Eyes of the Day - Purple Winged Cut Crease

Today, I decided I was going to play with the cut crease in a flattering color for brown eyes: a dark plum, deep purple shade (MAC's Fig 1). I know it's fairly common to produce a cut crease in a smokey eye or to define the eye, but I wanted to take it a step further and really wing it out dramatically.

I will tell you that going grocery shopping with this look, I was receiving a lot of stares - I think people couldn't tell what it was that was so different about my face. This is not an every day makeup for the office, I could see how it would be inappropriate in some places, but if you're just having fun, it's great!

I wanted to keep the lid a light color, pretty much a stark white with some glitter for extra pizzazz (as if a dramatic winged crease wasn't enough!) - apparently the pizzazz decided to get onto my lashes for this photo though. I made sure to blend the purple color in my crease out and make it more smokey so that the look was less stark.

I cleaned up the bottom of the crease by adding the purple first, then a peach color above it and making sure to add my lid colors last (the white-ish). I also went in with a fine angled brush and used more of the purple to get the line more precise and opaque. A good trick for creating a cut crease is to apply a similar-colored eyeliner as your base and then follow that line with your eyeshadow brush, this is especially useful if you're just starting out this kind of look or your orbital bone doesn't naturally dictate where that wing would look most flattering.

Products Used:

MAC's Nylon - all over lid shade
Sephora Wedding Day - layered over Nylon for white glitter effect
MAC's Fig 1 - cut crease
Fresh Peach (Anastasia Beverly Hills - Maya Mia Palette) - above the cut crease wing as warm transition shade
MAC's Vanilla - as brow-bone highlight shade
Pacifica  Waterproof Eyeliner in Fringe - to line the waterline with a plummy brown color
Stila's Stay All Day Liquid Eyeliner (Black) - to create the cat-eye on the lid
Ardency Inn Punker Eyeliner - to make the line extra back, layered on top of Stila liner

Hope you enjoyed this cut-crease, double wing look!

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?

 

Eyes of the Day: Mrs. Mia Wallace Look

Since this year is the 20th anniversary of the cult classic Pulp Fiction and Urban Decay has released a Limited Edition Pulp Fiction eyeshadow palette  (based on the iconic character Mrs. Mia Wallace), I decided to do an Eyes of the Day post about her iconic look using the new palette.


In case you've been living under a rock for the past 20 years, this is what Mia Wallace (aka Uma Thurman) looked like in the movie, she was the quintessential babe of the 90s (1994 to be exact). She is subtle and natural and yet so dramatic with her severe lips, haircut and perfectly groomed brows.

The eyeshadow look tends to be quite wearable and natural, the guide for this look are on an insert inside the Pulp Fiction palette packaging. You can add more drama by using a black liquid or cream eyeliner, but I opted for the original with the eyeshadow "Furious" from the palette.

How to get the look:

This is what the shadows look like (you can re-create this look even if you don't own the palette, something similar like the Naked Basics or Physicians Formula Matte Eyeshadow Quad in Canyon Classics would do the trick).

I absolutely love this palette, it's so cute and reminds me of the 90's, I'll do a review very soon on it!

Most Loved: Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette

Welcome to all of your childhood dreams of Willy Wonka chocolate bars. This Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette is something I *really* tried my hardest to avoid purchasing. At first, when it came out, the packaging was rather bulky and the tester in my local Sephora was so beaten up and abused by fellow beauty swatchers, that I really had no interest. Even when I saw the HSN promo for it, I was tempted but I held back... they even had an insane deal for the palette (regular retail is $49 at Ulta or Sephora). Alas, the packaging was too bulky and it would have taken too much space in my already over-flowing collection.

Cue the new, updated, summer packaging:

This packaging is literally half the thickness (girth?) of the previous one. My husband insisted on purchasing it for me when we were away on our summer vacation... and how could a girl resist, am I right?

And let me tell you... the scent... oh the smell is far better than you read or hear about. It's almost like a freshly opened truffle doused in cocoa powder. It's desirable and infectious, it makes opening this palette an absolute delight in the morning when I'm groggy, it wakes me right up in the most pleasant of ways!

The names of the colors are unique and ingenious, Too Faced is always very creative with their branding. I really did think that there would be duds in this palette in terms of pigmentation since I had heard from various blog/vloggers that Candied Violet and a few of the lighter shades were rather chalky or lacking pigmentation. I haven't noticed any product kick-up (though I don't typically go beast-mode hard into my shadows with my brushes) or patchiness upon application. I like that Too Faced decided to give us more of the highlight shades White Chocolate (matte finish) and Champagne Truffle (metallic finish), since these get used most frequently when creating looks.

You can really achieve a very subdued look or a more glamorous night-time look... you can even do a dark, goth look if you're feeling in the mood! So whether you're a bronze goddess or a child of the night, this palette really does have it all covered, the only caveat is that the shades are mostly warm-toned with the exception of Gilded Ganache, Triple Fudge, and Candied Violet.

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette Swatches (No Primer, Ambient Lighting)

Matte: White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Triple Fudge, Salted Caramel, Semi-Sweet, Strawberry Bon Bon
Matte with Fine Glitter: Gilded Ganache, Black Forest Truffle, Cherry Cordial
Pearl with Fine Glitter: Candied Violet
Metallic: Marzipan, Amaretto, Hazelnut, Creme Brulee, Haute Chocolate, Champagne Truffle

I'm so happy with the pigmentation of these shadows, they perform very well, have great color payoff and I don't feel that I need to pack on too much of the shadow to get full opacity. There's such a good variety of matte, satin/shimmer (metallic) and more glittery shades. Salted Caramel is an absolute brilliant color for warming up the crease and transitioning darker shades. Candied Violet performs a lot better than I expected, and I really find that the glitter isn't too intense once you blend the shadow out. I think the most unique shade of the bunch is Cherry Cordial and I don't have anything else in my collection that looks similar to it (that's saying a lot!)

I highly recommend purchasing this if you apply eyeshadow on a daily basis and need to come up with wearable daytime or nighttime looks. This palette will be your best friend if you want a neutral palette with a little extra oomph. I reach for this palette more than I do my LORAC Pro, Kat Von D Saint palette, or my Urban Decay Naked 1, 2 and 3 combined because it's fun and I get the added bonus of a unique color selection and a waft of cocoa when using it!

Kawaii Chocolate Bar by Rooshoo, Click here.

Product Review: Victoria's Secret Metallized Eye Shadow & Eye Shadow Duo

I walked into a mall a couple of weeks ago and came across the Victoria's Secret VS Makeup Clearance section. Now, I know VS discontinued their makeup line but I'm sure you can still find these online and in select stores where they haven't yet cleared out. I purchased mine at the reduced price of $3.75-$4.00 each (I believe they were 75% off).

I did have high expectations for these shadows because, although I hadn't tested them myself, I have read many beauty blogs that claim that VS makeup was phenomenal and it's an absolute tragedy they have stopped producing it. They... were... right!

I managed to get my hands on an Eye Shadow Duo in "Flirty & Fierce" and Metallized Eye Shadows in "Buzz", "Major" and "Gold Card".  The honeycomb pattern and finish on the Metallized Eye Shadows reminded me of the MAC Extra Dimension eyeshadows and I was very intrigued.

These shadows are absolutely huge with the Metallized Eye Shadows being 3.5g/.12oz and the Eye Shadow Duo being 3.2g/.11oz (which is strange because it appears so much larger!) whereas a single pressed MAC eyeshadow is only 0.05oz. The Metallized Eye Shadows are 2.4x the size of a MAC eyeshadow and the Eye Shadow Duo is 2.2x the size!!! Talk about getting a great bang for your buck.

I was so thrilled with the pigmentation of these, specifically the smooth texture and buttery finish of the Metallized Eye Shadows (Buzz, Major and Gold Card). The only downside to the Eye Shadow Duo (Flirty & Fierce) was that the glitter can be a little chunky and therefore causes the texture of the overall eye shadow to suffer.

If you can manage to snag these shadows, do yourself a favor and get them! You'll be so thrilled, especially if you can find the Metallized Eye Shadows! My absolute favorite color is Buzz because it looks like a burgundy, mauve brown and I think it's incredibly versatile for an all-over wash of color or as a crease shade.

New Urban Decay Clearance Goodies

I wanted to quickly share some clearance items I picked up from the Urban Decay sale section. If you didn't know about this portion of Urban Decay's website, I highly encourage you to check it out frequently as things do become available pretty regularly when they are phasing out old favorites or formulations.

I was able to get my hands on Urban Decay's new formulation of Grifter (light violet) eyeshadow (reduced to $6 from $18) as well as two lip junkie lipglosses (reduced to $5 from $19). The lip junkie glosses I purchased are in the colors Love Junkie and Naked.

The new Grifter formulation has much less overt glitter and fall-out and is much more buttery smooth. This happens to be my absolute favorite color in the range of Urban Decay eyeshadows (I first fell in love with this when I received their Alice in Wonderland palette as a gift). 

Although, you can tell from the above photos, the Love Junkie and Naked lipglosses look vastly different in the packaging, when they are swatched or applied, there is not a huge difference. They are both sheer and buildable colors and although Love Junkie leans more maroon and Naked is a tad orangey, they really do give a similar effect... they also taste minty and feel slightly plumping.

First Impressions: NYX Hot Single Eyeshadows

Today I received my order from the NYX website (this is the first time I've ever ordered anything from them) and I was so surprised at the great deals and variety they had! I didn't even know NYX made SO many products, even Ricky's near me don't carry nearly the entire line. I read many reviews and recommendations for the new Hot Single Eyeshadows. I also found great discount codes online and they stacked with the memorial sale, so I managed to purchase quite a lot of things and get free shipping, a bonus free product, and a great price! 

I was eager to do a quick first impressions of these since I haven't had time to actually use them (though I'm sure I'll do some Eyes of the Day posts with these). 

As you can tell, the eyeshadows look very pigmented in their cute packaging, complete with bow-clasp. They are such a delight in their packaging that I don't even want to depot them (I had originally purchased them with this intention)

The swatches of these shades are absolutely beautiful. All of these colors were only swatched once. 

• They all have a satin finish except for Tweed which is a medium to deep matte brown (perfect crease or definition color). 
• Club Crawl is a duochrome taupe shade with golden reflects. 
• Flustered is a deep reddish copper, again another shade I would think is great crease shade paired with something lighter or darker on the lid. 
• Sex Kitten is a duochrome pink-based champagne with gold reflects (amazing for an all-over lid color or inner corner highlight). 
• Harlequin is a vivid violet fuchsia that is delightful for a very feminine look. 
• Dank is a yellow-leaning medium green which reminds me a lot of a shade in between MAC's Swimming and Lucky Green. 

I posted photos of the NYX website color previews and most colors looked darker in the pictured pot than what I received. I found that the truest to color were Flustered (copper) and Dank (green), Tweed (brown) appears lighter and Sex Kitten (champagne), Harlequin (purple) and Club Crawl (taupe) appear darker in the pot.

Product Review: L'Oreal The One Sweep Eyeshadow

I'm sure most of you have seen this product around and have wondered if the gimmick really works. It sounds so simple. You take the applicator sponge, sweep it across the 3 color gradient provided and then sweep it on to your eye. You do this twice and you should achieve a flawless eyeshadow look. This sounds like it is particularly useful for makeup novices who are unsure of which color to place where, or for those of us who are a little bit timid when trying to create a smokey eye look.

I found this on sale at my local CVS and decided to give it a go and give my wonderful readers an honest opinion of this product!

The product itself looks like it could be used with a regular brush as well so if the applicator didn't work out, I figured I could still use this as regular eyeshadow. There's a wide array of colors but I chose 908 Smokey for All Eyes because it's out-of-the-box from what I normally wear and I wanted to try it out.

The quality of the shadows is good, they are smooth and blendable, I'm actually quite impressed by them, just as I was by the Revlon Colorstay Quads. Drugstore eyeshadows have vastly improved in recent years and they are almost just as good as the higher end brands.

First, I tried this product with nothing else added and no blending to show you what it looked like and then I worked with it to achieve more of a look that I am comfortable with.

L'Oreal The One Sweep Eyeshadow

All things considered, this product performed well, I really didn't feel like I had to apply more than one sweep to achieve the desired amount of color. I didn't particularly like the delineation between shades since you can see clearly where each color ends and the other one begins, but this was an easy fix with a shadow blender brush. 

Is this a product you must purchase? No, this is something that is more for those who are in a rush or those who don't like to change up their look as much, there's a neutral brown combination which I think suits all skin tones and occasions. 

I give this product a solid 3.75/5 - the color payoff is really good and the colors blend together very smoothly, the applicator works but you do have to go and blend it out to make it a little bit more of a wearable look (specifically with a stark color combination such as the Smokey look I chose).

Eyes of the Day - Revlon Colorstay Quad (Goddess)

I recently picked up the Revlon Colorstay Quad in Goddess and I was so excited to try it out that I promptly created an eye look around it.

If you don't know what the consistency of the Revlon Quads is, I have to gush and tell you that they are absolutely smooth, buttery and a dream to blend. The only color I had a slightly harder time with was the deepest taupe grey in the bottom right-hand corner of the quad. I suspect this color moved a little more than the rest during application because it has larger shimmer particles. All in all, this quad was definitely worth the $4.50 I paid for it (originally the price is $8.99, still a good price point).

Here's how I achieved this look:

• Applied bottom-left shade all over my lid on a white base
• Used highlight color underneath my brow and in the inner corner
• Darkened up the outer "V" with bottom right color and blended
• Used the peachy pink shade on top of the crease color to warm it up

Revlon Colorstay Eyeshadow Quad - Goddess

For an added pop of color, since I like my looks to be a little more unique, I chose to go with the the L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadow in Glistening Garnet. I used this color as an accent under my eye and close to my waterline

Image credit to Temptalia.com

I hope you guys enjoyed this look! I love playing with new products and I'm always so excited when I get something new to try it out ASAP!

Urban Decay Electric Palette Sneak Peek and Swatches

I managed to get my hands on the new up-coming Urban Decay Electric palette and I wanted to take swatches for everyone to see. My palette isn't complete and didn't come with a brush but I do know it's going to be a dual-ended brush with purple bristles - one end will be for the inner corner/lining and the other will be for packing color onto the lids. I don't know the release date of this palette but I have read on forums that it's slotted for spring/summer 2014 - I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Urban Decay has for many years been one of my favorite makeup brands and the quality of these shadows is up to par with their regular, fantastic formulation. There's a wide range of colors including silver, blues, greens (even a chartreuse!), orange, pinks and purples. For those of you who are makeup lovers, at first glance this palette may be overwhelming in terms of how saturated the colors are, but I think you could wear these on a daily basis, especially when used sparingly to warm up the crease or along your waterline.

Urban Decay Electric Palette - indoor lighting

The colors vary and are in a range of textures/finishes, there are definitely some which tilt more towards matte texture (Savage) and others which are packed with sparkles (Revolt) but for the most part, there is tiny microglitter when you look at the pans. All of the colors are very soft and buttery and easy to load up onto your brush.

Urban Decay Electric Palette - natural lighting

I'm not sure if these colors are new to their line-up or if they are re-releasing some of the vintage or redux colors, so I really can't comment on that - some of them do look very familiar from their previous Book of Shadows.

Here are the swatches (no primer used):

Urban Decay Electric Palette - Top Row Swatches - natural lighting

Revolt is a silver jam packed full of glitter chunks, I love this color in the inner corner of the eye. Gonzo is a bright baby blue which appears to have microglitter in the pan but when swatched it really doesn't appear as much. Slowburn is a medium orange with microglitter. Savage is a mostly-matte Barbie pink. Fringe is a pearl finish teal that swatches between blue and forest green.

Urban Decay Electric Palette - Bottom Row Swatches - natural lighting

Chaos is a cerulean blue with microglitter. Jilted is a shimmery duo-chrome fushcia which reflects ever so slightly purple. Urban is a classic Urban Decay purple which reminds me of Underland from their LE Alice in Wonderland palette. Freak is a beautiful vibrant mint green and Thrash is a Chartreuse (in between a green and a cooler yellow).

All in all, I'm so excited about this palette because I feel like it's a nice return to the company's roots of out-of-the-box color and individuality. While I love the Naked palettes and own all of them (even the Basics collection), so many companies have started following that trend and Urban Decay is making a smart move bringing color back!

UPDATE: Caution, the colors Slowburn, Savage, Jilted and Urban are not indicated for use on the sensitive eye areas. I think the packaging of this palette says that because they probably use a red dye that is not FDA approved for cosmetics. I have personally used these on my eyes and it was fine, but I don't have sensitive skin or eyes, so please be cautious if you do!