Musings of a Muse

A Blog of Musings from a Cosmetic Whore

Feb 8, 2008

Japanese Spring Collection Cosmetic Week Concludes



It's sadly the end of the week and I have to bring a close to Japanese Spring Collection Week!

*sniff*

I wish I had more time on the weekend to update but I find I get too busy to blog during the weekends so you guys will have to wait until Monday for more goodies!

The wait will be worth it! I promise sweet treats for next week's entries!

Sneak Peek for next week:

Majolica Majorca's Spring Collection
KATE's Spring Collection
Ablion Epirse Spring Collection
Ettusais Glitter Princess Collection (Click here for details)

And much, much more!

If you missed any of my posts this week here's a break down of what I've covered so far:

Click here to see KATE's New Gel Mascara Reviewed!

Click here to read about Lavshuca's Spring Collection!

Click here to see the Kiss Chocolatier Spring Collection with an FOTD!

Click here to see Lavshuca's new Noble On palettes in action!

Click here and here to see some of the new Magie Deco, Jill Stuart, and Lunasol Palettes from the Muse's mate and reader, Betsy!

If you'd like to discuss any of these brands, have any questions, or anything else do post 'em here! The Muse is all ears!

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Sephora Spring 2008 Catalog


Guess what?

Sephora's updated it's site with it's newest Spring Catalog!

The theme this year is "Beauty as Art" and I'm not particularly loving the cover art! However, model images on the inside definately look promising!



Sadly, the catalog for me is a disappointment which is no great surprise I guess. Most of what is featured we pretty much already know about and plus they have the standard stuff that they pimp constantly in the catalog like Benefit's Bad Gal Mascara (Worst freaking mascara in the world!), Lash Injection (another loser!), and of course little bits of Sephora stuff is littered through (It's their catalog so I guess they have to pimp some of their own line right?) like lipsticks, shadows, the brush selection etc.....





It's a snore for me which is good news as I've dropped plenty on Japanese Spring Collections this Season so money saved!





Check out the catalog yourself by clicking here!

Loving the newest Catalog?
As bored and snored as the Muse?
See something you want?

Discuss!



Click here to enjoy my musings about the Sephora Holiday 2007 Collection!

Click here to read about the Sephora Summer Catalog from last year!

Click here to read about the Sephora Fall Catalog 2007!

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Reader's Request: Lavshuca Winter Make Tutorial

Hey Guys!

One of my readers, Millie, asked very sweetly for a Tutorial using the Lavshuca Winter Make Palette in 01, which is the Berry Mix, and of course I'd be happy to do it for her (I'm flattered she asked!)!

I'm crap at Tutorials but I hope this helps somehow Millie!

Keep in mind Millie is Asian and sadly my eyes are nowhere (as you know they are rather large and buggy) near Asian in appearance so this might not be of help to some of you or Poor Millie for that matter!

This is really simple one but I think it has the potential to look very natural, elegant, and pretty!

One of the main colors in the palette is a very pale, light shade of pink and I find that the pink actually contrasts beautifully with the dark purplish liner in the palette. The funny thing about the liner is when it's on your eye it reflects off of the rather washed out pink color and makes it appear a berry purple color.

Before I start the tutorial I thought I'd post the promo images so you can see the shadow in action on Puffy!

Our model on the left hand side is wearing the palette I'll be using! The thing that I love about Lavshuca is that the models don't appear heavily made up nor do they appear to be wearing something that isn't in the palette that they are advertising. The look doesn't appear to be too difficult to create or leave you with a feeling of how in the world can I create this using just this palette!



The only thing I did notice about the models is that they may be wearing a bit of a heavier liner on the lower and possibly the upper lash lines! Aside from that the colors are identical to what is in the palette!

I buy tons of cosmetics and I always see promo images with models wearing the makeup and it influences me to purchase a particular shade or palette and of course when I get home the colors never work together or I'm unable to recreate the same look as the model because obviously the colors weren't used on the model or they photo shopped the hell out of the image! It deserves to be said this happens mostly with western brands I've noticed!

I babbled enough! On with the tutorial!

Here's what I created using my Winter Make palette! I took two sets of photos, one set consists of me using only the lipcream and glitter top gloss on my lips. After I completed my look I just felt my lips weren't "popping" enough so I added some Sony CP Curvy Lip Silicon on top! My face appears super duper white in the images! Apologies but the flash from my camera was reflecting off my shirt and giving me the look of a ghost!

What I Used:

Eyes:
Lavshuca Winter Make Palette in 01

Lips:
Lavshuca Winter Make Palette
Sony CP Curvy Lip Silicon

Face:
NARS Blush in Angelika

Without Gloss:






With Gloss:
















Ok now that I've exhausted you with babblings and pictures I'll get on with the tutorial!

I started by taking the lightest cream shade on the left hand side of the palette and worked it from my highbrow all the way to my crease. Use the applicator the palette came with! The sponge applicator is the perfect way to pack on the color and especially handy since the colors are so light! I need alot of the color but if you're Asian one nice coat of the cream shade should do it, if not pick up more color and work it in.

After giving my highbrow and crease a wash of color with the cream I took the pink shade (middle color) and worked it onto my lid. I dipped about three times into the palette to build up the pink as it's such a light color. Again, if you're Asian you might not need as much as it might cake. My eyes dominate my face and I have ALOT of eye area to cover so three times is about the right amount for me.

Millie said she was having a difficult time with the liner palette and wondering if she should line her upper and lower line. I personally opped to line my lower lash line and as you can see the models also sport the liner on the bottom lash line however Millie had expressed she felt it looked weird on! You can always just use the pale pink on your lower lash line instead and it'll brighten the look up!

In order to achieve the "smoke" of the look I drew a large line onto my eye using the last color in the palette. I proceeded to use a smudge eye brush (if you don't have one just use a small eyeshadow brush) to blend the color into my lash line and "smoke" it out so to speak. I know from prior use that the purple black of the color looked a tad weird on my bottom lash line as well so before applying I take a bit of the pink and line with that and I proceed to take whatever remains on my applicator from my upper lining (don't dip again you'll have plenty on the applicator left over from prior application on your upper lashline) and line my lower eye! If you find that you don't have enough of the color to line the lower lash line very lightly re-dip and proceed to line a bit more. Don't over do it. It's a very strange purple color so use a tiny bit and you'll find you get just the look you want!

After that I used the lipcream, applied the glitter top gloss and done! I found that the color was too matte for me so I used a bit of gloss to spice it up!

And Bob's your uncle! You've got a killer look using the Winter Make Tutorial!

I know I don't have a ton of pics to accompany the tutorial but I did this prior to work this morning as I just got Millie's comment this morning!

Hope it helps Millie!!!!!!!

Maybe you'll send some pics so we can see what you create!

Hugs!



Click here to read my first impressions of the Lavshuca Winter Make Collection!

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Feb 7, 2008

Some more Bobbi Brown Liner FOTD

My obsession with Bobbi continues as I prepared for work this morning out came my gel liner and behold this is what I created:









The Muse used:

Eyes
Bobbi Brown Gel Liner in Black Duh! (Clickie for my review)
Excel Mascara (Clickie some more for my review)
KATE Metallic Gel Liner in GD-1 (It's part of the new Spring Collection and I promise you'll hear me rave about it soon!)
Tiffa Wink Glitter Shadow Duo
Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Polyester Bride

Face
Shu Uemura Blush in P Orange 58D

Lips
MAC Lipstick in Strapless
Sony CP Curvy Lip Silicon

BONUS Geeky Shots:

*Mwah*


Oooo!


I think this was the shot I was trying to hit that very difficult tenth note! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!


Whateverz!


Retake: Whateverssss!


OMGBBQWTF!!!!1111 (My geeks get it!)


I wish someone would pay me to be an idiot ;)

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Happy Lunar New Year!



You seriously didn't think I forgot about Chinese New Year did you!?

I wanted to wish all my readers in China (My stats say there are a ton of you!) a very Happy, Healthy Lunar New Year! And of course those of you stateside I wish you the same!

Enjoy!

PS Don't mind the pig ;) I was loving this particular image but they didn't seem to have a rat about hehe!

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First Impressions: Paul & Joe X Disney Collection

I need to relax. What better way to relax then to blog?

Japanese Spring Collection week continues with the eagerly anticipated X Disney Collection! I blogged about this Collection not so long ago in a prior post (Click for details!) and soon after I knew I had to have the entire set!

How freaking cute is the packaging on this? My god I'm in love!



The collection consists of a lip treatment, handcream, and face powders.



My favorite of the collection are the two face powders! The packaging is like Guerlain's Meteorites but a tiny bit smaller in size. I was somewhat disappointed by the fact that there isn't a whole lot of powder beads inside but the packaging, quality, and pigment of the product make up for it!







The powders come in two shades one of which is a beautiful pink! The packaging on the pink shade features Flower, the lovable skunk from Bambi! Awwww! These come with a cute powder puff with ribbon which really makes me love it even more for the girlish Victorian factor! I can't help myself I love cute cosmetics! Don't you!?





The pink is a beautiful shade and can be worn alone if you so desire or used as a highlighter. The color is pigmented enough that you can easily get away with using it as a blush! I guess the puff isn't a conventional way of applying but it works well enough for dotting onto your cheeks! I used some of this last night but decided to use my #187 to pick up the color! It worked a treat because the #187 didn't become saturated with color it just picked up enough to highlight my chubby cheeks hehe!

The peach color features Bambi on the box! Oh my god so cute! I wanna lick the box! My favorite is Flower but I love Bambi just as much! The peach does remind me of the Jill Stuart Blush in 05 Orange Blush (Click here to see the color) and I found it a bit chalky in comparison to the silky texture of the pink. However, it needs to be tested a bit more prior to making my final decision! Like the pink it's nicely pigmented to use as a blush or a highlighter! Yet again a disappointing amount of product but hey we got the cute packaging right? Right!











The other two items in the set were a handcream and a lip treatment. The handcream is a lovely cooling, moisturizing orange scented cream for your hands. Nothing really special here but the packaging does include Lady from Lady and the Tramp!

The lip treatment is quite yummie tasting but don't be fooled into thinking it'll be good for use with lipstick or as a glossy finish for your lips. This is a lip treatment so it's good to moisturize but doesn't leave your lips glossy or shiny! It's most definately not good for use over lipsticks either. The packaging features sweet Marie from The AristoCats! Awwwwwwwwww! I'm so in love. Did I mention that?





I can't squeal enough about this collection! It's so cute!

Overall, a job well done for Paul & Joe! A beautiful selection of very cute items!

Love it?
Want it?

Tell the Muse!

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Images of Spring in Japan Part 2

The Muse's mate Betsy has shared some wonderful images of her Spring Haul again with the Muse!

You can see the previous palettes that Betsy has purchased for Spring by clicking here!

I'm totally lemming the new Lunasol palettes after seeing the pictures she sent me so gorgeous! The Magie Deco are so pricey but obviously worth the bucks as look at how beautiful these are!

Cosme Decorte Magie Deco Palettes




Lunasol Palette

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"You Make My Day Awards"

I wanted to share this with you guys because I was so deeply touched by it. Izar, one of my readers, has awarded with a "You Make My Day Award" for her blog!

I just visited her blog for the first time today and it's wonderful! One of the first things that caught my eye was Izar's Deviant page! Izar is obviously a very talented, gifted artist! And of course the fact that she blogs about my favorite topic, cosmetics, means she'll be making her way onto my daily visit list!

Izar decided to pass the award on to me!

About the "You Make MY Day Award":

"Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland..."

The general idea that I inspire anyone deeply touches me plus make them happy? That makes me happy too ;)

Thank you Izar! I'm honored to be included in your post and awarded!

Visit Izar at the Binary Star by clicking here!

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Smashbox Glambox

Glammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmourize yourself with Smashbox Glambox!



$68 USD nabs you a parcel of goodies. I'm not really in for it as I've lost my love for Smashbox lately however the box does contain a nice dose of cosmetics for your buck!

You'll get:
Photo Finish Foundation Primer
Eyeshadow Quad in Supernatural
Fusion Soft Lights Palette in Natural Glow
Half Moon Brush
Jet Set Waterproof Eyeliner in Bronze
Liner Brush #21
Lip Enhancing Gloss in Bare
Lip Enhancing Gloss in Aura

It's supposely $184 USD worth of stuff! I haven't added it up but I don't think it's that much! Maybe $130 USD as all of this stuff isn't full size!

Anyway!

Looks like a nice little set if you're a Smashbox fan!

It's available now from Nordstrom!

There also happens to be a GWP (Gift with Purchase) if you buy this! So you'll get:

Cream Eye Liner Duo in Midnight Brown and Cavier
Eyeshadow in Taupe Two
Mini Lip Gloss in Beauty
Mini Photo Finish Foundation Primer

Indeed for $68 USD you're raking in on the loot!

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