Swatch-aroo: Chantecaille Lip Glosses & Guerlain Rouge Automatique Les Oranges

For some reason I always thought I didn't have a Chantecaille counter near me until there I was innocently strolling along through my go-to Nordstrom when lo and behold, a beautiful Chantecaille counter with semi-new testers out looking up at me like "You're late." What?! Why haven't I seen this before? More importantly, why did I never think of looking it up?

Click for a larger image.

I did a couple of swatches to share with you my joy in my new discovery :) Guava and Dragonfruit are shades from the Lip Gloss line (the ones in the silvery mini compacts with mirrors) and Sweet, Folly, and Flirt are shades of Brilliant Glosses. I was impressed with how light the lip glosses felt on the back of my hand and how natural they looked on my lips. The brushes on the Brilliant Glosses were super-soft. These retail for 28.00USD- not a bargain but pretty decent considering the price range of Chantecaille's skincare or her eyeshadow quads.

Next, some Guerlain Rouge Automatique swatches. I only swatched the four Les Oranges 140, 141, 142, 143. My favorite was 141 Quand Vient l'Ete which was a lighter coral pink and 143 Nahema, a more vibrant coral pink. These applied so buttery smooth on the back of my hand. I didn't try them on my lips so I can't vouch for how smooth they translate to the lips but I'm thinking they're probably pretty nice on the lips too.

So that's that! Any special plans for the Fourth of July weekend? I plan to spend it in the nation's capital with friends and watch some fireworks! Hope everyone has fun!

Haul: Benefit: cha cha tint & b.right! skincare

I just got back from my mailbox and discovered my benefit haul had been delivered! It took a while to get here- but I'm just happy that it found me safe and sound, albeit slightly squashed.  

I open up the slightly squashed box and there's fab Gabbi looking back at me (or so I think- I can't tell exactly under her chic vintage sunglasses) and pretty coral on white tissue paper wrapped around my goodies. 

Inside were: A summer 2011 benefit catalog, a sample of Girl meets Pearl, a sample of Pore.fessional and the two things I had purchased:

1. the b.right! radiant skincare 6 piece intro kit

2. cha cha tint (benefit's new mango tinted lip cheek stain)

ah! I'm super excited to try everything!

From what I've seen this particular 6 piece b.right! intro kit is only available @benefitcosmetics.com which is why I ordered directly from them rather than from Sephora which I normally would have done. This kit comes in a convenient travel-size plastic pouch and contains 6 of the total 8 total b.right! skincare products currently available. (It doesn't have the mist and the makeup remover.) They're a little smaller than I anticipated but I appreciate how benefit didn't skimp on the packaging and kept them looking like perfect miniatures of the full-sized products (just minus the cork material). I've always been rather fond of benefit skincare products (eyecon, firmology, dear john etc.) even though they get less attention than their makeup counterparts (coralista, hoola, benetint etc.) so I'm super excited to try these out!

Next up: the much awaited cha-cha tint! Youngest sister to passionate Benetint and sweet PosieTint, cha-cha is sweet and passionate! Here are some swatches of cha-cha with PosieTint. The photo seems to have intensified cha-cha a bit more than the color in actuality- it's a bit softer in real life. I love that it doesn't have any shimmer and that it has the more milky consistency of PosieTint rather than the watery formula of Benetint. I'm confident cha-cha will help me glide through the heat and sweat of summer with perfectly tinted coral lips!