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Look of the Day

Tunic dress, necklace in multiple chains by Forever 21. Gold cross pendant vintage/heirloom.
Charm bracelets by Guess.

Eyes: Chanel Kaska Beige quad, Urban Decay Pencil Eyeliner in Zero, Dior DiorShow Iconic
Cheeks: Dior Harmonie Blush in Rose Brazilia
Lips: Freckletone by MAC

Today, I had a ballet class and I wasn't sure what to do because I had to wear something over my leotard that is still presentable for office work and school! In the end, this is what I came up with.

Review: Chanel Kaska Beige Eyeshadow Quad

I adore Chanel but I've never had the guts to actually splurge on their quads before. However, this spring's amazing quad has drawn me in! Help!

I mean, just look at the abuse I've put that compact through already! Oh, it's beautiful. I wear it daily. The shades are lovely--there's a matte beige /cream, and a matte medium brown. There are two beautiful shimmery/satiny (more satiny than shimmery) shades in a dark lovely plum and a light golden brown. Ahhh, my heart is faint for it!

Jump the link for my full review, including a swatch and a look!

Preview: Urban Decay's Alice In Wonderland Book of Shadows II

I debated for the longest time about getting the Book of Shadows Vol II from Urban Decay. I love Urban Decay, and it is one of my favorite brands. However, I've never bought eyeshadow from them since I don't tend to wear tons of glitter/shimmer. I was sorely tempted by Book of Shadows Vol. II, but now I'm glad I didn't get it!


Behold, the Alice In Wonderland Book of Shadows, available via UrbanDecay.com on January 15th. It looks like plenty of old colors renamed with Alice-related names, if you take a look at PurseBuzz's exclusive swatches. However, since I don't own any UD shadow colors, this will be perfect for me!

As for me, I adore the little fold out pop out packaging and I simply can't wait for January 15th. Three... more.. days..

How about you? Is this a haul? A skip?

Pretty In Pink's BEST OF 2009 LIST!!! PART ONE.

All right guys, are you ready? I'm going to talk about my favorites in different categories that were released this year. These are products I had the pleasure to try out and found them keepers and HG for life.

Face Products



1 &2 Make Up For Ever All Mat Primer and Duo Mat Powder Foundation I have been using the Make Up For Ever HD foundation for a long time, but I never realized how amazing their matte face products are. I'm in love with both the primer and the powder. They have amazing setting powers, and it keeps my HD make up looking fresh and beautiful all day. I hardly need to touch up, ever. Except during the very hottest days of summer. Now that we're into the drier season, I don't need to touch up at all.

3 Laura Mercier's Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer. I've been shying away from full on make up days as I enter a busy busy year in my life this fall. For days when I simply do not have time, this has been perfect. It stays on, it provides a tiny bit of coverage, and keeps my face luminous without making me look oily or like a disco ball. It's pricy for what it is, but it does come with a ton of product (1.7 oz for $42).

4 Make Up For Ever HD Foundation I've been using this since last year, but it remains a fond favorite. It provides tons of coverage, and a little goes a long way. It applies evenly with my hands to warm it up, and it requires very little work to achieve a flawless but natural look. People say that can't even tell I have make up on when I wear this alone.

5 MAC Mineral Skin Finish in Refined This is a lovely product that is the perfect highlighter. It provides very little pigmentation, and in fact applied with the 188 or 187, just gives me the right candlelight glow. Compared to other MSFs we've had from MAC and compared to the Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick powders, this is a gem and much more subtle and suitable for daily use.

Cheek Products


I'm known among my friends to be absolutely blush obsessed, and here are my favorite releases this year.

1 Dior Harmonie Blush in Coral Riviera and Rose Brazilia The perfect blush. No really. It lends life and warmth to the skin, and both colors have their own beautiful qualities. I've done a more complete review here.

2 Benefit SugarRush Powder Oh my gosh, not only does this work great as a cheek powder to highlight and to give a luminous pink-peach flush, it's also a great all over powder, and the lavender part works great as a color for the lids on a "me but better" day where I just want to give my eyes a bit of glow but very little color. It is perfect. I got this late in the year but it is becoming a favorite favorite.

3 Bobbi Brown's Illuminating Bronzer in Maui and Antigua I love this powder a lot. It's great for easy days, and it's effortless, especially with Bobbi's brush. There's not much to say about it except that it gives me color and glow all in one and makes me feel like it's summer still.

4 MAC Blush in Blushbaby This is not a new release, but rather a new discovery for me. It is just this amazing my-cheeks-but-better look. It has little to no shimmer, and it is finely milled and stays on forever, and looks like a kind of dusty pink that's so natural and perfect on all skin types.

5 NARS Orgasm Every year Orgasm is still a favorite. There's not much to say about it except that it's a universally flattering gorgeous blush and I love, love love it.

Review: Benefit Sugarbomb

This is my first foray into Benefit powders. I've heard both good things and bad things about them, and I have been wanting to try the luminizing ones (such as Dandelion or Georgia) out for a while. However, when Sugarbomb came out, I thought I'd try it for review purposes so that people could read a review about a new product. Everyone's written about Dandelion and Georgia, so I'll save these two for another time.

First of all, the packaging. It's sleek, it's small. I like it well enough, but it's not outstanding. It seems durable and it's very portable AND it packs tons of products in. In fact, you may have to work with it a bit with a brush before it'll show up. Speaking of brushes, I am not a huge fan of this one. It's streaky and kind of rough.

The product itself is filed into the bronzer category on Sephora, which I think is inaccurate. On my NC35 skin, it does more like what Dior's Diamond powders do (such as Rose Diamond). It's an even more finely milled powder than the Dior, and shows up as this amazing pink/peach highlighter. On my skin it shows up as the barest peach-pink, but it lends such a soft and pretty glow. I think it's really good for people with my skin tone or lighter as a natural my-face-but-better day make up as a bare hint of blush. Otherwise it's good as a lightly shimmering all over powder/highlighter, or as a way to diffuse your blush and blend out your blush and give your skin a healthy glow.

Comparing this to Dior's Diamond powders or Bobbi Brown's Shimmer Bricks... I think this is the best of them all. Seriously. I'm not a die hard fan of shimmering powders, since I have pretty big pores and they really accentuate pores, but this is the most finely milled shimmer I've seen in a while, beating even Dior's powders for a subtle and soft glow rather than a disco-ball face. I love it!

I would use this with a kabuki brush or with a fluffy but dense bronzer or blush brush (ie. MAC 169 or Bobbi Brown's bronzer brush). Review of all of the above brushes here.

To sum it up...

The Pros:
- Amazing glow. I've gotten compliments!
- Is buildable to being a light blush on light-to-medium skintones.
- Portable packaging, lots of product packed in for the price.
- Very finely milled.
- This is a pretty universal shade, I think.

The Cons:
- The brush is useless to me.
- Can be considered too sheer for many people, including me for a blush.

The final verdict: A-
Great product, but I would probably like Benefit's actual blush powders instead of just these sheer powders better. I have several highlighting powders. Good value for price. Get it if you are looking for a great highligher or all over powder that's subtle and pink.

Aimee's Sephora Friends and Family Haul.

In case anyone was curious, I hauled a lot during the Sephora Family and Friends sale which started last night! In anticipation for this sale, I've been crunching numbers and squeezing the last drops out of my products and skincare for a month trying not to buy stuff until now and I went crazy when the sale did start. Most of them are refills/staples of things I need and ran out of, and some are just fun things. :)

The following is a list of the things I hauled and my comments/thoughts about them (whether I've used them before or not!). Some of these are old favorites so I may make a note on what you definitely should get.

Lancome BI-FACIL Eye Makeup Remover
This is a Holy Grail item for me. It's the most efficient and gentle eye make up remover ever and I cannot use anything else!

Guerlain Eyeshadow Palette in Brun Mordore
I couldn't find a picture of the actual palette I bought, and these are different colors, but I bought them in lovely neutrals and browns! I haven't even swatched this but I have heard lots of good things about it so here's hoping. :)

Urban Decay 24/7 Liner Super Stash
OK, guys, I am way excited about this. I love love love the Urban Decay liners. They stay on me like nobody's business and all the pretty colors are exciting! A side note: I also got the full size liner in Dime, which is like a silvery glimmery color. :)

Lancome OSCILLATION Mascara
I've always wanted to try this famous vibrating mascara, and what better time to do so than during the Friends and Family sale? :)

Make Up Forever All Mat Make Up Primer
I swear that one day I will do a real review of this, but suffice to say that I've gone through several bottles of this stuff and I still cannot live without it.

Too Faced NEutral Eye Collection Palette
I have too many neutral eyeshadows for my own good, but this one is just so pretty and so well rounded that I couldn't resist! I highly recommend this. I swatched it in store and the texture is smooth and the colors are fabulous and universal.

Well, that's it for now. I think I have a Philosophy haul coming up also during the F&F sale, for some bath and body and exfoliating products, but here's the full extent of my current haul.

The Sephora Friends and Family sale will lats until November 2nd. Use code FF2009 to redeem for 20% off entire cart.