Back with swatches and look for NYE makeup idea

So now I'm back. I collected all my purple, green, and blue eye shadows to see if I could create colors close enough to the Pantone versions.

Swatches of purples I thought would be close

I thought that Grifter from Urban Decay was the closest. I liked Last Call to accompany it.

Some other options that I thought were pretty close are the purple from the L.A. Colors trio in Magnolia, Essence eye shadow single in Disco Diva, and the e.l.f. Brightening Eye Shadow quad in Pretty N' Pink. These shadows are also good for anyone on a budget, since the L.A. Colors trio and e.l.f. quad are only $1, and the Essence single is under $4.

Part of what makes the Radiant Orchid color pop, is that I think there's a hint of a bright pink. Adding the browbone color from the Wet n Wild trio in I'm Getting Sunburned as a transition color to a more purple shade helps get the point across as to what you're aiming for.

I didn't have an actual emerald shade of eye shadow. I ended up mixing some blues and greens until I was satisfied. My favorite are the three swatches in the black box. They're all a mixture of the crease color from the Wet n Wild trio in I Dream of Greenie and the three different blues in the Blue Haute Couture quad from L'Oréal.

Here's the look I created: 

• I first primed my lid and set down a base for the eye shadow to cling to using Maybelline Color Tattoos in Inked in Pink and Lavish Lavender. The lavender shade was limited edition, so if you don't have it, just the pink will work fine. 
• Then I dabbed Grifter over my lid. Dabbing is key because there's quite a lot of glitter in the shadow. 
• I put Disco Diva on the outer third of my lid and slightly on inner part to add some dimension to my eye. 
• I used the pink browbone color as a transition that ended up being more like a brow color and added Last Call to the crease. 
• On my lower lash line, I mixed the lightest blue/teal shade from the L'Oréal quad with the green and brought that all along the lower lash line. I mixed the darkest blue with the green and added that to the outer third of my lower lash line. I also decided to bring that color up to the crease of my lid. 
• I ran some silver along my upper lash line and drew as thin of a line as I could with a black liquid liner. 
• Then I finished off the look with mascara. 

I would love to hear how you'll be bringing in the new year, and if you do anything fun with your makeup! Be safe and have fun!

Stacie

New Year's Eve Makeup Idea!

Hey all! I just wanted to get a quick post up because I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it done before I head out for my NYE party. For New Year's Eve, I have a habit of reaching for silvery, sparkly eye shadow, taking inspiration from a disco ball, I suppose. But this year I thought it would be fun to pay homage to the Pantone colors of the year. 2014 is Radiant Orchid, and 2013 is/was Emerald. So I'm going to look through my eye shadow collection to see what I've got to offer. I'll try to keep updating this post as I make progress. I'm thinking orchid on the lids with a little silver liner, and somehow working emerald into my lower liner. Hope you have fun with this idea, too!

Happy New Year!
Stacie

Photo credit (for Pantone colors): http://www.pantone.com/images/pages/21055/11262012_cotyslideshow_01.jpg  https://www.pantone.com/images/pages/21128/COY2014.png

PR: Profusion Eye Shadows

Hey there! I just wanted to do a review on a product you may be tempted to pick up this gift-giving season, either for yourself or someone else.

A year ago, I picked up three little eye shadow palettes from Walgreens by the brand Profusion. Here's what they look like:

Here's some swatches (since there are no names to identify each set of colors, I'm just calling them 1, 2, and 3):

Palette 1

Check out what the swatches looked like on my fingers before I swatched them on the back of my hand:

Don't they look beautiful and pigmented? Such a disappointment when they're swatched and so flakey :(

Palette 2

Palette 3

All in all, these are not worth the money--and they're not even that expensive. I don't remember exactly how much they were, but I'm thinking they were probably somewhere around $3. While some swatches may look alright, the shadows don't hardly show up on your eyes. The biggest disappoinment to me was the first palette. I recently did a look using a Maybelline Color Tattoo as a base, and the shadows still didn't show up, even the darkest one! Sooo awful. 

The brand seems to have trouble getting matte shadows to show up. There are six shades in each palette, but in the swatches for palettes 1 and 2, you only see 5 swatches. C'est triste, n'est-ce pas? The palette I've had the most luck with is the third palette, but most of the shades have some kind of shimmer.

I don't think that they're selling eye shadow palettes in this form, but they might. I've heard of them selling the shadows in bigger palettes made of cardboard in rectangular shapes. That does solve another problem I have with these particular palettes. The shadows are all in such skinny strips of color, it's difficult to get my brushes in them. I took this picture for comparison:

Look at that! Each strip is barely wider than a Q-tip. 

So if you're looking at anything from Profusion and thinking, "Man, those look like pretty neutrals, and maybe they'll be like the Naked palettes," you should just pass. And really, you can still find cheap things in the drugstore that have way better quality. I know Profusion's been found at Walgreens, as well as Big Lots. If you see it, just save your money and put it towards something better.

I hope your Christmas is merry and bright... and white (if it's possible for your neck of the woods to get snow).

Stacie :)

Gift Idear: Ulta Makeup Palette/Set

Hey there! I know I haven't been posting much lately, but I had to deal with finals and all that kind of junk, so now I'm finally FREEEEEE!!!!!!! Yay! Only for a few weeks, but it's better than nothing! I need this time away soooo badly, you have no idea. But anyway, I thought I'd give a post on something I think would make a great Christmas gift, or gift in general. I haven't had a lot of time to come up with a lot of gift ideas, so sorry this is kind of cutting it close, and that it might also be the only one. Onward!

SO, this post is going to be about makeup palettes and/or sets from Ulta. When I say "from Ulta", I mean by the brand, since Ulta does sell lots of brands. As you can see in the photo above, my palette is well loved. I've used it for a looong time, and it's really come in handy quite often. I got mine when I was really starting to get into makeup, and I think it's great for that kind of girl--either someone who's just now starting to take interest in makeup, or someone you'd like to see branch out when it comes to color/neutrals or something like that. Let's get more into the palette.

So when you lift the lid, you have a transparency that has the names of the shadows contained. And when you remove the transparency and slide the eye shadow trays open...

... it looks like this! In this particular palette there were 64 eye shadows, 23 lip colors, 3 blushes, 1 bronzer, and 1 face powder. It's a pretty good collection from the line to give a good idea of the products they have to offer. I use the eye shadows the most.

The feature I like most about the Ulta sets is that they give you the names of the eye shadows, so if you find some you really like in the palette, you can purchase the single of the shadow. For comparison I swatched my palette, the singles I've bought, and some quads my mom got in a kit sometime ago.

The top two are my oldest singles. Swatching order from left to right is palette, single, and Truffle's third swatch is from a quad. The middle row of swatches are shadows from the quads swatched against shadows from the palette. I just wanted to see if Ulta's sample shadows are the same quality, no matter what form you get them. The swatching order from left to right is quad then palette. The bottom row is of swatches of my more recent single shadow purchases. You can see from the image below that there's a difference in packaging style. There was quite a long time between purchases. They're swatched in the same order as the first row.

So from the swatches, the older shadows (the two on the left in silver packaging) are less pigmented than the newer shadows. But the newer shadows still took a little effort to get as rich and pigmented as the shadows from the palette. It seems that the shadows have a kind of film or barrier to scrape off before their true potential is available. That was true for Twilight and Organza, and kind of for Stardust. Not really for In the Buff. That shade's just awesome, by the way. I am not really happy with the quality of the quad shadows, though. In most cases, they're pretty flakey. I don't think they're a great motivator for people to try the "real" shadows. The great thing about Ulta is that they have tester shadows out so you can see the color you'll be buying. Really, I think they get better with use.

Sooo, all in all, I really like these palettes, especially for those not too familiar with makeup. It's a great introduction. Every time one of my friends who doesn't have a lot of makeup experience sees the palette, they're like, "Ooh, what's that?" Ulta is constantly creating different sets, and you can usually find one for $20 or less. Right now, you can check out the palettes they have for the holiday season here. I hope this was helpful. Happy holidays and merry Christmas!

~Stacie

Informal Review: Maybelline Lash Stiletto Mascara

Hey there! Remember in a recent post how I said I got the Maybelline Lash Stiletto mascara? Well I finally used it and I thought I would do a quick, informal review. It's informal because I don't have pictures, plus I'm only basing it off of one use instead of really testing it out for a while. Let's get on with it!

So I don't really know why I thought it was so great in early high school. Probably because I hadn't tried many other mascaras, and I was buying into the commercials (I bought it right when it came out). Don't get me wrong, it is good for length, so if that's all you want, I think it'll do the job nicely enough. But I really like having length and volume, and if I had to choose between the two, I'd choose volume over length, I think. So I don't think I'll be repurchasing. Also, it flakes off easily when exposed to water. I had a bit of a stressful day today which resulted in some crying, and the mascara on my lower lashes was pretty much gone afterwards, and I didn't even cry that hard.

The lashes are hard and crunchy, and kind of spidery, even though I only used one or two coats. It likes to group your lashes together into single, long lashes. So if you have thirty lashes, you'll end up looking like you have 10. Not the best look.

Hope this was kind of helpful. I know it's not a new product, so maybe you've already read a lot of reviews on it or had your own experience with it. I just wanted to compare my present opinion to past opinion. That's all!

Stacie

PS/EDIT: I wanted to mention, but forgot to, that I think this particular tube of mascara might be a little old. It has a funky smell. I know some have weird smells, but this one is stronger than others I've encountered. If it is really old, it might effect the results it gives. I'm scared to keep using it around my eyes in case it damages them, so I'll be throwing it away. I don't feel like spending money on a fresh tube though, because I feel like I'll get similar results.