Hey everyone! So a couple of weeks ago I was browsing the Sephora sale section, as ya do, and came across some lovely train cases that were on sale. I have been keeping my eyes open for a nice basic train case for a while so I decided to make an small order.

Little did I know that evil Sephora had planned a 15% off VIB coupon to be sent out only a week later! Needless to say, I decided to do a double order and wanted to share with all of you what I decided to purchase. (It may include some paper, plastic, and even a laser gun. Bwahahaha...)

Video, a full list of products, and what's on my nails below!

As a continuation of my last post about my Favorite Face Brushes, I wanted to also talk about a few of my favorite eye brushes as well. With so many shapes and sizes of eye brushes out there, it can be a little tricky to navigate which shapes, textures, and densities will be most handy in your beauty kit. You can use this as a good basic guideline to figure out what you are missing in your eye brush arsenal!

Here is a recap of some of my favorite eye brushes, starting with the necessary basics and moving onto the more advanced set.
This is your basic flat shading brush which you can use to pack color on the lid, twice even (one color per side)! It's not astounding in any way, but definitely a go-to necessity.
Pencil brushes are an Asian girl's best friend. This little guy can help to define the tiny outer crease area that larger brushes make muddy and in a pinch, I can get away with using only this brush for an entire eye look. When looking at pencil brushes just make sure you get a dense one. Floppy brushes can't pack on color as well, which is an important factor for crease definition.

Since there is a Rock & Republic Beauty sale on Hautelook TODAY 1-24-2011 I wanted to post up this video I recorded this weekend. I didn't even realize there would be a sale so soon but I hope this review will come in handy for those of you who are interested in the eyeshadows!

If you don't already have an invite to Hautelook you can use mine to join here: http://www.hautelook.com/invite/836240
Here are the colors I own of the Rock & Republic Saturate Eyeshadow (click to view larger):


Veil - matte eggshell
Carat - creamy golden sheen
Exile - warm metallic honey-bronze
Vintage - warm matte brown with depth
Diffused - cool taupe (maybe similar to MAC Satin Taupe)
Lawsuit - duochrome with green flash over a burgundy-brown base


Snakeskin - grey-green-brown dusty awesomeness
Chronic - olive green with golden sheen
Envy - perfect forest green (maybe a MAC Humid dupe)
Jaded - a bright, shiny jade green
Electric - a saturated, glowy electric blue


Tempting - dusty, shiny purple
Paranoid - awesomely warm, matte, saturated purple
Twisted - glowy cool purple with a purple-blue flash

The colors that I LOVE the most from this collection are Carat, Lawsuit, and Snakeskin. Seriously, I could call nearly all of them my favorites on any given day though. I hope you can see from my swatches how high-quality and saturated these colors are. These swatches were with no primer at all, and they are the very swatches I did while making the video so it's not like I was trying extra hard to get great swatches.

Definitely HG material for me! :D

I also wore these during the video, but I'll talk about them in the future.
Rock & Republic Exhibition Pressed Powder in Satin
Rock & Republic Contrived Pressed Blush in Spank

Hope these swatches are helpful for those of you wanting to purchase from the Rock & Republic sales going around but were curious about the eyeshadows. My opinion? Absolutely try them out! You won't be disappointed, at least in the colors that I own. :)

If you bought some or own any already, let me know what you got in the comments!

(I bought these all myself. No disclaimers needed. :)

I told you guys I was going to post a quick OOTD video to try out the style and see what you think! ^_^

The video is really short because I recorded it before I went off to work. The weather has really been cooling down lately so layers are definitely a necessity. I don't enjoy feeling cold but I must say, I adore Fall fashion and playing around with layers during this season more than any other because you can see all of the fun elements of an outfit without being burdened by heat or huge coats.

To kick things off, here is an outfit that my coworker Jason (who is very into comics) said looked like the colors of a thousand villains, bright violet and acid green. ;D Considering my big MAC Venomous Villains haul I ordered last night, it only seemed appropriate that I post this today!



 I also wanted to show a close-up of the eye makeup. Not because it's anything fancy but the opposite, actually! Only 1 eyeshadow. That being said, this is one of the coolest eyeshadows I've ever used.
The color is Rock & Republic's Lawsuit which is a reddish-brown with a green flash. I love the complexity of the color. :D


Okay, let me know your thoughts of the OOTD format in the comments. Do you think the video adds anything? Is it easier to process fashion information when there's only 1 outfit? Is this eyeshadow color cool or what? ^_~

Peace!

Hey everyone! I wanted to do a new series of videos and blog posts dedicated to some of my favorite products so I decided to begin my new "HG Spotlight" series with my favorite blushes, the Rock & Republic Contrived Pressed Blushes. I know I can't altogether take credit for spreading the love of these blushes but I'm not gonna lie, these are just ridiculously good.


I first bought these blushes from the Hautelook sale at 40% off and swatched Call Me and Kinky in this post. Then, the next time the sale came around, I decided to buy X-Rated, All Nighter, Bedroom, and Lust as well since I was so impressed with the quality of the first two. A reader e-mailed me to let me know that Hautelook will be having Rock & Republic Beauty sale again on Monday, 7/12 so I thought it would be a great time to post all of my collection and swatches.

If you haven't already signed up for Hautelook, click here for an invite.  Note: Hautelook does give a store credit to the inviter after the invitee's first purchase, but as always I only post when there is actually an event I am personally buying from too. Gotta share those good deals! ;)

As an all-encompassing statement, I will say that this blush line is one of the best quality blushes that I've come across. They are gorgeously pigmented, finely milled, and are long-lasting. The actual amount of product in the pan is literally 2x the amount in a NARS blush, so they last forever. I don't even want to start on the packaging! It's weighty, shiny, and just over-the-top decadent which I LOVE.

The only downsides to these blushes are the availability (You can only buy it online and at R&R specialty stores, or occasional Hautelook sales) and the price (Original retail price is $40. Ouch!) But as I mentioned before, I got mine through Hautelook where they were $24 and compared to NARS blushes which retail at $26, it's quite a nice deal.

So with no further ado, here are the swatches which can explain 100x better than words can. :)


Each blush in biggins glory. So you can see the pretty shimmers. ^O^

Call Me


Bedroom


All Nighter


Kinky


X-Rated


Lust


Check out the adorable necklace I bought from Lisa HQCD's store. I freakin' love the silver branch. Oh, and the watch I'm wearing in the video is from Juny's and the polish I'm wearing is Revlon Petal Peach.



Anyway, hope that was helpful if any of you are deciding to buy something from Monday's Hautelook sale. Let me know if you decided to get something or if you already have any Rock & Republic stuff! Any other suggestions of colors I should get this time?

Hope you guys have a fantastic weekend. :)

Rock & Republic Beauty is on Hautelook again, and not only that but this time they are selling my favorite blushes again! I am absolutely obsessed with my Contrived Pressed blushes which I own in Call Me (more pigmented Nars Orgasm-ish pinky peach with gold shimmer) and Kinky (matte hot pink) and I am soooo tempted to get more. Here is my previous review and swatches of these blushes. The quality is just superb with these and I am all for high-end blushes since they use more pigment than drugstore blushes so you don't need as many swipes to get the perfect flush.


Not to mention, HELLO, they are 40% off! You get literally twice the amount of product as Nars blushes, for $24 (retails for $40) while one Nars blush is $26. Plus, the packaging is weighty and decadent which suits me just fine, thankyouverymuch!

Eyeshadows, gel eyeliners, lipglosses, and brushes are also available.

I promise I get no sponsorship from Hautelook at all but this is my #1 fav and it's such a great deal so I wanted to share. :D I recommend not passing this one up! I use Call Me in nearly all of my youtube vids too. It was a splurge for me even at 40% off but seriously, these babies will last me a lifetime.


Hautelook is a website signed up for by invite and here is my personal invitation if you aren't signed up already: http://www.hautelook.com/invite/836240 
Note: Hautelook does give a store credit to the inviter after the invitee's first purchase, but as always I only post when there is actually an event I am personally buying from too. Gotta share those good deals! ;)

It's only available for the next 42 hours so hurry if you want it. Hautelook can be tricky since if you try later it's oftentimes sold out and someone else has snatched up your precious item.

Let me know if you picked something up or already own any Rock & Republic items! I love to share joy in finding new favorites. :D

PS. Looks like Rock & Republic cosmetics are going to be phased out. Why does this always happen to me when I find an HG??? Augghhhh! Like I said before, it would be wise to grab this before it's too late. I'm going to go wallow now.


PPS. Just bought x-rated, lust, bedroom, and all nighter. Something is wrong with me. Ok, I really love this blush and I can't bear to pass this up if it goes belly-up! XD

Oh MAN I am tired. It's been a pretty fast and fun day. I got to meet Christian Siriano earlier today and happily got his signature on one of the shoes he designed. I'm sure most of you know this but he is TINY. Seriously, like 5'4" or something. Plus, his face is smaller than mine, and I have a really small face! He has a micro-face. He's like a cute olive-eyed puppy and I want to take him home with me.

I was really excited because although I don't currently have cable TV, I actually did watch the season of Project Runway that he was on and wanted him to win from the beginning. The person I want to win never wins on those shows except for him so he has a special place in my heart. When I get my pics back from a friend, I will definitely post it up for you all. I want to post it all together. :D

So getting back to beauty stuff, I've been going through my pics and have found a couple small hauls that I haven't posted yet. They actually contain some of my current favorite beauty items so they are pretty important to share, I think!

The first is a small lippy haul from Beautyticket.com.


I bought Jelly Pong Pong Lip Sorbet in Lychee Fuzz, which is a heavy gloss. The color is a bright coral and it feels pretty nice on the lips but I am not a huge fan of the smell. It has a faint hint of grandma-lipstick scent that I'm pretty sensitive to. It also seems to make my lips peel after wearing it so it hasn't exactly landed on my favorites list.

The other two items I bought were Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupte Lipsticks. These I was incredibly impressed with. The texture is creamy and really long-lasting without being drying. One of my favorite attributes of this lippy is that it smells like fresh, sweet mango! Just mouthwatering and super high quality. And do I even have to mention the packaging? It totally oozes class and sexiness with the shiny gold embellishment and mirrored cap.

9 Pink Caress is very pink and is cool-toned on me. The color is pretty and quite bright but would look best with a cool eye and cheek to match, like blues or purples. It would actually probably look better on someone who isn't as yellow-toned as me but I wouldn't say it is un-flattering.


13 Peach Passion is my hit-out-of-the-park. I have come to LOVE this lipstick. I would never have thought that orange lipstick would look good on me but my yellow undertones actually worked in my favor this time! It turns out to be a lovely nude-peach shade on me. I can imagine this not looking great on someone with pale or pink skin, but I am personally a little obsessed with Peach Passion.


Here are some really bad swatches in artificial and natural light. Cloudy days = pics that lean too cool, while the artificial light made it too warm. It's really something in between and a bit less saturated.


And of course coupon codes that came with the goodies.


My second haul is from Hautelook, which is one of those invite-only sites that have designer stuff on major discount. (Click here for an invitation.) Rock and Republic cosmetics had a sale on there for 50% off, so I had to snatch up a couple of Contrived Pressed Blushes (orig. $40 each) which are absolutely superb. I got the mini mascara as a freebie, which I think will be going in my upcoming giveaway.


Huge, weighty, and high-quality. I bought each for slightly less than a NARS blush, but for literally twice the amount of product. Even at full price, this would've been worth it compared to NARS.


This shade is Call Me, a serious dupe for Nars Orgasm, but more pigmented. I LOVE this color and have been wearing it almost everyday.


Kinky is a matte hot pink that is also considerably pigmented but not as much as Call Me (which works better for actual blush application in such a bright shade!) See how giant it is? It feels so rewarding to just hold these. I'm sure they will last forever!


Swatches that are so pretty they make me squeal!



If you can come across any Rock and Republic Contrived blushes or YSL Rouge Volupte lipsticks on sale, I highly recommend grabbing them when you can. It's still really pricey but my LAWDY can you get this kind of quality and packaging anywhere else? You get bang for your buck with these brands in terms of pigmentation and lasting power. Nothing low end can touch these products, in my opinion, so it is worth a splurge.

Okay, it is getting super late so I am going to go to bed but I will leave you with this question: What high end products do you think are worth the splurge?

Let me know in the comments!

Love you guys~