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I always forget just how very much I love Chanel until I get my hands on their new products and then I fall in love all over again.  And that’s exactly how I feel about the items I tried from their new summer collection – in love.  (more…)

Can you believe it’s already time for summer makeup?  I know it’s May and in theory, I should be not at all surprised that all the summer collections are everywhere, but I still am.  I feel like spring just flew by, plus I’m in NJ at the moment for a wedding and it’s chilly and raining, so summer doesn’t seem to be here at all.  Luckily, I got my hands on two of the new Smashbox summer releases to warm me up and get me excited for the coming season.

The Shades of Fame Reflection High Shine Lip Gloss Set is a collection of five new lipglosses just begging to be worn with a bathing suit.  They definitely live up to the shiny name, which I enjoy in a gloss, and they come in a nice range of colors – everything from hot pink to a bronze to a lighter pink perfect for the daytime.  I really like the hot pink shade.  My two favorite colors this summer are shaping up to be orange/coral and hot pink, so that one will slide nicely into the rotation.

The Shades of Fame Eye Palette & Brush is also new for summer and looks a lot like the Softbox Eye Palette from earlier this year, but with different shades of shadow.  The Softbox palette had more neutral shades in it though – this one has some neutrals in it as well, but it also has a few brighter shades that are fun to play around with and use as accent colors.  (I’m especially digging the olive green and teal shades).  You can create a ton of different looks with the colors included, so it’s nice to take along on a trip.  I also really like the two shades of cream liner that come inside and the Mini Photo Finish Lid Primer that’s included too.  They’re all welcome additions that make it easy to tote around and get a complete eye look with.  Just add mascara and you’re all set to go!

Stila’s palettes are some of my favorites around because they always have a ton of great shades in them and they’re never outrageously priced.  You know how sometimes you see a makeup product on the shelves and get all excited and then see how much it’s going to cost and realize that it’s not coming home with you?  That almost never happens to me with Stila and it makes me like them even more.  I’ve been playing around with their In The Garden Palette for awhile now and I’m loving it as much as the similar In The Light Palette that I bought months ago and have used a ton.  It’s the same style palette, just with different shades, and while the In The Light Palette leaned towards neutral shades, In The Garden has a few neutrals accented with bold shades that give you a bright pop of color when you use them.

Juniper is probably my favorite shade in the palette.  It’s a deep, shimmery forest green and it’s just super pretty.  It’s perfect for a twist on the classic smoky eye using green instead of black or grey.  I also really like the other green shade, Moss, because it’s a lighter olive green with shimmer so it’s more work appropriate.  There’s also a very pretty deep violet-blue called Freesia that I really like because it makes my green eyes pop when I use it.  The great thing about the palette is that you can use the lighter neutral shades to accent the brighter ones or to tone them down if you’d like, so it’s really a great palette to travel with since it gives you so many options.  (I actually have both In The Garden and In The Light with me on a trip at the moment.  I just couldn’t leave them behind!)  Both palettes retail for only $39, which is a great price for ten different shades.  Pick one (or both!) of them up for yourself – you won’t regret it!

It’s crazy to me that we’re already seeing a lot of summer collections in stores because I haven’t even begun to play around with all the fabulous spring collections that I have.  It’s not summer yet, people!

Bobbi Brown’s Brightening Nudes collection is new for spring and it’s one you’re not going to want to zoom past on your way to the hot and lazy days of summer.  First of all, the Sparkle Eye Shadows.  Oh, the Sparkle Eye Shadows!  As someone who loves playing around with sparkle in my makeup, I adore these.  They’re available in four shades – Ballet, a light pink glitter, Mica, a heather grey sparkle, Silver Moon, a light silver glitter and Sunlight, a golden glitter.  (more…)

I’ve been obsessed with Butter London’s polishes since I first started using them (I’ve gone through THREE bottles of All Hail the Queen!) so I was beyond excited when I heard that they were branching out into lipgloss, especially once I found out that they were going to be in the same shades as some of their most popular polishes.  They’re starting off with five shades and I finally got my hands on three of them (I might’ve shrieked like a little girl when I opened the package).

I tested out Teddy Girl, a pale retro bubblegum pink, Trout Pout, a creamy peach-cantaloupe color and Primrose Hill Picnic, a tropical fuchsia pink.  All three of them were nicely pigmented and they’re moisturizing without being too sticky.  There is nothing I hate more than a sticky gloss that makes my hair weld to it in the wind.  That drives me insane and luckily, these past the breeze test.  I really like that the glosses aren’t see thru – for $17, I want my gloss to come with color and these definitely do that.  They do have a strong scent to them – I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is, but make sure you like it before you buy one because it lingers on your lips for awhile.  I really love how close Butter London was able to make the colors to their polish counterparts – when they’re next to each other, they’re virtually identical, which is good news because their shade selection has always been fabulous.  Now they just really, really need to make an All Hail the Queen gloss for me.  Pretty please?

For those of you still on the hunt for a fabulous neutral palette, LORAC has a great entry in their spring collection.  Unzipped comes with ten shadows in shades ranging from the light vanilla Undercover to the dark chocolate brown Untamed and every shade in between.  Basically, it covers every shade variation in the brown family that you could ever want.  It’s a really versatile palette because you can use it for both daytime and nighttime looks, plus the finishes range from shimmers to mattes, so you get a nice cross-section of shadows to choose from.  The shadows themselves have nice pigmentation and blend easily, making the palette a good bargain at only $40.  They’ve also made it easy to pack, since it’s pretty thin and made of cardboard (with the cutest fake zipper on the cover to go with the name).  It even comes with a mini Behind the Scenes Eye Primer, which makes me very happy because I always want to take eye primer with me when I travel, but the big sizes are way too bulky.  This one’s perfect.  It’s like LORAC knew I was finally going on a vacation and hooked me up!

Also new for spring are LORAC’s Lips With Benefits glosses.  Love these!  They’re available in four different shades – Alex (a berry color), Josh (a fresh pink), Nick (a light pink shimmer) and Mark (a neutral peach).  They have a mix of açaí berry, pomegranate extract, and Vitamin C and Vitamin E in them, so they’re super moisturizing, plus they’re  not that sticky for a gloss, which I appreciate.  The most fun thing about them is the design in the tube.  They all have a pattern to them (that probably isn’t the right word to use to describe it, but I couldn’t think of a better one).  It’s like a zigzag of another shade in the actual color, which not only looks cool, but lets you mix it in with the wand for a subtle change in color.  (Although I have to admit, I like the way it looks too much to actually do that – it’s too pretty to mess up!)  The glosses are scented with a crème brûlée fragrance that makes me happy every time I sniff it (and hungry!)  Is it time for dessert yet?

Okay, I admit it.  I’m one of the only people in the world who hasn’t read any of The Hunger Games books, but in my defense, I’ve been really busy.  (Plus, I’m going on vacation in April and I kind of want to put the trilogy on my Kindle for the long plane rides.)  Regardless of that though, I’m super excited about the new Capital Colours collection of nail polishes from China Glaze.  It’s a 12 piece collection that was inspired by The Hunger Games books and will be available in early March, but I was lucky enough to get 6 of the shades sent to me early and I’ve been having so much fun playing around with them.  (more…)

As much as I love the darker nail shades of the fall and winter, once I’ve been wearing them for a few months, I’m totally ready to strip them off and put some bright colors on my fingers and toes.  China Glaze’s Electropop collection came along right in the nick of time this year. The twelve shades are all bold and fun, none of them boring, and they make me think of spring and the gorgeous shades that fill yards when the season’s new flowers start to spring up.  (more…)

As much as I love collections with a ton of different pieces (MAC, I’m looking at you…) I also really appreciate the smaller collections with only a few choice pieces.  It’s so much easier to figure out what you want when you’re not looking at 16 different glosses or 27 different shadows.  (I’m exaggerating, but you know what I mean).  MAKE UP FOR EVER‘s new La Bohème collection only has 4 products in it, but they’re all flirty and fun and perfect for spring.

The La Bohème Baked Eye Shadow Palette comes in a fabulously patterned and colorful package that contains 6 baked shadows in Lagoon Green, Vegetal Green, Beige, Parma Purple, Brown and Coral.  They’re all sort of soft and pretty, and the formula is enriched with mineral powders and a high concentration of pearl to give them a shimmery effect.  I like baked shadows because they look fairly sheer when applied dry, but when you add water, the shades get deeper and richer.  When I look at the palette, I feel like I should pair the shades with a maxi-dress and really cool sunglasses for a stroll along the Seine, but that might just be wishful thinking since I’m in dire need of a vacation!

The shadows are paired with the La Bohème Aqua Eyes liner.  It’s a matte dark brown, but the original Aqua Eyes packaging has a floral design added to the cap.  So cute!  The packaging for this collection just makes me so happy.  The Aqua Eyes liners are fabulous, so if you haven’t tried one yet, this might be a good basic shade to pick up to get your start.  The other two items in the collection are both La Bohème Rouge Artist Natural lipsticks in two different shades – Bohème and Folk.  Bohème is an iridescent peach beige and Folk is an iridescent red coral.  Again, I LOVE the packaging.  It might sound silly to talk so much about it, but there’s just so much makeup out there that when the packaging on some stands out so well, it really sets it apart.  Plus, on a purely shallow level, it just looks cute when you take it out of your clutch at dinner!

The La Bohème collection is sold exclusively at Sephora, so head to your nearest store to check it out.

DuWop is one of those brands that I always forget how much I like until I play around with their new products and then I fall in love all over again.  Those new/old discoveries are always great, aren’t they?  (more…)