What’s up, CC? The CC cream I was anxiously waited for is finally landing in Belgium: pleased to meet you, Clinique Superdefense CC Cream SPF 30! After all those BB’s, you might be wondering what CC stands for.. Well, these creams are Color Correcting/Controlling, meaning they’ll take care of whatever issues your skin tone might be having and turn your skin radiant and beautiful. So you might think that this is exactly the same as a BB cream.. But they’re not quite. The biggest difference is the amount of coverage: CC creams offer better coverage. I like fuller coverage, so this is a huge plus for me. The second huge difference is the improved skin care benefits that these CC’s offer, focusing mainly on more SPF, loads of antioxidants and extra moisturizing benefits. It’s like a BB with super powers!

Clinique is launching their CC cream in 3 shades in Belgium: Light, Light/Medium and Medium/Deep. The formula is designed to “correct, hydrate & protect”. Advanced color correcting technology ensures that optical effects neutralize the skin tone to make you look healthy & natural. Dull complexions will look clearer, while pale complexions will get a healthy peachy glow. Red spots are neutralized. Hyaluronic acid, Trehalose and Sorbitol take care of an immediate moisture injection and keep your skin hydrated the whole day through. The SPF30 in the formula protects against UVA & UVB rays, while the powerful anti-oxidants vitamin E, rosemary, nordihydroguaiaretic acid and ascorbyl tocopheryl maleate protect the skin from external agressors.

Exact list of ingredients: Octinoxate 7.5% Octisalate 5.0% Titanium Dioxide 5.2% Zinc Oxide 3.2% Water\Aqua\Eau, Squalane, Octyldodecyl Neopentanoate, Butylene Glycol, Propanediol, Glyceryl Stearate, Behenyl Alcohol, PEG-40 Stearate, Polyglyceryl-10 Pentastearate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Water, Thermus Thermophillus Ferment, Trehalose, Caffeine, Glycerin, Linoleic Acid, Lecithin, Stearic Acid, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Sorbitol, Polyglyceryl-6 Polyricinoleate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/Vp Copolymer, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Isopropyl Titanium Triisostearate, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Xanthan Gum, Silica, Alumina, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Tin Oxide, Disodium Edta, Phenoxyethanol, [+/- Mica, Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Iron Oxides (Ci 77492), Iron Oxides (Ci 77491), Iron Oxides (Ci 7799)] [Iln39833]

Here are swatches of the three locally available colors in natural day light. ‘Light’ is just a tad too dark for my skin as you can see, but I wore it anyway today to see how it performs. The formula is really lovely: it’s semi thick, but blends into your skin wonderfully when applied. It melts away and covers very evenly, and sets to a glowing finish. I used my fingers to apply this one, which worked really well, although application with a stippling brush would work as good in my opinion. This one covered my spots really well and neutralized most redness, resulting in a natural look. If you want full coverage on certain blemishes, an extra concealer might be needed or you can double up this CC cream as it seems quite buildable. Concealer for under the eyes is definitely needed, I added an illuminating liquid concealer to brighten the under-eye area. I did powder off a bit since I like matte looks, I tend to shine a lot in the afternoon.. So that’s just my precaution. Can be worn with or without a day cream, but I always prefer to use my own day cream beforehand anyway. 

Three more colors are available in the UK & the US (and perhaps also other parts of the world, check your local website for more info on this), of which the lightest color Very Light looks to be a good match for me. I will be testing this one too, so stay tuned for an update on that one with some product pictures as well.

Clinique Superdefense CC Cream SPF 30 Colour Correcting Skin Protector is available in Belgium from mid May on (that’s not too long anymore!) in all Clinique counters and will retail for €30.30. This product is available now overseas at £28 in the UK & $35 in the US. 

I showed you the new glosses by Guerlain beginning this month, so I still owe you their new nail La Laque Couleur polishes! This permanent line (finally!) is in stores as of today and all of the polishes are pairable with the Guerlain lipsticks & lipglosses that carry the same name. How cute is that? Ten shades are being launched today, including a protective base coat and a gel top coat (similar to the one by Dior). I have the clear protective base coat, 463 La Petite Robe Noire and 168 L’Heure Bleue to show you. 

The packaging is very pretty and fancy with no engraving on the bottle itself, but the brand’s name in gold lettering on the cap and an engraved G on the twister cap. I’m very fond of nail polishes with a separate cap & twister cap, I like working with a smaller round cap on the end of the brush applicator when painting my nails. Each polish contains 10ml of product.

The brush is just divine: it’s wide and flat and perfect to work with. Might be a bit challenging on tiny pinky nails, but my overall experience is that this lays a thin coat on each nail in just two or three strokes. OPI for example has much thinner brushes.. The protective base coat in the picture is designed to protect and strengthen your nails. I have been using it religiously the last month when painting my nails & it does protect the nails really well: there’s no discoloration going on when I apply polishes that tend to do that. It also dries really fast, which is a huge plus. My nails are quite brittle as they are and I really need to do another nail strengthening supplement cure, so I can’t comment on the fortifying feature. 

This beautiful deep red color is named 168 L’Heure Bleue. It’s super sophisticated and highly glossy, and turns opaque in two coats. 

463 La Petite Robe Noire is a frosted light pinkish color. Sadly, it applies a bit stripey. It gets better with the second coat, but the effect doesn’t fade completely.. I’m not fond of frosted light colored nail polishes, but other than that the formula is again of great quality and the polish is completely opaque in just two coats. 

These nail polishes retail in Belgium for €24.45 suggested retail price and are permanently available as of today. These should already be out in the US for $23 and in the UK for £18. 

I’ve been teasing a lot about this foundation on both Twitter & the blog, and I finally had the time to take some pictures of this little bottle of perfection. I’ve been seriously crushing on the Healthy Mix foundation by Bourjois for a week or three now and have recently also purchased the illuminating brush pen concealer from the same line. It looks like the foundation is the one with the new formula, apparently it has been updated not so long ago. A lot of you were wondering if it was still any good, so let me fill you in..

The Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation is a lovely liquid foundation which is still a bit creamy and feels very hydrating. It blends amazingly well into the skin and smells really nice. The scent is quite present, so I can imagine that if you’re not too fond of fragranced makeup that you should try this one out in stores first. The healthy mix the name refers to consists of a fruit therapy formula with extracts of apricot to boost radiance, extracts of melon for hydratation and extracts of apple to protect your youth (that last apple statement is taking from the official product info, I did not invent this). Whether this protects my youth or not; it does boost the radiance of my skin (by dulness!) and the formula is nicely hydrating without being too thick. I apply this one with my Real Techniques stippling brush and need a 1,5 pumps to have decent coverage. The finish is quite dewy: not super shiny, but not totally matte either. My skin is quite oily so I do find that I need to powder it up afterwards. The Healthy Mix Illuminating Brush Concealer is a liquid illuminating concealer that is just perfect to apply under the eyes. The brush tip releases product as you turn the end of the applicator. I work the concealer in with a Zoeva concealer buffer brush. This’ll conceal most of the darkness under my eyes and has a brightening effect that makes me look a lot less tired and “opens” my eyes. 

I did some swatches for you in natural bright daylight (not overcast). The top swatch is the concealer, which is clearly quite rosy. This color is Beige Clair, the lightest one available (out of three shades). The second swatch is a swatch of the foundation in 51 Vanille Clair, also the lightest shade available. Although a bit more yellow-y than the concealer, I think it’s quite a neutral shade that is perfect for very pale women like me. It’s not often that drugstore foundations have a wide variety of shades available, but Healthy Mix comes in eight shades. You’ll get medium coverage with this one, which should generally be enough for everyone. If you have acne or spots you want to conceal, try using a corrector to add more coverage to selected areas after using Healthy Mix. 

The foundation retails for around €15 & the concealer for around €10 if I recall well. Sold in most drugstores. 

From the minute I saw the MAC Archie’s Girls packaging I was smitten with the collection, even though I had never heard of these comic characters before and some people (especially in the EU where we don’t know Archie & his girls) really dislike the packaging. I think it’s super cute and one of the better limited edition series of the past year in terms of packaging. Apparently Archie and his girls were the stars of a comic series that ran in the US from the 1950s just up until 1987 (the year I was born!). I would say that I’m truly a Veronica because we kind of look alike (dark hair with a fringe), but I read that she’s quite spoiled and selfish, so obviously I now know I’d never want to claim to be a Veronica (◕‿-). 

In line with my features I got to try out the Spoiled Rich palette, which I would not normally purchase since I’m not quite out there with bold eyeshadows. I would probably opt for Betty’s palette Caramel Sundae, but of course I already have a lot of these colors in my custom palette since I like playing it safe with warm, neutral colors. So this was very interesting to play around with!

The palette contains four typical Veronica shades:
◕Spoiled rich, a rich purple (frost finish)
◕Ron Ron Run, a deep navy (satin finish)
◕Pin-Up Purple, a mid-tone orchid (frost finish)
◕Gravel, a charcoal (matte finish)

left to right: Pin-Up Purple, Spoiled Rich, Ron Ron Run & Gravel

The swatches above are done in natural light with just one coat and no primer at all. There are a lot of dense swatches already available in blogland, so I thought I’d supply a one coat one. The pigment in these shades is quite good, although I am quite disappointed by the satin shade Ron Ron Run as it’s nearly impossible to blend and has the worst color pay-off of this palette. The other shades are quite nice and I’m most fond of Gravel (of course, you could have probably guessed).

And this is a first… An eye-look done with the palette! I believe this brings out the possibilites of a product a lot more than just swatches & I liked the challenge of taking good eye close-up pictures, which wasn’t the easiest task. As you can see I used some purple fake lashes too, which are from the new Eylure & Katy Perry line. 

The MAC Cosmetics Archie’s Girls collection is on sale now and features heaps of cute packaging. This palette retails for €41.50 in Belgium. And which products of the collection do I kind of like? If I would need another mascara (unfortunately I really don’t at this point) I would totally get the cute Veronica Opulash mascara in Bad Bad Black. Mascara just can’t get any cuter..

To get 2013 started right, I got this pretty special gift last week. And these two gorgeous Guerlain Rouge G De Guerlain lipsticks blew me right away! Guerlain’s packaging is always quite luxurious (you know how I’m a total Météorites Addict), and doesn’t fail to amaze with these lipsticks either. The compact, designed by Lorenz Bäumer, clicks open when pulling out the lipstick & reveals a super handy duo mirror. It feels quite heavy, which only adds to the luxurious feel. These are perfect for on-the-go!

The formula of these lipsticks is just amazing: both of them feel very soft and glide on as easy as a lipsmacker would. They don’t dry out & don’t feel to heavy either. There are a lot of different shades with different finished available & I’ve only seen raving reviews about all of them. I’m showing you Grenade (65) & Garance (06) today.

Grenade

Grenade is a raspberry pink with a hint of silver shimmer. On my lips it turns quite red, while swatched on my arm it keeps its pink tone. The formula is velvety and applies super smoothly, leaving a subtle gloss on your lips because of the small shimmer. The color is super rich, so no need to apply several coats: you’ll get the desired color with the first stroke. 

Garance

Garance is a coraly pink/plum lipstick which again looks quite different from person to person. It’s quite dark and not too nude on my lips. The color is beautifully warm and again the pigmentation of this lipstick is divine. Same goes for the texture: it feels super comfortable and is slightly glossy. 

Left: Nude lips - Middle: Garance - Right: Grenade

Left: Garance - Right: Grenade

Garance is without doubt my favorite shade, as I always tend to wear warm lipsticks. What made me fell in love is the packaging: I really love small luxuries that make everyday life just a tad more glamorous. I won’t easily pay a number with four digits for a handbag as I know I’m just way too moody when it comes to accessories, but I will definitely pay extra for a luxurious beauty treat. These lipsticks cost around €38.00/$45.00, which indeed is a tad more than you’d pay for other high end lipsticks. The G de Guerlain mascara already has refills available, so perhaps this would be done for the lipsticks as well? I’m not sure, so don’t take my word for it. It’s of course completely up to you whether you want to pay a bit extra for the fancy packaging (and divine formula).

I’ve been loving the Christmas collections this year, so after showing off the MAC Holiday palette I had someone get for me in New York & the gorgeous Guerlain piece I bought straight from the stock room; I’ll now let you discover Babor’s pretty Metallic Glam eyeshadow palette I picked out. The colors are very pigmented and contain two blues - one straightforward metallic blue and one grey-ish blue anthracite color. The other two colors are a metallic beige & a gorgeous taupe. I am in love with taupe these days, so extra credits for adding taupe to this one. If you’re not up for a full on blue look, just go for the anthracite color and combine with the taupe. For a deep night look, go for the anthracite all over the moving eyelid & work the deep night blue into the corners of your eye (blend out minimally). The beige is great to add to spots you want to draw light to, so add it near the tear ducts of your eye & just below the brown bone (but don’t use too much there though, that’s way passé). 

The palette itself is really gorgeous - the same golden mirror kind of outer packaging we saw with Estée Lauder’s blushes (although this one is less matte). This adds just that extra touch of luxury to the product and makes it a treat to show off on your vanity table. The pigmentation on these eyeshadows is really good, there’s not even one color that doesn’t deliver. The palette goes for just under €30 and contains a total of 10g of product, which is reasonable when considering some brands ask double the price for eyeshadow palettes containing way less product. Check out the close-up picture and swatches below, which have been made in natural light on a bright day. The colors are quite cold (except for the taupe one), so make sure you’re able to sport that kind of look.

And this is still not all Holiday magic I got this year! Stay tuned for a post on my new favorite nail lacquer I bought just a few weeks ago.. and is already sold out where I shopped it at. 

In stores in Belgium since two days, but my palette found my way to me a couple of days before all the way from New York, where the collection has been out since a week or so. Thank you Lisha! From the minute I saw the first images of this year’s holiday collection by MAC Cosmetics I just knew I had to buy one of the palettes. Not that I really needed it, but I allow myself some make-up candy during the holidays. And I would’ve regretted not buying anything & I these are bound to sell out fast!

The packaging is just absolutely gorgeous. Am I the only nutcase keeping the cardboard boxes of limited editions, by the way? The bow on the palette itself is really cute and is the handle with which you’re opening the palette. I’m in love with the satin pillow-like cover and I must admit that the packaging was really the main reason for me falling in love with this product. I did for some reason expect these compacts to be bigger, although the size makes perfect sense for five colors & a small travel size brush. You get 4 grams of product in this compact (0.14 US 0Z) for €43.00. For reference: a single MAC eyeshadow compact contains 1.5 grams (0.05 OZ) for €17.00. You’re getting a slightly better deal here, and a way prettier packaging! 

The added brush is a small 213 brush and does a good job for on-the-go, but I wouldn’t use it at home when I have my full size brushes with me. The colors in the palette are:
Glamour Light, a very (very!) light beige with a satin finish. 
Retrospeck, a light golden-ish color with a lustre finish (think shimmer & sparkles).
Honesty, a light pink-ish copper/brown color with a lustre (so again shimmery) finish. 
Cognac, a gorgeous golden bronze color with a frost finish. 
Sketch, a dark burgundy with a velvet finish.

These swatches were done with my finger & are quite light. I merely wanted to show you how they apply after a couple of layers & how the colors turn out in natural daylight. Left to right: Glamour Light, Retrospeck, Honesty, Cognac & Sketch. Cognac & Sketch perform really well when blended out: check some blended out (heavy) swatches of this palette here. Glamour Light does not really show well on light skin & Retrospeck is quite light as well, so these’ll be great for subtle highlights. There’s a lot of fall out with Retrospeck & Honesty as they are lustre finishes, so be sure to take precautions when using these colors for your look. Overall the pigmentation of the lightest colors could’ve been better, but I’m really smitten with the whole palette since it’s just really pretty & the colors combine well for a gorgeous, natural look. 

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to P&G HQ to discover some new products. Some I like & some I don’t, but these Max Factor Flipsticks I adore! Basically it’s a duo lipstick, with complimentary shades that allow you to add some depth to your lips. They’ll be in stores from July on. I was gifted all shades to try out & I asked the gorgeous Amaury to be my lip model. I found all flipsticks to be very well pigmented & very versatile. You can use all colours seperately as well, although you might have to add foundation on your lips for some (for example Gypsy Red’s gold colour, which looks better with a good base under it). Quality is good, although you’ve got to be careful not to unwind the lipsticks too far as they are quite fragile since they’re a tad thinner than regular lipstick.   Not too much text, but loads of pictures! Facial tone tends to differ a bit in pictures because of taking the pictures in natural light during the evening, which is when light colour changes every five minutes. I should really use my artificial lighting again.. Or just take pictures in the afternoon. Anyway: enjoy! 

Click on ‘Read More’ for lip pictures & swatches. 

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