Mid-year makeup haul from Sephora ME

Mid-year makeup haul from Sephora ME

YSL Cosmetopia Digest   Tuesday, July 29, 2014

A hundred years ago, on this very day, a series of events broke out that touched the lives of people in many, many countries - definitely throughout the British Empire. A moment of silence for those fallen in the Great War, please. My family and I are marking this by visiting two memorials - one here, and one in my Gramps's hometown - with flowers (see photo at the end of the post). On to lighter topics now.

Have you noticed the near-absence of haul posts on this blog recently? Blame Memebox for it. On the other hand, Memeboxes may come and Korean products may go, but Sephora goes on forever. I managed to find time despite a super-hectic schedule - which included football-watching - to pick up a few things from Sephora Dubai, Boots, Al Shop (I know, right), Bloomingdales, Pari Gallery, Karisma and a couple of random stores whose names I don't even remember. Here is what I bought during my trip, except for drugstore products and a couple of items missing in the depths of my suitcases. I tend to be a super-organised packer but disorganised when it comes to unpacking. Some of these are a bit squashed, as a result, but no real damage, thankfully.  You have seen the gifts with purchase and samples I received here, now take a look at the haul itself.

Ciate Chalkboard Manicure Kit review

Ciate Chalkboard Manicure Kit review

Swatches Cosmetopia Digest   Thursday, June 19, 2014

My nails are getting nubbier. Once a breakage-phase begins, they keep on peeling or breaking for a while. When one breaks, I have to file all the others down. And then, another one breaks to repeat the process. I actually wish my ring fingernail would break, too - it is the only intact nail and I don't want to file it into evenness for fear that it will break further and I will have to file all the others into the cuticles. However, I am not going to wait for them to grow, but will continue with nail art challenges.
Anyway. Ciate's Chalkboard Manicure kit was on my wishlist for a while and I was delighted to find it at Sephora ME. The base polish and the pens are intended to mimic blackboard and chalk respectively, creating "classroom chic".

Here are my thoughts on the Ciate Chalkboard Manicure Kit and a first attempt at nail art with it.

Ciate Colour Foil Manicure kit: Nail art fail

Ciate Colour Foil Manicure kit: Nail art fail

Swatches Cosmetopia Digest   Saturday, May 24, 2014

I did not want to buy the Ciate Very Colourfoil Manicure Kit in the first place, I wanted the Chalkboard nails kit. Unfortunately, the fiddly thing was unavailable at Sephora Dubai and they only had foil and caviar kits. As I already have enough caviar beads to cover an elephant twice over to see me through for a long time, I opted for the foil kit. Why was I against it? Because foil is way too blingy, shiny and "goldy" for my liking. Give me a plain black creme polish and I will cease nagging. It did not help that Sephora offered a deluxe gift from Benefit for accumulating 2,000 points and I wanted the points if I had to buy 20 boxes of Sephora wet wipes.
Anyway, the deed being done, I hemmed and hawed my way through almost half a year before deciding to try out the kit. The cover of the box proudly displaying multi-coloured bling, I made up my mind to go all out in imitation of the manicure pictured.

But before that, here are the contents of the Ciate Limited Edition Very Colourfoil Manicure kit.

Tropical cocktail manicure with Ciate Ivory Queen

Tropical cocktail manicure with Ciate Ivory Queen

O.P.I. Cosmetopia Digest   Saturday, April 26, 2014

For this week's GOT Polish Challenge, the theme was Something Tropical. I did not want coconuts, palm trees, beaches, fruits or flowers, the sun or anything yellow or orange. Picky, aren't I? I called for ideas on my blog's Facebook page and Dolon of Pout Pretty and Paulina Pawlowska-Stec suggested tropical drinks such as margheritas, and I loved the idea. Who does not enjoy sipping a cool cocktail in the height of summer?
The only problem with this was my shaky freehand skills, which I suspected would make glasses and crocodiles equally indistinguishable. But nothing ventured, nothing gained; I won't master freehand nail art by just sticking to stamping, striping, FIMO and other techniques. And here is my tropical drinks-themed manicure.

Pastel nail art for spring with Ciate Pepperminty nail polish

Pastel nail art for spring with Ciate Pepperminty nail polish

Swatches Cosmetopia Digest   Sunday, April 06, 2014

For once, I have actually picked a pastel nail polish for spring/summer. I normally love fall polishes for all the year round. Did I mention how obsessed I am with Ciate nail polish now? I wore Pecan Pie for my previous manicure. This time, I picked Pepperminty. The photograph above was taken in artificial light, so it looks a tad bluer than it actually is. But I have more photographs in different light conditions below.
Pepperminty is a fresh minty-turquoise creme nail polish, which goes on opaque in just one coat, though I wore two. Thick, creamy and very O.P.I.-creme-like, this polish is why I want all of Ciate's collections. This is what Pepperminty looks like on its own, without topcoat, in natural light:

Ciate Pecan Pie nail polish swatch, review, photos

Ciate Pecan Pie nail polish swatch, review, photos

Swatches Cosmetopia Digest   Sunday, March 30, 2014

A UK-based brand created by Charlotte Knight, Ciate caters to both nail technicians and salons, as well as to private customers. They have some amazing manicure kits and I can't wait to show you one in particular. I picked up a few of their nail polishes from Sephora Dubai recently, but now wish I had bought out every colour they had in stock, though I can't remember how much I paid for each bottle and Sephora won't attach price tags - the formula is brilliant.
I know I keep reaching for fall colours in spring and summer! I fully intended to paint little yellow suns on this dark brown nail polish from Ciate, named Pecan Pie, but ended up not wanting to ruin the chocolatey goodness with my lousy freehand. I applied this nail polish to go with my neutral brown EOTD with Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette, which I showed you on Friday.