Sweater Weather Nail Art Inspired by Tim Horton's Coffee Cups

HAPPY DECEMBER! I don't drink coffee but I purchased one solely for the purpose of pairing the Tim Horton's holiday cup design with my nails. Silly me got a small instead of a regular and ended up with a brown cup instead of a red one ._. whooops. Anyways, behold the sweater-inspired nails! 

There's not much to it. I did my nails like I normally would using a base coat (Essie First Base) and a couple coats of my current favourite winter red (Essie Plumberry). For the sweater pattern, I dipped the finer side of the Body Shop Nail Art Pen into a white polish (Quo by Orly Purity*) and carefully drew a combination of dots and lines onto my nails. It's pretty simple, granted it did take quite a bit of time. For the snowflake-esque nail (ring finger), I used a bit of scotch tape to create clean lines that were not so simple with the Body Shop Nail Pen*. To seal in the deal, I used my favourite gel top coat that's supposed to be paired with the Revlon Gel Envy Base + Color polishes but I use it with everything (Revlon ColorStay Gel Envy Diamond Top Coat*). 

Products Used: Essie First Base, Essie Plumberry, Quo by Orly Purity*, Revlon Gel Envy Diamond Top Coat*, The Body Shop Nail Pen* 

The Body Shop Nail Pen ($6) is truly the star of the show in this little nail art design. Contrary to the name, the Body Shop Nail Pen is actually a dual-ended DOTTING TOOL. I used it to draw fine lines and make polka dots. Although the fine point does not create lines quite as precise as a striping tool or tape but it does the trick if it's the only tool you've got on hand. 

In all honesty, this wasn't the simplest or quickest of nail art designs, but the end result proved to be worth it. I must have received 5+ compliments for each day I wore this out albeit... they were probably only looking at my left hand. 

What do you think of this nail art design? What are you wearing on your nails this holiday season? 

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6 Looks with the Kat Von D Star Studded Eyeshadow Book

Give me a palette of 24 eyeshadows in colors that range from neutral to ridiculous and I'll be sure to play. I've been fooling around with the Kat Von D Star Studded Eyeshadow Book ($66 CAD, exclusively at Sephora - reviewed here)  for the past two months. Using the 6 groupings of coordinating color quads, I've created 6 eyeshadow looks. 

Solar/Nephilim/Platonic/Mandala

Anti-star/Estrella/Black Star/Starflyer

Moz/Heaven Knows/Smiths/Leather

Damned/Division/Depeche/Brass Knuckles

Banshee/Violator/Gothica/Fascination Street

Crosses/Covenant/Craft/Cult

But of course, you don't have to stick to the grouped quads in the palette. I'm no good at math, but there's probably hundreds of potential eyeshadow looks you could create with the Kat Von D Star Studded Eyeshadow Book. 

Which colour quad/look is your favourite? :) 

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Sephora Collection All A Glow Contouring Face Palette

The Sephora Collection All A Glow Contouring Face Palette ($41 CAD, exclusively at Sephora) is yet another limited edition set. In a nutshell, it's a wallet-sized fold-able palette containing everything you should ever need for your face, convenient for different looks and skin tones - concealers, bronzers, powder blushes, cream blushes, cream highlighters, and powder highlighters. There's three shades of everything except for the four powder blushes. It also comes with step-by-step instructions for  Bronzed and Beautiful and Ethereal and Illuminated looks. 

I've honed down on which colours work for my light-medium (~MAC NC 30)  skin colour. So I'll attempt to describe each shade in the palette and if you're having a tl;dr moment, I'll also denote colours that I would personally use with a (*). 

The concealers are cream-to-powder and dry down to a matte finish that lasts ~5 hours when set with a powder. Be forewarned, the concealers work much better over big oily blemishes than ones that are already dried up, as the faux-powder finish exaggerates dryness. 

#1 - light, #2 - medium*, #3 - dark (with a prominent orange tinge)

The powder bronzers impressed me. They feel more finely milled and easily blend-able than I had expected (kind of like a really nice face powder - shade #1 actually works quite nicely as one). 

#1 - light, #2 - light-medium*, #3 - medium

The powder blushes are not quite as soft as the bronzers and as such, they don't apply quite as smoothly. I find the first much too light for my face and the second and third too overtly shimmery for my tastes. 

#1 - matte pastel pink, #2 - neutral pink with gold shimmer, #3 - peach with gold shimmer, #4 - matte hot pink*

I have the same qualms with the cream blushes as I do with the powder ones. The first two have a shimmery iridescence that is too much to apply all over the cheeks, while the last bright pink is absolute perfection. The cream blushes work well to prolong the longevity and pigmentation of the powders for up to 6 hours. 

#1 - neutral pink with gold shimmer, #2 - peach with gold shimmer, #3 - matte hot pink*

The shimmers in the cream highlighters are thankfully much finer than the blushes and cream blushes. The cream highlighters provide a natural sheen to the cheeks and dry down to a powdery finish (similar to the concealer). All three shades suit my complexion. 

#1 - pale yellow shimmer*, #2 - pale pink shimmer*, #3 - pale gold shimmer*

The powder highlighters have slightly more concentration of shimmer than the cream higlighters but the shimmers are still fine enough that they don't look chunky. The texture is similar to that of the powder blushes. I've never seen an orange tinted highlighter in my life, so I'm not sure why there's one included here. 

#1 - gold shimmer*, #2 - pink shimmer*, #3 - orange shimmer 

Before (looking a little tired and red-nosed...also one noteworthy zit and a few minimal blemishes) 

After (Wearing the Sephora Collection All A Glow Contouring Face Palette ONLY- #2 concealer, #2 bronzer, #1 powder blush (pale pink) , #3 cream blush (bright pink), #2 cream highlighter (pink frost) , #2 powder highlighter (pink frost)) 

There's a heck of a lot of product packed in this one wallet-sized palette. Some products were good (concealers, bronzers, cream blushes, both highlighters) but others missed the mark for me (shimmery blushes, orange highlighter). While it's awesome for travel, for the price, I'd rather get a couple individual products with formulas that I am above and beyond excited about. That being said, this will come in handy when I want to do makeup on a friend with a different skin tone from my own, so I truly appreciate the variety. 

What do you think of the All a Glow Contouring Face Palette? 

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Kat Von D Star Studded Eyeshadow Book

Is there such thing as makeup porn? Because it kind of feels like it with the Kat Von D Star Studded Eyeshadow Book ($66 CAD, exclusively at Sephora). Never have I felt so strongly for a formulation of eyeshadows together in one awesome palette. The Kat Von D Star Studded Eyeshadow Book is a palette of 24 eyeshadows in varying colours and finishes. The palette is split into 6 different colour combos of 4 eyeshadows for easy use - a neutral base shade, lid shade, crease shade and accent shade. 

Before I get into the nitty gritty of the swatches and whatnot, I'd like to make a comment about the packaging. The raised studs in the shape of a star are cool but the cardboard seriously detracts from that. I hate cardboard palettes. For one, they look cheap... and what if I'm doing my makeup while drinking coffee and have a little spill? Goodbye, pretty palette. 

In terms of formulation... 

The Good: Holy ASLKDFJSDFASF. The Kat Von D eyeshadows are some of the best I've ever tried. According to the almighty Sephora website, it's a patented, triple-milled formula, which explains why every single one of the eyeshadows is soft and smooth and almost creamy, easily blendable, ridiculously pigmented, and long-wearing. 

The Bad: Nothing. Aside from formulation I'll be nit-picky about the colour varieties in the palette. There's 5 matte brow bone colours. Yes, they are all slightly different, but I wouldn't mind having a satin peach champagne or a shimmery light gold. Perhaps for someone who's into more neutrals, this set of shadows may be a little too much over-the-top colour. 

The Sephora website says this palette includes matte, pearl, shimmer and iridescent finishes. But I'll call it how I see it and label the shades as such: 

• Mattes (M) - no shimmer, glitter, or iridescence 
• Satin/Shimmers (S) - fine shimmer with no chunky sparkles
• Glitters (G) - a ton of chunky sparkles
• Loves (❤) - particularly awesome eyeshadows 

Solar (M), Nephilim (S) (❤), Platonic (S) (❤), Mandala (M)

Anti-star (S), Estrella (S), Black Star (G), Starflyer (M)

Moz (M) (❤), Heaven Knows (M) (❤), Smiths (S) (❤), Leather (M) (❤)

Damned (M), Division (S) (❤), Depeche (S), Brass Knuckles (S)

Banshee (M), Violator (M) (❤), Gothica (G) (❤), Fascination Street (M)

 Crosses (M), Covenant (S), Craft (G) (❤), Cult (S) 

After testing these all out on my face, I have strong attraction to a few of the quads. Firstly, the neutrals. They're so beautiful *faints*. Secondly, wearing the purples makes me feel like a unicorn. Oftentimes the wrong kind of purple can make one look bruised or swollen but the pastel lilac shade livens things up. Lastly and most surprisingly, I love the warmth of the orange-toned quad. I had expected Mandala (matte peach orange) to make my eyes look like they were inflamed but it's is actually quite flattering on the eyes, especially when paired with Nephilim. 

The other three quads contain beautiful shades but personally, they're not for me. I had a hard time thinking of ways to use the dark green and blue quads because I find that dark shades close off my already small eyes. 

Overall, if you're in a neutrals comfort zone then you probably won't be interested in this palette. But if you've ever flirted with the idea of coloured eyeshadow, then the Kat Von D Star Studded Eyeshadow Book will tickle your fancy. It's got ridiculous colours and while some are not particularly wearable, others somehow manage to look quite flattering. 

Have you tried Kat Von D eyeshadows? They're AMAZING! 

P.S. stay tuned for 6 eye looks featuring the 6 colour combos in this palette :) 

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Hello Kitty Compact Mirror and Milk Money Makeup Bag // Hello Kitty 40th Anniversary

To the undiscerining eye, the Hello Kitty Ruby Compact Mirror ($59 CAD) and the Hello Kitty Milk Money Makeup Bag ($39 CAD) available at exclusively Sephora may seem grossly overpriced. But there's a few things that you might not know without a little research... 

Hello Kitty Ruby Compact Mirror

What you might not know: This mirror is decked out with 300 hand-placed Swarovski jewels. 

Thoughts: The mirror contains a regular mirror on one side and a handy 3x magnification mirror on the other. Given the daintiness of a collector's item with hand-placed jewels, I feel like it should come with some sort of fabric bag to protect it. It's a little too much bling bling for my personal preferences, it would make a good gift for a Hello Kitty lover.

Hello Kitty Milk Money Makeup Bag

What you might not know: This bag is a larger remake of a 1974 iconic Hello Kitty collectors' coin purse. The remake has similar features to the original - a star clasp and shiny silver casing. 

Thoughts: I'm not a fan of this updated Hello Kitty coin purse. Due to the larger size, the shape is awkward. Yes, one can appreciate the details like the graphics on the inner lining and the star clasp. However, what puts me off the most is that it's made of vinyl. Not exactly the prettiest or most expensive looking fabric for what is supposedly a "collector's item". 

While I can see why the Ruby Compact Mirror would make an amazing gift for a Hello Kitty lover, I think that the Milk Money Makeup Bag is a poorly done remake. Before ordering these online, I'd suggest that you check them out in-store to assess whether or not the quality of these items is up to your standards. 

What do you think of these Hello Kitty Accessories?

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Sephora Collection Lip Artist Palette

My mind had always fiddled with the idea of depotting all my lipsticks into a palette for easy access. For some reason, I can't follow through with the thought, it's much easier said than done. Luckily, this holiday season, Sephora has launched the Sephora Collection Lip Artist Palette ($20 CAD) - a dual-layered palette of 4 lip glosses and 4 lipsticks (plus two lip double-sided lip brushes) - the perfect way to test out the convenience of multiple shades in one place without the mess of depotting. 

The Lip Glosses

The four lip glosses feature a clear shimmery shade, a cream bright pink, a cream orange, and a creamy pink-red. All of the glosses are slightly thick yet sheer and non-sticky. The shades offer only the slightest hint of tint to the lips 

The Liquid Lip Colors

I definitely prefer the liquid lip colours over the lip glosses. They feel very similar on the lips - slightly thick, glossy and non-sticky. However, the lipstick shades are more vibrant yet still natural looking and slightly sheer. Shades include a light purple, a cool-toned pink, a brown-mauve pink, and an apple red. None of the colours include shimmer. As these are all glossy, lasting power is comparable to that of a lip gloss - no more than 3-4 hours. 

Overall, a great variety of colours (all in glossy finishes) . All of the shades provide some sort of glossiness. While I enjoy the thought of having a ton of lip colours in one place, I think I prefer my lipstick straight out of the tube for everyday. That being said, I'd definitely take this palette on a vacation. It's super convenient and I'm a fan of the natural/glossy lip look. 

Which do you prefer - lipstick palettes or individual lipsticks? 

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