Cosmetic Cupcake

According to the husband I have way too many pairs of shoes. When we moved in together he was just a teeny bit shocked to discover just how many pairs I have lol. A girl needs shoes for every occasion! So a shoe and makeup collaboration..? Don't mind if I do! NARS recently made this happen by collaborating with designer Pierre Hardy to create a 6 nail polish pairs and 2 blushes inspired by his latest footwear collection. Today I have swatches of the nail polish duo in Vertebra for you!


What they say:

In a bold new collection for NARS, designer Pierre Hardy brings his fresh colour palette to the iconic beauty brand. Inspired by his Summer 2013 shoe collection, Hardy's offering includes six colour-forward nail polish pairings and two richly-hued blushes. Nail polish duos come housed in a small shoebox with dust bag (a nod to Hardy's own footwear packaging), while the high voltage blush palettes go graphic with shimming gold overspray of the designer's signature cubic print.

The polishes come in a "shoe box" with a cute dust bag just like a pair of shoes! The polishes aren't named individually either - just left and right carrying on the shoe theme.


Vetebra Left is a bright coral creme that leans pink on me. Some shades of coral tend to do this on me for some reason! 2 coats is pictured.



Vertebra Right is described as a "dusty rose" but it's not really a rosy sort of colour to me! More of a beige-brown. 2 coats is pictured.




Overall: The formula on these is absolutely fantastic! They are super pigmented and if you're careful both could easily be one coaters. I only own one other NARS polish (Pokerface) and I wasn't super sold on the formula - the formula of it was thicker compared to the Vertebra duo and I experienced balding. The Vertebra shades on the other hand applied wonderfully with no balding or streaking and they dried quickly to a glossy finish.

Details: The NARS Pierre Hardy polishes are available now from Mecca Cosmetica and Mecca Maxima stores for $39.

Thanks for looking as always!

The product featured in this post was provided to me for consideration but this in no way influenced my review in any way. As always, my reviews are my 100% honest opinion. My Disclosure Policy can be viewed here.

Hi ladies! I hope you've all had a lovely weekend =) Today I have a quick haul post for you courtesy of the awesome Tammie. Sephora unfortunately doesn't ship to us Aussie ladies (BOO!!) so lovely Tammie is my US enabler! I haven't been doing many haul posts lately.. lots of people are really struggling at the moment so I don't really feel comfortable doing my monthly haul posts (I haven't hauled TOO much recently) but the occasional haul post is OK I think as I know you guys enjoy them.


So many goodies!!!! xD It was great to open up the package hehe. Tammie also helped some of my friends get some items too which was so nice.


NARS Sea of Love set containing full size Illuminator in Laguna, lip gloss in Turkish Delight, The Multiple in Orgasm and blush in Super Orgasm.


Look how cute the mini NARS blush is! Here it is next to my full size Orgasm blush hehe.


Some Urban Decay goodies!! 24/7 Shadow Pencil Stash, 24/7 liner in Yeyo and Grind House pencil sharpener. I mainly got the pencils to try the teal colour because I want to add some colour to my makeup ;)


I've been loving cream eyeshadows lately because they're so simple and quick to use! I've been itching to try the Benefit Creaseless Creams ever since I saw them over on Emily's Anthology. She raves about Strut and she did a great tutorial on how to take your makeup from day to night using it so I thought I'd get a few to try out. I got Birthday Suit, RSVP and Strut.


And last but not least my HG eye makeup remover Lancôme Bi-Facil and another Sephora exclusive Dior Addict lipstick in Model.

Tammie also helped me get something for my sis which isn't pictured because it's part of her Xmas present and hidden at the moment from her prying eyes ;) Thank you once again for helping me get my hands on Sephora items Tammie!! I seriously would have a lot less make up (and lemmings you huge enabler!) if it weren't for your generosity in helping me custom purchase ♥

What have you hauled lately? Thanks for looking as always!

Hi ladies!! I am SUPER busy at the moment so unfortunately I haven't had much of a chance to blog or reply to comments or really do my nails much. Hopefully things will slow down after this week! Here's a quick NOTD I did last week. It was a VERY rough mani so do excuse the rough application of polish!


I started off with 2 coats of NARS Pokerface as a base. Unfortunately I didn't get a good swatch photo of Pokerface by itself doh! I then added 2 coats of OPI Show It and Glow It! on my accent fingers. On all other fingers, I used China Glaze Millenium to stamp full zebra design from Born Pretty plate m69*.

I cut my ring finger =(

I hope you've all been well and having a lovely weekend =) I can't believe it's Monday tomorrow already. Where the heck did my weekend go?

Thanks for looking as always =D

* Product(s) sent to me for consideration but this in no way influenced my review in any way. As always, my reviews are my 100% honest opinion. My Disclosure Policy can be viewed here.

I've been trying to master freehand rose nail art like in the Japanese nail mags without success for ages now. It's so frustrating as you can probably tell I LOVE rose manicures and the manis I've seen in the mags look so good. Every time I tried, the roses ended up looking like multi-coloured blobs! I was determined last week to try and make the roses work but in the end they still looked crap, just big and awkward =( I guess they looked somewhat alright from far away so don't look too closely at my pictures haha.


For this mani I used:

Pinky, middle and index fingers: I started off with 3 coats of Orly Lemonade. I then used a dotting tool from Born Pretty to place dots using China Glaze Grape Pop. I then used a small brush (also from Born Pretty) to add small lines using NARS Pokerface and China Glaze Sugar High. For the leaves I used OPI Jade is the New Black.

Ring finger: I used 2 coats of NARS Pokerface and then added a glitter half moon using Art Deco nail striper in gold glitter.

Thumb: 2 coats of OPI Glitzerland.



I loved the combination of yellow, purple and gold but I just wish I could get the hang of freehand roses! What nail art do you love but can't seem to get right?

Thanks for looking as always!

Hi ladies! I'm finally nearly all better from my cold so I've been able to head out and about for some shopping. I've hauled a bit of stuff in the last few days but today I had the pleasure of meeting up with the very lovely Jennifer from life and lens of beauty for some beauty shopping in Tsim Sha Tsui! She very kindly showed me around lots of awesome places for beauty items - most of the places I never would have known contained beauty items at such great prices!

Once again, please excuse the crappy photos while I'm in HK. The lighting at my grandparents place is very yellow and there isn't much room to take good photos so don't mind the piles of stuff in the background of my shots =p


Jennifer very generously gave me a gift of Lush shower gel in Snow Fairy. Thank you so very much Jennifer - it smells absolutely DIVINE! You really should not have =) I can't wait to try it out, I'm going to smell good enough to eat hehe.


I tried (not very hard HA!) to limit the damage to my wallet today by only purchasing a few things. I picked up my first NARS goodies today from Facesss!! WOOT! Thank you Jennifer for allowing me to use your members card ;) I had to get Orgasm blush and also Pokerface limited edition polish from their Holiday 2010 collection.



How darn beautiful is this lilac???!!!! It contains a beautiful silver shimmer through it. The price wasn't so nice (I hate having to pay more than $15 for a polish) but compared to Aussie prices it was OK.


I picked up Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream in 21 for a bargain price at a great hidden beauty shop that sold lots of great brands and products. I'm thinking I should have bought more from there!! I tried a sample of this back home but held off purchasing from the Aussie Missha store, I'm SO glad I did because it was a steal.

Very crappy photo sorry!
Some Skinfood polishes! i had a hard time choosing from the different colours, they were all so pretty! The pic below is not colour accurate though I'm afraid. The polish on the left is a gorgeous teal colour but it looks more blue here.


Jennifer highly recommended I try Laneige Water Sleeping Pack so I bought a small sample of it. I'll be trying it tonight!! On another note, I love all the sample size items you can buy in HK! Great way to test before you take the plunge with a full size product.


Jennifer and I were both curious about Vitacreme B 12 Regenerative Cream. We'd both read good things about it but had no experience with it so we got teeny tiny sample tubes to try! Can anyone enlighten us on the proper way of using it please..?? Thanks in advance!


I got some spare hair velcro clips. I have a fringe and these are fantastic for keeping hair off my face when getting ready.


Jennifer had to rush off for class so I went back to one of the stores to get some Golden Rose polishes. I take aaaaaaaaages choosing colours when faced with a tub full of choice so I didn't want Jennifer to have wait around for me! =p Since I started reading blogs and becoming more aware of the international brands out there, I am amazed at the range of international polish brands available in HK. I never expected to find Golden Rose polishes here!


I also purchased Lioele Triple Beyond Solution BB cream. The sales lady was very good in selling it! I've been making the transition to BB creams so I'm looking forward to road testing this. If not my sis can have it!


Thank you for a wonderful outing Jennifer! It was lovely meeting you! I wish we had more time to shop but there is always next year =) I will definitely be bringing you over some Aussie goodies to try next year!

Thank you for looking!