FOTD: First Day of Spring Featuring Urban Decay Naked2, MAC Added Goodness, Dior Riviera & NOTD Riviera + Hunger Games

Hey everyone!

I had a fun day in Antwerp yesterday with follow bloggers dining, walking around, and attending the Caudalie blogger event. I will give you all the information as soon as possible, but for the moment please excuse this tired girl to just show you her FOTD and NOTD!

Eyes: Naked2
Chopper on two thirds of my lids, and Snakebite to contour. I also dragged Snakebite into my imaginary crease, though the effect is a bit more dramatic than what I would normally do possibly because I was using the brush that came with the palette.
I lined both my upper and lower lash lines with MAC Added Goodness, smudged out with Busted.

Cheeks and rest of the face:
Cargo Rome, Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess

Lips:
Dior Addict Extreme 639 Riviera (just so you know, I wore one layer of this in the pictures so the color is sheer)

Here are some more photos so you can get a better look:

I wore Dior Vernis Riviera 537 on my nails, so I took a photo in which you can see my matching lips and nails:

I have some Dior Vernis and Dior Addict Extremes for review. I will try my best to get the posts ready ASAP, so keep your eyes peeled!

Something else that matches my nails is my current read, Mockingjay, the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy:

The movie came out in Belgium yesterday, and from what I heard it’s a must-see that doesn’t stray far from the book (I think I would enjoy that). I am super busy this week though, so I probably won’t get to see it till Sunday!

What do you think? Are you digging Riviera (I’ll show you how it looks when it is layered a little in the swatch/review post. It could get very bright!)? Have you read The Hunger Games? Are you getting excited about the movie like I am?

Sunny, your beauty culture translator xx

FOTD: Happy Saint Patrick’s Day featuring Urban Decay 24/7 in Stash, Mildew, NARS Paramaribo, MAC Humid, & Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone

Hey everybody, happy Saint Patrick’s! I know by the time this goes up it’ll be past midnight here, but for the majority of you it’s still Saint Patrick’s, so let’s pretend it’s all OK :p

To create my Saint Patrick’s Day look, I used Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Pencil in Stash as base, blended out with my finger. I then put the lighter shade of NARS Paramaribo on the inner half, and then MAC Humid on the outer half. My inner corners are highlighted with the browbone shade on the left column of Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone. I lined my upper lash line with Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel liner, and my lower lash line with Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Pencil in Mildew. I smudged both out with the crease shade on the right column of Comfort Zone.

I used Cargo Rome on my cheeks, Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess to contour. On my lips I had MAC Butterfly Dream layered on top of MAC Sweetie.

Here are some more pictures so you can see everything from different angles. Do excuse the huge pimple I didn’t manage to cover up on my chin. It has actually been majorly improved compared with how it was a couple of days ago!

For someone who would wear green eyeshadows on any given day, Saint Patrick’s Day is like a happy free-for-all! In retrospect I could have blended everything higher for more drama, but it was actually the first time that I layered eyeshadows on top of a liner, so I still have to practice some more!

Did you guys wear green for Saint Patrick’s Day? Do you have a favorite green eyeshadow? Or is green a color you haven’t found the courage to wear?

I hope you’re having a nice weekend! I’ll be working on the Katy Perry false eyelashes post tomorrow, so you can keep your eyes peeled for that 🙂

Sunny, your beauty culture translator xx

Swatch & Review: Cargo Blush in Rome

Have you ever been to Rome? I haven’t. After living in Europe for more than 3 years, I am a bit ashamed to say I haven’t visited Italy! In my imagination however, Rome is where Princess Ann meets Joe Bradley (put your hands in the air if you find Gregory Peck irresistible), Russel Crowe takes revenge on the evil emperor in the grand Colosseum, and Julia Roberts dosing her plate of spaghetti with a generous amount of Parmesan… Oooo Rome!

OK, I’m here to tell you about my Cargo blush named Rome instead of traveling. Cargo blush in Rome is one of the three things I got in my Beautybay order. I have heard good things about Cargo blushes, and since I wanted to try a coral blush, Rome found its way into my shopping cart. I have to admit up front that I am not the biggest fan of their packaging. The box it comes in looks a bit cheap for some reason (I guess I just prefer the classy and minimalist black-and-white boxes from MAC and Bobbi Brown), and out of the two blushes I ordered I do have a little problem opening one of the tins. Also, since the tins look all the same, unless you flip them over you wouldn’t know which one it is. I personally prefer the plastic see-through parts that a lot of blushes have, or Tarte’s compacts with different colors.

Now that we’ve got the only pitfall out of the way however, I can start telling you good things about Rome!

Rome is described as a “soft tangerine” by the Cargo website, but it is nowhere as tame as the website would like you to believe (the color I see on my screen is extremely muted compared with the real thing)! In pan Rome is a pretty bright coral. You can see a golden sheen and shimmer, but that only really comes out when you swatch it. Swatched on my NC30 warm-toned Asian skin, it is almost a peachy coral. It is undoubtedly warm-toned, and the golden shimmer adds even more warmness. When I swatched it on the back of my hand, I was a bit disappointed to be honest. I had expect it to be a bit more pigmented, but I had to build it up a little so that it would look the way it does in my swatch pictures.

As you can see, there is quite a bit of shimmer, but it is very fine. I have the impression that it looks more peachy in swatches than actually on my face. Texture-wise it is definitely the finest I have tried, very beautiful and not at all powdery. Compared with Tarte blushes which could be powdery in swatches (but not so when worn), Cargo is by far more finely-milled.

This is how it looks on me. In person it is a lot more visible, and a lot more coral than peach. I used my MAC 168, and it didn’t kick too much powder loose. It is not crazy pigmented, but it is very buildable, and I quickly reached the desired intensity. The shimmer is definitely not non-existent. Compared with Tarte Peaceful for example, whose shimmer is hardly noticeable on cheeks, Rome is definitely a shimmery one. However, the shimmer translates into a lovely glow-from-within without emphasizing my pores. I think this is a shade that will work even better when I am more tanned (though I’m in love with it already), and it will work very well with bronzers too. The greatest part? I wore it for 12 hours, and by the end of the day it was hanging onto my cheeks tenaciously! It didn’t even fade a single bit, which is something Tarte 12-Hour Amazonian Clay Blushes claim to do but fall short a little (I still love them. They are more pigmented than my Cargo ones, but by the end of the day they do tend to fade a little).

Cargo blushes cost 26 dollars (I think they very recently raised the price by one dollar), but it contains a whooping 8.9 grams. Compared with blushes in the same price range (NARS blushes cost 27 dollars and contain 4.54 grams, Tarte blushes cost 25 dollars and contain 5.67 grams), I consider this a steal! For my European/worldwide readers, the great news is that you can get Cargo products at a reasonable price from Beautybay.com. This is one of the rare sites that can do currency conversion right, instead of making consumers pay 25 euros for something that costs 25 dollars, so make sure you take a look!

Bottom line: I highly recommend Cargo blushes. If your skin tone is light-to-medium or darker, and you are warm-toned, definitely put this one on your wish list for spring and summer! It reminds me of sunny weather and makes me long for Rome!

How about you? Are you a coral fan? Have you tried Cargo? Are you also already dreaming about warmer weather?

Sunny xx

FOTD: Unabashedly Green and Gold with MAC Woodwinked, Humid, Urban Decay Mildew!

Yesterday I went to my old housemate T’s birthday party in Brussels. His whole family was here, as well as some close friends that I know but haven’t seen for a while. It was nice! Afterwards I went wedding dress shopping with his sister S. It was a bit like a real-life episode of Say Yes to the Dress with her mum having drastically different taste from her own, but at the end they managed to reach a compromise so everybody went home happy!

I received MAC Woodwinked in a swap this week and wanted to put it to use (swatch and review coming soon). To spice things up a bit more, I decided to incorporate Humid as well. And yes, I love Darkhorse, but for once I wanted to switch to something else. I ended up going for a shade in my Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone palette, and dare I say myself that was pretty ingenious! Here are more pictures, the list of products that I used, and detailed breakdown!

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 53 Light Beige
Tarte Smooth Operator finishing powder
Bobbi Brown Sable on eyebrows
I primed my eyelids with UDPP (unless otherwise stated, I systematically use UDPP) before putting MAC Woodwinked on two thirds of my lids. For the outer third, I used the crease shade on the right column of Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone. The lightest shade of NYX Rock and Roll was used for my inner corners, and Bobbi Brown Bone for my brow bones.
I applied Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black on my upper lash line and waterline, smudged out with MAC Humid.
Urban Decay Mildew was used for my lower lash line, also smudged out with Humid.
Maybelline Magnum Volum’ Express Black (waterproof)
Cargo Rome on cheeks (swatch and review coming soon)
MAC Harmony to contour
Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess (swatch and review coming soon)
Burt’s Bees Replenishing Lip Balm with Pomegranate Oil on lips

I used not to like gold at all because I associated it with the type of accessories my mother/grandmother would wear. It is supposed to be traditional and old-fashioned, not cool. Even with my initial success with Urban Decay Half Naked, I didn’t feel the impulse to collect more gold eyeshadows. After I saw how L’Oreal HiP Metallic Shadow duo in Gilded worked for me however, the gold-digging monster awoke in me. MAC Woodwinked is my latest acquisition, but I already have MAC Goldmine, MAC Gorgeous Gold, and NARS Paramaribo (among many others haha) high on my wish list! Woodwinked is a shimmery warm gold on me. I see a bit of red in it, so it is almost coppery but not quite.

I knew that Darkhorse would be a no-brainer to pair with it, but just because it’s a great shade doesn’t mean I have to prove it to my dear readers in each and every one of my FOTDs. Instead, I grabbed my Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone and used the crease shade of the right column for the outer third of my lids. I had not previously used this shade before, but it’s a charcoal brown with gold shimmer, so what could possibly go wrong? It turned out that I basically hit the jackpot! Not only did the gold shimmer play very nicely with Woodwinked, two things that I had not foreseen happened. First of all, when paired with gold, this crease shade shows an interesting green tinge. It’s almost as if it were rusted brass or something. I’m sorry I can’t come up with a more romantic/accurate comparison, but that was the first thing that popped up in my head when I was applying this eyeshadow, and I was mesmerized. Second, this makes a killer crease shade for me personally, because it is so natural yet effective that it is as if I had a real crease! I don’t know what makes this so special. I have seen a lot of good crease shades, but not all of them make it look like I have a real crease.

For my lower lash line, I opted for Urban Decay Mildew, and I smudged both my upper and lower lash line out with MAC Humid. Humid is a bold green that is actually pretty versatile, and pairing it with gold is one of my favorite ways to wear it! The effect is not very much in-your-face, but it is definitely there.

Before I can blabber on and on, let’s see some more pictures!

Behold the pop of green:

At a certain angle you see the greenish tinge of the crease shade:

With my downcast eyes, you can see the shimmery gold in MAC Woodwinked better:

All in all I was pretty happy about it! On my cheeks I tested out Cargo Rome and Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess. I’ll have the swatches and reviews up soon!

The only part that I couldn’t quite “make it work” was still the lip color, so I just went with my lip balm instead. I would love for example a peachy and a coral lip product, but picking lip products is usually very difficult for me. My lips are naturally pretty pigmented, so a lot of lipsticks/glosses that look great in the tube don’t change anything at all for me. I am not too comfortable wearing very bold lip colors yet (and I don’t want my lip color to compete with my eyes), so I am a bit stuck. Does anyone have any recommendations? I would really appreciate it!

That’s my green and gold FOTD for ya! If you like it, please “like” this post, follow me with Bloglovin’, or leave a comment (especially if you have recommendations for good coral/peachy lip colors)! Thanks guys! I hope you’re enjoying your weekend, please stay tuned and stick around!

Sunny xx