NOTD: Barry M Magnetic Nail Polish in Magnetic Burgundy

Having went to some serious shopping at a special fashion event I came across a makeup counter selling some really nice and hard to find brands! 

There was Lime Crime which I had to scowl at, and there was Barry M! 

On top of that Magnetic nail polishes immediately caught my eye with 2 shades I snapped up immediately!

After trying both shades: Magnetic Dark Silver and Magentic Burgundy; I bought both for $12 each.

Magnetic Burgundy is a stunning deepened pink, absolutely a dimensional metallic.

The magnetic effect that comes with the burgundy is a diagonal stripe.

The results are striking, very obvious! It looks quite like, dare I say, Lime Crimes Carousel lipgloss tubes but in nail polish form funnily enough!

The effect starts forming within a couple seconds and is VERY easy to do, though it recommends 10 seconds after drying a full coat. Instead I found that one coat was enough for opacity and putting the magnet with the helpful bar on top of the nail polish not too close easily brings out the stripes and stays that way.

By itself it's still a great nail polish if you don't feel like holding the magnet over. I would definitely recommend a top coat since the only downside is it's tendency to chip.

What do you think of magnetic nail polishes? Is it too gimicky or would you continue to use these?

Love Porcelaine.

NOTD: Revlon Emerald City Matte Suede Nail Polish

I always insisted that I would never buy a matte nail polish again. 

Essie's Matte About You covers that territory. 

But the other day I fell for Revlon's Emerald City, a deep green nail polish labelled 'Matte Suede'. 

At $5 the yearning grew stronger and while I knew I shouldn't buy this...well, you've caught me there!

Emerald City is a deep green with green shimmer (green, green, green...I know). 

I was expecting a semi matte finish considering it was labelled 'suede'. 

Instead you definitely get a fully matte finish and the 'suede' is more the faintly reflective shimmer under the matte finish.

This nail polish only needs 2 coats for opacity.

I know there are some people who find matte nail polishes, errrr, revolting! 

I think there is a conception in their minds that nail polish should be a strong glossy lacquer and anything less than that is unkempt. I personally think that this shade in particular is elegant!

The good thing about Emerald City is that a top coat reveals a beautiful shimmery finish and with class.

What do you think of matte shades? Do you prefer a matte topcoat or an all in one?

Love Porcelaine.

Review: Napoleon Perdis Part 2, Lash Patrol, Brushes, China Doll Eyeliner, Khol Eyeliner, Pro Palette

I have a story to tell you. I warn you. It's not that interesting! Once upon a time I bought NP's 9a brush with their 16b brush. 9a was slim and the perfect eyeshadow brush for my weird shaped eyes. I used it always when doing my eye makeup, and costing $20 it was made into a workhorse to justify its despicable price! One day it disappeared. I lamented that I probably left it on a table and accidentally flicked it off into a bin. Oh woe! I tried to think if I should buy it again and justify yet another time why I should spend another $20... Was this the end to my relationship with my perfect brush?

So far I've reviewed a fair share of NP eyeshadows. Of course it didn't end there when you go to meet the pushy saleswomen who try to decide what you should or should not buy (not that there was any limit to you buying the whole lot!).

What I bought:

• Lash Patrol Eyelashes - Individual Black Medium
• Khol Eyeliner Onyx $18
• Khol Eyeliner Denim $18
• Pro Palette Concealer $40
• China Doll (Gel) Eyeliner in Equinox $25
• 16b Brush $26
• 9a Brush $20

The Product and Results

I bought the Lash Patrol Eyelashes when I fell in love with falsies. Falsies back then were pricy! Unfortunately these were pricy... I wanted to accent the outer corner of my eyes and I had never seen demis (by the way, this was before the new NP lash bars). These were natural hair (made in Indonesia) on a thin base and could be cut to shape. The problem with individual lashes is that you have to apply each one, it's time consuming to fill up all the spaces and the 'v' shape makes it hard to get even coverage. They're decent but easy to lose. I only wore them a few times with a tonne left over!

 Cute packaging, really smart one liners. This has got to be the cheesiest packaging I've come across!

Here comes another (short) story! I remember flicking through Vogue. I saw a beautiful advertisement by Swarovski in 2007. It wasn't the jewellery I was looking at, it was the beautiful eyes jewelesque and pigmented. I wanted to replicate this but had no idea how to do it. Back then I was a 'n00b' at makeup! I was told by NP that this could be done with eyeliner underneath and eyeshadow above. This led to me buying Khol Eyeliner in Denim which was a rich turquoise blue, and to put on top the Turquoise loose shadow.

Above Flash, Below without Flash: Onyx and Denim eyeliner, Pro Palette Concealer smudged out.

The Khol Eyeliners were so pigmented, blendable, smooth and lasted pretty decently. I loved using this as an eyeshadow rather than an eyeliner and used it to grab onto eyeshadows. The eyeliners are just regular sized thin pencils. They were really worth it, though they didn't specify any 'extras' like being smudgeproof, waterproof, etc.

I don't buy concealer much and I have no idea why I would pay $40 on concealer. This one's decent. It doesn't create dry patchiness. It's best suited for flat areas of skin with medium discolouration rather than pimples. It is very creamy, almost oily and it's easy to accidentally blend off. I think concealer should be put on last (or both first and last) and this one especially. Fortunately because it has 3 colours to choose from you can mix up a match so that putting on concealer last blends in easily, and then finished with powder. The lightest shade is very yellow toned and the darkest very warm, maybe because they wanted to suit a range of skintones since the shades seem ethnically associated.

I bought the China Doll Eyeliner for a special occasion because I wanted a long lasting eyeliner. I initially wanted to buy Manic Panic's Gel 'Spider' Liner but the shop was closed. This was nice and rich, pigmented and matte. It lasted all day but was a little stiff and would crack a little throughout the day. I can't say that it's that much different to normal gel liners. The only problem was that it was in a plastic pot that wasn't air tight quickly turning the liner into a rock. Within a year it was dead and you had to dig in the middle to get bits of the slightly moister eyeliner (I think they are now in glass pots).

Rock anyone? I've read you can revive these with baby oil but don't take my word for it.

Lastly the brushes. 9a was the perfect brush for my eye shape. The small curved side fits into the inner corner of my eye perfectly. I actually prefer my brushes to be slightly stiffer than a normal eyeshadow brush and the sable fur (which grabs eyeshadow well) on this brush is packed flat together.

16b was suggested to me as a blending brush. It's loose, large and a struggle to blend when using strong sticky eyeshadow. I think it's still a great brush but is suited for brushing away excess eyeshadow as well and softening eyeshadows especially on the brow bone (too soft to be a concealer brush). Trying to blend away harsh stubborn lines leads to damaging the bristles so you have to be extra careful. Both these brushes don't shed and are excellently made.

But what happened to my 9a? I did rebuy it as much as it was a pain to hand over the money and many months later I found the old one wedged deep in my couch! When I compared the two I noticed a difference between them. The new one was shorter and didn't have a country of origin, perhaps to hide the fact that this was NO longer made in France! The ferrules were also differently shaped.

 

Now I have 2 faithful 9a brushes at my disposal!

Would I buy these products again?
No, No, No to the gel eyeliner. It looks to me that they are in a glass pot now but gel eyeliners from various brands don't differ much in my experience and NP's does the job at one heck of a price ($32 now!!!). The pencil eyeliners have also jumped to new dollar heights and while I've had a good experience with them there are many comparable products. Concealer and lashes are fine if you are into these but probably wouldn't repurchase. The brushes do get a big tick though and are comparable to other big brands (think MAC). NP Set also has another range of cheaper brushes at Target.

NB: This may all be a little outdated but I think the products here are similar or at least reincarnated into another form.

Love Porcelaine.

Sorry! + Upcoming Product

I've been silent for the last couple weeks due to internet faults that *ahem insert most hated company* neglected to fix. More reviews are to come, continuing on with the 3 part Napoleon Perdis reviews.

Also my shop is a bit empty at the moment. I've been meaning to properly rehaul the old shades and bring in new ones. Here's a sneak peek to one of the new shades which is so far my favourite!

It's the loveliest blue and it changes colour from an aqua to purple, and it's a glitterbomb (blame me, I love shimmer and sparkle!).

Hold your horses, it's not coming out for a while yet and I'm very busy at the moment but I thought it would be nice to share this with you =D!

Love Porcelaine.

Review: Napoleon Perdis Part 1, Colour Discs, Loose Dust, Ultra Pearls

If you've been reading throughout my blog you may have noticed that I've mentioned Napoleon Perdis' products numerous times. You could consider NP as my personal entrance to the high end makeup up world. At the time I started using NP products they consisted solely of their own line (before collaborating with Target) where you could mainly buy them at their store, their stand alones or at David Jones. It finally came to me that maybe ? I should review their products considering I've bought a fair few of them in the past!
 

What They Sell

NP has pretty much anything you associate make up with. Includes primers, brushes, makeup cleaners, creams and all types of makeup.

What I Bought

I've bought quite a few products consistently over the years though I haven't bought any in the past few years.

Colour Discs at $22

• #29 Black (matte)
• #14 Purple (Matte dark eggplant)
• #59 Terracotta (semi matte coral)
• #92 Fuchsia (matte)

Loose Dust at $20

• #3 Turquoise (highly shimmery with slightly golden sheen)
• #39 Techno Glitter (holographic glitter slightly chunky)
• #21 White Sparkle (White shimmer)

Ultra Pearls at $18

• #23 Champagne Gold (gold fine shimmer on white)
• #56 Blue Velvet (velvet finish dark blue)

 Other products to be reviewed later:

• Lash Patrol, Brushes, China Doll Eyeliner, 2 x Khol Eyeliner, Marshmallow Foam, Chandelier Shine Nail Polish, Divine Marchesa, Pro Palette, Voila Oil Control Paper

The Product and Results

It's kind of complicated since it seems that NP doesn't sell anymore of the colours I bought. They probably redid all the collections, so I can't speak for the new products. These products are nonetheless as good then as most high end brands in Australia.

 Black, Purple, Terracotta, Fuchsia

The Colour Discs are bold, pigmented colours and easy to work with! The texture is fine and easy to pick up onto a brush. The Black shade is one of the exceptions being harder to blend; that's common with black colours and mattes anywhere you look but at $22 (not to mention inflation =P!) you'd expect consistent quality. Unfortunately the finishes were mostly matte and weren't texturally interesting or complicated. Each disc contained 2.8g of product in about a 4cm pan.

On the other hand the Loose Dust (4.5 g) brings in the shimmer lacking in the Colour Discs! With Turquoise and White Sparkle the texture is really fine but you can feel it between your fingers. It's very pigmented, shimmery and adhered well but loose products were fairly unpopular and uncommon at the time. Some of these colours could be complex and multidimensional, a winner in my books!

Turquoise, Techno Glitter, White Sparkle

Techno Glitter was one of 2 glitters and probably out of the whole brand. Again glitter wasn't all that popular which is still hard to find in high end makeup. This one is an undertone of light blue/lilac likely because the particles are iridescent on clear plastic, but shimmers multicoloured. It's similar to holographic glitter. The particles are a little larger than most marketed eye safe glitter so I'm reserved on these. It's still really beautiful so if you're game I'd pick this up.

The last 2 eyeshadows were the Ultra Pearls. These had a *duh* pearlish finish, semi matte, slightly shimmery, smooth and pigmented.

Champagne, Blue Velvet

Despite being an Australian brand all of these products are made in USA alongside the story of NP starting his own makeup line by himself in Paddington. The packaging was quite standard (matching my own Manic Panic eyeshadow) but the boxes were sometimes beautiful inside and out, a lot of them with windows to show each shade colour, and philosophies printed on the back. The ingredients were missing EVERY time.

One other side note (which may no longer be relevant) is that the colours on the website were almost always off and it was difficult to tell what kind of colour or finish they were. They were basically colour filled circles and not actual pictures of the product.

Today most of the product lines are still there but the products in them are different. The prices have gone up but the packaging is way better and NP has expanded their lines bringing new products (like the foundation in a spray can!).

Would I buy these products again?

I dare to say yes. There is no doubt these products are great quality. Some colours can be a little dull for the price but you get a lot of product, they are pigmented and perform like a boss =P! If I wanted something in particular I would trust NP to give me quality, so on that basis YES!

Have you tried NP? Would you rather get famous brands like MAC or support home grown brands?

Love Porcelaine.

Holiday Luggage! What I Used and What I Neglected!

I don't go on holidays often. As much as I like to there is always a reason not to go! This year was different, I had a brilliant chance to go overseas for almost a month! But the thing I was asking myself was 'What am I going to bring?'. 

Well then...Here's what I did bring!

 (Comment below if you want to know what a particular item is)

I really wanted to keep my luggage down. The first thing I did was make 2 pressed eyeshadow palettes to combat the problem! I made sure that they were of different colours on the spectrum. So a green here (or 2 in fact), a blue there, a gold, a brown, a purple, a yellow...Actually this basically amounted to 4 out of the 5 Heart of Gold eyeshadows creating a metallic palette and a tropical palette for my bright eyed needs. To add to that I brought with me Revlon's cream eyeshadow palette which was a huge letdown as they didn't apply pigmented at all!

Above: What I used

I found what I didn't use particularly interesting! I was looking forward to dramatic lips and brought a range of lip colours to prepare. But out of the several coloured lip products how many did I use?

Above: What I didn't use

ONE, yep, just one!

Why? Mainly because every time I did go out I was going out to eat. I personally think it's too much of a hassle to touch up after every meal and the 'lip liner' look (i.e. when all your lip stick comes off in the center leaving a ring of lip stick) isn't a particularly pretty look.

Instead my go-to was Lancome's Color Fever lip gloss in Aaron's Red.

This lipgloss was pretty low maintenance and wore down to a stain like finish. 

It lasted throughout the day when I wasn't eating and provided the colour impact I was looking for!

Generally I was pretty dismal in getting any makeup on!

There never seemed like a good reason to as every day was pretty average and I was disappointed in a way.

What would I change? I probably should have brought more reliable products that I new damn straight would work! Perhaps I should have invested in products that applied semi permanently like a ColorStay lipstick...

What is your experience of bring makeup on your travels? Do you find that you have more or less time to do your makeup when on holidays? What are your tips for looking effortlessly fabulous?

Love Porcelaine.

EOTD: Tropiceye! with MUFE and Garden Of Shadows

A while ago I bought my first MUFE product!

In Australia it's pretty much non existent and hard to find.

I bought an eyeshadow which I actually eyed off for a few years in a discount makeup store but was never willing to buy it for the "heavy" (i.e. my tight ass!) price. 

Actually what I really want is their Aqualiners.

But enough fussing around, here's the first look I did with MUFE and Garden Of Shadows Cos.

What I used:

TFSI as base.

MUFE #91 eyeshadow on lid.

Garden Of Shadows' Eureka! on crease.

Napoleon Perdis Loose Eyeshadow #3 above lid blending into Eureka!

Magic Glitter liner lining upper lash line.

What I found out about using MUFE eyeshadows are that they are very fine but didn't seem to stick well to my lid even with primer. Not sure why that is. It feels very pigmented but it didn't seem to work that well.

Love Porcelaine.