Feeling the sunshine with Lunasol's Summer 2013 release

Lunasol have a summer release out from the 17th May just in time for summer with some bright and lovely limited editions.

Eyeshadow (Vivid Clear Eyes ヴィヴィッドクリアアイズ)

Two limited edition eyeshadow quad palettes: EX01 Bronze Brown Collection and EX02 Colorful Collection.

Lipgloss (Full Glamour Gloss  フルグラマーグロスa)

New gloss colours includes 3 regular additions: 01 Shining Pink, 02 Soft Pink, and 03 Soft Coral and two limited editions: EX01 Shiny Beige and EX02 Shiny Pink.


Blush (Modelling Cheeks モデリングチークス)

A limited edition EX05 Coral Beige blusher.


Nail polish (Nail Finish N ネイルフィニッシュN)

Two limited edition sparkle nail polishes in EX14 Shining Orange and EX15 Shining Silver.

Base or Primer (Control base コントロールベース)

A limited edition base or primer perfect for summer in EX01 Light

Lunasol Layer Bloom Eyes in Purple Gradation

It was a sunny day, spur of the moment and I just started snapping the makeup around me when I took these shots. Only when I went back later to check the blog was I surprised that I hadn't reviewed this palette yet! This is one of my favourite palettes and is always on heavy rotation.

The sun was actually too bright, so maybe the colours look washed out. I mean, that was direct sunlight! *DIRECT SUNLIGHT* Yeah, we don't get that around here often enough.

Anyway, here are some inside shots with flash that give a better indication of the shades.

This palette is shade no. 3 Purple Gradation in Lunasol's Layer Bloom Eyes (ルナソル　レイヤーブルームアイズ) and is a lovely palette of cool purples that lean to the blue side.

From top left to right, there's a lovely pale blue highlighter, then a light purple, with a vibrant lilac (well, it's vibrant for a Japanese brand, but not anywhere near as pigmented as you might expect from Mac), and a dark navy blue that leans a bit grey for the crease or liner.


And a shot of the packaging...

Then of course, a couple of swatches:

This is one of my all time favourite eyeshadow palettes. Especially the lilac purple in the left bottom. That is one of  my go-to-colours and I use it in so many looks. It's sheer, as you'd expect from Lunasol, but it's still very lovely and bright and really gives a good pick-up to the eyes. Applies smoothly and lasts all day for me with help of a primer. Honestly can't think of any complaints where this palette is concerned. It's lovely and wonderful if you're into cool purples.

In short, this pretty much sums up how I feel about this eyeshadow.

And last but not least, here is a promotional shot from Lunasol of this palette:

Do you have a favourite purple eyeshadow?

Lunasol Spring 2013 Makeup Preview

Model wearing Lunasol Spring 2013 makeup

On the 18th January this year, Lunasol will release its Spring makeup. Here are some of the highlights from the website:

I'm going to start with the eyeshadow palettes since they are always my favourite! This spring we're being treated to a total of 5 palettes, which is nice since we got 3 very similar looking releases for Spring 2012 with the Pure Petal Eyes.

Vivid Clear Eyes (5 shades) 5,250 yen

• 01 Blue Green Collection
• 02 Pink Collection
• 03 Orange Collection
• 04 Khaki Beige Collection
• 05 Pink Beige Collection

I can't really tell from the pics whether these are shimmery, but I suspect they are. Curious to see how dark the bright splashes of colour are for the Blue Green, Pink, and Orange collections. Most of these shades don't really surprise me. Very typical OL (office lady) friendly Lunasol. I like the Blue Green and Pink Collection as they're a bit more out there. You can definitely see how the neon and bright 80s colours have influenced this release.

High Stylized Mascara SV (2 shades) 3,150 yen

•  01 Clear Black
• EX01 Natural Brown

Nice to see a mascara release with brown! Yay! I love brown mascara however I have been struggling to find a decent one. Sadly EX01 Natural Brown is only a special rather than a permanent addition but I may have to give it a try anyway. 

Brow Styling Compact (2 shades) 3,990 yen

• GB03 Grayish Brown
• BR03 Natural Brown

Coloring Cheeks N (3 shades) 2,625 yen

• 01 Light Pink
• 02 Light Coral
• 03 Soft Beige Red

Three new shades of blush based on the Colouring Cheeks range. Very girly. I like it. 

Now onto the lips! 

Full Glamour Lips (5 new shades) 3,150 yen

• 12 Light Coral Pink
• 13 Light Pink
• 14 Beige Coral
• 15 Soft Beige
• 16 Beige Pink

Full Glamour Liquid Lips (5 shades) 2,940 yen

• EX08 Shining Clear Pink
• EX09 Shiny Pink
• EX10 Pure Coral
• EX11 Red Beige
• EX12 Shiny Coral Pink

Treatment Gloss (1 shade) 2,310 yen

• 01 Pure Pink

And last, but not least 5 special edition nail polishes! 

Nail Finish N (5 shades) 1,575 yen

• EX09 Vivid Blue Green
• EX10 Vivid Pink
• EX11 Vivid Orange
• EX12 Vivid Yellow
• EX13 Vivid Red

And we're ending it with a pop of colour like we saw in the eyeshadows! The 80s really are back. What a collection. I guess it was acceptable in the 80s <cheesy grin>

Anything catch your eye? 

Gossip Girl Blair Waldorf Makeup Inspiration: Purple Eyeshadow

Gossip Girl is almost over. It's a sad day for all. Almost as sad as most of us feel while watching season 6. (Sorry, I love GG, but this season has just been pathetic!).

Shoddy writing and ridiculous plot aside, we can still count on Blair Waldorf to inspire us in all things beautiful. Today's focus - purple eyeshadow.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Purple eyeshadow sounds pretty 80's. Actually the 80's seem to be back in according to every high street clothing shop at the moment, and while I don't agree with that (sorry, I'm just not a fan of the 80's look!), Blair manages to pull off purple eyeshadow without any scrunchies, oversized sweats, or flourescent spandex.

Here she is in an episode from season 6 below. Go on, click on it, it's really big and you can see those beautiful purple eyes.

They really add a pop of colour to the rest of her fairly neutral and natural looking makeup. I think that's probably the key to wearing purple eyeshadow in the now and leaving the 80's look in... well, the 80's where it belongs.

I've picked out a selection of liliac lovelies for your eyes, should you feel inspired by Blair to paint your peepers purple too.

We'll start with a bargain at £6.99. You can't beat Bourjois Paris' Little Round Pot Intense Eye Shadow in no. 4 violet. Personally, I love the Bourjois baked shadows, so pigmenty and gorgeous.

Mac eyeshadows are a staple for most women, so I'm sure you won't be surprised that this is one of the shadows I've selected. You can get this look with the vibrant Creme de Violet, described as a pink-violet with gold pearl available for £12.00 or US $15.00.

If cream eyeshadows are more your thing, than you could try Shiseido's Shimmering Cream Eye Color in Purple Dawn, available for US $25.00

And last, but not least is actually my favourite, Purple Gradation from Lunasol's Layer Bloom Eyes range. Although it's a Japanese brand, thanks to shops like Ichibankao, you can still get your hands on this product without a trip to Japan. It is a bit expensive, but it's such a lovely palette. The bottom left shadow of course is a perfect lilac shade and it's what I would use to recreate this look.(Click here to see my review and some swatches of this product.)

Are you inspired to go purple, or will you tone it down or blend it out? 

Lunasol Petal Pure Eyes Review: Sweet Peach

It's seriously about time I got around to reviewing this eyeshadow palette from Lunasol's 2012 Spring release:

Petal Pure Eyes in 01 Sweet Peach

Like all Lunasol palettes it comes in the classic mirrored bronze cases and has Lunasol patterned into the bottom two shades of the palette.

This palette is called 'Sweet Peach' which immediately made me think of Peach from Wedding Peach.

Peach, in the style of Mucha

I would describe these shades from left to right, top to bottom as:

• sparkly shimmer highlighter
• sparkly pale pink
• sparkly beige pink
• sparkly deep dark brown

Now for the swatches.

I love this palette. It's very wearable and full of shimmery sparkle. I often wear this as an everyday work look. As usual, another Lunasol palette that is OL friendly (Office Lady). :)

This retails for 5,000 yen and is now available at Ichibankao. 

Can always rely on Lunasol for lippies

This was one of the first Lunasol lipsticks I ever bought, but I believe it's still available, so I thought I'd post about it.

Lunasol Full Glamour Lips S 27 Sweet Pink Red

A creamy and moisturising pinky red. It's pretty feminine, and rather pigmented, but not over the top. Nice for a good pop of colour, but nothing outrageous.

I can't really say anything else other than it's smooth and lovely.

Love Lunasol lippies. :)

Lunasol Glowing Powder Cheeks EX01 Pure Coral Review

I picked up a few items from Lunasol's Spring release. The first I'm going to share with you is a limited edition blush: Glowing Powder Cheeks EX01 Pure Coral.

This was my first Lunasol blush experience, but when I saw that a coral colour was coming out, I decided to treat myself. 

The packaging is a bit unusual for Lunasol. Usually everything is dark bronze, metallic, and very shiny. Very hefty feeling as well. The Glowing Powder Cheeks come in a cardboard packaging. The lid of the blush is held in place by a stretch-band. Although it's all paper, it feels pretty sturdy and it looks like there is a metal pan supporting the blush itself. This packaging reminds me of Benefit's blushes.

When you lift the lid, there's a brush and a little plastic tray that separates the blush from the brush. The brush is useful, but I wouldn't say it's amazing or life-changing. 

I do want to comment on the quality of the formula; it's amazing. There is a slight shimmer to the colour, but it's not strong, and there's no scent, but the powder is so soft. It feels like touching a very high quality velvet, but lighter. I think that's the best I can do. It's definitely a powder, but it's so smooth, it's incredible. 

さすがね、ルナソル。

I swatched it on my arm above. It was hard to really capture this colour. It's pretty light, but really lovely. A little bit goes a long way. When I applied to my arm with the brush, it was almost impossible to capture with my camera (apologies for my lack of camera skills -_-;;) 

Such a lovely colour for Spring, I'm very pleased with it.

Mad Men inspired makeup look

I'm actually totally behind on Mad Men, but I was enjoying it on and off for a while. I have to admit I have no idea what's going on now, but the fashion in the show has drawn a lot of attention. (Banana Republic even did a Mad Men line!)

I think most of us have a character whose wardrobe we covet. I'm a Betty girl all the way! How about you?

Getting on to my Mad Men inspired makeup look. Okay, it was partially Mad Men inspired but really it was supposed to be a 1950s look for my work Christmas party. The theme obviously, was 1950s.

So yes, this is a look I wore out of the house! Apologies for the pics, I tried my best, but I was also trying to get dressed and out the door to the party.

It almost looks like I blurred this on purpose, doesn't it? Oh well, it reminds me of those old style photos. 

My inspiration for this look was simple face, simple eye, with all the focus on red full lips. 

There's a trick to the lips, I applied foundation over my lips as a primer, then drew red lips. That's right, I drew the lips that mother nature didn't give me. This was how they did it back in the day.

Apparently in the 1950s good girls didn't wear eyeliner or eye shadow, but I needed to define my eyes a bit!

Products used:

• foundation: Lunasol Water Cream Foundation in OC01
• blush: Jill Stuart Mix Blush Compact in 07 Lovely Tulip 
• lips: MAC lipstick in Chili
• eye shadow: Visée Blackish Forming Eyes in B-1 Brown-variation
• eye liner: MAC Fluidline Cream Eyeliner in Blacktrack
• mascara: MAC Studio Fix Boldlash 

Okay, I did manage to take one non-blurry pic, but I think it's not the most flattering, but I'll share it with you guys cos I'm such a nice person :P

This post wouldn't be complete without a song from the !950s, so here is Why Do Fools Fall in Love? by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers.

Winter Blues: candles, tea, manga and a sneak peak of spring makeup

Okay, I'll admit it. I've got a case of the Winter Blues.

The days are short and busy, and it's freezing out. I feel like hibernating.

Snowy evening in my 'hood

I don't fight the feeling. I wrap up in blankets, curl up with a cup of tea in front of the TV or a with a good book (sometimes the book isn't good).

One of my favourite teas 

I just read the latest English translation of volume 1 of the Sailor Moon manga by Takeuchi Naoko. I actually read this as a child in French translation (the Glenat release), and then later I read them all in Japanese. For those who were fans, the Mixx/Tokyo Pop translations were pretty disappointing.

The latest releases are by Kodansha, the Japanese publisher of the Japanese manga, and the translations are much better. Okay, to be fair, I don't have my Japanese manga with me to truly compare, but I'm pretty impressed. I love love loved this series as a child, a teenager, and well okay, I guess I never stopped loving it. I'm happy to see it being re-released in English with a better translation for more people to be able to read this amazing story!

I also like to light some candles to help me relax.

Coventry Creations candles

Even tho, I love to stay in when it's cold, I did venture out into the snow today and built a little snowman for one of my besties. And yes, it's supposed to be minimal, so he's not supposed to have a face. :P

Also I'm planning my next giveaway and really excited about it. I really want to know what my lovely readers want, so please vote in the poll (it's on the right hand scroll towards the top of the page/post). You can vote for more than one option, or leave me a comment, send me a tweet, etc!

Fear not, I will get back to beauty blogging! In the meantime, I thought you might like a sneak peak of some of what I've got coming up!

Lunasol spring release

Update: 

Lunasol Glowing Powder Cheeks EX01 Pure Coral Review

Lunasol Petal Pure Eyes Review: Sweet Peach  

Visée meets blondy spring limited editions

Update:

Swatches and Review of Visée meets blondy spring limited editions

Update: Enter my White Day giveaway to win one of these!

Paul  & Joe Matte Pressed Powder - Spring limited edition

Pigments from Victorian Disco Cosmetics

Updates:

Sailor Moon collection

Pannier and Revolutionary Ball from Rococo Roller Rink collection

Accessorize lip glosses

Do you have the Winter Blues? What do you do to beat them?