Fragrances -Unlisted Brand - Histoires de Parfums - 1873 Colette
Katinka007 1/12/2010 6:56:00 AM
A loud citrussy & sugary scent. Smells like some candy I used to like when I was a little girl. It's not unpleasant, just not something I'd like to smell of.
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Fragrances -Unlisted Brand - Histoires de parfums - Vert Pivoine 
Katinka007 11/15/2009 4:20:00 PM
I had such high hopes for this as I adore the scent of peonies. Unfortunately peonies don't yield any EO so the scent has to be either synthetically made or recreated with other notes. The chances of finding a perfume that smells just like the real thing are therefore rather slim. When I first tried Vert Pivoine on my skin I was rather disappointed as I couldn't detect any peony in it, or anything else for that matter, it was quite perfumey. Not unpleasant in any way though, but definitely not 130€ pleasant either. However, VP isn't a very linear perfume, it slowly started to smell more and more of peonies and after a few hours (!!) it became really lovely, like a bouquet of fresh peonies with some roses thrown in. Sillage is moderate, the lasting power is pretty good. Worth a try of you like flowery scents.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Czech & Speake - Dark Rose
Katinka007 4/5/2009 11:30:00 AM
This parfum undergoes quite a fantastic transformation on my skin.
At first it smells quite spicy ; I imagine it must smell of saffron and oudh (unfortunately I don't know what oudh, or even saffron, smell in it's pure, undiluted form). Suffice to say that the scent is pleasant, not too medicinal, masculine or pungent. Initially I can't smell any rose but slowly rose gains on prominence and the spicy notes move into the background until I'm left with a pure, velvety rose at drydown.
I love Dark Rose best in its middle, spicy-rosy stage of transformation-if it smelt like this all the time, I might even consider getting a FB.
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Fragrances -Czech & Speake - No. 88
Katinka007 4/2/2009 12:20:00 PM
Smells like a typical shaving cream. Not unpleasant but not particularly unique and definitely not something I'd want to smell of.
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Fragrances -Czech & Speake - Rose
Katinka007 4/2/2009 11:52:00 AM
This would be the perfect rose perfume for hot summer weather; it's delicate, fresh and airy. Geranium complements rose perfectly. It's supposed to contain also the notes of ylang ylang, mimosa & patchouli but I really only smell rose and geranium. The staying power isn't the greatest, perhaps unsurprisingly since it's a cologne.
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Powder -Lumiere - Flawless Finish
Katinka007 11/16/2008 10:07:00 AM
This is now officially my HG foundation! I have dry skin that is prone to redness around nose/cheek area and need heavy coverage. This product actually does live up to its name and makes my face look flawless.
While it's supposed to be suitable for normal-dry skin, it's still quite drying (though perhaps a tiny bit less than ordinary MMU) so anyone with dry skin will probably have to moisturize skin very well before using it. I use Garnier facial sunscreen during the day, which is very thick and goopy and it actually works very well with this foundation. I usually apply it at least half an hour before doing my mu, blot skin before application and then apply foundation with EM flat top brush, making sure I only apply a tiny bit of foundation (it really has very good coverage so you have to be careful).
The reason this doesn't get five lippies from me is that unfortunately it just doesn't work well with any moisturizer. I once applied it the same way as usual except I used my night moisturizer, that is actually quite heavy as well. The result was awful, blotchy and cakey. I also have to be very careful to only pick a little foundation with a brush since it's so pigmented.
A word about colors. For my hard-to-match skin light neutral is best color match. BTW, in EM olive fair was best. Golden color family is very yellow, warm is also yellow, but more subtly. Beige colors are supposed to have balanced pink and yellow undertones but on me they were quite cool. I haven't tried any cool colors, but I imagine those have very prominent pink undertones. The warm color family runs quiet light compared to the neutral color family (light warm is too light for my skin whereas light neutral is just perfect. I think the golden color family also runs a bit darker and the beige one a bit lighter, but it's been a while since I've tested them.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Makeup Brushes -Lumiere - Duo Fiber Optic
Katinka007 11/2/2008 10:44:00 AM
A good brush for applying vivid/highly pigmented blushes-a heaven sent for anyone with fair skin like mine (and I'm not even extremely pale!). Sometimes I wish it was a little denser-a couple of times I've even used regular blush brush to blend the blush on the skin but on the other hand, a denser brush could pick up too much blush and this one picks up just the right amount of pigment. However, most of the time it works perfectly so this is just a minor complaint. When I got it it it really stank so I actually had to wash it a couple of time with heavily perfumed soap. I have never tried using it for liquid/cream foundation application so I have no idea how it could work for that.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Blush -Lumiere - Sugar Berry Blushing Bronzer
Katinka007 7/17/2008 10:35:00 AM
Normally I don't care for bronzers so I didn't pay much attention to this but anything with a word "mauve" in the description is bound to pique my interest sooner or later.
I wasn't disappointed with it. The color is medium dark dusty mauve. At first I thought I'll need a skunk brush to apply it but it goes rather sheerly on the skin. It is nearly matte and it applies beautifully as all Lumiere blushes. I think this is more of a blush than a bronzer, at least I don't think it makes me look tanned.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Highlighters -Lumiere - Innocence All Over Color
Katinka007 7/14/2008 10:08:00 AM
This is a very light brownish color-pretty much identical to my fair skin (I'm light neutral in Lumiere). I'd say it's a pretty neutral color. In direct sunlight or under strong artificial light it looks quite shimmery, but otherwise is not really OTT.
I liked this at first but now that I've tried other radiances from Lumiere I don't care much for it. I can't use it as a blush and it's also too close to my natural skin tone to be used as an efficient highlighter.
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Eyeliner -GOSH - Velvet Touch Eyeliner
Katinka007 7/11/2008 6:27:00 PM
The eyeliner in BLACK INK has been my HG for years-it's soft, long-lasting, doesn't smudge and it's relatively inexpensive. I have this eyeliner in three other colors as well: RISING SUN, which is a true gold, nice but too light to work as an eyeliner. FROZEN LILAC is a matte medium dark violet. COOL MINT is a light metallic green with a touch of blue. I have been neglecting eyeliners a little lately so I haven't paid much attention to new releases but today I finally spent some quality time ;) by the Gosh display and noticed they have some really nice colors, I love that they constantly add new colors to the line!
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Loose Powders -Lumiere - Silk Radiance Powder in Winter Silk
Katinka007 7/8/2008 2:18:00 PM
After reading the two reviews here I decided to order full sized product without sampling it first, which proved to be an excellent decision. This is a very pale pinkish milky color without much shimmer, it just makes skin look glowy. I wear it mainly on top of the cheekbones.
It is close to Baby Face radiance (I uploaded a pic showing both), BF has more shimmer and is pinkier. I like BF but WS is a more effective highlighter for my fair skin.
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Fragrances -Boucheron - Trouble
Katinka007 6/26/2008 3:30:00 PM
Mmmmmmmmm... This is one of my favorite cold weather perfumes-perhaps surprisingly because I normally don't care for either sweet vanilla scents or strong citrussy notes. However, in this perfume they are both ingeniously intertwined so the result is neither cloyingly sweet or unpleasantly sharp. For a good measure it contains also jasmine and woods that give the perfume more depth and complexity. The result is a sumptuous and heady concoction.
This wasn't love at first sniff for me, I think I tried it for the first time on a tester card and found it too sweet. Then I tried it on the skin and it didn't wow me either (it is possible that the tester bottle was just too old). For some reason I tried it again on the skin, fell in love with it, bought it and a year and a half later I still absolutely adore it. The bottle is also beautiful, luxurious but not overly flamboyant. I also find the perfume sufficiently long-lasting.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Blush -Lumiere - Ditto 'O'
Katinka007 6/25/2008 3:39:00 PM
I think this is a rather bright pink colored blush-I don't see much peach in this. It has subtle gold shimmer. Looks quite glowy on my skin but not quite like a natural flush. It's not really my color so I probably won't reach often for this but I can definitely see myself using up the sample.
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Loose Powders -Lumiere - Silk Powder
Katinka007 6/21/2008 9:03:00 AM
This is not something that I'd normally order, but one finishing powder comes with the sample starter kit and I read some rave reviews from dry skinned gals here and I thought I could give this a go. I use a sunscreen with very goopy texture so I I thought this might work as a primer before application of mineral foundation.
Well, I was wrong. Despite a very thin application, this instantly dried out my skin and made me look like a mummy.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Blush -Everyday Minerals - Natural Blush
Katinka007 6/20/2008 4:56:00 PM
Pale pink shimmery highlighter/blush. Shimmer is quite obvious, at least in direct sunlight, but not over the top (bear in mind that I have dry skin so I don't have to worry about looking oily though). On my fair but not extremely fair skin it barely shows up, but I haven't tried packing it on for better color payout. I didn't find it special in any way so I won't repurchase it. Besides, there are many fabulous highlighters out there so I'm rather picky ;)
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