From left to right…

1) Lancome’s Ô My Rose Collection – A collection marked by coral-peach and teal hues, the Pop’n Cheeks Gentle and Lasting Blush promises to be the star product and the centerpiece of the collection.

2) Chanel’s Les Impressions Collection – This spring season Chanel goes neutral and classic  with a stunning collection filled with pinks, beiges, warm browns and khakis designed to enhance a woman’s natural beauty. Choice products include the  Radiant Glow Highlighting Powder pictured above, Rouge Allure Lipstick in Insouciante and Le Vernis Nail Colour in Particulière.

3) NARS – When asked to describe the collection, François Nars, Founder and Creative Director of NARS Cosmetics said, “It’s very sophisticated and bourgeois in a Parisian ‘16th Arrondissement’ way.”  It features soft, sexy shades and pops of colors. Try Ophelia Gloss (strawberry nectar) for that perfect spring pout, and Cruising Lipstick (a nude pink)

4) Stila Dust to Diamonds Collection – Add sparkle to lids, lashes and lips with Stila’s latest. Eyes glisten and reflect with jewel shadows, lips twinkle being slicked with Stila’s Exclusive Gem Complex (which contains diamond, emerald, jade, ruby, moonstone, rose quartz, sapphire, topaz, amethyst, amber, garnet, mother of pearl, and opal) and lashes gleam with mascara swirled with genuine diamond powder.

5) Bobbi Brown’s Cabana Corals Collection – This Spring collection comes with a hint of summer, inspired by cabanas and beachy corals.  Sport fresh new pinks on lips and cheeks with bright, cheerful glosses and a new Shimmer Brick in Nectar Shimmer.

6) shu uemura’s egerie’s collection -  shu goes beyond the borders of seasonal makeup with their 130th collection where audacious meets elegant. Kakuyasu Uchiide, shu’s artistic director, says “I want every woman to created their own spin on my glam-rock image; they can play with this collection like enjoying their favorite music,  like they are about to jump on stage and shine in the spotlight. ” With the collection comes several new products including the limited edition Eye Shimmer Duos and Satin Radiant Sticks.

7) Smashbox Heartbreaker Collection Pop-art inspired boxes and flirty colors make up this collection which features Smashbox’s first ever fragrance.  The Beauty Bug’s picks include the pinwheel-inspired Heartbreaker Fusion Soft Lights and the Heartbreaker Lip Shine.

8) Dior’s Boudoir Collection – Lace up in Dior’s newest collection, inspired by fancy femme’s from the 1920′s. Dainty and subtle, yet sensual and alluring, the intricate, detailed compacts that house the illuminating lace-effect powder will be hard for any beauty junkie to resist. The Beauty Bug loves the Dior Addict Gloss Reflect in Beige Veil, and of course, the sleek, ultra-feminine lace finishing powder.

The Beauty Bug has been testing this mascara for about a week now. Let’s just cut to the chase; She’s not completely writing it off, but She’s certainly not urging you to run to Sephora and spend $28 on it either.

Extase is the red-headed step child in the Dior mascara family. Its elder sister mascaras are more user-friendly, with better formulas and better wands.  Extase’s spiral-like tiered brush was inspired by the “tiered” couture dresses created by the House of Dior, but it’s this unique feature that is the product’s downfall. The wand picks up and deposits too much product, resulting in clumping. The formula is also somewhat thick and dries relatively fast, so if you’re a fan of multiple coats and layering, be sure to work quickly! To solve this problem, The Beauty Bug rolled the wand in some tissue before applying to rid it of any access product.

The mascara lengthens well, but doesn’t thicken or volumize adequately.

While some do like Extase and claim it’s done wonders for their lashes, the overall consensus is pretty universal. Comments from women that purchased the product include “not worth it”, that it “weighed down lashes”, and several ended up returning it.  Some are layering it with other Dior mascaras (which makes for one very expensive mascara, $55) and others are keeping tissues handy as The Beauty Bug suggested, but not many are loving it.

Dior Extase Mascara is available exclusively at Sephora for $28.

Disclosure: A press sample was provided to The Beauty Bug.

Last Sunday The Beauty Big had no patience for the Super Bowl (not that She ever has any patience for football), so She just did what She’d do on any normal Sunday – apply a mask,relax and do a Sudoku. Since She’s having a bad problem with severe dry skin, She went to Sephora and asked for a sample of the Dior HydrAction Deep Hydration Intensive Mask because She’s used and really liked the HyrAction Deep Hydration Defense Fluid.

She applied the mask to Her face and wasn’t pleased with the consistency – it was that of a cream or moisturizer and it felt like She should be rubbing it into Her face, not applying it as a mask. The consistency also made to hard to tell if She was applying enough of it, and if the product was evenly spread. When done with the application, she grabbed her Sudoku book and prepared to wait 10 minutes as the directions instructed. After 2-3 minutes of waiting Her face began to itch and She did all She could not to focus on the itiching and think about something else, but the itching continued. After 7-8 minutes of waiting, she licked her lips and tasted something odd. She hadn’t put lip balm on, She was sure of that. The Beauty Bug ran to look in the mirror and she noticed that the mask was literally melting on to her lips. There was barely any white product left on her face, it had all sunk in/melted.

With only about 2 more minutes to go, The Beauty Bug joined Her Boyfriend in the living room for the Half Time show, but was unable to sit and watch it because her face was too itchy. She ran to the bathroom to wash it off.

The sample remains in her bathroom, never to be used again…..

Please leave a comment if you have a good hydration mask that you like.

In the world of The Beauty Bug, the Dior brands’ strength is its’ mascara. Occasionally, she thought about buying a Dior Lip Gloss, or a red lipstick, but other than that, the Dior Brand meant Dior Show Mascara to The Beauty Bug. That was until She was given a sample of Dior’s HydrAction Deep Hydration Defense Fluid – that was when her perception of the brand changed.

The Deep Hydration Fluid is lovely. Sephora tells me that it “encourages more efficient water circulation between skin cells, for increased radiance and a youthful glow.” Does it do that? The Beauty Bug doesn’t know. But, she does know that when she puts it on her skin is feels lush and silky. Last night she used the cream, and climbed into bed, experiencing the same softness that she had before. She’s used it 3 times now. Each time immediately after applying the cream she crawls into bed and pulls the covers up to her chin and her skin feels feather-like against her comforter. It took her a while to come up with the appropriate adjective, but She finally landed on feather-like and is pretty happy with it, because her skin really does feel warm and velvety. After experiencing the Defense Fluid, she can only imagine what the HydrAction Mask feels like.

P.S. It looks like Sephora spelled HydrAction wrong in the description of the Defense Fluid – they added an extra “A”. It’s ok Sephora, we all make mistakes!

The Beauty Blog tells us how to apply it -  How come, if I follow these instructions, my eye lashes never come out like that girls’ lashes that work in Sephora. She tells me that she uses Dior Show so I buy it and it’s never quite the same!

15 Mascara Tips and Tricks – Ok, so there are 2 tips here that I’m not sure I agree with. I still don’t know how I feel about colored mascara. I’m sure there are very few people who can pull it off – unless it’s Halloween, or you’re on the runway. Also,if you’re looking for a dramatic look, they advise to only put mascara on your top lashes. I don’t call this dramatic, I call it uneven.

Bravo’s new ‘Top Hair’ Show -  Same thing as Top Chef, but with hair. Does this mean that Blow Out isn’t coming back? *Tear*

Beauty Bargains under $20 – I’ve been sitting on this link for a while – I think it’s a great resource.

Dior Show – I really want this mascara to work on me, as it works on other people – but for some reason it doesn’t – maybe it’s the way I’m applying it.

Dior Unlimited – The sales lady convinced me to buy this to put on after Dior Show – I like it.

Anna Sui Mascara – You used to be able to buy this at Sephora, I guess you can’t anymore. Anyways, a friend recommneded this to me, and I don’t like it at all. All the little loose fibers on the brush fall from my lashes on to my face throughout the day. I don’t recommend.

Lancome Definicils – This is by far my favorite – I do venture out and buy others, but always seem to fall back on this one – my old stand by.

HIP by L’Oreal High Drama Volumizing Mascara – I read somewhere that this was a good prodcu, and I think L’Oreal in general makes good cosmetics, but I’m not a huge fan. I think I need to give it another try, but I don’t think I will be purchasing another one.

Max Factor 2000 Calorie Mascara – Again, I buy what I read, and Max Factor has always received praise for their mascara – both for this one and their Lash Perfection. This one is pretty good, it reminds me a lot of the Dior Show.

So, as you can see, I contributed to the $244 million in that were spent in 2005 on department store mascara ( this figure does not include drug store mascara – stats came from this article) and plan to continue to spend. Next on my list to buy is the Shu Umera mascara -review coming soon!