Dark Navy Blue Manicure using Chanel

Hello gorgeous girls!!

Hope you are all well and not too hungover from last night! Again, Happy 2014!! I've decided not to post what I got for Christmas. I really didn't want it to look like I was showing off. Obviously, you'll see some of what I got in the last couple of posts I did and upcoming ones. I just didn't want it to be staring you in the face. Anyways, I will be posting my Boxing Day haul because it wasn't that insane. I'm just waiting to get my Sephora package in the mail and I'll do everything together.

This nail polish was one item I did get for Christmas from my mom. My very first Chanel nail polish!! Woo!! Actually, she got two, but I haven't tried the other one yet. The dark navy blue one is called Magic and the other one is a lovely greige, kind of similar to the Ciate Cookies N Cream tutorial I very recently did; this one's called 559 Frenzy. So after using the polish, I have to say, I didn't notice anything special about it. Now I'm not crazy into nails, so maybe I'm just weird, but I really didn't think it was above and beyond, not to say that it wasn't good, because it was. It just wasn't remarkable, I guess is the word I'm looking for. I'm also going to say that I didn't do the best job in the world on my nails, so don't hate. It was night and I didn't have a lot of light on. But I don't care if they're not perfect, so long as they're not seriously messed up.

So I've explained how I prep my nails in other posts, but I'll just go over it very briefly in case you haven't seen those posts. I use only Essie for my base and top coats and I use a few other brands for the actual nail polish colour. 

Nail Prep

To prepare my nails for a manicure, I remove any left over nail polish with nail polish remover. I moisturize my nails and hands with the Body Shop's Almond Hand and Nail Cream. I like to do this step the day before I do my nails. If I need to trim my nails, I use Tweezerman's nail trimmer and then I file my nails using the Sephora Crystal Nail File and I use their 4-step nail buffer. Then I use my Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil and I apply it to my cuticles and nails for extra hydration. Then I use my Tweezerman 2-in-1 cuticle pusher and nail cleaner to push my cuticles so I can use my Tweezerman Cuticle Snipper to trim my cuticles. Then I use the other end of the cuticle pusher to clean my nails. I wash the cuticle oil off and I'm ready to start the manicure!

Manicure Time

I always start with Essie Millionails treatment. My nails used to be super brittle in between manicures, but since I started using this and her base coat, wow my nails are so much stronger! I usually do about two coats. Next, I apply Essie Grow Stronger Base Coat to my nails. I use this particular one because my nails were very weak and brittle like I mentioned before. To make the polish dry faster, I sit with my nails facing the light bulb in my lamp. The heat makes it dry much much faster! Now, time for the colour! I'm using Chanel Nail Polish in Magic, which is a limited edition shade from their Christmas 2013 collection. I applied two coats and the colour was very opaque, even with one. Then to seal this in, I used Essie Good To Go Fast Drying Top Coat. I used two coats just to make sure I sealed everything in. Now my nails are a lovely navy blue colour!

The Manicure

Products Used

Sephora Collection Mini Crystal Nail File - 10$CAD for mini, 12$CAD for fullsize

Sephora Collection 4-Step Nail Buffer - 7$CAD

Sephora Collection 4-Step Nail Buffer - 7$CAD

Tweezerman Hot Pink Nail Rescue Kit - 24$CAD

Essie Apricot Cuticle Oil - 10$CAD

Essie Millionails Treatment - 10$CAD

Essie Grow Stronger Base Coat - 10$CAD

Chanel Nail Colour in Magic (LE) - approx. 30$CAD

Essie Good To Go Top Coat - 10$CAD

So that's the manicure! Hope you enjoyed the post and seeing me get my first Chanel polish!! I know I was pretty excited to try it. The colour is nice, not something I would have picked personally, but it's nice. I would have picked Cosmic or Black Satin, hopefully I'll get my hands on them soon! Have you ever used Chanel nail polishes? What's your opinion of them? And would you say they're better than brands like Essie and OPI?

I'll also try to let you know how long the nail polish lasts on my nails before chipping. I've had it for a couple days so far and it's doing great, but it's hard to say how they'll turn out in the long run. I'll probably post a short status on Facebook and Twitter.

Steph xo.

PS. Working on a Best of 2013 Makeup post as well as a What I Regret Not Buying in 2013. And I'll try to get my Perfect Palette Tag post up soon too.

Christmas Themed Makeup Look

Hello glamour girls!!!

I wanted to post what I got for Christmas this year, but I'm not sure if I should. I really don't want it to be a showing off post, which is why I've been holding off on it. I don't want anyone to feel left out because I know there are a lot of people that can't afford higher end makeup, and that it's tough for some people around this time of year. So I don't know. I'm super happy with everything that I got and I'll be sharing some of it with you today!

I've got a bazillion post ideas on my mind!! I might do a Boxing Day Makeup shopping post. I ordered a few things online so I'll have to wait for everything to come. That Perfect Palette post.... oh it's coming. I just feel like I use everything I have, I always try to reach for each palette cuz I do a different look each day. I love them all! I'm going to be writing a Hits and Misses type post for all the makeup that was released this year. I also want to do a New Year's Eve look and get it up ahead of time for once.

Oh and do you just love the cat sweater?? I got it from my parents for Christmas. I love this sweater!!!! I think they got it at Dynamite.

Today I'll be doing a Christmas Themed Makeup Look using a bunch of different products by different brands! It's really all over the place so there isn't one brand that's taking over the show for once. I hope you like it! I'm just happy that I finally got to play with some of my Christmas stuff! Now this look isn't a crazy over-the-top Christmas look, but it is one that will get you noticed at parties with a sexy red lip.

Christmas Themed Makeup Look

So I hope that you're all still in the Christmas spirit!! Better late than never, I hope you enjoy my Christmas Themed Makeup Look. I wanted to use reds and greens without being overly dramatic. My parents are a little old fashioned, so they weren't impressed by the red lipstick, but come on!! That's so Christmassy!! Green and brown eyes with red lipstick? Come on I don't know what else spells Christmas than this look. Finally, I'm showing you the beautiful Too Faced A Few of my Favorite Things makeup palette! I've done 3 out of 4 makeup looks from this palette and I have to say I love it. The shadows are pigmented like they normally are and you get a nice range of colors. In my opinion, it's a very Christmas-time oriented palette. The second line of shades (the ones I'm wearing today) are perfect for Christmas day cuz you've got that green in there. This look is the "Weekend" look in the lookbook that comes with the palette. Evergreen on the lid, Buche de Noel in the crease, and Cream Colored Peonies as a highlight, and you're good to go. They tell you to put Blue Satin Sashes as both a top and bottom liner, but I only put it on my bottom lid as a liner. The colors go so well together and it looks fantastic! The last line of shades is perfect for New Year's Eve cuz you have all the glittery shades and the perfect combination to make a killer smokey eye. You also have a row of goldeny browns and a row of a mix of pinks and browns, any one of them great for Christmas Eve and the rest of the days around Christmas. I never really thought of this palette like that until I did today's look and it just hit me. The blushes and bronzers are beautiful, though I'm using something else today. My mom also stole the Lip Injection Color Bomb in Bee Sting that came with this set. She really loved the color so I let her keep it. Didn't want her to have to buy the whole thing just for that (well she really loved one of the blushes too, unfortunately that's a bit too hard to steal out of my palette).

For the face, I used my usual routine of foundations and concealers. For the blush, bronzer, and highlight, I used my brand new NARS One Night Stand Cheek Palette from the Guy Bourdin Collection. I tried Laguna for the first time and I'm pretty impressed. I was afraid it would be too dark for my fair skin, but using a light hand it looks great! It contours my face very well without looking too peachy or orange on my pink-toned skin. I used Goulue for the blush, I wanted something that was more red-toned and would complement a red lip well. I have to say, this blush was the perfect choice. As a highlight, I used Devotee and wow! It's more shimmery than I expected!! And you all know how much I love my shimmery highlighters. It's love at first sight. So far I'm loving this blush palette. I just wish it was all new colors because I have plenty of Orgasm and Deep Throat that I didn't really need any more. I do love those colors but I think another two new shades would have been better. That's not to say that I don't love this palette, because I do love it!! I think it's very versatile and along with my Adult Content cheek palette, I think I'm all set for blush shades. You can't say you can't find a shade you like with both palettes in front of you.

And lastly for the lips, I'm using MAC. I used my Cherry lip liner and my Ruby Woo matte lipstick. You can always put a clear lipgloss over the lipstick if you want a glossy finish. This is definitely my go-to red lipstick. It's that perfect bright red that's flattering on a lot of people. It's hard to find that perfect shade, but once you do, meeeowwww we have a bad girl over here!! Pair it with Cherry lip liner and you are ready to rock. I find Cherry goes well with so many reds, especially pinkier reds. I used it with Urban Decay's new Revolution lipstick in Catfight and it looked amazing. For an orangier and brighter red, go with Redd lip liner. So this is the finished look! Tell me this doesn't look like Christmas.

Eyes

Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Too Faced A Few Of My Favorite Things

• Evergreen
• Buche De Noel
• Cream Colored Peonies
• Blue Satin Sashes

MAC Kohl Power Eye Pencil in Feline
Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara
Benefit Brow Zings in Light

Face

Too Faced Primed and Poreless
MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in NW20
MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NW20
MUFE HD Foundation in 110
MUFE HD Powder
NARS One Night Stand Cheek Palette

• Luminizer: Devotee
• Blush: Goulue
• Bronzer: Laguna

Lips

MAC Lip Liner in Cherry
MAC Lipstick in Ruby Woo

Products Used

Too Faced A Few Of My Favorite Things Palette - approx. 65$CAD

Too Faced A Few Of My Favorite Things

Too Faced A Few Of My Favorite Things

MAC Kohl Power Eye Pencil in Feline - 19$CAD

Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara - 30$CAD

Benefit Brow Zings in Light

Benefit Brow Zings in Light - 36$CAD

NARS X Guy Bourdin One Night Stand Cheek Palette

NARS X Guy Bourdin One Night Stand Cheek Palette - approx. 75$CAD

MAC Lip Pencil in Cherry - 18$CAD

MAC Lipstick in Ruby Woo - 18$CAD

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed today's Christmas-y Makeup Look!! While it wasn't crazy and colorful or anything like that, it is a perfect look for a family get-together or evening out with friends. If you aren't into red lips, I would suggest going with a nude lip and going darker on a red-toned blush. And if you're doing this look for a party, I suggest some green glitter on the lid and you'll be looking fierce. And maybe a green liner too. So again, hope you enjoyed the look! Have you gotten your hands on the Too Faced A Few Of My Favorite Things set? Is it worth it? And which is your favorite look out of the four? I'll have to do the rest of them and show you! And oh my gosh the NARS One Night Stand Cheek Palette!!!! I was sooooo excited to finally use it! I'm so happy I got it. So far I'm loving it. I'm really happy about it. I just haven't tried the light pink blush yet but knowing me, it'll look great on me. I'm just happy that Goulue turned out really nice one me cuz it was the one blush I wasn't sure about. So did you get your hands on the NARS One Night Stand palette? Was it worth it to you? And let's not forget about the killer red lipstick! Ruby Woo and Cherry are my favorite pair when it comes to doing a red lip. I'd love to try out some other reds, but I'm definitely loving Ruby Woo. Which is your favorite red MAC shade? So let me know which products you are digging this holiday season!

Oh and before I go,

isn't this the BEST sweater EVER?????

Steph xo.

P.S. my camera is being weird and not focusing correctly so some images are blurry. I'll try to fix this.

P.P.S. I've got a ton of ideas for blog posts so look out! I really want to blog more now that I'm on break from school

Winter / Christmas 2013 Makeup Trends (Part 1 of 2)

Hello glam girls!

Time for another seasonal makeup post. We're barely halfway through October and we're already seeing Christmas Collections popping up all over the place. I'll be showing you some of the anticipated Christmas Collections from a few brands that I'm interested in. I won't be showing anything that isn't Christmas related, so I might be skipping over a few things. If you're thinking about sending your favorite blogger (me!) a Christmas present, I'd be more than happy to accept it. Hah just kidding.

If you see any updates please let me know! Last time I did a seasonal post, I found a bunch of new pics the day after I posted. haha obviously that was bound to happen.

I've decided to split this in half since this post is already very pic heavy. In today's post I will be showing you Christmas Collections from MAC, Too Faced, Urban Decay, Stila, and a few nail sets as well. Next time I will be showing you Sephora, Benefit, Chanel, Laura Mercier, and NARS. So far, the only one who's released their collection is Benefit and Sephora, so I'm still waiting to see what the other 3 brands are bringing to the table this holiday season. Hope you enjoy and do share what you're anticipating this year and which products have got your heart!

So obviously the day after I prep this post MAC releases half their collection.

MAC - Divine Night

Nocturnals Mini Lip Gloss Set - Nude

Nocturnals Mini Lip Gloss Set - Pink

Nocturnals Mini Lip Gloss Set - Coral

Nocturnals Tastitints Mini Tinted Flavored Lip Conditionner Kit

Nocturnals Mini Glitter and Pigment Set - Silver and Violet

Nocturnals Mini Glitter and Pigment Set - Green and Teal

Nocturnals Mini Glitter and Pigment Set - Black and Gold

Divine Night Mineralize Blushes

Divine Night Mineralize Skinfinishes

Divine Night Mineralize Eyeshadows

Divine Night Fluidlines

Divine Knight Power Eye Pencils

Divine Knight Lipsticks

Divine Night Cremesheen Lipglasses

Divine Night Nail Lacquers

Stroke of Midnight Lip Look Bag - Nude

Stroke of Midnight Lip Look Bag - Violet

Stroke of Midnight Eye Look Bag - Nude

Stroke of Midnight Eye Look Ba - Gold

Stroke of Midnight Eye Look Bag - Violet

Stroke of Midnight Mineralize Brush Kit

Stroke of Midnight Essentials Brush Kit

Stroke of Midnight Smokey Eye Brush Kit

Stroke of Midnight Cool Eyes Palette

Stroke of Midnight Warm Eyes Palette

Stroke of Midnight Smokey Eyes Palette

Stroke of Midnight Warm Face Palette

Stroke of Midnight Cool Face Palette

Wow MAC came out with a lot of goodies this holiday season! There's so many products that are on my wishlist! I want the lipglasses, the eyeliners, the cool eye and face sets, some pigments, the lip sets, a lot of the mineralized products, the eye sets. Gosh, there's just so much that I like! I can't wait to see it all and to start swatching them! They've put up some serious competition this year. They have so much to choose from, it's going to be so hard limiting myself to a few items (and maybe a set or two). What are your favorites from this collection?

Too Faced - Joy to the Girls

Joy to the Girls

All I Want for Christmas

Jingle All The Way

Be Merry and Bright

A Few of my Favorite Things

Wow Too Faced!! I have to say that I was a huge fan of last year's collection. I got the Love Sweet Love Set and I've actually hit pan on a few shadows. So obviously, this year's was highly anticipated from me. Before they released the A Few of my Favorite Things palette, I was honestly underwhelmed. I kept thinking to myself "this can't be it" and when they released the final palette, well that was more like it! My mom picked it up for me the other day and I can't wait to test it out! Haven't had much time yet but it looks great. The Jingle All The Way cell phone palette also looks like a nice one, I'll be checking it out when it comes to my Sephora. I would have liked the Be Merry and Bright palette, but unfortunately it's an Ulta exclusive (we don't have Ultas here). I'm thinking of getting my mom the "All I want for Christmas" set because those are so her colors.

Urban Decay

Vice 2 Palette

Ocho Loco 2

Black Market

Shattered Face Case

 

Anarchy Face Case

Naked Illuminated

Heavy Metal Liner

Wow Urban Decay seriously impresses this holiday season. Firstly, they're releasing Vice 2, which is the sequel to the best selling Vice palette. I'm personally not really into it, I didn't buy the first one, but I can see why this is such a popular palette. There's a range of colors, you can go from bold to natural. While this isn't on my list, it does make a great gift for that special friend of yours. What I am into, however, is both of the eyeliner sets. I'm currently lacking in the eyeliner department so when I see eyeliner sets, gimme gimme gimme!! The color selection is great too and they're high quality liners. Next up we've got two face palettes, Shattered and Anarchy. Personally, it's very hard to pick one because there's certain things I like about each that I would, ideally, pick and choose and put together my own palette. I like the shadows and liner of Anarchy, but the lip pencil and face palette of Shattered. Ugh what a dilemma! They've also reformulated their Heavy Metal liners. And, exclusive to their site, they have a new Naked Illuminator! Gahh how I wish they had that in store!! So on the whole, Urban Decay has put out a very good holiday collection this year! So many things that I want!!


Stila

Masterpiece Series Eye and Cheek Palettes

Portrait of a Perfect Eye

Color Outside the Lines Smudgestick Waterproof Eyeliner Set

Art of the Fine Line Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner Set

Stay All Day 10-in-1 HD Beauty Balm Trio

Color Me Pretty Lip and Cheek Palette

Portrait of a Perfect Blush

Portrait of a Perfect Pout - Neutral Lip

Portrait of a Perfect Pout - Vibrant Lip

Color me Glossy Lip Glaze Set

Tools of the Trade 5 Piece Luxe Brush Set

Holiday Essentials Kit

Best of Kitten Set

Artist Essential Set

Artist's Signature Set

Wow, Stila sure has a LOT to choose from this holiday season. I'm actually pretty impressed with the amount of stuff they've got out. There are a few things that I would like to have, like the Masterpiece Eyes and Cheek set, the Smudgestick Eyeliner set, the Cheek and Lip set, the blush set, and obviously the Artist Essential Set and the Artist Signature Set. The signature set looks pretty effing amazing. Soooo much stuff to play with!! It honestly reminds me of a children's paint set. Haha. I guess it kind of is like painting, making art on your face and all. A couple things were disappointing, like the Kitten set, how much kitten does one need? I've got everything that comes in that set. If you have Stila products, you have kitten. I'm not saying that I don't like Kitten (actually, I do like it) but they should make another set and not include it in every single set they make. I don't need 10 Kittens. But anyway, great range of sets, there's something for everyone there cuz there's so much to choose from! It's hard to not leave the store with everything.


Sephora Collection

Nail Blockbuster

Formula X for Sephora

The Twenty-Two

Deborah Lippman

Big Bang

Nails Inc

Autumn Winter Collection

Christmas Crackers

My Nail Polish Diary

Ciate

Mini Mani Month

Out of all the nail polish sets, my eyes are on Formula X for Sephora because they have a big range of colors. Deborah Lippman's looks great too, lots of different colors. And lastly, but certainly not least, Ciate has their mini mani month once again this year, and it's looking pretty darn good. I got last year's edition and I loved it. You get a huge range of colors along with the beads so you can make different caviar manis, along with a few different finishes of nail polish, like last year's had sparkles for example. This year's looks awesome and it's definitely something I'll be checking out and hopefully getting.





I hope you enjoyed my season post on all the upcoming winter products. It'll be Christmas in two months, I can't believe it. Better start writing those wishlists girls! Let me know which products and collections that you are looking forward to the most. I know I'm pretty excited about a few!! I hope this wasn't too long of a post, I know there's a ton of pictures. I love makeup shopping around Christmastime, there are always so many palettes and sets to choose from. I hope Santa's good to you all this year.

Steph xo.

P.S. Part 2 will be on Sephora Collection, Benefit, NARS, Laura Mercier, and Chanel.