Inspired by Alice

I first heard about this Urban Decay collections a few weeks back and I won’t lie my immediate reaction was, “I MUST have this!”  I have that reaction a lot but as part of the 2010 Karen Improvement plan I am working on less impulse spending.  My ultimate goal is to eliminate it completely but cold turkey has never worked for me, so baby steps.

Urban Decay is a great brand.  Their Potion Primer is a staple in my make-up kit.  I’ve been dying to get a book of shadows and like a siren this one called to me after all it’s make-up AND Alice… these make-up companies really know how to get to me and my wallet (can we say, cupcakes and Hello, Kitty!)?  But after much deliberation though I decided that I really don’t need anymore eyeshadow right now.  Want?  Yes. Need? No.

That brings me to the new Alice-inspired OPI collection.  I adore OPI nail polish.  I don’t use any other brand.  The color is fantastic and the formula is smooth  and for an at-home manicurist, like myself, a good nail polish makes all the difference.  Again, I don’t need anymore nail polish but I do need about eight more polishes to fill my new display shelves…

L toR:  Thanks so Muchness, Mad as a Hatter, Absolutely Alice, Off with her Red!

Fortunately,  for both my husband and our bank account I wasn’t too fond of the colors.  Mad as a Hatter looks fun for a festive occasion but I’m not much into glitter polish.  Clever marketing will make these product great sellers.  I read that the Urban Decay already released these colors but just renamed them and repackaged them in the nifty pop-up book… pop-ups, another love of mine… yeah, I really had to fight myself not to get it… but logical me won.  Go, me!  =)

Bold Color

It has been a while since I did a Make-up Monday! I found this article just before New Year’s Eve and have been saving it as my first Make-up Monday, Elle teamed up with MAC Pro make-up artist Keri Blair to create some truly beautiful looks. You can visit Elle for all the tips and tricks but I really just wanted to share the photos with you. I love make-up as art and these looks truly depict just that. My favorite is the gold look. Who knew such bold lip colors could look, dare I say, so natural. One of my favorite bloggers/unicorn queens, Doe Deere, has a wonderful line of bold lip colors in her Lime Crime collection. I’m a relatively simple girl when it comes to make-up (although simple still takes it’s fair share of time at the vanity table), I leave the bright colors to those more adventurous and youthful than myself but I really appreciate girls with strong, individual style.

Shiny!

Another Kingdom Hearts moment for me with this one.  Make-up and chandeliers!  The bareCrystals Collection by Bare Escentuals came out last Holiday season.  I found similar colors in the cheap Loreal HiP drugstore brand and I am going to test those out and see if I like them.

Good make-up is expensive for a reason, brands like MAC and Urban Decay are far superior to pretty much anything you can find at the drugstore.  The color pay-off is great and it lasts for a very long time.  Trying out the cheaper versions of the expensive stuff I love sometimes pays off in the end.   So, it’s worth the risk every now and then.  I guess I will find out when I try it out though!

MAC Rose Romance

Another new MAC collection!  This one is very springy.  I am loving the purples.  I have been obsessed with purple lately.  It’s odd because growing up I hated it because it was my Mom’s favorite color and I wanted to be different.  Lately though I am finding that I really, really like the color and it looks good with my skin tone.  =)

Darling Disney

I saw this Paul & Joe collection a while back and I think it’s absolutely adorable!  The powder puff is so girlie.  I have never used Paul & Joe products because they are sold at places I don’t shop like Kitson and Fred Segal… too fancy for me but super cute nonetheless!  =P

Sugar Shock

Mondays will be reserved for me to girl-out over beauty products.  I will not be reviewing products or giving tutorials, I will leave that to those more fabulous than myself like Makeup Geek, Doe Deere, and Rice Bunny.  What I will be doing is posting my latest “must-have” or a look I love.

A few weeks back I started seeing previews on various make-up sites for MAC’s new SugarSweet Collection .  My head nearly exploded when I saw that two of my favorite things were combining:  Cupcakes and Make-up!  Ramses likes to refer to such happenings as “Kingdom Hearts“  as in “It’s like your Kingdom Hearts!”

I went through the swatches and although they are pretty, they’re not really my style.  At least that is what I am telling myself since MAC just got me good with their awesome Hello Kitty Collection.  Damn them and their knowing how to seduce me.  I tell you though, if this new collection had anything shaped like a cupcake my ass would be buying it…  *sigh* I am so weak.