Milani Mint Candy Swatch

I hauled a few polishes at CVS the other day (mainly the new L'Oreal ones), and this new shade from Milani (from the "Color Play" collection) caught my eye. Mint Candy is a stunning aqua turquoise with seafoam green microshimmer. I only had to use two coats to achieve full opacity. This is such a gorgeous color! It's a bit more green-aqua in real life, and reminds me of mermaids:

OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know? Swatch

Wooden Shoe Like to Know? is a neutral mushroom brown laced with golden shimmer. It was very watery on the first coat for me (am I the only one who has noticed the newest OPIs are all like this?), but the second coat evened everything out nicely. I thought I would love this shade a lot more than I actually do. Sadly, it makes my hands look somewhat dirty in real life. I'll return to it, though, when I'm more in the mood for a shade like this. It is a very interesting neutral:

OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes Swatch

Gouda Gouda Two shoes is a muted, peached medium rose with soft golden shimmer throughout. I absolutely LOVE shades like this. You're definately wearing nail polish, but it's still work/ office appropriate. Two coats was perfect:

Ever since I was told by some Dutch friends many years ago that the way we pronounce Gouda in English is incorrect (we say 'GOO-da' when it's really 'HOW-da', with a gutteral sound on the G), I've only pronounced it that way. So when I see the name, "Gouda Gouda Two Shoes", I can't help but see it as "Howda Howda Two Shoes",

Charlotte Ronson All Eye Need Eyeshadow Palette Review - Henrietta

Neutral/ basic eyeshadow palettes aren't usually something I'm excited about. I skipped out on the Urban Decay Naked Palette, for crying out loud. I always feel like, "yeah, so what... I've already got so many singles that look like that." So it's odd that I'm so psyched for Charlotte Ronson's All Eye Need eyeshadow palette in Henrietta. Charlotte Ronsons is a relatively new brand at Sephora, and while browsing one of the NYC stores, I saw the CR display along the side of the Make Up for Ever and NARS aisles. The palettes instantly stood out to my eye, especially Henrietta, which was inspired by Charlotte's younger sister. I stared at it... left it... came back... stared at it again... swatched it... left it again... came back again... and this time I picked it up for purchase. I couldn't fight it! Henrietta is just too pretty. She was calling my name in the store. The rich, velvety texture of the shadows, amazing pigmentation, and stunning mix of shades (fleshy peachy pink, frosty pink champagne, shimmering bronzed olive, and black brown with gold shimmer in the squared mirrored compact were telling me, "Stop it with the dark smoky eyes for just once, buy me and put me on, dammit!" 

Nothing else to do in times like these except go with the flow and obey the makeup ;) So here she is... super girly packaging and swatches below.
*NOTE: the pink champagne shade is best captured in the mirror in the picture of the open compact. The flash made the strip of shadow look too light.

 The pink champagne shade is just like Stila Kitten. The bronzed olive is somewhat similar to Urban Decay Smog. The brownish black looks exactly like a shade in a Lancome summer eyeshadow quad I had about a year or two ago (and adored!) but it fell to the floor and is no longer with me. This shade is a wonderful replacement (R.I.P., Lancome Brownish Black With Gold Sparkles Eyeshadow Without A Name). And the fleshy peachy pink? I can't think of a shade that's close enough to it, even after combing through my collection. The closest thing to it that I own is the satin side of NARS All About Eve, and it's still not a dupe. 

After trying this out for an Eye Of The Day, I'm a believer. The shades stayed all day without creasing and blended like a dream. Nothing can be said about the texture except, "it's like buttah!" As for the claims of "Light Filter Technology" (which supposedly adjusts the pigment based on the lighting) and providing "antiaging properties" (I'm sorry, but is anyone really naive enough to believe that an eyeshadow can turn back the clock?).... eh... ok. Sure. If you say so, Sephora :P Personally, I don't want or care about crap gimmicks. Henrietta is a gorgeous palette for a neutral lover or anyone who wants a simple, polished eye with a bit of sparkle. Four shadows, of this quality, for only $22? That's more than good enough for me.

OPI Holland Collection - Vampsterdam Swatch

My local nail salon, which always carries OPI, seriously sucks. Maybe half of the Holland collection came in, and only a few shades were left. I picked up Vampsterdam, Gouda Gouda Two Shoes, and Wooden Shoe Like To Know? I also picked up one of the new China Glaze Magnetix (Instant Chemistry) polishes, so I'll be doing some nail swatches in the next few days.

Vampsterdam is a deep purple with a slightly silvery pearl finish. It was sheer and watery on the first coat (and also quite reddish), deeper and more opaque on the second, and the third was perfect! Vampy, purple lusciousness. I've always wanted to visit Amsterdam, and adding "vamp" to the name for such a stunning purple...HELLO! Hotness. Such a shame I've had to keep my nails shorter recently (they just keep breaking, sadly). I really miss my old claws. But they'll be back:

Lorac Unzipped Palette Swatches

After debating in my head for a bit, I finally splurged on Lorac's new "Unzipped" palette after seeing on Sephora.com. Let's not waste any time here - this baby is GORGEOUS! It's like the Urban Decay Naked palette, but the shades in that were mostly warm and bronzey. This leans more purplish overall. You get ten eyeshadows in a beige mirrored palette (with a design on the front that looks like it's being unzipped) and one mini eye shadow primer. Pretty palette pic:

The top row of shades are:
Undercover - matte nude
Unbelievable - copper shimmer
Unattainable - bronze shimmer
Unconditional - matte fawn *this is actually quite mauve
Unbridled - matte merlot

And here they are swatched, from left to right, in the same order:

The bottom row of shades are:
Undiscovered - gold shimmer
Unreal - champagne shimmer *pink champagne actually
Uncensored - chocolate shimmer
Unspoken - matte sable
Untamed - bordeaux shimmer

And here they are swatched. Again, left to right, in the same order as listed:

The pigmentation is wonderful. Excellent color payoff. And almost all of the shades have a very smooth texture. I found that Unreal was just a little chunky at first, but it was fine after I used it a few times more. The dark matte shades (Unconditional, Unbridled, and Unspoken) all had the same texture that Bobbi Brown's dark "liner" eyeshadow shades do, i.e. kind of chalky. While they're not the best for an all over wash on the eyes if you're looking for something really dark and smoky, I've found that they do make pretty good outer corner shades. The primer is very nice, but I don't love it as much as my Urban Decay Primer Potion. This is my first Lorac palette purchase, and I LOVE IT.

Review: Chanel Pêche Nacrée Nail Colour Spring 2011

 Pêche Nacrée is one of two nail polishes I purchased from Chanel's Spring 2011 collection (Black Pearl was unfortunately sold out). It's a soft, work appropriate peachy pink with a very soft pearl. The application was nice and smooth, and I only had to use two coats for full coverage:

I always love colors like this since they are feminine and work nicely with my skintone, but Pêche Nacrée left me underwhelmed. It looks quite "Tinkerbell" on my skin, and it seems entirely too dupeable to be worth the price of $23.

I have a couple of peachy/ pinks in my stash, and the two closest dupes that came to mind were Zoya Willow and OPI My Daddy's The King!. Willow is a much more orangey (true) peach with silver shimmer, while My Daddy's The King! is a bit paler (with less of a pink tone), but quite close (and prettier, if I do say so myself) on the nail. MAC Coconut Ice (d/c) from the MAC in Lillyland collection seemed to be a similar peachy pink, but it ended up being too bright and coral pink, and it lacked the pearliness in Pêche Nacrée. OPI Dancing the Isles is a peach pink, but it's deeper, way too Barbie, and has a ton of frost.

My Daddy's The King! is clearly closer to being a dupe than the Willow, and even though it is not one, I think it's a much better bet since Pêche Nacrée overall isn't all that special (and MDTK! actually looks more expensive). Sure, she's nice to look at, but in the end she just isn't worth it ;)