Beauty haul (photo heavy)

ust a few random beauty things I picked up over the past few weeks.

Some were things I got from work and others were stuff I picked up for myself because I had heard lots of good things about them.

Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in #61 Bonheur. This is my first Chanel lipstick. My co-worker gave this to me to try out. The colour isn't photographing true to colour, but it's a sheer, but buildable reddish berry colour with some gold shimmer. It's actually quite pretty. This formulation is super hydrating and leaves my dry lips very moisturized. I'm quite impressed with this product so I would love to try out more.

MAC's Love Nectar Lustreglass. I first heard about this in Sandra's YouTube video on her favourite MAC lip products. It's a beautiful neutral gloss with gold shimmer. It goes on a little sheer, but when I wear it alone on my lips my lips literally look so plump and delicious! I can't explain it. I love how it looks on my lips. I've been wearing it religiously on my lips for a few weeks now.

I picked up another product from MAC's Surf Baby! Collection today- Strange Potion Lipglass. It's a repromote from the 2010 Venomous Villains Collection- the Evil Queen. It's a pretty coral colour. It's very pigmented and almost goes on like liquid lipstick. I definitely can wear it alone, but I bought it to wear over my next lip product.

I dropped by MAC today to actually pick this lipstick up. It's called Costa Chic and it's part of their permanent line. I heard about this from a few beauty blogs and I knew I had to get it. Lately I've been obsessed with bright colours- especially corals. Unfortunately it's not photographing true to colour, but it's a bright coral in a frost finish. I absolutely love it!

Here are all the lip products swatched on my hand. From left to right: Chanel's Bonheur Lipstick, MAC's Love Nectar Lustreglass, MAC's Strange Potion Lipglass, and MAC's Costa Chic Lipstick.

Shu Uemura eyelash curler. I was using my Shiseido eyelash curler for the longest time, but I decided I needed a new one. It's very comparable to the Shiseido one. I'm not sure which one is better because they both work equally well on my eyes.

Revlon's Blue Mosaic nail polish. I got this today from work and I can't wait to try it! It reminds me a lot of Deborah Lippmann's nail colours.

Revlon's Starry Pink nail polish. I was most intrigued about this one because I've never seen a grayish purple nail colour with glitter like this. It's much more beautiful in person.

OPI's Mermaid's Tears from the Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides Collection. I also got this from work today and I can't wait to try it. It reminds me of a darker version of China Glaze's For Audrey.

If you guys have dry lips like me you MUST pick up Jack Black's Intense Therapy Lip Balm. I got mine at Sephora (not sure where else you can get it) and it's AMAZING. I heard a lot of good things about it already and I can see why. It was about $8 and it's in the men's beauty (is that the right word?) section. It comes in Natural Mint (which is what I got) and other flavours. My store only carried the mint one and Lemon & Chamomile, but online I see many more flavours. I really like mint and how it makes my lip tingle so that's why I got this one. The tingling sensation may be a little too much for those who don't like that, but I love it. There used to be a lip treatment that I used to use when I was in my teens, but they discontinued it. I forgot who it was by, but this one reminds me a lot of that one. It is a gel-like texture and it feels almost oily, but once it starts working it really make my lips feel so soft and hydrated.

I picked up Maybelline's Mineral Power concealer in ivory 2-3. The shade is a little too light for me now since I've been out in the sun every weekend, but I really like it. I'm no concealer connoisseur, but I think this is a great concealer that is great for spot treatment and has light reflecting properties. I think it would also be great for under the eyes. It has a doe-foot applicator and it blends really well. I was using MAC's concealer (the one that comes in the pot), but I find it too thick in texture and it doesn't look great near the end of the day.

I saw Hard Candy's Fox In a Box at Walmart and I was interested in trying them out. It reminded me of Benefit's blushes, but for a fraction of the price. I think I got mine for just under $6 each. The first one I got was in Spicy & Sweet. It's a mosaic blush with a bronzer. You can see the individual swatch above with a final swatch (at the bottom) with it all swirled together. It's actually quite pigmented so I have to be careful not to grab too much with my blush brush. It comes with a brush that is on the inside lid of the packaging, but it's really cheap and useless. It's better to use your own brush. I use a combination of my Tokidoki blush brush and my MAC 109 brush.

Next I got Truth Or Dare. I got this one because I wanted to compare it with the Benefit blush I already own.

The one I have from Benefit is Thrrrob and I love it. The packaging is very similar too.

The left is Thrrrob from Benefit and the right is Truth Or Dare from Hard Candy. The Hard Candy has a bronzer on the left. The Benefit one is a little more blue-based and a bit lighter.

Here's the swatch of the Hard Candy blush. It's really hard to tell in this photo because the colours are so light. The left is the Hard Cnady bronzer, the middle the Hard Candy blush, and the right is Benefit's Thrrrob.

I've been trying out MAC's MSF in Give Me Sun! I use it as a bronzer because it doesn't have any shimmer. I have oily skin so I hate anything with shimmer. It's a little ruddy looking for my skin tone, so I've been using it very light-handed on my cheeks.

This is my favourite liquid eyeliner of ALL TIME. It's from the Sephora line and it's amazing. The SA was telling me that Sephora reformulated this eyeliner so I should try it. I had used the previous one in the past and I hated it. This one dries almost instantly and the black is so intense and long-wearing. It doesn't flake like some other liquid eyeliners (i.e., the Lancome Art Liner) and it looks matte, not shiny (i.e., L'Oréal Lineur Intense). The brush is not that flimsy so you can draw a thin line or press down harder to draw a thicker line. The only con is that because the black is so intense you really do need a steady hand.

I just love this eyeliner that I bought a back-up. I'm surprised I don't hear much about this eyeliner because it's sooooo good. It's also very affordable at $12CAD. I want to buy the brown one too.

I want to show you guys how black the Sephora eyeliner is so I compared it to my Dolly Wink eyeliner that I picked up a couple of months ago. The Dolly Wink eyeliner got a lot of raves, but I think the Sephora one is better. The 2 bottom lines were drawn with the Dolly Wink eyeliner and the top 2 is the Sephora one. You can see that the Sephora one is a lot more intense. I still like the Dolly Wink and I mainly use it to finish off the flick when I draw a cat eye. I find that the felt tip of the Dolly Wink is much easier for control than the Sephora one.

What's in my purse?

lthough I'm constantly changing bags, I thought I would share with you all what bag that I'm currently carrying and the contents of the purse.
One thing I loved to do when I was little was go through my moms purse. I always thought it was so fascinating to open all the compartments and see what lovely things she carried with her. I feel that the contents of a woman's purse reveals what sort of person she is.

I didn't take anything out for the sake of this post. This is what I had in my purse when I came home this afternoon.

My Kate Spade Gold Coast Metallic Evangeline in the colour Platinum.

I love the turn lock detail on this bag.

It's absolutely filled to the brim with stuff.

Isn't the lining pretty? It's gold polka dots.

The first thing in my purse that I took out was this small MAC makeup bag that I got from the 2010 holiday collection- A Tartan Tale. It's too thin to put much in it, but I try not to carry too much makeup with me when I carry this bag.

BTW, do you like my nail polish colour? It's China Glaze's Secret Peri-Wink-Le. I love it!

In the MAC makeup bag: Boscia blotting papers in Peppermint. It's limited edition. I heard good things about the original Boscia blotting papers, but I'm not sure if I love it...

The paper is light blue. It's not really showing up that way. It's very thin and it leaves your face refreshed because of the peppermint.

In the MAC makeup bag: Maybelline's Stylish Smokes eyeshadow quad in Natural Smokes. I absolutely love this quad, but I HATE the packaging.

My favourite colour is the first one (top left). It's the most beautiful shimmery taupe. If you don't have this already go out and get it.

In the MAC makeup bag: Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero (black). Everyone raves how great this pencil is, but I find it ok. It doesn't stay on my waterline and I find it too soft. I'm still on the look-out for my HG black eye pencil.

In the MAC makeup bag: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Prim-Rose (668). I picked this up last week and I love the colour. It's a nude-y pink- very similar to MAC's Lazy Day lipstick from the To The Beach Collection. It's also very creamy and moisturizing. Love! I hope this isn't limited edition because the metal part is gold instead of their usual silver.

In the MAC makeup bag: Revlon's Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Peach Petal (150). I use this lipgloss with a lot of lipsticks. It's one of my favourite glosses. The packaging is very similar to Chanel.

My Aveda Hand Relief cream. I have very dry hands. This hand lotion is ok, but the main reason I carry it with me is because it's small.

My keys. I have a lot of keys. Just last week I was looking for a nice keychain because my keychain keeps snapping open making all my keys fall everywhere. So annoying!

My subway token purse. It's a beautiful Japanese coin purse that my boss gave me for Christmas a long time ago. She's not my boss anymore, but I love this purse. I stuck a Yorkshire Terrier button on the zipper head. I have a Yorkshire Terrier named Rosco.

Yikes! I'm embarrassed to be showing you this, but I have a McDonalds coupon book in my purse.

I've already used one- 2 can dine for $8.98. I don't eat fast food often, but I like to have this in hand just in case.

More coupons and a receipt.

My Prada wallet. I should have taken better care of it. It's so dirty. I tried cleaning it, but nothing works. I need a wallet that's small enough so that when I'm carrying smaller purses it doesn't take lots of room. When I'm carrying my big purses I love having continental wallets.

My card/coupon holder. I got this at an Asian gift store. I carry all my points cards and coupons in here. It keeps it really well organized.

My iPhone earphones. I have to figure out a better way to organize this. It gets so tangled up with everything!

Benefit's Garden of Good & Eva perfume. Again, I carry this with me because it's small. I don't particularly love it, but it still smells nice on days when I need to spritz something on me.

A Bic lighter. Don't worry, I don't smoke! I have this in here because I was at a shoot on Friday where we were shooting aromatherapy candles and I wanted to make sure I had a lighter on hand just in case the photographer didn't have any.

My Lancome Juicy Tubes Smoothie Lip Gloss in Dreamsicle. This is a gorgeous lip gloss that keeps my lips moisturized for a really long time. I use this a lot when I'm not wearing any lipstick. It's a sheer, pale pink colour.

My Dior Creme de Gloss in 231. This is a beautiful nude pink lip gloss with shimmers that looks gorgeous on top of pink or nude lipsticks.

My EOS lip balm. I tried so hard to get this, but I find that it dries out my lips quickly.

Super cute, but I'm more in love with the packaging than anything else...

This is a new addition to my large collection of lip balms- Cake Beauty's limited edition Strawberry Shortcake lip balms. I don't think it's out yet. I got this from my co-worker because we were shooting it last Wednesday.

Here's what it looks like. I haven't used it yet, but it smells divine. Did you know Strawberry Shortcake was my first book?

A butterfly clip and a vintage hair pin.

A Club Monaco gift card. Club Monaco is one of my favourite stores. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law knows this so they keep giving me CM gift cards every time!

A Mexx Kids gift card. This is for my son. I'm waiting for all the spring stuff to come out because everything now is clearance stuff.

My Kate Spade authenticity card.

What it says on the authenticity card. I usually keep these cards for all my designer purses in the little zip pockets.

The last thing in my purse? My iPhone 3. That's my beautiful son on my screen.

My purse empty.

I hope you guys enjoyed this!