My Mac Palettes Overview

I mentioned in my top products of 2011 post that Mac palettes were one of my favourites. It was last January that I decided I wanted to use palettes instead of pots and so I depotted my collection at the time which consisted of 6 eyeshadows. I then bought my first 15 pan palette along with a few new eyeshadows. Currently I have 2 full palettes and one extra pan eyeshadow which I got for Christmas, which I'm housing in a quad until I get another 15 pan palette and continue my collection!

Honesty eyeshadow

The two 15 pan palettes. I keep a layer of protective sheeting on top of the eyeshadows to protect them when I'm travelling. The sheet is cut from the protective packaging that comes with digital cameras etc. 

I have placed a sheet with all the names on the inside lid of the palettes.

I don't tend to move my shadows around the palettes, only when I get a new palette, so it is not that difficult to keep the names on the sheet up-to-date.

Neutral Palette

1st Row: L-R Brulé, Vanilla, Phloof!, Paradisco, Yoghurt.

2nd Row: L-R All That Glitters, Wedge, Mythology, Expensive Pink, Quarry.

3rd Row: L-R Satin Taupe, Woodwinked, Amber Lights, Antiqued, Smut.

Colourful Palette

1st Row: L-R Shimmermoss, Juxt, Swell Baby, Silver Ring, Beautiful Iris. 

2nd Row: L-R Steamy, Green Smoke, Humid, Atlantic Blue, Satellite Dreams.

3rd Row: L-R Surf USA, Sumptuous Olive, Club, Prussian, Fig.1.

Ideally, further down the line I'd love to have a palette dedicated to each colour, e.g. greens. purples, blues etc. Someday!:)

Any recommendations of your must-have colours that I don't have here?

Model's Own - The Beetlejuice Collection

When I first saw the press info on this new Beetlejuice collection way back in September or October I got really excited. I thought the colours looked fantastic and although I had never tried Model's Own before, it seemed as good as time as any to try them out. 

When they were released on Nov 1st I ordered them straight away, delighted to have purchased them before they were out of stock. Unfortunately, my purchase was not as straightforward as I presumed it would be. Nearly a month passed and I still had not received my order so I contacted Model Own's customer service. I'm delighted to be able to say that their customer service is fantastic. I got a reply within an hour offering me either a refund or a replacement order. I opted for the replacement order and I received it within a few days...however another few days went by and my original order turned up! It had just gotten lost somewhere along the way! I returned the second order but I was refunded my postage costs. I just wanted to give a little shoutout about Model's Own customer service as I feel we don't give credit to customer service teams who do a brilliant job often enough. I have no problem ordering from them again.

Finally on to the nail polish!

Emerald Green

Quite possibly my favourite shade in the collection, it is a true darkened emerald green.

Golden Green

This shade kind of reminds me of Chanel's Péridot but it is much lighter.

Aqua Violet

A beautiful colour, definitely more blue than purple on the nail though.

Pinky Brown

I think this shade is fantastic, full of shimmer and the two colours combine well together.

Purple Blue

I adore this shade, great depth of colour

As a first time user of the Model's Own polishes, I found the application to be good. The brush handles' were a bit larger than I'm used to which, made it slightly awkward to get the hang of but it's not a major deal.

Some more pictures!

Golden Green

Purple Blue

Aqua Violet

Pinky Brown

Emerald Green

Collective Haul: December 2011

This post is a collective haul for December of products that I bought myself, no Christmas presents included!

The OPI's

L-R Are we there yet?, Rainbow Connection, Smitten with Mittens, Ginger Bells, Electric Eel, Fiercely Fiona, Chop-sticking to my Story and Spark de Triomphe. 

The last 3 were in a set that I got in TK Maxx. I got all 3 for €16.99 which is a bargain. They seemed to have a random selection of ones but the containers weren't sealed shut so I think people were just picking the ones they wanted and putting them into the container as some of them had 2 of the same colour! Check out your local TK Maxx to see if they still have some.

Hair Products

Bumble and Bumble Curl Conscious and Brilliantime

I suppose technically these should be under my Christmas presents as I bought them in Peter Marks with a giftcard but oh well. Also all Bumble and Bumble products are currently 50% off in Peter Marks!

Face products

Catrice Perfect Resist Foundation and Prime and Fine Primer. 

I needed a new primer and I had ran out of foundation and didn't want to get a very expensive foundation as I'm going to be buying the new Chanel one when it's released soon. I'm also hoping that this foundation turns out to be amazing and that I don't need to go spend a ridiculous amount of money on Chanel's one!

Glossybox Products

So I technically did pay for these...I just didn't know what I'd be getting! Part of it included this mini Deborah Lippmann polish in Razzle Dazzle and a Nouveau mascara.

Misc. Nail Polish

Illamasqua Raindrops, butter London The Black Knight, Essie Cocktail Bling and Essence My Sparkling Acrobat.

Beauty Presents: Christmas 2011

I meant to have this post up nearer post-christmas but better late than never! I didn't want to do a 'haul' of what I got for Christmas so I just included any beauty related gifts that I received.

Somebody had fun opening her present!

On to the beauty stuff:)

I got a MAC lipstick in Half n Half, and eyeshadow in Honesty and the 209 brush. 

Korres lip butter in Wild Rose, Burts Bee lip balm trio and Maybelline Cat Eyes mascara

Flower by Kenzo perfume and body lotion set and Hypnotic Poison by Dior.

Moringa body scrub from The Body Shop

Gorgeous to Go by Aisling McDermott of Beaut.ie fame:D

A Stila Lip Glaze set containing 8 lipglosses

OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees  and Essei Braziliant. (I also got Dulce de Leche from OPI but it's on backorder so still waiting for that to come, my mum informed me:))

Nars highlighter in Albatross, Benefit blush in Dandelion, Korres lip butter in Jasmine and Essie's Fair Game (meant to put those last 2 in other pictures!)

So that's the beauty gifts I got this year:)

Products I am looking forward to 2012 edition

Happy 2012! I decided to do a fun little post about what new beauty products I'm looking forward to trying this year.

Most of the items are from new collections that are coming out very soon. I'll start with nail ones!

OPI

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The Nicki Minaj collection. This is a 6 piece collection and I suppose it is on a similar vein to the Katy Perry collection which was released at the same time last year. Black shatter was introduced to us with that collection and there is a plum coloured shatter included in this collection. I've heard that this is probably going to be the last shatter going to be released by OPI. I can't say that I'll be picking it up myself, I bought the original shatter and while I really like that I just was never that enamoured with all the coloured shatters that started doing the rounds. As for the colours from the collection I like all of them, there are three cremes and two glitters, including a bar glitter! I don't have any bar glitters! More than likely I will pick up all of these, the only possible exception being the grey black glitter one as it looks very similar to the recently realeased Tinsel Town from the China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday collection. I'll decide once I see some swatches and comparisons!

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The other OPI collection that I'm excited for is the main Spring/Summer 2021 collection which is called the Holland collection. No joke I think I'm going to have to get this entire collection. From what I've seen so far, it is a superb collection and definitely the best main OPI collection that I've been aware of, since I became interested in their newly released collections. And that's me still in my newbie state! 6 of the colours are beautiful cremes and the other 6 have gorgeous flecks of glitter going through them! I don't think the collection is out until February but I can't wait to get my paws on them!

China Glaze

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The Prism Collection is being released for Spring 2012 and it is a 6 piece collection.The stock pictures seem to show that they are holographic glitters - should be fun!

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Another China Glaze collection that I'm looking forward to is The Hunger Games - Colours from the Capitol collection. I've read the book series and can't wait for the film, so I think it's only natural that I'm looking forward to the nail varnish collection! I think this collection has a great range of shades but the ones that I'm looking forward to most are Smoke and Ashes, Electrify and Luxe and Lush.

Essie

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Essie's Spring 2012 collection looks very promising as well. It contains 3 brights and 3 lights and one of the shades called Navigate Her looks to be the most amazing pistachio green!

Chanel 

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Oh how I blame Sarah from Saloule for my interest in Chanel's nail varnish! I  avoided them for as long as I could but once Péridot came under my radar, I succumbed. There are 3 fabulously bright nail varnishes out for Spring 2012 named April, May and June and the colours are gloriously happy. I want them all but I don't know yet if I can warrant getting the lot so if I had to pick a favourite it would be June.

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Another Chanel release that I'm looking forward to is their new foundation, the Perfection Lumiére which is supposed to be the replacement for Pro Lumiére. I've tried Vitalumiére Aqua before and I really liked it but I think I'm going to try this new one as I've heard such great things about it. That it's suitable for different skin types and leaves a lovely finish. It's released in Ireland on January 13th I believe, so not too much longer to wait now!

MAC
There's no way I couldn't be excited about some of the gazillion upcoming MAC collections! Some of the ones that I'm looking forward to the most is the Naturally collection, Iris Apfel collection, Shop Shop Shop/ Cook Cook Cook collection and the Mac for Chen Man collection.

Out of all those, I'm really excited for the return of the Tendertones in the Shop Shop Shop/ Cook Cook Cook collection as there seems to be a lot of love for that product and I'm excited to try it out for myself!

Revlon
Lip Butters! I'm sure you have all read about them on American blogs or YouTube videos. They're basically a tinted lip balm and I want to try some so bad! I believe they're being released here in March so I'm glad that we're actually going to be getting them!

Urban Decay
The Naked 2 is being released! Yay! Do I need it if I have the original Naked? Probably not, but i'm still excited

Clarisonic
Now this is certainly not a new product but I hope to get one at some stage this year so I'm looking forward to trying it out and hopefully it will work as well as people say it does!

What new products or collections are you looking forward to this year?