Wishlist - beauty tools

Here are the two quality tools that will make a difference in trimming your eyebrows and curling your lashes. Ladies and gentlemen, the legendary Shu Uemura lash curler (32 USD) and Tweezerman tweezers (18 USD, both on Amazon). Ici Paris is actually selling Tweezerman brand, and if you pop into Antwerp, you will find a Shu Uemura shop there! (Shu Uemura 38, Huidevettersstraat).

Urban Decay Naked Palette wannabes

Smashbox Softbox Eyeshadow palette

Nyx Nude on Nude looks rather familiar...

NYX nude palette

Too faced Natural eye palette

Tweezerman Sole mates

Keeping your feet smooth is a must for the hot days and nights. Upon my recent visit of Ici Paris, I noticed that they are selling Tweezerman Sole Mates - an expert tool for pedicure. It costs 25 EUR but I was lucky, I got it in New York for 10 USD, bless the sales :-).

The box contains two magnetic tools, which is perfect for storage and travel. One is a stainless steel micro-file (to remove colluses and rough skin) and the other is nickel finishing file (to buff skin). I am happy to report that the finishing file(white) works perfectly well and it is indeed very effective buffing the skin. However, I am not that crazy about the steel micro-file with a "no mess" compartment. Maybe it is because my skin on the feet is really rough, but it does not seem to be working for me.

I have to say that I do not think it is worth 25 EUR, so if you can get it cheaper, super, if not, any other "no brand" file will do!

Urban Decay Naked Palette swatches

Virgin, sin, naked, sidecar, buck, half baked, smog, darkhorse, toasted, hustle, creep, gunmetal

This palette is simply phenomenal in how it combines cool and warm/shimmery and matte shadows. Generally, they have a strong colour pay off (which was a bit difficult to capture with a camera and a flashlight on), but I was a bit surprised to see a bit of a fall out when applying them, but hey, nobody is THAT perfect. :-) I know it is a long way until Christmas, but this makes a super gift to any woman.

Travel tip

With airport security being what it is, you might need a little travel case like this. It contains 2 bottles 100 ml, 1 dispenser 75 ml, 2 creme cases 10 ml. All of this for 3 EUR at Di.

Sigma Beauty - Dry'n Shape System

I received this to my mail box today via a newsletter. Now, I am very familiar with the Brush Guard, I have been using it for almost a year and I have no complaints :-). Sigma Beauty has come with a new system how to dry and shape your brushes more efficiently, or so they claim. The price is 29 USD and it seems that is does a perfect job for any relatively LARGE face brush (including kabuki). At the moment I am a little bit hesitant to believe that it does dry the brushes within the promised 4 - 6 hour period, but who knows, maybe there is some air circulation that I am not aware about :-) Either way, I thought it was very well worth sharing!

Catrice Absolute Eye Colour 010 The Seasons's Must Have

It is not easy to be standing in front of the Catrice cosmetics counter and to choose from the huge variety products on offer, you just completely crave for all of them, or at least I do. I was the same with this eye quad. It is a perfect balance between matte and shimmery colours, the rich plum, the steely silver, the minty green and the capuccino colours are simply stunning! They are silky smooth and easily applied over the eyelid in any combination imaginable. Here are my swatches:

The left side is swatched on a white base (Berange Paris)

 

Actually, trying to shoot a picture of the swatches, I realized that the strongest payoff comes from the top left plummy colour, it is also the the most reliable one for your crease. The second place, as far as pigmentation goes, is the bottom left capuccino colour. The rest you will find a bit difficult building up. Overall, it is a cute little quad, relatively cheap and I am sure, it will be fun in the summer months:-)

Catrice - Urban baroque swatches

Matte eyeshadows are a must in any makeup collection, go for matte for a soft sophisticated day look, to gently contour your eyes, on an aging skin. Catrice offeres a wide variety of both, shimmer and matte eyeshadow and I recently picked up (on sale) a limited edition - Urban baroque, sweet pastel colours. Here are my swatches, bottom row is applied on a white base (Berange Paris - blanc):

C01 Candelabra and C02 Feather Fan