I promised to update with a haul post from Paris, showing what makeup products I ended up buying while we were there, so here goes! I visited Sephora a couple of times, both M·A·C and M·A·C Pro, and even though I didn’t get to go by the MUFE Boutique I still managed to accumulate quite a nice selection of items. I’m sorry for slightly poor editing, but we had to work quickly to get the most out of the daylight which wasn’t really much considering the downright depressing weather we have.

Disclaimer:
Everything shown or mentioned below was bought with my own money, unless otherwise stated. I saved up for this trip beforehand, because I knew I was going to shop for makeup amongst other things. Also, eight of the ten lipsticks I added to my collection was financed by Back2MAC, which means I didn’t pay for any of them.

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I have no idea why, but I’m having serious problems expressing myself nowadays. I feel like all my posts regarding any received mail all start the same way, and it’s bothering me. Even my heading feels useless. Oh well, today Mr. Postman came knocking with a package from Amira. She’s always a sweetheart, and this time she’d sent me some goodies from NARS, M·A·C, MUFE and Lancôme.

• NARS Sheer Glow Foundation in “Punjab”
• NARS Blush and Bronzing Duo in “Sin/Casino”
• NARS Monoï Body Glow II
• Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in 2 (steel), 11 (gold), 12 (golden copper) and 14 (satin brown)
• M·A·C High-Light Powder in “Marine Life”
• M·A·C Eye Shadow in “Sweet & Punchy” (bright yellow green)
• M·A·C Eye Shadow in “Firecracker” (frosted mid-tone red orange)
• Lancôme Sparkling Cherub Illuminating Palette

The NARS Monoï Body Glow II was a free gift with purchase, so I’m actually quite excited that Amira told me about this limited time offer – if you are to order it from their website it costs $58, or about 376,- NOK with today’s exchange rate! The Aqua Cream from MUFE is a fairly new product, a waterproof cream shadow in many different and bright colors. The four I received were originally Amira‘s, but when she turned out to be allergic to them she decided to sell them off – and they ended up in my hands instead. I promise to give them a good home!

I’ve been talking about the NARS Sheer Glow Foundation for quite some time now, and Ingrid helped me look for the most suitable color for my skin tone. She suggested “Punjab” even though I thought it was a little strange since that the color TiffanyD uses, but I decided to trust Ingrid and go for it. I haven’t tried it on my skin yet, but when I hold the bottle up to my face it looks pretty much as an exact match. What does this tell me? I’m winter pale, and horrible.

“Marine Life”, the high-light powder from M·A·C To the Beach, is an altogether different story. It was sold out from M·A·C two days before this collection was even officially launched, and it all happened within three hours from the first sighting. Crazy! Thankfully it launched in France before it hit the US, and Amira was sweet enough to order one for me there instead, together with the two interesting eye shadows in that collection. I’m forever grateful, it’s such a treasure! From all the swatches I’ve seen of this high-light powder, it’s much more a blush than anything else. The gold overspray will go away after a couple of sweeps, but since I don’t have the heart to ruin mine I’ll keep it untouched.

I’m a tiny bit sad that I didn’t get “Hipness” blush and “Temperature Rising” lip pencil, but what the hell. It’s not the end of the world, although it would have been a couple of months ago. I’m feeling proud here!

Apart from that I got an e-mail telling me that my mirror had been shipped – finally! – and that I should expect it to arrive on Tuesday. Due to this frigging strike that’s been going on, it was majorly delayed. Oh, and I’ve also gone ahead and ordered myself a few bottles of Bath & Body Works Body Splash in Country Apple, Fresh Pineapple and Sunset Mango. I don’t know if any of these are something I’ll end up liking, so if not.. I might just organize a little contest or giveaway for my readers. I’ll tell you more about each of them when I’ve received them.

Photo © M·A·C Cosmetics

I didn’t think of my already planned rendezvous with Mr. DHL when I said that I didn’t expect much more mail in a while, and I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to lie to you. He came knocking on Monday, and the shipment he brought me contained items from my latest M·A·C splurge, which I mentioned briefly here. It was mainly a Give Me Liberty of London-haul, but the package also held one Blush Ombre Vintage Grape and the Eye Colour 3 quad (Mink Pink (veluxe), Bruised Plum (veluxe pearl), Black Tulip (frost), Jungle Moon (matte)) from Spring Colour Forecast, Naked lip pencil from Too Fabulous, powder blush pro palette refill pans in Pinch Me (sheertone) and Dollymix (sheertone shimmer), four empty M·A·C palettes, and least but not last my Stila haul.

It also held a few items that I’d agreed to CP for someone else, and I really enjoy making others happy whenever I have the chance. It’s also a nice way of saying “thank you” for helping me getting my hands on products I couldn’t have gotten elsewhere when someone has done a CP for me a couple of times. I’m happy to help!

Now I’m doing some organizing again, trying to sort out what I have and what I might need. Who am I kidding? I don’t need anything. I’ve decided to reorganize my M·A·C palettes once again, and update my pictures – I have added a few eyeshadows to my collection since the last pictures were shot. When that is done I’m planning to use one palette for the 15 colors I use most frequently, and that way I don’t have to bring out three or four different palettes every time I’m doing my makeup. See, I’m smart (I wonder how long it actually took me to realize that that would be a good idea). I’ll just leave open spaces in the different color palettes, and this makes it easy to pop them back into the correct palette when I decide to switch them around a little, without having to reorganize everything once again. The problem returns whenever I buy another eyeshadow pot which requires depotting, and therefore also a space in a palette, and I have to rearrange them all to make room. Why do we bring these problems down on ourselves?

My latest lemming is the NARS Sheer Glow in Stromboli, although I’m not completely sure that Stromboli would be the correct color for my skin tone. I’m thinking that I’ll check it out when I go to Paris in July, at least I can have it matched instead of ending up buying the wrong color online – and flushing the $42 down the drain. If anyone has something to add, maybe a tip or two on choosing the correct color, please slip me a comment.

Photo © M·A·C Cosmetics

Mr. Postman finally decided that he had kept me waiting long enough, and delivered my “missing” package yesterday. I was extremely happy that it hadn’t been lost at all, just engaging it a little vacation somewhere between France and here obviously. Now I finally have my gorgeous NARS Purple Rain nail polish! I’m not going to redo what someone else has done successfully before me, so if you’d like to see swatches of this incredible polish, please take a look at this review by Vampy Varnish. Would you look at that mesmerizing color? Amazing. Just utterly amazing. I haven’t tried it on yet, but according to Vampy Varnish it’s “like butter, so flawless and beautiful”, and I have absolutely no problems believing her. The package also held the Benefit Brow Zings I talked about here, and Amira made sure that it was one with the new packaging. It’s so cute! The box kinda resembles the palettes from Sleek Cosmetics, with the words “brow zings” sort of etched into the black lid. It gave me a very nice first impression. The two brushes are the cutest little things, and so are the tiny tweezers that comes with the set. There’s also a mirror inside the lid, which is very handy. I was kinda planning on using the Brow Zings as a gift, but I’m thinking that I might have to keep it for myself and rather learn how to shape and fill in my brows. So much for the thought of being nice to someone else.

Unfortunately I’m not expecting much more mail now, except maybe one little package or two. Thankfully my account was refilled yesterday, but that doesn’t matter much as it’s just as empty today as it was before yesterday. I just hate paying bills, it’s frigging depressing! But the thing is.. I’ve decided to pull the hand break when it comes to my shopping habits. It’s going to be hard, since I’m clearly a shopaholic, or rather heavily addicted to the mail and packages that keeps popping up in our mailbox as a natural consequence of the shopping – but I need money for something else, way more important, so I’m making a choice. Am I good, or am I good? I’m thinking I need to go to some kind of rehab to make it, and I’ll surely go cold turkey somewhere along the line. Anyway, withdrawal starts now – keep your fingers crossed!

Oh, and don’t be worried, it’s just a temporary thing.

Photo © NARS Cosmetics

I was so sure that I had written a post about NARS, but since I couldn’t find it anywhere I decided to write a new one. Blind? Yes. After writing an almost identical post to this one, I found it. Incredible. Anyway, I wanted to share my little review of Kiss and Makeup NY with you. This purchase was made in May, I had just forgotten all about it. Since this review is mainly about Kiss and Makeup NY I promise to return with another review, and maybe some EOTDs, of my NARS products. I might also include a review on the NARS Holiday Palette as well, since it’s another gorgeous product from NARS that’s now in my possession.

During one of my daily online escapades I stumbled upon Kiss and Makeup NY, a site offering a small variety of NARS products. The highlighting powder “Albatross” has become a HG product of many a makeup addict, so I kinda had to find out what the fuss was all about. I ended up ordering 3 eyeshadow duos in the colors “Scorched Sun” (glazed apricot and orange with a delicate sheen), “Demon Lover” (iridescent storm blue and deep indigo) and “Kalahari” (gold confection and sugared cocoa), in addition to a single eyeshadow in the color “Night Flight” (black with cobalt blue pearls) from the Nightlife Collection and of course “Albatross”. I just adore these colors, especially the gorgeous “Scorched Sun”. I don’t know why, but whenever I find a bright yellow or orange eyeshadow I just have to have it, and this one’s got both.

The Verdict:
Kiss and Makeup NY offers international shipping at a flat rate of $7.95, which to me is pretty incredible! My order was shipped after 4 days, and arrived within only 2 days! I’m giving Kiss and Makeup NY a huge gold star for extraordinary good service and extremely fast shipping. So to all of you out there who’s looking to get your hands on some precious NARS, Kiss and Makeup NY is absolutely worth the effort, and I will most certainly order from them again!

* HG = Holy Grail

Photo © NARS Cosmetics