Giorgio Armani's Eyes To Kill in Pulp Fiction #04 Swatch and Review

Ok, so I am probably late to the party on reviewing this, forgive me. My hope is that I am still fashionably late. I resisted these for as long as I could until it gnawed away at me and all my willpower went out the door.

I think I have hesitated on buying these for so long is because, honestly, they scared me. Not in a Jason from "Friday the 13th" movies (seriously one sight of that hockey mask and I'm freaking out) kind of way, but more of a I'm not in my 20's anymore and I'm a mom now type of way. Not that I think mom's have a free pass to look dowdy because they spawned a child, because I don't. I think I just was hesitant that these gorgeous eye shadows would not translate to wearable and appropriate for my lifestyle. I was wrong, they are awesome.

I was excited to see what all the hype was about with these shadows and all I can say is, I get it now. The stay powering is unparalleled, even after washing my arm with soap this eye shadow did not want to budge.  The pigmentation is fantastic. How do you spell gorgeous? P-U-L-P F-I-C-T-I-O-N? I ordered Pulp Fiction #04 from Neiman Marcus online, while I ordered Purpura #03 from Giorgio Armani's website directly (I believe this is a new color and not available yet in stores). Purpura will be reviewed in a future post.

Touted as an eye shadow hybrid, Giorgio Armani has come out with 15 different shadows using innovative bi-polymer technology.  These shadow are suppose to adhere to the lid making it resistant to sweating, creasing, water, and flaking (how cool is that?!). With a brush, it can be applied both wet or dry.  

Retails for $32.00 USD and can be found at high end retailers everywhere (Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's, etc.) and found online at giorgioarmanibeauty.com.

Pulp Fiction #04

Simply gorgeous!

Taken with a flash

Taken with no flash - this best represents the color

It looks bronzey here, but I think it's the reddish hue it is picking up

I will definitely be getting more Eyes To Kill silk eye shadow, will you?

Rouge Bunny Rouge Solstice Halcyon Eye Shadow Swatches and Review

Rouge Bunny Rouge is a niche cosmetic company that is exclusive to zuneta.com. Zuneta will ship worldwide and makes these once unattainable brands accessible to everyone. I was so pleased to own a bit of RBR from this whimsical company and I have definitely "fallen down the rabbit hole"...

Here is more information from the company's website "Easily the most imaginative, inspirational and addictive brand we've come across! The formulas are out of this world and we can't get enough of the enchanting product descriptions. Be warned, once you fall down the rabbit hole and try this brand there is no going back..."

I think Solstice Halcyon should be a staple in every woman's cosmetic wardrobe. I don't see any flaws with Solstice, in fact, the color is beautiful.  It can be worn alone for a more natural look, or paired with a darker color blended in the crease can be more dramatic. The company boasts that it is long lasting and  can last 10 hours when worn wet! I cannot attest to that but I'm happy if creasing doesn't happen after a few hours, I'd be pleased with 8! It blends very well and does not just sit on the eye lid but merges well with other shadows.

Solstice Halcyon is part of their 'when the birds are singing collection' they describe it as a semi-matte mauve beige. This particular shadow is a pleasure to blend and the texture is velvety smooth. Call me crazy but on my screen it is pulling out a peach color that on my arm and in the pan I just don't see. As usual, it is hard to capture the beauty of all this makeup on a computer screen.

I'm going to let the pictures do the rest of the talking since a picture is worth a 1,000 words after all. I encourage you to check out Rouge Bunny's website when you have a spare moment.

This one shadow has enchanted me greatly and I am already planning my next Rouge Bunny Rouge purchase! I mentioned that I may have just found my holy grail eye shadow here but this definitely needs to be added to this list!

All pictures were taken in direct sunlight. I love that that finely milled sparkles to this shadow appear.

With tax the shadow retails for $34.12 USD and is approximately 21£ and you get 2.4 g. worth of product.

Isn't Solstice Halcyon yummy? Will you be purchasing this, if you do not already own it? 

Edward Bess Deep Shine Lip Gloss - French Lace - Swatches and Review

I always feel weird saying anything less than positive about any product, especially one by a brand that I have come to know and love. There I said it - confessions of a beauty blogger. With that being said, I resolved to be objective and point out both the positive and negative in a product, aiming in the hopes that with enough feedback from enough people the appropriate people catch wind and changes can be made turning the negative into a positive.

The product in this review is Edward Bess' Deep Shine Lip Gloss in 'French Lace' - a pale, creamy pink gloss. I was in the market for a more subdued pink as I have plenty of peachy pink glosses and plenty of bubblegum pinks in my arsenal. Toss in a couple of hot pinks and that rounds out my collection. What I do not have is a faint pink gloss. Enter 'French Lace'. It seemed serendipitous that I stumbled upon The Everyday Beauty blog where she just happened to be featuring said lip gloss and I just happened to be needing wanting the exact lip gloss she was describing and by Edward Bess of all people!!! I think I rushed off to the Neiman Marcus website to order before I could even read the rest of her review, I was that excited. I think if I didn't have that darn beauty ADD of mine, I may have just paused enough to read the rest before hitting 'order' on my computer screen. I may have just saved myself $30.00. Oh, who am I kidding? I would have probably still ordered it because I was looking for a reason to order this and then this review practically fell in my lap!

Shown here: three swipes of gloss 

The good about this lip gloss:

• It's lanolin-free. 

• The color is really pretty. I do like the fact that I don't already own something in the same family as this color. 

• The lip gloss smells good as you are hit with his signature fig scent when using this. The smell doesn't last too long, but if you are sensitive to smell heed this as a word of caution.  

The ok about this lip gloss: 

• The applicator is not my favorite either. My favorite is the doe-footed ones ala Chanel's Rogue Allure's. The sponged tipped applicator is sufficient but considering this is part of a premium cosmetic line I expect something above sufficient. 

The not so good about this lip gloss:

• It is sticky and I do not like the way it feels on my lips. I want to grab the nearest napkin and rub it off, not what I had in mind when applying this. The lipgloss claims to be hydrating, I disagree -sticky does not equal hydration. 

• It is rather a pain in the you-know-what to apply. I have read he changed his packaging rather recently and from what I have gathered not all those changes were welcomed. Seeing how this is my first lip gloss from him, I have nothing to compare it too. I can attest to the fact that if he did make the opening to this gloss smaller and make it more of a challenge to get enough gloss to adequately coat your lips, then I would say no dice! Do not think you can swiftly put this on without going unnoticed in public unless you were trying to bring attention to the fact that you are putting on your lip gloss after dipping the applicator several times. 

• The gloss also claims to have an exclusive treatment (not sure what???) that "ensures fullness" - my lips look the same to me before as after wearing this. 

The lip gloss can be purchased for $30.00 at http://www.neimanmarcus.com or http://www.edwardbess.com. You can find it at brick and mortar stores at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills or in New York City at Bergdorf Goodman's. For those in the UK, you can purchase Edward Bess products through http://www.zuneta.com/. 

What is your holy grail lip gloss? Mine is Chanel (Glossimers, Rogue Allure's, etc.) 

May 2011 Favorites

Even though May had 31 days in it, it did seem to go by rather quickly. Here are the products (some I have talked about before, some I have not) that I got a lot of use out of and helped keep me purdy throughout the month: 

• Le Metier de Beaute eye lash curler is in a class of it's own. This replaced my Shu-Umera curler the instant I tried it. Ever since, I have been giving Shu the cold shoulder. Retails for $18.00 and is worth every penny.

• Butter London's nail lacquer in 'Snog' looks great to use in a summer pedicure or for those more daring, just as great on the fingers. It is as hot-pink as you get without venturing into neon territory. Retails for $14.00

• Chanel's Base Lumiere is a fantastic illuminating makeup base that gives you that "glow from within" look, perfect for layering under your foundation. Retails for $42.00 

• Edward Bess' Ultra Luminous Shadow in 'Storm' is my holy grail shadow to date. I love how buttery soft the texture is and the color is gorgeous! I have a weakness for silvery/mauvey taupes (and yes that is a color! ;) ). Retails for  $30.00 

• Le Metier De Beaute's Crease Brush is a recent acquisition of mine. From the day I received it, I wondered how I got by without it. The capability to make my makeup look blended is awesome with this brush. Retails for $45.00 

• Chantecaille's Brillant Gloss in 'Love', with one swipe my lips look perfectly kissable. *mwaaa* It is also such a delicate pink -- perfect for running my errands in. Retails for $28.00

• Another one of my favorites is Le Metier De Beaute's Dualistic Eye Pencil in 'Tamarack' which can serve as both an eye shadow base or as a liner. The color depth of this gorgeous brown is something that one can only be appreciated in person. Retails for $36.00

What were your May favorites? Please share, I love finding new product discoveries.

La Mer's The Eye Concentrate

The cream, the myth, the legend...La Mer

So I want to mix things up a bit on my blog and talk to you about skincare. I know that 99% of my posts have focused on cosmetics but I am also very passionate about skin care. I feel that unless you invest time and money into skincare and really take care of your skin, then the world's priciest makeup is pretty useless and will only make you look so good. You really do want to focus on the literal foundation of our face, which is our skin. I am not going to lecture you on the importance of eating fruits and vegetables and drinking enough water, we all know that by now (goes to heed her own advice and consumes some leafy greens).........

One area of the face, I would really pay attention to is your eye area. This is especially important given the fact that the skin surrounding your eye is not only more delicate, but thinner than any other area on your face (so are your lips, but I will talk about that in a later post). For those two reasons alone, it helps to explain why many women, myself included, suffer from product allergies.

The cream I use and have been a loyal devotee to is La Mer. As I approached 30 I really started to take good care of my skin. I've never been the type to sleep in my makeup, but I really stepped up my game and got regular facials and really started using great products - enter La Mer.

The Eye Concentrate is a high-end, luxury eye cream that retails for $165.00 for 0.5 oz., but before you completely discredit it on price alone, know that it lasts me on average 9 months - no kidding - using it once daily at night! For daytime, I like to use an eye cream that contains SPF in it. It is full of active ingredients and a little really does go a long way. It disappears into my skin, is non-greasy, and does not irritate my eye area, while at the same time moisturizing it. It comes with a silver-tipped applicator to dab the product on with, but I have an allergy to metals (I have sensitive skin, I'm telling you) so I just use my ring finger. Before discovering that I had that metal allergy, I remember using the applicator to apply the cream and feeling how cool it felt to my eye area which help accelerates in reducing puffiness. *Remember to always dab creams/gels onto your surrounding eye socket in a clockwise motion and never tugging at the eye area.*    

I will just say that even if I could not "afford" this eye cream I would find a way to buy it (kidneys fetch a high price on the black market, right?) I kid, but honestly, I do think this eye cream is that good. I've been using this particular eye cream for about 3 years now and have really noticed a difference. I notice it helping diminish my fine lines and wrinkles. It may not all be the eye creams credit (thanks mom and dad), but I am not willing to take that gamble to find out. It also helps fight puffiness and dark circles. This little gem has been my secret weapon for years; that and YSL's Touche Eclat into tricking people that I am well-rested! Ha, I am a mom after all! 

Here is some more information about the Eye Concentrate per La Mer's website:

"A deeply conditioning cream formulated with hematite, a magnetically-charged mineral, to help dramatically dissolve the appearance of dark circles, surface discolorations and unevenness. The look of lines and wrinkles is softened. Over time, a visibly healthier, smoother and more luminous look is revealed." 

Bottom line: You get what you pay for! A terrific product that really does deliver results! 

What eye cream do you use?