Musings of a Muse

I got my MAC DressCamp over the weekend but was too busy to play with it or use any of it! However, I thought I’d post pictures and just a general first impressions of the items for you guys!

The Collection is very, very nice! As you probably know from my past posts it sold out rather quickly but I was lucky enough to nab it all!

My favorite in the lot was of course the gorgeous palette and the lipglass in She-Gold. I wasn’t loving the lippie in Too Fab or the lipglass in Fashion but I got them anyway since I’m such an addict!

The palette is perfection in my personal opinion! The blush is a beautiful bright pink with just the faintest touch of gold shimmer. Strangely enough the blush is actually labeled by MAC as being a Beauty Powder. It appears pigmented enough to work as a blusher but I haven’t yet tried it on so I’m not entirely sure! From swatching I can tell it was nicely pigmented and had a nice bit of shimmer to it!

The shadows compliment each other brilliantly as well and it should be easy enough to create a perfect look with all three! I think the gold in this palette quite reminds me of Golden Lemon Pigment. It’s a very true yellow gold and has a beautiful shimmer to it! The other two shades are pretty as well but I think the gold stands out from the rest!

Fashion Lipglass and Too Fab Lipstick are virtually the same color which is perfectly fine if you want to add a bit of a glossy top coat to your lipstick. I’m not completely sold on the color as it’s a very loud bubblegum pink that doesn’t particularly suit my skin tone.

She-Gold Lipglass is brilliant! I don’t own any gold lipglosses and this will be a perfect addition to my collection as a topcoat for peaches, corals, or even pink lipsticks! It has quite a bit of shimmery gold to it and it compliments the colors of the palette brilliantly!

I took a few swatches of the palette, lipglasses, and lipstick but they came out a bit crummy! Sorry I’m still learning good swatch technique!

From Left to Right: Fashion Lipglass, She-Gold Lipglass, and Too Fab Lipstick

MAC DressCamp Palette Swatches

From Left to Right: MAC DressCamp Palette Swatches and MAC DressCamp Lipglass and Lipstick Swatches With Flash

Without Flash

The Collection is truly unique and very pretty! I’m eager to try them on! FOTD to follow shortly!

Were you lucky enough to nab MAC DressCamp?

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I was visiting with the beautiful Toya from Life of a Ladybug last week and happened upon her review of Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder. After reading her review I knew that this was something I absolutely had to try!

Away I went to Sephora to nab some for myself!

What is it?

Secret Brightening Powder is exactly that. It’s a translucent powder with a tiny touch of shimmer that you use under your eyes to brighten and refresh eyes!

Mmmmm…..

It brightens.

It refreshes.

But…

It kinda sorta settles into my fine lines which I’m not loving.

It’s an interesting concept but I’m not sure it works so well. The powder is pretty shimmery so the potential and danger of overdoing it is a serious reality. I overdo everything so I have to be super careful with this and just apply a tiny touch under my eyes. It does brighten up my eye area and give it a very nice light, look but it also settles into my fine lines which makes me age a few years. I don’t use powder under my eyes anymore for this reason and this, is in fact, glorified finishing powder.

Fact of the matter is this might very well be a wonderful product but lately my eye area is so very dry (Sahara desert dry!) that I can’t take full advantage of this without seeing some strange side effects such as the fact that it is brightening but it’s also making me look older, settling into my fine lines, and drying my eye area out further.

If you boast a beautifully smooth, moist eye area free of dryness this could be a product you might want to invest $22 USD in however for me it’s just a glorified finishing powder with a bit of shimmer thrown in.

It does a fine job of setting your concealer and it does brighten up the eye area as I mentioned but it’s just not doing that good a job to justify me recommending it for purchase!

The cost is quite good as the jar is huge and you could get a year if not more out of it but really this doesn’t do anything that your normal run of the mill loose powder does!

Sigh. I so wanted to love it!

You can safely skip it!

Already own it?

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My mate Rows from Mostly Makeup sent me over some Mini Bourjois Paris from jolly old England! Thanks Rows the Muse loves you lots and lots and lots!

This is my first time trying out Mini and I love it! I love the regular Bourjois Paris line anyway and this is amazing quality and just as good as the full size products!

I’m shocked and delighted at how great these are. It’s really nice to be able to indulge in such a cute, inexpensive cosmetic that has the quality to back itself up!

I know a few people aren’t really loving Bourjois’s normal baked eyeshadows. For whatever reason you might have for hating baked eyeshadows you’ll be able to happily indulge in Mini as the shadows are not baked. These are just regular old eyeshadows with great pigmentation for the price!

The shadows do not come with a compact and I believe they are around $6 or so each. I’m not sure if they fit into a MAC quad as I haven’t tried. You can purchase a cute little cardboard box which holds three shadows which costs $2! Not a bad deal in my opinion!

Pop it out!

and Pop It in here!

Colors 64, 60, and 58

The range carries not only eyeshadows but a ton of other mini items such as gloss, nail polish, pigments, etc…! I haven’t tried everything but I do like what I see so far!

The pigments are probably my favorite of the lot. They aren’t sheer by any means and you get a nice beautiful finish with them! Very pigmented for the price and just enough in the jar to last ages! I wish MAC pigments were available in this size!

Finally the lipgloss is the exact same formula as the regular size! It’s just cheaper and smaller! It has a little string you can use to attach it to your iPod, Cellphone, Etc…!

All in all Mini Bourjois Paris is definately something to keep your eyes out for! I know Ulta is now selling some of the line which is awesome as it was unavailable stateside prior to that! I’m hopeful that maybe Sephora will catch up and start carrying this!

If it’s inexpensive you seek without forsaking good quality this is exactly something you might try! These are excellent for traveling light as well or for those of you who are unable to finish larger size products!

Tried these?

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Dior has introduced a new edition to the family with it’s High Shine Lipstick. Dior makes a fine bit of cosmetic that the Muse both uses and collects however their lipstick line hasn’t been something I can say I’ve indulged in much.

However, upon hearing about the Addict High Shine Lipstick I thought yes indeed this was very me! Visions of T’estimo lipstick and MAC Slimshines danced through my head and I was thinking how Dior probably created a beautifully moisturizing lipstick in an array of colors! I couldn’t wait to try it!

Meh. They could have done a better job with this.

I’m relieved I didn’t get crazy and purchase one of every color because it turns out it’s not all that great. The formula needs a bit of work as it advertises a high shine and gloss but I got neither from it. There isn’t much to say really it just feels like a regular old lipstick.

I’m not going to lie and say I’m not shocked as I expect far better quality from Dior but this definately disappoints. Most of my disappointment stems from the promise of a beautiful glossy feel and lovely shine. I didn’t get either from this and I can’t help but feel ripped off. It just feels like the regular Dior lipstick.

The color selection is vast and the packaging is simple yet pretty but sadly it’s a total bust for me. The Muse suggests saving your money and buying two MAC Slimshines instead as the price of one Dior Addict High Shine Lipstick is $25 USD which isn’t bad if it actually worked but sadly it’s a no go!

Boo Dior! The Muse is saddened and disappointed!

Here’s an awesome Beauty on a Budget find for you!

Victoria’s Secret Beauty Rush Sparkling and Luminous Loose Eyeshadows.

I picked these up this weekend spontaneously while waiting in line at Victoria’s Secret. I see them ALL the time and Victoria’s Secret pimps them out big time. These things are in little buckets all over the store so seriously sooner or later you’re bound to pick up one or two even if you don’t want to which is just the case for me!

I didn’t need, nor want these but somehow, someway they finally ended up in my cart.

Shrugs.

What can I say? I guess I got tired of seeing them all the time and never trying them! No idea why I bothered purchasing them but honestly I’m actually glad I did because they aren’t so bad!

These are $7 USD each which is the most obscene price I ever heard of in my life as they are so tiny! $7? Come on! No way am I dishing out a near $10 bill for these little tiny eyeshadows!

But I brought five of them which means I got ‘em for $4 USD each! I like that price much better

They are available at a single price of $7 or as a purchase of 5 for $20 which sounds much better.

F0r some odd reason everyone and their mum decided that it was a good idea to be at Victoria’s Secret and the line was fracking out the door. So as I waited impatiently I was busy swatching every color of these shadows on my arm and decided I did indeed need one or two.

As I said they are good.

First of all they are very light and shimmering. If you love a “not so made up” look these are definately something you might want to consider purchasing. Pigmentation is not too bad and the color is buildable. The powders are light, shimmery, and have a nice bit of sparkle.

They are advertised in two finishes one of which is a “high sparkle” finish while the other is a Luminous version. I honestly can’t tell the difference between the two as they both give a nice fair amount of sparkle.

Colors range from a few bold colors like greens, purples, and teals to lighter shades like pink, beige, and white.

I personally choose mostly light colors as I thought they would be great for Summer for a light makeup look.

Not alot of product comes in the little jar but for the price I can’t complain too much. The applicator is awesome in my humble opinion! I wish that Urban Decay had such a great applicator on their new loose pigment shadows. It’s a dense, rounded sponge tip that fits very nice not only in the contour of my eye but right across the lid for easy application!

The colors I got were:

• Glow Nude-A sparkling nude cream color
• Deja Blue-A deep blue green
• Goldblinger-A soft creamy gold
• Miami Ice-A sparkling white
• Twinkled Pink-A iridescent pink

Glow Nude

Deja Blue

Goldblinger

Miami Ice

Twinkled Pink

All in all these are pretty good quality for the price and the Muse likes them! If you favor a light, natural look or just want an easy, simple eyeshadow application these might be something to consider!

Victoria’s Secret Beauty Rush Sparkling and Luminous Loose Eyeshadows should definately be able to fit into your Beauty Budget!

Have these?

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Join me in loving Victoria’s Secret Beauty by viewing some old posts!

Click here to read my babblings and excitement over the Victoria’s Secret Sparkling Diamond Collection!

Click here to read my review on Victoria’s Secret Heavenly Palettes!

Click here to find out why I wasn’t loving the Victoria’s Secret Brilliant Lip Shine Lipgloss!

Click here to hear my raves and review about the Victoria’s Secret Sexy Little Things Cosmetic Collection!

Click here to enjoy an FOTD of me using Goldblinger from this Collection!

Don’t you love Shu’s Rouge Unlimited Lipsticks? Pigmented, Amazing Formula, and Beautiful Packaging.

I sincerely adore them.

Shu’s taken the original Rouge Unlimited and amped it up a bit for the Spring/Summer. We now have Shu Rouge Unlimited Crystal Shine which is simply amazing!

I tested out two of these and I’m dying to get my hands on a few more colors as they are truly great!

It’s like having a lipstick and a gloss all in one stick. This is a glossy, slick, emollient formula that simply glides onto your lips leaving behind beautiful color and shine!

I’m loving the simplicity of a single stick of gloss and lipcolor in one tube. The color is pigmented enough to act as a lipstick while also offering your lips a moisturizing glossy, shimmering effect that’s absolutely stunning.

These are perfect for days you want a natural, glossy feel without feeling heavily made up with lipstick.

WN254S and BG 950S

The two colors I got are BG 950S which is a pretty shimmering beige and the second color was WN 254S which is a shimmering purple wine color but it looks very pink on!

WN 254S

BG 950S

WN 254S

BG 950S (Hey, L@@K I’m wearing Visee’s Aqua Shining Eyes! Pretty Right? Click to read my review on Aqua Shining Eyes!)

The only thing I can rant about is they only come in 17 Shades. We wants more please! And secondly can we please, please, please have names we can remember? B45644578ST is too difficult to remember!

Each Rouge Unlimited Crystal Shine is $23 USD and well worth it as the quality is near perfection for me.

I have at least 5 other colors on my wish list at the moment!

Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Crystal Shine Collection is available now at Shu Uemura’s website!

These are most definately Muse Approved! I love the texture, the shine, the glossy feel, and the beautiful color and effect of these! They are well worth purchasing at least one (although you’ll want more once you’ve tried ‘em!).

Perfection!

Love ‘em?

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Click here to travel into the past and read my Shu Uemura Summer Prism Collection Review!

Click here to read my ravings and review for Shu Uemura’s New Mini Lash Curler!

Click here to read about the exclusive Fact Chart Shu Uemura created exclusively for readers of Musings of a Muse!