Estee Lauder Violet Underground: Cyber Metallic palette

Wow. They did it again. The geniuses behind the desks at Estee Lauder produced yet another collection to make my mouth water. I adored the visuals in multiple magazines for quite some time before I caved and bought the actual thing.

The Violet Underground collection is a beautiful fall collection with rich shades. This palette has a selection of champagnes, violets, a brown and even a charcoal/black color. I imagine creating many fall makeup looks with this.

You can go both ways with this beauty. You can create a fairly neutral look appropriate for work. Or you can mix and match the brighter shades inn here for a bold eye-catching look. Expect swatches and looks with this very soon. I can't wait until I have time to play with this!

The Violet Underground Cyber Metallics palette is part of Estee Lauder's fall collection. It's limited edition and is sold for approx. €45. The rest of the collection contains nail polish, eye liners, lipsticks and lipglosses. Take a look at the whole collection below.

Benefit High Beam Review

Image from Douglas.nl

In my curiosity (read: excessive need to shop, shop, shop) for trying new brands I ventured into the relatively unknown Benefit. Relatively unknown in the Netherlands I mean. Of course I had read countless reviews and had seen numerous beautiful pictures of the Benefit products before committing to buying something. When I stood in front the display at Sephora I was torn. I could really only justify buying one item, but what should I buy?! Eventually my choice landed on their rosy pink highlighter called high beam.

It’s a liquid highlighter that comes in a super cute packaging that resembles a nail polish bottle. Funny story, I was applying it one morning and my boyfriend kind of looked on wide-eyed.. “Are you putting nail polish on your face?” Anyway, back to the review. The way it’s packaged is nice and handy. You just dot the product on the area you want to highlight and then blend with a brush or fingers. Easy does it.

I apply this on the parts of my face where the sun usually hits. Like on the bride of my nose, my cheekbones and my brow bone. It blends onto skin effortlessly and lasts all day. The highlighter has a beautiful light rosy color. Which is particularly nice on lighter skin tones. It also has plenty of shimmer but it doesn’t make you look like a jar of glitter exploded on your face. It’s just the right amount to make you glow, lit from within you could even say.

The bottle might look small but appearances fool! A little goes a really long way and this bottle lasts and lastsIt’s perfect on dry skinned people, because of the creamy formula. Long story cut pretty short. It’s awesome in a bottle. I really recommend it to people who are looking for a good highlighter that’s easy to use and lasts a long time.

In the Netherlands Benefit products are sold at Sephora and select Douglas stores. Recommended retail price is €25,42 for 13ml.

Yves Saint Laurent Effet Faux Cils: My holy grail mascara

People change as do makeup routines. I think you can probably guess where this is going, my makeup routine has changed. For a year or two I wore pretty high coverage foundation with powder, deep black 

winged liner and a bright lipstick. But nowadays I settle for my Garnier BB cream, a peachy blush and a deep black mascara. As my makeup was changing I was also searching for the perfect black mascara that would make my lashes look long, voluminous yet keep the appeal of soft 'touchable' lashes.

And I found all of that in the YSL Effet Faux Cils mascara. I think I heard Hanne from the amazing Beautylovin' mention this in a few of her posts, so I was dying to try it. So when one of the leading perfumeries in the country had a special offer where they gave you a 40% discount on all mascaras I struck gold. Literally. 

Yves Saint Laurent seriously has the best packaging in the world. It looks and feels super luxurious, just like I said in my review of their Rouge Volupté Lipstick in Peach Passion. The tube is light in your hands and has to different tones of gold with the YSL label stamped into the side. 

The brush of this mascara doesn't look special or revolutionary at all, it's actually pretty plain. But oh the wonders it does when it's swiped over your lashes. Now, my lashes aren't super spectacular but they're a nice enough length on their own. This mascara is mainly used for volume and a deep dark color, but it does add nice length as well.

I think the picture of my eye speaks louder than a thousand words, so feast your eyes on the wonder that is the YSL effet faux cils mascara. 

The mascara lasts all day. The picture was taken at 8pm at night and I applied this mascara at 8:30am that same day. It only smudged a little in the corner of my eye, probably from me rubbing it. Even during a long terrible day at work it still looks wonderful. 

It might cost a fortune, but I really do think it's worth it.