Estee Lauder Sale Haul

I was given tickets by Bobby (@gimmelsdad) to a sale Estee Lauder was holding in Markham, Ontario a little while ago. At the last minute, my plans to go fell through so I offered them up on Twitter. Christine (@lu_christine) was the first to respond and we met in person so I could give her the tickets. Christine was also kind and brave enough to shop the sale for me. I gave her a list and some cash and she brought back some sweet stuff for me! 

Take a look:

MAC's A Tartan Tale Glitter/Pigment set in Warm Thrillseekers

MAC's A Tartan Tale Beauties Play It Cool Eyeshadow Palette which Jill reviewed back in November.

MAC's Leopard Luxe eyeshadow palette from the Fabulous Feline's collection (also reviewed by Jill here).

MAC lashes - I've never tried these before.

In total this all came to just under $90 CDN! Check out what Christine picked up for herself on her blog: http://www.christinelu.ca/2011/03/mac-makeup-haul/.

C.

A Tartan Tale Smoky Thrillseekers Glitter/Pigment Set Review and Swatches

The A Tartan Tale Smoky Thrillseekers tin (Gah! Fingerprints, sorry!)

How much do I love this set from MAC's A Tartan Tale holiday collection? I love this holiday collection to pieces (it's the combination of make-up, rock & roll and Scotland) and I don't think I've ever spent this much time and money on a single collection before!

This is the Smoky Thrillseekers Pigments/Glitter set, part of my latest (will it be my last?) haul, one of three pigment/glitter sets available in the A Tartan Tale collection. I was drawn to it immediately since most of the pigments it contains I've had my eye on for a long time but have never purchased.

Each pigment/glitter set contains one glitter and four pigments in tiny glass vials with screw-off lids. They're housed in adorable tartan metal tins emblazoned with a gold MAC crest.

A look inside.

The pigments and glitter are sent into a plastic display container that can be kept inside the tin or removed. The tin can be reused for whatever you like, and believe me, this little baby is going to be be used by me! I'm a sucker for tartan!


Included in Smoky Thrillseekers are the pigments Naked (Permanent), Jigs & Jives (Limited Edition), Black Brown (Permanent), Dark Soul (Permanent) and the glitter Reflects Blackened Red (Permanent).


Pretty little vials, all in a row!

L-R: Naked, Jigs & Jives, Black-Brown, Dark Soul and Blackened Red

And then I jumbled up the order to take this photo, oops.

L-R: Reflects Blackened Red, Naked, Black Brown, Jigs & Jives and Dark Soul

See these glorious colours? Tones of dark red, blues, blacks, metallic taupe and warm fleshtones. Loads of shimmer too! Let's look at them one by one.



Reflects Blackened Red (Glitter)

Reflects Blackened Red Reflects (Limited Edition): Cranberry Glitter says MAC. To me it looks more like an orangey dark red/maroon, and pardon the mental image but it makes me think of dried blood. Very pretty and sparkly dried blood from a vampire, of course. It’s tiny micro-glitter and gives a whole bunch of different tones depending on how you look at it -






I tipped over the vial with my finger over the opening to get some of the glitter on my fingertip. I swatched my inside arm and took a photo of my fingertip with the product still on it for these photos as well as the swatch photos.

Swatched on my arm (NC15 skintone)

I admit that I'm not 100% sure how I will be using this, but it's glitter and glitter doesn't come into my day-to-day beauty looks. I'll have to do some research into how I could use this. Anyone have any tips?



Dark Soul (pigment)

Dark Soul (Permanent): Charcoal black smoked with gold according to MAC. I see dark blue and silver and grey. This is GORGEOUS and I've wanted it for awhile. Pigments are a tough purchase for me since I know I will never finish a bottle. They give you such dramatic effect but you use so little of these it's unreal. That's why I love these holiday pigment sets so much. The vials are teeny and seem so much more usable than the regular sizes.

Dark Soul on my finger

See, it's a glimmery silvery black-grey with hints of blackened navy and gold. This would look smashing in a smoky eye look. It's like the night sky.



L-R: Blackened Red Reflects glitter and Dark Soul pigment



Blue-Brown Pigment

Blue-Brown Pigment (Permanent): Brown with blue-green pearl. This is the pigment version of Club eyeshadow, which I'm currently in love with. This pigment reminds me of gasoline and the wings of insects. It's stunning.



Blue-Brown on my finger

This shade is red with blue-green iridescence and will pop on any skintone and with any eye colour. I love the iridescence of Blue-Brown; it looks red-brown at some angles and then flashes green at other angles.

L-R: Dark Soul pigment and Blue-Brown pigment



Jigs & Jives Pigment



Jigs & Jives (Limited Edition): Naked taupe. Named especially for this collection, this is a gorgeous metallic neutral that could be easily used as a highlighter on medium skintones. Jill's lusting after this shade, she's a sucker for metallic neutrals.

Jigs & Jives on my finger

L-R: Blue-Brown pigment and Jigs & Jives pigment

Naked (permanent): Fleshtone shimmer. A soft golden fleshtone pigment that makes a great highlight colour or a soft and lovely natural colour to wear all over your eye. 

Naked Pigment

This shade is wearable on every skintone, that's how soft and natural it is. I own this in the original size packaging and I wear it a lot. Dust it all over your cheekbones for a touch of shimmer and on your browbone for a natural glow.

Naked on my finger

L-R: Jigs & Jives and Naked

I love, love, love this set!!! (can you tell?)

C.

EOTD: MAC A Tartan Tale, Beauties Play it Cool

Here's a fast, easy EOTD I did with the 6 Beauties Play it Cool eye palette from MAC's A Tartan Tale holiday collection. All photos taken in natural light, no flash.

Products Used (all MAC unless specified):

Select Cover Concealer, NW 25
Blot Powder, Medium Dark
6 Beauties Play it Cool eye palette
Graphblack Tecknakohl Liner
Maybelline Great Lash Mascara, Very Black
Anastasia Brow Powder Duo, Brunette/Dark Brown

Conceal under eye and inner eye darkenss and set with powder. Using a flat brush, sweep Silverwear all over the lid, blending up and slightly past the crease. Using Graphblack liner, work liner in between the top lashes and draw a thick line on the upper lash line. Smudge the liner with a pencil brush, blending the liner towards the outer edge of the eye. Using the same brush, pack Magic Moor eye shadow on top of the liner, blending upwards and outwards but stopping at the crease. Fill in brows using and angled brush and curl and coat eye lashes with mascara.

You could easily turn this into a night look, by contouring with Magic Moor in the crease and smudging the same shadow on the lower lash line.

MAC A Tartan Tale: 6 Beauties Play It Cool Eye Shadows Review and Swatches

Try as hard as I might not to get sucked into MAC's holiday kits, inevitably I end up buying one or two (or three). This year my first cave was the 6  Beauties Play It Cool eye palette. Truthfully I scooped this up mainly for one shade, Hold My Gaze, which is an interesting blend of grey, gold and green.

This year, the eye and lip palettes come in small compacts covered in tartan flannel with a gold tone MAC crest on top. The packaging is quite cute, but the sets seem smaller than in years past.



Left to right: Silverwear (F), Hold My Gaze (F), To the Ball (S)

Altered Sate (VXP), Magic Moor (VXP), Heather Belles (S)

Swatch photo taken in natural light, no flash, NC 40 skin.



Left to right: Silverwear (F), Hold My Gaze (F), To the Ball (S)

Altered Sate (VXP), Magic Moor (VXP), Heather Belles (S)

MAC 6 Beauties Play It Cool

Silverwear (F) - a very light, frosty slightly silvered white. Fairly stark.

Hold My Gaze (F) - an interesting green tinged grey with a golden sparkle laced throughout. It puzzles me why this shade is listed as a frost, because it's a velvet (matte with sparkle) or satin if anything.

To the Ball (S) - a pretty mid toned mauvey grey, more matte than satin in my opinion.

Altered State (VXP) - a deep purple shimmer with a slightly black base. Good colour payoff and creamy texture.

Magic Moor (VXP) - a warm, purplely black. My favourite shade in the palette besides Hold My Gaze. Would make a killer smokey eye for any hazel or green toned eyes.

Heather Belles - a matte charcoal with a tiny amount of shimmer. Mediocre colour payoff on this one.

General Comments

A good palette with some interesting, not dupeable shades (Hold My Gaze, Magic Moor). Definitely on the cool side, but not so cool that it excludes any skintones. This would be a great palette for those smokey, dramatic holiday looks. It could do double duty as a daytime palette if you avoided dark contouring. Generally a good buy - my one complaint besides the shrinking amount of shadow is the tiny, useless brush included. Personally I would prefer more product and no brush.

Anyone else pick this up?

J

MAC A Tartan Tale Mini-Haul Review and Swatches

I was invited to the preview event for MAC's A Tartan Tale in the week before it was released. The MAC Bloor store was packed with eager shoppers and they had handsome, kilted waiters serving cocktails, hors d'oeurves and a fiddler playing for us. On display and available for purchase was the A Tartan Tale holiday collection as well as everything else normally on sale.

I picked up one of the lip bags from the gift collection (and intend to go back for more), one of the pearlglide liners and two of the eyeshadows. Pictures! Details! Review! below...

The Vain and Glorious lip bag

I adore the little bags the gift sets come in. I want them all! The larger brush sets come with straps so they can be used as purses. They're well-made and totally adorable and are well-sized. The lip pencil, lipstick and Dazzleglass are soft pink and very, very wearable. Photos!

The Vain and Glorious lip bag contains
In Synch lip pencil, Baby Sparks dazzleglass and Mellow Mood lipstick

Mellow Mood lipstick

Baby Sparks Dazzleglass

Close-up of Baby Sparks Dazzleglass wand

In Synch lip pencil

Swatches from L-R: Baby Sparks Dazzleglass, Mellow Mood Lipstick and In Synch Lip Pencil

Swatch of L-R: Baby Sparks alone, Baby Sparks on top of Mellow Mood and Mellow Mood alone

MAC Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner in Undercurrent

Pearlglide Eye Liners are very smooth and go on very easily. Many eye liners are hard and I hate things that pull at the skin of my eyes, but these are antastic eye liners and have made me into a pencil eyeliner lover.

Close-up of Undercurrent

Undercurrent swatched lightly on the bottom and heavily on the top.

And check out the colour! Look at that teal. Really gorgeous and an easy way to add a pop of colour to any eye look.

Now for the plaid eyeshadows and these are really cool. They're larger than the regular MAC eyeshadows and closer in size to the Mineralize eyeshadows. I picked up the silver (Glamora Castle) and the plum-purple (Semi-Precious).

I admit that it was the plaid that sold me on these. Unfortunately, the blue of Glamora Castle and the bronze of Semi-Precious do not go all way through so only on the first few uses of this eyeshadow will you get a blend of the colours.

Eye Shadow in Glamora Castle

Close-up of Glamora Castle

Glamora Castle swatched

I'm a sucker for greys and silvers and love the sheer medium-dark silver of Glamora Castle. I'll be wearing this a lot. 

Eye Shadow in Semi-Precious

Close-up of Semi-Precious

Semi-Precious swatched

Semi-Precious is a rich aubergine purple and like Glamora Castle it goes on quite sheerly. This shade looks great with rich browns in a smoky eye and on darker skin could be worn on its own (on my skin (NC15) it makes me look a little sick).

So there you have it, what I couldn't walk away from from A Tartan Tale. What are you hauling? What are you craving? Tell us!


To see the complete A Tartan Tale colour collection, click here. To see the A Tartan Tale gift sets and kits click here and here. To see the wonderful A Tartan Tale exclusives click here.

C.