that's nearly half-way gone.  Because these are all soft and shimmery highlight shades I'm sure I'll finish this - although it's still a long way off.

Even if I wasn't doing P10P I still have a sense of satisfaction and achievement when I've loved makeup items all the way to the bottom of the pan.  Just wish I could do it faster than I accumulate them - now that would be an impossible challenge for me at least!

What have you hit pan on lately or what do you hit pan on regularly?  I'd love to know.

Until next time.

Vita :)

Cover Girl: Bronze Beauty

Thanks Lovelies for your swatch requests on my Japanese polish post!  I've done a few today which I'll post later in the week once I've uploaded and cropped the pictures.  I can see I'll have to swatch them all which I'll happily do because I think they're all pretty cute too!

Now onto the polish which I wore to work last week.  Bronze Beauty is one of very few Cover Girl polishes in my stash, probably because we have a very poor and boring selection of colours here in Australia.  Anyway this one caught my eye and it really is eye-catching to wear.  Bronze Beauty is a cool metallic foil which blew me away when I wore it.  Its mix of pewter and bronze sparkles go ballistic in sunlight/bright light and when it sparkles like mad it reminds me a just little of all those fantastic swatches of Chanel's Graphite out there - maybe this is Graphite's distant drugstore cousin??  Unfortunately I've read this shade has been discontinued.  If you see this anywhere I recommend you grab it because you won't be disappointed. This is three sparkle-icious coats: 

Full sun:

Shade

That's all for now.

Vita :)

My little Japanese nail polish collection

Since receiving my Jill Stuart palette from Hubby my love for Japanese cosmetics has been resurrected - and I mean love <3 <3 <3 because I went crazy over the stuff when I was in Japan a few years ago!  I used to think I wasn't much of a girly-girl but it seems I must be because I'm always attracted to cute and sweet packages and colours and the Japanese have perfected that (in my opinion).

Yes, I have some Japanese nail polish too and I spent a bit of time looking through my nail polish stash lately for my little Japanese beauties.  I wanted to remind myself what I actually have in my out of control collection and now I'm sharing them with you.

Here's a closer look at the pretties...

Jill Stuart & Anna Sui

 Left - Right:

Jill Stuart - 12 

Anna Sui - 201

Jill Stuart - 22 (swatched here )  

 

Tokuya purchases

Left - Right:

# 90 (blue with holo glitter)

 #40 (pink with holo glitter)

#33 (gold with holo glitter)

#16 (shimmery pink)

More Tokuya purchases - La Pensee & Nail Color

Left - Right:
La Pensee - 63
Nail Color - 216

Leave a comment and me know what you'd like to see swatched!

Until next time.

Vita :)

Layering with Essence Make It Golden

Yet another glitter layered mani from me :)

This is the golden glitter mix of Essence's Make It Golden to dress up my Revlon Tangerine mani and hide those annoying bubbles I'd experienced.  I applied a single thick coat without any additional topcoat so the finished result was quite matte.  I didn't realise quite how matte this turned out until I cropped my pictures.  It looks quite rough textured so I'm a bit unsure about it!  I am liking the combination of tangerine and gold though.

Daylight outdoors

Lamplight

That's all for now.

Vita :)

A gift from my Valentine: Jill Stuart eye palette

Yes, I'm on a Project 10 Pan, lipstick ban, lipgloss ban, blah, blah, blah and my lovely Hubby enjoys endlessly teasing me about it.  However he also teases me with the line, "You can't buy makeup but there's always Valentine's Day, the wedding anniversary and your birthday..." with a little twinkle in his eye.  Don't you love it when your partner gets that twinkle, hmmm?

So you know where I'm going with this post and it's obvious by the title - the man came up with the goods for my Valentine's gift.  And here it is, the outrageously cutely packaged Fragile Opal eyeshadow palette from Japanese beauty brand Jill Stuart!

Jill Stuart - 104 Fragile Opal

We'd spotted this palette a little while ago when out shopping together.  We were browsing in a little Asian beauty boutique where I was oohing and aahing over everything and Hubby cleverly took notice of what I was cooing the most over.  He told me this palette is limited edition and my research tells me he's right - this was released late 2011 in Jill Stuart's Fairy Garden Holiday collection.  He refused to tell me how much it cost other than to admit to it being outrageously expensive!

Now for a look at the outer packaging of the palette.  How cute and girly is this??  I am unabashedly a sucker for cute packaging so I was in heaven when I unwrapped this...

Here's a closer look at the colours in the pan and swatched on the back of my hand.  These shades all have a soft sparkle and I did notice some fallout when swatching, although hopefully primer will take care of that.  The shades from left to right are soft ivory sparkle, a pale silvery green, pink and aubergine.  I can easily see these sorts of shades on me so I'll try and do an EOTD soon.

Now I have two Jill Stuart palettes and no, I don't feel guilty at all!

Vita :)

Another orange NOTD: Revlon - Tangerine

Hi again!

I've been absolutely revelling in my orange obsession lately.  It's such a fun colour and happens to be in fashion (bonus!) so I've been wearing it at every opportunity - clothes, makeup and of course nail polish!  Tangerine is from Revlon's 2011 summer collection, Summer Romantics and I adore the colour.  This is an actual juicy, citrusy orange shade with just a hint of golden shimmer. 

I did have a gripe with the formula though - it was patchy to apply so I needed three coats of colour to make this look fully opaque and even.  Worse still it bubbled on me so I had to apply a few layers of top coat to disguise those pesky little bumps.  Worth the trouble?  Personally I thought so because of the wonderful colour but if it wasn't a unique shade in my collection I'd probably toss it out based on the troublesome formula.

Oh well, here are loads of pictures -

Outdoors shade

Full sun

Until next time.

Vita :)

Lipstick/Lipgloss ban - What I need to finish before I can buy!

If you remember my beauty resolutions I "swore" to at the start of the year I pledged to reduce my lipstick and lipgloss collections by using 5 lipsticks or lipglosses before I bought any more (Click  here  if you want to read my beauty resolutions post).  So far I've finished one lipgloss towards my goal.  Here are all the other lip colours I have a chance of finishing.

The lipglosses

Left to Right and swatched in same order: 

Estee Lauder (11 Passion Fruit) - This tube is around three-quarters finished.  It's been hanging around for over a year and been neglected but now I've been wearing it regularly again.  This is the brightest of the four I'm trying to finish and is a watermelon-y shimmer I like wearing over my bare lips for a hit of shine and colour.  It's a fairly wet slick formula so needs regular reapplication.  Normally I'd say this is a bit of a pain but in these circumstances I say Yay! - the more I have to reapply the faster this will go into my empties.

Bloom (Sweet Pea) - This was so difficult to swatch because the tube is virtually empty!  I've been literally wearing this opaque mauve lipgloss to death because it is THE perfect match for my lips. I've been trying to scrape the last bits out of the tube but because this stuff is so thick it won't run down the tube for the applicator to reach.  I've tried soaking the tube in hot water to make the gloss more runny so I can finish 100 per cent of the contents but to no avail.  Unless there are some other brilliant ideas out there I think I'm going to call this one finished!

Heavy Rotation Enamel Gloss (03 Berry) - Another favourite MLBB shade that I've been wearing like a fiend.  Because it's opaque it looks great on bare lips but I've also been loving this creamy caramel nude over Rimmel's Undressed lipstick.  I think I've still got about a third left in the tube but it won't be a problem finishing this one either.

L'Oreal Glam Shine (Lasting Coral) - Around three-quarters finished.  This sparkly peach (not coral!) gloss tube is my emergency lip colour which lives in my handbag.  I have a real love/hate relationship with this L'Oreal gloss because I love the peachy colour but absolutely hate the sticky formula.  It does last well but is horribly difficult to remove from my lips.  Don't ask me why but I've actually got a few of these in my stash.

The lipsticks

Left to Right and swatched in same order: 

L'Oreal (Plum Brulee) - This baby's almost finished!  This is a beautiful richly pigmented lipstick and one of my favourite reds.  Trouble is I think it will be hanging around for a while because I prefer to wear dark reds like this in cooler weather. 

MAC (Party Line) - Another autumnal shade almost down to the stub.  Party Line is is berry-toned mauve.  I do love this shade but again prefer wearing it in Autumn/Winter so it'll probably take a while to finish.

MAC (Crosswires) - Okay, this is a lipstick I've actually been wearing lately because it's a perfect summery shade.  Crosswires is the perfect coral shade which is hot without being OTT so it's work and play appropriate.  I think I'm a bit more than half-way down the tube on this one.

L'Oreal Nutrishine (Pretty Peach) - I've categorised this as a lipstick rather than a gloss simply because it's in a lipstick style tube.   It's a lovely sheer pinky-peach shade I've been wearing on weekends.  I've been loving it so I'm sure I won't have a problem finishing it.

Rimmel (Asia) - It doesn't look it in the tube but I've been wearing this shade LOTS lately and is a favourite everyday go-to so I hold high hopes for finishing it.  This mauve-toned nude is another MLBB shade and featured in my basic face post (here).

I can see I'm not going to have any problems finishing off the rest of my lipgloss quota but I'm not so sure about the lipstick!  

Until next time.

Vita :)

OPI: Brisbane Bronze

It seems we didn't follow the rules for our Valentine's celebrations this year - we went out to dinner two nights early, and I didn't wear anything red or pink!  No, I wore Brisbane Bronze as my Valentine's manicure.

Brisbane Bronze was released in OPI's Australia collection from 2007.  This was one of the few shades I bought - obviously the novelty of being an Australian-themed collection wasn't enough to get me too excited and drive me into a hauling frenzy.  I think Brisbane Bronze has remained in OPI's core line so I guess I chose well.  Yes, it's a deep bronze as the name suggests, with a subtle crystalline shimmer which is eye-catching in bright light.  Just a little bit glam but still suitable for everyday so this stayed on my nails all week.

Outdoors shade

Full sun

Until next time.

Vita :)

Browsing in Topshop (Picture post)

A few weekends ago I finally had the chance to check out Topshop which opened its first Australian store in Melbourne late last year.  I''m probably a bit too *ahem* old for the fashion but beauty products don't discriminate quite as much - well that's what I tell myself!!  Here are some snaps I took on my phone. 

A nice little mix of bright and neutral eyeshadows.

  (I didn't have time to swatch because we were passing through on our way from the movies to dinner!)

My first encounter with the seasonal nail polish line.  These pics aren't too great but you can probably just make out these polishes are metallic, and there are some crackle polishes there too.  Also, some nail wrap stickers on the left...

The full range of polish colours from pastels to brights.  Snapped from the left...

...and from the right!  There were quite a few blues that took my eye :)

I'm ready for my close-up!

 I look forward to heading back after my no-buy ends!  Melbourne girls - have you checked out the Topshop store yet?

Until next time.

Vita :)

Silver tipped French mani

Hi!

I've been getting busy with work and life lately so I'll keep this post short and sweet.  Last week's work manicure was still going strong on Friday night so rather than repainting I did a fun touch up for the weekend.   I used another old Nail It! polish, the foil silver Bionic to apply the French tips then finished with butterfly stickers for each ring finger.  I think I managed to make a grey manicure look cute!

I hope you're having a great Valentine's day if you're celebrating.  My Hubby bought me a gorgeous little gift which I'll share with you as soon as I have time to take the pics.

Vita :) xoxo

EOTD: MAC Crystal

I've had MAC's Crystal eyeshadow in my make-up collection for ages and only figured how to make it work for me a little while ago.  A wash over the lid of this blue-toned lilac looked a bit too 1970's retro on me but when I applied Crystal as a crease accent it looked a lot more flattering.  I created this cool-toned daytime look using a combination of three MAC shades (Phloof!, Crystal, Satellite Dreams) and was pretty happy with the end result.

Never mind the eyebrows - I was experimenting with the eyebrow pencil and got a little carried away!

To achieve this look I used the following:

• Face of Australia primer (matte) blended over the lids
• Phloof! on lids
• Crystal blended in crease
• Satellite Dreams on outer corners blended to outer V
• MAC Duck Powerpoint pencil on upper and lower lash lines
• Napoleon Perdis Whole Lotta Lash mascara (black) on upper lashes 
• Avon Glimmersticks Brow Definer (blonde) on brows

L - R colours used & swatches:

Phloof!

Crystal

Satellite Dreams

What colour do you find challenging to wear on your eyes?

Until next time.

Vita :)