Holiday Haul

Hello ladies,

I consider myself a pretty patient person. If not, how else would you explain me being able to buy cosmetics and not use it for a while, even if wanting to a lot. I have some stuff that I bought back in November but have not touched because first I wanted to use up some existing things I have, and now I need to take photos before using it. I'm talking about Benefit's Her Name Was Glowla set, but it is not pictured because it is not technically a part of my holiday haul. 

Holiday season is a crazy time for my family because our birthdays happen in December, then of course Christmas and New Year, and then our anniversary is on January 3rd. This year is a little bit less crazy because my husband is away and I'm all alone with cats (and all they care about are some yummy munchies), plus he got a big gift that combined birthday, Christmas and anniversary gifts so I didn't have to think hard about what to get him. So I got some stuff for myself instead haha. Or asked for cosmetics as a gift.

FRONTCOVER To Go set
On my birthday (December 27) I met up with some friends at Bluewater mall but little did I know that it is THE infamous Boxing Day. I was told that it is the equivalent of US Black Friday. Well either way, it is also my birthday and I was determent to do something fun and going shopping is always fun in my book. Even if I had to drive for over an hour and dodge crowds. But anyways, enough of my ramblings. I wanted to try Frontcover makeup for a while, and this set was 1/2 at Boots so I figured I had a right to pick it up. I swatched some eye shadows while getting ice cream with my friends, and we were totally impressed. Now I just need to work up the courage to take more detailed photos and review this, so I could be freeeeeeeee to use it.

 Sigma Complete Kit with Brush Roll in Pink
I got a giftcard from my in-laws... which could only be used in US. This is a whole separate rant that everyone who knows me already heard all about. Anyways, after trying to use it in Bluewater with no success (I had to try!!!), I decided to go the trusted route of ordering something online. Sigma had a sale on their brushes at the time, so I ordered Complete Kit with Brush Roll in Pink, which I probably would have never ordered if I had to buy it myself. Can't help it, as much as I understand the need for good brushes I just can't shell out $80 at one time :( I got the set in pink, but I do not see it on the website anymore so maybe they discontinued it.

tokidoki Robbery Palette
Remember my rant about some websites not shipping to APO addresses? The stuff you see from now one are the ones I really, desperately wanted from Sephora but had no way or ordering them myself. So I gave a list to my brother of stuff I wanted and he got me all these stuff!!!! I think I'll do that from now on, just give him a list haha so he doesn't have to think so hard. :P So here is tokidoki Robbery Palette which I really really really wanted. I don't have any idea who tokidoki is/are, some kind of Japanese cartoon? (speaks the person obsessed with Japan) Nor do I really care. I've heard the name before, but other than that I had no idea about them. But when I came across their makeup range on Sephora I was blown away by the cuteness! The box is metal too! :) And the design is so cute :) Ok, I'm in a cuteness overload happy land right now.

Stila limited edition Travel Palettes
Ever since I saw these I've wanted the Russian palette. Yup, because I have Russian in me. Too bad for me though because it was sold out everywhere except Sephora. I could get Tokyo and Aspen on Ulta.com but why would I order from there when Sephora had 4 of them, including Moscow? So my brother got them for me :) They are sooo cute in person, although smaller than I expected. If I like these enough I will hunt down the other two on eBay, for collection purposes.

Yup that is my kitty trying to steal some makeup ;P

Tarte Bronze Smoky Eye kit
I've been wanting to try Tarte cosmetics for a while, so I just added random stuff to my list. Actually I added a LOT of random items, not necessary Tarte, to have some element of surprise but this is what my brother choose for me so I could finally try it. I don't see this set on Sephora.com anymore so I guess they sold out. So far I'm excited about everything except bronzer and possibly the lip stain because it is very brown. But I'm going to try it and see how it looks on me since I never ever tried brown for a lip color.

 Maybelline Instand Anti-Age primer and Sleek Molten Metal
These are not part of my holiday haul, but stuff I picked up on Saturday. I'm very excited about Maybelline's Instant Anti-Age primer because I also ordered an American equivalent of it. I guess it is part of the Eracer foundation line which just now been released in UK (I went to 3 Boots stores, and 2 Superdrug stores before I found it in the 3rd Superdrug) but it had been released in US for a while. I finally ordered myself one with the primer that comes with it, otherwise I would have bought a foundation too. I'm can't wait to receive it in the mail so I can compare to, mostly because shade names and numbers for foundation are different for US and UK. Call me clueless, but I thought that the shade names and numbers will be the same. Guess not lol.

Next is Sleek Molten Metal which I wanted to try ever since I saw a preview of it in December. I had to go to 3 Superdrugs before I found it too! Not much to say here other than I never used cream eye shadows so it will be a new experience to me. 

Have any of you picked up any good stuff lately?

~ Lyuba

Matte eyeshadows are not for everyone or a beauty rant

Hi girls,

I spent the whole day thinking if I should write this entry.... or should not. Then I thought I probably should, but then I changed my mind again. Finally the "should" won since, as Anastasia at Lipsticks & Lightsabers says, it's my space and I can write whatever I want, and whoever doesn't like it should not read it. 

Few days ago I was looking for some makeup inspiration on DeviantArt and through it found Olga Ekaterincheva, a Russian makeup artist who does GORGEOUS makeup work . She even has an English version of her site, so all of you can check it out. She also does makeup lessons on the side, which in itself I think is a great idea. I guess people come to her house (she doesn't say where they come, just that they come over) and bring ALL of their makeup for evaluation. For the lessons, she tries to use as much of person's makeup as possible, only recommending new stuff if theirs are absolutely un-usable. She seems really down to earth and a fun lady, I would love to get a makeup lesson with her myself. (sadly this whole Makeup Lessons part of her site is only available in Russian, but you can still look at photos)

And here where the big BUT comes in. After reading through description of lessons with examples I got a distinct feeling that she is very against shimmer eye shadows and very much pro-luxury makeup brands. Why do I get that feeling? Because she is constantly repeating how matte eye shadows are the way to go (especially when she said that one of the girls had the ONLY  eye palette from Chanel that she would have called GOOD, since it barely had any shimmer - my poor translation/paraphrasing) and only recommends luxury brands (from what I could decipher from small writings in the example photos).

Yes, I agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. After all, I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't have my own opinion on makeup. For example, I hate matte eye shadows, but I do not tell everyone that only shimmers are allowed to "live" so to say. Or I am a budget makeup buyer, from luxury brands I only own some Urban Decay and some Benefit. Actually, I'm not even sure I consider those as "luxury" brands, they are too funky for that :) When I think luxury, I think sophisticated but somewhat minimalistic approach, not fun and funky ways of Urban Decay and Benefit. Yet I am not against luxury brands, I just don't feel the need to spend lots of $$ on a product when I could find a cheaper alternative. At the same time, I am dying to get a luxury brand foundation from say Mac, concealer from Bobbi Brown, or a primer from Guerlain. One of those days I will.

Now I really don't know how is the situation with makeup in Russia, when I went to Ukraine I had no problem finding skin care and hair care ranges made in Russia (Ukraine, Belarus, etc...) but sadly I didn't have time to look better for makeup brands. I think I noticed some 'normal' brands available everywhere, like Maybelline and Revlon, and I think I even saw some luxury makeup brands. Didn't notice any Russian or Ukrainian ones, but I didn't look too well. :( So assuming that all the drugstore brands that we have available are also available there, WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO RECOMMEND ONLY THE LUXURY BRANDS? We wouldn't have dupes if cheaper makeup did not perform as well, or in some cases as better than luxury brands. It just really irked me.

The next thing that irked me quite a lot was her constant use of matte eye shadows. It might be my humble opinion, but only 2 looks from the whole page worked, and even those only worked because of darker, more natural matte eye shadows were used. I even think the other looks would have looked better have there been some shimmer/highlight on the brow bone. And maybe more than one color used (yes, I am referring to that blue eye shadow look on the 1st model).

Why can't day look have more shimmer to it? Why should a night look only have shimmer in moderation? Why, why, WHY? Why would a makeup artist who does such gorgeous works, stubbornly suggest the same thing to everyone who comes in for a lesson? I bet if I had a lesson, she would disapprove of my WHOLE eye shadow collection, because they are all shimmer. Of course she also says that she doesn't forbid anything to anyone, so if you like shimmer, go for it but in moderation. Then why not post a look with shimmer in the examples?

So who knows, maybe the women in examples asked for those looks. Maybe the ones with shimmer did not allow their photos to be posted.  But overall, I got a very one sided impression of the whole makeup lessons, an it really made frustrated so I had to rant about it.

On the bright side, yesterday my friend and I went makeup shopping! She haven't really been to Boots or Superdrug, so when we walked in and she saw that drugstore makeup brands can be swatched and tried, she was just as excited as I was over a year ago. I recommended her a few things that I already tried, she picked up some stuff that she heard about, and was in general makeup heaven. I decided to pick up some No7 stuff that I've been wanting to try, thankfully Boots has a 3 for 2 offer on it right now and with the No7 voucher I was a very happy camper.

So here is what I got:

Exceptional Definition Mascara
The one I have is starting to dry out, so it was a perfect excuse to get a replacement. This time I got it in Black, instead of Black/Brown.

Instant Radiance Concealer in shade II
I wanted to try it ever since one of the blogs I follow mentioned it as either their best of 2010, or just as a favorite.

Colour Calming Primer
It is GREEN so of course I had to try it. Plus because of the offer, it was free. My face tend to get very red in cold or hot weather, so I'm hoping this will help me fix the problem.

Hm.... this is turning out to be quite a long post, but I have one more thing to add. This is FOTD I had few days ago, and I really want to post it especially after all that matte vs. shimmer eye talk.

Here is a look I created with Sleek SUNSET palette, which is my go to palette right now. Not that I don't want to try other stuff, but my makeup storage space is quite limited so I tend to use one thing until I get tired of it, then put it away and start on something new. But for now I'm very happy with the SUNSET palette, and don't see myself getting tired of it any time soon.

I was inspired by Eye Candy makeup book that I got few weeks ago in Birmingham. I love the book, and I love the looks the author creates there, with some modifications (read MUCH BRIGHTER) if I had to re-create them. This look was inspired by some of the examples, and was very quick to do. And very eye catching too, I had several people comment on it.

I didn't use an eyeliner because I felt it will overpower the blue and red, but if I had to repeat this look I would use blue and red eyeliner. If I can find them in the same color as those eye shadows. :)

So what do you think? Should shimmer eye shadows be allowed to be used in every day makeup? Could we get away with using cheaper brands for good (or amazing results)? What do you think about the above look?

~ Lyuba

Cheer me up mail haul

Hello :)

Today have not been a very good day for me. Nothing really happened that I didn't already know about, but still my mood was not the greatest in the morning. But then I went to check our mail, and there it was, my long awaited package from ULTA.com! That brought my spirits up. This is the first time I ordered with them and I am pretty impressed. Shipping took exactly 1 week, all items were nicely packages and nothing got damaged. I will be ordering again from them for sure!

 My cats decided to investigate new stuff. The one above is Echo (bengal), and one below is Mittens (moggy).

Here is a rundown of what I got:

• Ecotools 5 Piece Bamboo Mineral Brush set 
• Ecotools 5 Piece Bamboo Complexion Brush set
• Rimmel London Stay Matte pressed powder in Transparent (for some reason I got 2.... I even double checked my order, and nope, I didn't order 2. Guess I'll have 2 now lol)
• Rimmel London Lasting Finish Powder Blush in Autumn Catwalk
• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk
• NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Auburn/Red

Notice how I have two items from every brand? All I can say I love sales! Buy 1, get another 50% off. Plus free shipping is also a nice added bonus.

~ Lyuba