Happy New Year! Red Wings/Kohaku Uta Gassen EOTD New Year's Eve

Happy New Year to all my lovely readers!  Did you glam it up for New Years Eve? I did a festive look for the Red Wings game I attended last night.  Red and White are also the colors I could have worn for a Kohaku Uta Gassen viewing party in Japan.  Kohaku Uta Gassen is a girls vs. boys singing competition on NHK network every year in Japan.  The literal translation is the Red (ko) & White (haku) Song Competition.  Top musical acts compete on either side and a winner is chosen... it's not really unlike New Year's Rockin' Eve on TV in the U.S., except they make a little "competition" out of it! A quick google search shows that last night the Red Team (girls' team!) won... and so did the Red Wings!  Good omen for the new year, no?

Products used:
Face - Benefit The Porefessional, Chanel Perfection Lumiere Foundation in Beige 30, Dermablend concealer in Natural Beige, Essence Flower Powder (disc.), Rimmel Santa Rose blush

Eyes - TFSI, NYX Jumbo Pencils in Milk (lid) and Cherry (crease), NYX Trio shadow in Perpetual (red only), white shimmer shadow (forgot which), Lorac 3D Liquid Lustre (over the top of the white shadow only), Wet n Wild single shadow in Brulee blending out crease and on browbone, NYX Liquid Crystal liner in Crystal Hip (along lower lashline only), K-Palette black liquid liner pen along top lashline, YSL Effet Faux Cils Shocking mascara layered under Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill mascara (both are so expensive but not good enough on their own IMHO), Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara

Lips - just MAC Hue

Here's to a glamorous and winning 2012!
<3 Sarah S.

MAC Holiday 2011 Nordstrom Exclusive Fabulously Festive Frost Face Kit: Photos & Swatches

I'm so psyched because I just picked up my pre-ordered Nordstrom-exclusive Fabulously Festive Face Kit from MAC's Ice Parade Collection for Holiday 2011!  I swatched it all and took photos in case you're curious (mostly because I couldn't find any photos online anywhere myself!).  I also picked up Dazzleglass in Pleasure Principle, which is just sooo pretty!

I picked up this massive Vegan cookie at the Nordstrom Cafe while I was at it:

MAC Nordstrom Exclusive Festive Frost Face Kit:

The snowglobe on the palette is so cute!  The brushes are all right.  Not as good as full-size MAC brushes, but not as horrible as some reviewers make them out to be!

Left to right: Eyeshadows in Once Upon a Time (Veluxe Pearl), Below Zero (Frost), Embark (Matte), and Expensive Pink (Veluxe Pearl), Matte blush in Buff, Amplified Lipstick in Imagine This (it's so creamy!), and Lipglass in Tra-la-la

Swatches WITHOUT primer for a change!  Once Upon a Time is sheer but a good highlight color; Below Zero is the least pigmented but not too difficult to build up; Embark is very pigmented but similar in color to Below Zero; Expensive Pink is smooth, pigmented, gorgeous, and duochrome!

 Clearly these shades are well-coordinated. Embark would make a great liner shade while you could easily blend Below Zero in the crease without too much fear of overdoing it.  Even if you use the highly-pigmented Embark in the crease, I think it would be easy to blend out with Once Upon a Time!  I chose this kit because a) It was the only Fabulously Festive Face Kit Nordstrom had (correct me if I'm wrong, but the Warm and Cool sets might be a maccosmetics.com exclusive) and b) these colors really suit warm brunettes/redheads!

Tra-la-la Lipglass

Imagine This (Amplified) lipstick: it looks a lot better when you can see more of my face.

Wearing Imagine This lipstick.  I didn't really want to do a full face-shot because I'm not wearing this kit on my eyes or cheeks

These colors really say "Thanksgiving," so I'm excited I have my cozy Tofurkey Day makeup all figured out!  Did you get anything from MAC Glitter & Ice or Ice Parade collections today?