Holiday beauty treats and NYE look

Hi there! It's been a while. Reasons? The usual- life. I wish I could say I've been up to deliciously exciting things and that the fruits of said labour would make up tenfold for the lack of such little things as sleep, rest and fun. Or even, that in place of those I've at least made a small fortune, alas, that is not the case. Sometimes you just get sucked into a vortex of, well, suck, where there's no emotional or financial compensation to motivate you through it, instead, the only motivation you're left with is the promise that this period will too come to an end. Even when the end keeps getting rescheduled, postponed, dragged out – you name it! - and the conditions of the vortex keep getting more obscene, infuriating and exhausting. But, being the eternal optimist that I am, there absolutely will be an end to this suck and while I may exit on the other side more cynical and bitter, and getting on my bad side from now on would be a very unfortunate thing to do, really, as they say, this too shall pass. In a nutshell, it's just being trapped in unfulfilling projects, while battling anemia and having zero energy and patience for bullshit. Oh, and as a result, having no inspiration or desire to do anything creative. Lovely. But before I dive even further into “woe is me” subjects, let's talk about some true little lifesavers, beacons of hope and emergency pick-me-ups – makeup goodies!

This is a bit of a holiday haul, first impressions and New Year's Eve face of the day combo. For Christmas this year I asked for the following things- Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof in 83 Cassis, Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupté Shine in 8 and Blush Volupté in 2 Séductrice, and the pièce de résistance, the Guerlain Météorites in 02 Clair.

For my choice of stylo, I decided to deviate from black and brown, but ended up shooting myself in the foot, because after so much time swatching and making meticulous notes, I actually mixed up the numbers and got the wrong one. What I wanted was 85, a more burgundy purple, which I remembered as being 83, but 83 is actually a more pen ink, violet. I'm a bit disappointed by my own blunder. It'll suit all my purple eyeshadow beautifully, but I only intended to get one and was hoping that one would be a colour I didn't have several variations of already (not as in liners, but products for the eyes in general). I like this eyeliner more than I thought I would, but I'm not yet sure if I'd get more – like a brown and the above mentioned burgundy. It's not the easyest to work with and while I was intrigued by the sharpener that you get on the flip end, it doesn't work very well, and I'd much rather it were an angled sponge smudger instead, which I'm having to borrow from a different liner to smudge this one. It's not that you get a smoky khol line, the texture of this is quite the opposite, but it's a very grippy, rubbery formula that applies patchy and you need a tool to spread it evenly once it's applied. Also, as usual, automatic pencils are a terrible value for money compared to wooden ones you can sharpen. I certainly couldn't justify using it for winged liner every time I wanted to do one. However, it may be a good option for the water line. I haven't played with it too much yet, but the few times I have, it doesn't seem to irritate my eyes or trigger headaches, but it's also not a miracle product and does migrate and smear, not nearly as badly as some others, but still, not miraculous performance by any means. I'll have no trouble using this up, whether or not I'll replace it afterwards with another colour remains to be seen.

The YSL blush and lipstick should come as no surprise seeing as they're probably my favourate formulas for either product. The Rouge Volupté Shine in 08 is in fact a repurchase I'd been longing for, and the blush is replacing my Chanel Rose Ecrin, which I hit pan on and haven't been able to get any colour from in months, as my everyday blush, which I've been lusting after ever since I got my first YSL blush in 05 Baby Doll in the summer.

Up to this point, everything has been a practical purchase, but the Guerlain Meteorites are something else. Some people swear by them, others don't get them. For me, it's a beautifully made cult product that's frankly quite useless, but for reasons that don't really make for a good argument in favour of this product, I just really, really wanted one. The beautiful tin, the unique fragrance and the rattling of the pearls as my brush swirls in them – it's the little pleasure that I really wanted to have for myself, regardless of whether or not the product actually did anything for me. Thankfully, I knew going in that it may or may not work for me, and so, didn't expect miracles. Honestly, on me, I can't really see it. If I really pack it on and look at myself in bright, direct sunlight, I can see sparkles, but they look just like eyeshadow fallout from my Guerlain quad in 08 Les Perles. In fact, the lightest pearl in the tin looks and swatches pretty much identical to the white shade in the palette. Now, on my mother, who is around an NC 20-25, I can really see the powder. In addition to the sparkles, I can see the skin become smooth and blurred, but because I'm so ghostly white to begin with, all of that just blends into my complexion without any further brightening. So, darlings, if you're lighter than NC 15, you're probably not going to see any magic on your face. But, as I said, I'm okay with it. I'm sure there actually is an effect, but it's just a very subtle one, and what's most important for me in the end is the ritual of application. As pointless as it is, it makes me happy, and that's the point of the Meteorites for me.

So, those were my holiday beauty treats and some thoughts I have on them. I'm wearing all of the above mentioned products in this post today, December 31^st. Wishing everyone a beautiful evening and a wonderful 2016, cheers =)!