♥s..

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.

I'm full of fail. I knew my self-ban on buying more makeup wouldn't last a month. Work really kicked my ass the last couple of weeks. I needed the retail therapy super badly. No vacation left this year to get away for a bit, so.. shopping! It's never a good idea to blow steam by spending cash (it's not like I have that much cash to spend lol), but it makes me happy. I did some damage this weekend (but I said no to Dior AND Bobbi Brown holiday palettes! patting self on back), which I will post about soon! (Maybe after I can get my damn MAC FF haul post out..)

I haven't done my Sephora F&F purchase yet because I'm still mulling over what to buy. Friday night I added a crap ton of stuff to my Shopping List thinking I was going to do a massive haul. Yesterday, I went to a Sephora just to see if the things I had my eye on were must-haves. Sadly, I have to say that none of them were. But I did manage to find a couple things not originally on my list that I will order for the Sephora F&F!

The Illamasqua polishes surprised me. I've seen them before in Sephora, but I've never tried them out for some reason. I was intrigued by AllLaqueredUp's swatches of Scarab and Viridian, but I didn't think much about it until I passed the display on my way out of Sephora. Most of the polish tester bottles were a mangled mess (I really hate how inconsiderate some shoppers are when they leave stuff wherever or however at Sephora.. sometimes jamming lipsticks swiveled all the way up into the display holders or lids.. ugh. Sorry that's a rant for another day), but I found Scarab and Veridian surprisingly untouched. They are total stunners in the bottle. What's surprising is that I'm not a red or green polish girl! I think I own one red polish, and I only have it because it was part of a set I bought. Scarab is a gorgeous burnt burgundy: dark yet not vampy (for me anyway). Veridian is a beautiful peacock green, a color that I really didn't think I'd like. The best thing about these polishes are that they apply soooooo smoothly. No streaks, great opacity in one coat, beautiful.. These are in my cart now. ^^ (happy dance)

Swatches of the Illamasqua polishes I tried out. Please excuse my crappy polish application and photography. I was rushing to take them before my camera battery died lol.

Before I leave you all, I wanted to share a Paul & Joe freebie that came with a Japanese magazine (initially heard about the freebie from Rouge Deluxe, thanks Haru!! :D):

The girl on the cover is singer and ultra かわいい Ayumi Hamasaki ^^. I got the magazine for $14 at a bookstore inside Mitsuwa. I really like the makeup pouches, but their sizes aren't too great for me. The large one is too big to bring to work, the small one is too small (won't fit all my makeup junk). Nonetheless, the pattern is really adorable.

Monday comes too fast. Time to go back to work.. sigh.

Yup. 2009 Kanebo Lunasol holiday set. No, it's not a typo. When I purchased it last year, I didn't have a blog. Now that I do and it's getting closer to the holidays, I thought I'd share.

If there could be a brand that I can say I absolutely adored without even touching a single product, it would have been Kanebo Lunasol. My love of this brand was completely irrational. Then again, love is usually irrational and makes us do crazy things. Over a year ago, I was dying, dying, dying to get my hands on SOMETHING Lunasol. There were online stores that sold it, but I was hesitant to pay so much money for something I haven't even seen in person. What if it was just pretty colors and packaging with no substance? No soul? I looked around for a local brick and mortar store that sold it. Alas, I always came home empty-handed. So I had no choice but to purchase online. Then I had to decide which palette to get.. lol.

Isn't that cute? When you open the box, it wishes you a Merry Christmas. :D (easily amused)

After much mulling (by mulling, I mean staring at pictures for weeks), I finally decided on the Party Coffret (2009) set since it had several products. I thought that while it was kind of expensive, it was a better value than just purchasing an eyeshadow palette on its own. Not that I didn't drool over almost every single other Lunasol palette (or products in general). At $50+ per palette, I just couldn't afford to treat them like Pokemon.

This is the white sequined pouch that came with the set. As you can see, it's got little squared off sequins all over it. Usually, I dislike sequins, but I think this was done tastefully. It has a little pocket inside, and the zipper says Lunasol. I haven't used it yet because I'm afraid it will get dingy, but it's cute.

As you can see, the set comes with Lighting for Eyes EX05 White Lighting, Germinate Liner EX03 White Lighting, Full Glamour Gloss EX11 White Lighting, and Shining Powder EX03 White Lighting. I'm not really sure if the eyeliner, lip gloss, and face powder are full sized since I don't have anything for reference.

The centerpiece of the set: the Lighting for Eyes EX05 White Lighting palette. Typically, Lunasol's packaging is a metallic bronze, but for this set the packaging is a shimmery white. I like the normal packaging a little more, but this is nice as well. Am I the only one who finds it amusing that they have diagrams for suggested use? They probably made it with makeup n00bs just like me in mind.. lol. The diagram was found on the bottom of the box set. I translated the Katakana for you so sorry if I got it wrong lol. My Japanese is super rusty and terribad in general.

It's not as obvious looking at the photo of the palette, but you can see from the swatches that these shadows are rather shimmery. The most being the lighting powder shade. I mostly avoid this one and use the rest due to how crazy glittery/shimmery it is. The shadows apply very smoothly, and are nicely pigmented. I experienced a tiny bit of fallout from the shadows (especially the dark grey one), but it's not a deal-breaker. They crease over time for me (no surprise there.. stupid oily lids), but a good eyeshadow primer fixes that. Overall, I think it's a very cute color combination although maybe not for everyday use. It holds a special place in my heart because it's my first Lunasol eyeshadow palette. ♥

The Germinate Liner EX03 White Lighting (liquid eyeliner) and Full Glamour Gloss EX11 White Lighting (lip gloss).

The Germinate Liner and Full Glamour Gloss included in the set are little beyond a clear substance acting as the vehicle for tons of glitter. I have found them to be extremely limited in normal use, but it's a matter of preference (and occasion). I'm not sure if they are full-sized items, but no matter because I use them so rarely that they will probably last me for the rest of my life lol.

The Shining Powder EX03 White Lighting is for face highlight. Well, I think so anyway.. I can't imagine using such a sparkly white powder all over your face :x.

Before I took these pictures, I've never even opened this face powder. It seems too sparkly for me, but I might be able to use for special occasions.. lol. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that little puff is so cute! ^^ It's really soft, and I'm going to keep it to use for other things.

Overall Thoughts

If you can really use every single product in the set, I'd say yes this would be a good value. For me, I only use the eyeshadow palette and only rarely the Germinate Liner (under normal circumstances I don't think I can use a glitter laced eyeliner.. just not my style) so I don't think this set was worth the price I paid for it so I kind of regret choosing it over getting a standalone eyeshadow palette. However, this set does reaffirm for me that Lunasol products are good quality, but it's not as high on my list as say Chanel or Dior in a similar price range. The markup really reflects how much shipping from Japan affects the price. So I think that if you can get Lunasol products close to what they actually retail for in Japan, they would be amazing (and I SOOO envy youuu!). Unfortunately for myself, I don't have any female friends (or COOL guy friends.. cough) visiting Japan to help me out. That being said, would I still buy Lunasol at the higher price?? Hellz ya! lol. I'm still in love with Lunasol, and totally drooling over this year's Coffret set. :P I think you can still buy the 2009 set online somewhere if you so desire. I might have seen it on Imomoko or mihokofamily. I bought mine for around $75-80 @ Imomoko(? I forget). It might be cheaper now, but limited in quantity. Personally, I'd skip it and get this year's. It looks like it has more usable items this time around!

Sorry this post was maybe a little too picture heavy; I was being lazy and didn't want to crop several together. :x

I've been having such GREAT AMAZING FUN TIMES at work lately. I hope you can detect my sarcasm. I need some serious retail therapy. The holiday collections for so many brands this year are so gorgeous (Guerlain, I'm looking at you!!). So are a couple non-holiday things.. >> Ya, I knew my self-ban on new makeup purchases wouldn't last (due to my ever-wavering willpower lol).