If you still remember, I just showed you a grey NOTD: Joe Fresh Fog on Saturday. While writing that post, I suddenly remembered another grey that I like but haven't posted about, so here it is for this NOTD post: Collection 2000 Wham.
I got this colour in a UK swap, unfortunately the brand isn't widely available to us.
This picture shows the true colour quite well. Note that I added a coat of Colorama Shimmer Girl on top, just out of curiosity. The verdict: flakies like it don't show up quite well on a light grey base :)
More close-up shots on the mani.
I couldn't get the flakies show up well in many angles, so there they are on my thumb, the best I can do, lol. The thing with having a flakie, you would want to add it to each and every nail polish you wear (well, until you get tired of it). I'm not there yet.
Hope you guys enjoy the fall weather. We actually see the sun in and out today, so it's not too grey like Wham here. I'm counting the days this week, as we have a long weekend for (Canadian) Thanksgiving. Have an awesome day!
I have a fun NOTD for you today: Collection 2000 Hot Looks in BMX Bandit.
This is a UK brand, not available here yet. I got a few bottles through a swap. I picked this shade as it was a popular one at the time. Wasn't really sure I would like it but once I have it on my nails, I love it.
It's a greyish blue colour in the bottle. On the nails, depending on the angle and lighting, it can look purple-ish blue, greyish blue or just blue. Very interesting.
See in this second picture, the colour appeared differently. Both were taken at night, with flash. I know blue and purple are the hardest to photograph but I don't have a picture in the sunlight, unfortunately.
I love all the variations of colours that this shade offers. It only takes 2 coats, and application was easy. The bottle is tiny, and the brush isn't big either, but it didn't bother me.
Squirt just had her first baby tooth taken out at the dentist this morning. She did so well, I was relieved :-) The dentist gave her a bracelet with the little heart-shaped compartment to store her tooth. Cute, lol. And the weather looks very promising too, so I am having a good day so far. Hope you are too.
This is the first entry in "My Very First..." series, featuring polish shades from the brands I haven't tried before.
Meet this gorgeous mint colour from Collection 2000 Hot Looks collection called Button Moon, as part of my UK Goodies haul a while back. My very first shade from this brand, and it didn't disappoint. I kept looking at my nails during the day, sometimes laughed at myself for doing that :-) What do you think? Quite close to China Glaze For Audrey, if you ask me.
I know this colour isn't really safe for work, but seeing the mint green trend on lots of nail blogs lately, I was itching to pull out mine to wear. My co-worker did comment on my bright nail colour today, but one time affair with Button Moon in the office wouldn't kill me, lol.
The bottle is small (8ml) but the brush is surprisingly wide which covered most of my nails in one swipe. This shade is a cream, so I was actually surprised that I didn't have much problem with it. Opaque after 2 coats, and dries quick, loved it!
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..jpeg)
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!
This is my little prize that came in the mail (before I left for Newfoundland) from Carlinn at Superficial Girls. It was so cool to get some makeup from Europe, as there are brands there that aren't available here.
Here's what she sent me:
- Mary Kay sample sheet
- Bourjois Rouge Hyperfix: Semi-permanent creamy lip colour & Comfort gloss top coat in Orange fix
- Fangzhou false eyelashes
- Collection 2000 Volume Boost lipstick in Pinky - Collection 2000 Cheek Tint #2, and
- MAC Cornflower pigment sample
I'm excited to try out my first Collection 2000 items. Can't say that I have extensive experience with Bourjois either, as I think I only tried one bronze shadow from them. So yeah, I'll be playing around with these when I get home.
Tonight was the formal dinner at the conference. The place was nice, they even brought in the 2 Newfounland musicians who played the guitar, banjo, accordeon and even violin. They were so talented and played specifically Newfoundland music. It was very different and the crowd joined them in a few popular songs. It was fun. The food wasn't spectacular except for the Newfoundland seafood chowder (I couldn't tell the difference compared to the chowder I have in Halifax though, lol). If you are in the area, make sure you try the chowder. One guy from Vancouver was impressed trying it out for the first time in his life, lol.
Hope you all have a good night!
So... August is my birthday month, and I like to think it's fun to "celebrate" the whole month instead of just one day. So I'll make an effort to blog everyday this month, to be a good blogger and all, lol. Will see how that works out. Ok, back to the topic.
I bet you all have heard of (or purchased from) Illamasqua by now. There have been countless reviews on the web about products of this UK brand, and most were positive. I like the idea of a new brand that is comparable to MAC and that has a good marketing sense to promote their products to Sephora . With the newly opened Sephora in NY, the brand has made a grand entrance to the US market. Needless to say, makeup lovers are all over Illamasqua powder/ cream blushes ($23), pigments ($24), liquid metals ($24), nail polishes ($14), etc. The price range is not really within my reach, but I'm fine with not shopping this brand, just like I'm fine with not shopping MAC (I'm weird huh?). But it's still an exciment to the makeup world, as maybe it's time for MAC to share the throne with someone else.
Sleek is another makeup brand from the UK that I recently discovered. 
Its iDivine shadow palettes) have been a hit in the blogger world. I personally don't own any, as so far it is UK-exclusive, but judging by people's raves over them, I'm curious to try. The company is working on an online-shop website so that people outside UK could put in their orders, which is exciting. The price is about £4.49 which isn't bad. The website only features 3 palettes (Original, Chaos and Storm and the new Curious palette (in the picture) coming out this August, but I have read about a few more (Acid, Safari, Jewels, etc.). Lots of them are LE, but I really hope Sleek will have more than 4 different palettes online. I love shadows, especially with drugstore price, so this might be something I could afford. And it's from the UK, probably my first experience ever buying anything from there :-)
Barry M is another brand on the affordable side. Their most famous products are the Dazzle Dusts (£4.50) - in the picture, and nail paints (£2.95), but there are a lot more on the website. The good thing is they do ship internationally, but I can't tell what the shipping cost is like, as customers are asked to contact the company for a quote. With the exchange rate, the prices would come out a bit higher than I would normally pay for my mineral pigments or nail polishes. Also, the colours aren't LE, so I'm not in a rush to order.
Another brand which isn't popular outside UK yet: Collection 2000. I was intriqued seeing this brand popping up in a few blog posts. The Dazzle Me! Eye Dusts are said to be a "rip-off" of Barry M Dazzle Dusts, as they are only at half of the price in bigger pots with a few similar shades. And the quality is good, no complains. And then, there are the Hot Looks nail polishes (featured in the pic in the most famous shade "Dynasty"), around £1.80 each. They are said to be comparable to Barry M polishes as well. Are you confused with too many alternatives yet?
Unfortunately, there is no option to buy directly from the company website. They point visitors to boots.com or superdrug.com, and these 2 sites certainly do not deliver outside UK. So the only solution, if you want some Collection 2000, would be asking a UK friend for a shopping favour, or find a swap :-)
Lastly, beautyuk, another less popular brand. How gorgeous is this eyeshadow collection palette? I spent quite some time on the website looking at their products, liked the shades and the price point. They have single shadows (£1.99), quads (£3.49), lots of nail shades (£1.79) as well, but I am only interested in the palettes for now. 4 options to choose from: Pastels, Brights, Glitters and Neutrals, £3.49 each. Not available online, though, only at Superdrug. Just imagine if one day I go to the UK, my first stop would probably be Superdrug, lol.
At least I'm glad to have full access to Rimmel, Boots No7 and Gosh from drugstores around here. Well, Gosh is a Denmark brand, not UK, but you know what I mean - brands from that part of the world that isn't always accessible. If I miss a brand that you like from there, let me know and I'll add it to the post.
EDIT TO ADD:
B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful, a sister brand of Lush, is known for its vegan cosmetic line and its super cute packaging. Can you guess what's in that "jewelled hinged pot"? It's their Lip Cream in Bitten (£9.30), with a 24K gold leaf for look. Their Pressed Shadows are very cool too, a little to the expensive side (£8.30) though. Refills are available, so you can continue using their cute packaging one shadow at a time. Imagine you have a little army of these babies, they could be great decorations to your vanity and you don't have to worry about organizing them in a drawer.
The thing is they haven't been expanding very much, only have 3 stores in the UK so far. They for sure ship within UK, Japan and Austria but ask that customers from any other country contacting them for shipping availability. In short, I'm not sure they ship to Canada.
Eyeko is another fun brand to try out. Their manga-styled packaging is eye catching, and so is their "free shipping world wide on all orders" policy. Who doesn't love that?
Their most popular product is probably the 3-in-1 Cream (£6 or $9), and its tinted version too. It is said to work as a moisturizer, a highlighter and an eye cream at the same time. Most bloggers said they mostly use the cream for highlighting, as it adds a nice glow above your cheek bone and emphasizes your blush.
Their little bottles of nail polishe are cute too. Check out the swatches at Scrangie if you are interested.
Note: Make sure to click on the little $ sign on the side bar to see the price in $, as the default is in £ and the exchange rate they use does change over time.
Photo credit: illamasqua.com, sleekmakeup.com, barrym.com, collection2000.co.uk, beautyuk.org., bnevertoobusytobebeautiful.com and eyeko.com