MAC Moody Blooms collection: Black Ivy fluidline look

MAC's latest collection Moody Blooms arrived in the UK last week, and I must say it's gorgeous. Blooming gorgeous, in fact. (Ha.) Unlike the Fantasy of Flowers collection released in January which was full of sweet feminine pinks and soft yellowy greens, Moody Blooms is exactly that. Moody, dark sensual shades that would definitely not be out of place in Poison Ivy's makeup bag.

Described by MAC as "Exotic, night-blooming flowers with a hint of danger inspire a hothouse of seductive shades. Sensual colours shroud eyes in earthy metallic Eye Shadows and lips suggest hidden motives with deep blue plum and dark berry hues of Sheen Supreme Lipstick. Bronze Powder Blush provides a final adrenaline surge before these beauties dissolve into the night."

Hint of danger, ooh err! I must say that I really liked the pieces in this collection. The colors remind me of Indulge collection from last Fall, which I hauled BIG time from!

Today I have created a look using Black Ivy fluidline and three of the eyeshadows from this collection. Have a look at Black Ivy in the pot:-

Black Ivy is the most perfect blackened teal eyeliner! The only other product I have that's similar is MAC Siahi fluidline, but that's lighter and bluer than Black Ivy. Black Ivy is pure love, and its most definitely worth getting a back up of it for your makeup stash!

MAC Moody Blooms

That's Black Ivy lining both upper and lower lash lines. I buffed the lower line out with Green Room eyeshadow, and then buffed that out with Lucky Green eyeshadow. (Lucky Green is also permanent, so you can pick it up anytime!) On the top lid I used Stars n Rockets eyeshadow with Hidden Motive in the crease and outer corner. I already had Stars n Rockets in my kit, which is a dupe for Blooming Mad, an eyeshadow released in this collection. I always try and find dupes for MAC limited edition products, both in the MAC permanent range and other brands, because I know that if I fall in love with something, I won't be able to buy it again. MAC does sometimes re promote limited edition items, but its seldom something that I want! Toxic Tale please, MAC?!? Pretty please!

Did you pick up anything from Moody Blooms? What MAC products would you like to see re-promoted? 

RiRi Hearts MAC Holiday: Bad Girl RiRi and Pleasurebomb lipsticks

This week has seen the release of the third and final RiRi Hearts MAC collection, on both sides of the Atlantic. If, like me, (and a about a million other MAC addicts) you've probably experienced a hella struggle to get the items from this Holiday launch! Like, a mountain of struggle. I think the words 'unicorn riding a rainbow' come to my mind, after the amount of sheer site-stalking, waiting in a virtual 'waiting-room' and queuing up in busy department stores I've done in the past seven days! Ah, but it was all worth it...

'My Precioussssss!'

The RiRi Hearts MAC Holiday collection comprises of twelve items, including a brush, makeup bag, and a nail polish to match the staple lipstick from all three collections, RiRi Woo. I'm not gonna show you RiRi Woo again in this post, you can read my review on it here. I am however, going to show you the two new lipsticks in this Holiday collection: Bad Girl RiRi and Pleasurebomb.

Bad Girl RiRi

Pleasurebomb

How gorgeous is the white and rose gold combo packaging? I love it! I even prefer it to the Fall packaging, which was all rose gold. Bad Girl RiRi is a rose toned nude with a matte finish. Pleasurebomb is a vibrant fuchsia with a matte finish. Both these lipsticks had a flawless application that was smooth and fully opaque in two swipes. They wore on me like regular MAC matte lipsticks; up to four hours, with fading after the third. It is noteworthy that Pleasurebomb left a slight stain on my lips up until I washed my face. 

Swatches in direct sunlight

Bad Girl RiRi 

Pleasurebomb

I really like Pleasurebomb, but I have a feeling that I could probably find an inexpensive dupe for it either on the highstreet here, or in an American drugstore. Bad Girl RiRi on the other hand is unique, especially to my lipstick collection. I very much doubt that I'd find a pink nude that suits me as much as BGRR! I'm glad I managed to score myself a backup. I pretty much refreshed the Nordstrom about 100 times in one night just to get my hands on it, but it was so worth it. Look, over there! Is that a unicorn riding a rainbow? Haha. 

Have you battled online or instore to bag yourself some RiRi Hearts MAC Holiday goodies? What did you pick up? Is there anything you wanted, but couldn't get your hands on it? 

Polish Profile: Nicole by OPI She's Lily Something

Hey everyone!

About a month ago, I noticed that Superdrug had started to stock Nicole by OPI polishes. SCORE! It was last week when my nearest large Superdrug had its Nicole stand inserted, and I was all over it like a giddy child on Christmas morning.

There was a decent selection of colors available, and I was particularly pleased to see that the Modern Family collection; the most recent limited edition collection was also available.

I picked up She's Lily Something, which is a pink iridescent top coat with pink star glitter inside. I layered this over L'Oreal Acid Watermelon, a neon pink from the new Spring/Summer '13 collection. She's Lily Something was fairly easy to work with, as it applied smoothly and I was able to place the pink stars on my nail without having to resort to using a toothpick to fish them out! That said, I'm not a huge fan of the odd-shaped Nicole bottles- the brush only reaches halfway down the bottle! I can't imagine that this polish will be easy to work with once it's half empty!

So, here's the swatches! (all taken in direct sunlight)

Note:~ Acid Watermelon is so much more neon in real life- it freaks my camera out!!

The selection of polishes available in Boots and Superdrug now is absolutely sha-mazing! Both stores have Essie, Boots have Sally Hansen, Sinful Colors and Mavala; whereas Superdrug have Nicole by OPI, and GOSH and Accessorize which have some great polishes in their cosmetic range.

Have you picked up any NIcole by OPI polishes yet?

MAC Silly lipstick

Just a quick post today, as I seemingly have a million and one things to do today!

MAC Silly is a matte medium bright pink lipstick. It is similar to Pink Pigeon, but unfortunately I can't locate my tube of Pink Pigeon to do a compare for y'all. When I find it, I will swatch them side by side.

I can see myself rocking Silly all summer long! It is a tiny bit brighter than what it looks like on my lips above, but the sun was so frickin' bright today that I couldn't quite get a perfect shot of it on my lips.

Silly wears like usual MAC matte lipsticks- I get four to six hours wear, and even though they can and will look dry on your lips if you don't pre-moisturize, I didn't find Silly to be the most drying MAC matte lipstick I've ever tried.

Again, Silly was part of the Fashion Sets collection which came out on the same day as about a gazillion other collections! Naughty MAC!

How's everyone's Tuesday going?

MAC Scorching Haute Nail Lacquer

At least my nails can be scorching haute, even if the weather outside is somewhat chilly.

Scorching Haute is one of the two polishes from the MAC Temperature Rising collection. I was a little bit underwhelmed by this collection, and for me personally, the polishes were its highlights. The Temperature Rising collection came out on the same day as the Fashion Sets, Art of the Eye, Baking Beauties, AND In Extra Definition collections. Compared to all these collections, the Temperature Rising collection just seemed a bit meh.

Scorching Haute however, is an absolute gem.

MAC Scorching Haute

Scorching Haute is a packed multi-sized magenta glitter suspended in a clear base. The applicationon this wasn't terrible, but wasn't the best either. On my nails it had a tendency to patch, so I had to manipulate the glitter somewhat. My swatch is three coats, and it needed all three to get fully opaque on the nail. 

All of my pictures are in natural sunlight, and you can see just how bright and sparkling Scorching Haute is. It is even more twinkly under artificial light. I was stood in my kitchen for a minute just admiring it!

MAC have decided to put the Temperature Rising collection in soft touch bronze packaging (see polish cap.) It's a nice touch, but I'm charged £1 extra for the luxury of it.  That said, I still think £11 is a decent price to pay for a premium nail polish. 

Did you buy any of the Temperature Rising collection? 

New York Color (NYC) HD Color Eyeshadow Quad

Hey guys!

My budget beauty quest continues, and today I have a review of NYC's HD Color Eyeshadow Quad in NY Tribute. I picked this palette because I thought the pinks and purples would suit my green eyes.

Beautiful colors, non? Look at the shimmer in the light purple! 

Some application tips, which I roughly followed.

Here's the look I created:- 

When I first opened this palette and swiped the shadows with my fingers, I was impressed. they seemed nicely and soft, and full of pigment. However, this soft texture was the product's downfall, as the shadows literally crumbled upon application. Fallout, was unfortunately, a huge problem with these. 

In addition to this, as you can see in the photos, the pigment turned out to be not so great on these. I found myself having to use a lot f the darkest purple color to even make it look like I had some eyeshadow on! The best shadow was probably the highlighter shade, as it looked sheer, and not at all chalky.

So overall ,this product wasn't the greatest. In truth, the application was a nightmare. It took me a long time to build up these shadows due to the fallout and lack of pigment. It's such a shame, because if the shadows were pigmented, then the collection of colors would have been really nice. Boo.

The HD Color Eyeshadow quad is £2.99, and is available from Superdrug.