Perfect partners? MAC Impassioned + Revlon Coral Me Wild

When I ran last week's Revlon Coral Me Wild post (here) I received some comments from lovely fellow Australian bloggers Jerry (Silhouette Screams) and Lilit (Makeup and Macaroons) both suggesting CMW could be the nail polish dupe for MAC's superbly hot watermelon pink lipstick Impassioned.  Off the top of my head I thought so too, so I decided to do a quick comparison post to see.

 Side by side (daylight):

Not much to say here - when these guys are sidled up next to each other in the bullet and bottle they do look identical.  This looks promising, however we all know how things can translate quite differently when we actually wear them.  How many times have I been disappointed by colours that have suddenly watered down on my skin?  I digress...

Swatched (same lighting as above):

Now when I swatch them on the back of my hand suddenly there's a difference and Coral Me Wild looks significantly more red than Impassioned.  Impassioned almost looks a little washed out in comparison!  Still, the skin on the back of my hand isn't the same as the skin my lips and I wasn't entirely convinced these too could be quite that different so...

On my lips! (Same lighting):

This is only the second time I've posted my lips and it makes me self-conscious (cos they're not as plump as a 20 year-old's any more) but I did it for the sake of colour accuracy.  Impassioned appears more deeply pigmented on my lips and now the lip and nail shades are again looking very close.  I think this wear test shows these two are perfect partners and are pretty respectable dupes.

Do you like to match your lip and nail colours or do you like a good colour clash?

That's all for now.

Vita :)

Nail It: Wow!

Happy Wednesday!

In my last post I wrote how impressed I've been with Sportsgirl nail polish so far.  Wow! from Sportsgirl's Nail It! polish range is an example of the perfect polish - high impact colour and buttery smooth application.  Wow! is a bright purple creme which reminds me of grape bubblegum.  It actually dries down to a semi-matte vinyl finish which is interesting, but I added some Sally Hansen Megashine and the colour went Kapow!  This is the sort of polish that gets compliments from strangers and I mean that in the nicest possible way...

Full sun

Shade

This shade is currently selling for the reduced price of $2.45AUD on Sportsgirl's mobile shop here.

Until next time.

Vita :)

Haul post: My final 2011 haul...

...was a cheap and cheerful one! :)  In the days after Christmas I did a mini raid on Sportsgirl and Priceline for a few more summery goodies.  After all the shopping for everyone else leading up to Christmas it was nice spending just a few dollars on frivolous things for myself, knowing that I was going to embark on a 'no-buy' in the new year.  None of these items were on sale, they were just pretty, fairly inexpensive and calling to me...

Sportsgirl:

Lighten Up lip gloss (Doll Face)

Nail It! polish (Cherish)

I've never tried these particular Sportsgirl lip glosses before but I was attracted by the colour and texture of Doll Face when I swatched it in the store.  Doll Face is a coral pink with sparkly gold shimmer, and it's shiny without being too wet and slick.  I haven't road-tested it yet but the signs are hopeful that it won't slide off my lips in a hurry. Oh, by the way this has a mirror on the side of the tube and a dinky little light (..."and a whistle for attracting attention"...sorry just had to let that random silliness out.  I've clearly been on too many flights and paid too much attention to the safety demos!) so you can reapply wherever you are.  Obviously good for partying and clubbing. Sadly that's not me anymore...

I've had nothing but good experiences with the Nail It! range of nail polish so I didn't have to think too hard about buying the neon shimmery pink Cherish.  I also love how the polishes are always on trend with what's happening in local seasonal fashion. The range is forever changing so there's always a new find whenever I check it out. Cherish is definitely a summer colour ready to wear with all the hot pink and orange combos out there at the moment.

Models Prefer Ultra Lip Gloss Pencil (Drama Queen)

I bought Drama Queen from Priceline and it's my third Models Prefer Lip Gloss pencil.  To see how much I love these read my full review here.  Drama Queen is a party/evening shade for me with its shimmery, almost foil fuschia/red tone.  See the daylight swatches below. 

L-R:

Drama Queen, Doll Face, Cherish

Australis Face-A-Holic
Jumbo Sized Mirrored Compact

The Face-A-Holic compact was another Priceline buy.  I've photographed this jumbo sized compact next to my MAC Select Sheer pressed powder to give you some idea of the size - it's HUGE!  This is a three-in-one blush, pressed powder and bronzer and I figured it was pretty good value for around $16AUD.  I must admit I bought this for the novelty value though!  Luckily, the blush is a universally flattering peachy pink shade with an almost indetectable shimmer which I could easily wear and the pressed powder is a fair/medium shade which suits my MAC NC20 skin and actually is a close dupe to my MAC powder. The only thing I'm a bit wary of is the shimmery bronzer.   I'm not convinced I can carry that off, but I'll give it a try!

So here's how it looks in the pan...

...and swatched indoors in indirect daylight...

...and with me playing around.  This compact is literally the size of my face! Whoops, sorry about the fingerprints - didn't see those until I'd uploaded the picture.

Only one more haul post and I'm done with make-up hauls for the next three months. 

Until next time.

Vita :)

Orly: Life's a Peach

Life's a Peach is the last of my Orly mini collection polishes, and this one unfortunately disappointed me.

Don't get me wrong here, I like the colour and was really looking forward to wearing it - it was the formula that let me down this time.  On the positive side this is a summer-appropriate tangerine with just a hint of shimmer which would look its best with a (fake for me) tan.  Onto the negatives:  I had all sorts of problems applying this polish, which I don't understand as all my other Orly polishes glided on so smoothly.  This polish was a bit thick and gloopy and applied unevenly with bald patches even after three coats.  Luckily some top coat smoothed it out well enough to photograph, but then I went and smudged it badly an hour later so it didn't last long on my nails after that.  Oh well...

Full sun

 

Outdoors shade

That's all for now

Vita :)

Layering with Revlon Icicles

Hello again!

You know I don't think Revlon's Icicles has been swatched before - the only blog post I've been able to find was a rather stunning bottle shot taken by another Aussie nail polish blogger, Kaz at Pretty Random (here) as part of her extensive gallery of HTF Revlon polishes.  Icicles is a sheer glitter polish released as one of Revlon's Snowglobes collection from back in 2003 I think.  It's a gentle mix of blue iridescent glitter in a  sheer pink polish base which makes it look opalescent and very pretty.  I was lucky enough to snap this bottle up for around a meagre $4AUD in Cosmetics Plus whilst on holiday in Queensland late last year.

I applied two coats of Icicles over another Revlon polish, the hot Coral Me Wild.  Looking at my casual application here (darn glitter everywhere!) I'll need to do a reswatch to capture the true beauty but try and enjoy these pictures anyway as they give you some idea of the soft sparkle.

Full sun

Outdoors shade

I'm going to try this polish over a soft pastel shade next time I swatch it.

Until my next post

Vita :)

EOTD: New Year's Eve blues...

Hello!

I took some quick pics of my eye make-up before I flew out the door for a New Year's Eve BBQ party.  I decided to play up my eyes by accenting them with a deep inky blue...

For this look I used:

• Face of Australia primer (matte) blended over the lids
• L'Oreal - Blue Jean applied on outer third of lids
• MAC - Satellite Dreams on middle of lids
• Revlon - Tickled Pink (light pink frost) on inner corners and blended up to browbone
• MAC - Bordeauxline Powerpoint eye pencil on outer upper and lower lash lines 
• L'Oreal - Extra-Volume black waterproof mascara on upper lashes

Here are the eyeshadow colours I used and swatched in the same order:

 L-R:

Revlon Tickled Pink - (limited edition but easily dupable)

MAC - Satellite Dreams

L'Oreal - Blue Jean (intensely pigmented and tricky to blend)

Until next time.

Vita :)

Beauty resolutions for 2012???

Okay...

I've been thinking about my own resolutions list for 2012 for a while now, mostly because I know they will be directing me to buy less make-up.  2011 was a fantastically fun year, starting up this blog and connecting with lots of lovely, like-minded people.  I don't regret it at all!  The "side-effect" for want of a better term was the compulsive beauty buying that ensued.  Originally my blog was more focused on sharing my own nail polish collection, but as a beauty buff from way back, I love make-up and it was a case of "monkey see (on other blogs!), monkey buy"!  Ah well, let's start off with the easy resolutions before I get onto the painful ones!

1. Keep my eyebrows under control with more regular grooming
2. Master the use of blush and bronzer - remember they can be a pale gal's friends!
3. Always take off all my make-up at night - not just my eye make-up like I sometimes do...
4. Clean my make-up brushes regularly - I've bought some brush cleaner from MAC so that's a big hint to self!
5. Wear sunscreen - I'm in a dispute with my doctor over this because I've recently become Vitamin D deficient.  Heck, I'll just take the vitamin supplements and keep wearing the sunscreen thanks! 

Now the biggie....

Go on a 3 month/Project 10 Pan make-up ban!

[Source]

So I won't buy any make-up for 3 months or I've finished 10 make-up items, which ever takes me the longest time.  Of course I've set up some rules to make it less painful and thrown in a little reward system to keep me motivated.

• Have one last hurrah at the beauty counters just to ease me in - Done!  I've got two last haul posts coming up over the next week or so
• Do a clean out of beauty products that are cluttering up the place and won't be used - in progress and I'll do a post on this
• Set aside $5 for each successful week to go towards a luxe makeup item (or items) as a reward for completing the ban - this should motivate me to keep the ban going as long as possible.  I got this idea from The Dark Side of Beauty.
• Exception:  I may buy a make-up item during the ban only if I genuinely run out and do not have a back up - believe me this could happen if I run out of pressed powder over the next 3 months as I've only got a single MAC powder to use! 

But wait, there's more!  I know my nail polish collection is hopelessly out of control and I don't think I'll ever finish another bottle but I CAN do a little something about reducing my lipstick and gloss population this year.

• Finish 5 lipsticks or 5 lip glosses for every one I buy this year - now that's gonna be a toughie so there's one exception to this particular rule:  Back 2 MAC where I score a free lipstick after returning 6 empty packages

I'm off to check out which 10 products I think I'm going to finish over the next three months or so.  Wish me luck!

Have you ever imposed a make-up ban?  How long did it last?

Keep smiling!

Vita :)