Lilyland and Sephora Haul

I know I said that Lilyland had nothing that interested me, but I really wanted to try the cremeblend blush because I read that it's lighter in texture and more pigmented than MAC's original cremeblush. They are sooooo smooth to work with! and BONUS! The MAC MA said that they are great for the lips too -- and they ARE!! They give a pretty lipstained look (I haven't tried with a thicker coat yet). I love the colours I picked up, and I might pick up the other two as well =P
I always wanted the vanilla pigment, and since MAC is phasing out the old jars, I thought I would try my luck with getting it (in the old jar)... no luck, so I settled for the new packaging -- it's super cute, but I feel a tad gyped. Yeah, it's true that I will still NEVER use up the jar, but boo...

Joie-de-vivre

Optimistic Orage

Joie-de-vivre and optimistic orange

Stopped by Sephora and picked up the LAST Funny Face lipstick from NARS that they had in stock. Wendy picked this up a couple of months ago -- I swear she is such an enabler even when she's not there! It's a gorgeous matte-finish "hot pink" colour. I put it in "quotes" because it's not BRIGHT hot pink... it's darker... closer to a berry shade. The picture does it no justice.

Natural lighting -- hard to capture the true colour.

swatch with flash -- you can tell that it has a strong blue base.

Disclaimer: All products mentioned were purchased by myself.

Monthly Favourites: November

I am still on hiatus -- I am currently in the middle of Teacher's College Applications (deadline is approaching FAST) plus 2 weeks worth of exams... my last day is Dec 17 -- but I should be able to blog regularly again after next week... I just realized that I really enjoy blogging. Despite this only being a beauty blog and that there isn't much substance to it in terms of my personal life... I just enjoy sharing my thoughts, even if it's about cosmetics (nothing wrong with that!). Plus, I'm sure that if you're here, you aren't interested in knowing about my boring life (it really is boring)...

This month has gone by slowly (unlike the past several months) and I can't wait for it to be OVVEERRRRRR...

Face:
Volcanic Ash Exfoliator: I don't use exfoliants as much as I should -- I simply just don't remember. Don't even get me started with masques. As much as I would LIKE to use these extra products on top of my regular/daily skin care regime, I simply don't have the time. With that said, when I DO remember to use an exfoliator, I reach for either the MAC Microfine Refinisher or the Volcanic Ash one. I think I'm going through this faster than I should though... lol.. I'm already half done and it's a LE item =S I really like the sugar granules and the way it dissolves as I work it in, although I do feel it dissolves a little TOO quickly. Leaves my skin super duper smooth afterwards (definitely a noticeable difference from the microfine refinisher).

Eyes:
NARS Mekong eyeshadow: I've been wanting this for a while, but could never justify buying it because of its pricetag. I picked this up with Sephora's VIB 20% discount a few weeks ago. It's a beautiful shimmery DARK chocolate brown. Some have described it as a black with gold glitter -- it is definitely not. I love this on my crease/outer V... it is soooooo pigmented and sooo easy to work with/blend. I've used this every single time I've put make-up on my face this month.

Lips:
Show Orchid Lipstick: WOW. That is all I can say about this lipstick. I've wanted it since it came out with the Colour Ready Collection in April, but never picked it up and really regretted it when it was taken off the shelves and (I thought) sold out everywhere. Wendy found out that they still carried it at my closest mall, but I kept forgetting to pick it up whenever I was there. When I finally DID remember, they only had THREE left. Phew. I had never officially worn it out, but I admired it a lot. It's a hot hot in your face fuschia pink (I'm a nude lip girl). I finally wore it to the IMATS and OMG I have never received so many compliments for what I wear on my lips lol (I topped it with flashmode lustreglass) -- I even got a compliment from pursebuzz!! Like one commenter (who saw me) said... the pictures really do no justice to what it actually looked like in person. GORGEOUS~

Make-Up Alley: Swapping

I am so super excited about this, I just HAD to share!!!
If you are a make-up junkie (and if you're on this blog then you most likely are), then you have heard of http://www.makeupalley.com/.

This site is great because you get peer reviews of almost any product you can think of, as well as give reviews of your own. In addition to reviews, there is a swap section which is much like ebay, except rather than paying with money, you exchange (slightly) used make-up that you don't use anymore or didn't work for you, for something else that the other person isn't using anymore (also known as bartering).

So I'm not much of a swapper myself -- if you check my profile, you'll see I've only been awarded 4 tokens (like feedback with ebay), which is the number of times I've swapped (plus my swap list and wishlist are very limited). I rarely swap, because I tend to just give away make-up I don't really use anymore...

Anyway... so I decided to swap recently because I was on the hunt for So Ceylon and Petticoat MSFs... they aren't available at MAC locations anymore (nor on the website)... and I found this incredibly sweet swapper (who happened to live in the province -- they are usually from the States and unwilling to swap internationally). I swapped my ONE PlantLove palette with her TWO MSFs... and the fact that she even agreed to that was awesome...

here comes the other positives:

- It came the very next day after she shipped! (expresspost)

- Both MSFs were awesome and came as described (VERY lightly used)

- She included extras that were OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!!

(2 NARS single eyeshadows and because NARS orgasm blush was on my wishlist, she included a HUGE palette that not only came with the blush.. but 4 other eyeshadows, an ADDITIONAL blush and lippies)

WWWOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!

I was super excited because it was completely unexpected...

(I was home alone so I was totally screaming!)

again.. i swapped ONE palette.. for these AMAZING full-sized items... she is so awesome.

Her MUA is ambriel <-- pls go check her out and say hi... =]

OMG... enough rambling... here are the pics: