Perfumes to Own Just for the Bottle

In my post yesterday I briefly talked about how I love the simplicity, and mix of classic/modern of my Dior Pure Poison perfume bottle. The athetics of it's shape, weight, coloring, and proportions are, well just pretty to look at while also being practical and conveniently shaped and sized. It's pretty no? At first I thought the iridescence was a little tacky but it's grown on me after looking at it for 3 years. Of course I am ridiculously biased for particular perfume.

Pure Poison by Dior

Anyways it got me thinking about other bottles I've owned and/or seen (first hand or through adverts only) so I thought it would be fun to do a few posts on perfume bottles. Today I thought I'd do ones pretty enough to keep and display on your vanity even after using them up. Just as a note, I'm only talking about the bottles and am no way promoting the scents themselves. A few I don't like (and that's why I haven't gotten them even though the bottle is pretty) and a few I honestly haven't even smelled. While I love my Pure Posion I'm not sure I'd say the bottle is vanity worthy without it's contents, so on with the list!

Lola by Marc Jacob

I love this girly bottle with a sense of coyness, flirtyness and a little bit of fashion flare and fun. Plus it's a lovely shade of purple. It's a little outrageous and over the top, but that's what makes it fun for the counter, assuming you don't already have too much clutter!

The bottle's exquisite, multi-layered cap is a bursting bouquet with bright modern colors that pop against a matte black background and rope-inspired, gold metallic neck. The silhouette is inspired by Marc's fashion collection.

Princess by Vera Wang

The first few times I saw this bottle I thought it was kiddish and clunky. But it's grown on me. It's like a massive diamond and it brings out that fun, youthful, girly charm in everyone. Come on, deep down every woman deserves to be a Princess :D. And again, it's purple. I got a purple thing I guess.

J'adore by Dior

A classic and ionic bottle. Tall, eloquant, and spohicated without being old ladyish. My old roommate had this sitting on her dresser everyday and I love the smooth curves of it (plus this is one scent I can vouch for!). My only warning, this is one you absolutely can't lose/break the cap for, because that's essentially where it's all at. If you've you ever been in the fragrance section at Sephora where the tester is de-capped this bottle is utterly boring and almost unrecognizable.

Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker

Very similar J'adore but with a slightly younger more modern twist. I think it looks a bit plain in the picture, but in person the curvature, coloration, and weight is lovely. It's another shockingly simple one, but it's got class and quite elegance and maybe a hint of innocence? It makes me think of large egg, but in a good way, smooth and natural. The cap is a little over sized and ehh... but this is another one that I think the fragrance might be influencing my decision.

I guess overall I generally prefer simple, elegant, and balanced bottles. Any other pretty ones you suggest adding to the list? What are your favorite 'pretties'?

Wednesday Wish List: Dior Pure Poison

Current wish list item:

Pure Poison by Dior
1 oz Eau de Parfum Spray $59
1.7 oz Eau de Parfum Spray $75
3.4 oz Eau de Parfum Spray $95

Pure Poison has been my main scent for about 2~2 1/2 years so far and I ran dry of my current 1 oz bottle in early December. Sadly, current budget crisis after my recent holiday mean I can't afford even a 1 oz bottle. It's such a lovely unique scent though that doesn't 'tickle' like some of overly powerful florals of fruity scents. It's described as:

... a modern floral based on a white flower bouquet, infused with fresh amber. A radiant scent, it emits both purity and seduction with a first impression of soft flowers and the lingering allure of woody-amber and sexy musks.

It's primary notes are: sweet orange, bergamot, mandarin, orange flower, jasmine, gardenia, sandalwood, white amber, and musks. I'm a fan of musks and I can definitely detect that as well as hints of the amber, gardenia and maybe a little of the jasmine. It's said to have a "luminous, textured, and seductive" style. I agree with seductive for sure. I love it because it's professional and light for everyday use, yet also a little sultry and sexy if applied slightly heavier in the evenings. It's a versitile scent, at least with my particular skin chemistry.

As a side note I like the bottle. I've always been fascinated with pretty perfume bottle and once dreamed of being a 'perfume bottle designer'. Lol. It's simple, yet pretty, not over the top, and not so bizarrely awkwardly shaped in an attempt to be 'artistic' or different. Overall, it's classic yet a little modern, inside and out. I'd recommend it to anyone in the market for something new, and I can't wait to get my hands on another bottle again, hopefully soon!

MAC Art Supplies: COUPON CODE!

I got a MAC coupon code for you all: SUPPLIES. It gets you free standard shipping on any order until April 4th. Go forwth and shop!


MAC's new Art Supplies release includes pencils and markers items. It includes:

Greasepaint Sticks $17.50 (8 colors)
Pearlglide Intense Eyeliner $14.50 (6 colors)
Clear Lipgloss $14.00
Pro Longwear Lipstain Marker $16.00 (11 colors)

You can check out the limited time collection here, but frankly nothing really wowed me. Some of the eyeliners did look intense but I pretty much stick to creams these days. Also I've never had a good result with lipstains, I always just look like I ate a Popsicle. What do you think of the collection? Any must haves on your list? Let me know.

N.Y.C. Ultra Moist LipWear

During my 'mini haul' on Saturday I picked up 2 Ultra Moist LipWear lipsticks. N.Y.C. is a really 'picked on' and ignored brand and one I've never really even tried, but I was in the mood to buy stuff and broke so I went for the cheap stuff, $0.98 each. Sadly this lipstick only comes in 10 shades of the original 20 (see them here) and of them only 5 were in stock. It contains Vitamin E which is suppose to moisturize and condition and give 'a kissable shine.' I got it Violet Shine and Cafe.

I've heard some people complain about the cheap case (seriously, what do you expect for a dollar?) but I actually like the clear cap. Yea, it looks a little cheap and I suspect it could crack pretty easy in a bag, but I like the fact it's clear. I have so many lipsticks and I can never remember exactly what each shade looks like so this way I can just look without the hassle of taking off all the caps.

Violet Shine on the left, Cafe on the right (sorry about the bad quality).

Swacthed on my forearm. Cafe on the left, Violet Shine on the right.

Violet Shine on the lips. A rosey, red tinted pink.

Cafe on the lips. A light bronzey/coppery brown.

As you can see both colors are pretty frosted with a silver shine to them. Because of the frostiness it seems to accentuate any roughness or cracks in your lips so make sure to smooth them out and put some balm on first. Both go on a bit sheer and so creamy that you have to work a little bit to get color, but they are definitely moisturizing. As with a lot of cream based lipsticks I find it doesn't seem to 'stick' to my lips very well. Both are soft colors, a little bland, and not very sharp or defined like matte colors. Also due to the consistency the staying power is nothing special, the color seems to disappear quite quickly even without eating or drinking. Violet Shine is a misleading name, but a very pretty color and I find both are quiet wearable for me. Overall, they make good casual everyday lip colors I think, not for going out or special occasions, but for class, work, and to the grocery store. I think I consider them more of a tinted lip balm than lipstick. While they were nothing amazing they were dirt cheap and not absolute rubbish so no real complaints here.

Packaging: 3 of 5
Smell: N/A
Color: 3 of 5
Consistency: 3 of 5
Staying Power: 2.5 of 5
Buy again?: Probably not

N.Y.C. Light Beam Lipgloss

Several months ago my friend got several Rimmel Light Beam After Dark Lipglosses. They're slightly chunky squares with a small mirror on the side and an LED light in the cap that can be turned on but a small button in the cap. While they are a little on the tacky gimmicky side I really liked the idea and thought it would be handy to have one kicking around my purse is soley for the light and mirror. Yes I don't really NEED a light to put lip gloss on, but it could be useful in dark bathrooms and clubs etc. I've been looking (somewhat passively) so them ever since she got them but never manged to find one.

Rimmel Light Beam After Dark Lipgloss $6-8

Enter New York Colors (N.Y.C.). During my idle visit to Wal-Mart Saturday I saw a small display of NYC lipglosses on sale. The N.Y.C. Light Beam Lipgloss looks exactly like the Rimmel version, but only $2.50 instead of $6+. I have no idea what they normally retail at, they aren't even listed on the N.Y.C. site when I looked just now, so I take this to mean they are discontinued? Anyways, for that price I grabbed one, not even expecting much out of the lipgloss itself but just for the sake of having a little emergency light and mirror in my bag. A clear gloss would have been ideal but they didn't have any so I picked up a light pink shade called Runway Lights.

N.Y.C. Light Beam Lipgloss $2.50
Little mirror on the side

Small light power button on cap

With the LED light in the cap on

Small LED light in upper left corner of cap, not on.

Overall the packaging seems a little clunky for me. The square shape is a little thick and squat, but it's lightweight. The lipgloss smells wonderful, like bubble gum! Application is on the sheer side, but still a noticeable shine and a little sparkle without being middle schooly glittery. The consistency is a little sticky but not too thick. It doesn't spread well and it took me a lot of dips back into the bottle to apply a coat all over my lips. Between the tasteyness, texture, and fainter color the staying power is pretty limited, but once again I didn't really buy this for the gloss. Overall I'm happy with it and got exactly what I expected; a fun handy container and some run of the mill gloss.

A very sheer nude color on the lips.

Packaging: 4 of 5
Smell: 5 of 5
Color: 4 of 5
Consistency: 3.5 of 5
Staying Power: 2.5 of 5
Buy again?: For the same price, Yes.

Paris Presents Highlighter Brush

The first item from my mini Wal-Mart haul yesterday was a 'highlighter' brush.

Paris Presents Highlighter Brush $4.98

I put highlighter in quotations cause that's what it says on the package but I think it looks more like a brush for liquid foundation and that's what I plan on using it for. I've been aching for a nice duo fiber brush such as MAC's 187 for awhile but haven't been willing to drop $42 for it yet. I figured I'd give this a try as it's under $5. I could tell right away it was no true dupe as the handle is shorter and thicker and head seems shorter and wider, but I just wanted a brush that could do the same job cheaper.

MAC 187 Duo Fibre Brush $42.00 (drool)

At first I thought it was just a no name brush but after looking for a minute I found Paris Presents on the back in small writing. I've personally never heard of it before so have no idea about the brand. Have you ever heard of it? It's not even listed as a brand on MakeupAlley (my beauty bible for reviews so to speak). According to its website it "creates and distributes makeup tools, bath and body products, travel accessories, nail and specialty beauty products at affordable prices." I looked over the site and there didn't seem to be much there. Apparently they have several brands but none which I've heard of (Body Benefits, Body Image, Razz, Ms. Manicure, Ms. Pedicure, Ms. Makeup, and EcoTools). The brush I bought isn't even listed on the site.They do have some eco friendly 'green' options so if you're into that kinda stuff I'd say check it out.

Back of the package

The brush comes in a nice pretty thick plastic case and even has a metal button snap so I suppose you could save it and use it for travel etc. However as soon as I started to pull it out of the case my hope of finding a MAC dupe were crushed. I've felt a MAC 187 they are soft and flawless. This, not so much. As soon as I touched it I could feel how coarse and rough the black natural hairs were. The way the package is you have to pull the brush out against the grain of the hairs and many were badly bent and sticking out at odd angels. It started shedding right away. Looking at it close (which I hadn't done in the store) you can see the black hairs are uneven across the top of the brush. The white synthetic hairs however are very smooth, soft and even however, so it's too bad the black hairs ruin it.

In the above shot you can see some of the hairs sticking out on the sides, shedding, and the uneven cut of the black hairs in particular. And honestly, I think this picture looks much better than it does in person.

Here's another shot of the head but on a darker background to give you some contrast for the white bristles.



Another bummer with this brush is it's not round. It's suppose to be, cause both the handle and the ferrule are, but the actually head has been squashed and I can't seem to bend it back into shape.


In other thoughts about the brush the handle is nice, unremarkable, but nice, and the brush has a nice overall weight and length to it. Unfortunately the texture and condition of the bristles has instantly turned me off of this brush. I guess you get what you pay for after all. In all fairness I haven't washed it yet, so hopefully it will finish shedding, soften up and bit, and round out. I'll test drive it for a bit more and give another update later after I've given it a fair chance.

Packaging: 4 of 5
Handle: 4 of 5
Bristles: 2 of 5
Overall: 3 of 5
Buy again?: Not right now. I'll try it out for a bit more before I make my final call though.

Mini Wal-Mart 'Haul'

I hate to even call this a haul as only I only got 6 items but I really needed something to finally get me started on this blog. I've had the name set aside for a bit but been too busy (ok, lazy) to actually get started on everything I want to do with it. So anyways, it was a boring Saturday and I was online fantasy shopping and racking up some very $expensive$ fantasy shopping cart bills so I needed to get out of the house to distract myself so fantasy online shopping didn't actually turn into real online shopping cause for me that DANGEROUS! There's not much where I live so I hit up my much visited Wal-Mart makeup zone. I've perused it hundreds of times, but I can still always find something I've looked over before. Here's what I ended up with today.



~Paris Presents -'Highlighter' brush (which I plan to use for liquid foundation)
~N.Y.C. - Light Beam (Runway Lights)
~N.Y.C. - Ulta Moist Lipwear (319B Violet Shine)
~N.Y.C. - Ulta Moist Lipwear (301B Cafe)
~Sally Hansen - Xtreme Wear (Blue Me Away!)
~Pure Ice - Nail Emanuel (Cheatin')

I'll review them piece by piece so stop back to check them out!