IsaDora Blooming Spring swatches ^_^. And some ramblings.

Electric light:

Moderate sunlight:

[Yes, that was a rare day in Greece with little sunlight. I was happy :).]

Taffeta Pink, Mango Fizz and Coral Rose lipsticks, Pinky Peach blush, Eye Brow Lift & Define pencil, eye shadow palette colours, violet liner and Blonde liner. You can see my original post about that collection here ;).
I want the palette now :D, and I'm definitely getting the Blonde pencil ;). The lipsticks are too shimmery for me to like them though :(. And I've just noticed that my MAC Hello Kitty tote is visible in Pic 2 XD.

Now, why had I disappeared off the face of the blogosphere these past few days...

Sometimes I get too pessimistic to communicate with anyone...Well, it's almost passed. I'm back :).
For now >:-D.

Everyone on here has been so incredibly kind to me, but sometimes I wonder. You see, you do know that I consider myself unattractive. Normally I accept it and live with it, it's just that sometimes things happen that rub it in my face and I don't feel like anything is truly worth it.
I don't know how to explain. I don't know whether I should. I don't know why I'm typing this - I'm so harsh about not revealing my physical flaws, and now I'm airing my emotional ones.

I received lots of swapness in the past few days...

Will post everything when I'm feeling better ;D. But here's a sneak peek...

My MEGA swap :D, with love from Watercolour Sale :). I'll need a separate blog post just to cover all of that stuff ;D.

And some more swaps :-P. Including my swap with Claire - she's received mine so I can finally use hers ^_^.

Thanks for reading :). I hope somebody finds those swatches useful XD, and don't mind my negativity, it's just part of me. It'll never change ;).

P.S. I just saw this :). If you could vote for me by leaving a comment there (but only if you think I deserve it, of course ;D), it would really help cheer me up :-P.

Spring 2009: Beauty Pop Colour Expression [ArtDeco].

Promo image for the collection. Brights for spring = gorgeous :D. And way more original than all those First Blushes :-P. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but they're such an obvious choice.

(You can see a tutorial for this look right here ^_^.)

ArtDeco's a German brand, around since 1985, and probably most known because of the unique (for a high street brand) 'refillable' concept - shadows and blushes are sold in pans, and shadow boxes (to package them in) are sold separately. This allows people to make their own palettes and combine colours in whatever way they like :), change the colour combinations whenever they feel like it ;D, and you can reuse the boxes until they break XD. Which is quite unlikely to happen for a very long time :-P.

[Collection description from official website.]

Collection products: Oil-Free Long-Lasting Foundation, 4 new eye shadow colours, 1 new blush colour, 2 new waterproof eye pencils, black liquid liner, 2 new Eye Designer refills, 2 new shades of High Performance lipstick, 2 new shades of Perfect Colour lipstick, 2 new waterproof lip liners, and 2 new shades of nail polish.

Oh, and a new Beauty Box :D. It's a 3-slot one, which means it fits either 3 shadows or a blush. It was designed by Romero Britto (an artist from Brazil), and 10 percent from sales of this item goes to charity ^_^. Not quite MAC Viva Glam, but still something :-P :). Plus, the bright, pop-art design's my personal favourite out of all the boxes they've created - don't you think it's lovely ^_^?

Pictured here with 3 of the 4 new eye shadows. The fourth one's a lovely bright spring green, and you can see it below because I've bought it :-P.

Size comparison pic: MAC Mutiny pigment, ArtDeco eye shadow in 243, and Rimmel eye shadow in Saucy Mint.

Next come swatches of everything I was able to swatch at the counter - I couldn't find testers for the Eye Designers :(. (They're described as 'light citrus' and 'sparkling orchid'.) And we never have nail polish testers >:-). For the record, the nail polishes are a bright red and a pinky violet, and you can see them on the website :).

Please excuse these looking kind of pale - they were single-swipe, and I was nervous because this was my first ever full-collection swatch for blogging purposes XD (yeah, I'm stupid :-P). And I've no idea why my hand looks so fat there :-/.

So, from left to right & up to down:

*Lip liners in 90 and 83.
*Eye liners in 19 and 45. I really like the green one :D!
*Eye shadows in 77, 222, 227 and 243, and the very camera-shy >:-D blush in 33...
*High Performance Lipsticks in Sweet Rose and Peony Red.
*Perfect Colour Lipsticks in Poppy Red and Spicy Tangerine.

Eye shadow swatches close-up:

Lipstick swatches close-up:

I need to practice my swatch-taking...Lol.

So, what am I personally excited about :D?

This collection's must-have item has got to be the Limited Edition Beauty Box :). I'll be getting at least 2 ^_^. It may fit 3 (and not 4, as usual), but the design's amazingly bright and happy :D, and it's a charity item ^_^! I love those :). Plus, I need Beauty Boxes 'cause I don't own any yet ;). The Perfect Colour lipsticks are outrageously bright in a good way, plus the swatches lasted all day ;). I do own similar colours, but definitely check them out if you don't. The liner swatches also lasted all day (and didn't fade when I washed my hands), so if you're looking for waterproof liners, try these, the colours are lovely ^_^. (I personally hate waterproof items though :-P.) Last but not least, the eye shadows :). Go grab all the colours you haven't yet got, 'cause these are amazing. I bought the green one ^_^, and remember I said the blue and yellow match the Hello Kitty colours? Well, not precisely XD. The blue is quite close, but it's matte, not glittery like Stylin', and it's bluer :-P. And the yellow is far more lemony than gold. I wanted to go back for it, but then I found a match in my collection - the yellow from Avon's Orchid Delight duo. So (unless you own them or similar colours), definitely go grab 222 and 243, and try the other two 'cause they're great, just less unique - but still great shades to add to your collection in the (admittedly unlikely) event that you haven't got them ;).

Will buy: At least 2 Beauty Boxes :), and Eye Shadow in 243 - but wait, I've already bought that ;D :-P ^_^.

As always, do let me know what you think :). Oh, and here's another blog on this bright collection ;) ^_^.

MAC Hello Kitty, finally ^_^!!!

New Acquisitions (before you ask, I happen to hate the word 'haul') from MAC Hello Kitty:

*Eye palette in Too Dolly (left).
*Eye palette in Lucky Tom (right).
*Pigments in Milk and Deep Blue Green.
*Lipstick in Fresh Brew (keep reading for explanations).
*ArtDeco eye shadow in 243 - it's not MAC Hello Kitty, but I still bought it today so it belongs here :-P.
*Powder blush in Tippy.
*My sister's (OK, so I talked her into it XD) Beauty Powder in Tahitian Sand, and I'm allowed to borrow it if I ever need to ^_^.

Background: MAC Hello Kitty bag :), free with 4 items. If I remember correctly, it's free for every 50 dollars spent in the US, which means I would've received three. I love living in Europe :-P...
I do. I really do. But some things are unfair >:-/.

Anyway, I'm still really happy with my new stuff :D. I finally made it to MAC today, and made my sister come along 'cause salespeople tend to be more civil to me when I'm with her >:-). The MAC lady was really nice though, gotta give credit where it's due ;) :).
But...I was relatively late.

The palettes, pigments, glitters and glitter liners were all there, so I snapped the pigments up as planned :). I always knew I was going to get those ^_^. I actually planned on getting one palette, but after seeing them in person, I just fell in love and had to get them - I could, 'cause some stuff I'd planned to get was sold out (keep reading).
Just for the record, the palettes were 39 Euros each, and the pigments were 25 Euros each >:-).

This is why I do NOT normally shop for MAC in this country.

Seriously, what the hell? This is more than twice the US price. There's making profit, and then there's ripping people off 'cause they're fans of certain things...OK, rant over...But this is just wrong.

The lip products were cheaper, therefore many were sold out :(. Including Strayin' and Fashion Mews, which I really really wanted to get :'(! Of the three that were left, Most Popular looked just wrong on my skin and Big Bow was far too sheeny (plus excuse me, but I'd never get a lipstick with such a stupid name anyway), so I got Fresh Brew, a gorgeous creamy colour :). Special thanks to my sister for getting this for me ^_^, 'cause I had no money left - and now I need to repay her ASAP, lol XD. Don't worry, I will :-P ;).

Half of the glosses were also sold out (Nice To Be Nice, which I'd wanted to get, wasn't even available for swatching :( >:-/) , and I didn't like any of those that were left, so I passed. Both TLCs are still available though, and to be honest I didn't like them...Does anyone want to swap lipsticks for TLCs by any chance ;)?

The Beauty Powders were still available, and I convinced my sister to get Tahitian Sand because it was gorgeous on her :). She's not a Kitty fan, but she relented - I'm very persuasive XD. Fun & Games was sold out, but Tippy was not, and I bought it :D.

Hmmm...What else? The grey nail polish was sold out, the other two were not, but I'm afraid my craving for those has passed, sorry MAC people ;D :-P. The lashes were there and looked really good, but I have no idea how to use false lashes XD, and the black accessories just weren't that attractive to me ;).

I also went to a few other stores and finally swatched ArtDeco's spring stuff (will do a review soon :D) - I took pics too, so yes, you'll be getting swatches ;D! And I bought the new eye shadow in 243, it's an absolutely striking lovely spring green colour :D - if you're in Europe, you've gotta get this ;). I wanted to get the blue and lemony shades too, but they're similar to the Lucky Tom Kitty palette colours, so I won't have to :).

Went to the Laura Mercier counter at Attica just to have a look - I was completely broke after MAC :-P >:-). First Blush isn't out yet :(, but the saleslady said it'll arrive before Easter. That's fine with me, I'll have more time to save for it, lol ;D. It'll probably be over 50 Euros, but I adore Laura palettes and those colours are just so spring-perfect :)...This is one palette I'm very likely to buy ^_^.

Besides my MAC and ArtDeco stuff, I picked up Givenchy perfume samples, Neutrogena body cream samples (a girl was giving them out), and loads of ads, even for brands I know I won't be shopping from, 'cause the looks were still gorgeous and I love to be inspired ;). I even grabbed a card from YSL, because Purple Snowflake did an absolutely beautiful rendition of it, and I know I can't match her but I may still try ^_^.

And that's about it ;D...Will do a post on ArtDeco and that Honest Things tag as soon as I can ;). I'll leave you with more MAC Kitty pics...Thanks for reading :), and do let me know what you think ;)...Questions, comments, Kitty-caused swoons XD, whatever ^_^.

My pigments, lipstick and ArtDeco shadow close up :).

With the lights on...See that gorgeous blue green reflection :D? And isn't Milk just pure sweet loveliness ^_^?
The whole lot under electric light...Beautiful :).

P.S. I adore my free bag :) ;D :-P.

Spring 2009: Blooming Spring [IsaDora].

For those of you unfamiliar with it, IsaDora's a Swedish brand that's been around since 1983, and as far as I know it's available in the US, as well as most of Europe.

I loved their Dazzling Diamonds holiday collection (got the ring, palette and Diamond Glow highlighter/blush kit ^_^) so I'd been waiting for whatever they would come up with next...Yes, they did not disappoint :).

[Spring 2009 collection from official website.]

I love the look the model's wearing...So pretty :D. Will definitely try to imitate it one of these days ;D. I'm glad to see they're repromoting the Blonde inliner, since it's a great colour that works beautifully on pretty much anyone who's fair to medium in colour (you don't actually have to be blonde though :-P). When I was checking it out as part of the Autumn 2008 collection, the saleslady told me it was a softer, nuder alternative to the usual brightening but sometimes too harsh power of white inliner.

Also, I'm in love with their palette yet again >:-). Of course, I'll have to see it in person, but I'm sure most of you know that feeling of wanting the counters to stop putting out such great stuff in such quantities because you know you won't be able to afford it all :'D. And with MAC Hello Kitty on its way to Europe...Even though my birthday's in April, I would say I'm definitely broke.

Sorry for straying ;). But I'm not making any conclusions yet since I haven't seen this lot in person. Will report when I do ;).

The rest of the collection doesn't really appeal to me...Well, the violet liner would, but I already own one :-P. The lipsticks don't seem like they'd suit my taste and skin tone, and I'm sorry I have to say it but the blush packaging's just completely blah :-/. Plus, pinky peach can probably be done well enough with Fafi Hipness ;). And I know I'm too lazy to do my eyebrows with a pencil, so I'm gonna pass on that little item since it wouldn't be getting any use if I were to purchase it :-P.

[For the record: No reviews on nail polishes 'cause my local IsaDora counter doesn't supply nail polish testers (Yes, >:-/?!?) ...And no way am I paying for something I haven't even been able to test ^_^.]

Will buy: The Blonde inliner :D.
Will consider: The eyeshadow palette ;).

[P.S. How's that for a first post? I hope it wasn't too lousy :). Anyway, thanks for dropping by ^_^.]