Lunasol Holiday Set: Party Coffret 2011

Be warned. Pictures heavy this time. I saw a lot of Christmas sets with great colors and are very good deals. But I did not spend much on Sephora F&F sale because I told myself I can only get 1 Christmas set this year. I only repurchased NARS Eye Shadow Primer and L'Occitane Supple Skin Oil. The only Christmas set I got is the Lunasol Party Coffret on the internet.


Kanebo Lunasol released its Christmas set on Nov 11th in Japan. HK began selling this at Sogo during their Thanksgiving sale over a week ago. Congrats to those who could push through the crowd and got one at the counters! My friend went there twice and gave up. No way to get inside of the dept store. I read the ad and they only sell 200 sets at the Causeway Bay location. In Japan, you have to wait in line. I think the marketing strategy in TW is the best because you can do pre-order.


I got this over the internet because I'm not in Asia, and no way I would wait in line to buy this even if I'm there. Because of this, I am willing to pay the markup. Here's the price difference in various countries:

• Hong Kong: HKD$620
• Japan: 6,825 Yen
• Taiwan: NTD$2,450

And on the internet, you can find them around USD$93 to $110 plus shipping. 


Now back to the set. The back of the box shows you what's in the package.

And when you take it out, the products are securely placed in the plastic mold in case you wonder whether the stuffs will move around during shipping.

The set contains the following:

• EX01 Tender Glow Beige Brown 3 Dimensional Eye Shadow 4g
• EX04 Tender Glow Pink Cheek Color 12g
• EX19 Tender Glow Pink Lip Gloss 5.5g
• 01 Glow Lunasol Skin Contrast Face Powder 6g
• A pouch

The eye shadow and lip gloss both have a 3 yr expiration date (11/2014) whereas the cheek color and face powder have a 5 yr expiration date (11/2016).

This quad is very pretty. I Love the shimmers in this palette; subtle and elegant. :) The regular 3 Dimensional Eye Shadow palette costs about $60 on the internet, so it's a good deal when there are other products in the set.

 And here are swatches. I swatched them according to where the colors are placed on the palette.

The texture feels better than the Christmas palette from last year and they are quite pigmented. I like the top and bottom far left colors. They are just shimmery and pretty.


And here's the cream cheek color. It's full size product and a little goes along the way. 

The cream cheek color is pretty easy to blend. I don't need a lot of this to make my cheeks look dolly pink. Just use a little bit will do.

Now to the lip color. It's a gloss and very sheer pink. Just makes your lips shine. I would use this over a lip stick instead of wearing this alone. Not a full size lip gloss, just slightly less than the regular size lip gloss (FYI. Dior gloss has 6g of product and this is 5.5g.)

The face powder is used to set the foundation. It contains some iridescent shimmers, so can't use a lot. It's mini size as it contains 6g. Regular size is 15g. But this is good for travel or put in your purse. You can get the refill when you are done with this. 

It comes with a puff. Pretty good quality.

And the set comes with a cute pouch. I like this one better than the one from last year. It's made out of synthetic material and feels quite soft.

It has two compartments with zippers.

In case you wanna know my nail color, it's Zoya Caitlin.
I am pretty happy with this purchase. If you like this, buy while supplies last... 
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Swatches: Revlon Starry Pink Nail Polish

Revlon is my favorite drugstore nail polish. Their formula is not too thick and the consistency is good and does not chip easily. They have 3 new nail polishes with big and small glitters and I got Starry Pink. It's a light sheer pink polish with small and big glitters.

It's quite an interesting combination because glitters are usually used with clear nail polish and not sheer or more opaque kind. 

I put two coats on and not too thick because I'm afraid it will be a pain to take them off. I like how this polish look on my nails but it can be such a hassle to remove them. This color is very unique and compliments my skin tone.


I had this nail polish on for about 5 days and took them off. It was quite difficult to take them off with Sally's nail polish remover (blue bottle). I then switched to Butter London nail polish remover and it was much easier to remove. I hate the smell of Butter London's nail polish remover but it performs pretty well... Anyways, the key to remove glittery nail polish is to soak up a cotton pad and leave it on your nails for about 10 sec, then gently rub them off. If you rub back and forth your nails many times, it may damage the top layer of your nails. Hope this helps.

Mac Iced Delights Lip Bag/Sultry

Went to Nordstrom with my girl friends last Saturday. Mac just launched their holiday sets and we were browsing. You know it's quite dangerous to go shopping with nothing in mind and may end up getting more. ;) We swatched their snowglobe eye shadow sets and the pigmentation was poor. I mean I swatched the same dark color twice and did not pick up much product. So, forget them and what caught our eyes was this Mac Iced Delights Lip Bag in Sultry. It comes with a cremesheen lip stick, a cremesheen glass lip gloss, and a lip liner plus the makeup bag for $38. I didn't care for the makeup bag because of its circular shape and plastic material. And I carry my makeup in a purse organizer, so I didn't take a pic of the bag.

I like this clean packaging. It would be nice if their spring and summer collection would carry some packaging in white. This lip set is very pretty. I love all their colors, particularly the lip stick and lip gloss. And the lip stick in I Love Winter (Cremesheen in medium passion fruit color) matches my natural lip color very well. For Mac lipstick, I only like cremesheen and lustre formulas as they don't dry my lips.

And here's a swatch of the lip stick:

The Cremesheen Glass color in Deelight is described as raisonette. It reminds me of a Dior Lip Gloss I owned a few years ago and Dior no longer carries it... so I'm happy to have this one. Can just wear that by itself. I like this formula as it's not sticky and quite moisturizing. 

The Cremesheen Glass lip gloss comes with a sponge tip applicator. 

And the lip liner in Boldly Bare is about 1/2 of their regular size, which I don't mind coz I don't really use lip liner on a regular basis. Mac describes this color as dirty red brown.

Here's a swatch of all the products side by side:

Swatches: Revlon Diamond Lust - 115 Neptune Star

Revlon has 5 new diamond lust eye shadows. They are all shimmery with fine glitters. I got this at the drugstore when they had 40% off. Regular retail price is $4.99. I only got the deep turquoise color called Neptune Star because I wasn't sure if I will use all the shades. 

It comes with a sponge applicator. I think using fingers would be easier than using the sponge applicator to apply. It's probably not a good idea to use a brush to apply.

I swatched it first with my finger. The shadow itself is quite dry.  If you just apply this on without any primer or cream eye shadow, there will be fall out. Here's a swatch without any primer or cream eye shadow. It shows some fine glitters but not very obvious.

 

And here's a swatch at the bottom which I applied first with Mac Paint Pot called Vintage Selection. For glitter eye shadows, it's always a good idea to apply primer or cream shadows first. The cream eye shadow/primer will hold the eye shadow better, esp. to prevent darker shades from fall out and it minimizes the chance of messing up your base makeup.

As you can see, the camera picked up more glitters at the bottom, which I have the paint pot on as a base. And the paint pot itself does have some shimmers, so it helps to build up more color for the eye shadow. And here's a swatch from another angle. 

The shimmers just reminds me of Jill Stuart eye jelly. Of coz it's not close to the glitters Jill Stuart uses but this is a cheap affordable alternative. I think it's a great buy if you have cream eye shadows/primer to pair with this.