Fine, I don't have that many reasons to celebrate Spring yet: after all, the sky is cloudy today and it might start raining any second. Then again, about two weeks ago on a Friday evening I was heading home from a quick meeting with a friend, and there was just something in the air, something that had not been there before. The lights were different, the air was unusually warm and fragrant with the scent of damp earth and fresh sprouts, while the birds were singing a song I had not heard them sing for almost a year. I knew right there and then that Spring was not much farther away, and lo and behold, I was right:



Now, I've been absent for a good while, but I have managed to pick up a lovely assortment of new things to write about. I promise I'll get to them soon, but for now allow me to show you the contents of a small, sort of experimental order from Stars Makeup Haven. This online store offers a wide array of MAC pigment samples to play with, not to mention cheap but usable brushes, makeup palettes and full size products by many well-known brands.

What drew me to them first and foremost were the MAC pigment samples, but I was also glad to discover that at the time they were selling empty lipbalm tubes for as little as 0.5$ per tube, the kind that's easy to work with and that I'd been wanting to have for ages, as I wanted to save some of my not-so-perfect lippies and create some unique shades of my own. I have yet to claim the kitchen mine and experiment, but sooner or later I will get to it.




The following brush (White Angle Taklon Eyeliner Liner Brush) is their version of a MAC one, only as they don't have it in stock at the moment I can't tell you which. One thing I can tell you, however, is that it's a great brush that's definitely worth the 2.5$ I paid for it. Since I got it, it hasn't shed a single hair, and the bristles and soft but firm, allowing for great precision and enabling me to draw a very fine and smooth line relatively quickly and easily.




The last item in my parcel was the most eagerly awaited as well: a 1/4 teaspoon sample of MAC's Sunnydaze pigment, my first MAC pigment ever. I'd been really curious about these colorful concoctions and wanted to know what all the fuss was about, but I was never really inclined to cash out on them. Well, now I know what I'd been missing all my life. ;-)

The pigment itself is an insanely adhering little thing: as you can see in the picture, it sticks to everything it touches, from the sides of the jar to my eyelids. It is also astonishingly pigmented (Well, duh!), meaning I need only the smallest amount to cover my eyelids, and also that this 1/4 tsp sample will last me quite a while.

The color is gorgeous: a lovely light brown shimmer with a dark brown base, which lends it a multidimensional character and makes it seem I'm wearing at least two different colors on my eyes, when I'm wearing only one. Unlike most MAC pigments which are usually too bold for me even to consider wearing them at work, Sunnydaze is a sophisticated pearly brown that can be worn in many different ways:




Foiled (mixed with water, some sort of mixing medium or Visine :-) it acquires a metallic sheen and has the most intensive color. Applied on top of ArtDeco's Eyeshadow Base (the ultimate eyeshadow primer; thank you Bagaela!) it lasts an entire day without creasing, fading, or sliding off my lids, while putting it on bare skin will result in the most subtle but probably most wearable finish one can get. The exact shade is so very difficult to capture and I had to fiddle a lot with the settings of my camera before I managed to take the pictures below:





Stars Makeup Haven:
Shipping time to Budapest, Hungary: 1 week
Shipping costs: here
+ pigment samples from the new Hello Kitty collection are already available!

Another online store that sells MAC samples is The Body Needs: their shipping costs are a bit higher, but the samples themselves are priced much lower than those of SMH. True, I haven't ordered anything from them yet, so I wouldn't know how much pigment their 5g jars actually contain. I'll test them once our currency gets a bit stronger. ;-)

...

Just as I predicted at the beginning of my post: it has started raining...

Gah, I love these smileys!