Milani Baked Blushes in Bella Bellini & Rosa Romantica

Milani — Bella Bellini & Rosa Romantica (Baked Blush) Swatch & Review, Plus NARS Orgasm & Deep Throat

2017-09-252017-09-25 fivezero2 Comments

Earlier this year (or possibly late last year), Milani introduced two new shades of their highly popular Baked Blushes: Bella Bellini and Rosa Romantica.

I noticed them in a Rexall last month (Canada often gets new drugstore releases fairly late) and have been stalking the weekly sales ever since. Last week, they finally had Milani products on Buy One, Get One 50% off so they came to $6.29 each—yeah, Rexall’s sales can be pretty meh—and I had to run to a larger Rexall to snag both shades. Ideally, I’d have waited for a sale at Well.ca where Baked Blushes are a smidge cheaper, but they didn’t have the new shades at all.

But anyway, I am so happy I got them because they’re utterly gorgeous!

They have the same lovely, soft, highly-pigmented texture of all the other Baked Blushes (see my Megapost here! I think I have all of them except for Red Vino, which I can never find and may have to purchase in the US).

Bella Bellini (12) is a stunner. Milani calls it a “rose gold”, though I think it’s a lot more intense pink than rose gold usually inspires. It’s an azalea pink loaded with golden shimmer: very NARS Orgasm, except with even more shimmer.

Below, I have a swatch comparison of the following blushes:

Milani Baked Blush in Bella Bellini (12)
Milani Baked Blush in Corallina (08)
Milani Baked Blush in Luminoso (05)
NARS Blush in Deep Throat
NARS Blush in Orgasm

Nails Inc. Superfood Nail Fuel Collection

Haulage! Sephora Fall Sale (November 2016)

2016-11-232016-11-23 fivezero6 Comments

Time for annual Sephora haulage! It’s hard to pass up 20% off, even when I haven’t been shopping much at Sephora all year.

Ugh, you know it’s winter when everyone starts getting sick! My husband started feeling a little under the weather yesterday, and this morning poor Peanut started feeling badly, too. A couple of barf-ups later, he’s much better—I have a sinking feeling it’s a norovirus-kind of bug. We all got hit with it around December last year, and I hate it. I remember hugging the toilet half the night, yet not actually barfing. I hope I don’t come down with it again (if I do, it’ll probably be tonight! Joy!) and especially that our little infant Olive doesn’t get affected.

Anyway, on to the fun stuff. (Cleaning up barf? Not fun.) I posted my first order here; also, just before the sale ended, I snuck in one extra order! Here are all the goodies from both orders:

Deborah Lippmann Her Majesty Gel Lab Pro Set (8 color polishes + Hard Rock base & top coat)
Kat Von D Lock-It Setting Powder in Translucent
Kevyn Aucoin The Expert Lip Color in Bloodroses Noir
Make Up For Ever Artist Rouge Lipstick in C406
Marc Jacobs Enamored Hi-Shine Lacquer in Sally
Nails Inc. Superfood Nail Fuel Collection (4 color polishes + NailKale Superfood Base Coat)
NARS Audacious Lipstick in Audrey
Too Faced Semi Sweet Chocolate Bar Eyeshadow Palette
Urban Decay Pro Essential Brush Stash

Freebies:

Fresh Soy Face Cleanser & Rose Face Mask (Sephora Birthday 2016 deluxe samples)
Atelier Cologne Bergamote Soleil Cologne Absolue EDP (sample)
Atelier Cologne Mandarine Glaciale Cologne Absolue EDP (sample)
Maison Margiela Replica: Lipstick On EDT (sample)
Marc Jacobs Decadence EDP (sample)
Versace Bright Crystal EDT (sample) — they didn’t send this! 😦
Versace Eros Pour Femme EDP (sample)

And with this haul, I am VIB for 2017, as well.

Haulage Photos

Deborah Lippmann Her Majesty Gel Lab Pro Set — **Deborah Lippmann** Her Majesty Gel Lab Pro Set:
Emperor’s New Clothes, Ever After, King of the Road, Blue Blood, Crown Velvet,
If I Ruled the World, Hard Rock Nail Strengthening Base & Top Coat,
Reign of Love, Queen of the Night (all Deluxe Sizes).

I actually still have a couple Deborah Lippmann sets to go through from previous years (yes, not one but two). I promise to go through them SOON! Aaaack. Also, super excited to try the new Gel Lab Pro line in this set.

Tag Tuesday: Lip Lovin’

2016-11-222016-11-21 fivezero10 Comments

It has been eons since I did a Tag post, partly because I haven’t been tagged for anything in a while. Sniff! 😦

Anyway, I came across this tag at The Makeup Honey—the blogger, Sian, created the tag herself—and thought it’d be fun to do.

Tag Tuesday: Lip Lovin’

1. What was the first lipstick you ever owned?

CoverGirl in Honeyplum Glow! I can’t remember if my mom let me buy it, or if she gave it to me. Or maybe I just “borrowed” it and she never said anything! I used it all through high school. JUST ONE LIPSTICK. Boggles my mind, now.

2. Which lip product has been the biggest disappointment?

Lipstick Queen’s Sinner Lipstick in Berry. Horrid. I also hate all those pastel lipcolors that end up so chalky and showing every line and bit of dry skin on the lips! I’m looking at you, CoverGirl Katy Kat Matte Lipstick in Coral Cat and MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Fashion City! Another two fails I remember well were Bobbi Brown Lip Color in Blackberry and Revlon ColorStay Ultimate Suede in Flashing Lights.

CoverGirl Katy Kat Matte Lipstick in Coral Cat (far right)

3. Which lipstick is your holy grail product?

Sephora Fall Sale: My Haulage!

2016-11-112017-04-04 fivezero6 Comments

As I’m VIB at Sephora this year, I finally got to place my order with the 20% off 20VIB code today!

I haven’t spent much at Sephora this year, and it was a bit of a struggle to try to get VIB for next year. Part of me wonders if I should have bothered, but Sephora’s semi-annual sale coincides with my birthday month and it gets so tempting to splurge!

Here’s what I ordered (with 4% ebates cashback, as well):

My final shopping cart. (Prices not yet reflecting 20% VIB discount.)

I chose the Fresh skincare birthday gift instead of the Marc Jacobs makeup gift, since I already have the eyeliner in the Marc Jacobs set. The lipstick would have been nice to have, but it’s just a red, and I have enough of those!Read More »

New Release: NARS — Sarah Moon (Holiday 2016)

2016-10-222016-10-22 fivezero5 Comments

Collection: NARS 2016 Holiday, Sarah Moon

NARS‘ Holiday 2016 collection is a collaboration with French photographer Sarah Moon.

The limited edition collection includes three new nail polishes, all in creamy shades of red:

La Dame en Noir, deep burgundy
Flon Flons, pink red
Never Tamed, geranium

The collection also consists of the usual assortment of eyeshadow duos, blushes, lipsticks, and more.

Happy shopping!

NARS Sarah Moon collection Nail Polishes, Holiday 2016 — Images: narscosmetics.com

♦♦♦♦♦

NARS Nail Polish is US$20 / CA$25 and 0.15 fl oz / 15 mL.

NARS Cosmetics was founded in 1994 by François Nars. The company was acquired by Tokyo, Japan-based Shiseido Group in 2000.

Haulage! November, Part II & Christmas

2016-01-182016-09-23 fivezero7 Comments

This post has been a long time coming!

I’m sure many of us have been insanely busy over the last month or two, and for me, I’ve finally reached a point where I can heave a sigh of relief and, hopefully, get back on track, blog-wise. I hope you haven’t been terribly bored by my recent non-nail polish related posts on perfume, more perfume, washing your hair in reverse, and handbags! While I enjoy collecting perfume and handbags, I’m no full-fledged perfumista or fashionista.

So, back in late November, I posted Part I of my birthday beauty haulage. In this post, I’ll combine Part II with my Christmas haulage.

I splurged on beauty products for my birthday; less so for Christmas. I tend to receive money for Christmas (our families like do that, including DH and myself simply exchanging Christmas budgets so we don’t have to go through the rigamarole of picking out unwanted gifts for each other), and while I spent a bit of it on beauty products—on sale post-holidays, of course!—I spent a lot of it on two non-beauty products, which I’ll post about at the end.

Unwanted Christmas gifts — Unwanted gifts! Image: gq.com

Without further ado, here’s Part II + Christmas:

November (Part II) & December Haulage

AMOUR & BARIELLE

Haulage: AMOUR June Is Here / MORGAN TAYLOR Mint Chocolate Chip / IBD Dolomite / BARIELLE Jess’ Champagne Toast — Amour Nail Lacquer in June Is Here, and Barielle Shades Nail Color in Jess’ Champagne Toast (yeah, I don’t get the name, either! Purple champagne?). Always like trying new brands! I actually have one other Barielle (Jordana’s Skinny Jeans) that I picked up from Winners some time ago, but it’s untried, so this brand remains new to me.

Haulage! November, Part I

2015-11-302016-01-15 fivezero16 Comments

Since November is my birthmonth and it also coincides with Sephora’s fall VIB sale and seemingly worldwide Black Friday sales, I was a very spendy girl this month!

I do have to admit that it’s really nice having extra birthday money to spend when all the sales come out of the woodwork. I’m also coming off a semi-successful low-buy, so I gotta say the shopping was fun!

I’ll just dive right into them. Here are the items that are in my possession. I’ll do a Part II when the rest of the ordered items show up.

I hope you have fun reading this, and that you’ll comment if you’ve tried anything I got! I look forward to checking out others’ hauls (I always love to read them, even though they make my wishlist grow like crazy!). The prices I’ve added are calculated after sales and eBates cashback.

First off, my Shoppers Drug Mart haul from last Saturday! I redeemed 95k Optimum Points for $200 worth of products. I spent $23 on a gift, and the rest was a nice birthday haul: