Stash Swatch

Blog Sale

2012-01-16T00:33:00.001-08:00

More items have been added to the sale.
1. If you are interested in anything, please contact me via MUA as eternalstarangel or via email at eternalstarangel (At) gmail (dot) com. I check my MUA mail more than my email, it's my preferred method of contact.
2. Shipping is $3 to all US addresses. This includes Delivery Confirmation. Please add $0.50 for each additional item. If your items will fit in a small flat rate box, then your max shipping cost will be $5. Any international buyers should contact me for postage (based on weight)
4. I would appreciate it if you could send payments as gifts so that fees were not taken out. Payment for any orders under $10 (before shipping) must be sent via PayPal as a 'gift'. If you are uncomfortable sending payment as a gift, I would appreciate it if you could cover the Paypal fees, but it it not always necessary if your order is over $10. Orders are on a first come, first serve basis. Anything not paid for within 24 hours is up for grabs again. (unless otherwise discussed)
5. Feel free to haggle, but keep in mind that shipping prices are set. I don't have access to a printer so everything has to be done at the post office.
Benefit blushes- $18 each. these are the original larger size boxes. (except Bella Bamba) Benefit recently halved the size of these.
Dandelion-3x
Georgia-5x
Coralista-1x SOLD
Thrrrob-2x
Bella Bamba-1x
WnW blushes-$3 each
All over Shimmer, Mellow Wine, Heather Silk

Urban Decay Powder Blushes
Score (used 2x)-SOLD
Exhale( used 1x)-SOLD
Paranoid (unused, but the surface looks funny)-SOLD
NYX Champagne and Caviar-$8
Rock and Republic Pressed Powder-$25 each
Chiffon-2x
Suede-1x
MUFE Anniversary Aqua liner set. 25 pencils, some new, others used a few times. None have been resharpened, though the black one probably needs it. -PEND/SOLD(includes shipping and insurance)
For any international buyers, this means I have to declare the full value, unless you ask me to do otherwise. (I will not be responsible for this being lost if you ask me to declare a lesser value)

MAC In the Gallery-$25
MAC Photorealism-$25

SIB 4 Sweetie Cakes-$25

SIB MAC quad with Naked Lunch, All that Glitters, Mulch, Contrast (Contrast is new, rest of shades 1x)-SOLD
SIB Notoreity Quad-$25

Tarte palette with Tipsy cheek stain and Park Ave Princess --$15
Korres Blush 44 Orange (2x)--$10

BNIB Missha Perfect Cover in #21 SOLD
and #23--$10 each

Lancome Juicy Tube mini set (Spring Fling, Pink Horizon, Fifth Avenue Frosting, Simmer, Crand Cafe Creme Brulee, Ginger Palace, Sun Bronze, Maharani Jewels) used a couple of times each. Will be shipped without the casing.--SOLD

Korres Lip Butter Glazes-SOLD
Lancome Juicy Tubes in Icon of Stage and In all her Splendor (2x each, marked Tester)--$4 each

Some NOTDs: Konad, Muppets OPIs, etc

2011-11-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

1 coat of OPI Going Gonzo! over 3 coats OPI Road House Blues

OPI Warm and Fozzie. 3 coats, very interesting multicolored foil.

1 coat of OPI Rainbow Connection over 3 coats of Orly Le Chateau. Rainbow connection takes some dabbing to get the amount of glitter you want. Orly Le Chateau is a very deep blue jellyish creme. It basically looks black after a couple of coats. It's opaque in 2 coats, but I usually use 3 coats for everything.
m57 over Ulta Acid Wash. Acid wash is a light blue with gold duochrome. The gold is prevalent on my nails irl and the result is a color that isn't quite gold or silver.

OPI Skull and Glossbones alone. I forget if this is 3 or 4 coats. It was a bit goopy to apply, but the color is beautiful.
With Konad and Out the Door Northern Lights
Orly Roccoco A-go-go. 3 coats, opaque in 2. Excellent formula, but it's not as cool on the nails as it is in the bottle. Still very lovely
OPI Wocka Wocka! 3 coats, but it's opaque in 2. It's a nice red, but nothing special.
Wocka Wocka! with Orly Prisma Gloss Gold on top.
Orly Androgynie. I used 3 coats. Very pretty black jelly with silver and gold glitter and multicolored hexes. I like it, but the bottle has to be closed and shaken up throughout the application.

Orly Androgynie close-up

Orly Fowl Play. 4 coats. It looks identical to OPI Merry Midnight, in the bottle, but for some reason I prefer the OPI.

Holiday 2011: Dior Couture Golds

2011-10-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Dior was a bit late in releasing their 5 color eyeshadows for this season, but I snagged one yesterday at my local Nordstrom counter. This was swatched in indoor OTT lighting.
The quint is of the newer formula and is a bit harder pressed than the usual irridescent quints. It still applies fine though

Holiday 2011: Laura Mercier Book of Nudes and NOTD OPI Meep Meep Meep

2011-10-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

One of the things I bought for Sephora's Friends and Family sale is the Laura Mercier Book of Nudes. This palette contains 8 shadows, 1 cake liner, and 3 cream cheek products. Most of the eye shadows are smooth and buttery, but Tiger's Eye is an unpigmented, hard pressed mess. The other shadows are somewhat sheer, but very buildable. All swatches were taken in a mix of natural lighting and OTT lighting over UDPP, roughly 3 swipes each (except Tiger's Eye)

Buff is a matte beige.
Tiger's Eye is an warm brown with gold glitter. It's hard and unpigmented and easily forms a crust on top. I had to really dig in to get payoff. I think this was 6 swipes or so with my brush, and I had to really pack it on.
Sandstone is a shimmery beige pink.
Bamboo is a warm, slight antiqued bronzey taupe.
Baroque is a warm orange brown with gold shimmer
Fresco is a matte, pinked brown.
Granite is a deep, matte grey.
Cocoa Brown is a reddish brown with slight bronze shimmer. The shimmer doesn't really transfer onto the skin.
The cheek creams in the palette have a smooth, kinda oily texture. The only one I found somewhat pretty is the cheek veil which is a slightly corally peach shade. Bronzer veil reminded me kind of like baby diarrhea...it didn't look particularly pretty swatched onto my arm. Glow veil is a golden highlight shade. The only one of these I tried on my face was the cheek veil. It was easy enough to blend, but I didn't like the payoff on my face. Each of these swatches was maybe 4 swipes. They're definitely quite sheer.

I did neglect to swatch the cake liner, but you can find a swatch of it with the LM Luxe Color portfolio I swatched earlier this month if you're interested. Overall, the palette is okay, but the colors themselves don't particularly appeal to me. If you're torn between getting the luxe color portfolio or the book of nudes, my personal preference would be towards the luxe color portfolio. The Book of Nudes is quite a bit cheaper though, so if you like the colors, it's okay to get, but it doesn't excite me whatsoever.

Here's a look at yesterday's NOTD as weel; OPI Meep Meep Meep. This polish is a slightly pink red, that I found was somewhat jelly-like in color payoff (I can still see my nail line a bit after 3 coats). There's some multidimmensional shimmer to it as well that I feel like my camera didn't capture so well. This photo was taken under OTT lighting at the end of the day shortly before I removed it.

Cat + Lipstick= Cat Lipstick

2011-10-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

The Paul and Joe lipsticks went on sale on urbanoutfitters.com so I thought I'd give them a try. They're actually quite nice. They're sheer, with good slip and decent lasting power (2-3 hours or so) I actually found myself really liking them until I figured out I was allergic to them. It was sad, but at least I save money by not falling in love with the brand. :)

066 is kind of a pinky-nude on me and my favorite of the 3.
067 is a light pinky peach.
068 is a medium pink with a lot of gold shimmer.

Pout Blushes

2011-10-24T22:36:00.000-07:00

Today we're making a quick visit into the land of the discontinued as I've swatched the Pout blushes that I currently own. These lovely items retailed for $22 and are a whopping 12g (larger than the R&R blushes, which are 9g). This line is not to be confused with the Pout line that Victoria's Secret carries now. All of the blushes are wonderfully pigmented and blend like a dream. It's truly sad that these were discontinued.

I have 2 pictures for you as I couldn't decide which one I liked better out of the two. Swatches were done in a mix of indirect natural lighting and indoor lighting on bare skin. I used 2 swipes of each just for good measure despite the pigmentation of the blushes.

Blossom Belle is a peach/orange blush that has a lot gold shimmer throughout it. Despite the gold shimmer, it still avoids being frosty on the cheeks
Berry Babe is a red-coral shade with gold shimmer. It doesn't have as much shimmer as Blossom Belle.
Pearly Queen is a pigmented matte warm pink
Cherie Tarte is a matte rose/mauve shade.
Apricot Totty is a gorgeous coral with gold shimmer. It's my favorite out of the 5 that I own and consequently the only one I thought to back up. I did let go of the backup though as I don't imagine I'll ever be able to use these up.

If you can find any of these (eBay, blog sales, swaps) I highly encourage you to pick one up. They're honestly amazing.

Majolica Majorca Puff de Cheek Blushes

2011-10-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

Matte blushes are a bit of a rarity when it comes to Japanese blushes, but Majolica Majorca released a few last spring so I snagged them. I bought all of the Puff de Cheeks except for the beige highlighter shade. I believe OR302 is still available (it's still up on adambeauty and ichibankao), but I seem to only be able to find the other two on eBay. The Puff de Cheeks are nice, but not horribly unique. They're fairly subtle on my face and I like the look of them. It took several swipes for them too show up this well on my arm.

Laura Mercier Holiday 2011-- Luxe Color Portfolio

2011-10-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

Laura Mercier Luxe Color Portfolio- retails $98
Contains: 6 eyeshadows, 3 cake liners, 2 blushes, and 3 mini brushes

Laura Mercier Luxe Color Portfolio (close-up)

Natural Lighting + OTT light over UDPP

Primrose-Warm shimmery pink.
African Violet- Warm violet shade with gold shimmer
Merlot-Deep plum shade with mild shimmer
Truffle-Warm matte brown
Topaz-silvery taupe
Stellar-shimmering beige

Indirect Natural Lighting, no base

The Luxe Color Portfolio by Laura Mercier is my favorite palette so far this season. It's really the only thing I've truly been happy with purchasing in a while (with the exception of the Guerlain 4 pan palettes) and is well worth the hefty price tag to me. All 6 shadows are smooth and blendable, and carry medium pigmentation. The mini brushes are soft, and very useable, unlike a lot of brushes that tend to come in sets. The cake liners are fairly easy to use; lightly dampen an eyeliner brush and mix with the liner. If you dampen the brush too much, you won't get a nice, pigmented line. I wouldn't really purchase the cake liners on their own, as I prefer pencil/gel liners but they're nice to have in the palette and come in very pretty colors. Ground Espresso is even a bit taupey.

Burberry Blushes

2011-10-15T00:40:00.000-07:00

I've recently (OK, maybe not so recently) become obsessed with Burberry's blushes. They're smooth, blend beautifully, and all of them are great, wearable colors. If you love super bright blushes, this probably isn't the line for you, but if you love blushes that give you a great, sophisticated, and natural glow, these are great for that. I've found every shade wearable, especially for my light/light-medium skin.

Rose is a bright-ish warm pink with a mild amount of warm pink shimmer. It's probably the brightest of the 8 blushes. It's not a horribly unique color, but it's really cute on the cheeks.
Cameo is a matte pink with mauvey tones to it.
Misty is a light, matte pink. I think anyone darker than the 20-25 range may have trouble getting this one to show up.
Peony is another light matte pink. It's similar to Misty, but it's a bit warmer and shows up just a bit better on me that Misty, but not by much.

Blossom is a warm coral pink with understated silver shimmer. It's nice and glowy on the cheeks, instead of frosty. find it a bit warmer in person than it appears on my monitor.
Russet is a orange-brown shade with shimmer. I don't see this working too well on light, cool skin, but probably looks nice on warmer skin tones.
Tangerine is a matte, peachy shade with some brown to it. It's not quite as brown as it is in this photo, it's closer to what's pictured in the first picture. It was my first Burberry blush, and I'm quite fond of it.
Earthy is a warm taupe. I like to use it for some light contouring, but on cooler skintones, this one will probably be closer to tan.

I Didn't Think It Was That Bad...

2011-10-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

...but apparently I have way too many eyeliners!

Dior Holiday 2011--Celebration Collection Deluxe Palette and Eye palette

2011-10-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

The last couple of years, Dior has managed to sucker me into purchasing their deluxe palette. This year I got suckered into the eye palette as well. The packaging for these was too adorable for me to pass up.

Dior Holiday Eye palette (outside)

Dior Holiday Eye Palette (inside)

The eye palette contains 3 eyeshadows and an eyeliner and comes packaged with intructions for creating certain looks with the palette. The eyeshadows themselves a beautifully pigmented and silky in texture. Each of these only took a single swipe to photograph well on my arm. The eyeliner is a cream liner that I'm not all that fond of. It stays creamy and never really seems to set, even if you press the dark brown eyeshadow over it to set it. Unfortunately, this means I had smudgy eyeliner under my eyes by the end of the day. I really wish Dior had gone with a 4th eyeshadow instead. I do however, really love the eyeshadow colors that were in this palette. They're shimmery without really being frosty this time. I'd say the lighter gold-brown shade is more metallic than a frost this time. I fell in love with it when I wore it. The darker brown is also beautiful. The eye palette retails for $44 (pretax)

Dior Holiday Eye palette over UDPP, natural+OTT lighting

This year's deluxe palette features 3 eyeshadows, a cream liner, 1 lipstick, 1 gloss, a lip balm, a miniature Diorshow Iconic, and a miniature Diorskin sculpting powder (020). My honest opinion on this one is that the eye shades are similar enough to last year's palette that you probably don't need this one if you bought last year's. Unfortunately for me I got suckered into this one for the adorable packaging, and ended up really liking the lip shade (Rouge Dior 644).

The eye shades are a pink-beige shade, a lilacky taupe, and a smoky plum shade. The eyeliner is a soft black, and unfortunately, like the one in the eye palette, smudgy. I probably would only use this liner in a pinch. The insert that comes with the palette gives you directions for 2 eye looks, as well as directions for using the sculpting Powder. The sculpting powder has 3 sections; the top section, which is lighter is for hightlighting. The middle shade is supposed to be for contouring, and the bottom shade is for setting/blending. It seems like it'd be a cute product, but unfortunately, with the powder being the size that it is, it's virtually impossible to use this powder the way it was intended. I attempted to just swirl it all together and use it as a setting powder, but the powder sits lower in the palette instead of at the surface, making it even more difficult to use. The lip balm, Creme de Rose, is decent; it's nothing special in my book, and carries a light rose scent. This probably would have been better if it had a more portable option. Either way, it was nice for Dior to add this in as I find the regular lipstick line kind of drying. The lipgloss (Ultra-gloss Reflect 246) is practically clear. It has a tiny bit of a peachy tint to it, but on my lips it might as well be clear gloss. I definitely wish Dior had chosen a different shade, as I can't really tell the difference between the gloss and the lip balm on my lips.

Dior Holiday Deluxe palette (outside)

Dior Holiday Deluxe Palette over UDPP, natural+OTT lighting

I do like the big palette overall, and it's a nice little splurge if you don't already have a lot of Dior, but I don't really consider it a must-have. There's definitely other nice things that you can spend your money on this holiday season, but if you want to shell out the $77 for it, it's not a bad purchase either.

Chanel Holiday 2011--Beige Lame Single

2011-10-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Chanel Beige Lame

I've been a bit MIA for a while, but I've decided to tentatively wiggle myself back into blogging now that I have the time for it. My local Chanel counter just got in the holiday collection so I wandered in to check this out, since there's been some buzz on the new highlighter they're releasing with the collection. Luckily for my wallet, I didn't find it that interesting; the shimmer is just an overspray on the highlighter. After the overspray is rubbed off, it's sort of just a satiny texture, and while I like subtle highlighters, this one was just a little TOO subtle for me to want to shell out the money for it. Originally, I had also been interested in the gold single, as the gold used on the model in the promo pics was gorgeous, but it turned out to be far too yellow for my liking. The beige lip gloss was very nice, kind of a pinky beige, but I left it alone for now. (I may go back for it later though). What I did come home with, was the single eyeshadow in Beige Lame.

Beige Lame is a dark, warmish beige with multicolor sparkle. The texture is similar to Fauve, which was released in the previous collection, but instead of silver sparkles, you get multicolor sparkles. The shadow is not quite as sparkly on my lids/arm as they are in the pan, but you still get some.

Closeup of the sparkles...yummy!

Swatched on my arm, mix of natural lighting and OTT light, no base

OVerall, I really like this single, but the price tag is pretty hefty for the color itself ($28.50 pretax). I don't feel like the base color is all that unique, but I do like the multi-color shimmer that this shadow has, so I'm thinking I'll keep it in my stash.

I Don't Think I Have Enough Blush

2011-10-04T03:25:00.000-07:00

I'm kidding :].
I have more than enough. These are all of my highlighters, blushes, and bronzers.

Dior Fall/Winter Ready to Wear palette (Nordstrom exclusive)

2011-07-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get back into the swing of swatching things, but the lighting in my room has been less than optimal. For some reason my house just doesn't really seem to be getting any good natural lighting anymore. Anyways, I'm crazy enough to have a Nordstrom Visa, so I was able to shop the sale early (got my stuff last week). I hadn't really been able to do anything with it really though until today. I picked up 3 of the exclusives from the sale; the NARS Bright Lights Big City eyeshadow palette and this Dior palette, which retails for $52 before tax.

The palette contains 4 eyeshadow shades, a powder foundation in shade 020 (not swatched), blush in 950 Framboise/Raspberry, and 2 Dior Gloss Ultra Gloss Reflects in shades 183 and 483. The eyshadows themselves are nice and silky. The Pink shade swatched closer to white on my skin (about nw20 right now I think), the taupey shade swatched purpley, the brown was fairly consistent with how it looked in the pan, and the white shade has pink duochrome to it so it came out pink on my skin. The blush is a nice neutral-warm pink with very minor shimmer. The two glosses came out very very sheer on my arm. They were actually a bit difficult to get on the brush though.
Overall, I'm really happy with this palette. It's a nice travel palette for girls with lighter skin (girls with medium-dark skin most likely would not be able to use the foundation) and is very reasonably priced for Dior. I'm fairly surprised at what seems to be a low price point for Dior, since their holiday palettes which have come in similar formats have retailed for $75 (I'm not complaining though, I love that this palette is about $20 cheaper)

Nordstrom Anniversary Sale Beauty Exclusives 2011

2011-06-26T12:24:00.001-07:00

Hello Ladies...I just wanted to share a quick update of some of the things that Nordstrom is cranking out for the Anniversary sale this year. It's kind of a quick copy and paste, so I apologize for the way it looks. The sale will start sometime in mid-July.

Chanel Rouge Allure in Joyeuse (pictured) and Desinvolte--$32 each
Chanel Rose Tourbillon--$43
Chanel Rose Envolee Quad--$57
Chanel Glossimers in Blossom (pictured) and Liason-$27 each
Chanel Poudre Lumiere Pearl Glow Powder--$60
Bobbi Brown Tortoise Shell Beauty Kit-$80
Kit includes:- Shimmer Brick in Beach (limited edition).- Creamy Lip Color in Toffee (limited edition).- Shimmer Lip Gloss in Rose Gold (0.14 oz.).- Long Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink (0.1 oz.).- Extreme Party Mascara in Black (0.21 oz.).- Mini Ultra Fine Eyeliner Brush.- Mini Face Blender Brush.

Dior Fall Ready to Wear Palette-$52

Lancome Parisian Sultry Eye Look Set--$48
Color Design Shadow and Liner Palette in Coral Crush (warm corals and browns). Complete your look with a full-size Le Crayon Khôl Eyeliner in Black Ebony, a travel-size Aquatique Eye Color Base (0.08 oz.) and Hypnôse Instant Full Body Volume Mascara (0.135 oz.) for lash drama. All tucked inside a Parisian-chic cosmetics bag.
NARS Bright Lights Big City Eyeshadow Palette-$55
Shades included are Cyprus, Biarritz, Fathom, Night Clubbing, Coconut Grove and Night Breed.
Smashbox Studio Stash Brush Set-$36
Full-size #7 Tapered Shadow Brush.- Full-size #15 Definer Brush.- Travel-size #28 Precision Liner Brush.- Travel-size Angled Blush Brush.

Smashbox Studio Stash Set-$59
Set contains:- Eyeshadow palette featuring shades Vanilla, Slate, Twilight Grey and Charcoal.- Full Exposure Mascara in Jet Black (full-size, 0.38 oz.).- Lip Enhancing Lip Gloss in Smitten (full-size, 0.2 oz.).- Cream Eyeliner Palette featuring ten versatile shades.- Blush/Soft Lights Duo in Split/Second.- Roll cosmetic bag.

Trish McEvoy Portable Beauty Romance Set-$75

Colors include eyeshadows in Shell, Romance and Antique Rose, Eye Definer in Deep Aubergine and new Bronzer in Golden.Also includes:- Instant Eye Lift under-eye brightener and line filler (deluxe travel size, 0.025 oz.).- Beauty Booster Lip Gloss SPF 15 in Sexy Petal, (deluxe travel size, 0.2 oz.).- Dual-Ended Eye Brush featuring two of Trish's most iconic eye-enhancing brushes on opposing ends: Brush 50 Angled Eye Lining and Brush 23 Angled Crease Contour.- Brush 48 Blending, the perfect face-color application and blending brush.
Trish Mc Evoy Timeless Beauty Makeup Planner--
Includes:
Red Bow Petite Makeup Planner.- Petite Refillable Makeup Page containing eyeshadows in French Vanilla and Soft Grey, blush in Glow, Medium Matte Bronzer and Translucent Finishing Powder.- Eye Base Essentials in Bare (deluxe travel size, 0.025 oz.).- Mini Classic Eye Pencil in Black.- Mini High Volume Mascara in Black (0.1 oz.).- Lip Color SPF 15 in Mulberry.- Brush 62 Fan Brush.- Medium Refillable Double-Decker Compact containing Even Skin Portable Foundation in Shades 2 and new 3.5 with professional sponge applicator.

There's a lot more goodies available, but I just chose some of the stuff available based on brands I personally like myself.

I'm thinking of getting a glossimer, the Dior palette, the NARS palette, and possibly the Lancome Set...I already have the Chanel JC so I'll skip it this time. I hope that helps somebody who's been trying to hunt down a list or some pictures.

NYX Single e/s Swatches..Quality Control anyone?

2011-03-03T18:27:00.001-08:00

NYX has generally surprised me over the years with the high quality of their shadows in combination with their low prices. The eyeshadows, most especially the single colors, are smooth, pigmented, and blend very well. I've bought quite a few of them along the way, but these are the ones I've kept.Sparkle Cedar-a nice taupe with a lot of sparkle to it. It appears to me to have a slight hint of green to it while still remaining on the cooler side of the spectrum.
Taupe Pearl-named quite literally. It's a taupe eyeshadow with a pearl finish. It's nice, but not horribly unique to me in any way. I'm not really complaining for $5 though
Iced Mocha- one of my oldest NYX singles; it's a bit warmer than Taupe Pearl, but the two are fairly similar.
The last two swatches of this set are both NYX Root Beer-both were bought at different times from different places, but both have the same name and look very different from each other. The first one, has a considerable amount more purple tones to it and is a lighter taupey color. The second is a richer brown-taupe with a hint of pruple, but it's a much less strong purple tone than the other one. I had bought the second one after depotting the first one and being left with regret. However, I discovered after coming home with it that the two colors were not identical; and therefore felt the need to keep both. Seeing the two of these next to each other, I can see why people have argued about whether or not NYX Root Beer is considered a dupe for the elusive MAC Moth Brown. (I'd say one of the versions is probably close)..which I suppose leads me to my title question; Quality Control anyone? It's a bit silly to have shades that are so inconsistent among batches..

Skin Tight-a light warm peachy skintone like shade with golden peach sparkle. This is pretty without lending too much color on my eyes.
Champagne-the color apples turn when they start oxidizing...only shimmery. I don't feel like Champagne is a real Champagne color, but it's still a nice color.
Flamingo- a nice, dirty pink/gold duochromish shadow. I like this shade quite a bit, but I find it harder and more difficult to work with than the rest of my NYX.
Deep Bronze-the name fits the shade on this one. I don't have a whole lot to say on it
Silver-a nice silver shade without too many blue tones.

Khaki- a pretty green shade with a hint of grey
Herb- a warm bronzed green
Green Tea- I kinda like this shade..it's a dirty seafoam greem type of color with a silvery pearl to it...just beautiful
Hunter green- a deeper green-grey shade
Charcoal-gunmetal grey

Wet 'n' Wild 8 Pan Eyeshadow Palettes

2011-02-13T16:58:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I picked up the 3 new 8 pan Wet 'n' Wild eyeshadow palettes at my local Walgreens. They retail for $4.99 and are a great value for the money. For the most part I like them, despite generally being a total brand whore, but Wet 'n' Wild has always been one of those exceptions for me; the quality is always great.

First up is the beautifully neutral toned Comfort Zone. The quality on this one is nice; it's soft and pigmented and delightful to apply. I do feel like the left side of the palette is too warm for my taste, but I love the green side of the palette (minus the ugly warm brown duochrome shade)

The second palette is Petal Pusher, the purple toned palette in the new collection. Again, one side is cooler toned than the other. The cooler toned left side is far less pigmented than the other. I had a bit of trouble applying the lid shade without packing it on, and even then it didn't show up too well. I haven't applied the right side yet, but it swatched pretty nicely. I would say that this is the least pigmented of the 3 palettes, which is a bit dissapointing to me because I'm fond of purple eyeshadows.

The last palette; Blue Had Me at Hello is the most pigmented of the 3 palettes, and oddly enough my favorite. I'm wearing the right side of the palette today, and it applied smoothly and coordinated perfectly. The silver shade is also the most amazing silver I've come across. I feel like this palette is worth it for that shade alone if nothing else. I am a little bummed that they shoved two black shades in this palette that are nearly identical; the glitter in the right side of the palette falls off pretty much immediately leaving it identical to the other black shade. The blue on the left side is also black based; making it come off as nearly black on my lids. I really wish that the creative team at Wet 'n' Wild had seen fit to put a different shades in here, but I'm still happy with the palette overall.

The last thing I have for you ladies today is my manicure for the day; China Glaze Cracked Concrete over ORLY Cashmere Cardigan. It's not my favorite combination, but it works I guess.

Guerlain G Serie Noire

2011-02-12T20:38:00.000-08:00

After seeing post after post about this blush, I felt that I had to have it. Unfortunately, my local counter was sold out of this, and I was told that it was completely sold out in the Nordstrom network. Of course, when it popped up on Sephora's site, I quickly plopped down the ridiculous amount of money that this blush was to cost me.

When the blush did arrive, I was completely underwhelmed by it due to the gold shimmer that was laced so strongly throughout its entire surface. Revisiting the swatches I'd seen on various other blogs, I was even more disheartened by it's comparison to blushes such as NARS Orgasm, which I had hated for it's gold sheen, as well as the overall shimmer in each shade. I was sorely tempted to take this blush back to Sephora without even trying it; however, it was still getting rave reviews online. I decided to suck it up and give this blush a whirl before I made my final decision; so taking my favorite R&R blush brush, I carefully ran my brush through all 4 colors and applied it to my face.

Sadly for my wallet, I found that I rather like this blush. I think that it's comparison to Orgasm, Deep Throat, and other peachy-pink blushes is a bit of a sad generalization about this blush as it does not even begin to describe this blush. While it's true that running your brush through all 4 colors will create a shimmery peachy pink blush, it does not have the gold sheen that Orgasm does (or it's sheerness), or is even quite as strong a shimmer as Deep Throat (though I could be wrong on this one). Plus with the way this blush is striped, you could make it as pink, peach, or coral colored on your face as you'd like. To me, this says that it is mutiple blush colors in one, making it my blush pick for the spring (though I'm not sure I could bring myself to travel with this sucker...it's far too pricey for me to want to tote it anywhere past the safety of my own home. I'm fairly excited to see what the summer blush will look like when it comes out.

I chose not to swatch this blush as I can't bring myself to wreck the G emblazoned throughout the surface of the blush, but decided instead to share my thoughts with you ladies on this blush. My honest opinion is to pick up this blush if you find one. It's well worth the splurge if you can afford it.

Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Boy

2011-02-12T18:13:00.000-08:00

To replace the old Aqualumiere line, Chanel has come out with a new line of lipsticks called the Rouge Coco Shine, which is set to come out in early April. However, a few counters did a pre-release of a single shade from this line, Boy, which I was lucky enough to be able to pick up yesterday from my local Chanel counter. A few weeks ago, my favorite Chanel SA had flagged me down when she saw me walking by and basically strongarmed me into buying this lipstick, telling me that this is the only lipstick I will want to own after this, because it would become my every day color. I was a little skeptical of this, but as my SA is generally prone to keeping me from buying things, and because I did not yet own a Chanel lipstick, I relented and preordered one, despite her insisting that I should get more than one.
I am generally not a lipstick girl, but I have found myself a very happy girl with this new lipstick. Chanel Boy is a sheer mauvey, slightly cool toned pink with multidimensional shimmer, making it similar to a gloss on the lips, but not quite as shiny (although it is still fairly shiny on the lips). It reminds me a lot of a cross between a MAC Lustre and the old slimshines actually (The sheerness of a lustre with the shine from the slimshine). However, it's not drying and better lasting than a Lustre, and has a much smoother finish to it. It's wonderful and emolient on the lips and so far today I've only had to reapply twice (once after eating lunch, and once more just now) With the exception of lunch (because what's really going to last past my sushi and a quick makeout session anyways?), my other try lasted quite long; at the 5 hour mark there was a bit of color left on my lips, though the shine was gone. Then again I had taken a 1.5 hour food coma induced nap after my lunch date, so it could have attributed to the lasting power of my lipstick.

This is more pigmented in real life, but the picture gives a nice idea of the finish of the lipstick. I'm fairly certain that I will be picking up the other colors in this line when they come out in April; given that I have the funds to do so.

NARS Calanques Trio

2011-02-05T14:52:00.001-08:00

The only item that I had actually preordered from NARS Spring 2011 was the Calanque Trio, which I had originally thought would be beautiful, taupey goodness. Unfortunately it didn't quite live up the the promises the stock photo seems to promise me. However, it wasn't that the stock photo was altogether decieving...as you can see below, the picture I took of the palette matches the colors in the stock photo pretty accurately. However, the middle shade is not taupey at all, but is instead a relatively nude shade.

The colors themselves apply smoothly, with the exception of the largest shade, which is a bit grittier in texture and sparkly. It's more of a sheer sparkle on my lids without much color on it's own. The darkest shade in this palette is sheer love for me. I love that it is a warm, green-tinged brown. However, I don't know if it's altogether worth keeping this for the price point. It's a smidge steep at $45... If these colors do float your boat though, you can use 132011cp on the NARS site to get 17% off with $65 purchase. (Expires 2/7/2011)

NARS Happy Days Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil

2011-02-03T20:14:00.001-08:00

I picked up NARS Happy Days today when I wandered into Nordstrom to try to find a new foundation. Coincidentally, they had just gotten the Spring stuff in, so I picked up my preorder for NARS Calanques, as well as one of the new gloss pencils. In my opinion, Happy Days was the best one out of the bunch, and thus, it came home with me. I did think that Baroque and Frivolous were kind of pretty, but Frivolous was too sheer and nothing special to me, and Baroque, while pretty, seems a little frosty on my lips, but I didn't have a whole lot of time or attention to devote to deciding on it. I figured I'd pick it up later if necessary. Happy Days is a beautiful coral color with gold shimmer. It's really not as warm (or sheer) as my camera suggests, but my camera likes to wash things out sometimes.

I'm fairly happy with this, though I feel like it was a tad pricey at $24, as I feel like it's kind of similar to the discontinued Stila lip glaze sticks (which I loved...coincidentally, the 2 I own are MIA). I would probably say that I prefer the Stila ones though, as the Stila had a bit more slip to them and smelled nicer. They were also cheaper than the NARS pencils, even at full price. Happy Days has this slight chemical/waxy smell to it to me when I first apply it that I didn't notice when trying out Baroque. It fades off within minutes though, so it's nothing that really bothers me.

Overall, I'd say it's worth picking up and trying if the colors of the gloss pencils appeal to you and you have the cash, though it wouldn't be the end of the world if you couldn't get at them.

Tarte Jewelry Box

2011-01-23T11:15:00.000-08:00

I've had these swatches sitting around for months, but never got around to uploading them on here. I figured I'd get around to it now, while Sephora was still selling these. The Tarte Treasure Chest retails for $52 and contains 32 e/s, a highlighter, a bronzer, 8, lipgloss and 5 eyeliners. The eyeshadows are less pigmented than their previous palettes, but I didn't have the same problem with them I did last year with them oxidizing on me. However, I didn't like the sheer quality of the mattes (the mattes last year were much, much nicer), or the bulky packaging of it all, so it went back to the store. I did really like the colors of the eyeliners, but it wasn't enough to get me to keep them. The eyeliners applied smoothly, but never fully set; they remained smudgeable throughout the day, but I didn't have too many problems with them as long as I didn't rub at it throughout the day. Besides the bulkiness of the packaging, I found that it had a similar problem to last year's palette where the drawer would slide out if you moved around; not exactly great for travel. I did find that the eyeliner drawer was a bit difficult to pull though. All around, this palette wasn't really worth the money to me, despite the large amount of product inside. I think I may need to accept that Tarte probably will probably never put out a palette on par with my beloved A-list palette.

Pricing FAIL+

2010-10-22T23:39:00.001-07:00

Click on the screenshot to enlarge...screenshot says it all.

SoHo de Chanel: Stupendous

2010-10-19T23:53:00.000-07:00

I caved and bought the quad from Chanel's Soho collection after seeing pictures of this baby. I was worried that it might be too similar to my Mystic Eyes quad, but it's different enough that I felt like it was worth keeping. (It might just be the Chanel ho in me though) 3/4 shades are very light, and while I was initially dissapointed that the taupe shade was too light, I actually like the sort of understated look this quad gives me. The quality of the quad is Chanel's usual smooth buttery goodness, and I certainly like this quad a lot more than Tentation Cuivre, which I picked up around the same time. I feel that this quad would look gorgeous on someone who is very fair though, so if you fall into that category, it may be worth looking into. It's not a must have though, so if you do happen to miss out on this one, don't feel too bad about it.

Chanel Holiday 2010 Tentation Cuivre quad

2010-10-16T15:14:00.001-07:00

Hello! Today's topic is the quad from Chanel's Holiday 2010 collection, Tentation Cuivre. Unlike quads that were previously released in the US, this quad is baked like the European quads. Truth be told, I'm not a fan of baked cosmetics, and this quad is not the exception. While it is fairly pigmented, I feel like the application just doesn't match up to Chanel's usual quality. The US quads are usually very smooth and apply like a dream, but the baked quads just don't give me that impression. I felt like I had to work with it a bit to get it smooth looking on the lids.
The quad contains 4 neutral, rather sparkly shades. While I say that these shades are sparkly, I don't mean that they are sparkly in the glittery sense. Chanel has an interesting way of making things sparkly without the use of glitter. The sparkle is closer to large shimmer particles. However, on my lids, the sparkle doesn't particularly show up, and the shades do fall a bit flat. I don't have a strong opinion on this quad going either way, so if you're on the fence on this quad, I'd say that it's okay to skip this quad altogether this season.

NOTD: Holographic Taxicab

2010-10-11T14:27:00.001-07:00

Hello, it's been a really long time since I last posted anything. I assure you that I'm working on a few projects, but for now I hope you'll settle for a NOTD of mine from a few weeks ago that was inspired by yellow taxicabs. I used one of the Bundle Monster plates and my Konad black polish over China Glaze It's My Turn. I'm not usually a fan of gold polishes, but this one actually looks decent against my skin. I attempted to show off the holo, but the lighting in my room's been getting worse.

Anyways, that's all for now. I have a couple palettes swatched already, but I haven't labeled them. I'll be trying to post some pictures of a couple of the holiday items within the next few days at least so you guys have something to look at while I find the time to swatch them. I had swatches of the Orly Cosmic FX polishes, but I didn't really like how they turned out. I'm currently trying to decide if I want to reswatch what I have left or post the ones I have (or not post them at all)

OOPS

2010-09-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a long long time, and I'm sorry (do people actually even read this?). Work's had me spinning in circles and too tired to post/swatch anything..though I do have the ORLY Cosmic FX swatches sitting on my camera, and maybe 5 bajillion things I should have swatched and updated on (like IMATS...I went, took pictures, and just NEVER posted..or on my new favorite foundation..Burberry Sheer). Mostly it's been general laziness and unhappiness from the stupidity and pettiness of workplace drama.

The second reason why I haven't posted is that I KOed my netbook. I was checking on something on it and since my desk was overflowing with random things, I made the bad decision to place it next to my chair..on the FLOOR. Anyways, I was running around trying to pull things together, and I stepped on the screen....and cracked it. I did, however, have the good sense to put an accidental damage warranty on the sucker (I have a rather mischievous cat..she killed my last laptop by spilling water on it the day I got her..not to mention has put bite marks in both my netbook and my former laptop) so it'll be back in a few more weeks.

And the winner is....

2010-05-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

Lovely Miss Ariana! Thank you to all of my lovely subscribers. I will be contacting the winner via email :]

Ulta Professional Glam Goth Set

2010-05-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

As I was at the checkout counter at Ulta, I spied, with my little eyes..a set of 5 beautiful mini polishes for $9.95. Eagerly, I snatched up one of the sets and set it down on the counter in front of a the sales associate who was already staring at me like I was completely crazy. Happy with my purchases, I wandered home to swatch myself these 5 beautiful treasures I had just acquired.

For Bitten...magenta/orange duochromatic microglitter in a black base. Absolutely beautiful to me and as far as I know, unique.
Underground..blue microglitter in a black base. Not horribly unique, but still pretty. It's more blue in person, but my camera refused to cooperate.
After hours..shimmery deep purple polish. This one bores me slightly..it doesn't glow at all..and didn't seem to get super shiny for me even after a coat of top coat. It's less blue than this in person.
Black Lace..deep grey cream. You may notice some shimmer on my nails if you click for the ful sized pic..but that's just from tainted top coat filled with the shimmer from other polishes.

Speaking of tainted things...here is Tainted Love, the winner of the collection. This one looked a little meh for me in the bottle, but I instantly fell in love with this one when I applied it. It's a beautiful green with gold sprinkled throughout. Pictures don't do this one justice.

Application on all of these was easy. The brush on these is decently wide and quickly covers the nail smoothly. All of these were 3 thin coats of polish, which dried down fully very quickly. I'm very pleased with this set and highly recommend it. I believe that the set is Limited Edition, so if these appeal to you...run out to your local Ulta and snag yourself a set or two.

OPI Shrek Forever After Collection

2010-05-13T23:12:00.000-07:00

I started taking Kendo on Tuesday and unfortunately, quickly realized that long nails were not going to work out with the sport (and it suddenly made sense to me as to why I spent many years in high school and college not polishing my nails...long nails didn't make sense...and I preferred painting them when they were longer). So last night, I cut them down to nubbins..but not before swatching up a bunch of colors. (I ended up skipping Kendo tonight due to illness anyways..so now I'm wishing I had waited until the weekend) I actually swatched the OPI Shrek Collection the same day as the Milani Liquid Metals though...so the coloring's not too perfect on a couple of these as I'm still figuring out the best way to get pictures under the OTTlite. All of these were fairly easy to apply and had a nice self leveling bit to them, so unevenness was not an issue. I may not have let the polish dry enough between layers, which may have resulted in more coats than necessary on a few of these, but I found these fairly easy to work with.

Funky Dunkey; a rich purple cream that's not quite as blue as it appears on my monitor screen. This one was 3 thin coats, no topcoat.

Ogre the Top Blue; This one should be a bit bluer, more vibrant than what shows up here. It was also an easy 3 coats. It doesn't strike me as a particularly unique color, but it's still cute.
What's With The Cattitude? Pastel Blue Cream...nothing too exciting. This one took 4 thin coats. I'm not sure pastel blue goes with this name, but whatever.
Rumple's Wiggin'. Pastel purple cream..there's been a lot of of these popping up this season. This was also 4 thin coats, with topcoat
Fiercely Fiona. I've been really into yellows this year and I'm glad OPI came out with a unique one like this. It's got a slight green tinge to it. This is also 4 coats with topcoat.
Who The Shrek Are You? is a bright light green color similar to that of Shrek's skintone.
This was also 4 thin coats.

Overall, the collection's okay, though not stellar. I'm just a bit bored with creams, since there's been so many released this year. I'm ready for something more fun now. I will give OPI a thumbs up for not adding a pink or red to this collection though.

Just a Small Giveaway

2010-05-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

It's caught my attention that I have somehow ended up with 102 followers. Since I've been telling myself that I'd run a small giveaway when I reached 100 subscribers, I would run a giveaway, here is my rather lazy giveaway. I'm kind of taking the easy way out on this one..but I am giving away a 21 pc. Bundle Monster Nail Plate set from Amazon.com. I just got mine in the mail today and the patterns are pretty darned cute. Since they offer free shipping to the US, it seems like an easy option to do (though don't worry, I'm opening this to subscribers from Europe, Asia, and Canada as well since they will ship to these areas as well. If you live outside these areas, sorry, but you're out of luck.)

To enter:
1. You must be a subscriber
2. You must leave a comment (Spam comments will not be considered..i.e. ones that include random links) including a way for me to contact you
3. Entries must be submitted by midnight Saturday, May 15.

On the off chance this goes out of stock by then I will work with the winner to give them something else

Milani Liquid Metals

2010-05-09T17:41:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted in a while...and the polish stash posts have been on pause since I keep acquiring new polishes that I want to photograph and add to the pictures I've currently taken...I just haven't found the time to do so yet. On the plus side, I did end up getting an OTTlite on clearance at Michaels. It isn't really quite what I was expecting, but it's bright enough to take pictures under for the most part. It definitely doesn't mimic natural light though.

I stopped by CVS yesterday to grab a couple of things I needed and found a new display of Milanis..the Liquid Metals collection. I'm not really sure how many colors there are...but I saw 4 colors in the display; a metallic white, a metallic black, metallic silver, and a metallic purple. I picked up 3 of the 4.

Starting with my favorite, Dot Com is a warm metallic purple with gold sparkle. This is 3 coats...it applied pretty easily.
Next up is 2.0, a metallic black. Out of the three I bought, this one is thicker, less runny. I'm not in love with it, but it's nice in it's own way. I'm pretty sure I have similar colors to this, but none are quite so metallic looking.

Last is Just Browsing, a metallic white. This one is 4 coats, and still sure. I'm not fond of this one at all, but I'm not a fan of sheer colors anyways.

Rise and Shine Face Freshener by Colorescience

2010-04-06T03:22:00.000-07:00

I got home from work today to find that my 2nd beauty test tube was waiting on my porch for me. After weeding out all the anti-aging stuff for my mom, I was still left with a pretty sizeable stash of goodies to test out. One of the things I was most interested in trying was this face mist. I love my Evian face spray, and was quite eager to try this one out, since the Evian is well, just water...it mostly just feels good. Anyways, I have this lovely adverse reaction when I put MAC Fix+ on, so just to be safe, I tested this spray elsewhere (back of hand and inner arm).

My first thoughts upon spraying this were, "it smells like old lady...but it's got a nice cooling sensation". This was unfortunately followed by light redness, light bumpiness on the inner arm, and itchiness. The smell, bumpiness, and redness subsided within a few minutes, and then I was left with the light scent of citrus blossoms, which isn't my favorite smell (though I do like actual citus fruit smells).

I did tentatively test this on my face after this, and was left with the old lady smell again, and itchiness, but no redness or bumps. Mostly..I hate the smell, and don't think anything great about the spray. It's pretty much just stinky for a few minutes and then that's it.

Ingredients: Citrus Aurantium Amara (Bitter Orange) Flower Water, Citrus Aurantiola (Lime) Fruit Water, Glycerine, Punica Gerantium (Pomegranate) Extract

I have no idea what makes me sensitive to this...it all seems fairly harmless to me...my skin's kind of odd though

Nail Polish Stash Part 6- Icing, Hot Topic, American Apparel, Finger Paints, Wet n Wild, and Nina Ultra Pro

2010-03-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

Here's the next part of my stash; there's a few more parts left. If anyone is kind of wondering why I'm posting these parts so slowly, it's because I'm stalling until I finish taking makeup stash pics...which quite honestly might be a while since I haven't really gotten on them. I have parts of it done, but for the most part, it's nowhere near done...I was really bad about taking them this year...despite having no problems not growing my makeup stash so far this year.

As with the previous posts, if you want to see anything swatched, let me know..I might be a bit slow about it since I just started a new job, and I'm not allowed to wear makeup, polish, or jewelry at work..though I'm starting work in the afternoons for a while starting tomorrow, so it may get done anyways. (I've been cringing at my natural nails the last two days...they're ugly to me, but I can't stop staring...even after buffing them, they're still kind of stained/yellow) I did start swatching the Nubar Fortress collection, with comparisons, but I'm too embarrassed by the state my cuticles were in when I swatched them, and annoyed with the fluctuations in my light source to feel like posting what I already have, so I plan on redoing them. I think I may cave and maybe buy an OTT light if I can find them on sale/coupons. I've been holding out on this since I'd be getting this specifically for the sake of blogging and I'm not entirely sure I could really justify that in my head. More than likely I'll cave on this within a few weeks (bills come first though of course).

Here Come the Rainbows

2010-03-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

The sun has been kind enough to come out the last few days, so I've been enjoying my last couple of days of freedom wearing some holo polishes. Between staring in abject horror at my cat walking across the top of my TV and browsing through my folder, I also realized that I had a few pictures I had also never sorted/uploaded..so here they are.

This is China Glaze DV8..to give you an idea of just how lazy I am, this picture's from December...there was cake involved though so I'm not entirely sure I can be blamed for this.
I believe that this was 3 coats...no particular application problems stick out in my head..though I do remember being pissed off because a couple of nails chipped on me on the first day. I also think that this was the last mani I did before my daily changes started.
Here is Dimond Cosmetics Chainmail Charm. It was my first black holo polish and will certainly not be my last (I've since obtained My Private Jet and Revvvolution) This is 3 coats, and in indoor lighting.
You'll have to excuse this next pic of Milani Hi-Res...it's from a couple of months back..and not only was there no sun, but it was one of those days where I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. I snapped a quick picture in indoor lighting without oiling up my cuticles before I removed it and chopped down my nails. Interestingly enough, this was the most rainbow action I'd gotten from the polish all day. The milani holo polishes are more holographic indoors, and way better on the nails than in the bottle (it looks kind of like bits of glitter in the bottle, with very little holo effect) If you compare it with the other holos I'm posting today, you can see that the finish of the polish is very different from the others...it's still cool though. I did 3 coats of this..no application problems whatsoever.
OPI DS Glamour was my mani of choice on Thursday. It photographs less impressively on short nails than on longer ones I guess, but the holo effect is still there. It was the usual easy to apply OPI and I did 3 coats. I can definitely see the love for this polish...it's a great deep blurple/indigo colored holo polish...very unique.
Here's the polish I've had on for the last couple of days...China Glaze LOL. I actually think I love this polish..it's a beautiful vibrant purple holo. This is one of those rare times where I only did 2 coats. One thing to note about the application of this one is that it's best to work as quickly and with as few strokes as possible on the first coat of this. It's okay to leave the first coat uneven since once it dries down a bit it will self-level out. If you go over parts of the polish again, you're likely to end up dragging the polish off and causing trouble.

That's all from me today...with any luck though my Nubar order will come decently early tomorrow and I can go about swatching the Fortress Collection.

Nail Polish Stash Part 5- Misa, Zoya, and a random Lippmann

2010-03-19T03:46:00.000-07:00

I love my Misas and Zoyas...I'll usually reach for my Zoya's when I'm feeling lazy and only want to do 2 coats...it helps that I got most of them with a sale code of some sort. (It's also why there are so many pink Zoyas...I ordered a lot without looking for swatches)

Nail Polish Stash Part 4- Essies and Orlys

2010-03-18T01:09:00.000-07:00

Today's set of stash photos are of my Essie and Orly polishes... sadly I think that my Essies tend to stay untried for really long periods of time. I'm not entirely sure why, but they just seem to stick around in my untrieds drawer the longest...I've only tried maybe 7 of them so far...anyways...enjoy the bottle pics, and let me know if you want to see anything swatched/worn.

A couple of new MAC items...Blue India and Creamsheen Glass in Deelight

2010-03-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

Here it is! MAC Blue India! It's a MAC polish I actually LOVE. I have a few other MAC polishes, but the formula on this one is way nicer than the other 3 that I had..it's opaque in 2 coats, but I did 3 as usual. It's a beautiful dusty deep blue color. IMO Sally Hansen Gray by Gray isn't even close in person. Blue India is from MAC's newly released Liberty of London collection and retails for $12, which is kind of pricey..but I do think the color and formula are worth it this time.

So here's my first makeup related updated in months...I did my first B2M for Cremesheen Glass in Deelight. I wasn't planning on getting any more lip gloss for a while (or makeup for that matter), but I decided to get this one for the name since Dee is the name of one of my favorite people. Deelight is a nice, kinda mauvey neutral pink color a shade lighter than my own lips..it's got pretty decent pigmentation, and is much smoother and less sticky than MAC's lipglasses.
Here it is on my arm..I've gotten a lot lighter the last few months so the inside of my arm is probably around the 20-25 range now.

On the lips, natural lighting. You may notice that it appears to settle lightly into my liplines, though it's not really noticeable in real life...the macro setting on my camera just makes it appear that way. I has the same vanilla scent that I'm used to getting with MAC lipglosses. Overall, I'm pretty happy I picked it up, though I don't have any plans to pick up any of the other creamsheens.

NOTD: OPI Purple with a Purpose

2010-03-13T17:06:00.000-08:00

Today's NOTD is Purple with a Purpose. It's opaque in 2 coats, but this is 3. It's a nice blue based purple with pink shimmer, making the overall result warm. The pink shimmer doesn't show up as strongly in pictures though, and the polish pulls bluer in pictures.

Sun:

Indoor lighting, the pink shimmer shows better here, but the color is less vibrant.

Nail Polish Stash Part 3- OPI and Sephora by OPI

2010-03-12T04:43:00.000-08:00

Not pictured is Got the Blues for Red...because I bought it after taking all these pics and am too lazy to photograph just one polish on its own right now..as stated before, I'll be happy to take swatch requests

Alice in Wonderland semi-inspired NOTD

2010-03-11T02:21:00.000-08:00

"`Would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, `why you are painting those roses?'

Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two. Two began in a low voice, `Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a red rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know. So you see, Miss, we're doing our best, afore she comes, to--' At this moment Five, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called out `The Queen! The Queen!' and the three gardeners instantly threw themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps, and Alice looked round, eager to see the Queen. "

--Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

I was originally not planning on doing a themed mani, but my excitement to go see the movie got the better of me. (Unfortunately, my last two attempts to go see this movie have been thwarted, but I'll see it eventually) My original plan was to do a manicure with the 4 playing card suites on my fingers and then a white/red rose on my thumbs, but apparently no such Konad plate exists with spades, clubs, and diamonds..so I ended up doing red roses over white polish. I used the Wine Red Konad Special polish and the large rose pattern from plate m13 over OPI Fit For a Queensland to create this manicure.

Fit For a Queensland was semi-difficult to work with, but not terrible due the the pro-wide brush. It took me 4 coats to smooth out the patchiness and streakiness of the polish, but I feel like I'm fairly happy with the results. (I say 4 coats, but I've found that I tend to use more coats than I've heard other people say they use on other polishes, so it's possible that individual results would vary) It's a nice white/ivory color with fairly subtle pink glowiness in it. Then again I got my particular bottle at Ulta on Clearance in a 2 pack with My Big Break for $5 a while back, so my love for this polish may be slightly biased.

Claire's Mood Polishes and How I "care" for my Nails

2010-03-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

I'm usually not a huge fan of Claire's nail polishes, but the new mood polishes were too cool for me to pass up. Claire's mood polishes are a set of thermosensitive polishes that react to the temperature of your body/nails or its surroundings. There are 5 colors available, and they retail for $5 each, though Claire's has an ongoing promotion of by one get one 50% off. So far, I've only tried the teal/green one. The formula wasn't the greatest in my opinion..it took me 3 careful coats to even it out, and my bottle was kind of thick and harder to work with...if I wasn't careful, I wound up with some bald spots. Thinning it by a few drops helped a lot...though I did see someone post that hers applied nicely...so it's very possible that quality is inconsistent between bottles. It dries down matte-ish (not shiny, but not fully matte either), but adding a layer of topcoat fixes this easily...and doesn't mess with the color changing capabilities of the polish.

Here is the shade it turns when it's warm. This didn't photograph quite right..the color is much less blue to me in person..though this might have been because there was no sun that day. If you own China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, I found this color really similar to that in person.
I ran my hand under cold water for a bit..this was the result. It's a deeper. more vibrant color in person,
Here's a picture of my thumb, because you could see the color difference a little better. It's kind of a cool gradient like effect with the "cool" color being apparent on your free edge. This effect is stronger in person, but I don't really have a long free edge when my nails are longer, so the effect is less apparent on me.

The effect is much nicer on longer nails...
These beautiful nails belong to Manatee Mama of http://themanicuredmanatee.blogspot.com/

I got bored later on in the day..so I added OPI Pearl of Wisdom on top. This didn't affect the color change capabilities of the mood polish...and it made it more fun for me. The pink flash doesn't quite show up in the pictures, unfortunately. here's "warm" aka Confident.
Here's an attempt to show a gradient...
"Cool"--Peaceful with Pearl of Wisdom..When it changes to the darker color, the pink flash in Pearl of Wisdom comes out more...it's still not apparent in my picture unfortunately.
Manatee Mama has more swatches of the rest of these on her blog...you can find them here. She's missing the gray one..smart choice on her part..the 'warm' color is pretty darned ugly..which is a shame, because the gray itself is nice...I keep filling my head with thoughts of how I'd keep my hands icy cold the day I try wearing it for a full mani. That's it on the mood polish though from me.

Guitarrasara asked about my nail care in a comment after my last post...unfortunately..I can't say I'd be particularly helpful on the nail care itself...I do a lot of things that would make people that actually take good care of their nails gasp in horror. (I use them as tools...and will rip things open without the use of scissors or whatever..I have naturally thick nails, so it's never been a problem...my problems with my nails lie elsewhere really) There ARE a few things I actually do though.

First off, I should mention that I'm a cutter; I don't file my nails at all. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it, I just don't have the patience for it..and the feeling of a file on my nails bugs me to pieces. I clip my nails down every 2-4 weeks, depending on when it is that the length of my nails start driving me batty. An important thing for me to remember when I cut my nails, is to make sure they're properly moisturized. I'll either do it after bathing, or after removing my polish and oiling up my nails/cuticles. I let the oil sink in for a good amount of time before I start clipping. This may not be true for everyone, but for me, if my nails are too dry, they have a tendency to split when cut. It's also good to resist the temptation of peeling your polish off when it starts to chip...I did this with my mani of Absolutely Alice...I damaged my nails a bit after that. (A couple of nails had the polish come off in sheets on it's own..so I decided to see if the rest could come off the same way...it was a bad idea).

I'm also not big on buffing my nails..I find that when I buff my nails, my polish chips faster. My preference is to use a ridge-filling base coat (like Barielle's Hydrating Ridge Filler). To me, I only buff if I've stained my nails heavily (usually from a green) and need to wear a sheer/nude. In such cases, I will buff in the direction of nail growth (with the grain)

For regular maintenance I do a couple of things; once a week or so, I like to use Sally Hansen Instant Cuticle Remover (it comes in a blue bottle with a white cap..I think it's $5 or $6 at drugstores) and push back my cuticles gently with a cuticle stick. Throughout the week I may push back my cuticles gently with my fingers after moisturizing if I feel they need it, but I don't use the Instant cuticle remover too often because it's pretty strong stuff. Past that is just general stuff like keeping my hands moisturized. The two hand creams I've been using a lot of lately are OPI Avoplex High Intensity Hand and Nail Cream (which I bought on Clearance at Ulta) and California Mango Natural Hand and Body Lotion. Both are relatively non greasy feeling and absorb quicker, though the Avoplex absorbs faster and is lighter. (it's not as good if your hands are super dry then, but it's nice if you're just re applying moisturizer throughout the day). I do tend to forget to do this form time to time though. Another product I love for my cuticles is California Mango's Mango Mend. (works on feet and dry elbows too) The cuticle oil's also really nice. (It's a current favorite for applying before pictures)

For application...I have no real tips of my own..I learned what I know elsewhere. For painting, I use the tutorial found on FaintlyMacabre's notepad.
The best cleanup tutorial I know is found on MeganChair's notepad, or here on her blog. This is a great way for cleaning up that gap.
NailboardWisdom's notepad is also a great compilation of tips...it also contains Faintly Macabre's application tutorial.

Maybelline Spring 2010 " Sweet Thing" Collection Polish Swatches

2010-03-07T16:48:00.001-08:00

I chopped my nails down yesterday...figures that the sun would come out of hiding today...either way I took the chance to swatch the rest of my new Maybellines from their Spring collection "Sweet Thing" (Thanks kali) There were a couple that I had worn as full manis while my nails were longer, so here they are first.

Minty--4 coats--sun
No sun
Minty is my favorite from this collection. I know I own maybe 15? mint greens by now, but all of them have managed to be different enough for me to keep all of them. The formula's not my favorite to work with, it took me 4 coats because I wasn't careful enough and wound up with an uneven look at 3..unfortunately I felt the color was worth the trouble and am therefore keeping it.

Goody Plum Drop-3 coats...both pics no sun

I used thicker coats than I usually do on this one. Goody Plum Drop is a light purple with white pearly shimmer in it. It came out just a smidge bluer in pics I think. I'm not sure how well you see the shimmer on my nail in these pics, but you can definitely see it on the bottle. Formula also wasn't fun on this one. I also didn't play well with my basecoat..it went lumpy under the surface after it dried.

From here on out come short nails and dry skin..sorry. I'm not really used to just swatching polishes..I usually like to wear them as full manis..and my final cleanup is usually done in the shower.

Sweetie Pie--4 coats
Probably my second favorite out of the bunch...Sweetie Pie is supposed to be a MAC Seasonal Peach dupe. I don't own Seasonal Peach so I wouldn't know. I think it's a cute peachy color though. It wasn't too difficult to work with, but then again there's less nail to cover...so that might be it.

Pie in the Sky-3 coats
The easiest out of the 5 to work with for me...but again..short nails. Pie in the Sky is nearly identical to Orly Snowcone. I swatched them next to each other, but the pictures didn't come out well enough to the point that i was satisfied with (the sun was disappearing on me). Pie in the Sky is ever so slightly lighter than Snowcone, but you really have to stare at it and know they're different. Snowcone has a much better formula though...you could get away with 1 coat of Snowcone if you were careful...though I prefer the look of 2. I usually don't care too much if I have dupes if it's a color I like..but I pretty much paid 2x more for the Maybeline than I did for the Orly..so it's going back.

Bubble Pink-4 coats
My least favorite out of the 5 I bought. I'm not sure why I thought this color would be passable on me...it's pretty awful. It's not as bad in the sun or in pictures, but it's garish looking on my skintone in indoor lighting. I also hated the formula...it never quite evened out. I'm pretty sure I picked up other similar colors from the other spring collections...though they're not the same so there's some wishful thinking right now on my part that they'll somehow be better.

lol...anyone else notice I got the year wrong too? XP

Nail Polish Stash Part 2- China Glaze

2010-03-03T07:12:00.000-08:00

China Glaze dominates my stash...so it gets its own post. As far as I can tell, the only one that's missing is Rodeo Fanatic...which is kind of ironic since I had ended up with 2 (I bought one, and was then given one. My sister got one...my mom borrowed the other and never gave it back...it's basically lost to the world now) The desk...isn't mine...it's my sister's..she gets better lighting in her room..and since she's not home...

stragglers...lol...by this point I didn't want to retake pictures to satisfy my OCD
Dorothy Who? got knocked behind my bed by the mischievous one...so it was a straggler.
additions from Sally's sale
Old ass China Glaze...

That is all for now. If you want swatches/comparisons of anything, let me know. I'll be happy to shove it on my list to do.

Nail Polish Stash Part 1- Top Coats, Base Coats, Treatments, Nail Art Goodies, and Stash Storage

2010-03-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

Today kicks off the day where I start spamming you with pictures (wait...don't I do that already?) of my stash. Today's post is about my many base, coats, top coats, treatments, nail art stuff, and how I store it all. It's the most boring post (mostly since I'm doing a lot of typing in it), so it comes first.

NailTek Foundation II was my first base coat. Previous to this, I had been using some Sally Hansen Top/Base Coat, which had eventually turned yellow on me and was sent off to Zoya last year for the polish exchange. I like it, but I can't use it continuously for long periods of time or my nails get to dry and start splitting/peeling.

Seche was next, since I'd heard great things about the top coat, and Sally's was doing one of those promotions that gave you a free Base coat with Top coat purchase. It's pretty crappy though. It's thin, and doesn't prevent staining at all..if you have a lot of ridges to your nails, this won't smooth them out. Used in combination with Seche Vite, you'll eventually be able to peel off your polish in chunks.
My next endeavor was Beauty Secrets Base Coat, which I like, and therefore bought a large bottle after my smaller one ran low.

I never tried Nubar Foundation

Orly Smudge Fixer-works to an extent, but will usually end up dragging off your polish for larger smudges and dents before it smooths them out.
Sally Hansen Nail Quencher I picked up when it was BOGO50% off and on clearance for $1.79. I like it, which is why I have 3, I hate the bottle though...since if you get any around the edges and try to clean it off, polish remover takes off the blue coating on the bottle.

I bought the 2 pack duo of Nailtek II at Ross for $4.99. At the time I had gone back to using Foundation II and was thinking I liked it...The splitting nails started again a couple weeks after...so I ended up with a backup..still deciding what to do with it.

Nail Envy I haven't tried...just snagged it on clearance at Ulta, packaged with my beloved Avoplex...it's also pending consideration as I haven't had any real use for treatments.

Essie Fill the Gap came in a set I got at Ross with 2 other polishes for $7.99. I haven't given it a good go yet

Barielle Nail Brightener- Opalescent white..kind of useless if you have any significant staining/yellowing. I can see it maybe working if your nails weren't stained, but it defeats the purpose of needing a brightener IMO

Barielle Natural Nail camoflage-I love this stuff. Reduces the appearance of staining on nails. I think this will be very necessary for when I start working again and have to resort to boring nudes.

Barielle Hydrating Ridge Filler-A really nice base coat, fills in ridges, leaves a smooth finish..polish doesn't drag at all when you apply it over this base coat.

Barielle Manicure Extender-not to be used alone...or your polish will never fully dry. haven't given it a good whirl yet.
Can you tell I love Camo or what?
Top Coats--the only reason why I allow myself to change my mani so often...if they weren't quick drying, I'd polish a lot less :]

OPI Rapidry was my first topcoat after the aforementioned Sally Hansen. It does leave your polish shiny, but the dry time is atrocious. Suzi must have a lot of time on her hands if this is quick drying for her.

Orly Sec n Dry was after that...at the time I thought it dried quickly...it was certainly a large improvement over anything I'd tried before...it's one of the crappier topcoats I've tried overall though.

I bought Seche Vite after hearing raves for it on the boards. It's alright..it definitely dries fast...and it's my favorite top coat for pedicures. I'm less fond of it on my fingers because it has an annoying habit of shrinking back if you don't wrap your tips. This phenomenon increases as you work your way through the bottle. It's also worth mentioning that you have to use it on wet polish..the drier it is, the more shrinking you'll get as well.

Out the Door is my favorite polish for regular use and Konads. It works better over drier polish, but will work on wet polish as well (you may end up with polish on the brush though if it's too wet...) It evens out some difficult to work with cremes too.

I got Orly In a Snap in a kit and haven't tried it yet

Nubar Diamont is my favorite top coat-it does dry fast, but isn't very good over wet polish. I like to wait 3 minutes before applying it, and it's dry in another 2. Doesn't scuff as easily as Seche or Poshe.
Poshe is a fast drying top coat I like to use over glitters. It dries faster than Seche, but scuffs more easily.

I forgot I already took a pic of in a snap, so here it is again... I haven't tried the WnW or Color Club

Essie Matte About You is an excellent matte top coat..I have a backup of this as well.

China Glaze Ghoulish Glow does glow in the dark, but only after you've held it under a light source for a while before turning off the lights.

Out the Door Northern Lights is my favorite holographic top coat because it gives you holographic shimmer in a dry fast top coat. There's no need to apply another top coat over it.

Orly Prisma Gloss is also quite nice. It dries pretty quickly, but I still use a dry fast top coat over it as it doesn't deep dry
My beloved Konad Kit..
Fimo canes..which I haven't touched at all..they were a gift.
Rhinestones..
Stash Storage! My polish stash lives under my twin sized bed...the pink spot on the carpet is where my cat Zero exploded a sample jar of All Girl pigment...
Untrieds
More untrieds, sets, top/base coats, swap, and felt.
Tried polishes..incidentally..my cat used to sleep in this drawer when she was tiny...she'd climb in through the back

Well..that's it for today! There will be very little text in the upcoming stash posts, so look forward to that ;]

New mini set at Icing, Sally's extra 50% off Clearance Sale, and China Glaze Lemon Fizz

2010-03-01T01:02:00.000-08:00

There's 3 topics today...the first being the new set of polishes Icing has available for Spring. It's a nice collection of pastel creme-like polishes with peachy pink shimmer. I find them kind of exciting, and will be slowly swatching them soon (the new Maybellines will probably come first..I'm wearing 2 of them right now, though one's on my toes and therefore won't count..lol) Anyways, the minis are 12 ml each, which is a pretty decent size for minis. (a full sized China Glaze is 14 ml, for reference). The set retails for $16, but Icing always has their buy one get one 50% off deal going, so you can always pick up a different, 2nd set of minis for $8, or one of their other polishes. They've also got a lot of nice colors on clearance right now too, so it's worth making a trip if you have an Icing's nearby. I'm a pretty big fan of Icing polishes, the brushes are pretty wide, so I find them easy to use, and I've liked the formula on all the ones I've tried so far.

Secondly, if you didn't already know, Sally's is having a sale right now where you can take an additional 50% off clearance items. It's a pretty sweet deal, I picked up 4 China Glaze polishes (pictured below) as well as a set of travel sized bottles, and Orly Twilight (not pictured), which was only $0.99! Depending on your Sally's stock will vary of course. By the way, all of the China Glazes I picked up were under $2 :]
Here's my NOTD with China Glaze stroll. It's indoor lighting because I didn't get a chance to take a picture during the day and I promised I'd swatch Lemon Fizz...It's a bit darker rl than pictured here, but you can see the cool finish of the polish. (My skintone's also not that color, though there's a difference in color between my two monitors so what you see may differ)
And as promised, here's Lemon Fizz. This is 3 coats, mostly because I wasn't too careful in the application after a certain mishap, (you'll see it later) I actually like this color way more than I expected to, though I still feel like the polish was never fully even. It's not to a really noticeable extent, but unfortunately, working in inspection for a period of time has made me overly observant to tiny defects and it will bug me from time to time.
This polish has a pretty unique quality to it...as in it seems to attract other living creatures..here you see my cat sneaking up on it...
And when I was applying it the first time, this little guy decided to fly into my nails, he got his legs stuck in, managed to pull them free, but still fell over and died on my nail halfway through my 2nd coat on my right thumb (and yes, I definitely make thicker coats on my thumbs, since I have trouble with thin ones on those fingers..haha). How's that for 3D art though? (I removed it of course, and started over, since I messed up a lot of fingers taking a pic of this)
Anyways, tomorrow I'll start posting my polish stash bit by bit. I know when I polled you guys you wanted to see both my polish stash and makeup stash together, but with the way I'm doing the pictures, it's not really feasible (the page would never load)

Some Up and Aways

2010-02-25T05:38:00.000-08:00

I bought the entire China Glaze Up and Away collection, but I've been slow to wear them. (I've only worn 4 so far..unfortunately I forgot to take a pic of Four Leaf Clover). It's like 6 am and I can't seem to go back to sleep, so here's the other 3 I've tried.

First up is Angry Go Boom...
Did I say Angry Go Boom? Sorry, I meant Happy go Lucky. It's a bright-ish yellow creme that's an absolute nightmare to apply...it's a streaky mess, even at 3 coats. I smoothed it out with topcoat though, so the end result was fine.
I've already kind of posted pics of Light as Air, but here it is on its own. Despite being very light, I still like it. I believe this is 3 coats, though it's opaque at 2. Formula was easier to work with than Happy go Lucky.

Heli-yum is a decently bright raspberry creme. I kind of like it, despite it being pink. This was 2 coats, and is the easiest to apply ou of the 4 I've tried so far.
Indoors, indirect natural light. I couldn't quite get the color to show the way I wanted it to. It's probably due to the fact that by the time came out it was starting to set.
Bonus pic...because she's cute...

Trial 2-Creating a Gradient Mani Using a Sponge and Regular Polish- A KOTD with Orly Gumdrop and Snowcone

2010-02-22T19:24:00.000-08:00

A few months back, I posted a tutorial on how to do an easy gradient using a sponge and the Konad special polishes. I speculated that you could probably do the same thing with regular polishes, but I didn't know this for sure. I was feeling like experimenting this weekend so I gave it a try using 2 polishes from Orly's Sweet collection (Snowcone and Gumdrop). I actually had to run 2 trials for this, as the first time I attempted it, I tried to use China Glaze Fairy Dust to give it that extra sparkle. Unfortunately, 2 coats were required to get the amount of sparkle I wanted..add Seche Vite on top of that to try to dry it all down and it was a super thick disaster that I kept smudging. More on the experimentation after the pictures though.
Here's another picture in the sun
Indoors, natural lighting
Thumb
Indoor lighting, Thumb night of mani...cleanup was hard on my cuticles.
Right hand, indoor natural lighting...my hand's unnaturally red here, but it was the only pic I could take that was nonblurry. I like the gradient better on the right hand anyways. The gradient's a bit stronger rl anyways..but my camera's not the best. It's old..still does the job most of the time though.
Anyways, back to the technicalities of the experimentation. I discovered 2 things the first time around ..that a stamped gradient would work with regular polish... and that a makeup sponge would also work as a tool to do so. Basically, anything with small, fairly uniform holes will work, though a sponge that's appearance is too smooth may be difficult. The one I used for that first attempt had a similar texture to that of the Sonia Kashuk blending sponge. I did find that it took way more time/polish than I had remembered it taking with the Konad special polishes and the sponges that came with my kit. The second time around I gave it a try with a sponge from the kit. It was easier and a bit faster. However, the sponges that came with my Konad kit didn't hold up particularly well using regular polish, and still took longer than the Konad polish. I think this is because Konad special polishes are thicker and more pigmented than regular polish. The dry time also differs by a bit, so you can get more polish onto the nail before you have to reswatch it onto the plate and refill the sponge. The faster dry time of regular polish makes the polish on the sponge somewhat tacky (sticky) after a while, so I had a bit of an issue with bits of the sponge coming off onto my nail and having to pick them out carefully with a pair of tweezers. I also changed the way I smoothed out the gradient a bit. I used smudge fixer to smooth it out initially before topcoating it the first time before the Konad. The final mani was topcoated with Out the Door Northern lights; a nice holographic top coat.

I highly prefer using Out the Door for Konads vs any of my other topcoats. Its thinner texture makes it much easier to quickly coat over a Konad without smudging it after allowing a few minutes for the pattern to set. It's also great because it won't shrink up like Seche does with multiple coats.

Also, if you read my tutorial, you might notice that my cleanup on this mani is significantly better than the one there. I totally have to thank MeganChair for her AMAZING cleanup tutorial. A few things to note about the tutorial:
1. It will still work if you don't use Pure Acetone, but it's much harder to do. Pure Acetone is quick and easy. Pure acetone is, however, really drying. For something like this, I recommend cleaning up as much as you can around the cuticles with a qtip and nail polish remover, then cleaning the gap and areas closest to your nails with a brush and pure acetone.
2. Pure Acetone will eat through the ecoTools Eye Shader brush, albeit slowly. It's made with synthetic fiber, which doesn't hold up well with something as caustic as acetone.
3. Be very careful with acetone..it can eat through plastic and finishes on furniture if you spill it. I had a mishap with my bottle and it started eating through my UDPP bottle and my computer mouse before I managed to clean it up.

NARS Purple Rain and Castledew 9260

2010-02-20T15:03:00.000-08:00

Recently I've taken to stalking Scrangie's blog...so when NARS Purple Rain popped up I had to have it. I ordered it before I actually read the post though, so I was of course shocked when the bottle was way redder than I had anticipated. Apparently, this polish is quite camera shy, and will not photograph properly at all. The picture below, taken in indoor lighting, was the closest I got. This polish was fully opaque in 2 coats, which is what I stopped at. Purple Rain is a gorgeous blue based purple with a lot of red/pink glowiness. It's a very lit from within type of shimmer, making it fairly unique in my opinion. The result overall of course is warm toned, though not quite as red as the bottle would suggest.Here's a picture in natural lighting...this is on day 2. It hints at the warmth of this polish, but still doesn't quite make it.
Here's a picture in sunlight. The reason why this one's last is because it fails to capture the color accurately at all...but it does show the blueish base of the color.
Next I have for you Castledew 9260. Castledew is a Korean brand..you can find bits and pieces of it in Korean stores sometimes, though it's not particularly common here in the states. Here's one I bought sometime last year...it's a golden champagne color with a foil-like finish..very sparkly and pretty. Pictures don't quite capture the sparkle. I did 3 coats of this for full opacity, but if you wanted you could wear it at 1-2 coats for a sheerer look. The polish applies very smoothly with 0 streakiness, so it's one of those polishes where you can decide when you want to stop adding coats. (If you're one to use thicker coats, it'd prob only take you 2 to opacity). Here it is in natural lighting. There was no sun that day so it doesn't shine as much, but it shows the color pretty well
Here it is in indoor lighting. It sparkles a bit more in this picture, but not nearly as blingy as it is in real life.

Some lilac polish comparisons (OPI Done Out in Deco, China Glaze Light As Air, OPI Do you Lilac it and Essie Lilacism)

2010-02-15T17:09:00.000-08:00

Earlier today, someone was asking for a comparison between OPI Do you Lilac it against Essie Lilacism, and China Glaze Light As Air, so I decided to swatch them for her. Since I had done so and labeled them already, I've decided to post my comparisons of these 4 polishes. All of these were done with 3 coats, except Essie Lilacism, which was 4 coats (It might be opaque in 3, but I forgot to shake the bottle before I started applying it so the first coat was very runny) Light as Air, you can probably get away with 2 coats of..I was being kind of quick and sloppy with it, so I ended up having to do 3. The formula's pretty decent on this one..too bad China Glaze's brush sucks. I'll also apologize for the lack of cleanup..I got lazy.
The first comparison is between OPI Do You Lilac it, China Glaze Light As Air, and Essie Lilacism. Light as Air is the lightest of the 3, with a dusty quality to it that I'm fairly fond of (Dusty cremes are my favorite cremes) I did a full mani of it after these swatches..and sadly I'm not entirely sure it's a color that works well on me...my face is neutral..but my hands are fairly warm...I love it in some lightings..and in others not so much. It's closest to Essie Lilacism, though Light as air is definitely lighter and dustier than Lilacism. Personally, I like Lilacism's color more. The difference is most apparent in the picture below, but there's definitely a stronger difference in person. OPI's Do You Lilac it is not very similar at all to either of these two.. it's more vibrant and less cool toned, and much less of a pastel.
I then compared OPI's Done Out in Deco with the the two, since it's lighter and cooler colored than Do You Lilac It..it's closer to these colors than Do You Lilac It, but is still not a dupe of either color. It is again more vibrant than these two and possibly a bit bluer, though it does carry a nice dusty quality to it.

This ends my comparisons of these colors. Unfortunately I do not own Lucky Lucky Lavender from the Hong Kong collection, so I cannot compare it to Light As Air and Lilacism. I hope this satisfied somebody's curiosity.

Happy Chinese/ Lunar New Year! New Year's Konad and OPI Alice in Wonderand

2010-02-13T19:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Ladies! Here is my New Year's NOTD: China Glaze 2030 over Essie Love, Beverly Hills XX. There was no tiger plate, but I tried...lol. I'll apologize in advance for the flipped pictures..blogspot is freaking out on me..and refuses to upload them properly.

Today I have for you the other 2 polishes I bought from OPI's Alice in Wonderland Collection. First up is Mad as a Hatter. This took 4 coats to be fully opaque and was still bumpy after 2 coats of Poshe. I don't like this polish at all..it looks like a New Year's Eve party threw up on my nails...and not in a good way. Despite being a glitter polish, this one just doesn't shine.

2nd is Absolutely Alice. It's not so sparkly here, but really only because my camera couldn't handle the glare from this in sunlight. It's a beautiful polish, way shinier than China Glaze Dorothy Who? and although they're similar in that they're both blue glitter polishes, Absolutely Alice is much nicer to me. It's a vibrant blue glitter with a lot of gold sprinkled throughout vs the silver in Dorothy Who? and just gorgeous. It looks totally bah until you topcoat it though...as you'll see below. This is 3 coats, 2 coats of Poshe..and still kinda bumpy after it, but not too bad.

Despite the bad lighting in the following pictures, these are here to show you the quirks. This is what it looked like freshly Topcoated...nice and shiny
This is what it looks like before the topcoat. Note that it's dull and boring and kind of ugly...
I'm not sure if this had to do with my topcoat or not, but I've heard this happen to a few people with both Absolutely Alice and Mad as a Hatter..but they have the tendency to pop off in full pieces...Anyways..that's all for now..I did finish taking stash pics of my polishes, but I did also just order some Elizabeth Ardens, so I'll wait to post those after I get them...I will not be posting polish stash with my makeup stash however as the polish stash alone was over 100 pictures.

A couple of awesome duochromes and a few others

2010-01-28T03:59:00.000-08:00

I've pretty much been changing my polish every day lately (I have the time and about a million untrieds..so why not?) Anyways, I'll start with the easier ones.

This ancient China Glaze is Tropical Ice. It's probably the only pink I own that I actually really really like the color of. It's a really beautiful warm pink that I wish I had a matching lip color for. Too bad the formula is a PITA. I tried 4 coats to smooth this out and it didn't really smooth out super well (It's opaque in 3, just oddly streaky for me) Out the Door topcoat smoothed it out really well though. The bottle that I have is in China Glaze's old formulation so maybe that has something to do with it? The color's discontinued, but Victoria Nail Supply still has this for sale so I figured I'd post the pic since I couldn't find a swatch of this anywhere else.
Next up is Icing Mint 2 Be. I'm not sure why, but I'm really obsessed with mint green polishes. There was no sun this day or the next day, so the picture is taken in cool natural lighting. In reality, this polish is greener than depicted below and contains no blue tones as this picture might suggest. This is my standard 3 coats, though it's opaque and smooth in 2. This was my first mani with Icing's polish and I'm definitely happy with the color and formulation.
From the Alice in Wonderland collection we have OPI Thanks so Muchness! is a nice, shimmery red. I'm not sure why I didn't manage to take a picture of this in natural lighting, but here it is. I didn't find this a particularly special color, but the sun also didn't come out this day so maybe it's much prettier in sunlight. This is 3 coats, again. The polish is fairly opaque in 1 coat, but the color lacks depth and is kind of flat. 2 coats gives a much richer color, and 3 coats is the same as 2 coats, so doing 3 coats was just due to my own preference. I chipped it on the other hand building a TV stand, so I decided to change it.
Now we've come to the duochromes. I got this baby (Savina Black Pearl) at Nordstrom Rack for $3.97, and it's pretty much the most amazing duochromes I own (though I think a more accurate description of this would be multichrome as it changes to multiple colors depending on how the light hits it) I did 3 coats again. 2 was fine, but I felt like 3 increased the complexity of the color.

Here it is in cool, natural lighting. Here it looks blue-grey with a hint of purple and green.

In warm, dimmer lighting this polish is green or teal (couldn't capture the teal well)

Here it is in more regular indoor lighting. you can kind of see the pinky-purple flash here
as well as some blue and green
In some lighting it's blue
and a picture with flash

Wasn't that cool? I probably should have used a shinier top coat, but I still find the color pretty amazing. I've been wrestling with the thought of picking up a backup.

The 2nd duochrome this week was Nina Ultra Pro Molten Gold. This is probably the one polish I own with a really strong duochrome effect to it. It flashes pink and God and all the colors in between (different shades of pink and peach) Again, I used 3 coats, though I think 2 was fine as well. Here it is in natural light:

Indoor lighting...here it is at a slightly peachy pink. It can get pinker than this, but it was hard to capture on my camera.
It can also go very gold colored, though I think it's closer to an orange here.
Anyways, that's all for now. I'll try not to be so lazy and swatch you guys some makeup soon, but I lack any sort of motivation to play with makeup lately, as well as the general lack of sun here lately, so we'll see.

A few NOTDs

2010-01-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

I apologize for my complete lack of makeup related updates...the weather here has been absolutely awful and there's been almost no sun for weeks, except for a brief peek from time to time which tends to fill my room with a brief flash of blinding light before disappearing again. (It's far too brief for me to do much). Anyways, what little light I get I have been using to slowly take stash pics (which is going much more slowly than anticipated also because I can't seem to get enough polish) Anyways, here's most of my NOTDs since my last posting (I figured that posting a few at a time is easier than doing this day by day, but let me know what you guys think)

I'm going to go in reverse order. Here's what I have on right now; OPI Brand New Skates. This has been in my untrieds since my nail polish stash numbered at like 15 polishes. (basically since this holiday collection was released) I had a mini of this and since mini OPIs are harder to use than the full sized ones, I went ahead and bought a full size of this on Monday. I love gray np so it wasn't a huge dive for me. Anyways, this is actually day 3. I'm testing out a new base coat and so far, so good. I have very minimal tip wear on only 3 fingers..and I am VERY tough on my hands. The formula of this is definitely on the sheer side. This is 4 thin coats, though 3 was decently opaque as well. Brand new skates is a gunmetal gray with what I'd like to think of as gold microflakies. In dim lighting the gold doesn't show up much, but once the sun hits it, the gold shines beautifully. It's definitely a really pretty color.
Next up we have Misa Sorry Just Can't Help it. For some reason every picture I took in natural lighting came out really blue. It really doesn't look like this at all. It's a warm purple cream that's opaque in 2 thin coats (If you prefer doing thick coats, you can probably get this in 1) I did 3 coats out of habit though.
I konaded over it, and this picture is taken in really warm lighting but this picture is more accurate, though the actual color is just a touch cooler than this. This is China Glaze OMG konaded over Misa Sorry Just Can't Help It, with Out the Door Nothern Lights Silver Holographic top coat over it.
Lastly I have Sally Hansen Hi-Def. Hi-def is a great lime green that just glows like it's lit from within. (must be the liquid crystals). There's 3 pics of this just for fun, and to show how well it brings out the green in Zero's eyes. This polish is definitely on the sheer side. This was also 3 coats.

Anyways, that's all for now. Hopefully the sun will come out again soon and I can get a real post in for you guys.

Some bottle pics and NOTD Nina Velvet Seas

2010-01-13T14:50:00.000-08:00

Nina Ultra Pros are currently on sale at Sally's for $3.29 so I picked up a few of the new ones. Since I'm in the middle of taking stash pics, I have bottle pics for you guys. The new Nina Velvets are actually really nice, so I definitely recommend them. It also helps that they're thick enough to use for Konading (Velvet Revolver is at any rate).

Here's a couple pics of Velvet Seas, which I've been wearing since yesterday. You may notice what appears to be some tip wear..it's really just because I used Seche Vite as a top coat and forgot that it shrinks back a bit if you don't go over the edge of the tips. (It's really not my favorite, I'm not sure why I bought another one..it was probably because I couldn't resist a sale and Sally's currently has a promo where if you buy a bottle of Seche Vite topcoat, you get a China Glaze polish for free...)
Here's another pic, just in natural lighting since the my camera seems to not like the amount of glare coming off the nails/bottle. I'd describe this color as a metallic, somewhat dusty Jade green. My camera didn't capture the color exactly.. it's darker in the pic up top and bluer in the bottom pic.

Oh look, an award!

2010-01-10T11:21:00.000-08:00

Musicalhouses from Of Faces and Fingers was kind enough to name me for an award. (Thank you!) Apparently the award comes with a couple of rules; that you have to write 7 things about yourself and tag 7 more blogs..so here goes.

Useless facts about me:
1. Except for my stash of makeup and polish, I'm a pretty big tomboy.

2. I'm addicted to color, but you'd never figure this looking at my face and clothes...my previous obsession before makeup and polish was art supplies...all of which go untouched now.

3. Video games>>makeup. I will forego buying makeup I want if there's a game I really want, though I keep up with makeup collections more than game releases, so it's a rare occasion.

4. I lack the hand-eye coordination usually required for gaming...oops.

5. I'm more of a dog person than a cat person..I actually disliked cats for the longest period of time.

6. Wood shop was my favorite class in school. (Followed by Neurobio)

7. Martial arts are the only "sport" I enjoy.

Here are my nominations (no particular order)

1. Scrangie - her perfect nails fuel my lemmings
2. The Gloss Menagerie - Aly's a great writer..I enjoy reading her blog when I actually do
3. My Makeup Reviews- Jojoba takes great pics and swatches of stuff
4. The Next Best Thing to Going Shopping Yourself- Karla is amazing for how much swatching she does
5. The Swatchoholic - her nails are gorgeous and very creative!
6. Dr. Frankenpolish - can you say Woah? Amazing polish creations and a great guide for mixing your own colors
7. The Beauty Look Book - great swatches and comparisons and all around awesome :]

NOTD: OPI No Room for the Blues

2010-01-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

It's been really overcast here so there's been no sun, but here are a couple pics of OPI No Room for the Blues. It's a bit more cool toned and vibrant in real life, but all I had available light-wise was my desk lamp. Unfortunately I seem to have missed a spot during cleanup.

Here it is in cool, natural lighting..excuse my frazzle..I've been neglecting the mango mend...this is 3 coats..2 is fine, I just like 3

As the Year Winds Down..

2009-12-29T06:12:00.000-08:00

Greetings lovely ladies,

It's the end of the year and as the new year approaches it means one blindingly glaring thing for me beauty-wise; a strict no-internet-buy/swap period for me until stash pictures are complete (Unless UD AIW BOS is released, as it was NOT released yesterday as previously rumored. The exact release date is unknown...though my guess is that at the very least it'll be after UD's wonderful free shipping offer ends..it'd be too kind of them to let us have it with free shipping...now wouldn't it? But I digress...)

Anyways..I slipped up just a bit this weekend and made a couple of orders online (some Korres...due to arrive Jan 6) and a possible order for the Px Holiday Eye and Cheek palette in Warm from Nordies. I ordered the 2nd one by phone from a store and by the time I asked the SA to place this order, it had already been removed online, so we'll see if I get this (I hope so, but if not, whatever..I saved some money). So stash pictures will be somewhat later than expected. Unlike last year's photos I plan on labeling everything too..so this will be a pretty big project...let's hope I'm lucky enough to have some non-overcast days.

On to other news...What's everyone's beauty resolution for the new year? And what was it for this year? How did you do?
For the new year, my resolution is to finish at least ONE of my face powders. (It shouldn't be too hard as the middle of my Chanel pressed powder gave out in the middle and I lost maybe 1/3 of the product (I have two like this...the first one I thought it was just because I depotted it to put in the compact but the 2nd time it wasn't a depot so I'm wondering if the middles of these are just weak?)

My resolution for this year was to start wearing sunblock on a daily basis.
How I did: I stopped wearing sunblock maybe around July of this year altogether, and was irregular about it starting in maybe April. Altogether it failed miserably...I couldn't stand the itching anymore (I have some bad sensitivity to sunblock...Shiseido's is the only one I've found so far that I can wear without breaking out badly or getting rashes..and even then I don't particularly like the feel of having sunblock on..I prefer keeping my skin bare). I'm thinking of possiby trying again this year, but it won't be my main focus beauty-wise. I'll probably post a couple of NOTDs before the new year, but for the most part I think that my next makeup related post will be stash pics. I guess the question is... Do you guys want me just to post makeup stash pics or do you want makeup AND nail polish? (Either way it'll be massively pic heavy. Leave a comment below with your opinion.

Anyways, that's the scoop on what's up here...I hope you guys have a great deal of fun at whatever you guys decide for NYE!

Much Love,
ESA

Sleek Palettes-- Storm, Original, and Safari

2009-12-28T06:38:00.000-08:00

For the last few months I've had these Sleek palettes sitting around waiting to get swatched. I was lucky enough to get a CP of these. Sleek palettes are decently priced palettes available at Superdrug in the UK. I don't actually remember what they retailed for, but I think I paid under $10 each for them. They're all super pigmented and soft.

The Originals palette is a nice, colorful palette full of colors that all work on me for the most part. The colors don't lose to Urban Decay's and I think are actually more vibrant without all the chunky glitter that UD loves putting in. They are all shimmery though except for the black shade.

Sleek Storm is a gorgeous palette capable of creating a variety of neutral or smokey looks.

Safari was a LE palette released over the summer I believe. It's actually my least favorite out of the 3 I own, but only because the colors in it aren't as nice as the other two to me.

I really don't have much to say about these except that they're a good buy for the price. I like them, but they sort of sit around unused in my stash..mostly because I'm a brand whore. My only gripe about them is that there's a black shade in every one of the palettes. I don't need multiples of the same black shadow. Past that, they're great

NARS Day and Night Palette

2009-12-27T18:32:00.000-08:00

Today's post is another short one; it's for the NARS Day and Night palette. The Day and Night palette was released with NARS's 15th anniversary collection and comes in the same packaging that the 6 pan palettes have all come in; except that the NARS lettering on the palette is in red instead of white. As usual, the palette contains 6 eyeshadow shades from the permanent line and retails for $50 at Sephora or on NARS's webpage. I forgot to mention this in my last post, but there's currently a 20% off code on NARS's site with $60 purchase or more. (CP9H1211) which expires 12/31/2009.

Here are the shades:
Abyssinia- This shade is also in the Pleasures of Paris palette. It's a nice shimmery beige color. For some reason I feel like the Abyssinia in my Day and Night palette is smoother than the one in the Pleasures of Paris palette
Sugarland-I'd describe this as a sparkling bronzed peach I guess. The texture's slightly gritty, but it applies just fine
Fathom- light pink with silver microglitter. This has a drier texture and the payoff is kind of poor. It makes a good base though I think.
Cleo- shimmering seafoam green in the pan, this one shows up nearly white on my skin with a green tinge.
Underworld- shimmery deep blue with some grey tones in it. Passable as a crease color, works nicely as a liner shade
Night Breed- Black with silver glitter. Unlike the majority of the Night Series shades, this one isn't chalky. I'll still probably never use it.

My overall thoughts on the palette are that it isn't bad, but it isn't great. I don't feel it's worth the $50 really. It's not a particularly versatile palette and I bought it when I was in my nude wash of color + colored liner phase so I'm okay with keeping it as I can find a couple of looks to do with it..unlike Modern Love which I couldn't work with that well. I do recommend Abyssinia as a single though..it's nice

NARS Doucers de Paris (Pleasures of Paris) palette and Christmas NOTD

2009-12-25T14:51:00.000-08:00

Merry Xmas everyone! Today I have swatches of the NARS Doucers de Paris palette or the Pleasures of Paris palette. This palette contains 6 shades (Nepal, and retails for $50 on NARS's site or at Saks. Of the 3 6 pan eyeshadow palettes NARS put out this year, this one's my favorite.

Nepal is a bronzed peach shade
Violetta is a very nice smooth matte grayed light purple
Demon Lover is a dark matte purple
Fez is a beautiful bronze
Abyssinia is a smooth beige color
Cordura is a deep brown with gold shimmer

I also did my nails for the holidays. I woke up after the sun had gone down yesterday, so here's my mani on day 2 yet again. It's China Glaze 2030 over Zoya Isla (3 coats)

Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows?!

2009-12-23T17:11:00.000-08:00

I spend a lot of time on the makeup board so when this baby was posted I could not conceal my excitement. Urban Decay is releasing a 3rd Book of Shadows in collaboration with Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. This comes with 16 (renamed? Midnight Tea Party looks suspiciously like Midnight Cowboy) shades and 2 eyeliners (Zero and Flipside?) as well as a UDPP mini (I swear I'll never run out of UDPP now). Pricing is currently unknown, but the palette is supposed to be released on 12/28 on UD's site. I will definitely be snagging one of these if only for the packaging itself.

China Glaze Wizard of Ooh Ahz: NOTDs China Glaze C-C-Courage and Good Witch?

2009-12-23T16:33:00.000-08:00

Today is a quick post with the other two colors I picked up from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection; Good Witch? and C-C-Courage. (other than Ruby pumps, which is perm) Good Witch is a warm pink with pink glitter dispersed throughout (I think the glitter's really hard to see in my picture...sorry) I did actually manage to get good lighting for once though. This is on the 2nd day of wear, with what I believe is 4 coats (I had a power outage in my room for a few days)
C-C-Courage is a frosty purple with glitter, but despite the glitter in the polish, this one just doesn't shine for me and looks rather dull on my hands. For that reason I don't really like it despite it being purple (I love purple polishes usually). This is 3 coats, topcoated, warm indoor lighting on 2nd day of wear. I decided to snap a pic right before removing this.

So out of the 4 polishes I have from this collection I like Dorothy Who? the best, though I'm not in love with any of them.

Korres Lip Butters and NOTD Dorothy Who?

2009-12-18T15:32:00.000-08:00

Today I have some swatches of my Korres lip butters for you guys. Korres lip butters are tinted lip balms with decent pigmentation. Color-wise, they remind me more of glosses instead of balms, but the texture is definitely that of a light balm.
Here are the usual arm swatches:
I'm also going to show you guys some lip swatches this time. Here are my bare lips for reference, since my lips are decently pigmented. All the swatches are a bit more vibrant rl than in photographs, but they still came out okay, so I'll show them to you guys. All lip swatches were done in warm indoor lightingJasmine is a very light milky pink. It's good for muting down pigmented lips. It has a scent to it, but it doesn't smell like jasmine. It's a somewhat sweet scent that I can't put my finger on, but it's not unpleasant.

Mango is kind of scarily orange in the pot, but it's not nearly as bad on the lips as it sheers out. The result is a peachy tint on my lips. The scent is mango-ish, but not quite mango. There's a perfumed quality to it.
Pomegranate is my favorite of the Korres lip butters. It has a light, kind of fruity scent to it (though I still can't place the scent, I think it smells the best). It's a nice warm pink
Quince is cooler toned pink than Pomegranate. I think it also lends a bit more pigmentation than Pomegranate as well. The scent is probably the lightest of the lip butters I own and is slightly floral.
A plummy-red in the pot, Plum swatches a fuschia-plum on my lips. The scent is similar to that of my Pomegranate lip butter.

NOTD is China Glaze Dorothy Who? from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz Collex (did I spell that right? probably not) This didn't photograph all that well..the blue is more vibrant in real life, though the frosty silver glitter is definitely still apparent. This is 4 coats, with topcoat.Anyways, now I'd like your opinions on something, so I'd appreciate a quick comment below if you can spare it. Are lip swatches helpful? Should I try to include them in future posts with lip products?

Some Stila duos and singles I guess (with Stila grey look palette)

2009-12-17T03:56:00.000-08:00

I've been sitting by somewhat idly the last few days since, as I mentioned a few days ago that there hasn't been any sun at all (or much light for that matter) which has made swatching difficult (my room generally just doesn't get bright enough with all the lights on for me to make good swatches on my arm) However, since my sister's home and finally got around to bugging me for some of the stuff on my portable hard drive, I got around to taking a look at what was inside...and there were some unposted Stila swatches that I had made over the summer but never got around to posting...so I figured that this was a good opportunity to do so while I wait for clearer days. First up is my Stila Grey look palette. This palette was available at Costco last year for some ridiculously good deal price. It came with 2 brushes and a mascara. The mascara was complete crap and went straight into the garbage after 1 use, while the brushes are still around (though I seem to have misplaced one lately...or the purrball lying next to me carried it off at some point when I wasn't home). It's made up of permanent colors, so I'm posting it anyways. It's actually almost identical to the Korean version of Stila's Smoky eye palette except the Smoky eye palette contains Kitten instead of Starlight
Chinois-matte beige
Starlight- shimmery champagne color similar to kitten but much less frosty and slightly pinker
Slate- a nice satiny grey
Ebony- probably the best matte black I own (I probably have a lot since a lot of brands are fond of putting blacks in palettes) This black is definitely pigmented and lacks any chalkiness that is common in a lot of black shadows.

The other palette I found swatches of is the palette containing 6 of Stila's duo eyeshadow shades and 3 single e/s that I picked up along the way. The duos also came in a set at Costco for what I believe was $17.99. The duos are slightly larger than the singles due to the split pan shape (each color comes in a half pan shape). The palette I have these in is what I believe to be a Japonesque palette (obtained from makeupmania.com) It's a simple black cardboard palette with a magnetic base.
Salome- This duo contains a light peach shade with silvery gold sparkle and a very warm brown shade
Mara Simba- was the entire reason I bought this set; it's a buo of two taupes.
Fandango- contains a lime green shade and another warm brown
Lilly- contains a peach shade and a pink shade. I really don't care for this duo much due to personal preference, so it's barely been touched (I think I've only ever swatched it, come to think of it)
Vieux Carre- contains a warm violet with gold shimmer and a warm brown with gold sparkle.
Kajiki- is a duo with two blues in it
Coco- a warmish matte brown. I think I only own this shade because I got it for $1 at last year's warehouse sale
Kitten- Supposedly Stila's bestselling shade, it's a very frosty champagne color. I really have to wonder if this sells the best because it's in practically half the sets Stila sells, because this shade is frosty hell. The only way I can get this shade to work on me is to sheer it out as much as possible with the fluffiest eye brush I can find. It's definitely less frosty looking on really pale skin, but still frosty nonetheless.
Cassis- kind of a satiny purple. I like the color in the pan, but I really don't care for it on my lids. I feel like it lacks a certain oomph.

Review: Kirkland by Borghese 15 Piece Premium Cosmetic Brush Set

2009-12-13T04:22:00.000-08:00

Good morning ladies. Has everyone finished their Holiday shopping yet? It's 4:30 AM and I'm taking a quick break from playing Zelda Spirit Tracks to bring you a quick review of this year's Kirkland brush set from Costco. This 15 piece set contains a 8 piece full sized brush set, a 4 piece mini travel brush set, and an eyelash curler and retails for $19.99 at your local Costco store (unfortunately, they don't appear to carry this online. I bought this set a few days ago after obsessing over it for a couple of weeks, and I'm really glad I caved and got this set; it's the nicest synthetic brush set I've come across (I like them better than ecoTools) All of the brushes are super soft, and both the full size set and the mini set come with really great quilted brush cases that remind me a bit of Trish McEvoy's packaging.

The full sized set comes with 8 super soft brushes;

The Powder brush is a nice fluffy brush that isn't too densely packed, but is excellent for depositing a thin layer of powder all over the face

Flat-Top Bronzer brush- this brush is small enough to fit well on my cheeks and can be used for buffing in a powder or applying blush or bronzer. It's not nearly as dense as my Every Day Minerals flat top brush, but it's still really nice and super soft

Angled Foundation brush- a densely packed angled brush for applying foundation. I'm pretty sure you could easily get away with using this for blush.

Eyeshadow brush- good, somewhat fluffy basic brush for applying eyeshadow. I was pleasantly surprised with this one since I wasn't expecting too much out of this since my ecoTools synthetic eyeshadow brush is pretty awful for applying powder eyeshadow, but this one is actually pretty decent at applying powders as well as creams

Eye blending brush-decent for applying shadows into the crease

Flat Eyeliner Brush-nice, soft flat liner brush

Eye Smudger- the one super boring "brush" in the set..it's a typical foam smudgy thing

Angled brow brush and Brow Spoolie- a very nice angled brush with a small spoolie on the other end. It's thicker than what I would prefer to use for a liner brush, but it'd be soft enough if you wanted to use it for such a purpose. It's also a good size to use to apply brow powder

The travel set comes with

Powder brush- the head of this is a lot smaller than the full sized powder brush...making it good for apply blush. It's also good for light powder touch ups, but I prefer the larger brush for all-over
Concealer brush- this also has a smaller head than the eyeshadow brush in the full sized set. I'll probably just be using it for eyeshadow since I like using stick concealers and blending with my fingers.
Eye Blending Brush- again, this has a smaller diameter than the full sized brush..making it better for my tiny creases. I also feel like it's just a bit stiffer than the full sized one
Flat Eyeliner brush- a bit smaller/thinner than the larger version

The brush case for this mini set is ingenious; at first glance it's a regular envelope style case that flips open with a little band to hold the case shut, but upon a closer look, you'll discover that each brush has it's individual slot to hold it in place.
The last item in the set is the eyelash curler. I didn't have too many expectations for this either, but it's not a bad eyelash curler. It fits easily in my hands and gets the job done, though I have to hold the curler in place longer than I do if I use my Shu Uemura curler, but it's a decent curler that makes it difficult to overcurl or accidentally crimp your lashes. It's great for a beginner. It kind of looks like Shiseido refills would fit this curler so it can last you a nice long time if you don't abuse it.
The set's a steal at about $20 and I think it makes a perfect gift for both newbies and makeup lovers alike...it's a great little gift to pick up for somebody if you haven't finished your shopping yet or just want to add a little something more to an existing gift.

Benefit Bright Lights, Big City Set

2009-12-11T16:52:00.001-08:00

It's been really overcast and gloomy here the past few days so I haven't particularly been swatching anything (though I do have some lip swatches I'll post later) so today's post is more of a review post than a swatch post. I absolutely adore my "That Gal" primer, so when these Benefit sets went on sale at Sephora for $35, I picked one up. The set contains 3 full sized products ("That Gal" (retail $28), eye bright (retail $20), and BADgal Blue Mascara (retail $19)) and a cute little mirror with a really nice magnifying side and a regular side.
Anyways, on to the products themselves;

"That Gal" is a peachy pink primer that helps brighten your complexion. The tube that I got in this set is a backup for the one I picked up during the Friends and Family sale back in October, but I am currently on my 2nd tube of this stuff and I absolutely love it. Oddly enough though, in the 1 year that I've had this product I've never once used it under a foundation even though it's a foundation primer. Instead, I've used it mixed with Benefit's Some Kinda Gorgeous to make a nice tinted moisturizer (which isn't too bad, but when I applied it myself it didn't wow me like when the SA did it). Instead, what I love it most for is for a quick fix. My skin isn't too awful, but when I had to continuously wake up at 4 am and be out the door by 5 am for work, I generally wasn't awake enough to apply a full face of makeup, and my complexion was suffering a bit from it. It also didn't help that whatever lit parts of my workplace were lit by bad flourescent lights (the evil kind that makes everyone look more zombielike than they already did..honestly...my lips looked a little purpley and corpselike in that lighting..though part of it may have been due to poor circulation in the mornings) Anyways, one day, I reached for this stuff in my stash and was pleasantly surprised that I could get away with just using this primer with some concealer to cover up scarring and a light dusting of powder on top to set my concealer and be good to go for the day. I actually think it controls oil just a bit too..so no complaints there. It's also got a delightful grape scent to it that fades away quickly.

Eyebright is a light pink pencil with some shimmer to it. The instructions on the back of the box say to apply this product to the inner and outer corners of the eyes and blend lightly. Maybe I'm not doing this right, but it just sort of shows up light and pink on my skin...it does brighten a bit, but the light pinkiness is fairly apparent to me on its own. I lucked out genetically and have barely visible dark circles under my eyes, so I'm not particularly sure how this would work on those. A friend of mine loves this stuff though, so maybe it has some effect on them. She is also a lot lighter skinned than I am so it's possible that it looks better on lighter skin as well. On the flipside, I really like Smashbox's Photo Op, which is a bit darker and more golden, to brighten under the eyes while she hates it so it might really be a skintone thing. The consistency of this is soft and easy to apply; there's no tugging from this whatsoever so that's a plus at least.

BADgal Blue is a blue mascara with a fat brush. It's got a fairly dry formula, but it's not really a bad mascara; it lengthens and thickens nicely, but unfortunately I don't really see any blue on my lashes and it won't hold my curl (I was bless with short, stick straight asian lashes that point downwards, so a waterproof mascara is necessary to hold my curl) so this mascara isn't really for me..but it's definitely a nice mascara if you like drier formulas.

I attempted to swatch the primer and the eyebright, but since the lighting in my room is warm, both turned out peach instead of pink...oh well

Global Goddess eyeshadows

2009-12-02T11:37:00.000-08:00

When makeup.com had their sale a few months ago I snagged a few of Global Goddess's single eyeshadows. These retail for $18 and can be found on makeup.com as well as Global Goddess's website. Some of these can be found on Dermstore.com as well.

I got:
Malaika (Boho)- The swatch on makeup.com's site showed a nudeish color, so of course I was totally surprised when I got a yellow one. Malaika is a medium yellow shadow with slight pink duochrome, very low shimmer
Shambala- mattish peach
Darjeeling- mattish taupe
Kumaon-warm, shimmery brown...also the only nonpigmented one with a hard texture
Madhuri (Boho)- dark taupey color with green microshimmer
Aishwarya- Beautiful plummy purple with gold shimmer...this one's my favorite out of the ones I ordered.
Shilpa (Boho line)- website desciption says matte seafoam green..which is totally inaccurate. Shilpa is a pigmented turquise color. It doesn't have any apparent shimmer, but it doesn't seem as flat as matte shadows usually are.
Texture-wise, except for Kumaon, all of these shadows were soft and pigmented and are decent shadows, though online color swatches for these are fairly inaccurate. They were a good buy for $9 each, but I'm not sure I'd buy any of these at full price except maybe Aishwarya.

I HATE LIARS MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE: Swapping with calisurfergrrli

2009-12-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

Today is apparently rant day...but I have nowhere else to talk about this sort of thing...So MUA is having a Secret Santa thing, so I have of course checked out my giftee's profile. I had noticed that she was newish and had very few tokens, not all of which was positive, so I looked at them. The only non-positive came from a girl I had more than the acceptable level of trouble with when I was never to the whole swapping thing so I shrugged it off since the girl is a serial liar who retailiates token-wise when you leave her a non-positive. (She did remove mine, thankfully, since it wasn't deserved, and PMed me apologizing it I guess hoping I'd remove the one I left her..for which I removed the negative, but kept the neutral token). Anyways...today I got curious whether or not my giftee had left her a neutral/negative and saw this (click to enlarge) :

WTF?!?! The girl doesn't know when to STOP LYING. Here's what happened. She contacted me about 3 BNIB items (Smashbox Tokidoki stuff) on my list saying she'd love to swap yadda yadda, so I looked at her list and saw a couple things I was kind of interested in and contacted her back. She said no, because she could "get the items off ebay cheaper" than what her items were worth (retail value for the items were all around the same and her items were used while mine were BNIB). I really should have turned away from the swap at this point, but I was really interested in the items she had and asked for the one I wanted more. She replied back saying that she was on the fence on that item and didn't know if she wanted to swap it (again I should have just left it alone), so I ended up agreeing to swap for a Stila Palette (which had some cosmetic damage to the back of the palette) and a pigment sample (1/2 tsp) .

The swap was finalized 6/29/08 at which time she said "ok i will ship monday or tuesday!" Apparently she DIDN'T ship Monday or Tuesday..or the following days after that..and no message came about any delay whatsoever until 7/15/2008. Message reads:

"Hey swappers-

Sorry for the mass email but I am just letting some of you know that I have come across a hard time in my life & have been tied up the past week or so. I shipped most of my packages on July 1st, so I assume you already have received those ones.

If you have not received it yet, please do not worry as I have a few more to send out. I am so incredibly sorry for the delay, I tried putting in a few extras to make up for the delay :)

I am shipping all of these extras tomorrow as it will be the first out of many days I do not need to take my mom down to the hospital :(

Please keep my family in your thoughts/prayers & PLMK once your packages arrive! "

Which at this point is understandable..things happen in life...(btw, my package was not included in the batch she supposedly sent 7/1) One more thing I should add is that at the time I was home for summer vacation from school and had to go back at the end of July before summer school started up, so keeping this in mind, I sent her a message about a week after I received her message that something was up in her life that prevented her from sending out her packages..a day or 2 later I get a message back saying "Yes it was sent yesterday! I hope it arrives before you move! "

And I did...barely...got it like 2 days before I had to drive back down for school...only the sample was missing from the package...so I PM her about it and she says she'll look for it. Apparently she can't find it..

"hey I didnt find that pigment, I am thinking i may have sent it in another package as an extra or something bc its nowhere to be found (my swap stuff is super organized too) but i have a few other things i can send to make up for it, or i have more pigments....i just got an Ultra Marine & Coco 1/4 samples if you want me to send one over.

again i am so sorry! my swaps are usually organized & have no problems i am sorry you experienced an exception :( "

I picked Coco..since it seems very loved...
So on 7/29 she says she'll ship the sample to my school address (which ironically according to her was like 45 minutes away from her house...and was also where her boyfriend went to school).

8/4: "i am sending stuff out tomorrow:)"

8/9: "hey caroline! your end was returned to me with a stamp saying unable to deliver.......i checked postage & addy they seemed fine i am sending out again on monday thru the PO

sorry it took awhile i had to go back to PA for afamily emergency :("

8/23: "i am so sorry between getting kicked out of my home & totaling my car i've been super disorganized & frantic lately this usually never happens i have a great swapping record i apologize for your inconvenience i'll look for my receipt i always keep them"

Wait...what now? I've been through a lot of shit storms in my life, but at this point I'm having a REALLY hard time believing that THIS MUCH crap can happen within 2 months..honestly I would have given her the benefit of the doubt..BUT

The Coco pigment arrived 8/30 in a regular white envelope..the type you send letters in. There was no bubble wrap. THE JAR WAS GRIMY. The return address was the same as the one she gave me when we finalized our swap. (aka parent's house)

Now..moving on to her response to my token...

Did I ask for a reversal? NO. After it took her 2 MONTHS to complete one swap do you think I'd try for a reversal? From what I remember, I think there was someone who had complained about her on swap talk saying that they had tried a reversal with her once, only she had used the swap items before the other party got her end. I wasn't sure I'd get my stuff back in the condition I sent it in.

Did she send me a brand new palette? That's news to me...if she sent it I certainly never got it...and there was no message to me saying she was going to send it...or asking if I ever received it.

Am I complaining about it? HELL YES. Wouldn't you if you saw a response like THAT? I also still have the majority of my messages from her..there's a gap between when she first pmed me and when she sent me her address since I used to delete all my messages until I got swaplifted, but I have EVERYTHING from the PM where she gave me her address up until I left her tokens if anyone finds screenshots necessary :]

NOTD Diamond Cosmetics Sitka Sable

2009-11-27T13:07:00.000-08:00

Today's NOTD is Diamond Cosmetic's site (closeout section). It's not quite as warm as depicted above, but there was no sun today so the picture was taken in indoor lighting. Picture above is 3 coats, after food, shower, a full morning of Black Friday Shopping, and more food. I chipped the polish on my thumb pretty badly somehow at DSW, but the polish on the other fingers is perfectly fine.

Diamond Cosmetics Haul and NOTD DC Cherry Tobacco

2009-11-26T20:11:00.000-08:00

How's everyone's Thanksgiving weekend going? I got my Diamond Cosmetics order a couple days ago. Diamond Cosmetics is a small brand that carries a small line of polish and makeup online. Their polish retails between $1-$3 with the majority of them being priced at $2. Unfortunately, they didn't package too well and one of the polishes I ordered came beheaded, making a rather huge mess inside the package and 4 polishes not including the broken one stuck to the box. Luckily, they have great CS and they told me that they'd resend my order to me at no cost to me.

These were the ones that easily survived:These were the ones I salvaged after a little more than an hour involving scissors, tweezers, felt, and a lot of nail polish remover.
and here's my NOTD involving Cherry Tobacco. This was after almost 2 days of wear..so there's some dullness and minor tipwear. Please excuse the lint on my nail and the unmanaged cuticles..I've been lazy and the weather is dry. Cherry Tobacco is a really pretty dark brown shade with a lot of deep red shimmer. In sunlight it shines a deep vampy red, while indoors, it is more of a chocolaty color. It's a very nice, unique color imo and well worth the $2 it cost. It's nice and opaque and applies without problems. The formula dries very fast. I used 2 coats

I already changed my mani to Sitka Sable, so you can expect pictures of that tomorrow

Guerlain Holiday and NOTD China Glaze DV8

2009-11-24T12:09:00.001-08:00

This holiday season, Guerlain was the one that took my money...partially due to pushy sales ladies. I bought the holiday Bal de Minuit (retail $58) and the new holiday meteorites Perles Imperiales (retail $53). Bal de Minuit was pushed on me by the sales ladies at my local Guerlain counter. I was extremely hesitant to buy this because they had made a really awful muddy mess with it when they applied it on me, and I was less than enthusiastic to purchase it for that reason. However they finally pushed it on me telling me just to try it at home and to return it if I still hated it afterwards. At this point I didn't feel like arguing with them anymore (and I would never have made as bad a mess as they had), so I brought the quad home with me. In the end, I like it enough not to take it back at this point. It's a nice quad of shimmering neutral colors reminiscent of Chanel Dunes. However, unlike Chanel Dunes, it's much more shimmery and pigmented, which is a plus as Chanel Dunes didn't show up on my lids. The quad contains a shimmery white beige, a shimmering pink-champagne, a shimmery taupe, and a warm dark brown.

Perles Imperiales comes in a nice black glitter adorned case with rhinestones on top. Despite the aesthetics of this year's release, the packaging is still, unfortunately, made of cardboard. Comparing it to the 3 types of balls that Guerlain carries permanently, it's as sparkly as Pink Fresh, but the effect on the face is in between that of Mythic and Beige Chic. Basically speaking..it just sort of comes across as sparkle on the face. I'll have to play with these a bit more to decide whether or not they're worth keeping.

Today's NOTD is China glaze DV8. It's a great turqoise holo that in real life looks a lot more green than what shows up depicted below on my monitor.. I bought this baby last night for $2.75 at a local shop. For anybody that may be in the (South) Bay Area (California) there's a great little shop called US Nails Supply (you can look them up on Yelp) that carries China Glaze, ORLY, and OPI for discount pricing. The store is really tiny and somewhat cramped, but the pricing is excellent and doesn't come with high shipping fees. The selection is definitely more limited than say, if you bought of Transdesign or any other etailer, but still worth checking out as there are still some nice goodies.
This post was brought to you while battling a set of tiny jaws clamped to the corner of my netbook screen

Flirt! 40 eyeshadow set

2009-11-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

So this is my favorite release this season; the Flirt! Limited Edition 40 eyeshadow set; available at Kohl's for $29.99, but I got it on sale for $23.99 ..though it's currently on sale for $24.99. All 40 colors have great pigmentation, and most of them are soft. Packaging is pretty crappy...all 40 pans sit in a flimsy plastic tray in a cardboard box that closes with a magnet and ties shut with a bright pink ribbon. The plastic tray pops out easily, in case you want to depot the shadows...which I'm considering doing since the packaging is pretty bulky and the clear window seems like it could fall out at any time. I swatched them in columns because it was easier. Natural, slightly cool lighting.

There isn't a whole lot to say about the palette this time except that I really like it and highly recommend them for both your personal collection and as gifts.

Global Goddess Blushes and Bronzer

2009-11-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

I'm finally awake during the day so I thought I'd put myself back on track by swatching my Global Goddess Cheek products as I promised you guys months ago. Global Goddess is a line mostly intended for women of color; it's meant to match middle eastern and Indian skin tones, as well as darker ladies. There are 3 blushes in the Global Goddess line;
Mirik- a peach colored blush, matte
Chowrasta- light pink. There's no shimmer to this, but it still manages to be slightly glowy
Sattva- matte plum

Despite looking somewhat scary in the pan, all 3 are sheer and look nice and natural applied with a blush brush

The bronzer is 3 colored and has a pattern stamped on top in a shimmer overspray. The overspray is very sparkly and was dusted off before I used it. It is eye safe and can also be used as eyeshadow. It's not a bronzer I'd normally choose though; on my face it's just a slight golden glow. It's really nice, but strikes me as more of a highlighter than a bronzer on my skin. On lighter skin tones I'd imagine it might be nice as a bronzer
Here are the swatches of all 4 products. I had to layer these several times to get them this pigmented..my camera, unfortunately doesn't like picking up anything subtle. They're much more natural looking when applied to the face, b ut easily layered depending on your skin tone. I wouldn't particularly recommend Chowrasta on darker skin tones or Sattva on really light skin tones, but all 3 are quite nice.

Tarte Treasure Chest

2009-11-20T21:20:00.000-08:00

So I have to admit with a certain degree of difficulty that I've fallen pretty far behind on swatching..the problem being that I'm pretty much not awake during the day anymore except at odd hours like this where the sun really hasn't risen out of the sky yet...so I've made you guys promises I have yet to keep...the last big thing I swatched was the Tarte Treasure chest close to a month ago and just let sit for a while as laziness overtook me...my bad, and my apologies...
Anyways, today's topic is one of the more decent sets this holiday, the Tarte Treasure Chest. This baby retails for $52 at Sephora and unlike Tarte's more recent palettes and last year's failure of a holiday palette, the quality's actually pretty good (Though I will admit that the blushes in last year's holiday palette were so nice I almost kept the darned thing just for those) This year's palette is also a lot bigger than last years; with 32 full sized eyeshadows instead of 16.
The palette comes in bejeweled casing that imo, is somewhat cute, but in a tacky way. (I find it kinda festive...it reminds me of Christmas tree ornaments) There's unfortunately a near fatal flaw to this packaging; if you tilt this forward at all, the "drawer" like design of the palette sends the lipgloss and cheek color layers flying out at you at a somewhat alarming speed. Luckily, this palette has some redeeming qualities, so it missed getting the axe. Nevertheless, this is definitely not a travel friendly palette.

Here's the palette all opened up...it's certainly a lot of makeup in one go...
There are two layers of eyeshadows in this palette. The top layer contains the more colorful, shimmery shades. I swatched these in columns this time. Pictures were taken in warm indoor lighting. All shades were fairly soft and buttery. Pigmentation of the shadows is excellent and they swatch pretty close to what they are in the pan on my arm, but turn muddy on my eyelids for some reason. I know one other person with the same problem, while others have no issues with them
column 1 contains a shimmery, slightly bronzy gold, a brown with gold shimmer, a peachy pink with gold shimmer, and a dark taupey color with gold shimmer.
column 2 contains a warm brown with gold shimmer, a shimmer gold, a light, frosty peachy pink, and a lightish purple with gold shimmer
Column 3 contains a shimmery red, a black based dark gren, a slightly olive green with gold shimmer, and a black based blue
Column 4 contains a black based wine color with lighter burgandy shimmer, a light turquoise with gold shimmer, a red based purple with purple shimmer, and a somewhat sparkly light silver
Layer 2 contains the most buttery matte shadows I've ever come across and are IMO the highlight of this palette. These, unlike the layer above it, do not turn muddy on me. They're also the reason why I keep this palette despite my disappointment with the layer above.
Column 1 contains a matte beige, a dark purple taupe, a matte peachy pink, and a warm brown shade
Column 2 contains a purpley taupe, a warm taupe, a blackish purplem and a tan eyeshadow
Column 3 contains a matte light pink, a pinkish purple, a warm grey taupe and a dark blue that looks slightly greyish in the pan
Column 4 contains a pinkish tan taupe, a red based brown, a matte white, and a matte grey
The 3rd layer contains 16 potted lip glosses and are the top layer of the pull out drawer. These apply easily with a lip brush and are a lot nicer than the ones in last year's palette. They are harder to apply with your fingers. I chose not to swatch these. They few that I've tried have been fairly nonsticky and nondrying. Because of how the palette is designed this year, it is possible to access this drawer without opening the powder layers, or keeping just this section closed while you access the powder layers, making it easy to keep the powder products from mucking up the lip products.
The last layer contains the cheek products; 4 blushes, a bronzer, and a luminizer/highlighter
All 4 blushes are shimmery. From left to right the colors are a light, slightly peachy pink with gold shimmer, a mauvy pink with silver sparkle, an orangey peach with gold shimmer, and a red/rust colored blush with gold shimmer. The luminizer is light pink. It's ok, but I don't care for it it much myself. The bronzer is Park Ave Princess, which I usually like, but I feel like the one I own separate from the palette is a slightly different color.

Overall, the palette is pretty nice, though I wish that at least 1 of the blushes had been matte. Either way, it's a great buy for the price and I feel like it'd make a nice gift for someone without a lot of makeup.

I definitely have issues...

2009-11-20T00:54:00.001-08:00

After a long period of time, I'm back on a polish stint. The last one ended when I got a job and therefore had way less time to worry about my nails (Why would you when you have to crawl out of bed at 3:30 in the morning?) The result was that I neglected my rather large stash of polishes, maybe changing my polish 1x a week max. Since I'm back in a polish hauling mood (It might be because all the holiday collections have been somewhat disappointing) I'm hauling polishes again. Today, since I just got the Nubar Going Green Collection for my birthday, I decided to go through and mark which polishes I haven't tried yet (I put little red dots on them with my computer so you could see it better) and this was the result...over 100 polishes that I haven't yet done a full mani or pedi yet...that's right...100! (I think the actual count was 126) The number is probably lower than this, but I put dots over polishes I don't remember using before too. There were two I marked because I didn't remember which of the two I'd used.. I also got rid of quite a few that I did try and like... Still it feels like most of that drawer's red. Add that onto the fact that I have 10 pretties coming from Diamond Cosmetics and whatever my friend's sending me for my birthday (She said she has TWO packages coming for me and mailed out 1 today) I think I definitely have issues...

Great finds at Ross, TJ Maxx and Rite Aid, OPI Merry Midnight and ORLY Pixie Dust

2009-11-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

I went to Ross today and found a couple of great Color Club sets for $7.99 each. I got the Glitter Vixen Set, which contains a set of 7 glitter polishes, and the Dance with the Musique collection.

The colors in the Glitter Vixen Set are:
Sex Symbol- Silver glitter
Magic Attraction- Silver Holographic glitter
Sultry Diva- gold glitter
Art of Seduction- red glitter
Sexy Siren- blue glitter
Object of Envy- green glitter
Tru Passion- lightish purple glitter
All of these colors are basically different colored glitters in a clear base

The colors in the Dance with the Musque set are :
Feel the Beat- shimmery red-orange
Velvet Rope- pink based red with slight gold microshimmer throughout
Slow Jam- maroon, coppery microshimmer
Electronica- blue based purple with violet-pink shimmer throughout. I totally bought this set because of this color alone..though the other colors in the set are nice
Groove Thang- black based purple with purple shimmer
After Hours- Dark grey with silver shimmer throughout
and a clear topcoat

From TJ Maxx I picked up a Barielle Nail brightener for $3.99, which appears to be a sheer white pearlescent polish in the bottle, as well as 2 Essie polishes for $4 each in Looking for Love and Great expectations. Then I went next door to Rite ait where they had these cutte little snowman polishes for the holidays. I picked one up in a gold color with holographic shimmer in it, and amangenta-purple one with lots of holographic glitter in it for $1.99 each.

I also have a couple NOTD swatches for you guys...First up is Today's NOTD which is ORLY Pixie Dust. It's a nice, slightly bluish grey that looks a lot like a creme with a lot of silver microglitter dispersed throughout it. I'm pretty happy with the color and application of this one.
The picture below is a bit warm...The second one was my NOTD from a couple days ago. This one's OPI MErry Midnight, which is a nice dark violet color with a lot of lighter violet flakies in it. This polish is beautiful and no camera comes close to doing this color justice...

Sephora Lip Service Lip Deluxe Sampler and Essie Mint Candy Apple

2009-11-13T02:03:00.000-08:00

When I went to return the Stila Smudge pot set the other day, this set caught my eye in its place. It's a gift set of 8 lip products from various brands retailing for $38. 3 of the 8 items are full sized items too..so it's a pretty good deal. It contains DuWop Private red (deluxe sample size), Smashbox Lip Enhancing gloss in Sheer (clear gloss, maybe 2/3 size), Sephora Nano Lip Liner in Beau Bordeaux, NARS Velvet MAtte Lip Pencil in Roman Holiday (Full Size), Korres Guava lipstick in Wine Red (Full Size), Cargo PlantLove Botanical Lipstick in Muir Woods (Full Size) Tarte Vitamin Infused lipstick in Hatha (sample), and Laura Mercier Lip Color Creme in Pink Champagne (sample)Flash
No Flash
Swatches (L-->R): Du Wop Private Red: supposed to be a color changing lipstick. I don't really notice any real color change. It's a pretty red..unfortunately I don't feel like I love it...or hate it... it's got a good texture, is nondrying, and smells like Smarties candy.
Sephora Beau Bordeaux Nano Lip Liner: Reddish Brown. It looks kind of mauvey in the swatch picture, but I don't see any of that on my skin
NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Roman Holiday: Kind of a silvery pink. It looks like Pepto Bismo against my lips and skintone, but it'd probably look lovely on a lighter girl. It has an odd scent I can't quite place, but nothing too strong or lasting
Korres Guava Lipstick in Wine Red: Cute Pink-Red. Very good texture and moisturizing. I like this color best in the set and think it could be flattering for a wide set of skin tones.
Cargo Plant Love Lipstick in Muir woods- Sheer Mauvey Pink with an emphasis on sheer. Has a somewhat mild waxy scent. I find this color somewhat drying.
Tarte lipstick in Hatha-A nice pink with copper shimmer. It's a really cute color and decent formula.
Laura Mercier Lip Colour Creme in Pink Champagne- Mauvey Pink...a cute neutraly color and very work appropriate. Has a nice emolient feel to it too.
I was messing around with Private Red earlier..so I cropped out a lip swatch of it. It's not quite this warm RL:
Overall the set's really nice and would make a great gift for someone. Personally, I feel like the colors are a bit off with my skintone..but then again my skin tone's made another change and I'm now really warm, so I have to go through my stash and figure out what will work on me again.

Today's NOTD is from Essie's holiday collection. Mint Candy Apple. I found the formula a bit streaky..though thinning it helped a bit. # coats gave a smooth, opaque result: