Some Gifts for the Holidays

There are always cosmetics that seem to catch my attention that I add my list every year. This year has been harder than others in the past though as so many brands have changed their animal testing status to be able to sell in China. (Extremely frustrating as a cruelty-free beauty blogger and a big part of the reason I've not been blogging as much)

Anyways, here are some items that made the cut! Enjoy!

Hourglass Extreme Sheen Lip Gloss- Siren

This has been on my wishlist for over a year. Expensive but it looks so nice!

NARS Albatross Highlighting Blush

Another long time wishlist item. I love the colour and though again on the pricer side I've heard such good things about Nars blushes over the years it's something I've been eyeing too.

Guerlain Eye & Lip Calligraphy Palette

A beautiful sophisticated eye and lip palette from Guerlain. I'm a little sketchy on whether Guerlain is still non-animal testing though. I've heard both answers lately.

Fresh Sugar Addiction Mini Lip Collection

These fresh lip treatments are half-size but you get a large range of colours! Plus with that many you don't really need the full size anyway. I love value packs. :D

Tarte Amazon Escape Amazonian Clay Eye & Cheek Palette

If you haven't tried tarte's amazonian clay blushes, I highly recommend them. Highly pigmented, long wearing and nicely packaged. This set has two in it and some nice looking eyeshadows.

What about everyone else? What are you eyeing up for Christmas?

Hebridean Sprite Beauty Christmas Carol Collection

The Christmas Carol Collection!
L-R: Deck the Halls, Winter Wonderland, Hark! Angels Sing, O Christmas Tree, Reindeer Games

As many of you know I opened up my own small nail polish line in October. For the holiday season I wanted to add to the collection and I finally settled on 5 colours I think are not only festive but fairly non-denominational too despite their Christmas Carol names. I just wanted to show you all the pictures of them, and I apologize for some of the not so great photography. Certain colours *coughDecktheHallscough* refused adamantly to be photographed true to life.

Reindeer Games

Reindeer Games! Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer inspired. A warm chestnut brown with a hint of purple shimmer and Red hex glitters.

Deck the Halls

Deck the Halls, the most blatantly festive of the collection! A true red jelly with gold holographic hex glitter.

Hark! Angels Sing!

Hark! Angels Sing! Is a pretty warm gold with colour-changing etherealness to it. It goes from peachy-pink to gold to green. 

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree, is slightly like Hark! Angels Sing in that it has a colour change to it. This mossy golden-green actually has a red shift to it as well as emerald green mini hex glitters. Like a whole Christmas Tree on the nails.

Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland. This polish was made with freshly fallen snow drifts in mind, bright and slightly shimmery with a hint of a blue tone at times and a deep blue when in shadow. I love the contrast of the two matte glitters here with the base and the sapphire holo glitters. So fun!

Winter Wonderland Manicure

And a not so great photograph of me wearing Winter Wonderland.

So what do you think? Do these put you in the spirit of the upcoming holidays?

Royal Vampire Nail Polish Manicure for Halloween

For those of you following the Hebridean Sprite Beauty shop on facebook you probably know I've been working on this Vampire inspired shade for a while now- about a month. First it was too dark, then too light then too opaque, then the subtle shimmer wouldn't show up on the nail, then it dried too matte. Finally I managed to get a shade that I'm happy with though I still need a topcoat for it in order to reach it's full potential I think. 

Anyways it's a dark bloody red jelly shade with a subtle regal purple shimmer that is only evident in some lights. Shown is with three coats and I'm loving it, especially for Halloween. I'm actually posting it today in the shop and it will be a part of the permanent mythological line if anyone is interested. I wanted to post it earlier but as you can tell from earlier I just wasn't happy with it yet.

Above you can see some evidence of the purple shimmer. It's much harder to catch on camera than I'd hoped it would be.

Strangely but kind of ironically in the bottle Royal Vampire looks like bottled half-dried blood as it has a weird brown tone to it. None of that tone really shows up on the nail though and the shimmer is much more prominent in the bottle. I have no clue as to why this is but I thought I'd mention it.

a shot of the shimmer

Looking like partially dried blood

Hope everyone has a lovely candy-filled Halloween this evening! Stay safe and have a blast!

Avene's Clean-Ac Moisturizer~ Review

Clean-AC Hydrating Cream

Avene is a skincare brand that I tend to go back to again and again but frequently forget to talk about. This product in particular is actually one of the best ones in my skin-care essentials and I can't believe I haven't blogged about it before.

Avene is a brand that uses spring water from a special healing spring in France in all of their products as well as solid dermatological formulations. I'm not so sure about all the water's healing properties myself but I have had success with their products.

Clean-Ac is a thick white moisturizer that smells lightly of cucumber, designed for red, irritated or acne prone skin. This is perfect if you are using an acne fighting system that is drying to your skin but you still have acne.

A little too thick for day, I prefer to use this at night as it's soothing, very moisturizing and I've always noticed a decrease in overall redness and acne appearance by the next morning. It also reduces the flakiness that can come with the harsh systems to fight acne.

I don't recommend this for daytime though as it doesn't have an SPF or sunscreen component (which is important for keeping skin healthy and youthful) plus it can feel a bit greasy after about 3-4 hours. I much prefer to slather on at night and cleanse off in the morning.

Priced around $18-$20 dollars it is on the pricy side, but you don't have to use much due to the thickness of the product.

Overall, it's a moisturizer but a very good one that calms the skin as well as it's hydrating properties. A bit on the expensive side but worth it, even if you only use it occasionally for agitated or reddened skin.

Sprite Rating: 9/10 (lost half a point for price and half a point for greasiness if used during day time that can occur after a few hours).

Would I buy this again? Yes, in fact I'm almost through my second bottle.

Check out Pointless Cafe's Review!

Shiela the blogger over at Pointless Cafe is featuring 4 of our mythological collection shades over the next couple days! Her review of Underhill is amazing- the photos way beyond anything I could have managed! I can't thank her enough!
Check it out here:http://www.pointlesscafe.com/2012/10/hebridean-sprite-beauty-underhill.html