Monday, January 17, 2011

Sephora x Hello Kitty swatches.

We interrupt my regular procrastination to bring you swatches of the recently release (released today in fact if you're Canadian) Sephora x Hello Kitty collection.
Please take into consideration these photos were taken with my beloved Blackberry in artificial light. I tried my best to photograph everything clearly though and even used my macro feature!!
Sorry no swatches of the Charmmy eyeshadow sticks as my Sephora did not seem to have them in yet! Also absent were the blinged out products and the liquid liner.
The collection is available at the Pacific Centre Sephora in Downtown Vancouver. It sits on a tiny display near the mall entrance.
p.s. I received a lot of stank eye for taking these photos.
p.p.s. Now that I think about it, I probably received the above due to the fact that I was hogging the display.
p.p.p.s. I'm sorry if I was in your way.
 Nail polishes:
 Swatches of the nail polishes in order of display:
Apple cheeks:
 Swatches of Apple cheeks in order of display. There was also a highlighter which I neglected to swatch.
 Charmmy pencil swatches:
 Say Hello palette:
 Say Hello palette swatches. I swatched the glosses underneath the shadows. They do not show up. At. All.
 Big Fun palette:
 Big Fun palette swatches. As with the Say Hello palette, the lipglosses for the Big Fun palette is so sheer it is invisible.
Big Smile gloss:
 Big Smile gloss swatches:
 Sweet Gloss part 1:
 Sweet Gloss part 1 swatches:
 Sweet Gloss part 2:
 Sweet Gloss part 2 swatches:
Apple Balm swatches:
 Handheld Mirror and brush set:
 Eyeshadow palettes, compact mirror, Charmmy Pencil with Apple Balm and Apple Cheeks in background:
 Perfumes and Body Splash:

Some thoughts on the collection:
The nail polishes are absolutely adorable, if you get nothing else from the collection at least get a bottle of the nail polish. I skipped on a lot of the colours because I feel they're easily duped by others in my collection (Purple Sprinkles remind me a lot of China Glaze's Electric Lilac) and at $13 a pop before tax, they're outside of my nail polish price comfort zone. The bottles ARE quite small but maybe the width of the bottle makes up for it. Besides it's not like I'd ever finish a bottle of nail polish.
The Apple Cheeks might more aptly be called cheek tints. Almost ALL of them are sheer with the most pigmented of them being Charmmy and Blushing and Peachy being the most sheer. Their finishes seem to vary, Cherry Blossom has a very glossy, gel like texture and on the face would probably appear very dewy (oily people beware!) while Charmmy was almost a matte.
The Charmmy pencils were very pigmented and creamy but did smudge quite easily.
The Big Smile glosses are very...gloopy, there's no other word to describe them. The formula is extremely thick and I wonder if it'll spread evenly on the lips. However, they are quite pigmented, at least they were on my hand.
The Sweet gloss is more like a tinted lipbalm. None of them really imparted much colour but do feel quite moisturising.
Of the eyeshadow palettes, I would say Say Hello is the more pigmented out of the two. It does run a tad chalky though as the colours are matte. Big Fun has more of a shimmery finish and is less pigmented. I HATE how sheer the glosses are, but rest assured those of you who dislike powder and gloss in the same container, the two products are separated quite securely and there's not much chance of mixing.
The Apple balm has a lovely texture and appears rather pigmented, I'd imagine it to give lips a very juicy look. However, I hate that it's got a very finicky screw on lid - I can imagine getting extremely irritated closing it after use.
The perfumes were a huge disappointment for me, I don't really know how to describe it, it is kinda fruity and dries down to a floral finish. It is rather subtle and after 2 hours I can barely smell it on myself anymore. Absolutely not worth the $72 unless you really REALLY want it just for the bottle.
The Body Splash just smelled so strongly of alcohol when I opened it that I immediately closed it so nothing to comment there.
Surprisingly the hand-held mirror is rather sturdy and if I was 10 years younger I'd totally want it. Heck I want it now.
I also HATE how overpriced the collection is compared to American prices. Just because we're Canadian it doesn't mean we're THAT nice.
My Recommendations:
The nail polishes; Big Smile gloss in Watermelon; Say Hello palette; Apple Cheeks in Blushing and Charmmy and that damn mirror!!