Sparkled Beauty

Yay, another successful swap, and this time, it's all the way from Singapore. Cheryl from Legally Polished initiated this swap with me, looking for some Del Sol polishes, and I couldn't be happier to finally get my hands on Asian nail polish brands.

Here is the first batch: Sasatinnie Super Dolly Fantasy Colours - Quick Dry.

You probably have heard, Sasatinnie is the home brand at Sasa, the huge Asian store chain (online too). I'm fascinated with the bottle shape, the design on the caps and above all, the flakies, of course.

I went with shades that I could see online swatches off. The first 3 are categorized as glitters (GL code), from L-R: FCGL002, FCGL003, FCGL004. The fourth one is Raspberry scented (RAS code): FCRAS001. NOTDs are coming soon to show you the shades a little better.

I also went for Elianto Sparkling Nails. Again, cute patterns on the bottles and the caps (if you look closely, you can see the pink vines with Elianto written along them).

The shades I got: Racing Green and Glittery Nickel (looks a little more purple here than IRL).

Cheryl included 2 freebies which I really appreciated: The Face Shop WH005 (stars in clear base) and Arezia mini #881 (dark purple shimmer).

I already started diving into this wonderful bunch of polish. I'd definitely say it again: Swaps are the best way to explore brands you don't normally get where you live.

Have a great day, everyone. It snowed for 3 hours last night here, and we are dealing with slushies this morning when it melted with the rain. Fun huh?

I am kind slow posting this :) Seeing I already got to one or two nail polish from this haul, I thought I should put it up first. This is one fabulous swap I did with Marie from Mon Coin a Moua. It was meant to be, as right after I posted my Swap list, Marie let me know she wanted some bottles from that post, and she had something I always wanted :)

First are the famous Maybelline Express Finish from Dollar Tree which I missed out terribly last time in LA. I got Brown Aluminium (left) and Purple Rage (right), totally fall colours.

What makes me squeal is the bottle those two are guarding in the middle: the highly-covetted L'Oreal Star Magnet in Magnetic Grey.

I can't tell you how hard it is to find these Star Magnets nowadays. It was my pure luck that Marie could get a hold of a few of them. Now my big lemming can rest (well, until the next one comes, lol).

I also picked a few bottles from brands that are absolutely new to me, to diversify my stash:
- P2 Elegant
- Catrice London's Weather Forecast
- Essence Twins in Mr. Big and Carrie.

I wish the world is just one big market of nail polish where we could get our hands on whatever brand we see, just because there are so many fantastic brands out there. Nail blogs are enablers obviously, my lemming list just gets longer and longer everyday. Well, with this little haul, it's temporarily shorter a little.

And Marie was so generous to include many extras for me:
- H&M Hello Kitty lip gloss in Apple Fruits
- Essence Secrets of the Past Trio eyeshadow (LE) in Babushka's Dream
- H&M Hello Kitty nail polish in Glitter Purple
- Essence Frech Glam nail stickers.

She knows me so well, don't you think? She picked the perfect items for me, without me asking for them. Nail polish (especially cute ones like Hello Kitty) and eyeshadows (especially the LE shades), just heaven!

And there're more.

To match the whole theme, Marie sent me the cutest Hello Kitty pouch to house all the makeup. How am I bringing myself to use it, Marie? It's too cute.

The rest are an Eau Du Bonheur EDT sample and tons of sweets. Swweeettt :)

I know I wasn't going to do any more swaps, thinking of saving for a few future trips I am planning, but this is one swap that I cannot turn down. And I'm glad I didn't.

Hope your week starts out well today. Monday is always hard. Hang in there!

I have recently done a swap with Karen at Frazzle and Aniploish for some awesome polishes that I have been lemming for since I saw her post.

These are the Mood Struck nail polishes that are only available from Meijer. Knowing the chance that I could walk in a Meijer store is very slim, I was very happy that Karen agreed to swap with me for them.

Here are the ones I got, from L-R: #4, #7, #9, #10 and #14. I adopted Karen's naming system (using the last 2 numbers in their barcodes), as there were no specific names for these babies.

The bottles are slim and long, only contain .25 fl oz/ 7ml, about half of the regular polish size.

And on top of that, I filled my Dollar Tree wish list with these shades from the LA Colors Craze collection (with hardeners, 2009).

If I found them in store myself, I'd sure come home with more than 4 bottles, but I restrained myself better with a swap, lol.

From L-R: Atomic, Live, Electrified and Transformer plus the 2 mini Claire's extras.

I appreciate the indivial packaging for the LA Colors bottles, as it keeps the polish inside untouched, plus the extra information about application and ingredients at the back, pretty in display too. However, when you remove the packaging for storage, the shade names go with it, and there're no name stickers on the bottles. It'd be hard to indentify the shades later on, if the collection grows. You know what I'm saying :)

And here's a NOTD for My very first... mood polish.

I picked #10 as it looks in the bottle as a pale beige colour with a hint of peach, almost like a duochrome, peaked my curiosity.

Here it is on my nails, with flash. Most of the nails would be in the beige colour, except for the free edge tips. As you knew before, I had a split nail on the middle finger and it's nubs at the moment after I tried to cut it off where it split. As a result, that nail doesn't show any peach colour, but the other four fingers in the picture has a very pretty peachy pink tips, very naturally looking. I love it!

Here are some more shots of the nails to show you the tips a little better. The sticker on the cap shows the 2 mood colours that the bottle delivers.













The gradient effect shows better in larger view, so feel free to click :) Application was easy, the colour is opague in 2 coats. The round narrow cap takes a bit of getting used to, but not too hard to maneuver. What do you think?

Omg, Sunday was the most beautiful fall day in history! It was sunny and WARM. 16 degrees for fall? Yeah, I'll take it any time! But the weather wasn't the only thing I was so excited about, as I just picked up my swap package from Scotland.

Has this picture peeked your curiosity yet? My very first Illamasqua!!! Feel. Intense. Bruised. Fallen. Truth. and Imagine.

Lyndsay at Robert Smith's Mistress Makeup Wonderland was looking for an international swap and I jumped right on the offer. You all know that I love to get my hands on UK makeup (I even did a post on UK makeup brands to help with my lemmings).

Illamasqua wasn't originally on the wishlist I sent to Lyndsay, as I honestly can't afford it. Their price point is £14.00 and up :-)

Photo credit: gossmakeupartist.blogspot.com

During the swap, however, I was very lucky to find a blog sale that offered Illamasqua powder shadows in bulks with amazing price, and free shipping within the UK. Lyndsay helped me out with getting a pack of these beauties, and I am really thankful.

The shades that I got:
First row, from L-R: Intense (deep blue green), Feel (bronzy brown), Imagine (light blue/purple)
Second row: Bruised (red), Fallen (purple), Truth (taupe).

My picture is taken with flash, so the colours are really washed out. I tried, but it was very hard to capture the shades in camera. I am a bit worried that the 2 brown/neutral shades wouldn't show up well with my skin tone. But nevertheless, I'm so happy to own Illamasqua items :-)

The rest of the swap items aren't any less exciting. First reason would be they were out of reach to lots of us outside UK. Second, they are of great quality and great price. What else there to not want them?

Here is the famous Sleek i-divine paltte in Chaos, with the most colourful combination. I love all the shades, which might be a bit of a dilemma, lol. I was waiting like forever since Sleek announced their international online shopping site will be up next Spring. Now I could tie myself over with Chaos.

I also got the Pout Polish SPF15 in Electro Peach. Despite the fact that it doesn't come in a tube, I still want to try it badly :-)

Sleek has so many products, it wasn't easy to pick out just one or two.

And lastly, my Collection 2000 items.

First row are the Dazzle Me! Eye Dust, from L-R: Enigma, Sugarplum and HazyDaze. The jars came with shifters (with stickers on top to avoid spilling). These will be a nice addition to my pigment family.

Second row: Hot Looks Fast Dry Nail polish in BMX Bandit, Wham and Button Moon. These colours have been featured a lot in UK beauty blogs that I have to have for myself. The bottles, though, are tiny (9ml). What if I run out, lol?

Thank you so much Lyndsay for this swap. I am one step closer to UK makeup :-) Check out her post for what I sent her.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

I have recently did a swap with Stephanie from Simple Things Here. I have to say the experience was great, considering it was my very first swap. Check out what she sent me.

I know Canada has WetnWild and Jane, but the selection can't be compared to what are available in the US.

First row: WnW Ultimate Expression in Sand Castle and Fantasy Island.
Middle row: WnW Craze collection in Morbid, Goldmine, Rustic and Inferno. Yay, finally! And WnW Mega Sparkle Confetti in White Icing and Pink Sugar.
Bottom row: Jane Be Pure Mineral Blush in Out Spoken Pink and Jane Be Pure Mineral Eye Lighter Shadow in Emeral Forest.

Another item that I was excited to get: Ulta Glam & Go! 52 Piece Blockbuster. It's a nice way to try out different products from Ulta in 1 cute package:
-29 eyeshadows
-12 lip colors
-4 cheek colors
-2 full-size lipsticks
-1 bronzer
-1 translucent powder
-1 eye liner
-1 lip liner
-applicators, mirror and travel case in Pink.

I took out the tray at the bottom to put under the lid (where the mirror is) to take picture only. It's originally housed at the bottom compartment.

See the fun little card Stephanie included in the package? Very thoughtful of her, and I certainly love to receive hand written messages :-)

As Ulta was offering free gift with $17.50 purchase, Stephanie also picked up the Ulta Cheek Color in Afterglow in the lower right corner in the picture. The rest is the 15-piece Naturally Nice collection:
-eye shadow quad
-cheek color
-2 mini nail lacquers
-1 lipstick
-1 dual-ended lip gloss
-1 dual-ended lip & eye liner pencil
-4-piece brush set with brush travel pouch
-travel eye makeup remover
-mirror, and
-wristlet handbag.

I am very happy with everything I got. Thanks, Stephanie!

This is what I sent Stephanie (I'm stealing this picture from her post). She picked out items she wanted to try from my Canadian makeup brands post:
- Annabelle Custom Quad: Graffiti, Snowflake, Divine Diva and Ka-Ching
- Vasanti Slick Lips: Celtic
- Balmshell Lip gloss: Darling You Look Fabulous.

I added a few items from brands that I didn't think Stephanie has access to:
- Gosh blush and duo shadow
- Cake Beauty: Jungled Lemon Tart shower froth
The Rimmel Vinyl lipgloss and Yves Rocher Lavande Essentielle foot cream were just for fun.

Swapping is fun and is a perfect opportunity to learn more about products that we don't normally have access to. I totally recommend it!