♥s..

Ah Boxing Day. I never thought I'd be out shopping on this day. Normally, I'm still in bed or doing a whole lot of nada, but I had to answer the siren call of a new MAC collection release: Cham-Pale. It's not a huuuge collection in comparison to the previous releases (FF, VV, TT, all huge). I still feel like I got a lot though! So I just whipped up a super fast haul post. I don't think I will do swatches as a million other blogs have done them already. I hope you understand. :)

MAC Kohl Power Eye Pencil in Feline and Eye Kohl in I Get No Kick.

I loved how dark Feline swatched on my hand. Super pigmented. I'm trying not to get my hopes up about its staying power because almost nothing stays put on my eyes (especially eye pencils), but eh, we'll see! I Get No Kick was really pretty swatched. I'm going to try it out on my waterline for eye brightening.

MAC Special Reserve Highlighting Powder in Chez Chez Lame and Rose Ole.

I'm probably crazy getting both of these.. but I couldn't help it. First of all, I love the "crinkling" in the powder. I'm a sucker for details like that. Secondly, they both swatched so nicely I couldn't decide on just one. I read that Rose Ole is similar to By Candlelight, which I have and will see if I can dig out later to make a proper comparison.

MAC Caviar Dreams Eyeshadow Quad.

This was my first MAC eyeshadow quad purchase. :D I read a lot of reviews of this quad saying that it was not worth it because the colors are mostly repromotes and are too light. I don't have any of these colors, and I mainly bought the quad for Caviar Dreams, which I love!

MAC Paint Pots in Chilled On Ice and Vintage Selection.

I only got two of the Paint Pots. I originally had my eye on Dangerous Cuvee, but it didn't really cooperate with me when I tried to swatch it in store. It didn't feel very smooth. In comparison, Chilled On Ice and Vintage Selection both felt much smoother and creamier. I was completely enamored with Vintage Selection, of course, but I couldn't leave without Chilled On Ice too.

MAC Nail Lacquer in Soiree.

I was very disappointed with Very Important Platinum. The color is so right up my alley, but I hated the consistency so I didn't buy it. Soiree was really gorgeous in person and applied really nicely.

All righty. That's it for my Cham-Pale haul. Trust me to go out on a sale day to buy makeup things at full-price lol. I barely looked at Stylishly Yours. I did a quick swipe on the pale pink beauty powder, but I didn't get it. Maybe I should have taken a better look at the Fluidline in the collection.. ah well. There is next weekend. :3

I hope your Christmas was full of happy times with happy people!

Happy Holidays, everyone! Hope you haven't forgotten me yet lol. I wish I had more time to devote to my blog, but my current living situation makes it really difficult. So hopefully it will change soon (like.. next year or something would be GREAT!), and I'll be able to blog a lot more (if I don't get sucked back into WoW that is.. :3). ^^V For now, here is a quick post on my Tartan Tale haul (this was done in multiple trips over the course of several weeks).


I was really excited about Tartan Tale when I saw KarlaSugar's swatches, but when I got to a counter I kind of lost interest in a few things I thought I'd like. Maybe that's just me trying to convince myself to not buy things lol. I like the packaging of this collection much more than that of Venomous Villains.

6 Dashing Lassie and Pearlglide Eyeliners. Sorry, I took a picture of the actual tips of the eyepencils, but it came out super blurry. It's not too important anyway. The swatch is there!

Lately, I've been really into neutrals. I can't help but buy every taupe I can get my grubby paws on, which is why I couldn't ignore Dashing Lassies. Dashing Lassies eye shadow palette was the first item in the collection that I had my eye on because of Magical Mist. I also thought I would get the Beauties Play It Cool palette just because of Magical Moore, but.. I like Magical Mist more and I figured that I liked the other shades in Dashing Lassies more than the others in Beauties Play it Cool. It wouldn't be worth it to pay $35 just for that tiny square of Magical Moore, would it? .. Well, I've done crazier things lol.

The Pearlglide eyeliners are so awesome! Sadly, they do smudge on me, but then again everything usually does! Lord It Up was my favorite one out of the bunch. I wanted Undercurrent too, but it was sold out at the store I was at. It's probably too late to try to get it now, but if I could, I'd get that and Petrol Blue. I wish these eyeliners were permanent and available in every color imaginable because they are SO SMOOTH. Seriously. No tugging at all; they are so creamy. It's just a shame that they are not usable on the waterline due to the glitter particles.

A Triumphant Blush Face Kit

I passed on the pink cheek set because I already had Oh So Fair and Dame. In retrospect, I could have gotten it since I like both of them, but I'm usually not the sort of person to buy backups of stuff even if I really like it. So I got the peachy cheek set instead since I had none of those colors. I tried to take so many pictures of this, but Melba came out looking pink in each one. This is probably the best one for the other two. Out of the three blushes, I like Peachtwist the most. I haven't quite wrapped my head around how to use Smooth Harmony yet. Speaking of blushes, Fuz spoke very highly of Highland Honey, which is a blush single in this collection. I wanted it at first, but I thought it was a bit too similar to Utterly Game (from Fabulous Felines). So I figured I could skip Highland Honey.

The Swinging Violets Mineralized Kit

Okay, for some reason when I got to this point, I started taking photos out of sequence and combined individual items with items in the kit like a stupid. My apologies if the rest of this post is confusing.

When I saw Karla Sugar's swatches for the Nordstrom exclusive Mineralized set, I totally drooled. The Earthly Riches Mineralized Eyeshadow Duo is a must have! I love both colors! I've been meaning to try out MAC Paint Pots as well, so the one in the kit (Bare Study) came at a good time. I have to say that while I like the color of Bare Study, the texture was not what I was expecting. It felt a little too.. dry and tacky. Will have to experiment a little more with it. The Icescape Lip Glass is a little shimmery, but the color is cute. I haven't tried out the mascara yet, but I probably won't as any non-waterproof mascara is asking for trouble (will melt into panda eyes in no time no matter how gorgeous the application..). I'm considering picking up the other kits too..

I planned on skipping the eyeshadow singles, but it was hard to drag myself away from Glamora Castle. I know other bloggers complained about the pigmentation of these singles. While I see where they're coming from, I thought Glamora Castle was fine in that regard. While I was at it, I also picked up A Wish Come True. It's not an eyeshadow color I normally go for because I'm always afraid I'll make myself look like I've got pink eye, but I figured if anything I could wear it sheered it out as a blush.

Out of all the lippies, I loved Faerie Glen the most. It's a nice beige pink that looks natural on my lips. It pulls a little more beige than pink on me, but it's a really nice color. I always apply any lipstick sheerly though. It just looks kind of weird on me if I do a full opaque lip. Cut a Caper was a little scary looking in the tube, but is actually sheer so it wears very easily on the lips.


Phew. So after all that's said and done, I still wound up with a lot of stuff lol. MAC has been really impressing me lately. Or maybe since I'm a beauty blogger now (I know, I barely post enough to have that honor) that I'm more in tune with MAC collections. Who knows?! If you haven't picked up any Tartan Tale yet, but want to, you might still be able to at any MAC counter. Whenever I stroll by, it looks like a lot is still available. The only items you might have trouble getting are the Pearlglide Eyeliners and maybe the Highland Honey blush. I can't wait to see Cham-Pale tomorrow (my wallet is already weeping in the corner)!

Happy Holidays! Thank you for stopping by. Stay safe and be happy. ^^

Oohh.. shiny..

I really meant to post my Black Friday haul.. really I did. This overcast killed it (also started raining too). So to hold you over for now, here is a mini-review post. I took the pictures during a crazy photo-shoot session where I had actual sunlight!!.. Doesn't that sound so sad coming from someone who lives in southern California?? Sunshine my ass! >:O Sigh~

I'm sure you've seen these palettes many times already. They're definitely not new any more, but they are so pretty looking. The packaging design is gorgeous! I need to expand my vocabulary because I use "gorgeous" and "pretty" too much lol. Well, you can see for yourself. Really uniquely designed casing.

Case detail is so pretty! There is a space for the tiny brush that's included. I can't speak for the quality/usefulness of that brush since I've never used it.

Fully opened case. As you can see, there's a mirror under the cover.

Rue de Sevres and Rue de Passy. Two of five total palettes which are named after Guerlain's boutiques in Paris.

In case you didn't know already, each palette will set you back $84. It's a pretty steep price to pay. So if you're really interested in these still, you should know what you're getting into. These shadows are not super pigmented. For the money, I was expecting nothing short of amazing, but I was rather disappointed. Now, I know you're rolling your eyes at me, "But STUPID, you bought it anyway! You took PHOTOS! EVIDENCE!" Yes, I bought it. In fact, I couldn't help myself and got two of these palettes. One reason why I still plunked down my money is because the packaging is so unique and beautiful. The other is because to make these shadows magically appear all you need is an eyeshadow base, which is basically a requirement for me anyway due to my overly oily lids. The SA at the Guerlain counter swatched these for me using the Guerlain eyeshadow base. They were so pretty swatched that I couldn't say no. I hear that the quality of these palettes don't hold a candle to Guerlain's usual quads, but I can't attest to that since these are my first Guerlain shadows. I think for this price range, they could be a bit smoother and more pigmented. Overall they're okay shadows, and you get six shades to play with for a wide range of looks.

First photo is Rue de Sevres swatched without base. Second photo is the same palette swatched over UDPP. Sorry about the quality of the photos, but you can easily tell that the shadows are much better with a base.

Rue de Passy swatched over UDPP.

I'm pretty sure most Guerlain counters in department stores have these still. Sephora carries these online only. I don't think I will be purchasing any more in this series of palettes. There is going to be a new palette coming out for spring 2011 I think, featuring a popping hot pink as the accent color. Pretty, but not for me. I'm eyeing the other things instead! Hoping my makeup ban will be over then.. >> haha.

I have a quick haul post for you today. I bought most of this the day Fabulous Felines (FF) collection officially released. So yes, this post is sort of kind of really late.. It's been THAT busy. Work has seriously been kicking my ass lately so that I'm so dead tired by the time I get home that I can barely do anything lol. I started writing this before I got my Venomous Villains (VV) haul, but I couldn't finish it until.. after I posted my VV haul AND after I got my Tartan Tale haul. -_- Lighting has been utter crap as of late. Also, after I finished writing a chunk of this post, Google decided that I've been logged in long enough and logged me out of Blogger without actually saving my changes. Sigh~ Sorry, I'll stop whining. On with the show!

My initial impression of the collection was ambivalence. I didn't think there was anything I particularly wanted until I scooted over to Temptalia. Based on her swatches, I chose a few items to check out. When I got to the actual display, I actually purchased a few more items than I had originally intended (BF wasn't there to be the voice of my conscience mwahaha. I love shopping with my favorite coworker at lunch!). I skipped the eyeshadow palettes. A couple colors within each palette were appealing, but as a whole, no palette really held my attention.

I only have a few MSF's and Mineralized Blushes from MAC, but each has performed amazingly for me. Pigmentation, color, smoothness, all spot on. So it was no surprise that Pet Me would grab my attention. I was going to skip it at first based on the fact that I have a grip of blushes I really should use up, but once again.. resistance was futile. Don't ask me why there are lines in the product photo above.. I have no idea. I have been using it a lot though.


I didn't get Utterly Game with the first FF haul because at the time I thought I wouldn't like it. I tend to shy away from cheek/lip colors that don't have enough pink, but after looking at more swatches on other blogs, I totally regretted it. Most stores had sold out of it by the time I realized I wanted it, but Nordstrom's still had it available for purchase online. Since I was trying my luck getting VV's My Dark Desire (also said available at the time), I thought why not. I'm happy I tried because I got it! :D Had to ship all the way from NJ, but I got it!!! Utterly Game only.. Nordstrom emailed me saying My Dark Desire was sold out so they canceled my order. :( @Nordstrom, why would you get my hopes up like that?? WHY? QQ


Pet Me, Please is a frost-finish lipstick. After buying a couple frosty NARS lipsticks that I really shouldn't have (because they looked so pretty in the tube but not on my lips), I thought I swore off frosty finish lipsticks forever. But I thought Pet Me, Please was so pretty that I couldn't help it.

I swatched everything rather heavily here. Should have done sheered out swatches for the blushes, but the light was fading for photos lol.

Wow I suck. I forgot to edit this caption.. lol!! AHEM..

The bulk of my purchase were the Superslick Liquid Eye Liners. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm a giant liquid eye liner n00b so I was very leery about these. I read all these reviews that said it took too long to dry after application. I'm really impatient (and usually strapped for time in the morning) so the thought of having to wait up to five minutes for eye liner to dry was maddening. But thanks to the MA who assured me that all you need was 30 seconds (was true! He demo'd it on my coworker), I was sold. I bought one of almost every color lol. Removal is the best part for these. The liner flakes off instead of smearing and making a giant panda eye mess.

That concludes my FF haul. Happy Thanksgiving, all! Remember to wake up early for all those nice Black Friday deals! I SWEAR! After these sales I'm done shopping! ..... for 2010. :3

You all must think I haul a lot. Well, truth is.. I kind of do, but not normally a giant haul in one sitting. Just.. a little bit here and there.. every weekend.. haha. I've been so crazy behind in my posts that I'll have to clump hauls together. Like this one!

The last few months were huge nail polish months. I love nail polish, but I had only a meager stash before fall. I think soon I will have to invest in a storage solution for my growing collection. It's not a huge one by any means, but at the rate I'm going.. it will be! Sorry, I think I will save swatching for future review or NOTD posts instead. My nails are not in their best condition at the moment and I don't think they can take doing so many swatches at once (I prefer to do at least an entire hand so you can see the overall look).

The row in front are the nail polishes (because the photo is so crappy, and I wasn't smart enough to write down which is which in advance, I'm just going to name them in no particular order.. sorry!): Big Smoke, Perfect Prezzie, All Hail McQueen, Fash Pack, Aston, British Racing Green, Branwen's Feather, Yummy Mummy, and Victoriana. The three in the back are the Matte Finish Topcoat, Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat, and Handbag Holiday Cuticle Oil.

Butter London is pure love. Application-wise most of the ones I've tried were flawless. I was so ecstatic to find them in a real store so I can play with them! The SA was nice enough to throw in a few generous GWPs. That nail file you see? She gave me like four of them total. I'm set for life! She also gave me the Matte Finish Topcoat and the Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat. Really sweet lady! I really wanted Bumster, but it didn't really look good on my nails.. :(

Top left to right: Illusion D'or, Rose Confidentiel, Steel, and Mistral. Bottom left to right: Vendetta, Paradoxal, Strong, Khaki Vert, and Rose Insolent.

Is it just me, or has Chanel been crazy with limited edition polishes lately? I can barely keep up, physically getting to a store and.. financially. I lucked out like crazy with Illusion D'or, Khaki Vert, and Steel. I missed out on these when they were available online (this was also before I realized that the Soho collection was available at Nordstroms). Apparently someone had them on hold at the Bloomingdales I was at. If you don't pick up the items within the time they're allowed to be held for you, they become free inventory. That person never picked up the items, so the SA had just put the testers for those polishes back out on the counter.. about three minutes before I strolled by and saw them. I have eagle-eyes when it comes to makeup lol. MINE! Mwahahaha.. ahem. :D

Left to right: Black Ink, Czarina Gold, Aztec Chocolate, and Timeless Gold.

Sorry, that Dior photo sucks ass.. sadly it was the best of the ones I took of these polishes. Ah well! Dior has been crazy like Chanel too! Before, I've always wanted more Dior polishes to be released per collection/season, but this felt kind of crazy. Goes to show, be careful what you wish for! I can't even remember which store I got which at. I think I'm missing one or two too in this picture. Agh my collection is too disorganized right now. Will have to hunt down..

Left to right: Scarab, and Viridian.

Illamasqua was the dark horse for me. The brand itself was never super appealing to me, much in the way that MAC didn't before. Some of it seems very.. stage-makeup-ish? Not that it's a bad thing, just a bit too bold for my taste. I spoke briefly about these polishes in a previous post. The metallic finish polishes are really nice! I wanted to pick up Phallic too during F&F, but it was out of stock online. Speaking of, should I ask why a nail polish named Phallic is.. blue? lol..

Left to right: Diamonds and Pearls, Pump Up the Jam, Bring On the Bling, Across the Universe, Waking Up in Vegas, and Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

Deborah Lippmann was a brand of polish I should have been aware of, but had no idea existed. Where the hell have I been?? I have to thank All Laquered Up for introducing it to me via her Waking Up In Vegas post. The brand features gorgeous colors (with cute names) and amazing application.

Left to right: Merino Cool, Sew Psyched, and Chinchilly.

I've seen Essie polishes, but just never got around to trying any until now. The polishes are pretty good in terms of application, although is it just me or do they separate in the bottle easier/faster than others? It's not a big deal at all, but that makes the Essie polishes my least favorite of the lot.

MAC Venomous Villains Bad Fairy.

Ah, Bad Fairy.. this polish was hard to track down. It was sold out in stores the day it was released. I was laughed at for even asking at some stores. My coworker, who is new to MAC, wanted Bad Fairy too. In fact, almost everything she wanted in the store that day was sold out! I felt bad so I decided then that if I could track down Bad Fairy that I'd give it to her as a gift. Thankfully Steph of DSK (check out her jewelry! Her pieces always have me drooling) came to my rescue! My coworker thought I wanted it for myself. LOL so she asked her sister in NJ to look for it too, and.. she found it! In fact, she found EIGHT of them. Weeks after selling out everywhere else. EIGHT. Sigh~ Anyway, she came to work the next day really excited to tell me that she found Bad Fairy for me. In the end, we just kept our own lol. ♥ you, S!

Maybe you noticed that I changed my watermarking? I haven't been a victim yet of picture-jacking (who would jack these anyway?!!? Crazy..), just thought I'd try out a better way to protect the photos. Also, I thought it would be misleading if I used the same old "reene ♥'s ______ " watermark when I eventually get to a brand/product that I really didn't like..

Please excuse my image host server.. they like to run maintenance whenever I hit publish apparently.

I'm an awful blogger. :( When I have time to blog/take pictures, the weather is crappy and none of the pictures turn out nice. When it's nice out, the BF wants to go out and pouts when I try to blog. Sigh~ So sorry about the delay in posts. Hopefully Jill Stuart can hold you over for now lol. This will be a review on some of her point makeup, which I purchased last year around when I bought the Lunasol 2009 Party Coffret.

Despite being an American designer, Jill Stuart's cosmetics is relatively unknown in the US because it is mainly distributed in only Asia. From last I heard, there is but one US brick and mortar store on the east coast that carries the cosmetics (and not much of it). I personally would LOVE to see JS cosmetics be widely available. I don't quite understand why it's not! If you would like to know a little more background, you can read about it here at their official site.

Jill Stuart Mix Blush Compact in 05 Pastel Peach. I swatched each square separately first. In the last photo, I blended the colors together in a heavier swatch.

The Mix Blush is my favorite Jill Stuart product thus far, and it's also one of my favorite blushes overall. From the picture, you can tell that I've used it to the point that the cute flower design in the powder is totally gone. It breaks my heart a little when I do that and makes me wish I got another one so I can admire it whenever I want to too! Okay, that's wasteful lol, but it's so pretty! I'm not sure if I even use this correctly lol. What I do is swirl all the colors together and apply sheerly on my cheeks. I don't find it to be too pigmented, but I like how it gives my face a nice glow. Very smooth texture. There is some shimmer, but nothing crazy or even really noticeable. There is also a slight scent to the powder. Maybe floral/fruity? Can't quite put my finger on it. The Pastel Peach color was limited edition and is likely difficult to track down now, but there are other really cute colors. Each Mix Blush comes with its own small FUNCTIONAL retractable brush! It's attached to the compact itself by a chain, which you can detach too if you desire. Sadly, my chain broke before I got smart enough to detach it lol. But everything is still functional so it's all good.

Jill Stuart Jelly Eye Color N in 01 Diamond Snow and 10 Vintage Decor.

My second favorite item are the Jelly Eye Colors. They are really shimmery and sparkly so it's little out of my comfort zone to wear to work.. Well, maybe I'll try it and see if I get too many comments lol. Okay, this is another sign that I'm really easily amused.. The texture of the Jellies are so fun! They really do feel like jellies. The pigmentation is all right. I think what you're drawn to most is the shimmer. These have a much stronger fragrance than the blush did so if you dislike fragrance in your makeup, beware. I really like how these smell, and can sniff them all day lol! My favorite of the two colors I have is Vintage Decor. I don't have the Paul&Joe Eye Gloss in Murmur, but it reminds me of that. I'm thinking of getting Antique Chiffon at some point. Hopefully it will still be around by the time I can lol.

Jill Stuart Seductive Eyes in Mysterious Queen

Last, but not least: Jill Stuart Seductive Eyes in Mysterious Queen. At the time I bought it, Mysterious Queen was new and limited edition. The palette is really gorgeous, but the texture just isn't what I expected. The eyeshadows (minus the highlighter shade, which doesn't seem much more than a lot of shimmer) are surprisingly pigmented and REALLY shimmery. The shadows feel smooth, but there is a lot of shimmer fallout. It gets everywhere and is difficult to completely get rid of. The applicator it comes with is cute, but I don't really like using it. I'm not crazy about using brushes with it because of the texture so I use my fingers. Like the other Jill Stuart products, this also has a fragrance. It's not as strong as the Jelly Eye Color, but a little stronger than that of the blush. Overall, this palette is decent, but all the shimmer drives me nuts. I don't think I will be purchasing another one unless the colors are absolute must-haves or something.

Admittedly the packaging style is not for everyone. It can be overly girlie/princessy. But while it is not my favorite style, I do really like it. Grew on me lol. Like Lunasol, Jill Stuart cosmetics are hard to come by and expensive. But if you're willing to bite the bullet, there are several online stores to choose from. Keep in mind that some of the items I reviewed here were limited edition so if you really want those you might have to venture to eBay or something. Otherwise, Mihokoshop.com is an excellent vendor and where I bought my Jill Stuart stuff.