MAC A Tartan Tale Holiday Colour Collection Preview

This Holiday Collection focuses on the fantasies of A Tartan Tale! Enter a world of imagination with sparkly Dazzleglass Cremes and lush Lipsticks. Mineralize Eye Shadow in splendid tartan striping and ornamental satin Powder Blush. Eyes stand out with stunning colours of Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner and bold Zoom Fast Black Lash mascara. Chic and luxurious Pigments and Nail Lacquers in opulent shades are the final touches to a truly lavish holiday look.

Dazzleglass creme in Gone Romancin'
Mid-tone lavender with multidimensional pearl
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Dazzleglass creme in Lightly Prancing
Light peach with gold pearl
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Dazzleglass creme in Passing Fancy
Bright orange coral with soft pearl.
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Dazzleglass creme in Radiant Jewels
Dark sparkly magenta
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Dazzleglass creme in Soft Dazzle
Mid-tone peach pink with gold pearl
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Eye Shadow in A Wish Come True
Dirty mauve with bubblegum pink tartain striping
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Eye Shadow in Enviably Fun
Grass green with dark green tartan striping
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Eye Shadow in Follow Your Fantasy
Mid-tone peach with chocolate brown tartan striping
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Eye Shadow in Glamora Castle
Dark grey with teal tartan striping
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Eye Shadow in Golden Crown
Light gold with bronze tartan striping
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Eye Shadow in Semi-Precious
Aubergine with chocolate tartan striping
$23.50 CDN/$18.00 US

Lipstick in Courting Lilac
Sheer lilac mauve with soft gold pearl (glaze)
$16.50 CDN/$14.00 US

Lipstick in Cut A Caper
Mid-tone peachy pink (lustre)
$16.50 CDN/$14.00 US

Lipstick in Deepest Wish
Deep creamy reddish brown (amplified)
$16.50 CDN/$14.00 US

Lipstick in Full Fuchsia
Bright blue fuchsia (amplified)
$16.50 CDN/$14.00 US

Lipstick in The Faerie Glen
Pale neutral pink (lustre)
$16.50 CDN/$14.00 US

Nail Lacquer in Sly As A Fox
Creamy mid-tone russet/burnt red (cream)
$15.50 CDN/$13.00 US

Nail Lacquer in Style Clan
Dark taupe with red pearl (frost)
$15.50 CDN/$13.00 US

Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner in Black Line
Black with gold pearl
$17.50 CDN/$14.50 US

Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner in Black Swan
Black with pearl
$17.50 CDN/$14.50 US

Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner in Lord It Up
Bronze with pearl
$17.50 CDN/$14.50 US

Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner in Petrol Blue
Deep navy with pearl
$17.50 CDN/$14.50 US

Pearlglide Intense Eye Liner in Undercurrent
Teal with pearl
$17.50 CDN/$14.50 US

Pigment in Later
Black with transforming purple pearl
$23.50 CDN/$19.50 US

Pigment in Moonlight Night
Blackened teal with teal pearl
$23.50 CDN/$19.50 US

Pigment in The Family Crest
Blackened bronze with bronze pearl
$23.50 CDN/$19.50 US

Powder Blush in Her Blooming Cheek
Very bright iridescent blue pink (satin)
$22.00 CDN/$18.50 US

Powder Blush in My Highland Honey
Bright coral with soft gold pearl
$22.00 CDN/$18.50 US

Zoom Fast Black Lash Mascara in Deepest Black
$16.50 CDN/$14.00 US

What do you think? Anything on your MUST list? I've picked up a few things already (preview party) which I'll share with you in a later post, but tell us what you are loving (and not loving) from this colour collection!

To see MAC's holiday gift sets and kits (all A Tartan Tale) click here, here and here. 

C.

Thierry Mugler's Womanity Review

Thierry Mugler has done it again. With the release of his latest fragrance, Womanity, he's intrigued our noses once again. You've heard (and probably owned) the extremely popular Angel, originally released in 1992 and the tantalizing Alien. Mugler's first fragrance, Angel was the first gourmand fragrance and blended chocolate and praline with patchouli to create that almost irresistible scent you can smell on every third woman you pass on the street and was widely copied. Alien, which followed in 1995 has been nowhere near as popular as Angel, but I preferred it's amber, menthol, casmerean wood and amber blend to it's predecessor. Both are bold fragrances, stand-outs on your department store's counters and now comes Womanity.

Womanity, released in August 2010 combines the salty, sea taste-scent of caviar with the warmth of leather, sweet fig and the pink side of citrus - lemonade, grapefruit. It's another gourmand fragrance particularly considering technology had to be developed in order to capture the salty, savoury essence of caviar. 

Back of the box
Womanity, a woody, sweet and savoury Eau de Parfum.
Womanity, a refillable and ecologically-responsible fragrance (see inside packaging)
Womanity, a fragrance, a bond, an energy shared by all women. 

Looking inside the box.

Each bottle comes with a code, to be used in the interactive element of Womanity's promotion.

The interactive aspect of Womanity comes when you go to www.womanity.com. Developed as "an interactive platform which is an expressive space built on the natural bonds existing between all women". You can read more about the website here or check it out yourself since it's now been up and running for a few months.

Opened box.

Interior of the box, detailing the refillable bottle.

Womanity Eau de Parfum and carrying bag.

The carrying bag is provided as protection in storage, travel or bringing your bottle back to be refilled. This refillable bottle option has existed for the Mugler fragrances since Angel's release in 1992. Once you're finished your fragrance, you can bring it or send it in for refilling, saving you money (on purchasing a whole new bottle, packaging, etc) and of course, it's more ecologically-responsible.

Womanity bottle

The bottle itself, like those of Angel and Alien is a covetable item, regardless of what you think of the fragrance inside. There is a ring attached to the bottle by a chain that acts as a lid and prevents the spray from being deployed, although it doesn't have a top.

Womanity's bottle is designed with a nod to Art Deco and the imagery from Fritz Lang's Metropolis and I personally love it for that reason. It's a striking and beautiful bottle (despite my dislike of pink). 

The bottle I have is the smallest size available but the larger bottles have more metal detail as seen below. 

I like Womanity, although I do not love it. It's a bold fragrance and perhaps overly bright for my personal tastes. I don't like my fragrance to scream my presence and I feel like Womanity is a bit too over-bearing. Still, it's an intriguing scent and I have been wearing it. It fits with the other fragrances I wear and I do have favourite fragrances that contain leather, salty and citrus fragrances. There's something that's keeping me from loving it, however. 

If you like Alien and/or Angel, you should definitely check Womanity out, if you haven't already. It's definitely going to appeal to many.

What do you think? Have you tested Womanity? Do you love it? Hate it? Do you love the bottle?

Tell us!

C,

TVAL Resurface Facial Scrub Review

I'm a sucker for exfoliators and my skin loves me for my addiction. Right now I'm in love with TVAL's Resurface scrub.

I picked this up at their Queen Street West store in Toronto (now closed, sadly) and it's sitting in my shower where I use it almost every morning. My skin is on the oily side, with large pores and a propensity to flakiness on my cheeks. Especially now when the temperature is dropping and the air is drier, I'm noticing flakiness so it's time to up the moisturizer and exfoliation!

Resurface is a very fine exfoliator and is ideal for most skin types due to the small size of the exfoliating agent (TVAL calls them "natural micro crystals"). Since they are so small, they are unlikely to do any damage to your skin (unless you scrub very hard) and because of their size they're quite effective at smoothing your skin to baby's bottom softness.

It's $14 CDN for 60 mL/2 oz and is available on the TVAL website as well as at Sears. Check the TVAL website for store locations.

Here's the product description:

This light and fluffy scrub contains natural micro crystals that will gently but oh so efficiently smooth away dead skin cells and leave your skin silky smooth and positively glowing!

To use: Scoop out a quarter size dollop and smooth out over damp skin. Softly and gently polish your skin to smooth away dead skin cells, debris and irregularities. The key word here is gentle, the scrub is more effective than you might think since the crystals are so small. If the scrub starts to feel dry, dampen your fingertips and keep polishing. Follow up with your serum or moisturizer. 

Resurface

The texture of Resurface is slightly on the dry side so make sure your skin is damp when you use it. 

The scent is lemony and pleasant, not overwhelming at all. This is an extremely effective scrub that smooths your skin gently. The small particles allow you to be gentle, you'd really have to press hard to do any damage to your skin. It's really a no-brainer scrub. It's possible to do too much as I find if I leave Resurface on too long, my skin starts to tingle a bit and feel dry, so it's not meant to be a mask. Scrub and rinse!

This scrub might be a touch too intense for sensitive skintypes, but it'd work well for normal, dry and oily skin.

Love, love, love!

C.