Sparkled Beauty

If you have not joined the strobing (or in my preferred term - highlighting) trend, NYX Strobe of Genius illuminating palette would be a great push for you.

Basically, Strobe of Genius gives you 7 shades of powder highlighters with different colour choices and different levels of illumination. Imagine the possibilities you can create :)

In an effort to not scare you away from this palette before actually trying it, I am showing you a pic taken in the shade. Know that it is "glowing" a bit more in the sun! :)

This is how the palette looks, with its box. Again, it looks nothing crazy until you hold it in your hand with light shining through it.

The brand suggests to lightly buff shimmer shades onto the highest points of the face or layer them up for a runway effect. In plain terms, just experiment with the shades to find the one (or ones) that work bests for your skin tone and where in the face (or even body) you apply it/ them to. I just enjoy the options they give - cool and warm tones equally.

Swatch of the first row with my finger - a gold with gold pearl, a cool-toned light pink with shimmer, a lavender with shimmer and a golden pink with shimmer, as described by the brand.

You notice that the shine varies depending on lighting angles. Also you don't wear the colours this concentrated on the face, so again, don't be scared to at least try.

The second row has a light gold with peach undertone and shimmer, a bronze with gold pearl and a champagne with shimmer, which is great for the brow bone.

And because I underplayed the pan shot above, it is fair that I show you swatches again in full sunlight. Yes, they can be intense when built up.

I favour the lavender above my cheekbone when I use a warm blush. The pink toned shades are good wherever. The yellow toned shades are a bit more picky, as I have yellow undertone on the skin already. Could use them for eyeshadows, if nothing else.

The palette is of good size, 4x0.07oz/ 2g and 3x0.14g/ 4g, $30 at Shoppers. I bought mine when it was on sale for $24, still a price to pay but I have lots of fun playing with it. Highlighting does not necessary turn you into a disco ball :)

NYX Slide On, Glide On, Stay On and Definitely a Turn On waterproof extreme color lip liners took a little while to come in the regular display at my Shoppers.

The line covers a good range of shades with saturated colours in matte finish. I have eyed them for so long, managed to buy only 4 shades - Nude Suede Shoes, Summer Tease, Urban Cafe and Dark Soul.

Most of the claims prove true with these pencils. I get an awesome matte finish with them and colours go on opaque, do not need much layering.

They do, however, take a little longer to set, transfer a little and the swipe test finds them not having the best resistance. I get about 4-5 hours wear with a bit of food and drinks.

The transferring issue reduces if I blot after application, but the colour would be less intense that way. A bit of gloss in the middle of the lips makes your lips look fuller but also effects the wear.

Nude Suede Shoes, despite not being the nudest shade in the line but being the best seller, is very nude on me :) Summer Tease is in the opposite spectrum, bright but not totally red or orange, very fun and different.

Urban Cafe, an on-trend warm brown, and Dark Soul, a dark plum, are perfect when I want simple dark lips. No lipsticks needed.

These Slide On lip liners are great in lots of way, not the best waterproof liners but the pigmentation and ease of wear makeup for it. The pencils are 0.04oz, $10.99 ($7.99 in the US). Still no signs of the ombre blushes or ombre lip duos yet.

Like most beauty bloggers who saw a full NYX display at Shoppers in the last few weeks, I wanted to take a few things home :)

As in most cases, Canada is a little behind on NYX's new releases, so I only wanted the Liquid Suede cream lipsticks. 4 to be exact: Sandstorm, Soft-Spoken, Cherry Skies and Vintage.

These stay more true to the liquid lipstick category. I assume the "cream" part in the name is to describe the texture, as they go on very smooth and feel comfortable. They do dry matte with a thin coat, but the process is a little slower, so for the first minute or 2, you can still notice the shine.

Sturdy plastic tube with black cap, featuring a faceted pattern at the top and a slightly angled sponge tip applicator. No application issue to mention.

About the long lasting and waterproof claims, I do notice little transfer (but less noticeable thanks to the matte finish) and some fading (evenly) after a meal, more in darker shades than lighter shades. I get about 3-4 hours of wear, on average.

Good colour range with 12 shades from brown, nude to purple, even black. Swatches below show the transition - firstly applied/ in the sun (left) and dried/ in the shade (right).

Sandstorm, described as a true nude, goes quite brown on me but looks great on top of a red liner, while Soft-Spoken is a mauve nude (slightly lighter to MAC Whirl), easier to wear. Cherry Skies, a deep wine red (near dupe of Anastasia Heathers), and Vintage, a mauvy plum, are more bold and take more care with application.

The tubes look reasonably big but actually hold less product than, say, L'Oreal Infallible Pro Matte glosses - 0.13oz/ 4ml vs. 0.21oz/ 6.3ml for about the same price - $10 each on NYX Canada website or $10.99 at Shoppers (on sale for $9.49 right now).

NYX High Voltage lipsticks are not new in the US (well, they already move on to the next best thing - newly released Liquid Suede cream lipsticks) but new to me.

Heard good things about them, I went and built a CP wish list with my US friend. And here they are, finally: Playdate, Flutter Kiss, Twisted and Wine & Dine.

The High Voltage lipsticks are slim and long with clear lids that show the colour-coordinated tubes. I find them go on light, quite opaque with good pigmentation and some slip, very comfortable to wear.

Playdate is quite a unique colour in my stash. The tube is slightly misleading since it is totally not a pale baby pink. The bullet is more accurate with that strong purple/ grey tint that you will also see in the swatches below.

I got Flutter Kiss to embrace that "nude lip" side that I am leaning toward a lot lately.

Twisted is an easy choice - purple/ fuchsia tone is very me :) A lot warmer than Playdate.

And lastly, Wine & Dine is that dreamy dark red that I always like, supposed to be a dupe of MAC Rebel. Another reason to like it :)

These swatches were done with about 2 swipes for each colour. They show up quite glossy at first. The shine tones down a bit after about 15 minutes but is still visible enough.

Playdate's purple base shows up stronger in the pic, just a note. I normally wear it on top of a red lip liner to warm it up to suit my skin tone better.

The lipsticks last a few hours on me and do transfer. They do not claim to be long wearing nor waterproof anyway. Don't notice much of a scent on them.

Check out these High Voltage lipsticks if you have a chance. There are more than 20 shades in the range, 0.09oz/ 2.5g, $6 each in the US or CAD8.99 at London Drugs.

The very first NYX free-standing store in Canada opens in Toronto this October, be ready!

Boo...! Did I scare ya? :)

My very first FOTD for the year, thought I should go all out and show you NYX Simply Vamp lip cream in Temptress, the more bad *ss shade between the two lol.

I did start out with Temptress outlining the lips and Bewitching filling in the rest to test the "wearing alone theory" I mentioned in the review. Temptress ended up swallowing Bewitching whole and took full credit for the lips. Rude huh? :)

Again, I know the colour is not for everyone, nor for everyday, but this is where makeup is fun to play with, at least for me. Squirt actually commented on these lips, glad I didn't scare her off.

Other products used in the look:

- L'Oreal Youth Code Texture Perfector serum concentrate
- Make Up For Ever HD Microperfecting primer #2 Mauve
- Maybelline Baby Skin Instant pore eraser
- Annabelle BB Skin Perfect concealer in Medium
A quick heads up here: Annabelle is discontinuing a few BB and CC products this month. Stock up your favorites before they are gone
- CoverGirl & Olay pressed powder in Medium
- Make Up For Ever HD Second Skin cream blush in #510 Raspberry
- Elf smudge pots in Cruisin Chic and Poppin Party
- Annabelle Retractable eyeliner in Twilighting
- Marcelle Xtension Plus + Pro Lash Growth Complex mascara in Black
- InstaGlam Brow Design + Fix in Medium to Dark and Wet n Wild Color Icon brow & eye liner in Dark Brown.

While talking about Annabelle products, there is an Annabelle holiday set (and a few more sets from Marcelle) on clearance at Shoppers. I am tempted to check them out with the 18,500 bonus point offer today.

The first week of 2015 has gone by, how are you all doing? I am still trying to get back to daily routine while adjusting to -20 degree weather after a tropical vacation.

Also need to sort out blogging schedule for the month. After those big Boxing Week hauls I posted on Monday, I have enough goodies to blog for months, just not enough time :)

Have yourself a good rest of the week and stay warm!

I don't know if it is the season for dark lips for most, but it is for me, all year round anyway :)

When NYX released their Simply Vamp lip creams, a few shades went straight in a wish list to my friend in the US. Finally, I got in my hands Bewitching (top) and Temptress (bottom), reg. $6.49 a piece.

I know what you are going to say, yes they are super dark. I just can't resist the twist up lip pencils, might as well go all out. There are other Simply... lines that NYX makes, at least one would suit your colour needs :)

Here is how "dangerous" Bewitching and Temptress look in the tube.

And here is how "dangerous" they still look swatched. Bewitching have slightly more even pigmentation than Temptress, but they are both pigmented, creamy and non-drying on the lips.

With this level of pigmentation, these lip creams are great to wear alone as anything underneath them would not stand a chance of showing through :) They don't need any gloss on top either.

I wish Canadians can easily get a hold of these so I can grab a few more shades. Check out the FOTD I did with Temptress.

To follow up with the review on The Body Shop's Fall products, here's a look I did:

- Drops of Youth Eye concentrate was used underneath all the makeup but of course it was not meant to be visible :)
Love the cooling effect with the applicator in the morning
- InstaBlur Eye All-in-one tinted concealer + primer in the under eye areas and on the lids up to the brow bone
No eyeshadows or other bases were used to show you its priming effect
- Smoky 2 in 1 gel liner for eyes and brows in 01 Black on the upper lash line.

On the lips was NYX Butter lipstick in Hunk. Told you it was not as dark as the tube looks. Don't be scared of the colour on the packaging of lip products, as it might be more "gentle" than you thought :)

Other products used:
- Vichy Norma Teint Anti Imperfection foundation in Sand
- Cover Fx Conceal Fx Camouflage concealer in Light and Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Spot treatment corrector in Light/ Medium
- Milani Liquid Eye Liquid-like eyeliner pencil in Black on the lower lash line and upper water line
- Joe Fresh mousse blush in Rose
- Wet n Wild Color Icon brow & eye liner in Taupe and Dark Brown.

Nothing spectacularly new in this list, I am a creature of habit, and also trying to finish up many on the go. I skipped the mascara in this look too. Lazy theme strikes again.

Look closely on my lids, you will notice the smudges right on the crease of both eyes! This was a few minutes after I took the first few pics above, and only about 15 minutes after application while I finished the rest of my makeup and pulled out my camera. This hardly ever happened to me before.

And after a few hours doing chores around the house, I saw myself in the mirror with panda eyes, which I didn't have the courage to take pics of. I wore Milani Liquid Eye Liquid-like liner before and it never smudge, so it had to be the Smoky 2 in 1 gel liner.

Can't deny that it was an intense black on the lash line, but I will not use this gel liner unless I have time to set it with a powder product, sadly.

These are not new in the beauty world by any means but new to SB stash - NYX Butter lipsticks and Butter glosses :)

NYX is still a brand that is hard to come by for us Canadians. Lawtons here carries a few shades of NYX Butter glosses but no signs of the lipsticks (yet). I had to haul these from the US.

I got 2 Butter lipsticks in BLS05 Hunk and BLS17 Pops, and 4 Butter glosses in BLG04 Merengue, BLG05 Creme Brulee, BLG08 Apple Strudel and BLG11 Maple Blondie.

Other than Hunk, none of these colours are my typical choice for lips at all, and they feel like Spring, not Fall. I am going against the flow here lol.

Here are the Butter lipsticks in Hunk and Pops in the tubes.

Love the colour indication right on the tube and a the clear area to show the colours inside (when the lid is closed). The bullets swivel all the way down, no nicking hazard.

So the (famous) Butter lipsticks has a satin texture and quite hydrating to me. Colour pigmentation is not as intense as I thought but good when layered. They last a few hours on me, and no scent detected.

Hunk is described as a blue violet, which I don't find accurate at all and Pops is a mauve that appears as a nude pink on me.

The lipsticks are 0.16oz/ 1.5g, reg. $6 each in the US. They are not bad, but for the price, Essence and NYC lipsticks would give them a run for their money, to be honest. Check out a FOTD I did with Hunk.

Now the butter glosses, from top to bottom:

Merengue is described as a pink lilac, pretty accurate.

Creme Brulee is a natural shade, doesn't show up much on me but I appreciate the shine.

Apple Strudel is meant to be a peach colour but appears so close to Creme Brulee, just a tad more pink on me.

And Maple Blondie, supposed to be a deep peach, is also a pink lol.

The claims stay quite true with these glosses: smooth, non sticky, sheer to medium coverage, taste like sugar cookies :) So, other than the colour similarity among the shades I chose, I enjoy these glosses as toppers for my lip liners or lipsticks. And that comes from someone who always prefer lipsticks than glosses.

The glosses have 0.27oz/ 8ml in the tube, reg. $5 in the US.

A soft FOTD to show you how the Vasanti and NYX products look on.

t have been doing so many neutral looks lately for work, I can hardly recognize myself anymore lol. So for this look, I went for a bit more colours on the eyes, paired with neutral lips.

What I used:
- Vasanti All Star 2-in-1 face and eye primer
Of course you can't see the primer but it is working in the background :)
- Vasanti Vitamin E-infused Lipshine in Darling River
With no lip liner or other lip colour underneath, Darling River is a good everyday shade
- NYX Skinny Black liner
Was not easy to get it on my eyes there, but I warmed up the tip a little between my fingers before application so it did not tug much.

I also tried the Cala Brow/ Lash comb, but again, you won't see it :)

Other products:
- CoverGirl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 foundation SPF20 in 957 Golden Tan
- Maybelline The Eraser Dark Spot concealer + treatment in Light/ Medium
- NYX eyeshadow trio with White in the inner corner and on the brow bone, Tropical on mid lids and Silver in the crease (swatched in the Vasanti review linked above)
Tropical looks more red than orange on the eyes, and Silver has a hint of lilac. I like them more than I thought
- Marcelle Xtension Plus + Pro Lash Growth Complex mascara in Black
- Marcelle Eyebrow pen in Universal Dark
These two Marcelle Spring products have become an everyday duo for me since I tested and reviewed them
- Maybelline Dream Bouncy blush in Plum Wine.

This could work as a typical gentle V Day look if I were to go out on a date this Friday. But the plan is Squirt and I would go to dinner, and it wouldn't be me if I am not wearing at least a bold lip for the occasion :) I do have pink nails on now, shocking huh?

YT in the last week has been filled with V Day tutorials and ideas, very helpful :) Squirt has made me a tiger charm with her Rainbow Loom (thanks to YT of course), plus 2 V Day cards, couldn't ask for more!

Do you have plans for V Day yet? Either you are with your other half or not, celebrate the day for love and emotions. Cheers for that!

More brands available at Lawtons for you today. These two products were also provided for reviews.

This is NYX Skinny Black liner. I didn't even know NYX made a skinny liner until I read up about Collection Noir which it is a part of. The collection has 8 black formulations (matte, satin, or glossy pencil/ liquid/ powder eyeliners), waterproof and smudge free. Fun eh?

The Skinny liner is retractable, with 1.5mm skinny lead and fine tip for lining precision. It, being skinny, comes in a huge box :)

The first thing I noticed about the liner was the non-pointed tip. I am not sure if NYX wants me to sharpen it so I can make a precision line or just use it to wear it out to a point. If not, I'll start out with as thin of a line as it could be.

The liner is not supposed to skip, drag nor tug, and that holds true during swatching. But to my lightly sensitive eyes, it does hurt a bit getting the colour on the lower lash line and feels dry in contact.

The swatches: from the left, one swipe, then a few swipes to make the line thicker. On the far right is a comparison swatch of Milani Liquid Eye liquid-like eyeliner pencil in Black, one swipe.

So pigmentation wise, NYX Skinny Black liner is a big lighter than the Milani, and it does not perform as well either during the smudge test (after they both set). Overall, unless you need a precision liner, I would skip the Skinny Black liner this time around.

The liner retails for $7.99, with 0,09g/ 0.003oz of product.

Cala is a brand of brushes at Lawtons that I see a few times while browsing the isles but have not bought any product from.

This is the Brow/ Lash comb from the brand. It has been a long time since I have one of these in the stash, just because I don't have a use for it. But we'll see how it works.

The brush has quite long of a handle, looking thin and sleek. The comb side is plastic, with teeth close enough to each other to work through my lashes. But as expected, a plastic lash comb does not get through mascara clumps as easy as a metal one. It does brush off some of the clumps (when I pile up on mascara) but not totally.

The brush side is easy to use and not scratchy. It works fine on my brows, but for the purpose, a spoolie would take less space and still do the job just fine.

The comb sells for $6.99.

I won't totally disregard Cala as a brand just because this comb does not serve the purpose, and NYX does have some great products on their shelf. Just these two products do not work for me today :)

The hauls are back this week, some good deals needed to be shared lol.

The Super Redemption event at Shoppers was impossible to resist (if you have enough points). Make the best out of my Optimum points is the ultimate goal :)

Thought I deserved a treat to ease the stress of house hunting and buying, I got some high end items. Not something I normally spend my cash on, but with  points, I didn't feel too bad about it.

- DiorSkin Ultra Shimmering All over Face powder in Amber Diamond. I am probably the last blogger to own this
- DiorSkin Nude Tan Paradise duo - Iridescent blush & bronzing powder in Pink Glow, with a kabuki brush. I think Coral Glow is more pigmented but they were sold out
 - Clarins Splendour Summer bronzing compact.

Aren't they just too beautiful to look at? It is going to be really hard to put a brush on any of them.

Also got my fix of Maybelline Colour Tattoo pigments, reg. $8.99.

First row: Barely Brazen and Breaking Bronze
Second row: Black Mystery, Brash Blue and Potent Purple.

At this location, there was a sale tag on the display ($4.99) but they scanned regular priced. The supervisor agreed to give me the sale price, so I scored on these, but keep in mind that your store might not have them for the same price.

I know not everyone is a fan of loose pigments, but if you are interested in swatches, let me know.

And then, the mascara madness with lots of pink :)

- Maybelline the Rocket mascara was on sale for $4.99, and the Falsies Big Eyes mascara was $5.99, so why not? I went for the waterproof version on both.

- Essence I ♥ Extreme Crazy Volume mascara, $4.99 (reg. price)

- Annabelle Le Big Show mascara, with bonus Kohl liner, on clearance for $5.99. I don't need another liner, but I do need a replacement of my Le Big Show :)

No signs of the Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coats and Sugar Coats in all locations near me but I did see the new display of Revlon Super Lustrous Shine lipsticks and the Super Lustrous glosses with new round tube, around $10 each. I heard these are sheer but wear comfortably on the lips, will wait for a good sale.

Lawtons is running a NYX super sale - 75% off selected items. Selections vary among stores, so I suggest browsing around for choices.

I went for the eyeshadows first. Selected singles (reg. $6.99) and palettes (reg. $14.99) have red tags on (which I removed to take pic).

Even better, the singles are B2G1F this week (including sale items), which comes out to be $1.17 a pop if you buy 3.

I got Volcano (MAC Mulch dupe), Deep Purple and Prune (MAC Hepcat dupe) and a few more as gifts for friends.

The Smokey Eyes palette was one of the 4 available, all on sale. The trios did not strike my fancy, so I passed.

The prices on the red tags were from the first round of discount (50%) but they did scan half of those, so don't worry if your store did not have a sign about the 75% off sale.

Can't remember if I tried a NYX blush (reg. $9.99) before, but after some swatching, I ended up not being able to put back many.

Only one cream blush with red tag, Tea Rose.
I went for some odd colour with the powder blushes, Cafe (first row), Red (yeah, like a crazy red colour) and Cocoa (as a contour/ bronzer shade).

Some pinks and mauves are also on sale. The shelf does offer testers and products have seals on them.

Not pictured, but Revlon Lash Potion is 40% off this week (reg. $9.99), I picked one up too :)

I also made a mad dash to Sephora website to order the Ariel palette (available to BIs only at the moment), CAD66. Love an early access to something that isn't supposed to come out until next month. I resisted Cinderella and Jasmine, but the aqua packaging and the colours this palette has is just too cool to pass up. Plus I heard this is the last princess that Sephora makes a collection with, so I caved.

What you have been up to, shopping wise? Do share :)