Coquettes - Chic à la Francaise

 Oh, I fell in love

Yes, I was a fool

For Paris can be so beautifully cruel

Paris is just a gay coquette that wants to love & then forget

Stranger beware, there's love in the air

Just look & see what happened to be under Paris skies

Watch what you do, the same thing can happen to you

Andy Williams "Under Paris skies"

The lovely Lilly from Lillith's Dark Tower asked me if I wanted to do a blogger collaboration with her. As a huge admirer of her artistry, I felt really honoured & of course agreed! 
As we don't live in different countries, we unfortunately couldn't do the photoshoot together - I wish I would be better at beaming myself to other places ;-)
We decided to take a French theme as our leitmotif, because we both love France & Paris is known for being a source of inspiration for many people.

You can see Lilly's amazing take on our theme here.

As some of you might already know, I love the 1920s, so what would be closer than taking a muse from this area as my inspiration? I decided to do a modern take on Kiki de Montparnasse who was a muse & a model for a lot of different artists in 1920s Paris.
You can read about her here & see some of her work here.

Bonjour & bienvenue!

Come with me & I show you my world :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

eyes: MAC "Beautiful Iris" all over lid, "Fertile" on lower lid & blended into crease, "Carbon" in outer crease & V. "Black Tied" & "Carbon" to line lower lashline, "Feline" kohl power pencil on waterline. "Carbon" also on brows.

cheeks: Chanel "Espiègle", Dior "Amber Diamond Shimmer" as highlighter.

lips: Currant lip pencil, Illamasqua "Tantrum" sheer lip gloss.

polish: Zoya "Lael"

I had so much fun doing this collaboration that I hope we'll do it again at another time :-)

Update 7.2.11: Merlin, Lilly's husband, was so kind to do this postcard for me using one of my Coquettes pictures - thank you so much :-)

  

Groovy Nail Art

I'm not sure why I called this design groovy, but that was my initial thought when I saw the result of my nail art:

 

I used Illamasqua "Elope", a grass green jelly, as a base, then painted a black stripe (Illamasqua "Boosh") across my nail. This doesn't have to be perfect, in my opinion it looks better when it's not completey accurate.

For the dots I used Illamasqua "Shrapnel" & CND "Silver Chrome".

My Orchid

I used to have several orchids, but at the moment I've only two & one of them is in bloom! I'm so happy about it :-))) It reminds me of spring & makes my heart sing.
I'd like to share my joy with you, so here's a picture:

MAC "Rain of Flowers"

MAC's "Nail Trend F/W 2010" collection consisted of 6 nail polishes & one of them was "Rain of Flowers". This might be favourite blurple of all time, it's simply fantastic :-)

It's a deep purple/blue (= therefore blurple) base with lighter purple sparkles. I'd say it's almost a duchrome (blue/purple). 
In the bottle, the polish seems more vivid, but once applied to the nail, the sparkles get lost a bit. That's why I decided to add CND "Sapphire Sparkle" as well as CND "Amethyst Sparkle" to really bring them out. I've to say that I'm pretty content with the way this turned out ;-)

*Oophm* It's a MAC look again

This is a look I did with the eye shadow in "Oomph" that came out with MAC's "Mickey Contractor" color story:

 eyes: "Green Grease" Greasepaint Stick as base on lid, "Oomph" over "Green Grease" on lid & in crease. Blended with "Blanc Type". "Blacktrack" fluidline as liner on upper & lower lashline."Orpheus" kohl power pencil & "Oomph" as additional liners on lower lashline.

cheeks: "Frankly Scarlett" blush & Dioe "Amber Diamond" skin shimmer as highlighter.

lips: "Heartless" lipstick (which I finally got in a swap *making happy dance*)

Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss

Illamasqua is a British brand with an amazing color selection. Their slogan is "Make Up For Your Alter Ego" & they offer a wide collection of unusual bright, dark & overall interesting colors.

Recently they had a sale & I ordered 3 of their intense lipglosses in "Follow", "Perform" & "Drag":

Unfortunately my camera wasn't able to really capture the difference between them, but trust me, they are much more different IRL.

You can also go to their website where they offer fairly accurate swatches of most of their products.

Illamasqua's describtion of "Follow" is bright red pink, but I'd say it's more of a cherry red with pink undertones.
"Perform" is described as bright blood red & I totally agree with this.
According to Illamasqua "Drag" is bright flame orange. While I agree that it's definitely orange, I wouldn't say it's very bright (or maybe my expectations of bright are a little different because I'm used to wearing bright colors pretty often). 

The intense lipglosses are really intense, you only need little product to get an opaque result. I didn't notice any flavour, they're a little sticky, but not overly so. 
I'd describe them as pretty creamy, they feel comfortable on the lips & don't dry them out. They are rather glossy & make lips look full(er).
When they fade (after about 2 hours) they leave a stain on the lips. 
I can only recommend these glosses because as opposed to a lot of other brands, here intense really means that: They are intense & don't wear off too fast.

Last but not least I've a lip swatch of "Follow" for you:

Nail Art For The Weekend

For this nail design, I first applied Essence "Best Friends" as a base. Then, for the design, I used Zoya "Malia" & Essence matte tip painter  in "Green Grass" (from their "I love Berlin" collection) :

 

This mani made me miss spring even more - when will winter finally be over?! *sigh*

Back to the 1940s

This is a 1940s inspired look I did a while ago (some of you might already know this):

 

eyes: MAC "Blanc Type" on lids, "Wedge" in crease, "Carbon" as a liner

cheeks: BeneFit "Dallas"

lips: MAC "Hang-Up"

nails: Chanel "Rouge Noir"

I love the way women dressed back then, it was so elegant. But if I could choose, I wouldn't want to live in the 1940s, but in the 1920s, preferably in Paris.

If you could travel through time, which era would you choose?

Silence Is Golden

Silence is golden...but my eyes still see!

My boyfriend (well, actually it's not only him...) always says that I babble too much - I even seem to talk while I'm asleep :-o So I wanted to do everyone who's tired of me rambling day & night a favour & took some pictures on which I'm defintely quiet!

 

eyes: BB "Storm Cloud" on lid, BB "Thunder" (both from Bobbi Brown's "Chrome Palette") & MAC "Knight Divine" in crease, MAC "Blacktrack" fluidline to line, BB "Thunder" smudged over "Blacktrack" on lower lashline. MAC "Dazzlelight" as highlighter.

cheeks: MAC "Pet Me" Mineralize blush, NARS "Albatross" as highlighter


lips: MAC "Creme Cup" lipstick, Chanel "Bikini Peach" glossimer

On my nails I'm wearing a Ruffian manicure:

I used Illamasqua "Boosh" & CND "Gold Chrome" to do this mani.

Illamasqua "Scarab"

Illamasqua's "Scarab" polish is part of their "Art Of Darkness" collection, fall/winter 2010. It's a ruby red with an almost metallic finish (but not brushstroke-y at all) & some copper shimmer which makes it look a little browner on the nail than in the bottle.

The formula is a little thick, but still manageable, you just have to be careful to not have too much polish on your brush, so you'd want to strip off any excess before you begin to paint.
Due to the thickness I only needed one single coat *woo hoo*
The color looks like lit from within, it's darker (almost black) at the outer edges which intensifies the smoldering effect.

Zoya "Cheryl"

Zoya "Cheryl" was released with Zoya's "Wicked" collection in fall 2010.
It's a deep mahogany brown loaded with mahogany, copper & gold shimmer. It's really beautiful & very sparkly when the light hits it the right way.

 

The formula is amazing, I could have gotten away with only 1 coat, but I did two for good measure. It's a great color for fall & winter, I felt very comfortable wearing it.

MAC Fluidline "Dark Diversion"

The fluidline in "Dark Diversion" was released with MAC's "Stylishly Yours" collection, but unfortunately it didn't make its way to all German stores & counters, so I decided to order it from eBay.

 

It's a dark brown with reddish/burgundy undertones. The consistency is amazing: very creamy, highly pigment & it applies very smoothly.

A strange thing happened when I used it as an eyeliner today: On my lids it turned into a purple/plum:

The lighting can't be the reason for this transformation because I took the picture at the same time at the exact same place. So maybe it's due to the eye shadow I used underneath? 

Anyways, I love plum, so I don't have any problem with this change, but it's a little weird, though.

For this quick eye makeup, I used Shroom as a base, Copperplate on the lid & Knight Divine in the crease & also as lower liner.

Dark Diversion wears exceptionally well: I did the swatch on my arm about 8 hours ago, forgot to remove it before I left the house & now, so many hours 

later, it's still there & looks (almost) like newly drawn. 

NARS Orgasm³

Please don't kill me *lol* I know that's a silly name for a post, but it's not my fault that the people at NARS like to give their products such extremely witty names...

The first picture that I want to show you today is NARS "Orgasm" nail polish that a dear friend gave me as a gift for Christmas (Once again: Thank you so much!) & I'm totally in love with the color! 
I love everything peach, but I didn't expect the polish to be so awesome as I've read several stories about how you need 5 coats to get it completely opaque. Well, here's the good news: I only needed two *yay*

 

"Orgasm" polish is a peach with slightly pink undertones & lovely gold shimmer. It's much more peach than the blush which's bordering on pink with peach undertones.

It applied very well, I did 2 thick coats & it dried very quickly. I think this'll be perfect for spring & I'm looking forward to wearing it a lot.

For my makeover I used both NARS "Orgasm" blush & lipgloss:

 

eyes: Bare Study paintpot on lid, Lovely Lily pigment layered over Bare Study. Knight Divine in crease, Limecrime "Empress" on outer lid, crease & lower lashline. Silver Dusk as highlighter & on inner corner.

cheeks: NARS "Orgasm" blush, Dior "Amber Diamond" skin shimmer (Love, love, love that one! Can't stress it enough *lol*)

lips: Illamasqua "Definitive" medium pencil, NARS "Orgasm" lipgloss. 

While I think "Orgasm" gloss is a really pretty color (pinky peach with gold shimmer) it's awfully sticky. I really don't mind sticky glosses, actually I prefer them to less sticky ones because they last longer, but this one is so sticky that it's a PITA to get it out of the tube *ugh* 
If they made it slightly more versatile, it would be so much better!

MAC Madly Personal

In December 2010 MAC released the "Stylishly Yours" collection which consisted of lots of bright colors. You might already have noticed that I have a thing for bright colors so it's no big surprise that I really liked this collection. I especially loved the promo picture, you can see the face chart here.
I've to say that I was somewhat confused when I read which products were used according to the face chart to create this look. At that time I only had the "Madly Personal" pigment & even now when I also own "New Fixation" pigment, I still think it looks much redder than on the pictures. 
Anyways, I used "Madly Personal" to create the look & I chose to wear "Cockney" lipstick (topped with clear lipgloss) on my lips as "Something New" lipstick, even with "Cherry" lip pencil underneath, looks war less red.
So here's what I came up with:

 

             

eyes: Madly Personal on lid & crease, Soft Lust above crease, Vanilla to highlight. Blacktrack fluidline to line the upper lashline.

cheeks: Prim&Propper, NARS Albatross as highlighter


lips: Cockney lipstick, clear lipgloss

Glittery Nail Art

Lately I've been feeling a little creative, so I decided to do some nail art. 
I used Petites Color Fever in "Periwinkle" as the base color, then I painted a glittery stripe across the nail, using OPI  "Show It, And Glow It!". On the left side above the glitter stripe I applied small dotts with Diamond Cosmetics "Plum Pie In The Sky" & Avon "Jade".

This mani instantly liftet my mood & I hope it'll cheer up everyone who's a bit depressed due to the dismal weather that we have here at the moment.

MAC Retro & Half-moon Manicure

This week I received the MAC lipstick "Retro" which is a lovely, but hard to describe color: a red with peachy brown undertones. 
In the tube it looks much browner, but once applied to the lips, it transfers into a brownish red or reddish brown. Well, I can only speak for my rather pigmented, mauvey lips, it can look completely different on someone with less pigmented lips and/or a different skintone! 
It has a satin finish, which is a little bit drying, but as I always use MAC Prep&Prime lips before applying lipstick, it didn't was a huge issue for me.


I created the following look using Retro on my lips (please excuse the bad quality of my picture, today was such a rainy day without much sunlight & I had a hard time taking photos at all):

eyes: Vanilla all over lids, Fairylight pigment on lid, Twinks lightly in crease, Blacktrack fluidline on upper lashline.


cheeks: Burnt Pepper (pro) blush, Dior Amber Diamond skin shimmer as highlighter (that stuff's really amazing, it gives such a nice glow without emphasizing pores).


lips: Retro l/s


For the 1st time, I did a half-moon manicure! I decided to freehand it as I've never been able to use stickers properly, not for french manis nor for anything else.
I first applied a layer of OPI "Alpine Snow", let it dry for about 10-15 minutes, then drew the half moon with MAC "Sly As A Fox" & painted the rest of my nails with the same color. 
It was manageable, but not the easiest nail art I've ever done as you really have to work as precise as possible.
This is the result:

Estée Lauder "Blue Dahlia" with Nfu.Oh #52

Today I'd like to show you a layering combination of two really beautiful polishes, Estée Lauder "Blue Dahlia", a dark blue creme, & Nfu.Oh #52, a blue-green jelly with matching flakies:

I really love this layering combination & please rest assured: it looks even better IRL!
EL "Blue Dahlia" is rather opaque, so I only did one coat, then layered 2 coats of Nfu.Oh #52 over it. 
You can also wear the Nfu.Oh polish on its own, but I prefer the layering option for all Nfu.Oh flakies as I think it makes them look more vivid & sparkly.

MAC Cham Pale

Today my MAC order arrived & I needed to try my Cham Pale items immediately *g*


First I painted my nails with "Soirée" a warm bronze-champagner colored polish with a foil finish. It's really bright, sparkly & I only needed one coat - pretty amazing, if you ask me!

I also did a quick nude makeover for which I used "Vintage Selection" paint pot on the eyelids, "Twinkle" in the crease, "Embark" in the outer crease, "Retrospeck" as highlighter & Bobbi Brown "Black Mauve Shimmer Ink" gel eyeliner to line.

On my cheeks I'm very "Notable" blush & "Chez Chez Lamé" highlighting powder.

I used "Brave" lipstick on my lips & topped it with lipgelee in "Gemshine".

Here's the result:

 

Normally I'm not really a nude person, but when I'm in a hurry or simply not in the mood to spend much time doing my makeup, nude colors are the perfect choice.

Wait Until Spring

I'm really longing for spring, that's why I felt like doing a green eye makeup & matching nail art.

This is what I came up with:

I used NYX "Horse Raddish" as a base for my lid, then applied MAC "Golder's Green" over it. In the crease I used Plumage & Blanc Type was my highlighting color. I lined my upper lashline with Blacktrack fluidline, my lower lashline with Golder's Green & Carbon & my waterline with Feline kohl power pencil.

On my cheeks I used Red Brick e/s & Dior "Amber Diamond" shimmer powder as highlighter.
I'm wearing YSL Rouge Pur Couture lipstick in # 13 "Le Orange" on my lips.

I wanted to do a matching nail art design & decided to use MAC "Blue India" as base color, then I sponged with ChG "In The Lime Light":

Maybe by wearing bright colors I can make spring approach earlier? I sure hope so :-D

BYS "Down The Rabbit Hole"

BYS is an Australian cosmetic company that isn't sold in Germany. A while ago they released a Wonderland collection that contained 3 glitter polishes, "Down The Rabbit Hole" is one of them:

It's a black jelly base that contains large holo glitter. I took this picture with flash (which I normally don't like to do) so that the holo glitter shows up better.
You might think that this polish is pretty amazing, but let me tell you something: It reeks! 
I'm not overly sensitive to the smell of polish & I've never come across a polish that doesn't smell, but this one?! *duh* It smells freaking awful of all the bad chemicals that it most likely contains (I don't think it's B3F).
Unfortunately I had to take it off shortly after I took this photo. I haven't heard that others have the same problem with the smell, so it might be only me, but the smell effected my love for this polish big time. So be warned!

Christmas Beauty Package Draw

A Christmas beauty package draw is hosted by the lovely MACKarrie on her blog. Everyone who has a blog can participate, you can enter the draw until January, 9th - that's tomorrow, so hurry up in case you haven't joined, yet!
You can win lots of great goodies! 

OPI "Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not"

OPI "Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not" was part of their France Collection for Fall 2008:

It's a rich red based purple with blue (blurple?) shimmer. It's one of my favourite OPI shades, the blurple shimmer makes it so unique.
I had to do 3 coats to get it completely opaque, but I honestly didn't care because the color's just too gorgeous.
Drying time, as always with Seche Vite, was great, about 10 minutes.
I can only recommend this polish if you're looking for a purple with a kick!