I See Gold with Chanel Illusion d’Ombre Vision from Les Expressions de Chanel: Swatch, Review, Comparison, FOTDs

Hey everybody!

I hope your Monday wasn’t too rough and your week is off to a good start! I also hope the weather is nicer where you are. It’s been around 10 degrees (around 45 degrees Fahrenheit) and rainy here for the past couple of days. It’s hard to believe it’s already June! I am seriously tempted to turn the heater back on!

After the quick n’ dirty swatches of the three Illusion d’Ombre in Les Expressions de Chanel collection that I showed you yesterday, today I have the swatch, full review, comparison, and FOTDs of Vision (89) for you!

FOTD with MAC Woodwinked, Urban Decay Mildew & Smog

Hey everyone! How’s your weekend so far? Today I went to Brussels to check out the MAC Shop MAC, Cook MAC collection. I realized there are still some shadows that I swatched but never showed in FOTDs for you, so I decided to incorporate Urban Decay Mildew eyeshadow into the look.

Despite the fact that Mildew is such a stunning shade, if I am not a bit more careful with it, it could darken my eyes. I started by tentatively patting it on my lids today, but was smart enough to leave the inner third free. I was right, if I had gone all the way in, it wouldn’t have been very flattering. Now, I probably could have used any gold in my collection for the inner third or even a peachy champagne shade, but since MAC Woodwinked is the only one in the same palette, I took the easy way. Some Smog and blending later, I’ve got myself some gold, green, and coppery eyes! I lined my lower lash line with Urban Decay Whiskey, and then smudged out with Darkhorse.

I used Tarte Exposed and Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Bronze for my cheeks, MAC Harmony to contour, and MAC Sweetie on my lips.

Some more pictures so you can see my eyes more clearly:

I took the pictures after I got home (at about 5:30. Daylight was fading fast), but I only had to blot my T-zone and reapply lipstick. Can you notice any differences in these pictures? Like the amazingly clean-looking background? I stumbled across the beauty blogging series written by the top-notch blogger Rae from theNotice. Her Tips for beauty bloggers: surfaces and backgrounds gives extremely useful pointers about picture-taking in general. So today, I hid behind the curtain of my living room for the FOTDs. What do you guys think? The images are definitely cleaner (makes me want to go back and delete all the FOTDs I’ve done so far)! Special thanks to Rae! I still have sooo much to learn!

I hope you like the look, and I’ll see you again soon!

Sunny xx

PS: I swear I’ll include NARS Mexican Rose in my FOTD very soon!

Swatch & Review: MAC Woodwinked (Veluxe Pearl) + Comparison with Urban Decay Half Baked

Hey everybody, happy Sunday! How’s your weekend so far? I had family over for dinner. It was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to do the washing up now (in case you didn’t sense it, this is sarcasm)!

Today I’m going to review the genre of products that I am better at reviewing (just because I own more lol). Face one: I love Veluxe Pearl eyeshadows. Fact two: I love gold eyeshadows. With that said, I guess it was a matter of time before MAC Woodwinked fell into my hands *evil laugh*

Strictly speaking, MAC Woodwinked is not a pure gold. Especially in pan, it looks bronzy. On my warm-toned NC30 skin, it is a bronzy gold. I’ve heard that it could pull orange on some people, but I’m guessing as long as your undertone is warm you stand a pretty good chance of it not happening to you. Like her Veluxe Pearl siblings, Woodwinked applies pigmented, soft, and buttery smooth. It is definitely shimmery but not over-the-top metallic, which makes it extremely versatile for both work and play. It is a wake-me-up shade that instantly brings life and light to my eyes, which I really appreciate!

Woodwinked is a Miss Congeniality type of girl. You can pair it with other neutrals for sure, but it’s also buddy-buddy with bolder shades. I have worn it with MAC Humid (see here) and Satellite Dreams (see here), and both times it displayed good team spirit without being overshadowed!

Last but not least, I did a little comparison swatch with Urban Decay Half Baked, another bronzy gold that I have.

As you can see, Half Baked looks more gold than ever next to Woodwinked, while Woodwinked becomes almost just bronzy! I love them both, though if Half Baked is already too warm for you then Woodwinked is highly possibly going to pull orange!

Bottom line: I can’t say enough good things about Woodwinked. If you’re warm toned you should definitely give it a chance to see how you get along!

How about you? Have you tried Woodwinked? Are you also a fan of gold?

Sunny xx

FOTD: Happy Chinese New Year Gold and Purple with MAC Woodwinked and Satellite Dreams

Hello everybody! Happy Chinese New Year for those who celebrate it! I invited some friends over for homemade dumplings, caramel apple cake, and tiramisu. I had a great time (and the food was apparently good)! Now that the guests are gone, I’m going to share the look I did for the occasion with you.

Since I didn’t have to leave the comfort of my home, I could wear a dress that I normally can’t in this weather. It’s purple with yellow, fuchsia, teal, and tangerine leaves, and I thought I’d do a bold look to match it color-wise.

Products I used:
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 the inner half of my lids. For the outer half, I used Satellite Dreams. I used a bit of Urban Decay Purple Haze for my outer v. 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.
Urban Decay Zero was used for my lower lash line, smudged out with Satellite Dreams.
Maybelline Magnum Volum’ Express Black (waterproof)
Tarte Peaceful on cheeks.
Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess (swatch and review coming soon)
MAC Sweetie on lips

Here are some closeup pictures so you can see my eye makeup better:

It is probably not a very work-friendly everyday look, but I like how it turned out! Satellite Dreams looks a bit pink when sheered out. The real color is closer to how it looks on my lower lash line. A recent post by Beautezine shares a quick tip of pulling pink-based eyeshadows off without looking like you have an eye infection: in short, go all out with your eyeliner! The black helps separate the whites of your eyes from the eyeshadows, so you don’t look like a bunny rabbit! I have seldom combined two non-neutral colors together, but this experiment has encouraged me to explore more 🙂

More pictures from different angles so you see everything better:

That’s it for today! Thanks for reading, everyone! Don’t forget to follow me with Bloglovin’ or Twitter if you like the look 🙂

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