Laura Mercier // Signature Colour Essentials

My love affair with Laura Mercier is not winding down, if anything I’m falling more and more in love with their products. The latest gift set I picked up is a beauty, and I thought I’d showcase it now while it is still readily available. I find buying palettes and sets from LM easier (and cheaper!) than choosing single shadows, I like the way it forces me to try shades I wouldn’t have picked up!

 

 

 

The Signature Colour Essentials set comes with a quite a few products, and I thought it a really nice touch that they were all individually wrapped in tissue paper (can you tell I love Christmas and unwrapping things?) As well as getting the palette for cheeks and eyes, you get a travel sized Full Blown Volume Lash Building Mascara, a 30ml Foundation Primer, Twilight Caviar Stick, lip glace in Sweetheart and a chunky little All Over Eye Colour brush. I love getting the chance to try a few things from the Laura Mercier line at once, rather than having to stick with the eyeshadows and wonder about the rest. This lets me dip my toe into the rest of the range with ease.

 

The true drawcard for me was the cheek and eye palette in this box, containing a Second Skin Cheek Colour in Vintage Pink, and two eye colour duets. The first contains Morning Dew, a creamy matte white, and Primrose, a shimmery pale rose beige kind of shade. The second duet contains Topaz, a taupe, and Kir Royal, a deep violet shade which applies beautifully. I find all four of these colours really wearable, and it could be feasible as a holiday palette if you don’t mind using the same four shadows in different ways. The cheek colour is stunningly classic, and a welcome addition to my Laura Mercier blush family. I love the LM signature atop this slimline package, but I do have quite a bit of trouble opening the clasp and it has been the culprit of a few chipped nails lately. Not a deal breaker for me, but definitely something to consider.

Sweetheart, Twilight, Vintage Pink, Morning Dew, Primrose, Topaz, Kir Royal

 

When I swatched all of the beautiful colours in this signature set, the Twilight Caviar Stick reminded me of a shadow I’d recently purchased, namely MAC’s Moth Brown from the By Request collection. I swatched the two side by side for you. While Twilight is darker and deeper, and Moth Brown more brown in tone, I think they are quite close in colour.

 

What do you think of purchasing sets like this over individual items? Do you see it as a chance to play with new products, or a waste of things you don’t want/need?

The Laura Mercier Signature Colour Essentials retails for AUD $85 and is available at Myer.

 

 

*All mentioned items were purchased by me. Honesty, always.

Vamp Nails // Alice Had a Vision-Again // essence Twilight BreakingDawn Part Two

I picked up all four essence Twilight nail shades (as I mentioned in this haul) and thefirst one I chose to do a full mani with was Alice Had a Vision-Again. A blackbased filled with purple flecks and the odd aqua fleck as well, this is reallydark but shines purple when it hits the light. The flecks seem embedded in thenail and spread really evenly when painting it on, which made this a reallyeasy polish to work with.

 

 

 

 

I’ve also snuck some sneaky Dior holiday swatches into that last image, just in case you thought my hands were dirty. I’m tossingup between the two quints at the moment, and just can’t decide!

 

I really like the deep vampy purple of Alice Had aVision-Again and the flecks of aqua and purple are particularly beautiful indirect sunlight. I would recommend all of the new essence Twilight shades, eventhough I’m not a big Twilight fan the colours are gorgeous.

Are you going to watch the new Twilight film?

What new holiday collections are you lemming?

essence Breaking Dawn Part 2 Collection // Photos, Swatches, Review

While I'm not up to speed on the Twilight films, I have read all of the novels and am a fan of most of essence's limited edition collections. I picked up everything from the Breaking Dawn part 2 collection, bar the glitter eyeliners.

 

This blush in the shade Renesmee Red seems a little scary in the pan, but when swatched it is sheer (in a good way) and stunning. A coral toned red shade, this is definitely one of the must-haves from this collection in my opinion.

 

The definite stand out must have from this collection is the well priced highlighter in the shade 01 Bella's Secret($5.95) I have already coerced my best friend into adding this to her collection, as it adds a diffused glow which is impressive for such an affordable powder. If I were to recommend anything from this collection, this would be it.

01 A Piece of Forever is a lipstick loaded with fine golden shimmer, and though I'm sure some people would be unsure about this, it is stunning by itself to add a sheen to the lips or over a red lip stain. I often use the Tread Gently Tendertone from MAC to add yellow shimmer to my lipsticks, but this is a wonderful cheap alternative.

The lipglosses seem on the watery side when compared to the Stay With Me lipglosses from the permanent line, which are housed in the same style tube. The colours themselves are also on the glassy/watery side in swatches, though I am yet to wear them on my lips so cannot comment too much at this stage. Both shades contain beautiful shimmer, 01 Alice Had A Vision - Again is a dark purple shade that matches the nail polish of the same name. 02 Renesmee Red is a candy apple red shade, matching the blush from this collection.

 

Four new pigment pots have been released with this collection, and though the swatches for 2 of them are promising, I'm finding it hard to make them work on the eye. They blend away to nothing quite easily, so I am planning on trialling them with a few different primers to see what works. 01 Jacob's Protection is a black base filled with multi coloured shimmer, and swatches are deep and pigmented. 02 Alice Had A Vision - Again is a blue toned black base filled with purple and navy shimmer, and swatches beautifully as well. 03 A Piece of Forever is an attempt at a champagne pigment that was incredibly difficult to swatch, and lacks colour and depth. I am unsure as to how I am going to make this work on the eye. 04 Edward's Love is supposed to be a black base filled with multi coloured glitter, but the colour literally falls from the skin and the glitter is actually rough and hurts to swatch. Would not recommend pigments 03 and 04.

 

The polishes from this collection are all really beautiful, there is a colour similar to the upcoming MAC Everything That Glitters (Sunday Girl swatches that here) and I am going to have swatches of these in a separate post during the week.

 

I like the high quality of the powders from this collection, and the matching names for certain shades is also a nice touch. Overall I think essence have done well with the theme of this collection, most shades seem well thought out and I adore the blush, highlighter and lipstick overall.

 

Each piece is priced below $6 AUD, with the highlighter being the most expensive.

Will you be picking up anything from the Breaking Dawn Part Two collection?

Have you been swept up with the Twilight phenomenon?

 

 

*I paid for all of these items myself. Honesty,always.

 

 

Vampire's Love

The last monthly release from Essence saw them leap onto the vampire trend with vigour. I don't mind the odd True Blood episode or Twilight tune out, but I'm definitely not in the 'vampire obsessed' category. I still fell for this collection, however, and think the execution tread the line between vampy and cute perfectly.

The Vampire's Love line is limited edition, and contains a range of polishes, two lipstains, one blush gelee, shimmer powder, lash thickener, perfume and an eyeshadow palette. I was a good girl and only chose a few items.

Only 5 things, see how restrained I was! (I have since gone back to get more...) I am planning on doing in depth reviews on some of these, but thought I'd post my initial thoughts now so if you were interested you could pick the pieces, as they are limited edition and will be gone soon.

Six gorgeous shadows for $7.50 AUD? It was an easy decision, and I think the shade selection in 'Love at First Bite' leaves room for wearable daytime looks as well as smokier night ones. I'll be doing a look with this palette soon, and more swatches.

This 'Bloody Mary' blush gelee gives a red flush to cheeks, and is sort of like the jelly version of Benefit's Benetint, but much more affordable. I love that the packaging is clear, I think it looks really cool. From memory it was around the $3 mark.

 I assumed that the two lip stains in the Vampires Love range were going to have slant tip applicators as the tube is squeezy, but I was delighted to see a doe foot inside! Best of both worlds, I am a happy little vampire girl and love the 'True Love' shade that I chose. As you can see from the above image, it really does 'stain', that was my attempt at rubbing away the swatch with a wipe.

To really appreciate how amazing these polishes are, you need to see them in person. Photos will never do them justice, especially Gold Old Buffy, which is officially the prettiest polish I own. Captivating, can't stop staring at it and I'm not even a dark nail lover.

Overall I think I did well with this collection, I went back to buy the speckled grey/white polish as I couldn't stop thinking about it. I think they pulled this theme off really well, and I appreciate the range of vampy influence they drew from (Buffy, Sparkly aka Twilight, darkness motifs, myths like Bloody Mary)

I'm very happy with my choices, what do you think of them? Did you pick anything up from the Vampire's Love collection?