Fables in Fashion

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you’ll know that Lancome’s Hypnose formula is my favourite mascara ever. Whilst it does have a tendency to dry up faster than I’d like, I can’t deny the amazing results it gives my lashes So when Lancome released a “Doll Lashes” version, I knew I had to give it a shot.

My general impression is that as a standalone mascara, this is great. As you can see from the photos below, two coats gives you thick lush looking lashes. The end result is very similar to that of the traditional Hypnose formula, the main difference I’ve found is the fact that it did take two coats to achieve this. Whereas traditionally, I’d only need one thick coat to get the same effect.

So if you’re someone who has always loved the Hypnose formula, but thought it was just a bit overkill, this would be perfect. But if you loved Hypnose just the way it is, stick to the original formula.

Comparison aside, I noticed no real difference between the original and this formula. Besides the shape of the brush (which does make it easier to coat lower lashes and small lashes in the inner corner), lasting power is the same. Lasted all day, no smudging nor flaking throughout the day. It’s no surprise Hypnose is my most loved mascara

I have a two part collection for you today Zoya’s Smoke and Mirrors Collection, with Smoke being featured on this post and Mirrors will be released later on Generally I was rather impressed by this collection, I didn’t have any issues with application and two coats each seemed more than enough. The collection is generally a very dark purely crème group of shades, suitable for Winter. No top cost was used so you could see the actual finish of the polish.

Anja

A deep burgundy berry shade, beautiful shade that’s perfect for winter. Though I’m willing to bet you’ll probably have a pretty good dupe for this in your collection.

Codie

A dark almost burned brown shade (I really need to get a thesaurus), it took me a bit of staring to figure out the actual shade for this. At first glance I thought maybe it was a charcoal shade, even off-black at some angles, but now I’m pretty sure it’s just an incredibly dark brown!

Cynthia

Very deep teal shade, surprisingly I have nothing similar to this in my collection and actually really like it. I love that it looks virtually black at a quick glance, but upon further inspection it’s teal, lovely twist!

Dree

Khaki green crème, not sure how I feel about this colour. I think this would look amazing on a very select number of skin tones, and I’m not sure I’m part of that pool.

Jana

A true taupe crème, I actually quite enjoy this shade. It’s a shade I’d be very comfortable wearing to work, whilst still giving my nails a bit of character and flare.

Petra

A dark gray purple crème, I’d almost consider this a darker version of Jana.

Consider this a lesson learnt, I think I’m going to start toning down on any of these “huge” palette like makeup products unless the reviews online are amazing! This was not one of those palette Finding ways to store them is just a pain! Introducing Tarte’s Holiday 2011 palette called the Starlet. It’s a beautiful mirrored jewellery box that houses an array of eyeshadows, mascara, eyelash primer and blushes.

There is no doubt that the box is adorable, completely impractical and not the most sturdiest of boxes, but cute none the less. The makeup however is pretty second rate in my opinion. The swatches may not make it obvious, but the texture was very hit and miss. There were some shadows are had beautiful pigmentation, buttery formula, then others that were incredibly chalky, some were so solid that I had to literally dig into the pan to get any colour.

The blushes however were definitely much better than the shadows, but I would not personally recommend this palette to anyone solely based on the blushes which whilst were high quality, are not shades you need to buy this palette to own. They are easily dupable.

I will say that one up side to this palette is that it is relatively easy to depot all the product so you’re left with an empty mirrored box to store whatever you like in it It was no easy feat to get the makeup out of the middle drawer though :/

Another great surprise was the Tarte eyelash primer, I’d never tried it before but since this palette came with a mini version I thought I’d give it a go and really loved the effect! I will definitely be purchasing the full sized version when I finish up this sample size and will post a review

I’m not sure if you can still purchase this palette, but don’t consider it a must have

I’ve already reviewed the Arabian Trio Eye shadow from the same collection a while back. Since then I’ve decided that if I do buy several products from the same collection that I’m just going to lump them all into one post. Saves me time and hopefully makes it more interesting for you guys

Aside from the Arabian Trio Eye shadow, I also managed to snag the lipstick in Joyous Red and the lip gloss in Albatross. Honestly I probably didn’t need the lipstick, but I had to have the gloss. I love the powder version of Albatross, which is a beautiful shimmery highlighter with yellow / gold undertones.

Generally I am a fan of NARS’ Lip Glosses, they aren’t what I’d call the perfect lip gloss because they do tend to run a tad sticky, but generally I love them They have no offensive smells and apply beautifully.

However I am not a fan of this lipstick, and you can tell from the photo that it is a pretty matte lipstick. Which was disappointing since NARS actually have a range of lipsticks specifically dedicate to matte finishes, so I wasn’t sure why this particular lipstick that doesn’t state matte anywhere on it had to be matte as well :/

To be honest though, despite appearances the texture over time didn’t feel drying. It certainly wasn’t moisturising, but it didn’t cause my lips to crack or chap either. None the less, I think unless I manage to swatch the lipstick at a counter before hand (which almost never happens given how far away I work from makeup counters now *sad face*) or read some raving review, I will probably be avoiding NARS Lipsticks.

For me, I love NARS for almost everything else in their range, but their lipsticks constantly seem to disappoint me

Another holiday 2011 collection! I think this may be the last one, yay! Luckily you can still purchase these shades if you feel so inclined I liked that this collection had a good mixture of crèmes and glitters. Overall it’s a solid collection for more festive occasions, depending on your work I can’t see many of these being overly neutral or work appropriate. As always 2 coats with no top coat.

Blue Year’s Eve

A shimmery royal blue, despite appearances the finish is really smooth. I find the shade to have a very decadent feel.

Champagne Bubbles

Shimmery canary yellow gold with silver glitters, I would’ve never thought silver glitters would work well with yellow gold, but now that I see it, it isn’t half bad!

Glittering Garland

A rich moss green with duo chrome gold and green flecks, I absolutely love this! It is gorgeous, I am such a fan of anything with duo chrome and the finish on this is very smooth. But if you like this without the flecks try China Glaze’s Jolly Holly.

Holly Day

An emerald crème shade, Essie’s Going in Incognito has more of a bluer tinge to it.

Icicle

A metallic silver shade, China Glaze’s Cheers to you is a more metallic version. Surprisingly I found Face of Australia’s Titanium to be a pretty spot on dupe!

Poinsettia

A chilli red crème, I thought Zoya’s Sooki and Tamsen was a pretty close dupe to this.

Ring in the Red

Red glitter with large chunky red glitter, not my favourite of the collection and it leaves a rough finish.

Snow Globe

Chunky light hologram glitters, a bit too gritty for my own taste but I do have a number of very similar dupes I can talk about. Color Club’s Snowflakes and Color Club’s Starry Temptress are much finer versions of this polish with a smoother finish. Or check out OPI’s Happy Anniversary which has even finer micro shimmers.

Tinsel Town

A gunmetal shimmer shade, packed with a ton of large and medium sized silver glitters. Even tho I wouldn’t deem my description as unique, I wasn’t able to find any dupes to this! And I actually really loved it, it’s edgy yet girly.

Twinkle Lights

A mixture of antique gold, red and green glitters. A few more coats and this would look amazing, very christmasy. OPI’s Bring on the Bling is similar but with a more pinky hue.

Velvet Bow

A deep maroon red creme, not a hard shade to dupe! Try OPI’s Sariguite or even a light coat of OPI’s Black Cherry Chutney. Even OPI’s Pepe’s Purple Passion is similarish.

Winter Berry

The perfect red, an essential in everyone’s collection… but I suspect most people already have it since it really isn’t that unique.

Back in 2010 I reviewed Smashbox’s Eye Wish Palette and thought that was an impressive palette. Since then I’ve been through my fair share of truly impressive palette and decided to give Smashbox’s Click You’re It palette a whirl so I could compare it to their previous holiday palette.

My general impression of this palette is yes, big improvement on their Holiday 2010 version BUT it really isn’t a must have in anyone’s collection. You know those type of gifts that are just kinda of a nice addition, nice to have, but not really an essential? Yeah, well this is it.

The range of colours is very usable, you’ve got neutral shades and some more colourful ones, but nothing too over the top. But the actual quality of the shadows is not the best in my opinion, I found that some were very rich and pigmented (the darker shade) but the lighter ones were pretty disappointing. Left me feeling very lackluster.

However one stand out feature of this palette which 2010 sincerely lacked were the gel liner / cream shadows. This year they were absolutely beautiful! Creamy, pigmented and very easy to apply. I remember last year I have to literally dig into the pan to get any colour, complete opposite to this year.

But is it worth buying this entire palette just for those cream liners?… Honestly? Maybe! At $49US, that works out to be a little less than $10 for each liner, throw in the primer, mini eye tutorials and eyeshadows as bonus and it isn’t a bad deal. It really comes down to personal preference, if you don’t have a ton of gel liners and want variety without splurging out, then consider this palette JUST for the eyeliners.

I’ll keep this in the palette for now, but I know personally after a few month of using the same big palette I have a tendancy to try and depot everything into an easy to store and access Unii Palette. As the palette is essentially made of cardboard, you know this won’t be a hard goal to achieve if you decide to.

All in all, it’s an okay palette. I’m guessing you may not be able to get this palette anymore, as it was limited edition to Holiday 2011 :/ But after reading this review, I hope you don’t think it was a huge loss

A little while ago a dear reader of mine requested a comparison review between e.l.f’s Studio Powder Brush and Lancome’s Precision Cheek – Brush #7. I decided to throw in Sigma’s Flat Top Synthetic Brush into the mix as well, for good measure

And what I’ve discovered is that despite looking similar, each three brushes have a very different use.

Lancome’s Precision Cheek – Brush #7 ($47.50US) which I mentioned was one of my favourite brushes and is actually best for (surprise surprise) applying powder over liquid / cream foundation. It is great at picking up a light to medium amount of powder, and distributing it lightly and evenly across your face. It doesn’t do a good job at applying liquid or cream foundation. With liquid it would literally absorb most of the product and leave streaks across my face, and with cream it would just be streaks-ville

e.l.f’s Studio Powder Brush ($3US), could potentially do the same, but I felt that it was actually better at apply powder foundation. The reason is because I found this brush to be quite a bit denser than Lancome, and so it worked similar to a kabuki brush, good at buffing in products.

I personally don’t buff in powder over liquid foundation because I find it shifts the liquid foundation. But I do buff in powder foundation as there is nothing beneath it to budge.

Lastly, Sigma’s Flat Top Synthetic Brush ($16US) is best for applying liquid to cream foundation / blush and buffing in powder foundation. It wasn’t great at dusting powder over liquid foundation because it would pick up way too much product and instead of distributing it evenly over my face, would plonk it right where I placed my brush.

So overall, I found that Lancome was really best for a dusting of face powder over a cream / liquid foundation. e.l.f for powder foundation and Sigma for liquid and cream products! Hope that helps