Armani Eye Tint #5 Onyx and it's cheaper cousins

Lancome Erika F, Loreal infallible Gilded Envy ($4.88 on clearance at Target), GA eye tint 5 Onyx ($38), Shu ME Olive 471($15), Lancome All that Glitters ($20)

 Armani recently released a new lineup of cream/liquid eyeshadows called eye tints ($38) that are full of lovely sparkle and goodness. A good friend of mine, after watching me play with them at the counter, gifted me with #5 Onyx, and #9 Cold Copper.

Onyx is the top of the 2 eye tints

However, I had a sneaking suspicion that I already owned very similar shades, and it turns out I was right.

Interestingly enough, all of these shades are produced by brands owned by the L'oreal group. Of these shades, the closest are Loeral Gilded Envy, which is just a hair darker and more brown, with nearly identical sparkle, and Shu Uemura ME Olive 471, which is close to the same depth, but without the sparkle and less green tones:

 

The eye tint itself is beautiful, with a slight cooling sensation and smooth texture. It is fairly easy to blend, and once dry, it stays in place fairly well. Unfortunately, or maybe it's fortunately for me, I appear to be allergic to the formula. It made my arm itch slightly, and when applied to my lids, caused burning sensations and redness upon removal after just a few minutes. For this reason, I will not be trying #9, and will be taking both shadows back to the store.

Taupe Series #1- Napoleon Perdis Color Disc 40 Irid. Taupe

Once upon a time, I owned absolutely zero taupe eyeshadows. I was convinced in my naivete, that because I looked horrid in any clothing and lip colors with any brown tones, that that same principle applied to my eyes as well. However, after hearing again and again on the makeup boards how so many people loved taupe eyeshadows, and seeing that Sephora was clearing out their entire stock of Napoleon Perdis, I hemmed and hawed and eventually went home with a color disc in #40, Irid. Taupe for the bargain price of $6.

 To my surprise of course, I actually liked it, and thus, my obsession with taupes got its start. Of course now, it's one of the less impressive taupes in my stash, but it was my first, and so, I kick off this series with this lone shadow. Despite the makeup board's general dislike for this brand, I found this shadow to be quite nice. It's soft, smooth, and decently pigmented. It blends quite nicely, and I rather like it, even if I have never felt any real urge to buy more shadows from this brand (I feel like it's a bit overpriced at it's regular retail price.)

Irid. Taupe is, despite it's misleading name, not actually iridescent at all (or particularly taupe for that matter) While it does technically fall into the category of taupe, it has definite pink tones to it on my skin (currently something like nc25). At my current skin tone, it is only a fraction darker than my skin when applied to my lids. I will mostly use it to blend other colors now, but when I'm paler, I like to use it as a quick wash of color when I'm lazy or pressed for time.

Since it is the first of the taupes, I'm drawing a slight blank on shades to compare it to (I want to compare it to RBR Gracious Arasari, but it's currently floating around somewhere in my room). As I swatch more taupes, I may revisit old ones for comparison. Feel free to ask if you want any compared to shades you may find similar.

NARS Realm of the Senses and Soulshine Blush Palette Swatches and Comparisons

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Guerlain Bois de Rose

I've accumulated quite a few Guerlain quads at this point, and for good reason; Guerlain has really stepped up their game since they redid their 4 pan eyeshadows. Today I have swatches of Bois de Rose for you guys.

 Bois de Rose contains 4 smooth, pigmented shades; a dark brown with some subtle blue shimmer, a very light frosty pink that is nearly white when swatched on my skin, a rose shade with shite shimmer, and a lovely taupe shade. The quality of this quad is excellent, and well worth the price, though personally, the color combination is not one I prefer on myself. For this reason, this is probably my least favorite out of the quads I own. There's nothing wrong with the quad itself; it's just not one I reach for often.

Burberry Hydrangea Pink and Coral Pink

I picked up both blushes from Burberry Spring in order to make sure that I still had a full set of Burberry blushes. The new releases from spring are called Hydrangea Pink (bright blue-based pink) and Coral pink (a warm bright-ish pink). Both have the same finely milled texture and easy blendability as the rest of the line. Both are great colors, but out of the two, I prefer Coral Pink as it is more versatile and flattering in my opinion.

Guerlain Lingerie de Peau and Parure Extreme 02

 A few months back I hauled 3 shades of Lingerie de Peau, as well as the lightest shade available for Parure Extreme, 02, at the time. Here are swatches, for the lightest 3 shades of Lingerie de Peau. My arm was about nc/nw20 at the time I swatched these.

01 and 31 are about the same depth, but 01 is neutral-pink, and 31 is very yellow. 02 would work well for those who are around NC 25. The same shade in Parure Extreme runs a bit darker and more yellow. I can't really comment on the performance of Extreme, as it was far too dark for me. My neck is currently about nc15, and I mix 31 with about a drop of 01 to get a good match. At NC20, I had to mix 31 and 02 to get a good match, although 02 was passable, albeit a bit dark. I'm generally pretty fond of this foundation; it wears well and photographs well, and does a decent job at evening out skintone, but I prefer Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua to it )Unfortunately, I'm too light to get a shade match in it now). Coverage is light-medium.

Lipstick Stash

 This is my stash of full sized lipsticks..I probably have a few minis floating around somewhere..but this is basically it. The two 24 lipstick holders are from Container Store. The smaller one is from Big Lots.

Here they are open..the first two pics are of the same ones..

Dior Addict Extremes are my 2nd favorite lipsticks.

Chanel Rouge Allures..my favorites...too bad they're getting Dc'ed

MAC lipsticks. Not my favorites, but they were what I started out with.