Hello Beautiful People!!! Happy New Year! I hope everyone has settled in to the new year and hope all of you have had a great start.
It's been really crazy for me lately with a lot of planning and running around, but I have been dying to review some products that I have hauled recently. So without any further delays, let's get right to it!
Over the years, I have accumulated tons and tons of lipsticks. From MAC, to Estee Lauder, to Dior, to Lancome just to name a few. It has become so cumbersome to carry all of my lippies in my kit. I always forget all the beautiful colours I have, not to mention it becomes so time consuming going though all of them to find the right colour when I am doing a makeover for a client. So I finally decided to take the time and depot my lipsticks. I searched online for palettes and the best one I found was good ol' MAC. I decided to give it a try so only purchased 2 empty palettes. I decided to go with the double palette since it would fit more product for me.
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| Top - 24 well insert Bottom - Closed and Open Double Palette |
I also purchased 4 - 24 well inserts. You can see the size of each well compared to a Canadian Quarter. So my pros of this palette are the fact that you can fit so many different colours on each side of the palette. This is a great plus point for me as I am always looking for ways to condense my kit so it is not so heavy to carry around. Also the case seems very sturdy and has a magnetic closure which I found to be really smart because that way you don't have to worry about breaking a clasp or anything. The cons are the fact that the 24 wells are so shallow it barely fits half a lipstick bullet. As you will see in the picture below, mine started to get messy because I crammed as much product as I could in each well. Also another con is the plastic divider in between the palettes. I really wish it was easier to flip from one side to the other. It sits flush to the palette and unless you have longer nails and if your palette sticks like mine, it becomes annoying.
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| Left - Reds, Browns and Neautrals Right - Mauves, Pinks and Neutrals |
Overall, I really love these palettes and I think it was the best use of my time to depot my lipsticks. As you can see in the right palette, I started out melting the lipsticks in there, but I found, although it looked neater, I wasted a lot of product and the formulation of the lipsticks started to alter a little bit. All the glitters or tiny sparkles started to rise to the top or sink to the bottom. So I decided to cut them up using my makeup spatula, mix them into a paste and smoosh them into the wells. Make sure you sanitize the wells and any utensils you use to handle the lipsticks. Being sanitary is the number one rule when it comes to makeup artistry, not only for the benefit of your clients, but also for the shelf life of your products. Contamination can be a very deadly thing to such expensive products. Let me tell you, it took quite a bit of my time to depot 48 of my lipsticks, but totally worth it. I still have tons of depotting to go. I plan to eventually get these palettes and use the different inserts for concealers, blushes and eyeshadows. They have many different inserts and you can find so many different uses for them. The single palettes are so amazing for eyeshadows because they have a clear top and you can see exactly what pallette it is without having to open it. Although this is a time saver, it won't work for me since I have so many eyeshadow palettes and it would take up too much space using the single ones. The empty palettes can be bought at any MAC store, however you will have to go to a PRO store to get most of the inserts. I had to get the 24 well inserts from the PRO store. I can't wait to get the blush, eyeshadow and 12 well inserts!!
As I mentioned in my previous posts, I have been so lucky to have been able to play and experience so many amazing cosmetic and beauty lines in my years in the cosmetic industry, but it was my first time to get my hands on Guerlain.
O M G... can you say LUXE?? From the packaging to the smell to the products...I can't say enough great things about this brand. So I had to try a little bit of everything to see how I really feel about the products.
The first thing that was highly recommended to me was the Midnight Secret - Late Night Recovery Treatment.
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| Guerlain - Midnight Secret |
My friend who recommended this to me didn't say much, but all she said was YOU HAVE TO GET IT! I asked her what she loves about it and she said "Let's just say, if I am out partying all night and have to work the next day with little or no sleep, I not only look like I had a full night's rest, my skin looks even better than usual". Well I guess I was sold on that. lol Not that I am out partying all night any more *sigh* but I am a night owl and I don't always get a full 8 hours of sleep...pshh who does anyway?
I get so excited to try new skin care products, but I always find it hard to figure out where to fit it in with all the other products I use. (Please see my previous post about my daily skin care regimen to see my daily routine). After searching online and asking some people at the Guerlain counter, I decided to use it right after my Advnaced Night Repair Serum, but before my Hydrationist moisturizer. (In my night time routine).
Always remember, when you are trying out something new for your skin, do not attempt to try a number of different things at the same time. Just in case your skin reacts to it, you can isolate which product may be causing the irritation.
You are not supposed to use Midnight Secret every day. You can use it up to 3 times per week, but not on consecutive days. So far I have only used it twice. My first impression of the products was it smells AMAZING! which is great, but I don't like using scented skin care. I have to say that the smell lasted for quite some time, but it wasn't offensive to me so I didn't mind. I could see this being a problem for people that are sensitive to scented products, but it's a nice lavender smell. Anyway moving on to the feel of the product. It was very silky, they say you could wear it alone, but since my skin is so dry in the winter, I didn't want to risk that. Within moments of using the product, I felt my skin become soooooooooo soft, like super soft and supple. In the morning, my skin was even more softer. As for the brightening effect, it did make my skin brighter, but I don't know if that was all in my head. I would have to try it a few more times to see any difference in regards to the brightening effect that Guerlain and all the users claim. It made my makeup go on really nicely the next day. My pores appeared non-existent and my skin felt very even in texture. I didn't wash my face in the morning, just used my toner and cotton pad to wipe off any dirt.
I don't think this product will give you any long term benefits, so I wouldn't swap it out for my night serum, but it does help in the short term. Would be great for brides to use on the night before their big day or anyone that has an event the next day and wants their skin to look extra nourished and special.
This next product was also highly recommended to me by the same friend. I've seen it before and heard of it, but never really understood the product until I did some research on it. Man oh man this product has such a HUGE cult following. Of course this is no other than the Guerlain Meteorites Pearls.
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| Meteorites Powder Pearls № 03 Dore |
I decided to get the Meteorites Powder Pearls № 03 Dore. Okay let's start with the packaging. It's so vintage, totally my style. So nice to keep on top of your vanity. It's all tin, but light weight. It comes with a sponge, which I kept so it keeps the pearls from moving around. All of Guerlain products have the same or similar lavender smell. This may be a turn off for some people, but I didn't care at this point, I was just in awe of the product. At first glance, I thought the pearls are nice and all but what is the point? Well here is the point, each pearl has a different purpose. As I mentioned earlier, this product is so misunderstood. Many people, like me, think this is a highlighter, or a setting powder, but it's none of those. It is a finishing powder. I use it right after I finish applying all my makeup, including mascara, lipstick, all of it! I then take a big fluffy powder brush, swirl it in the pearls and lightly brush all over my face. Can I just say this gives the most beautiful, flawless finish. No wonder they call it airbrush in a tin. As I said, each pearl has a different purpose:
Green Pearls - for correcting redness
Pinkish Pearls - for brightening
Brownish Pearls - for a bronzy look
Champagne Pearls - for a slight shimmery glow
Meteorites Powder Pearls come in 3 different shades. I chose this one because it said it's best for golden toned complexion, but after using it, I can tell that anyone with any undertone can use it.
It is so finely milled that it just looks like you put a filter on your face lol It blends all your contouring, highlights, blush...everything. It's just amazing! I put it on my mom's bare skin and she loved it! I will have to get her one now because I'm not sharing this! lol She said that it made her skin look really even and not ashy like most powders do. I took the tip from mama bear and wore it today on my bare face and I love it! It does add a slight shimmer, almost glitter to the face, and I mean very very slight, but you can only see it really really close up and usually glitters bother me, but it's not noticeable at all. That may even be the secret to the beauty of this product. I cannot say enough good things about this product. Not to mention, I hear that it lasts forever... that's a huge bonus!
I loved it so much I went and got the travel compact, which is basically the same idea but in a pressed form so it's easier for travel.
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| Guerlain - Meteorites Voyage Pressed Powder Compact |
Can we just pause for a moment and take in the beauty of the packaging of this product! Soo cute and girly and perfect on the go. This is a refillable compact, thank goodness because I would not be able to part with it. I haven't swatched or tried this one out yet, since I have been too busy lusting over the pearls, but if I find that it is different than the pearls, I will make an updated post about it.
Guerlain has quite a few different eyeshadow palettes, but lately I've really been gravitating towards dark smoky palettes.
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| Guerlain - Four-Shade E/S Palette № 09 Les Noirs |
The pigments on this palette is phenomenal! and I love the fact that there was a matte black in it. It's so hard to find matte eyeshadows that are not chalky, but this one was nice and velvety and the rest were very satiny. Shade #4 in the palette came out white in the picture, but it's actually got a really nice pinkish-blush tone. Very beautiful. I will have to do a look using this palette some time in the future.
Last but not least, I had to get these lipsticks. Guerlain got my heart yet again with this smart, luxurious and beautiful packaging.
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| Guerlain - Rouge G Lipsticks |
These lipstick cases have a serious weight to them. They are so sleek and feel so expensive when you hold them (which they are...eeek!) When you take the lid off, the mirror swings open and is a perfect size for you to apply your lipstick. Guerlain used a very good quality mirror too so I liked that they kept all the details true to the luxury of their brand. The back of the lid is flat and the name of the lipstick looks like it is laser-ed on. The only problem with that is, if you mix up the lids, and you're not familiar with the colours, you might end up putting the wrong lid back on. It would have been nice to have some indication on the lipstick itself of which colour it is. I love that the mirror is on both the flap and the lid.
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| 1 - 006 Garance 2 - 064 Gemma 3 - 060 Gabrielle |
As you can see all the names start with the letter "G", hence the Rouge G Lipstick. Of course I had to try them all on and I have to say , my swatches don't do the colours any justice. The lipsticks are more pigmented than they show and they feel really nice on my lips. Feels moisturizing, but not heavy and sticky. My favorite combo is 064 and 060 together. It gives the nicest mauve/neautral toned lips for my skin tone.
I hope you guys all enjoyed my review and swatches of my MAC and Guerlain Haul. I can't believe how fast January just came and now its almost gone. Hope everyone is keeping warm. I don't know how much more of this weather I can take. Thinking warm thoughts...
xoxo
Muffy
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