Mini MAC Haul: More A Fantasy of Flowers: Dreaming Dahlia Lippie & A Basic Essential

In confirming that my brian is indeed getting older, the following post was started pre exam season, that is, way back in March and sadly I thought I had posted it when I evidently did NOT. I figured I might as well complete the post and so the following is  what you should have seen way back then. OOPS!

"Exam season is fast approaching and I have been ridiculously swamped with work these past few weeks so please accept my apology for the shortage of new posts in the past few weeks. I did manage to sneak in a small 2-bit MAC haul this past weekend (gone are the days of my large hauls apparently) and got the following items:

•  MAC Dreaming Dhalia Lipstick and
•  MAC Brush Cleanser

I went to MAC with the intention of leaving with only the MAC Brush Cleanser.  Of course, being a lipstick junkie, I had to stay true to my nature and just HAD to purchase a lippie. Dreaming Dahlia from the MAC A Fantasy of Flowers collection was a lipstick that spoke to me when I had first seen it. It somehow become stuck in my mind and in the end I broke down and ended up buying it."


CONTINUATION of post:

Whilst I normally dislike Lustre finishes, I felt that DD was a great everyday-brighten you face type of colour with one swipe and which could be built up to go from sheer to almost full coverage to provide more of an 'oomph'. 

MAC describes this lipstick as a 'sheer red coral'  but it pulls almost a pinky orange shade on me. That might just be the worst colour description ever but it really looks beautiful! Since i've gotten it, it has become one of my go to lip colours!

I feel like this lipstick has a lot of shimmer as well which gives it a luminous shine. The lipstick itself applies evenly and smoothly and does not feel gritty at all. Overall, this lipstick really is a winner!

MAC Dreaming Dahlia on my nc 42/43 complexion! Swatches in different lighting with the final picture taken using flash!

I know this post is super late but hopefully it helps one of you guys out there with a decision with regards to this lipstick. Btw, the brush cleanser is gonna get its own post soon! xx

Mini Haul: L.A. Girl Pro Conceal and NYX Conceal

Hey guys! I'm sorry i've been so MIA but school is really really killer right now! I'm just here to do a quick post about a Wonderful World mini-haul. These are actually my first makeup purchases since my MAC Fantasy of Flowers mini-haul back in January. 

Everything seems to be mini these days as i'm trying not to let my love of makeup get the better of me this year. 

Anyway here it goes:

That's my haul...remember I did say it was a mini-haul..mini as in minuscule! 

I was killing some time browsing around Wonderful World with no intentions of purchasing anything at all when I remembered that I had seen a local MAC makeup artist post a few weeks ago that they had restocked the 'L.A. Girl Pro-Conceal High Definition Concealer'. I searched and searched and simply wasn't finding any so I thought I was too late and it was again sold out. 

It was during my search that I stumbled upon the 'NYX Full Coverage Concealer' in the traditional corrector shades at $40.00 each. I grabbed the Orange shade to try as i've been eyeing the MAC Colour Corrector in orange for the longest while. It's recommended that an orange corrector can be used, for lack of a better term, to CORRECT those greyish areas that women of colour seem to get when they use concealer or foundation over discolourations. Traditionally for me these areas include the muzzle area (around the mouth) and under my eyes. 

After wandering the store with only tthat in my basket I proceeded to check out the jewellery. The LA Girl Concealer just would not leave my mind though and I again went over to peruse the LA Girl display. it was then that I found the concealers tucked into the display close to the ground. You really had to look to the back to see them as the ones to the front had been sold. Unfortunately the shade range was really limited and the deeper colours were obviously sold out.

Each concealer was $15 so I decided to pick up two. I left the shades that were clearly too light for me such as Nude and chose two in the shades 'Medium Bisque' and 'Warm Sand'

Medium Bisque to the top and warm sand to the bottom!

I honestly would never have given these concealers a second glance before I stumbled upon some glowing reviews on the internet late last year. Ever since then i've been interested in trying them out and I finally had my chance today.

The concealer comes in a tube packaging with a squeeze top head with a brush attached. It's not bad packaging per say but I do find that the brush head tends to be wasteful in that you don't have control over just how much comes out. Additionally, I find that this sort of brush tends to be unsanitary but that's just me.

 Below i've included the swatch of the concealer in Medium Bisque.

Medium Bisque: Top photos without flash, bottom with!

Whilst blended out the colour seems decent, this shade has too much of a pink undertone so that it's not the best for my NC42 complexion.

Below are the swatches of Warm Sand which again has too much of a pink undertone to work for me.

Warm Sand, top no flash, bottom with flash!

So far i've run water over the concealer, washed with soap and rubbed vigorously in order to test them. Once they set they stay put and i've found that they stand up to liquid soap pretty well. They definitely seem worth the price so hopefully i'll be able to find my shade soon.

Up next is the NYX Concealer in the shade orange. This shade is generally considered a corrector shade as I mentioned before.

I hate that it's in a jar but when I remembered that I have my handy new spatula which I can use to remove some product and then wipe clean all was well again.

A little bit of this product goes a long way and its definitely an orange colour when applied.

No flash and flash from left to right!

I'll have to do a detailed review of how this works later but so far the staying power is pretty good.

I've also included some snaps of my mixing palette and spatula which I got off Amazon at a really good price. They both feel hefty, and the quality exceeds my expectations. They both came in a pouch which has a separation for the palette and the dual ended spatula. This is a purchase i'd recommend to anyone. I'll include the link soon. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this post! Take care!