NARS "Ride Up to the Moon" Palette

I had the chance to stop at Mecca Cosmetica in Melbourne while on my way to Tullamarine airport last Sunday. My fiancé is a pilot and he copiloted the big Russian biplane (pictured below) the Antonov 2, on a 9 hour flight from Brisbane to Lilydale in the Yarra Valley. I tagged along, and consoled myself (between bouts of airsickness and desperately needing to pee) on the long, bumpy and occasionally scary flight by telling myself it would be a romantic weekend spent visiting wineries and restaurants. 

Guess what? I never saw a winery, and our fine dining consisted of room service burgers. I spent the whole time in Yarra Valley at the little aerodrome looking at planes and eating squashed muesli bars I found in the bottom of my handbag. The closest I got to wine was the post-flight beers while they talked macho crap and I died of embarrassment because after the 9 hour flight I was exhausted and looked like I'd been dragged backwards through a hedge. 

Ok to be honest I actually had the time of my life ( I love burgers, beer and planes, and I'm not big on wine), but don't tell my fiancé that, because by the time we hit Melbourne on Sunday afternoon I told him he OWED ME! So I made a beeline for Myer and Mecca Cosmetica, determined to buy myself a present!  

There's no place like home :)

Quickie files: Guerlain Meteorites vs. Essence "Me & My Ice Cream" Shimmer Pearls

When the Essence "Me & My Ice Cream" Shimmer Pearls came out, I thought they looked very similar to Guerlain Meteorites. It took me a while to get my hands on the Essence pearls - they sold like wildfire! - but I finally did, thanks to a wonderful beauty consultant at my local Priceline store who actually found them for me ON HER DAY OFF, how good is that?!?

NOTD: Chanel Taboo and Illamasqua Glitterati

Chanel Taboo - what can I say? She is a beauty! Deep red-toned purple with sparks of bright blue and a slight coppery sheen at some angles. Most of the time it's more spectacular in the bottle than it is on the nail, sadly - in most lights it's just a deep burgundy/purple with a reddish sheen, similar to Illamasqua Baptiste, which I already have in my collection. But when it catches the light just right, those bright blue sparks make me fall in love all over again!

Taboo's staying power is excellent, which is why after a few days I got bored and applied Illamasqua Glitterati over the top!

NOTD: OPI French Quarter for your Thoughts, Ulta3 Stop the Press

OPI French Quarter for your Thoughts is a dusty cement grey with a cool undertone. This was a dream to work with, creamy, smooth and self levelling, and opaque in two coats. It dried quickly with a nice shine.

Ulta3 Stop the Press is a black and white polka dot glitter top coat. It has small black and white glitter pieces, and also larger black and white hex pieces - they have a shiny plastic finish, not metallic at all. This was easy to work with but dried a little slowly, I had to wait a while. Worth it though, I love the finish!

OPI "Peace, Love & OPI"; Pretty Serious Cosmetics "Galaxy Invader"

This is a NOTD I did a few weeks back. The feature nail is Galaxy Invader, a fabulous duochrome shimmer from Pretty Serious Cosmetics, and the other polish is Peace, Love and OPI, from the OPI San Francisco collection.

Peace, Love and OPI is a slightly greenish gunmetal grey with a pink and green multichrome shift. The shift is more evident in the bottle than it is on the nail, but the formula is fabulous and like all OPI polishes, it lasts well without chipping.
Galaxy Invader is from Pretty Serious Cosmetics, an Australian Indie brand with some wonderfully unique polishes - and gorgeous artwork as well! Galaxy Invader is a purple/blue/teal multichrome with a foil finish and a dreamy formula, smooth, glossy and long lasting. I plan to buy more Pretty Serious polishes in the very near future!

Shopping My Stash: duping the Christian Dior Bonne Etoile palette

I fell in love with Christian Dior's Bonne Etoile Palette at first sight. I mean, do you blame me? Look at it:

Le sigh.

However, a few things stood in the way of our ever being together. The first was the fact that I have never been that sold on the quality of CD shadows - I have had a couple of the 5 Coleurs palettes and gave them away because they just weren't pigmented enough. The second was the price - $103?? Sure they have pretty stars stamped into them, but still...wow. So I decided I'd try to find all five colours within the myriad of shadows I already own - in beauty jargon, "shop my stash".

NOTD: Rainbow Honey, The Kraken

I am a nail polish addict - I will write a comprehensive review on polishes from time to time if they're particularly good (or really bad!), but my NOTD tag will be for posts like this, a quick description and a photo of the nail polish I'm wearing right now - I am happy to respond to questions if you would like to know more! 

The Kraken by Rainbow Honey is far and away the prettiest polish I've laid eyes on in a long time, so it gets to be first!

 

The Kraken makes me think of scuba diving in the crystal aqua waters of the Caribbean and discovering a sunken treasure chest spilling over with gold and emeralds. It's truly stunning, and it dries quite smooth and shiny for such a glitter-packed polish - I didn't use a top coat and normally I'd use a couple of layers over a glitter. It gets a little bit thick once you're doing the second coat, but it's very easy to work with and dries super fast. It is absolutely packed with glitter - I used two coats for the pic above.

I received this polish in a Wantable beauty subscription box, but they are available for purchase in Australia (for AUD$11.85) from Femme Fatale, a fantastic site for international and indie brands (A England polishes are available from there at great prices too).