Musings of a Muse

I’ve done first impressions on both the Gold and the Platinum Collections that Bare Escentuals introduced and now I have the Classic Rock Collection which is more of a sparkling white diamond in comparison with the silver and gold of the other collections! If you missed either of the posts about the other collections you can click here and here to view them!

This collection is quite nice but a bit smaller than the others as it doesn’t contain nearly as much product and goodies as the others do! I’ll be doing a comparison post of all three sometime next week but this definately contains a considerably amount less product than the Gold and Platinum Kits however it is still nice.

The first thing that deserves mentioning is the Buxom Lip Gloss included with this kit. Bare Escentuals must be listening because they have changed the applicator on the Buxom Lips from a sponge to a brush. Many complaints have arisen about the Buxom Lips being a great product but the sponge applicator wasn’t distrubing enough product and you would be triple dipping to get enough gloss to apply on your lips. Well, have no fear, this Buxom Lip Gloss has a brush applicator and makes application simple. It’s entitled Dominique and is a gorgeous clear gloss with a ton of sparkle. Our other two sets did not include a gloss but a lipstick. While this failed to include a lipstick the gloss is gorgeous enough to make up for that!

Dominique Buxom Lip Gloss

YAY Out with the Sponge Application and in with the Brush Applicator!

This set included two brushes instead of the normal three as seen with Gold and Platinum however they brushes are far more prettier than those collections in that they have a cute little rhinestone on the handle! You get a Flawless Face Brush and a Tapered Eyeshadow Brush with this kit! Both are pretty soft and I haven’t seen any shedding yet after applying blush with the Flawless Face Brush this morning! So far so good!

You also, like the Platinum Collection, get a Beautifully Luminous Mascara Duo. If you’re worried about getting repeat products when purchasing both sets you can rest easy knowing that both sets are dramatically different color wise. Where as the Platinum Kit contains a silver Beautifully Luminous Mascara this kit includes a sparkling white one! You can read my review on Beautifully Luminous Mascara by clicking here.

The Diamond Gossamer included with this kit is a gorgeous sparkling white color! They recommend using the Gossamer’s as a body powder for arms, legs, cleavage, etc…I personally like using it on my eyes, face, and body! It’s possibly my favorite Gossamer aside from the gold that was included with the bareGold Kit!

Classic Rock Eyeshadow is a sparkling silver color much like the silver color that was included with the Platinum collection but it is a bit lighter so it’ll be nice to use both in a look for contrasting!

The blush you’ll get is called Laughter and is a peachy color which is very nice! I fail to see too much diamond sparkle in it though! It appears quite matte to me but it’s still a nice color.

Nice Rock Glimmer is a sparkling chocolate brown and you can most definately see the touches of diamond powder in it! I’m eager to give this a try!

And finally you get a cute little white clutch which I’m in love with. The other two kits did not include clutches but instead sturdy boxes to store your bits in! However, I am loving the clutch as it’s quite lovely!

Overall, the collection is quite nice but I’m happy I didn’t pay the original price tag of $59 for it. It’s a nice set but the shadows included just don’t seem to match up in my eyes (silver and chocolate?!?!).

There are definately some plus posh items in the lot such as the gossamer and clutch plus the brushes but it still fails to give me that WOW that I’m looking for!

It’s definately a nice gift or for yourself but don’t pay $59 for it! Nab it now while 20% at Sephora is still ongoing so you can save a few bucks on the kit!

Nice but no wow factor!

The Muse likes it but felt it was missing something!

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Tell me!

Vintage Sister has updated it’s site with it’s Christmas lip balms, gift sets, and other goodies to tempt and tease your lips!

If you never heard of Vintage Sister do see my previous posts about this great company!

Holiday Balm Set

Get 10 Vintage Sister Balms in a collectible tin for $35USD! Flavors included are Holiday Spice, Butter Rum, Ribbon Candy, Sugar Plum, Egg Nog, Candy Cane, Cinnabun, Christmas Cookie, Winter Mint, and Gingerbread!

Christmas Eve Trio

Get 3 Balms in a collectible tin for $12! Flavors included are Egg Nog, Ribbon Candy, and Christmas Cookies!

Holiday Get Set

3 Flavorful Balms in a gorgeous collectible tin for $12! Flavors included are Gingerbread, Candy Cane, and Sugar Plum!

These are just a few of the new gift sets available for the Holiday Season! Wander over to Vintage Sister to see the other great gifts available! For all the Holiday Flavors available click here!

I’ve been waiting eagerly for Bath and Body Works to package up their Temptations line into some gift sets for giving!

Two have made an appearance on the website!

Sweet Shack 3-1 Shower Gel Set $20USD

One Sweet Season Lotion Gift Set $17.50USD

I got my Sephora Friends and Family order a few days ago and inside lay my gorgeous Night Series Palette from NARS! Oh My! This is beyond yummie my friends and well worth the money!

I had blogged about this previously and must take back any bad thought I had about it! The palette just looks boring when you view it online! It looks matte and unexciting and just not something that I must have! So really when I originally seen it pop up on Sephora I just passed over it really quickly and chalked it up as rubbish that I didn’t need!

However, upon seeing it in store I fell in deep lust and it ended up on my WANT, MUST HAVE NOW list!

The palette is $55 regularly but I got it for $44 with the 20% discount. $55 may seem a bit much but if you break it down it’s less than $10 per a shadow which is a pretty good deal! I must say that I prefer paying $44 for it in comparison to it’s original price tag of $55 however I’d pay the regular price if I had to because the palette is most definately a high quality item in my humblest opinion.

The palette contains a favorite shadow of mine which is Night Star! I love this shadow! It’s an understated gold sparkle affair that is fantastic as a base or all by itself.

The rest of the shadows I don’t have but all of them are gorgeous. One of which I’m deeply in love with is the Night Snow which is a gorgeous shimmering white sparkle that’s going to be absolutely perfect for many great Holiday eye looks!

Other shadows included are Night Fever which is a black with tons of red glitter, Night Clubbing which is black with gold glitter, Night Rider which is purple with silver glitter, and Night Fairy which is lilac with gold glitter!

I love the two blacks in this palette because the shimmer has totally transformed the colors from being basic black to something completely WOW!

Overall, the palette is most definately on my awesome list! I’m completely loving it and it’s Muse approved for sure!

Have it?
Love it?
Want it?
Hate it?

Tell me! I’m curious what you think!

The Muse has a coven of little elves to help her locate exciting goodies for you! So you might want to give a special thanks to the Muse’s mate and reader, Betsy, for locating this gorgeous little fine!

It appears you won’t need to stalk Japanese websites or beg friends to get you Awake’s Limited Edition Stardom Holiday Collection because Betsy has kindly pointed out that your local Neiman Marcus has it available for a mere $50 (Betsy also kindly pointed out you can nab it with Free Shipping by using coupon code WINTER). Have we told Betsy how much we love her for this?

Awake Limited Edition Stardom Holiday Collection as seen on Neiman Marcus

This set includes Mascara, Dimensional Eye Color in Love Light and Angel Wing, Face Powder in Champagne Glow, Lip Gloss in Fairly Pink, and Nail Varnish in Magnetic Violet Sheer and let’s not forget it comes all wrapped up in a cute red awake box!

Want it?
Love it?
Go get it! Click!

Thanks again to Betsy for filling the Muse’s Christmas Wish List with dreams of the Awake Holiday Set!

Today I received my Bare Minerals bareGold Luxury Color Collection in the mail and I must say I’m pretty impressed! You can view my previous blog about this collection by clicking here.

The collection wow’ed me a bit more than the Bare Esentuals Pure Platinum Collection (Bare Minerals is the same company as Bare Esentuals if you were wondering). You can see my impression of the Pure Platinum Collection by clicking here.

For starters the collection comes in a far better box than the Platinum Collection. The box is highly reusable and perfect just to keep the entire collection together. Plus it has an awesome flip up mirror which is ideal for application. Don’t get me wrong the Platinum Collection had quite a nice box as well but this is just quite a deal better!

In my opinion the bareGold Collection is much more wearable for the Autumn than it will be for the winter and holiday season as the colors lean more towards browns and golds while the Pure Platinum Collection contains cooler colors that are better suited for the colder weather and the upcoming holiday season!

Like the Pure Platinum Collection the bareGold Collection comes with three brushes however the similarities end with the Full Flawless Face Brush. The other two brushes are completely different. Where as the Pure Platinum Collection comes with a crease brush and a shadow brush the bareGold Collection comes with a liner blending brush and an eye shaping brush!

I’m somewhat thankful that these came with different brushes as having duplicates is somewhat pointless!

The brushes are pretty ok quality so far that I see and no shedding as of yet! The liner blending brush is a bit pointless and I’d have prefered some sort of eyeshadow brush but I’ll find a use for it I’m sure. My favorite in the lot of three brushes would be the eye shaping brush. It’s pretty soft and it has a nice curve to it so I can fit it precisely into the crease of my eye quite nicely. It’ll serve well as a multitasking brush for my lid and crease area.

From Bottom to Top: Flawless Face Brush, Eye Shaping Brush and Heavenly Liner Blending Brush

The collection comes with a Mineral Veil in full size which was was missing from both the Classic Rock and Pure Platinum Collections. Mineral Veil is actually one product I do approve of in the BE line of foundations products so getting a full size Veil with this set is such a nice extra!

My favorite item in the set is most definately the Gold Gossamer powder. It’s shimmery and gorgeous and just perfect to use just about anywhere you want a bit of gold sparkle! Eyes, Face, Body, wherever you desire a bit of glittery gold you can apply this lovely Gossamer! This is a tiny bit more wearable than the Platinum Gossamer powder because it’s such a universal color that’ll work well with most all skin types!

Gold Gossamer

The glimmer this set comes with is called Golden Earth and is quite a gorgeous brown shade with golden sparkle! Upon viewing some of these colors you’ll see why I believe they are better suited for the Autumn than the Winter!

Golden Earth Glimmer

Gilded Taupe glimpse is is a beige color with specks of gold and quite lovely. I’ve noticed that the gold infused in all these colors is much more prominent than the crushed diamond in the Platinum Collection!

Gilded Taupe

Last but most definately not least in the shadow department is the Gold Mine Liner Shadow. This can be used a liner or an eyeshadow and it’s my favorite of the several eye products in this collection! It’s a deep mineral brown color with tons of gold! I’m so loving this and I’m envisioning several looks I can do with it!

Gold Miner Liner Shadow

The blush in this set I find much more flattering than Posh Blush which was included with the Platinum Collection! This blush is called Riches and it’s a shimmering rosy peach with quite a nice dose of gold!

Riches Blush

Finally another win for me is the lipcolor in this collection! The Platinum Collection included a muddy rose color that I’m not entirely in love with where as this collection included a brownish peach color with a bit of gold!

I’m most definately favoring this set over the Pure Platinum Collection plus it was cheaper!!!! The only thing missing from this set was a mascara and beautifully luminous lashes duo but the good news is I already have gold beautifully luminous lashes so I’m covered

As with most BE collection and eye sets this comes with great instructions for application! Anything that makes makeup easy is always a plus for me! It’s so nice to open a package and have some really helpful hints, tips, and general step by steps for applying what where and how! Sometimes colors can stump us all and it’s difficult to firgure out just where something should be on our eye area and BE always seems to simplify that stressful part of application!

This set would make an amazing gift and like I said the price is just too sweet to pass up!

I’m eager to get my Classic Rock Collection now and see how it is and make my final decision about which could be my favorite!

Do see my original post about this collection to nab it for yourself at a very nice price! Click!

Want it?
Love it?
Hate it?

Tell your Muse!