NOTD: Zoya Tama

Hi all!
Hope you are having a great weekend!

Todays NOTD is Zoya Tama from my recent Zoya haul.
This shade is part of the winter 2007/2008 Utopia collection; which are all metallic colors. I love metallics :)
This is described (accurately IMO) by Zoya as a stunning hot magenta metallic shade with subtle sparkle; I really like it.
Application was like painting on melted butter; not a tiniest problem despite this being a metallic polish.
This is three coats with Seche on top.

Direct sunlight
(yeah, we actually have sun here today; believe it or not :))

Indirect sunlight

I'd love to hear what you think of this color!
See you soon:)

NYX Round Lipstick Army; Part 2

Hello dear readers!

Today I'm continuing swatching the NYX Round Lipsticks for you.
All of the lippies pictured here are shimmers, more or less.

Fasten your seat belts, here we go...
(All images are clickable for larger view)

Can you see the chicken skin on my arm here? It was so freakin' cold outside,
and I had just a t-shirt on :)

Since it is freezing here, I thought each of my babies needed a scarf.
Just in case...after all, I wouldn't want them to catch a cold... :)

Hope you have enjoyed reading this post as much as I did swatching them; stay tuned for part three...
I wish you all a great day!

ZOYA Polish Haul Has Landed!

Yesterday these beauties were in the mailbox, which was totally unexpected since they were mailed out from Hawaii last Saturday. This means 3 business days shipping time; amazing!
Out of excitement I ripped the package and immediately fell in love with all of them color wise :)
I have only had the chance to try one of them as of yet (Mikka, which I really like, and is todays NOTD), but if they're all as great as that one (application wise) I'll be in Zoya heaven!
All of them are shimmers or metallics except for "Sweet", which is the only cream in this collection.

I didn't get the chance to post about these yesterday, since it got dark before I had the chance to take pics of them, and I wanted to show you what they look like in natural daylight.

So here they are. all lined up...

L-R: Mikka, Tama, Hope, Harmony, Sweet, Hayden, Vivi, Mieko, Sylvie, Annie
Natural daylight with flash...

Without flash...

L-R: Mikka, Tama, Hope, Harmony, Sweet
No flash...

L-R: Hayden, Vivi, Mieko, Sylvie, Annie
No flash...

With flash; sorry about the blurriness...

With flash

Just from looking at the bottles I'm especially in love with..... well, all of them!! :)
Seriously, they are all gorgeous but I think I find Sweet to be the least interesting. Sylvie on the other hand is going to rock my nails this summer; it's such a stunning summer shade! Like fruit punch or something, it's a pink/coral/orange almost duo chrome shade, ahhh; summer...
Can't wait to swatch them all for you.

What do you think of this collection; any favorites?

Hope to see you back here soon; take care :)

NOTD: Zoya Mikka

Good day dear reader!

Todays NOTD is Zoya Mikka, which is a deep, dark, juicy brownish grape metallic color. This shade was part of the fall 2008 Pulse collection.
I really love this one!
Application was trouble free, it was opaque after 2 coats, but I applied a third coat just to even things out a little bit :)

Natural daylight, no flash

What do you think of this color?

Off Topic: Crown Princess Victoria Announced Engagement Today!

Photo credit: Dana Press/Scanpix

The Swedish Royal Family officially announced the engagement of Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling earlier today. This is breaking news here in Sweden, it's all over the TV and radio channels all the time; and it deserves the attention. These two have been an unofficial couple for 7 years, so I think it's wonderful news that they have finally decided to get married! Also, Victoria turns 32 this year, so it's about time :D
The marriage will take place sometime next spring/early summer.
Daniel is "a man of the people" as it's described here, meaning he isn't Royal by blood. He is from a little Swedish town, he's a gym owner and an entrepreneur, so while some thinks it's controversial, most people welcome the engagement.
I know I sure do. Oh; love really does conquer everything! Can you tell I'm going a little sentimental here? When watching the press conference earlier, I almost started crying... :)

Photo credit: SVT

Photo credit: SVT

Photo credit: Hovet

The King and the Queen, with Victoria and Daniel

Photo credit: Hovet

Photo credit: Dana Press/Scanpix

For those of you who'd like to watch the official announcement from the Royal Family can see it here.
It's in Swedish, of course, but can still be interesting and fun to watch even for those of you who don't speak Swedish.


Hope to see you all soon :)

MAC BBR & Starflash Haul Arrived!

Look what the nice mail man brought me today!
This is my latest eBay haul, consisting of a lippie named What A Do! from the MAC BBR (Blonde, Brunette, Redhead) collection, and a Starflash eye shadow called "Grand Entrance". This is a frost lippie; I really love these, they have great color payoff and the colors are so vibrant. The down side is that they are quite drying to my lips, which is why I don't use them very often these days. The MAC frost lipsticks have been replaced by NYX as my HG lippies, since they are much more moisturizing and also way cheaper :) However, I just couldn't resist this one; the color looked way to intriguing :) And I sure wasn't dissappointed when opening the package; I'm a sucker for colors like these.
I've been dying to try one of the Starflash shadows since having read many glowing reviews of it texture wise. I'll make sure to post my own review once I've tried it :)

Look at the cute little doggie :)
He/she was great do deal with, and probably run to the post office to drop off
my parcel right away since it arrived very fast!

MAC Starflash Eye Shadow in "Grand Entrance" and MAC Frost
Lipstick in "What A Do!"

Grand Entrance (left) and What A Do! (right)

"Grand Entrance"
Described by MAC as a frosty neutral peach beige
It's very shimmery; I think it's going to be a great lid and highlighter color
Limited edition - grab it while you can!

"What A Do!"
This is described by MAC as a neutral pink coral and belongs to the redhead group of the collection. I'm far from a redhead but I'll use it anyway :)
Limited edition - grab it while you can!

Have you tried any Starflash eye shadows? If so; what did you think of them?
Have you done any shopping from the BBR collection?

See you soon :)

NYX Round Lipstick Army; Part 1

Hello dear readers!
Today I'm starting a series of NYX round lippie swatches posts.
Hopefully this will be helpful for those of you who have not tried these yet, but are thinking about ordering some, and at the same time are hesitant till you see a swatch, and God knows the online swatches in most cases aren't even close to the actual true color... :)
I am totally in love with these! They have great color payoff, they last on my lips without drying them out, they come in a wide range of colors to choose from, plus they are cheap as well, so one can afford to have lots of different colors.
I think I've paid $0.99 USD for most of these; Cherry Culture and Nonpareil Boutique (links to the right) has them on sale from time to time. Even when they're not on sale they are still very cheap and affordable; $2.00 at Cherry Culture and $1.90 at Nonpareil Boutique.

All of the lippies swatched in this post are shimmery.

So; are you ready? Here we go...
(Pictures are clickable, the top 2 are a little blurry, though; sorry about that)

With flash

Without flash

Swatched on light/medium warm skin

I hope this is helpful, inspiring and enabling :D
Stay tuned for part 2 to be posted very soon.

Purple/Silver EOTD

Today I attempted a purple/silver eye look using various pigments. I have become a purple lover lately; and that goes for both eye shadow and nail polish :)

These are the products I used:



Face:

Cory Cosmetics "Radiant Peach" (as under eye concealer)
Earthen Glow Minerals Cover Me Foundation in "Paris"
Cory Cosmetics Finishing Powder in "Rose"
Cory Cosmetics blush in "Foxy"
MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in "Shimpagne" (as highlighter on cheek bones, bridge of nose, upper brow bones and chin)



Eyes:

UDPP as base
NYX Doll Eye Mascara in black (volume formula)
Eye drops for foiling and wetlining


Pigments:

◊Earthen Glow Minerals "Hjorprimul"- whole lid up to brow bone
◊Earthen Glow Minerals "First Frost"- inner part of lid, on brow bone and inner corners of the eyes
◊MAC "Deep Purple" - outer v, crease and under eye
◊Cory Cosmetics "Tantrum" - wetlined as eyeliner on upper lid


Shade descriptions:

• Hjorprimul - a beautiful silvery color with a hint of purple and blue - whole lid up to brow bone
• First Frost - ltd winter 08 color - no longer available - icy white shimmer - inner 1/3 of lid, on brow bone and inner corners of the eyes
• Deep Purple - pearled blackened burgundy
• Tantrum - black and blue with intense metal flecks of silver, violet and red - inspired by UD Goddess - foiled as eyeliner on upper eye lid
  

Lips:

Amuse Long Lip Pencil - Sweet Rose
NYX Round Lipstick - Clio
Nouba Sweet Lips Lipgloss #16




And the end result?

Angle view...

I'm not at all happy with how this turned out. I think I actually overdid the blending part; resulting in that the lighter shadows almost have come off, and the deep purple just looks muddy :(
It is important to blend well, but perhaps not this well...ahem...

What are your thoughts on this look?

That's all I have for today; bye for now :)