Upcoming Holiday 2015 Product Preview - Standouts!

Kat Von D - Mi Vida Loca Remix Palette - Sephora Exclusive ($59) available now

For me, this is the most exciting release of the whole year. Not for the faint of heart but definitely a hardcore makeup junkie's dream.

Arranged like a color wheel, this beautiful palette and accompanying sleeve are truly the work of a talented artist. I'm inspired just looking at the photo and it helps you keep in color theory in mind when pairing colored eyeshadows. For me this palette is an absolute must-have and I'm ordering it for myself! Kat Von D and Sephora have outdone themselves this time, especially during the holidays when almost every other company plays it safe with color selection.

With 17 vivid bright eyeshadow shades and 7 nudes & neutrals, you get 24 full-sized eyeshadow pans so this is a whopper of a palette. It's a great bang for your buck at just $2.46/eyeshadow. The quality has been reported thus far to be buttery-smooth with great color payoff.

Lorac - Mega Pro 2 - Ulta Exclusive ($59) available mid-October

Since last year, the world has been anticipating another Mega Pro Palette from Lorac and they did not disappoint. This year's Ulta exclusive palette promises to be in larger quantities than last so hopefully more makeup lovers can get their hands on it. Buyer beware, once these sell out, they're gone!

This year's Lorac Mega Pro 2 Palette boasts some cooler shadow selections than last year and is arranged in a similar fashion with 16 eyeshadows being matte (the top half of the palette) and 16 eyeshadows being satin or shimmery (the bottom half of the palette). The pan size has gotten significantly smaller than last year but it is not noticeable in the packaging (last year's contained 0.62 oz vs this year's 0.45 oz of product).

Like last year's palette and most Lorac Pro products, the shadows kick up a lot of powder and it is advised that you tap off your brush before applying the color directly to your eyes to avoid significant fallout. With that being said, Lorac eyeshadows are notoriously some of the best blending shades on the market so if you're a fan, it's definitely worth the money!

Too Faced - Le Grand Palais - Sephora Exclusive ($58) available now

This year's Too Faced palette contains 3 highlighting eyeshadow shades, 15 eyeshadows, 2 blushes (Stardust and Skyline), a Flush highlighter and a Sun Bunny bronzer. As extra goodies, Too Faced also included a deluxe-sized Melted Peony liquid lipstick, a deluxe mini Better Than Sex Mascara, and a deluxe sized Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer.

This set is a good value (the website claims it is a $378 value) but if you were to choose the products yourself you probably would not have come up with this exact configuration, so take those values with a grain of salt!

Preliminary reviews of this palette have claimed that there are some very chunky glittery shades prone to fallout and the eyeshadow formulation is not as good as is usually typical of Too Faced powders. Most, if not all, of the colors, are fairly easily dupe-able and even seem repeated in Too Faced's own holiday palettes - since I have the one from last year, I'll be skipping it this year.

Too Faced X Vegas Nay - Stardust Palette - $45 - Ulta Exclusive, Now Available 

 My holiday purchase choice from Too Faced for this year was the Too Faced X Vegas Nay Stardust Eyeshadow Palette.

This kit comes with 12 eyeshadows (with phenomenal formulation across the board, I have not been disappointed by these) in slim travel and vanity friendly packaging, Nude Glamour Dust sample, deluxe mini Better Than Sex mascara, deluxe mini Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer.

There is a good but wearable variety of color in this palette and I was drawn to it because of the inclusion of mauve/violet shades and burgundies which are a little harder to come across in palettes of this size. This is overall a warm-toned palette lovers dream and I highly recommend it - the quality seems far superior to other Too Faced Holiday 2015 releases.

Tarte - Bling It On Amazonian Clay Blush Palette - $44 - Sephora Exclusive, Now Available

For the third year in a row, Tarte has come out with an Amazonian Clay Blush Palette which is available at Sephora.

If these colors appeal to you, it is a great value considering each Amazonian Clay Blush single costs $28 at 0.2oz of product and each blush in this palette is 3/4 of that size at 0.15oz but you get 5 of them!!! You're only paying $8.80 per blush shade even though you get 75% of product in each blush. I don't know about you but I've never finished an entire blush shade so these would last me literally forever. I may cave and get this palette this year because the colors are beautiful and the packaging is slim (that's really what held me back last year).

The colors of blushes included are: Fetching, Dollface (light pink), Prim, Smashing, Beaming 

Too Faced La Creme Lipstick

Too Faced La Creme Color Drenched Lip Cream in Taffy (Outer Packaging)

Today I bring you a review and photos of the new (to me) Too Faced La Creme Color Drenched Lip Cream in the color Taffy (Retail price: $22, sold at Sephora, ULTA, and other Too Faced retailers). This present was actually given to me by a friend for my birthday last week and he chose the color, personally I think he did a great job! 

These color drenched lip creams are filled with lip-conditioning hydrators such as lotus flower which help to keep your lips moisturized (especially during the cooler months) while giving a plump appearance. 

Too Faced La Creme Lipstick Packaging

First let's talk about the packaging, everything about it from the heavy metallic feel to the embossed writing absolutely screams luxury product. On the cap, there is a monogrammed "TF" to add to the dramatic upscale flare of the packaging.

Too Faced La Creme Lipstick in "Taffy"

Taffy is described by Too Faced as a "pink marshmallow nude" and I think they're spot on, except that the color does not correlate with their "melted marshmallow" color in the Melted Liquified Long Wear Lipstick line (that one is a more blue-based and pale, similar to a Barbie pink) - that's where the "nude" comes in which differentiates the two shades.

This color is perfect for someone who is unwilling to take many lipstick risks or a daytime appropriate look (office, school, etc). I adore this color as it's really easy to put on in the morning and then go about a daily routine without worrying about using a lip liner or cleaning up with concealer after application around the lip line.

Even though this lipstick is considered a creme, it isn't sheer the way that might suggest. There is a good amount of buildable pigment in the formula and super moisture which almost feels glossy on the lips and has the staying power of 4+ hours (obviously not through eating or drinking as this isn't a staining product). The lipstick smells like a faint vanilla cupcake, it's extremely pleasant and easy to wear, it's not an overpowering or unpleasant scent.

Overall, I think the Too Faced La Creme Color Drenched Lip Cream is another great product from the Too Faced line and I can say that they are quickly becoming my favorite brand in the market for consistent pigmentation across products, great packaging and unique concepts, I also appreciate their efforts to use more "natural" and "good for you" ingredients in their products.

For the holidays, you can find the La Creme Lipsticks in a gift set,
Too Faced Under The Mistletoe La Creme Limited Edition Lipstick Trio and Glitter Bag: Shimmering Marshmallow Bunny, Shimmering Spice Spice Baby & Shimmering Naked Dolly which retails for cheaper than purchasing all 3 of the colors at $22 each.

Too Faced Melted Longwear Lipstick in Melted Marshmallow

Too Faced Melted Longwear Lipstick in Melted Marshmallow

For a long time I have resisted getting on the hype train of the Melted Lipsticks from Too Faced because I had swatched them in Sephora and none of the colors were appealing to me. That all changed, however, when I came across Melted Marshmallow a couple of weeks ago. 

Melted Marshmallow is a beautiful blue-based pink shade but it does have some yellow tone to it as well (this may not be a great shade for you if you struggle with anything that makes your teeth appear more yellow). A similar shade of this lipstick is the NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Milan, they are even quite similar in consistency and the matte finish they leave on your lips. This lipstick is easy to wear, it is neither drying nor hydrating, but I didn't find that the wear time was quite as long as expected - obviously during drinking and eating, this will fade and disappear off your lips. If you're just going about your day without consuming any foods or playing with your lips too much, it will probably last a good 4-5 hours.

Too Faced Melted Longwear Lipstick in Melted Marshmallow

Can we talk about the packaging for a minute? It feels so luxurious, almost like if a high-end lipgloss and prestige lipstick had a baby. This is a very giftable item and I wouldn't be ashamed to re-apply it in public (not that you'll really have to do that much).

Swatch of Too Faced Melted Longwear Lipstick in Melted Marshmallow

Instead of a doe-foot applicator, Too Faced opted for this puffy sponge tip which has four points through which you can squeeze out the formula. I actually really like this because it seems more hygenic to me than using a doe-foot applicator and then always putting the bacteria from the wand back into the product when you put it away.

This swatch was creating with one swipe, the formula is super opaque and you can easily get the desired amount of coverage, I really didn't feel the need to layer this product on.

Too Faced Melted Longwear Lipstick in Melted Marshmallow

You can see in the lip swatch that there was some settling in the fine lines of my lips and scars (don't judge me, I fell out of a toy truck when I was a baby...), which makes it pretty important that you apply it over moisturize lips (I doubt this particular shade and formula is very attractive on chapped lips). When this lipstick wears off, it does ball up a little bit but it's not something that becomes noticeable except you can feel the texture on your lips. This shade is out of my usual comfort zone of medium reds and plums, but I love it so much that I vow to wear it regularly!

Too Faced Melted Kisses Set

If you're looking for a holiday set to give someone who would absolutely love this product, check out the Too Faced Melted Kisses Set for Holiday 2014, which contains 4 deluxe-sized tubes (Nude, Peony, Berry, and Fuschia) from the permanent collection of the Melted Longwear Lipstick line and retails for just $25. As of the date and time of this post, this set is sold out at Sephora, ULTA, and on the Too Faced website, but you can find it at the link I posted through Amazon.

7 New Holiday Makeup Gift Sets (Tarte, Too Faced, bareMinerals, Smashbox, Clinique)

I wanted to do an update post about makeup items that have already been released for the Holiday Season. I won't be re-mentioning the ones that I have already posted about, so if you're interested in the Too Faced Everything Nice and La Belle Carousel sets as well as the Anastasia Tamanna palette, you can check them out in my previous posts.

The bareMinerals READY Convertible Eyeshadow Palette ($39) is an ingenious little gift. You can purchase this set and pop out the inner top third piece of the compact to take "to go" and the 12 eyeshadows are convertible so you can pop them in and out - thus you can create your ideal eyeshadow trio! This is a really cool idea, I like the color selection, and if the quality is anything like the regular READY eyeshadows, this would make a great gift set for the holidays.

The Smashbox On The Rocks Photo Op Eye Shadow Palette ($39) is another 12 eyeshadow palette, full of glorious shimmery gem-tones, a few highlight shades and some smokier shades. This is a great gift for a shimmer lover or someone who prefers bolder makeup. The pigmentation is smooth, the glitter isn't very chunky and I think this set is very reasonably priced, it is however much smaller in person.

For classic lovers of Clinique, try A Black Honey Affair palette ($36). This palette features 8 mauves, nudes and browns to create everyday looks. These shades were all inspired by the cult classic Black Honey lipstick shade.

Tarte's Brush With Destiny set features 5 bamboo brushes and a beautiful travel case ($44). Each set features the following brushes:

• contourtuinist bambo cream blush & contour brush
• the balancing act bamboo foundation brush
• the buffer airbrush finish bamboo foundation brush
• double-ended bamboo eyeshadow brush
• undercover lover bamboo concealer brush

Too Faced Beauty Wishes & Sweet Kisses set ($34) is an adorable bronze themed gift for the beauty in your life. It features 3 cocoa-infused eyeshadows from the Chocolate Bar Eye shadow palette, a matte Chocolate Soleil bronzer and the Sun Bunny bronzer as well as a deluxe version of La Creme Gloss in Naked Dolly (to be released Spring 2015).

If you're gifting someone who is a huge lover of Tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes, you'll be happy to know there's a deluxe, limited edition set Chic to Cheek ($35) which includes the following colors:

• amour (candy pink)
• classic (soft apricot pink)
• prim (plum nude)
• daydream (rosy pink)

bareMinerals has yet another great value, the Magic Act ($39) set featuring 6 of their Ready eyeshadows, 3 blushes and a luminizer.

• Eye Shadows: Celebrate (yellow cream), Fortune (light pink), Shazam (pink), A-ha (brown champagne), Pumped (bronze brown), Foreshadow (brown truffle)
• Blushes: The Close Call (bronze taupe), The Natural High (gold peach), and The Indecent Proposal (plum)
• Luminizer: The Premiere

Stay tuned for my next post all about the Urban Decay Holiday 2014 new releases!

Too Faced Everything Nice: Eyes of the Day Look

Too Faced - Everything Nice Night-time Look - Ambient Lighting

I just couldn't wait to create a look with the Too Faced Everything Nice palette I reviewed yesterday, so today I decided to achieve this Night-time look with quite a few of the colors in the palette. I also started this out with a Daytime look for those of you who are into a more subtle eyeshadow application. I'll show you which colors I used from the palette to create this look.

Too Faced - Everything Nice Daytime Look - Natural Lighting

For the daytime look, I kept it simple and classy, appropriate for work and not too dramatic, this is why I skipped out on using a black eyeliner and just applied mascara (in this case I used L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly mascara). I did not apply any makeup to my lower lash line - I usually avoid doing this in the daytime because if there is a good amount of sunshine, it can be irritating to my eyes and I can tear up, causing makeup to smear.

First, I used Dream On in my crease in a sweeping motion, to create the backdrop for my crease shade.
Then I used Be You as my crease shade in a more precise usage than Dream On. All Over You was applied all over the lid and blended into my crease shade. Turtle Dove was applied to feature out my crease transition as a browbone highlight, right under my eyebrows. Secret Lovers was applied to the outer corner of my eyelid in a V-shape to create a 3D effect.

Too Faced - Everything Nice Night-time Look - Natural Lighting

 For Night-time, I wanted to vamp up the look and really pump it up full of saturated colors, since the lighting becomes more dim, I wanted the colors to really pop and stand on their own.

Too Faced - Everything Nice Night-time Look - Natural Lighting

You can see that my basic look is the same as the Daytime look because I essentially just built on from there, adding on top. Another big difference is the addition of liquid eyeliner at the very end and layering it with Chocolate Moon to get a sparkly slightly smoked out, fully opaque effect. 

I added Too Glam to the inner third of my lower lash line and Head Over Heels to the outer third (be careful with this shade because the large glitter particles can hurt your eyes if you don't stick to the outer edge of your lashes). I warmed up my crease color to by adding more pink to the transition shade using Kindness is Free with a very light hand. Then I took this same shade and went in a large V-shape below the outer third of my bottom lash line for continuity and so there is no harsh break between my skin and the dark navy blue (Head Over Heels).

Too Faced - Everything Nice Night-time Look - Ambient Lighting

 Hope you guys enjoy these looks and I'll try to use the other shades from the Everything Nice Set an upcoming Eyes of the Day post! If you're interested, you can purchase it at Sephora.

Product Review & Swatches: Too Faced Everything Nice Palette for Sephora Holiday 2014

The Sephora-exclusive Too Faced Everything Nice (That's What Pretty Girls Are Made Of) Set retails for $56 and is currently available for purchase here. There has been so much hype and speculation over this palette and I spoke about it really briefly in a previous post. UPS just delivered mine so I've put together this review ASAP. Basically, this set is a variation of the Too Faced Few of My Favorite Things Set from last Holiday 2013.

This year the bag is... not as spectacular as last years. This is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's a bright fuchsia color that doesn't particularly appeal to me and secondly, it has chunky glitter particles adhered to its backside. I'm not sure why Too Faced went this route over, say, a clear window panel, but the glitter catches onto other fabrics and flies off everywhere. The back of the bag does not have a smooth texture, it is rough due to the large pieces of glitter. The cutest part is the zipper which has a round ornament on it, but it does add even more bulkiness to an already large bag.

The next issue I have with the bag is that it was not designed to fit the Everything Nice palette! Deceptively, they come in the box together, next to one another, but the box is much thicker than the bag and the zipper of the bag does not open the whole say, so you could never fit the palette inside. I suppose it's meant as a "bonus" for us to keep other makeup inside.

The inside of the Everything Nice Set is a charming little number. It consists of 20 fairly large (basically full sized) eyeshadows, 2 blushes, a bronzer, a highlighter, a deluxe mascara (Better Than Sex) and a 3-piece mini brush set. You're receiving a great variety of color in multiple textures, including shimmer, matte, satin and glitter. I think some basic math will tell you that this set is worth the price - I can see them selling for double or triple on eBay once stock runs out at Sephora.

For me, deluxe sized mascaras are cute for travel, so I'm happy to have received the Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara. I like the conventional yet slightly bulkier mascara wand, I find that it gives me extra volume and carries a good amount of product so I won't have to re-dip during application.

The synthetic brush trio has cute handles, which have glitter suspended inside a layer of resin (which is what I would have preferred the makeup bag to be) so the glitter is really only aesthetic but won't scratch or fly off. The largest brush might be useful for contouring under your cheekbones, there is a decently sized eyeshadow brush and a liner brush (can also be used as an eyebrow brush). You're getting a nice variety of brushes and they are held securely in the set by a plastic strap so they won't fall out every time you open the palette.

Too Faced Everything Nice - Sephora Holiday 2014
Sweet Pink, Papa Don't Preach, Chocolate Soleil, Inner Light & Synthetic Brush Trio

Swatches of Too Faced Everything Nice - Sephora Holiday 2014

As you can see, these colors all swatch well and are of the quality I always expect from Too Faced's products. All of the face products are smooth and buttery, easy to apply and blend.

• Sweet Pink is a light blue-toned pink with golden finely milled glitter.
• Papa Don't Preach is a shimmery bronze peach color which was exceptionally smooth
• Chocolate Soleil, their cult classic, smells like chocolate and is a warm mid-toned bronzer.
• Inner Light, a re-promote from the Be Bright palette, is a pale golden highlight with fine gold glitter 

Eyeshadows in Too Faced - Everything Nice Set for Sephora Holiday 2014

A quick overview of the shadows will reveal matte, satin, shimmer, metallic, glitter and duochrome shades. This set contains a wide variety to please every taste. Some shades are even multiple finishes, such as metallic shimmers and they are interesting and unique.

Swatches of Row 1 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Turtle Dove - pale highlight white matte, will not achieve fully opaque color
• Dream On - neutral nude matte
• After Hours - metallic dark gold, super pigmented and buttery
• Fawned of You - light caramel-toned brown matte, very highly pigmented and smooth
• Knockout - appears dark brown in pan but secondary swatch reveals medium brown matte

Swatches of Row 2 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Paper Roses - pale baby pink shimmer
• Kindness is Free - pearlescent pink shimmer satin
• Mauvelous - lilac silver shimmer (re-promote from Too Faced Be Bright Holiday 2013)
• Be You - warm taupe matte, well pigmented
• Secret Lovers - dark chocolate brown shimmer, very pigmented and smooth

Swatches of Row 3 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Heaven - light nude matte, fairly weak pigmentation
• Shiny Happy - metallic green-toned gold shimmer
• Honey Pot - metallic yellow gold, very smooth and highly pigmented
• Don't Settle - antique gold metallic shimmer
• Girly - green burnt orange/brown duochrome - the most unique color in the palette, I love this one; re-promote form the Too Faced - Pretty Rebel palette (thanks to reader Selina Alexandria for the info!)

Swatches of Row 4 of Too Faced Everything Nice Eyeshadow Palette

• Totally Fetch - bright fuchsia pink satin, re-promote form the Too Faced - Pretty Rebel palette (thanks to reader Selina Alexandria for the info!)
• Live It Up - purple shimmer with sparse blue, less intense than Totally Fetch and Too Glam
• Too Glam - satin metallic emerald green with fine shimmer, extremely pigmented
• Head Over Heels - dark navy blue with cobalt blue glitter densely packed inside
• Chocolate Moon - dark brown with sparse gold glitter - this color may be an attempt at black, but the opacity just isn't there, so I would say that it comes off much more like a dark brown

I really like this palette, of course there are some misses (Head Over Heels, Chocolate Moon, Heaven) but for the most part, this palette is absolutely fantastic. You will be able to create a wide variety of looks, and even the worst of the palette is still definitely usable, you just have to layer and work with the product. Overall, the consistency of all of the powders is very good, the extra bonuses of the set are a cute addition, and it would make a beautiful holiday gift for any makeup fan. The packaging is cute and sturdy, even though it is made of a condensed and covered cardboard. 

If you are considering purchasing this set, I recommend doing so early, because last year's equivalent sold out in a few weeks and I suspect this will do the same due to its high quality and great value.

Product Review & Swatches: Too Faced La Belle Carousel - New Release for Holiday 2014

This is going to be an extremely picture-heavy post, so I apologize in advance but I am extremely excited about receiving the Too Faced "La Belle Carousel" after ordering it from Macys.com. The outer packaging is absolutely stunning, I love the artistic ornamental garlands surrounding the box and the scalloped golden edges of the packaging... plus it's a french carousel! What an adorable theme!

The inside looks just like a Christmas ornament, you could even hang it! The miniature palettes are held together pretty tightly by the glittery pink end-caps (these are made of a heavy duty cardboard).

Once the top is removed, inside you will find a look-book  with 4 looks: Sweet Soiree, La Belle, La Vie en Rose, and La Bonne Nuit. I always love it when companies include look-books, specifically when I'm feeling rather uninspired, I just take a peek and voila, a new look to try out!

When you pull out the individual components you will find that you have 5 miniature palettes and 1 Better Than Sex mascara (deluxe sized sample). The whole set retails for $49 but has an expected value of $282, so you're getting quite a deal!

A closer look at the opened palettes reveals 2 blush/bronzer palettes and 3 eyeshadow palettes (with 4 shadows in each - so you're getting 12 eyeshadows altogether). Let's take a closer look at the specifics of each palette.

The blush and bronzer palettes consist of Who's Your Poppy, Luminous Peach, Chocolate Soleil and Sun Bunny Dark. Who's Your Poppy is a rose red with glitter particles and Luminous Peach is a satin mid-toned orange. Chocolate Soleil is cocoa scented cool-leaning mid-tone bronzer and Sun Bunny Dark (the dark strip from the Sun Bunny bronzer) is a metallic orange-brown which reflects a lot of light.

Some of the shades in this range are re-promotes. Yule Log is a re-promote from last year's "Joy to the Girls" holiday palette and I find that they have the exact same consistency and performance. Sugar Plum Fairy also appears to be a re-promote of Sugar Plum from that same palette, it may be half a shade darker but they both suffer from pretty serious pilling in the pan due to the amount and size of glitter. Christmas Tree could be a shade close to Evergreen from the "A Few of my Favorite Things" Holiday 2013 palette, but I do not own that palette so I can't confirm it. Haute Chocolate is a re-promote from the Chocolate Bar palette as well, I don't see any difference between the two shades.

All of the shades performed well, though I want to make note that Frost is essentially an "overshadow" color that provides just some sparkle and glitter, but will not really provide much of a color on its own. I like that they included Tufted Suede in the palette (it's hard to see in my swatches since it is very close to my the color of my tanned skin). Santa's Boots was the only color I found to be chalky and rather hard to blend, also the black was not very pigmented and didn't travel easily when swatching. Some standout shades that I think are an absolute success in this palette are: Tin Soldier, Christmas Tree, Boxes & Bows, Angel Hair, Haute Chocolate (this one was my absolute favorite) and Yule Log.

I absolutely love this set and I think it would make a wonderful gift for any makeup lover! What a wonderful set, full of some new shades and a couple of re-promotes of successful holiday shades from last year. The eyeshadows feature a range of colors from highlighting colors to transition shades, darker crease shades and even pops of color. I love the size of the blushes and bronzers, you're getting a decent amount of product and all of the colors are very wearable on almost any skin-tone.

Is this set on your wishlist for the holidays?