Maybelline Color Tattoo Collection - Swatches & Review

If you're a fan of cream eyeshadows like I am, you probably also have some Maybelline Color Tattoos... the problem is that they are addictive. Maybelline is always releasing Limited Edition shades and I find myself picking up one or two, until I've reached a collection of 18 strong! So I decided to do a post where I compare the shades that I own, you won't see much color overlap because I try to purchase only colors which are unique to my collection.

Too Cool, Barely Branded (Metal), Creamy Beige (Leather), Caremel Cool (LE, Dare to go Nude),  Nude Compliment (LE, Dare to go Nude)

Here you can see that the first 5 make great base eyeshadows, I prefer to layer these with eyeshadows of a similar shade to improve the color payoff.

• Too Cool is probably the one which is hardest to blend, being that the consistency is a little bit poorer than the rest. 
• Caramel Cool and Nude Compliment are from the Summer 2013 Limited Edition "Dare to go Nude" collection. 
• Creamy Beige is my dupe for the MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study (it works as an amazing universal base shade).

Inked in Pink (Metal), Vintage Plum (Leather), Deep Forest (Leather), Chocolate Suede (Leather)

• By far my favorite from this lot is Inked in Pink (from the now discontinued Metal collection) because I find it to be the most wearable shade of all of the color tattoos, it's a nice light pink shade with fine shimmer. 
• Chocolate Suede is another one I would recommend, it's part of the current permanent Leather collection, it goes on buttery smooth and has good color payoff. 
• Vintage Plum and Deep Forest are slightly more patchy (probably because they are mattes) but they are also richly pigmented (you're only seeing 1 swipe in the swatches). 

Silver Strike (Metal), Seashore Frosts (LE, Summer 2013), Electric Blue (Metal), Stroke of Midnight (LE, Dare to go Nude), Dramatic Black (Leather)

• Seashore Frosts (Limited Edition, Summer 2013 collection) is the most unique color of this bunch, it's a sheer wash of blue with golden iridescence - this isn't exactly a shade that can be worn alone and it requires some building up to get that golden pop to come out. 
• Electric Blue and Silver Strike are straight-forward metallic shades (from the Metal collection) 
• Electric Blue has a particularly great color payoff 
• Stroke of Midnight was the biggest disappointment of all the color tattoos I own because it has poor color payoff, applies patchy and looks more like a charcoal soot with glitter than a black. I wouldn't even use this color for a base because it's not pigmented enough to cover the color my skin for a smokey eye. 
• Dramatic Black (current Leather collection) was a complete redemption from Maybelline, it is a fully opaque black that can even be used as an eyeliner on your upper lash line (I've tried this and it results in very little smudging).

Gold Rush (Metal), Edgy Emerald, Lavish Lavender (LE, Summer 2013), Pomegranate Punk

• Gold Rush (Metal collection, now discontinued) is a bright yellow gold with sparkle, I really like this one for doing bright eyeshadow looks including neon greens and yellows.
• Edgy Emerald is a great emerald green shade with a satin finish that will help make green eyeshadows more vibrant when worn as a base.
• Lavish Lavender (LE, Summer 2013) is a violet purple with pink shimmer - this makes for a very unique lavender color which I love wearing with Urban Decay's Grifter eyeshadow
• Pomegranate Punk is a deep burgundy, wonderful for fall looks, it has a creamy consistency and performs well as either a standalone shade or in conjunction with eyeshadows - I highly recommend this one.

And there you have it, that's my whole collection from the past few years since these have been introduced. I have been storing them upside down, I'm told this helps them last longer and prevents drying out.

What are your favorites?

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!

DIY Magnetic Eyeshadow Palette (Similar to MAC & Z palette)

Do you ever just want a travel-sized palette but don't feel like shelling out the big bucks for the tiny little ones from Z palette or MAC? To my knowledge the MAC palette is around $8 and can only fit a couple of shadows, and the smallest Z palette is still a whopping $14. I'd rather make one for free from stuff laying around my house. Makeup is all about creativity so why can't we be innovative with the way we store our pretties?

Let me show you what I did...

Tosowoong Makeon Waterproof Little Mermaid Gel Eyeliner Set (Season 2)

I had ordered this beautiful Korean gel eyeliner set Tosowoong MAKEON Waterproof Little Mermaid Gel Eyeliner Set (Season 2) and I had a beautiful leftover tin once I pulled out the little plastic insert where the pencils were held snug. It was just sitting around and I didn't have the heart to throw it out because it was just so adorable, so I had to re-purpose it into a miniature eyeshadow palette (ideal for travel).

I won't lie, I thought this would be a lot more difficult, and I looked into getting adhesive magnets to lay down as the foundation for my eyeshadow pans to magnetize to. But duh!!! Magnets just stick to tins! Halleleujah you don't have to do anything at all! You just put your round adhesive magnets onto your eyeshadow pans and they stick right to the tin. Such genius, much amaze, WoW. 

If you don't know how to achieve single eyeshadow pans, please refer to my depotting guide: Depotting Your Single Eyeshadows. You can take your eyeshadows out of their respective containers and thus allowing you to customize the way they are stored. I have depotted everything from MAC single eyeshadows to NYX single eyeshadows, to everything you see in my palette below and tons more. It's such an ideal way to save space... you don't realize how much space packaging takes up until you depot.

None of the shadows move at all, I actually think the magnet sticks more to the tin than it ever did to my Z palettes seeing as things are always floating around in my Z palette. This palette is so useful for travel since it closes securely and I have managed to put a good variety of shades in there for dozens of different eyeshadow looks.

The contents of my Mini Eyeshadow Palette:
Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips - Fashionista (pink and purple tones with pop of neon green)
Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips - Eye Candy, Enhance Blue Eyes (blue tones with pop of red)

Nars Eyeshadow Duo - Sugarland (sparkly apricot and pink)
Urban Decay Stardust Eyeshadow - Retrograde (deep purple w/ glitter)
ELF Eyeshadow Single - Saddle
4 small Estee Lauder travel singles (names/set unknown - depotted these forever ago)
Wet N Wild Single Eyeshadow - Brulee
Wet N Wild Single Eyeshadow - Nutty
NP set - Dublin (moss, emerald green, forest green eyeshadows)
Elizabeth Mott - Pop Goes the Shadow (champagne)

Ipsy September 2014 Glam Bag Unboxing

Ipsy bag - September 2014

At first glance, it seems like Ipsy was really trying to make up this month for their blunders of last month so we got a good selection of products in decent sizes.

Hikari Lipstick in Cabernet - Value: $13 (Full size)

I was excited to see a lipstick, not that I don't own a million already, but because this is a full-sized makeup item that I'm likely to use since the color is a nice deep muted red (at least compared to some of my other reds). It's very moisturizing and somewhat sheer so you can dab it on to your lips for just a "stained" effect if you're not a full blown red lipstick kind of gal. I've never heard of this brand, but hey, that's why I'm signed up to Ipsy so I can try out new makeup.

Pacifica Waterproof Eye Pencil (Fringe) - Value: $5.50 (Deluxe sample)

Let me preface this by saying that there is no makeup that I love more than eye makeup, so if you're going to send me multiple items in a bag with an "eye" theme, I'm the happiest girl. This waterproof eyeliner from Pacifica is a maroon-brown shade (Fringe) and I really have been enjoying using it on my waterline (the waterproof claims are true!)

Crown Brush Crease and Shadow Brush - Value: $6.99 (Full size)

This brush is impressive, the bristles are soft and remind me of my Real Techniques eyeshadow brushes. There is a big difference in quality with this compared to my ELF and Costal Scents brushes. I'm very thrilled to have received this full size item.

Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair Deep Conditioning Mask - Value $5.00 (Deluxe sample)

I love receiving hair masks to try out, it's for dry and damaged hair (that's me!) and has no parabens or phthalate so I'm hoping it works!

LeeAnni  Eco 3-in-1 Revolution Light - Value $3.75 (sample)

This may be a deluxe sample but it's only 0.5oz so I'm going to call it just a regular sample. Supposedly this is a magical toner, serum and moisturizer in one. I can't make any assessment as to whether these claims are true or not since I have yet to use it but it does have a pleasant, fresh lemon verbena scent to it. This is probably the only sample I was pretty "meh" about this month.

This month's bag didn't smell like any weird chemicals, in fact it had no smell at all, and it had a cute faux leather feel and studs (yay!). I think this bag is much more fashion-forward than the 6 year old's pencil case we received last month, so that's a bonus!

Total Value of Ipsy for September 2014: $34.24

While this isn't the highest value I have received for my $10/month subscription, I do thoroughly enjoy 3 of the products in the bag so I consider it a great month.  I love trying out new hair masks and face potions as well so I'll give the other products a whirl during a pamper night in!

If you're interested in joining Ipsy, you can do so by clicking here

Product Review: L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly Mascara (Waterproof)

I, for one, did not buy into the initial hype of the L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly Mascara, just because I have several mascaras that I'm using and they all do a decent job of adding volume and length so I didn't need another one in my life. That is, until I found this to be on clearance for a measly $3 at Walgreens - then I just had to try it.

I'm surprised by the packaging, it feels very well-made in my hand and I dig how sleek and reflective it looks, it even *clicks* closed. I didn't make a conscious decision to pick the Waterproof edition but it was the only one they had, so against my own reservations I decided to take the plunge.

The shape of the mascara wand is... odd. It's unlike any other wand I've ever used and it's clearly made of synthetic fibers, which sometimes I am a fan of because I find that they separate my lashes well and don't cause much clumping. I found the formula to be neither too thin nor too thick, but definitely steering closer to the thin side, so you can easily layer this mascara with others or using multiple passes of itself. I find it akin to the Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara, except I think the Butterfly wand makes it much easier to apply the mascara precisely and all the way to the ends of your lashes.

Photo of eyes with 1 pass of L'Oreal Voluminous Butterfly Mascara (Waterproof)

I only quickly applied one coat of the mascara to my lashes at 7AM in the morning and then I took this photo at 11PM (after 16 hours of wear!!). You can see there has been no transfer, no flaking, and my lashes looked just as good as they did in the morning despite the fact that I spent about 30 minutes walking through a pretty bad downpour of rain. I apologize for the jankiness of the photos but I was pretty tired and lazy so I just used my phone to snap a eye-selfie (an eye-fie?). While I wouldn't say it added a drastic amount of volume to my lashes, it definitely lengthened them well, even curled them upwards and was very comfortable to wear (non-irritating to my eyes which can sometimes be sensitive to new mascaras).

Overall, I'm highly impressed by this mascara and although I am not a fan of waterproof mascaras, this mascara is a definite must-buy if you're looking for something to last you all day, not flake, or transfer. I can't comment as to the efficacy of the non-waterproof formula but the waterproof formula gets two very eager thumbs up!

New Release: Anastasia Beverly Hills Tamanna Palette

I received an email from Anastasia Beverly Hills announcing their newly released product: the Tamanna Eye Shadow Palette. It is presently available for online purchase on their website. It will hit stores in the near future (probably at the usual retailers of Ulta, Sephora, and Macys). I am so susprised that they released another palette so soon, the Maya Mia palette was released barely 3 weeks ago (you can see my review of it here).

Tamanna Roashan (@dressyourface) is yet another instagram makeup artist with a serious following that has caught the eye of Anastasia and her daughter, Claudia (you should really look up Tamanna, she does the most beautiful double-winged looks I've ever seen!). Anastasia Beverly Hills keeps bringing us fresh new faces from various ethnic backgrounds who have one thing in common: their love of beauty and style. I give serious kudos to Anastasia for sticking with this theme and making it a true collection. Tamanna chose all of the colors herself and they are her "must haves" which she religiously uses on clients of any skin tone.

The packaging is elaborate and has a repeating scroll pattern, inspired by the middle eastern and Indian background of Tamanna. It is beautiful just like every other palette in this collection, it's diversified and absolutely stunning packaging (I love how the packaging always reflects the shadow choices inside the palette).

For color reference, below this image I have included the Maya Mia Palette, the Amrezy palette, and the Lavish palette (Holiday 2013 release).

Fresh - creamy matte highlight; looks similar to Cream from the Lavish palette
Blush - shimmery highlight; looks very similar to Glisten from the Maya Mia palette and Amrezy palette
Venezia - teal blue shimmer; looks like a greener version of Aqua from the Maya Mia palette
Gilded -  metallic antique gold
Custom - metallic grey taupe
Sangria - cranberry shimmer; looks like a shimmery version of Deep Plum from the Amrezy palette
Bengal - matte warm brown; looks like Caramel from Maya Mia palette and Amrezy palette
Chocolate - dark brown; looks like a warmer version of Deep Brown from Maya Mia palette
China Rose - goldy, pink coral; looks like a more orange version of Fresh Peach from Maya Mia palette
Noir - matte black; looks like LBD matte black from the Amrezy palette

So obviously this palette is going to have some repeats or similar colors, I would say there's 1 from the Lavish palette, 4 from the Amrezy palette and 5 from the Maya Mia palette. Some of the colors will have some slight variations in tone or finish, but if you're a collector like me you're definitely going to want to pick one up! I've gotten great use out of my previous Anastasia palettes and I think the quality for the price ($29) is outstanding.

Anastasia Beverly Hills - Maya Mia Palette

Product Review & Comparison: Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit vs. City Color Contour Effects

Today, I bring you a comparison post between the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit and 

City Color Contour Effects. I have seen loads of hype about these products and I really wanted to see if they were worth the hype.

Right away you can tell that the pan sizes of the City Color Contour Effects is larger than those in the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit, but you are receiving 3 additional shades in the latter. The City Color Contour Effects only comes with one shade of highlighter whereas the Anastasia Contour Kit comes with three. The Anastasia Contour Kit has shades which can be popped in and out of the palette by the little finger-dip zone to the bottom right of each color. This is so handy since Anastasia Beverly Hills now sells refills and you can build your own palette if you want.

You can tell from my photo that I have gotten quite a lot of use out of this palette in just a few weeks of owning it. I have also made a concerted effort to use drugstore-quality contours and bronzers since this is a high-end option I don't want to have to repurchase refills for in merely a few months.

I mix Vanilla and Banana for the perfect lighting for my face (I do have to point out that my skin is more yellow than pink-toned, so this may be a contributing factor as to why this works so well for me). I use Sand as a pop of shimmer above my cheeks and on my cupid's bow as it does reflect the light beautifully. 

Fawn is the perfect contour transition shade. This works the same way on your face as a transition shade would above your eye crease - it blurs out and essentially makes your face look Photoshop-flawless as opposed to giving you a harsh bronzer or contour line. I use Java to warm up my skin-tone as a bronzer and as the contour shade on days I'm looking for less definition. If I want more distinct definition, I usually use Havana specifically for under my jawline and to lift my cheekbones.

You can see in the swatches that all of these shades are very pigmented and it really doesn't take a lot of layering to get the desired tone. The colors are also not so highly saturated with pigment that they are hard to work with - in my opinion, they are the perfect fine-milled face powders. It is very easy to achieve a "blown out" look with all of the shades and Fawn is an absolute holy grail since it is taupe-leaning and cool contour shades are rather difficult to come across.

The City Color Contour Effects palette consists of 3 shades: Contour, Bronze and Highlight, as well as a guide instructing how to use the shades. Each person's face is slightly different and may need definition in places another person's may not, so always use these guides at your discretion. Remember, you know your face best and makeup is all about having fun with creativity :)!

The texture of the powders is harder in this palette than in the Anastasia Contour Kit, but the shades are highly pigmented. They are so pigmented in fact that you have to be careful not to pick up too much of any shade on your brush. You can see that the Highlight is a stark white shade, Bronze is an orange-leaning bronzing shade, and Contour is a medium-dark brown.

When I apply these colors to my face, I have to use a light hand because it can get out of hand and I can start to look like an awful Kim Kardashian wannabe very quickly. Contour is too dark for my fair skin-tone, this may work better if you are of medium to dark complexion. I can only use this shade lightly underneath my jawbone (since that's probably the place least seen). I am more likely to use the Bronze in this kit as my contour, but since this orange-leaning, it is a little Oompa Loompa for my taste. Also, I applied the Highlight shade to highlight my nose, forehead and cheeks, when I went out during the daylight, even though I had blended the powder, it was a very bright white on my face. So again, this isn't a subtle palette, not for those who like natural contouring and highlight nor those who use their brushes more aggressively in powder.

Here is a comparison swatch line-up so you can see all of the colors side-by-side. You can see that Highlight is much lighter than Vanilla, Banana, and Sand (Vanilla and Sand are much more beige). You can also tell quite easily that Contour is the darkest shade in both palettes by at least 2-3 shades. Bronze is a more orange-toned version of Java. 

All things considered, I really do think you are better off purchasing the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit, specifically if you are of a fair or light complexion. I really only see the City Color Contour Effects

working for medium to dark warm-toned complexions. Seeing as I have already purchased this, I will try to give it a whirl when I'm more tan.

Do you own either of these? What do you think?