NARS Blushers...oh the pretties!

NARS my long time love. For some reason I always find myself going back to NARS. Their blushes are amazingly pigmented, sometimes TOO pigmented. These babies in my opinion are totally worth their $25 usd price tag as a little goes a looooooooooong way with these babies.

These are the only NARS blushers I have in my stash now as I have done much purging of the stash over the past few months and have finally reached a happy place with my stash size. Anyhow these are "the best of the best" in NARS blushers on me. A lot of the NARS blushers I decided sadly turned too orange-y on my yellow undertones, so all I am left with is Penny Lane (cream), Passion, Amour, Taj Mahal, and Exhibit A.

Arm Swatches left to right: Penny Lane, Amour, Passion, Taj Mahal, and Exhibit A.

Unfortunately these colors did not photo well so I appologize for the blah swatches.

Penny lane looks VERY light on my skin tone, but on my cheeks it gives me the most ethereal glow. It is absolutely a stunning color. I love wearing this for an everyday color that goes with just about everything. I love topping this with a light dusting of Passion and sometimes I also add a little Taj Mahal on the apples as well.

Amour is a lovely peachy pink leaning more pink/rose. It is another lovely everyday kinda color with a little more zing.

Passion. Why oh why does this look so ORANGE on my arm swatch?? I swear it's not really that orange irl. It is the most perfect peach with a hint of pink blush on me. Orgasm turned very orange on me as did Gina (which is supposed to be a peach)...so I was a little worries passion would too, but happily it does not. I absolutely LOVE this blush!! My HG pinky peach.

Taj Mahal is a straight up shimmer pumpkin orange, but don't let it scare you away! It's just sooo pretty when it's blended with other blushers. This is INSANELY pigmented so use a uber super duper light light extra light hand. (get the picture??)

Exhibit A is another one of those INSANELY pigmented blushers that you need only the lightest of dabs. It is definitely a daughting scary BRIGHT orange-red in the pan, but if you take the time to apply it right it totally wakes up my face and gives the most awesome flush. It is just such a gorgeous color.

****QUICK TIP ALERT****
My trick with these uber pigmented blushers is to dab onto a stipping brush or the NARS yachiyo brush and then dab the excess blush on the back of my hand so most of the intensity ends up on the back of my hand and not my cheeks. )


Swatches on paper

These photographed a little dark but more accurate in blush color, except for penny lane and passion. Penny lane is more of a ethereal glowing cherub baby pink and Passion once again is NOT that orange-y in ril life!

Korres Blushers..the loves of my life

So I am a HUGE Korres-a-holic!! I discovered their line when I tried the wild rose foundation which is a my holy grail of holy grail foundations. For the longest time I could not find a foundation I liked as many were always too pink on me. The Korres line seems to be geared more twoards the golden and olive toned ladies which is perfect for me! Anyhow ever since I got the foundation I branched out and I now have all the blushers except one, peach. I hope to acquire it one of these days so I have the full "set".

The quality of these blushers are quite nice! Not as pigmented as NARS, but they are still up there in pigmentation. They all have minimal to low shimmer once applied. In the pan, some of them look rather *sparkley* but the sparkles go away once applied to give a nice "glow"..I promise!

<---The swatches of the blushers on plain white paper.

In my opinion these colors are fairly true to color on the paper swatches except for orange, which doesn't look as neon in real life.

If I had to choose, my top two favorites would have to be pink (a neutral leaning cool toned happy go lucky kinda pink) and purple brown (neutral mauve-y with a hint of brown tones..reminds me of NARS sin or lovejoy only better looking on me. No muddiness). They are my ultimate "go-to" colors. But don't get me wrong, the other colors are also quite fabulous!

Coral is a nice...well warm coral color along the lines of NARS torrid. This looks rather shimmery in the pan, but I promise it does not appear that way on my cheeks.

Orange reminds me of a more subdued less pigmented version of NARS Exhibit A. Korres Orange is also less orange-y red and more of a coral tone to it. This has minimal shimmer to it compared to the other Korres blushers, but it is NOT matte.

Orange brown is quite a unique color. It is almost a duo chrome looking shade which I could not capture in my pictures. It is a bronze-y color with a duo chrome of pink and orange flashes to it. It makes for a nice "summer's glow" kinda look on my cheeks. Very uniquely awesome!!!

Purple is a lovely bright pop of plum/berry color. Gives me a nice in from the cold flush. Another one of the less shimmery looking blushers in the pan.

The blush in Natural, is kind of a mis-nomer in my opinion as it is more of a bronzer than a blush. It gives a great neutral cheek or contour color, but I find it's too brown to be worn alone and I need to add a pop of color on my apples.

Swatched heavily on my arm with no base. Colors are from left to right: Coral, Orange, Orange Brown, Purple, Purple Brown, Natural, & Pink.


So these swatch colors came out a little wonky, but they are pretty close in color as I could get. For some reason my skin color looks really crazy at the top. I look like I have some crazy skin condition which I promise I don't...just a case of bad lighting.

Every Day Minerals Blushers

Ok, so clearly I have too much time on my hands today as this will be my second post of the day. I will probably do one more post with my NARS and Korres blush swatches since I have the time.

Anyhow, onto the topic du jour. So I was on a huge mineral makeup streak for a while, and while I don't use mineral foundation right now, I do still love and use the blushers. I am very happy to have found these blushers as I am a huge neutral blush and bronzer fanatic.

Top row left to right: Email me, pumpkin pie (LE), Winter bronzer (LE) Bottom row left to right: Yard sale (DC'd), waffle cone

Note: Waffle cone is in the old style packaging (green lid). As you can see it is just a sifter insert. The newer styles have a rotating "lid" that will cover the sifter holes that are only on one side. This makes it really nice as it keeps the product from over filling the product well. As you can see I haven't really taken care to make sure the "lid" was covering the holes as I managed to get the product everywhere.

My 2 cents on the blushers

Left side top to bottom: Yard sale, Waffle cone
Right side top to bottom: Email me, Pumpkin Pie, Winter bronzer

***Note: Swatches were taken on top of a bare hand, no primer or anything underneath. I swatched a bit heavily using my fingers. And as always click on any picture to make them bigger.***

Email me: My perfect nude blusher. This is a very nice subtle mauve-y pink color. It is a satin finish, with minimal shimmer.

Pumpkin Pie: The color is nothing like pumpkin pie to be honest. It is more on the side of a shimmery bronzer with slightly rosey mauve undertones. This is shimmery but not as shimmery as it appear swatched on my hand.

Winter Bronzer: I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this one. It is my perfect bronzer. I really wish I had gotten a back up of this, but I think this will last me forever anyways. This has just the right balance of pink and brown/bronze tones. It is shimmery as you can see from the swatch, but it's not crazy over the top shimmer once applied

Yard Sale: This is more of a highlighter kinda shade on me. It is an interesting shimmery golden yellow shade with a slight opalescent pink to it. It's very versatile on me since I already have such golden yellow undertones. It looks nice as a neutral eye shadow color as well as a cheeks highlight.

Waffle Cone: This one is a little more on the sheer side as compared to the other colors I own, but it is still a nice color none-the-less. It's a shimmery beige color and doesn't have much pink or peach tones to it. It is nice alone or on top of another blush.

MAC Pigment Swatches

I have a love hate relationship with pigments and loose eye shadows. I have a bunch of The She Space pigments which I will eventually try to get around swatching, but for now just the MAC pigments. Sometimes I just don't have the patients to deal with the fall out and fuss. I used to have many more MAC pigments, but I ended up narrowing down my stash to only these few. Swatches are listed from top to bottom: Pastorale, Gold mode, Cocomotion, Provence, Tea Time, Vanilla and Deckchair. Pigments were swatched on top of UD primer potion. (Click on pictures to make them bigger.)

>>>Quick side note..I goofed when I took the pics of the pigments in the jars..the jars are in the following order: Pastorale, Provence, Gold mode, cocomotion, teatime, deckchair sample (top), Vanilla sample (bottom)

Pastorale: A nice deeper sea foam green. It looks fabulous on my brown eyes. It's not overly shimmery or glittery though which is nice.

Gold mode: Supposedly this is very similar to the other LE MAC pigment in blonde's gold. It is not as coppery/red as the picture makes it out to be. It's more of a champagne-y gold with gold micro flecks. The micro flecks tend to get everywhere but are easily buffed away.

Cocomotion: This is quite an interesting and unique color. It's a nice bronze-y gold with slight olive-y undertones to it. It is shimmery but no glitter.

Provence: This color is a gorgeous neutral! It has a lot of golden tones to it with golden shimmer. I love using this as a wash.

Tea Time: Nice neutral to warm brown. This is more matte than many of the other pigments. It's got more of a stain finish to it.

Vanilla: Possible a "cult fave", this is a pretty shimmery opalescent pink-y pearl. While it is a lovely color, sometimes I am not a fan of the pink tones in it on my yellow skin tone.

Deckchair: So pretty! It reminds me a lot of Stila Kitten e/s. It's a nice shimmery pink/peach champagne color. This has tones of shimmer to it, so I need to use it carefully.

Smith's Rosebud Salves

There are a total of 5 smith's rosebud salve "flavors". I have now tried all the smith's rosebud salves now. The original I didn't really like the scent, too floral. The strawberry one was too waxy. But the three I have now are juuuust right.

These have a nicer more slick and moisturizing feel . I feel they give a *slight* hint of tint on your lips when you put these on, nothing overly noticeable though. Speaking of which, I am waiting to get my grubby balm loving hands on the vaselline rosey lips lip balm, which I will be getting soon from a lovely friend. So *excited*!

I am such a sucker for cute packaging. I love the packaging on these lip balms! The tins are all uber cute. They aren't too bad trying to open like some tin's I've had that would vacuum seal themselves shut and would require some elbow grease to re-open.

So onto my two cents on the balms...

Smith's minted rose: This is the one that feels the slick-est of the three. It also gives my lips the most tint. The scent is nicely minty with a tiny tiny hint of the original smith's rosebud salve smell.

I love minted balms because they give a nice freshness. I kinda feel a tiny hint of "coolness" on my lips from the mint when I use this, but nothing strong that it stings or burns.



Smith's Brambleberry Rose: I sniffed this a long while back when it first came out and I was totally repulsed. Then I gave it another sniff recently and it smelled so good! I guess that first one I sniffed must have been bad or just too many grubby fingers touched it?

The scent is a nice sweet berry, but not overly sweet kinda smell. Once again with a slight hint of floral.



Mocha Rose: My most recent purchase. I got this sent un-smelled online just because the tin is just so darn cute!

Unfortunately at first whiff it's a gross fake chocolate scent, but I gave it a whirl anyhow case I'd be pleasantly surprised. Pleasantly surprised I was! On my lips I smell just a lovely yummy cocoa scent..it's just when I sniff up close that it is not good.

Love and Toast

My beautyhabit order arrived today with my lovely goodies! (I am in no way affiliated with beautyhabit or love & toast. I bought this with my own money.)

I love beautyhabit because they carry some cool stuff from the lesser known brands. I am for some bizarre reason in love with obscure brands. After going on "hiatus" from browsing beautyhabit I totally forgot about it until recently. This brand love and toast is the cutest thing ever!

First the lip balms in Chai vanilla and Gin & Tonic:

* They are moisturizing but they sink in super quick so they don't really last long on my lips. However, they do leave my lips feeling moist and "supple" but not sticky. The not sticky part is a HUGE plus for me because of my two huskies tend to shed everywhere and I end up with their fur on my lips when I wear gloss.

* They smell delish! The gin and tonic smells like limes and I do smell a hint of pine needles or something woodsy like that. Kinda smells like a cleaning product almost..but not.

The chai vanilla smells like nothing I've ever smelled before. It smells nice though. A creamy yet slightly sweet scent.

* They are made from natural and organic products (Ingredients: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Beeswax, Organic Jojoba Oil, Shea Butter, cocoa butter, delicious love& toast flavor, organic hemp seed oil aloe vera oil, Vitamin E & stevia.)

* It goes to a good cause---> " A portion of every Love + Toast sale goes directly to Regional Affiliates of Girls Inc., inspiring young girls to be Smart, strong and bold."

And look at how adorably cute the packaging is!!!! You open the flap and.....
And then open the one flap and then you see.....
Then on the inside each balm comes with a cute little paper with facts about a famous and interesting women. Very inspirational and motivational for girls and women.

The perfume: Honey Coconut

I am not sure what the fl. oz of this is, but holy cow is it small! I wasn't paying attention when I ordered this as far as the size. I just looked at the price. It is $9.00 for a 0.17 fl oz. bottle. Basically no bigger than a deluxe size perfume. I was absolutely shocked to see how big it was when I opened my package. But great things come in little packages. This perfume packs quite a punch! I dabbed a little on my wrists and neck when I got my package at 11 this morning. It is now 6pm and I still can smell the perfume on my wrists. It's a little faint now, but I can still smell it.

* Notes: Sweet Honey, Sugared Vanilla, Violet Sandalwood

* What I smell: I really suck at describing perfume smells so bear with me. It reminds me of summer. It definitely doesn't smell anything like coconut. It's smells something sweet and creamy but without being sickeningly sweet. It also smells floral to me as well. Up close the smell is a little to much for me, but from a far...it is heavenly and totally transports me to somewhere warm with a nice pina colada in hand. I definitely will be trying out more of these perfumes from love & toast!

Most loved Items in my stash

This is a short entry, but here are some of the items in my stash I find myself using the most often.

Items are from left to right/top to bottom.

- MAC brush in 165
- Korres wild rose pressed powder (yay! I've hit pan!)
- NARS portobello duo
- NARS blondie single
- Benefit creaseless cream in birthday suit


If anything I love my MAC 165 brush more than anything EVER!!! This brush is truely a multi-tasker! I especially love this to do an all over wash on my eyes.

Things to look forwards to:
- A recap on all my January purchases (swatches included)
- Swatches of my stash. I think I will break them down into groups by brand or category, not sure which yet.

Where the magic all happens

The Grand Tour

First we will visit the top layer. Here is where I keep my usual daily items I tend to reach for most. This is usually the most cluttered. I have been trying to keep it nice and organized.

Next, we will visit drawer #1 which is filled with all my eye products: NARS duos, BB gel liners, misc. compartment.
Next we move to drawer #2 which contains my Korres and NARS blushers and bronzers and some of my eyeshdow overflow.
Last spot of our tour is Drawer #3. Here is a random mish mash of beauty products: lip gloss, lipsticks, blushers, and MAC pigments.
Hopefully in the upcoming days, weeks, or months I will hopefully be able to get some in depth swatches and reviews of all the items in my stash!

First blog Post

This is my first blog post! I'm so excited about blogging! I love all things makeup and hopefully this will help keep me strong on my no buy as I go through my ginormous stash!

Enjoy!