Smashbox Holiday 2009- Wish for the Perfect Palette

This year, Smashbox has once again, put out a "blockbuster style" palette containing 64 eyeshadows, 8 lip glosses, 8 cream liners, a brow tech palette, 2 blushes, 2 highlighters, and a bronzer. The palette retails for $59 is an Ulta exclusive and can be found at Ulta and Smashbox's website only. In my excitement, I of course ordered one, despite having last year's with the reasoning that the colors in this year's are different from last year's...which they are. This year's palette is certainly a lot brighter than last years, which for me unfortunately meant that the palette as a whole was a lot less wearable than last year's. Additionally, I noticed that this year's palette was scented..which tends to bother me, but luckily the scent doesn't transfer to my face. There were some improvements over last year's..like the brushes for example, but they don't increase my excitement for the palette by much.


The eyeshadows in this year's palette are a lot brighter and warmer than last year's palette, which was very neutral; EVERY shade in last year's palette was wearable, which to me is no small feat since there were 70 eyeshadows in last year's palette. Consequently, I found that the majority of the shades would not work super well on me. The other thing I noticed when swatching the colors is that the quality of the eyeshadows this year are inferior to that of last year's. Last year's palette was smooth, buttery goodness, while this year, only a few were buttery, and a few were downright chalky and hard to scrape any real color from. Swatches were again done in columns...




The blushes in the palette, however, are nicer than last year's. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good pic of these swatched..for some reason all the swatches after I finished swatching the eyeshadows came out impossibly warm..for this reason the cheek colors came out way more orange/brown than they should be.
The cream liners in this year's palette are also an improvement over last year's. For some reason, they were difficult to work with in last year's palette as they were significantly drier than their normal texture. This year's are nice and creamy
The lip glosses are also an improvement from last year's and are my favorite part of the palette. They're fairly nonsticky and don't have any scent or flavor, unlike last year's, which had a disgustingly sweet taste to them.

Overall, I'd say it's a palette I have very mixed feelings over, some of it is really nice, but to me, it's not really worth paying $59 + tax for. Then again, my stash is a monstrousity and I have a LOT of palettes...but in general I'm finding myself kind of disappointed with this year's holiday releases (with the exception of one...but you guys will see that later). The other thing that bothers me about the palette is the way it opens up..it came apart one already when I was sliding it open. It didn't break exactly..just came apart. It was easily fixed (it snapped back together), but it just left the feeling of very cheap quality.

Stila Holiday Smudge Pot Set 2009, and some more Konad

This year's Stila Holiday Smudge Pot set came with 4 mini gel liners. Each pot is 0.07 oz and is half the size of a regular smudge pot set. The set retails for $32 and comes with smudge pots in Kitten, Violet, Starry Night, and Black as well as a mini brush. It's a pretty good value for the smudge pots especially since a full size smudge pot is so large that I don't think I could ever finish it. However, despite the beautiful colors of these liners in their pots, I wasn't impressed with them on my lids. Additionally, the plastic caps on the jars are flimsy and will probably break easily.Kitten is very similar to the eyeshadow it's named after and is a shimmery champagne color. It's fairly sheer applied with a liner brush, as shown below, and would seem better used as a cream eyeshadow.
Violet- a blue based purple with purple glitter. I love the color of this, but again, when applied with a brush, this was much sheerer than I had hoped
Starry Night- Navy blue with gold shimmer. This is, in my opinion, the prettiest color in the set. Unfortunately, it's also really sheer, so I was again, dissapointed with this.
Black- This was the only one that was easily opaque in the set, and therefore the only one I was satisfied with.
My overall opinion of the set is that it contains beautiful colors, but falls way short of being a must have. The swatches above were all done with my Smashbox Cream liner brush.

I posted a couple days ago that I got the giant Konad set so I decided to play around with some of the goodies in it and did this:It's plates M21 and M36 over Zoya Demi with some pink rhinestones. Excuse my hands..they're peeling a bit since I've been lazy and neglecting them.

Konad Professional Salon Kit

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of the doorbell ringing; the mailman had brought me this:

It's the Konad Professional Salon Kit!
Case Includes: * 1 Demo Image Plate (263 Designs) M01-M36 * 9 Image Plates (68 Designs) M37-M45 * 19 Special Nail Polishes (10 mL / 0.35 Fl.Oz) * 2 Clear Top Coats (10 mL / 0.35 Fl.Oz) * 1 Base Coat (10 mL / 0.35 Fl.Oz) * 1 Cuticle Oil (10 mL / 0.35 Fl.Oz) * 1 Image Plate Holder * 1 New Stamp * 2 Stamps * 3 Scrapers * 1 One Touch Remover Bottle (185 mL) * 1 Acrylic Stick (Long) * 1 Acrylic Stick (Short) * 9 Different Shapes of Rhinestones (169 Pcs) * 1 Body Glue (1 mL) * 1 2-Way Nail Shine Buffer (Arch) * 1 Emery Board * 1 Nail Trimmer * 1 Tweezer

Special Polish: Black, Black Pearl, Blue, Dark Orange, Dark Purple, Gold, Green, Pastel Orange, Pastel Pink, Pink, Red, Royal Purple, Silver, Sky Pearl, Violet Pearl, White x 2, Wine Red, Yellow

Everything comes in a cute locking silver traincase with a butterfly pattern on it (LOVE IT)


The set usually retails for $437.99, but OCNailArt currently has the kit on sale for $399.99 and there's a 30% off coupon right now as well (joshura). Additionally, she offers free shipping for orders over $20.
For those of you unfamiliar with Konads, Konad is a (somewhat) easy way of putting designs on your nails using a rubber stamp, an etched image plate, and a polish with a thicker, more opaque consistency. Konad sells these in several colors, but you can use certain other regular polishes from other lines as well. (There's a list somewhere, but I don't have it saved)

Here's a watchmen inspired NOTD I did a while back using a design off of plate M21: It's ORLY Moonlit Madness stamped over China Glaze Solar Power and China Glaze Ghoulish Glow top coat. The way I stamped it made it so that in the dark, the splatters were black over glowing nails. The effect was actually pretty cool IMO. These pics were taken with my old cell phone..excuse my cuticles, I hadn't yet oiled up.

Cargo Eyeshadow book--Wet/Dry Eyeliner Palette

The last palette included in the Eyeshadow book was the Wet/Dry Eyelining palette, which retails for $32. This palette was probably the only disappointment in the book as the colors don't quite apply all that smoothly wet and are somewhat unimpressive to me dry. You can use these as eyeshadows as well, but they're a bit chalky, so I'm not sure any of these will see much use, if any. I swatched each color wet (left) then dry (right) for comparison.

Cargo eyeshadow book- Cargo quads

The second part of this 3 part series is Cargo's color quads. There are a total of 8 quads and each of these retails for $28 and can be found at Sephora. I took pictures and swatched these in indoor natural lighting (though a window) so there may be some variability in the lighting.

London: Overall, this quad isn't something I'd normally buy, though it's nice for me to have as part of this palette nonetheless. This quad contains a dark, matte brown similar to the "outer corner" shade in the warm neutral palette. This shade is a touch greyer than the one in the warm neutral palette on my hand, but on my lids, they're very similar. Next is a slightly frosty yellow beige shade; of the 4 shades in this quad, this one has the softest texture. The purple in this quad is the chalkiest in this quad and is a warm, slightly reddish purple on my skin. If not used carefully, this color comes off bruisey, and it is very easy to give yourself a 'bleack eye' look with this shade. The final shade in this quad is a shimmery brown with olive tones.


Tahiti is probably my 2nd favorite quad in this palette. It's a nice collection of cute, bright summery colors. It contains a light yellow-green, a green, a teal, and a blue. The yellow-green color is the softest texture-wise in this quad and also has the most shimmer. The texture and shimmer on the other 3 are all around the same level.


Bermuda contains another yellow-green shade, that's more muted than the one in Tahiti, a satiny, neutral brown, a bronzy brown shade, and a orangey copper shade. The texture of this quad is nice, and none of the shades are chalky

I actually loved Shanghai less than I expected I would, considering that it contains my favorite type of e/s color: taupe. This quad contais a frosty white, a shimmery beigey peach, a pink with gold sparkle, and a taupe that pulls purple on my skin. Of the 8 quads in my palette, this one has the softest texture

I accidently deleted the picture of Toronto that I was originally going to use, so when I retook this picture, the sun was close to setting, so the lighting for the picture of the quad itself is very cool toned. Nevertheless, Totonto is a collection of blue-greys and a chalky sparkly black shade. Of the 8 quads, I find that Toronto has the worst texture, with the sparkly black being the chalkiest and the shade to the left of it being the softest.

Baja is a quad that contains 2 bronzes, a peach and a frosty pink shade. On my lids, I can't particularly tell the difference between the two bronzes, but I have small lids. The difference is decently clear in the swatch photo though.


Barcelona is my favorite Cargo quad, with two purples, a blue, and a cool toned green.

I was quite ready to love Vienna, but the bronze in this quad is definitely very very warm. PAst that shade, it also contains a shimmery. warm beige, a darker, peachy beigh, and a shimmery blue with slight grey tones.

Cargo Eyeshadow book --Cargo Essential Eye Palettes

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to score an enormous palette off ebay containing the majority of Cargo's eyeshadow quads. I finally got around to swatching it this week so I decided to share the swatches with you guys. The palette itself is an enormous monstrousity measuring 12.25"x 12.25" and is made of cardboard that flips open like a book. There aren't any magnets or anything holding the palette shut. It's a bit unweildly and hard to store, but it was a great value, and contains a ton of colors I wouldn't have thought to buy otherwise (despite loving now). In fact, out of all of Cargo's quads, the only one I ever thought to buy was the cool neutral essential eye palette in Cool neutral.


Here's a ruler comparison of the palette:Here's the palette opened up in warmish indoor lighting without flash:
Here's another pic of the palette open, but with flash. This palette's so big and my room's lighting is so crappy that it was difficult to take really clear pics of the sucker.I'm going to split up the swatches into groups because there were over 30 pics in this swatch set overall, which I think is a bit large for 1 post. I'm also splitting it up because both my laptop and netbook are out of commission, so I have no way of uploading new pics for a while. Pics were taken in cool natural indoor lighting for the most part.

The swatches for this palette may look a bit dry and chalky looking, but I assure you that it isn't an issue so much with the eyeshadows as it was with how dry my skin was when I started swatching. The rest of the photos should be fine after this one. The Warm neutral quad contains a light matte beige, a slightly darker, warmer matte beige, a slightly satiny, warm, light brown, and a darker somewhat satiny darker brown. The first two shades pretty much dissapear on my lids since I'm around NC35 or so right now.
The cool neutral palette is my favorite of the 3 it contains a lightly shimmery beige, a fawn color, a matte taupe, and a darker slightly taupey grey. The crease shade in the giant palette pulls a lot more purple than the original though for some reason. Either way though, it's quite nice.

In this palette the Dark neutral palette is probably the softest texture wise out of the three. IT contains a warm, shimmery beige, a shimmery bronzy gold, a warm brown, and a matte dark brown. It's basically a warm neutral palette for nedium skintones.

Urban Decay Box of Potions

Wow, I've really been falling back on posts the last couple of months...anyways, here's a quick little update. I bought box of potions what I think was a couple months back, but as I didn't have any imaging programs installed on my netbook, neglected to post my review here of the products in this kit. The Box of Potions retails for $65 and is available only at Sephora. Each item inside this set is full sized, making this a pretty good deal if you wanted to try out the products in this set. Unfortunately, most of the products in here were misses for me.


Pore Perfecting Primer: This one feels like a much thicker, less slick version of Smashbox's primer. It definitely does minimize the appearance of pores though..mine were pretty much invisible after using it. I don't think my foundation slid off at all when I tested this out, though I did find that my Shu brow pencil wouldn't really apply evenly on top of this..Additionally, I got the worst clogged pores from this product, which I still haven't fully resolved after a month and a half and my nightly cleansing ritual involves cleansing oil, washing my face again after, and toner (among other things). I'll stick to my Smashbox primer for now

Brightening: I should have retested this as far as lasting power goes since I wore a different foundation than I did with the Pore Perfecting primer since my powder foundation has never had super great lasting power, but I really didn't notice any brightening effects with this primer, so I left it alone. It's much less heavy feeling than the pore perfecting primer though, and also less thick. My powder foundation did go on smoothly over this, which was nice, but faded within a few hours, as usual.

UDPP: I accidently opened this when I was grabbing for the lash primer in a rush and got the primer instead, but it's got the newer angled wand. This product has been a staple in my makeup routine for 3 years now, and will probably stay one for a long long time.

Lip primer: I'm really impressed with this one. I tried this with one of MAC's Lustre formula lipsticks (Cute-ster) at around 5:20 AM and by 8:30 when I took my first break, there was still some lipstick left on me..although barely. Granted...I wasn't eating or drinking anything really, so I don't know how it really holds up against that, but MAC Lustres usually last like 20 minutes on me, so it's definitely working. It does seem to mattify the lipstick just a tad though. Once the color wears off, you have to wipe off your lips completely and reapply both the primer and the lip color, or the color won't apply evenly. I kind of felt like this left a slight film on my lips, as my lips felt weird after, but I am sensitive to sunscreens so that may have had something to do with it (this product has spf in it)

Lash Primer: I was not impressed with this at all, but I have stick straight asian lashes that point down slightly. This wilted my curl completely and made it ridiculously hard to recurl them after the mascara was on. It did lengthen a bit, but it gave no volume for me...actually I felt like my lashes looked more sparse after for some reason, possibly because it's not real good with separation on me. I have heard of other people liking this product though, so I guess it's one of those things you have to test yourself to decide whether or not you like it. Personally, I tend not to use lash primers anyways, though I have tried a couple, and I'd say there's definitely better primes out there.

All in all, I returned the set, though I did rebuy the lip primer for my MAC lustres. Price wise, it's a great set, but I personally didn't like the products in it. I'd recommend grabbing samples of the face primers in store if you wanted to test them out, but be warned that the pore perfecting primer can clog your pores.

Anyways, that concludes the review portion of today's updates. Here's a few things that will be coming up as updates in no particular order:
-Swatches of NARS Pleasures in Paris palette (Doucers de Paris)
-Swatches and Reviews of Global Goddess products
-Swatches and Reviews of a few Becca products (Demi-matte shadows, a couple of blushes, and bronzers)
-Swatches of theBalm blushes
-Review with some swatch involvement of Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
-I also finally got around to ordering more Fyrinnae Inks, so I should end up with all of them except Ninja, since I really don't need another black liner

I also need to catch up on some topics I started but never finished, but we'll see how that goes. My free time's been cut into a lot recently, so I haven't really had the time to test and review products, but I'm working on it.