NARS Pure Matte Lipstick

One of the best rated and most popular lipsticks this fall is the NARS Pure Matte Lipstick. Matte lips are the rage for lips, especially in reds and berries. When wearing one of these high maintence lip looks, one must pay attention to the lip products that she chooses to create this look. This formula is both matte and long-wearing while still containging hydrating ingredients to allow the wearer pure comfort all day long.

NARS states, "Bright. Bold. Vividly matte. The innovative, matte lipstick has an intense, stay-true color so lips look lush and vibrant. An exquisitely blended formula strikes a perfect harmony between optimal color, an ultra-matte finish, and hydration. A super-rich, super-pampering, super-sexy lipstick in six sumptuous shades. Pure drama. Glides on effortlessly, without drag or resistance. Defying traditional long-wearing lipsticks, Pure Matte will not dry out lips. Wild Mango Butter's advanced moisturizing properties work to repair lips from dryness and scaling, leaving lips supple and soft".

This lipstick is currently available in six colors...

- Bangkok - soft rose

- Tashkent - nude beige

- Terre de Feu - black cherry

- Tonkin - cinnamon plum

- Vesuvio - full bodied red

- Volga - deep aubergine

I really like the tube shape of this lipstick, I tend to prefer slimmer tubes when applying a richly pigmented lip color becuase I feel that it gives me better control over the application. I have been wearing many shades of reds lately and I want a lipstick that lasts all day and without drying my lips out. When my lips get dry wearing red, I put lip balm on them but then I find that the color smears all over the place. I am hopeful that this blend will put an end to these issues. I want four shades of this lipstick: Bangkok, Tashkent, Terre de Feu, and Vesuvio.

photo courtesy of NARS

Gucci Guilty

Gucci Guilty is fragrance that just came out several weeks ago and feel in love with at first sniff. Considering that it has no rose in it, that is quite an accomplishment! Over the past week, I have been reading Eat, Pray, Love and after reading about Liz Gilbert's adventures in Rome, I am currently obsessed with Italy and all things Italian. As we know, Gucci is about as Italian as it gets. This fragrance falls into the floral-oriental family.

The Sephora websites steates the following about the fragrance, "Made for the woman who shatters expectations, this fragrance imbues a feeling of power, a sense that she can attain whatever she wants - even the thrill of the forbidden. A sheer, floral-oriental fragrance, it opens with a bright burst of citrus and a dangerous hint of black pepper. This arresting introduction gives way to full-throttle feminity as its heart pulses with fruity and floral notes. The fragrance dries down to a rich, ambery base with notes of patchouli. The overall effect is young, stylish, and eminently wearable - a daring egde of sexiness and sensuality that captures the essense of Gucci. The stunning bottles fuses glass and metal, a feature revealed through Gucci's signature interlocking "G" characters. At the center of the iconic logo's letterforms, the bottle's gleaming metallic surface is elegantly cut away to expose the bottle's glass interior".

The notes are: Mandarin, Pink Pepper, Peach, Lilac, Geranium, Amber, Patchouli. I think the strongest notes are the florals, amber, and the patchouli. It reminds me of Coco Mademoiselle, another floral-oriental. I love both of these fragrances and though I already own the Chanel fragance, I feel that this one is different enough to warrant purchase.

Maybe I really just want to be a jet-setting Gucci girl...

photo courtesy of Sephora

Dior Fall 2010 Collection

The Dior website seems to hate me so I have been putting this off for several weeks now. It still hates me so I have decided to write it up from the Nordstrom website. The Dior collection for Fall is about shades of purples and lovely eye makeup products. I am very excited to see these products since this is the season in which I have worn more eye makeup than any other. And bought more eye makeup than any other...

Nordstrom states the following, "The Dior fall color collection pays tribute to the idea of feminity with shades of mauve, deep purples, and charcoal and gray tones. The eyes are the focal point of the look: full lashes, mysterious, smoky lids, and berry hues for the lips".

The collection...

Smoky Mania Eye Shadow Duo - Embossed with the Dior Logomania pattern, this limited-edition two-color eye shadow includes the silver and sparkling black shades to light up the eyes with a dramatic, shimmering effect.

5-Colour Eye Shadow - This portable palette contains five complementary shades that make it so, so easy for you to put together just the eye look you want, using two, three (or more!) shades.

- 844 Misty Mauve - breath-of-purple white/matte blackberry/shimmery blackened purple/shimmery white/shimmery iced violet

- 808 Pink Design - shimmery duochrome royal purple/purple-white sparkle topcoat/shimmery purple-pink/shimmery iridescent white/shimmery iced violet

Addict Ultra Gloss - Lights! Camera! Lips! Straight from the runway, Dior Addict Ultra Gloss features a featherweight formula with a flash-plumping, 'spotlight shine' effect. Hyaluronic spheres keep lips smooth and moisturized while mirror-like micro pearls reflect light in all directions for a dazzling finish.

- 692 Tailored Mauve - purple-pink

Addict Lip Color - Dior Addict Lip Color is even better with a new weightless formula, ultra-high-impact lip color, a smooth, glide-on texture and a new look that's pure Dior. Dior reivents the architecture of lipstick. The Lip Neturalizer Complex ensures that lip color stays true on everyone!

- 694 Spectacular Mauve - mid-tone mauve

- Technicolor Red - shimmery red

Serum de Rouge Lip Treatment - Discover the most luxurious lip treatment ever created: new Serum de Rouge by Dior. With ten times more active skincare ingredients than other lipsticks, Serum de Rouge features an amazingly creamy texture to moisturize, smooth, and pamper your lips day after day. Enriched with mango butter and other natural extracts, this nourishing treatment actually boosts your lips' microcirculation and collagen levels and enhances their appearance with luminous color.

- Pearly Pink Serum - shimmery pale pink

- Radiant Pink Serum - bright pink

- Ruby Serum - deep sheer red

- Pink Diva Serum - deep pink

- Plum Serum - deep plum

Vernis Nail Enamel - Rich, high-gloss, long-wearing nail color in shades from subtle to sensational

- Black Sequins - black with silver glitter

Diorshow Extase Mascara - Magnify your lashes in a flash! This plumping mascara visibly improves your lashes and delivers high-impact drama in a single stroke! Featuring an exclusive dual-fiber tiered brush to define lashes, and an instant-volume formula containing an exclusive Metamorphosis Powders that increase the size of your lashes 50% upon application. Spherical Black Pearl Pigments that wrap around each lash for 3D volume and a patented SR38 active ingredient that plumps lashes day after day!

- Black - black

Great collection especially with the eye makeup! The Smoky Mania Eye Shadow Duo will be a great choice for the fall and for going into the holidays. I love both of the 5-Color Eye Shadow Palettes but I think that both of them are more purple than pink. The Nail Polish in Black Sequins is also tops on my shopping list for fall. This collection was worth waiting for but I wish that the Dior website would have been working better earlier before many of the products that I like got sold out.

photo courtesy of Nordstrom

Benefit BadGal Plum Mascara

As much as I love my BadGal mascara, I must say that this version of it wasn't my favorite. I guess I thought that if I loved the regular version than I would love the colored versions just as much. Well I was wrong on that thought, colored mascaras just aren't my cup of tea. I tried this mascara both on its own and over regular BadGal mascara in hopes that I would fall in love with this product somehow. This mascara was recommended to me by a friend who loves this product and then when I saw it as a Beauty Insider free pick, I decided to pounce on it.

The Sephora website describes this products as follows, "A rich, plum mascara that intensifies eye color. Benefit's BadGal Plum highlights your natural eye color while adding length and volume to lashes. Wear it alone to warm up your lashes or add Plum over the original BadGal Black for an extra pop".

I tried several times to get this product to work but I had no luck with it. The plum shade never really showed up on my lashes and I was told that this shade would make my eyes pop. My friend who loved this had brown and maybe since I have blue, the contrast never really showed up. So my eyes never looked any different than if I had no product on at all. I prefer deep black shades of mascara dn this color just didn't have enough pigment to stand up next to these. I still adore the BadGal formula but I don't think that the colored versions are able to produce the same impact that the black version does.

photo courtesy of Sephora

Most Wanted October 2010

It's a rainy Friday and I will be spending the night in, playing with all of my new Venomous Villians products. and looking forward to what else I am going to get this month as fall items are wrapping up and holiday items are beginning to debut.

I need...

- Cle de Peau Beaute Eye Color Quad in Platinum
- Chanel Glossimer in Sundress
- O.P.I. Yodel Me On My Cell Nail Polish
- Gucci Guilty
- Lancome L'Absolu Rouge Lipstick in Parisian Attraction
- MAC A Tartan Tale Lipstick in The Faerie Glen
- Fresh Soy Face Cleanser
- Bath and Body Works Winter Candy Apple Shower Gel
- Tarina Tarantino Starchild Odyssey Eye Palette
- Philosophy Windows to the Soul Eye Palette

I am really looking forward to the release of A Tartan Tale at the very end of this month. Until then...

MAC Venomous Villians - Cruella

This is the last of the Venomous Villians collection, Cruella. This collection is based around the red lips that this villian wears in the 101 Dalmations movie. I am a red lipstick girl but I didn't pre-order any products from this collection and we will look at why later. "Cruella de Vil of 101 Dalmations. Animated by Disney in 1961. A Dalmation dominatrix. Famed for her cheekbones, dramatic entrances, and trails of absinthe-coloured smoke".

Here is the collection...

Venomous Villians Small Eye Shadow - A fiendishly fashionable Eye Shadow, custom-packaged for the MAC Venomous Villians collection. Limited edition.

- Sweet Joy - frosted creamy pale gold

- De-Vil - rich copper

- Carbon - intense black

Penultimate Eye Liner - A liquid pen-style liner that provides the ultimate precise, bold line in a rich, deep carbon black shade. Goes on fluidly, in one steady stroke, to style any fashion of eye line.

- Rapidblack - true black

Venomous Villians Lipstick - As wonderfully wicked as its iconic inspiration, a Lipstick specially shaded and packaged for the MAC Venomous Villians collection. Limited edition.

- Innocence, Beware! - light yellow pink

- Heartless - cherry red

Venomous Villians Lipglass - As wonderfully wicked as its iconic inspiration, a Lipglass specially shaded and packaged for the MAC Venomous Villians collection. Limited edition.

- Devilishly Stylish - light nude with gold pearl

- Wicked Ways - deep fuschia with pink pearl

Venomous Villians Powder Blush - A Powder Blush specially shaded for the MAC Venomous Villians collection. Limited edition.

- Darkly My Dear - dirty brown plum

Venomous Villians Beauty Powder - A special limited edition Beauty Powder featuring the silky, lightly pearled finish unique to this formula but specially shaded for the MAC Venomous Villians collections.

- Her Own Devices - cool nude

I had originally planned to order Heartless but I was told that it was very close in shade to both MAC Red and Russian Red, both of which I already own. I really like Heartless but I don't need another red lipstick that is close to two that I already own. I like the Sweet Joy and De-Vil Eye Shadows but I already own MAC shadows that are close in shade to these.

photo courtesy of MAC

MAC Venomous Villians - Evil Queen

This is my favorite of the group of collections and the one that I pre-ordered the most from. Snow White is my favorite of the Disney movie and I have been told that I resemble Snow White when I wear red lipstick shades. "The vain Evil Queen from Snow White. Unleashed by Disney in 1937. Jean Harlow eye brows. Joan Crawford's face. She set the standard for glamorous depravity and made us all glad we don't have a mirror that talks back".

Here are the new shades...

Venomous Villians Small Eye Shadow - A fiendishly fashionable Eye Shadow, custom-packaged for the MAC Venomous Villians collection. Limited edition.

- Her Alter Image - light violet

- Vainglorious - bronze burgundy

- Vile Violet - deep dirty blue purple

Penultimate Brow Marker - A liquid, pen-style marker for colouring and styling the brows to a well-defined, natural-looking finish. Easy to control. Tapered tip provides precision and helps create the feathery strokes needed to fill in and perfect the brows. Flow-through, quick-drying formula means no smudges. Long-wearing.

- Universal - universal

Venomous Villians Lipstick - As wonderfully wicked as its iconic inspiration, a Lipstick specially shaded and packaged for the Venomous Villians collection. Limited edition.

- Toxic Tale - bright coral

- Sinister - soft brown plum

Venomous Villians Lipglass - As wonderfully wicked as its iconic inspiration, a Lipglass specially shaded and packaged for the Venomous Villians collection. Limited edition.

- Strange Potion - soft coral pink

- Hot House - deep raspberry with pink pearl

Venomous Villians Beauty Powder - A special limited edition Beauty Powder featuring the silky, light pearled finish unique to this formula but specially shaded for the MAC Venomous Villians collection.

- Oh So Fair - clean pink with gold pearl

Venomous Villians Powder Blush - A Powder Blush specially shaded for the MAC Venomous Villians collection. Limited edition.

- Bite of an Apple - soft coral pink

I pre-ordered my two favorite items from this collection, the Eye Shadow in Her Alter Ego and the Lipglass in Strange Potion. I liked the Eye Shadow in Vainglorious but I wasn't sure how well it would work with other items that I own. I was afraid to the get the Powder Blush since it seemed very coral in the pan however i still want to see if the counter has any of the Oh So Fair Beauty Powder left in stock.

photo courtesy of MAC