Hello Kitty Memoirs of a Kitty Palette

Despite previous experiences with the Sephora house brand, I really wanted to like the Hello Kitty collaboration when it came out - I especially wanted to like their Say Hello palettes, which were sleek and cute all at the same time! Sadly the first two Say Hello palettes were underwhelming for me, and I had to accept the fact that it didn't make sense to purchase a palette 'just' for packaging - something I swore to myself I'd never do!

Luckily, with Spring came a new collection, and thankfully my swatches went much better this time - though I think I would have broken my 'packaging-only' rule, as the 'Memoirs of a Kitty' palette combines a lot of my favourite things: Hello Kitty, Sakura, and neutral eyeshadow! The picture above will rotate through what the palette 'looks' like, but basically the palette contains:

4 Eyeshadows: Satin White, Shimmery Beige, Gold, Medium Brown
2 Blushes: Peach w/ Gold Shimmer, Pink

Kose Addiction: Out of Africa + Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill #8

I like to think that I have generally good 'auction' skills in that I am patient and persistent enough to endlessly comb online websites to find what I want at a hopefully cheaper price - this is how I've acquired a lot of my KAT-TUN and V6 collections, Tokidoki bags, and more recently, my ADDICTION collection!

Given how exclusive ADDICTION by Ayako is, and how expensive it is on online shops, I often haunt Rakuten and Yahoo!JP to find and bid on auctions, biting my nails all the while, until I've either won or lost the auction. This post is focused on one of my biggest successes: 2 shadows from the Out of Africa collection that came out this past spring :)

ADDICTION Le Mepris Palette + Armani Eyes to Kill Silk #8

Let me tell you friends, somehow when I tell myself I'm not going to buy a lot of makeup while travelling I not only end up buying MORE, but I come home to a lot of makeup. At least with this last San Francisco trip! In addition to all the stuff I'd purchased in SF/at Duty Free, I came home to two packages of amazingness (more posts to come). I finally got around to playing with all of it on my last stretch of days off!

L'Oreal Color Infallible Eyeshadows

If you talk to me at all on twitter you've probably seen that my latest love is the Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill Silk eyeshadows - that'll be yet another post, but basically my goal when I went to SF was to pick up three colours since they were so much cheaper there! Unfortunately one of them was sold out, so I'll wait to see if I'll pick it up here before I post about them.

In any case, after seeing reviews of them start to hit the 'net, it was pointed out to me that other brands under the L'Oreal umbrella had similar shadows - Lancome with their Ombre Magnetique and L'Oreal with the Color Infalliable eyeshadows! Both had cheaper price points than the Armani but smaller colour ranges and not available in Canada :(

Vanity-Fashionista was kind enough to surprise me with a load of chocolate (yum) AND two of the shadows to try so I thought I'd compare them to my previous experience with Armani for you!

Definitely a Dior Addict

You know what my marker for really liking a product is these days? Using it before taking a picture when it's brand new. XD;

I purchased Diorkiss, the colour Kate Moss wears in the Be. Iconic. promotions for Dior's new lipstick line during a gift card event at Shoppers Drug Mart. I had a promotion gift card so I got 15$ off, which made thie lipstick a pretty sweet 16$ CAD after tax :)

Product Infatuation: Chanel 90 Fauve & Armani Eyes to Kill #7 Sweet Fire

Of course while Nunu and Sheila were here I picked up a few new things. Most of the time I buy my makeup on my own, but it's fun to have someone with you to ask opinions about (i.e. Does this colour look nice to you? on me?). I picked up two products which I absolutely adore (on their own, and together) and have spent the last 3 days playing with (and being vain, and taking pictures of the results). Plus the looks cumulatively reminded me of cherry blossoms which are one of my most favourite things in the world (obviously).

That is pretty much the only shot I remembered to take with my eyes semi-closed so you could see the makeup! My bad XD;

Weekend Wrap Up [WARNING: Food Heavy]

I'm beginning to think that Beauty Blogger Meet-Ups = Secret Opportunity for food blogging. I say this because despite having my camera with me for Nunu and Sheila's visit, my best photos were of the food we ate... not so much my makeup (or theirs). In fact, the only picture I have of the three of us together my eyes are closed in! (Darn it).

So with that in mind... I'm just going to show you random photos from their trip to Calgary!

(On a related note, I am super bad at keeping my eyes open with flash photography, hence all my 'makeup pictures' are taken during the day XD)