The Cheap Chick

Flash review: Benefit benetint, posietint, and high beam

2012-03-03T19:24:00.001-08:00

One of the major advantages UK girls have over US ladies is that they often get free gifts with their magazines, particularly Glamour magazine. Luckily for me, the boy is more than willing to grab them for me, which is how I came about these three mini Benefit Cosmetics products (ironic, since Benefit is based 40 miles away from me and these minis came from 5,500 miles away)!

L-R: Benefit Cosmetics posietint, benetint, high beam

These are the little boxes they came in, tucked inside the plastic wrap that covered the magazines. They are each 0.13oz, compared to the roughly 0.4oz that the full-sized versions contain, so they're about 1/4 sized. Considering the magazines were £2 each ($3.16), and the full-sized ones retail for $29, that's not a bad deal at all!
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Watercolor Whimsy FOTD feat. Fyrinnae

2012-03-01T22:42:00.000-08:00

This is such a springtime-y look, it's kind of funny to realize it was actually from December, just a couple of days before Christmas! I was going out to lunch with my aunts, female cousins and mother, and wanted to wear my Whimsy Beading Fairy Festival jewelry, so I wore a watercolor-type top and tried to use similar colors on my eyes. Not that Tomatina really requires you to be dressed up, but whatever xD

Eye of the day, December 23, 2011

I actually was hoping that by using pastel duochromes on my eyes, it'd sort of mimic the way the earrings and necklace catch the light with different candy colors. It didn't quite work out that way ...
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Quick comparison: Shiro vs. Fyrinnae

2012-02-27T19:07:00.003-08:00

By the way, that "vs." is not meant as "which one is better" just so we're clear :)

I mainly wanted Damn Paladins so I could compare it with Detective: they're both meant to be taupe with blue duochrome.

Swatches over Pixie Epoxy, L-R: Detective, Damn Paladins; direct sunlight, no flash

Swatches of five Fyrinnae eyeshadows

2012-02-26T20:59:00.000-08:00

These are some assorted new additions to my Fyrinnae stash, and unfortunately Cuddlefish, a free sample, got lost somewhere in my bedroom and is not included here :/ If I ever find it ... I'll swatch it!

My order came wrapped in panda tissue paper!

Having recently developed an obsession with taupe eyeshadows, more specifically the ones with duochromes, I felt a need to get my hands on Damn Paladins and Envy Me, as well as a couple others too xD
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Quick comparison: Meow vs. Sassy

2012-02-24T17:10:00.001-08:00

Here is an example of how hard it is for every single indie makeup company to have 100% unique shades that no other company has already made.

L-R: Midnight Kiss, Gasoline Rainbow

On the left: Midnight Kiss from Meow Cosmetics' Ghost of Xmas Past collection. On the right: Gasoline Rainbow from Sassy Minerals' Eye Candy Liners.
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UK/ Europe hauling again

2012-02-23T19:20:00.003-08:00

My wonderful guy was here for three weeks, and he brought me ... quite a few things I had wanted from England and Europe :)

February UK haul

Wow, it's a lot of nail polish, isn't it? Fair warning: this post is very pic-heavy after the jump ^_^;
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Quick swatches of some beautiful orange glosses

2012-02-22T22:10:00.000-08:00

Orange lips are still a major trend, luckily - since I bought a ton of orange lippies last year ^_^

L-R: Glory Box Cosmetics "Prince of Parties," Venomous Cosmetics "Dazed," Darling Girl Cosmetics "Hot in the City," Darling Girl Cosmetics "Still Your Sunshine," Revlon Colorburst "Papaya"

I even did these swatches before Pantone deemed Tangerine Tango the color of 2012. These are my top five orange/ coral glosses!
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Shiro Cosmetics in action!

2012-02-19T15:44:00.000-08:00

This FOTD has the interesting combination of lack of photo-watermarking, ~~hardly any info on what was on my face (since my hard drive has basically imploded and that info was stored on my computer)~~ I recovered all my files, YAY, and a super-derpy look on my face.

Sneaky-looking eye of the day, October 11, 2011, blurred to show sparkle

If that doesn't scare you off, keep reading after the jump xD
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Swatches of four Shiro eyeshadows

2012-02-18T17:47:00.000-08:00

Just a few more samples I've collected from Shiro Cosmetics! Each baggie holds SO much product - I always transfer them to jars and they almost fill 3g jars.

Samples from Shiro Cosmetics, L-R: Detective, More Sugar

I heard about Detective (from the Death Note collection) and was super excited. Taupe with blue duochrome? Must have! But I wanted to wait until I had seen swatches, and the blog posts I saw had very different opinions on whether or not Detective is a true duochrome. So finally I just ordered the sample ($1, instead of a $3 mini or $5 full jar).
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Some recent jewelry acquisitions (and one polish)

2012-02-17T23:13:00.000-08:00

I've got some new jewelry items that may show up in a FOTD or two or a lot of them actually, so I thought I better post about them first :)

Rainbow Heart Necklace and "Blue/ Green" nail polish from Forever 21

I got this adorable rainbow heart necklace at Forever 21 for just $2.80 - before anyone asks, there is no significance, other than that I looooooove rainbows ^_^ That epic-looking multichrome nail polish turned out to be a bit disappointing though.
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Duping Zoya Zara

2012-02-11T14:56:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, I saw swatch pictures of Zoya Zara and fell deeply in love. But, unwilling and unable to pay the hefty $8-plus-shipping price, I was forced to ignore my love and move on with my life.

L-R: Zoya Zara, Sinful Colors Shausha; artificial lighting, no flash

I can no longer find the blog post where someone suggested Sinful Colors Shausha was a dupe for Zara, but once I saw it I became obsessed with owning Shausha, which is not part of the Sinful Colors core collection (at least nowhere I've seen). I finally found it during a sale at Cherry Culture (currently out of stock) and ordered it with joy. A few months later I found and purchased Zara on the cheap in a blogsale, so here is the comparison!
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Bright blue and green eye of the day

2012-02-09T21:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a FOTD using one of the Rimmel London Colour Mousse eyeshadows I reviewed here. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped T__T And yyyyyyyyyyyeah ... this is from October of last year. I have a bunch of FOTD to post and I'm not really doing them in order!

Eye of the day, October 12, 2011. I don't know why there was a bald spot at the outer corner.

I tried to use the bright turquoise Colour Mousse, Mermaid, as a base and it was really finicky! I was trying to get a thick enough layer on that it wouldn't look patchy, blend it, and pat Faerie Knoll (swatched here) on top, all before it dried and set - that was a challenge - plus, once it did dry and set, it got this weird, wrinkly lizardy look to it. I have no idea if it lasts 8 hours - I washed it off after a few hours of running errands. It just looked too weird.
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Swatches of seventeen Innocent + Twisted Alchemy eyeshadows

2012-02-05T21:29:00.000-08:00

As is so often the case, my first Innocent + Twisted Alchemy order was prompted by the lem-inducing Luna of Toxid Lotus and her beautiful swatches T__T This company is very new yet has already garnered rave reviews, and .... this may be one more of them :)

Cutest packaging ever!

Adorable Little Twin Stars mailer and Keroppi envelope make for some very cheery packaging! Linda, the owner and creator, also happens to be an amazing artist whose beautiful drawings make up the graphics, logo and branding for I+T. She included a pamphlet with ingredient lists and her art on it, and a postcard of one of her drawings, in my order.
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Swatches of twelve Persephone Minerals eyeshadows

2012-02-04T21:20:00.000-08:00

The first part of this Persephone Minerals swatchfest is from the Black Friday sale!! A bit overdue ...

Black Friday order with cute Christmas packaging

During that sale I ordered the set of five Sailor Senshi samples in baggies (normally $6.25). Victoria also included two extra samples for free (and some super festive confetti and a jingle bell and the invoice). Warning - the rest of this post is very long and picture-heavy :)
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Always winning

2012-01-19T12:18:00.000-08:00

This is why I don't enter very many of the dozens of giveaways I see - I win too often. Not such a bad thing, you might say ... but my luck gets out of control sometimes and I want to give everyone else a chance ^_^;

Here are three giveaway prizes I have recently won and will be blogging more about soon!
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Jewelry p0rn: Whimsy Beading!

2012-01-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Let's kick off the new year with a little chat about peer pressure (and pretty sparkly things).

Months and months of seeing bloggers like Phyrra, Ana and Grey post pics of their Whimsy Beading jewelry wore me down until my mindset had gone from "very pretty, but not reallllly my style" to "WHEN CAN I HAVE ALL THE THINGS?!"
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Your 5 Faves of 2011

2011-12-31T16:42:00.000-08:00

I've seen other blogs listing their most-read posts of this year, and it got me curious about mine. The results are pretty telling ...

Duping MAC Velvet Teddy had the most views by FAR - and all I had to do was buy the shade specifically created to dupe Velvet Teddy ^_^
Duping MAC Dark Side has not one, but two alternatives to the MAC classic!
Get Thee to a CVS featured a fantastic sale-plus-coupon haul with swatches of some great Physicians Formula finds.
Get the Look: Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2011 was an incredibly fun-to-write post about copycatting fashion and beauty from the spring's collection.
Duping Zoya Adina was so satisfying, because I had that top coat for ages and finally found the right base for it!

It doesn't take much effort to figure out that posts about "dupes," or identical alternatives to popular (usually more expensive) colors, are the ones bringing readers to the blog! Luckily, I enjoy those quite a bit myself. I have one more Zoya dupe post coming soon, and will work on finding more dupes for 2012 :)

Now here are my five favorites from 2011, in no particular order:

Finding the best guy ever, after many years of doubting such a person could exist.
Watching my SFM (soul friend mate) graduate after years of studying hard, working to pay for tuition, and volunteering on top of everything. I still don't know how it was possible!
Finding out my cousin is pregnant with the first baby of our generation!! (There are 16 of us, and she is the only one who's even married so far)
Contributing to the mini-Awesome Box, which was a bit scary but ultimately rewarding and fun!
Because I'm an addict, I have to mention lipstick - I discovered Revlon Colorburst lipsticks this year and subsequently bought ... well, more than one of them, and have been loving them all year!

I could list my five least favorite things about 2011, but I'm afraid that would get very lengthy, ranty and emotional. It has been a rough year for so many of us, so let's bid it "get lost!" with a cheery flipping-off, and welcome 2012 with threats of "you better be good or else!"

Pictureless blog posts make me sad, so here's a Christmas pic of my kitty. "Meowy Christmas and a happy Mew Year!" ..................... yes I did just go there

Christmas [Eve] FOTD and mani

2011-12-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

Since I didn't have much time to get ready on Christmas Eve (which is when we dress up - Christmas day is the family party, which is very casual), I kept everything really simple and let red lips be the focus of this look. I didn't even do eyeliner :O

Christmas Eve red-lip FOTD

Flash review: Rimmel London Colour Mousse Eyeshadows in Mermaid, Galaxy, Splash

2011-12-30T18:54:00.000-08:00

What an odd product this is. Maybe that's why it's been discontinued :/ I'm posting this anyway, because I know people will still be buying them, if only from evilBay and Amazon and blogsales!

Rimmel London Colour Mousse 8hr Eyeshadows, L-R: Mermaid, Galaxy, Splash

These are three of the Rimmel London Colour [sic] Mousse 8hr Eyeshadows. I have 014 Mermaid, 013 Galaxy and 004 Splash, purchased for me by my boy about half a year ago, when they were still being stocked in UK stores. I had wanted a few because of Lisa Eldridge's glowing recommendation. Has Lisa actually led me astray?! D:

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Femme Fatale Face of the Day

2011-12-30T12:00:00.000-08:00

I just couldn't wait to show you how my Femme Fatale Cosmetics (FFC) samples look when in use!

FOTD feat. Femme Fatale Cosmetics

I used two eyeshadows and a blush from FFC in this look. Probably should have done a less bright lip ... oh well ^_^

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Give some love to Aussie indie Femme Fatale Cosmetics!

2011-12-30T00:47:00.000-08:00

If you follow Ethereal Beauty, Phyrra, The Raven and the Rose, and/ or Toxid Lotus (and if not you should), you will have already heard about Femme Fatale Cosmetics (FFC), a newer indie based out of Australia. Sophie, the mastermind and also the blogger of Ethereal Beauty, started playing with mixing her own shadows back in July and even from her first attempts, I was hooked on the gorgeous, complex blends she had made! In fact, her very first swatch post (from before she had decided to start a business!) includes pictures of my favorite of the bunch :)

First FFC order, including cute business cards

Because FFC is in Australia, shipping is insanely expensive - but Sophie offers free shipping worldwide on sample-only orders, and as soon as I heard that, I immediately placed my first order! The $5 minimum gave me a good place to start, so I ordered samples of Unholy, Obliterate, Haunt, Heroic, and Exotic blush ($1 each) and an extra sample (Rebel blush) was included gratis :)
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Interview look: outfit, styling, manicure and makeup

2011-12-21T19:33:00.001-08:00

In September, I went to a few ... interesting ... job interviews. Although nothing more than some injuries, physical pain and emotional trauma* came of them, it still made me think that perhaps I could share some interview style tips. If you already have a job, you could consider this work-appropriate style advice, and if you're going on job interviews for the first time in your life, I hope my advice will help!

Appearance is incredibly important when doing job interviews. This is not to say that the most beautiful or sexy person will win the job, although there is some evidence suggesting that to be true. But for the most part, it's the people who look put together, polished, professional, and stylish (and who smile!) who get the jobs. Showing a bit of individuality without going too over-the-top or flashy will help you stand out from the dozens or hundreds of other applicants in the mind of the exhausted interviewer or recruiter. Plus, knowing you look your best is a huge confidence booster!
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Swatches from Dark Heart Designs: two glosses, two eyeshadows

2011-12-10T23:06:00.001-08:00

A very long time ago, I asked for and received some samples from Dark Heart Designs (DHD), and it's beyond time for me to show the swatches! I've become a Facebook fan of basically every indie company I don't actively hate, so that I can follow all the updates, sales and so forth, and when I saw something posted on the DHD page about lipgloss I was interested in swatches. Since there weren't any swatches yet, DHD offered to send me samples for free. Naturally I said YES please!

Samples of Dark Heart Designs eyeshadows: Twisted Metal (top) and Pumpkin King (bottom)

Though I only asked for gloss samples, I also got two eyeshadow samples: Twisted Metal and Pumpkin King. They came in baggies with the names hand-stamped on them (the ink will rub off, so be careful or you'll get it all over your hands).
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Totally 80s manicure with NERDLACQUER!

2011-12-05T23:41:00.001-08:00

This totally awesome 80s manicure would not have been possible without the polish I won from the Concrete and Nail Polish giveaway! I won a NERDLACQUER of my choice from the Etsy shop byStringTheory, which I have been quietly stalking since it opened ^.^

byStringTheory NERDLACQUER in All of Time and Space

It was hard to choose, but the one that I first wanted was the one I chose: All of Time and Space from the Mad Men with a Box series, inspired by Doctor Who! The color is described as "sheer crystalline minty turquoise withsilver shimmer, small and medium fuchsia glitter, and big silverhexagonal glitter" ... sounds super cool, right?? (Note: you can click any of these pics to make them ultra-big!)
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Flash review: Sleek High Shine lip gloss minis

2011-12-04T23:06:00.001-08:00

These miniature lipglosses were gifts with purchase from Sleek, one with each order my nice boy made for me.

Sleek High Shine Allure lip gloss minis in In Your Dreams (top) and Sweet Sixteen (bottom)

They are tiny! About the length of my thumb, to be precise. They came with a cord on the end, I guess so you can attach it to a keychain or something, but I didn't keep them on.
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Swatches of 3 Simply Just Minerals shades and a giveaway

2011-12-03T16:07:00.001-08:00

Simply Just Minerals (SJM) is a relatively new indie mineral makeup shop on Etsy that came to my attention when someone in a makeup group posted about their free sample offer. At the time*, SJM was offering three free samples of your choice, no strings attached.

Three free samples from Simply Just Minerals: Mystical, Inspire, and Key Lime

After looking through the shop a few times, I settled on Mystical, Inspire and Key Lime. At the time, I didn't see anything more exciting or interesting to try, but there are more shades available now!
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Latherati closing sale

2011-12-02T21:14:00.001-08:00

Hurry if you want to get in on this - Latherati, purveyors of literature-inspired scents in soap, perfume and lip balm form, are closing up shop and seem to be running out of stock on many scents!

Curiouser rollerball, Curiouser solid scent, and Longbourn rollerball from Latherati

I had heard of them before, but never got around to trying their products until I saw that they were deeply discounting everything in preparation for closing. Still, I waited, trying to be "good" and not order more perfume (I have ... um ... a lot already), but when it got down to 45% or 50% I caved!
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Flash review: Essence gel liner in I Love NYC

2011-12-02T19:21:00.001-08:00

This Essence gel liner is one of the things I asked my boy to bring me from the UK - this was before I realized we have Essence products in the US, too!

Essence Gel Eyeliner in 04 I Love NYC

BUT this color, 04 I Love NYC, does not seem to be available here (at least not at Ulta). Mysterious!
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Awesome Box launches TODAY!

2011-12-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

If you already know about the Awesome Box, you know the soft launch of a mini-"box" goes on sale today. As in this morning, at 8AM Pacific time. There are only 30 available and they will probably sell out in minutes, so be ready and waiting at Indie-Style.com if you want one! I'm one of the contributors and each of those 30 Awesome Boxes will contain one pair of Sailor Moon-inspired earrings from me, along with tons of other cool stuff like eyeshadow and perfume samples and coupons, all from indie sellers :)

Good luck!

Thanksgiving manicure and eye look

2011-12-01T02:04:00.001-08:00

For this year's Thanksgiving festivities, I wanted to do something easy and sparkly.

Thanksgiving EOTD featuring Darling Ghoul Candy Corn Pixie Sprinkles

Luckily I still have my sample of Candy Corn glitter from Darling Ghoul Halloween, and the copper, green, and red sparkles seemed fitting for Thanksgiving!
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Boots 17 First Flush blush swatches and review

2011-11-30T21:36:00.001-08:00

Of all the many things I asked my kind, wonderful manfriend to bring me from England, who would have thought my favorite would be the last item I asked for, on a whim, the day before he left?

Boots 17 Blush Powder in First Flush

First Flush blush from Boots 17 grabbed my attention when I was searching online for a MAC Bite of an Apple dupe. Adrienne of The Sunday Girl has some great comparison swatches showing that Bite of an Apple is a bit more red, but that actually made me want the Boots 17 version even more!

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Spirit Realm look for Challenge 100

2011-11-28T17:41:00.001-08:00

Spirit Realm is the star of this show, and frankly I'll wear it this way more often than not. It deserves to be the entire focus of the look!

EOTD using Spirit Realm from Persephone Minerals

The green isn't showing up as vibrant in the pics as it is in person, but still: how stunning is this duochrome?!
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Swatches of Spirit Realm by Persephone Minerals

2011-11-28T17:12:00.001-08:00

The Persephone Minerals sale is ending in a few hours, so if you inevitably fall in love with this color, hurry over there while it's 30% off!

Spirit Realm from Persephone Minerals, full-sized jar

Spirit Realm is from the Halloween collection, but has become permanent due to popular demand! This shade is nothing short of AMAZING, and immediately upon swatching it for the first time, I knew it was my all-time favorite eyeshadow EVER.
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Joining Sirvinya's Challenge 100!

2011-11-27T14:31:00.001-08:00

Almost two months ago, the awesome Becky of Sirvinya (Confessions of a Make Up Addict, Sirvinya) posted about a new series she was starting called Challenge 100. Her idea was to set herself a goal of posting 100 (or more) face of the day (FOTD) in the next year, starting from the first post; and she invited anyone who was interested to join her as well. I decided to join almost a month ago, but ... for one reason and another, never posted about it til now ^_^;

The basics: each Challenge 100 FOTD must be different - i.e., no slapping on R.S.V.P. Creaseless Cream every day and just changing the lip color - and all Challenge 100 posts will be tagged as such so Becky can find them in the participating blogs. I love this idea because I own SO many different, beautiful eyeshadows, blushes and lipsticks/ glosses that do not get used often enough, so hopefully this series will make me use more of them :)
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Swatches and review of 3 Darling Girl lip glosses

2011-11-23T17:26:00.001-08:00

As Black Friday approaches, both at megastores and online indies, there are so many buying decisions to be made! If you've got Darling Girl Cosmetics on your wishlist (and you totally should), here are some more swatches to help you decide which items to get :)

My first order from DGC

I own three glosses from DGC, each of which comes in a small 3.5mL gloss tube with a doefoot applicator wand. To apply, I need to dip back into the tube more than once to get a thin, even layer on my lips. (Warning - pic-heavy after the jump!)
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Birthday swag!

2011-11-22T19:36:00.001-08:00

I have so many things to post, it's hard to decide where to start - but hey, it's been three months since my birthday, so maybe I should get around to talking about that ... and warning, this post is VERY pic-heavy after the jump!

Sephora birthday haul

My little brother gave me a Sephora giftcard, and after a little over an hour of wandering around the store, agonizing with my very patient, sweet and understanding manfriend about what to get, I finally decided on two fantastic items (and snagged a perfume sample and my birthday gift, too)!
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Flash review: Sleek blushes in Rose Gold, Santorini and Scandal

2011-11-22T12:41:00.001-08:00

It's beyond time for me to get all the swatches posted from my epic haul of European makeup!

Awesome bunch of items from Sleek MakeUp

This is just the Sleek portion of the haul ... and now, swatches and a brief review of the three blushes I got.

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From here on out

2011-11-22T11:40:00.001-08:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know that starting from the next post, you won't be able to read the entire post in a reader (such as Google Reader, etc). Mobile site is still turned on, as it always has been, for easier reading from a mobile device. This is just to make it more difficult for content thieves to steal from this blog. edited to add: when that happens, the original blog can get marked as spam and shut down, apparently. Sorry for the inconvenience, but it's a necessity unfortunately :/

Custom engraved tags from Charm Factory

2011-10-14T05:29:00.000-07:00

Not long ago, someone posted in a Facebook group about a company looking for jewelry-making bloggers to review their product. I jumped at the chance, because frankly, I needed the inspiration - I've been neglecting my Etsy shop for months! - and soon heard back from Charm Factory about this very cool product: custom-engraved jewelry tags.

I've seen jewelry tags before, usually very small base metal ones that say "Made with Love" or "Handmade for You" on a heart or hand-shaped tag. I had no idea that there was such a thing as a diamond-tipped engraver that could replicate my logo and text beautifully on a gold-plated tag, and let me tell you, now that I know ... I'm hooked!

The contents of my package from Charm Factory

Here is what I received from the kind people at Charm Factory* - not just one, as I expected, but 25 engraved gold-plated tags, and a polishing cloth!

Ordering my tags was a pretty simple process. I just had to figure out which size and shape would be best - they have hearts, ovals and rectangles in different sizes from 6x7.6mm to 8.8x13mm - for the logo I had designed. (I've used Photoshop for ages now, so that's what I did here, but they accept lots of different file types.) I emailed the logo file to Angie, the manager, and requested the 6.7x13.7mm rectangle tags. Unfortunately, as she explained to me via email, my original design would have been too tiny to read if I included the two lines of text underneath the logo, so rather than redesign it I decided to just have the logo by itself.

The original design I requested

One thing I want to stress here is that Charm Factory does not send you a proof before engraving your tags, and engraved tags are non-returnable, so definitely make certain you know what it will look like before ordering a lot! You can order a sample tag for $10 and have that deducted from your final order, but it seems to just be for plain text using their fonts, not the custom image engraving that I have here.

My tags - click for mega-closeup

My tags arrived a week later, looking beautiful, pristine and so professional! While it was difficult to photograph due to the reflective nature of the gold, the image is very clear and easy to read. I could not get over how precise the tiny logos are!

Engraved tag added to the clasp of my necklace (for sale in my Etsy shop) - click for mega-closeup

As you can see, the tag is the perfect size for my citrine, garnet and gold necklace - not too tiny or awkwardly big - and I think it makes the piece look more high-quality! I am completely smitten with the tags and will be editing all my Etsy listings (at least the ones for gold necklaces) to include the engraved logo tag in the descriptions. I may even undertake the huge task of re-photographing all my pieces ... which I really should, anyway.

My only regrets are that I don't have my links on the tag - so in future, I would order them with a different design or have the links engraved on the (blank) opposite side of the tags for an extra $0.60 per tag - and that all the ones I have are gold - so I'd order some sterling silver ones next time, too.

There is a minimum order of 50 tags for as little as $0.63 each, depending on the quantity and metal you select, and you can order a sample pack of the different sizes and shapes of tags in your preferred metal (blank, though) to help you decide which one you need (price varies, but starts at $0.99). If you want an image or logo engraved, like I have, there is an additional fee of $40 for the first order using that image.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the quality of these tags. I think they add to the value of my work, make my items look more professional, and could help me get return business, especially if I had the link to my shop on there too ^_^;

Charm Factory also sells charms (duh!) of all different subject matter, color and size, as well as other jewelry supplies, watch components and more. If you have any questions about their products, I recommend going to the website and taking advantage of the "Live Support" widget to get an instant answer!

So what do you think of my pretty new tags??? :D

*Items were provided free of charge by the manufacturer for my consideration. I am not being compensated for this review and all opinions expressed within are my own.

Pink ribbon mani for BCA and Team Pink Eye!

2011-10-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

Stop me if you've heard this one before, but: October is Breast Cancer Awareness (BCA) month! The sad truth is that most of us have friends or family who have fought breast cancer, or at least know of someone who has lost a loved one to it. Although men are susceptible to breast cancer as well, women are diagnosed more often - about 1 in every 8 women (in the US) will develop invasive breast cancer at some point in her life. If you have a close relative who has suffered from breast cancer, you may already have been told that your risk of developing breast cancer is roughly doubled if it was a first-degree relative (such as your mother, sister, or daughter); but did you know that 70-80% of breast cancer diagnoses are made in women with no family history of it? Anyone can be at risk. The two most significant risk factors are gender and age - being female, and growing older.

Frightening, right? The reason BCA month was created was that not enough people are aware of the very real risks breast cancer presents, and these people may be less likely to do or request breast exams, making prevention difficult or impossible. Prevention is the biggest weapon we currently have in the fight against breast cancer, along with early detection. The more people know, the more likely they are to encourage their loved ones to go for regular check-ups, or do frequent self-exams, or spread awareness and knowledge by supporting BCA.

Here's where us bloggers come in! Our goal is to raise awareness of breast cancer and empower people to go out and spread that awareness even further. We also aim to raise money towards breast cancer research - every little bit helps, whether it's $1 or $1,000 - and cover the internet with the color PINK to get people talking about breast cancer! I'm working with the awesome Frances and Rebecca of Team Pink Eye, along with many other bloggers, to bring you BCA posts and giveaways this month :)

Very shaky nail art for BCA

On that note, here is my BCA manicure! I applied four thin coats of OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-Y? (more pink than it appears here) for the base, then added OPI I Lily Love You on all but my thumbnails. I then used a nail art pen to very shakily and inexpertly draw a ribbon on each thumbnail (white on pink was more striking than pink on white, so I went for flashiness over accuracy). The combination of the crazy rainbow flashes from I Lily Love You and the bright white ribbon against the deep pink background are very eye-catching - so the more people notice my manicure, the more people I can speak to about BCA :)

And now, if you've made it through all my facts and amateurish nail art, you're in for a real treat! I'm hosting one of the six Team Pink Eye giveaways this week, and here's what you could be eligible to win*:

Gift set from sponsor Overall Beauty featuring Mink and Pearls 5g jars

From the generous sponsor*, Overall Beauty, one lucky donor will win a gift set featuring a 5g jar each of Mink, a creamy brown, and Pearls, a super soft creamy yellow, as well as their choice of any one of the seven blushes Overall Beauty sells (not pictured).

Now you may have noticed I said "donor" - so here's how the Team Pink Eye giveaways work! If you would like to be eligible to win any or all of the six giveaways we're doing this week, you will need to go to the Susan G. Komen site (please use this link!) to donate at least $5 (the minimum donation possible), 100% of which will go to Susan G. Komen Positively Pink for the Cure. Team Pink Eye will be doing six giveaways each week this month, along with posting eye and nail looks like mine to raise both money and awareness, with your help!

Your donation will enter you into all six of this week's giveaways, as long as you follow these steps:

Donate using the same name you comment under
Comment on each of the six relevant blog posts, stating that you donated, would like to enter to win, and the best email address at which we can reach you if you do win!

So to recap, if you want to donate to this fund, and enter the six giveaways going on this week, visit our team's donations page and then check out the Team Pink Eye blog to find the other five bloggers who are hosting giveaways this week so you can comment on their posts, too. This week's giveaway will run through 10PM Central Standard Time on Sunday, October 9, at which point the winners will be drawn via random.org Winners will be announced and emailed on Monday!

If you are unable to donate $5 at this time (the cost of about one mineral eyeshadow) to possibly win one of our prizes (valued up to $30), please consider helping out in other ways. You could write your own blog post about breast cancer, and link to charities that fund breast cancer research. You could wear pink, and/ or a pink ribbon, in public this month and explain to anyone who asks that you are supporting BCA. You could donate as little as $1 and still make a difference - just think of how much would be raised if everyone in your town donated just $1 each! The point is to raise awareness, spread knowledge, encourage frequent exams, and support research for the cure. Don't let anyone make you feel guilty if "all" you can do is wear pink this month - you could help save lives by spreading awareness.

And most importantly, remember to take good care of your breasts! Learn how to do self-exams, and go in for check-ups, too.

*This giveaway is sponsored by Team Pink Eye and Overall Beauty, NOT Susan G. Komen.

Breast cancer stats in this post are from breastcancer.org

Cherry Culture sale haul with NYX swatches

2011-10-06T02:15:00.000-07:00

Well ... what can I say? I've been bad again ^_^; When I saw that Cherry Culture was doing 25% off sitewide (sorry, it's over now), I immediately went over there and started building what I thought would be a massive dream-cart of products, only to discover after an hour or so of careful Googling for swatches that I had less than $50 of stuff total! That's not bad for what I was thinking of as an unattainable dream :P Anyway, I whittled the cart down to six items, less than $20 shipped:

Top to bottom: NYX Mega Shine Lipgloss in Sunset and African Queen, NYX Round Lipstick in Haute Coutour [sic], NYX Slim Lip Pencil in Purple Rain and Orange, Sinful Colors polish in Shausha

Almost all NYX*, except for one little Sinful Colors polish I haven't been able to find in stores. Some things were already discounted, and the 25% code still applied, so I feel I got a pretty good deal here :) From top to bottom, I got NYX Mega Shine Lipglosses in Sunset and African Queen, NYX Round lipstick in Haute Coutour [sic], NYX Slim Lip Pencils in Purple Rain and Orange, and Sinful Colors polish in Shausha. And I was very impressed by how quickly my order arrived - I placed it on a Tuesday night and it arrived that Saturday!

L-R: Sunset, African Queen, Haute Coutour, Purple Rain wide, Purple Rain thin, Orange wide, Orange thin; direct sunlight, no flash

I've been wanting African Queen, a true orange lip liner, and Shausha polish for some time now, so this haul killed some lemmings for me! Purple Rain liner caught my eye because it seemed perfect for African Queen, and Haute Coutour looked gorgeous in this swatch; and then I gambled a bit with Sunset because it was hard to find swatches, but it turned out to be a super pretty rosy pink with golden shimmer. Actually, Orange was a gamble too; I could find swatches of Coral easily enough but none of Orange, and I recently bought NYX Pumpkin from Ulta expecting to find a good orange, but it turned out to be rosy-peach with gold sheen. Gorgeous too, but not the color I wanted:

NYX Slim Lip Pencil in Pumpkin

L-R: NYX Slim Lip Pencil in Pumpkin swatched thinly, thickly; direct sunlight, no flash

Pumpkin applied to otherwise bare lips; direct sunlight, no flash

I am happy to have them both, though, as well as Purple Rain. The formula is pretty easy to work with; goes on smoothly, doesn't drag or pull or feel too dry, and the color payoff is GREAT! I'm not sure they do anything for lipstick longevity, I seem to wear off lipcolor very quickly no matter what :/ And Purple Rain doesn't look as duochromey as I expected it to - instead of pink with purple flash, it's basically a pinky purple, if that wasn't too gibberish-y ... but again, it's an absolutely beautiful color.

Purple Rain; Orange

As for the glosses, I have to mention one thing first and foremost: the scent is SO heavy! It is a nice scent to my nose, since I like candy, and don't mind smelling cherry Jolly Ranchers, but I'm sure many people would dislike that. They are surprisingly opaque, feel decent on my lips and look stunning. If you have never seen African Queen on anyone before, it's a bright hot fuchsia with bright, bold purple duochrome, and it looks incredibly sexy and fun. Love love love. SO glad to finally have it, I have been wanting this color for ages! Pretty sure I'll wear it and Sunset often.

Left: Sinful Colors Shausha at its purple angle; R: Shausha at its copper angle; direct sunlight, no flash

Shausha is a lovely duochrome I wanted to kill my desire for Zoya Zara - but actually, it looks really similar to Dannii (which I do own and did compare, but haven't got pics of), only Shausha is pearly and Dannii is glittery. It's a lavender-purple with rose gold, or copper, duochrome. I don't think it's in the current Sinful Colors lineup because I haven't even seen empty slots for it in any displays, but Cherry Culture has a LOT of SC shades I've never seen, or heard of, before! Unfortunately many of them are "out of stock" :/

Finally, another item I am so pleased with - the lipstick! Haute Coutour, despite its annoying spelling, is a total win. It's a deep berry with gold shimmer - perfect for fall, work, dates, everything! I've already got it on my lipstick blog so check out lip swatches here :)

Okay, I know I shouldn't be spending twenty dollars-es on makeup, but overall I cannot regret this order from Cherry Culture! I'm ridiculously happy with everything, despite not having seen any of it in person before ordering. Plus, the discounts ... this definitely does feel like winning ^.^

Link me your CC sale hauls if you've got them up already!

*Disclaimer: I still think NYX's sale fail was a disgrace and does fit the definition of a bait-and-switch, so I do not want to support them or encourage people to buy from them. However, there are many ways to get your hands on these products if you want them - Cherry Culture, eBay, BeautyJoint.com, Ulta, blogsales etc - so I will still feature them from time to time!

Even more Darling Girl swatches - Halloween

2011-10-02T01:06:00.000-07:00

I was so enthralled by the Darling Ghoul offerings, when they were launched, I spent some time looking around for extra money to spend ... and managed to find $6.70! So I spent $6.50 on two petits from the Halloween collection :) The shop is currently closed while Susan catches up on the HUGE amount of orders she got from us crazed fans!

The contents of my Darling Girl Cosmetics package, minus the invoice

First of all, such cute packaging and freebies for Halloween! Secondly, this order came SO quickly! Very impressed! I love the little Darling Ghoul sticker ^.^ I ordered petits of Witch & Famous and Jack's Lantern, begged for Polaris to be one of my samples and also received a sample of Secret Star blush.

Petit jars of Witch & Famous (L) and Jack's Lantern (R)

Check out the Halloween collection labels!

L-R: Polaris, Witch & Famous, and Jack's Lantern, all swatched over Pixie Epoxy (top) and bare skin (below); direct sunlight, no flash

Please forgive the weird lighting, the sunlight has changed colors lately :/ Click photos to make them huge!

Polaris is a great warm coppery brown with green and turquoise shimmer that I was curious about after seeing swatches at Portrait of Mai - I was wondering if it was at all similar to the taupe in the NARS Dogon duo, but I think that shade is much lighter and more cool-toned. It's a bit metallic in finish, like bronze, with the green shift of all MAC Club dupes (though this isn't one of the Club dupes, it is a different color though slightly similar). I'm kind of surprised by the item description, which says, "Polaris is a complex greenish greytaupe with fine copper shimmers." I don't really see the gray!

L-R: Polaris, Witch & Famous, and Jack's Lantern, all swatched over Pixie Epoxy (top) and bare skin (below); direct sunlight, no flash

Witch & Famous is such a cool taupe! It's sort of smoky plum, neutral with a twist. I see aqua blue shimmer in it, too. The item description says "Witch & Famous is a gorgeous plummytaupe with gold reflect." Pretty spot on!

Blurred to show shimmer. L-R: Polaris, Witch & Famous, and Jack's Lantern, all swatched over Pixie Epoxy (top) and bare skin (below); direct sunlight, no flash

Jack's Lantern is a color I wanted to get in order to pair it with Fyrinnae Mephisto, which is a bit similar but more complex. Unlike the Fyrinnae color, this is a charcoal gray with maroon and purple shimmer. The description from the DG webshop is "Jacks Lantern is my take on the orangeglow emanating from all the Jack O' Lantern's guarding the porches onall Hallows Eve. It's a deep black base with a fiery red/orangeshift. The combination looks like a blackened purple especially whenfoiled." This is a seriously gorgeous color, and the shimmer is very visible and adheres well.

L-R: Fyrinnae Mephisto, Darling Girl Jack's Lantern. Both swatched over Pixie Epoxy (top) and bare skin (below); direct sunlight, no flash, blurred to show shimmer

Here's Mephisto next to Jack's Lantern. While Mephisto is a royal blue-violet with a crazy bright coppery-red shift that looks like a live flame, Jack's Lantern is a fantastic complement to it with the purple and burgundy shimmer. I love this combination and really want to figure out how to wear them together (Mephisto intimidates me >_<)!

I'll include the swatch of Secret Star blush in with the other three blushes and one bronzer I already have swatched, coming soon! So did you grab some Darling Ghoul goodies? I'm very much wanting to get the cream blush and Poisoned Plum balm sometime soon ...

About that Nuance sale

2011-09-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

The line created by Salma Hayek is currently spend $20, get $10 ExtraBucks (at CVS obviously - the one and only store that sells Nuance), so I swatched the Nuance stuff I have - one eyeshadow pod and samples of the mineral foundation.

Nuance Salma Hayek Beautiful Blends Eye Quad in Neutral 080

Obviously this is the coolest-looking eyeshadow quad ever! This is the Beautiful Blends Eye Quad in Neutral. You pull down each teardrop-shaped "petal" thing to access the eyeshadow pans inside, and there is an absolutely useless round-tipped sponge applicator in the center. It's big, and somewhat awkward to store, but I leave it out because I like to look at it!

Swatched over bare skin (above) and Kiss My Sass primer (below); direct sunlight, no flash

The eyeshadows themselves are actually decently complex and sophisticated for a drugstore line, but then, it is also a bit pricey - $8.49 for four eyeshadows vs. $5.99 for a Wet n Wild 8 pan palette. For that price, the pigmentation isn't all that great, but the colors look fantastic over a good base.

Swatched over bare skin (above) and Kiss My Sass primer (below); direct sunlight, no flash; blurred to show subtle sparkle

The color selection for this palette seems a bit weird to me - the two outer colors (highlight and coppery brown) are more cool-toned and the two in the middle are warm-toned - basically neither a cool nor warm toned person will have all four shades look good on their skin. Still, I really like the taupe, which reminds me of the one in the NARS Dogon trio but minus the duochrome, and the coppery brown.

Samples of Nuance Salma Hayek Flawless Coverage Mineral Foundation in Light 220; untouched on left, used on right

Every CVS I've been to lately has a display with free samples of the Flawless Coverage Mineral Foundation in three shades, and I only ever see any left in Light. So here is a swatch of it:

Swatched over otherwise bare skin; heavily on top, blended out at bottom; direct sunlight, no flash

Now, on my hand it looks light enough - maybe even too light - for my skintone ... but when I tried it on my face, not only was it too dark, it was also too yellow. There are only 5 shades available and this is the lightest, so there's me out. Also, I didn't think it applied very well. Granted, I was working with a sample and that made it difficult, but I didn't think it gave a very natural finish; it was too powdery and obvious. and not at all flattering. I think part of the difficulty is that it's a pressed powder foundation, not loose, so it's a bit harder to pick up and then you get too much by accident. Plus, at $13.99, it's more than I'm comfortable paying for a drugstore powder foundation.

ETA: Forgot to mention coverage, which is not bad. For example, one of those little samples covered my whole face and left me enough to go back over areas that needed more. It doesn't conceal imperfections or redness, but does a decent job of evening out the skintone. Building up the coverage makes the finish look even worse though :/

So while I haven't been convinced to name this my new favorite brand, it's still interesting and clever, and there are a lot more reviews you can find online with more swatches, etc. I'd recommend doing so before buying these, especially if you're going to go to the trouble of ordering it online and paying for shipping. Keep in mind that this sale ends tomorrow (Saturday) night, though. Here is the Nuance webshop*, including a link to a giveaway CVS is running on Facebook!

*Not an affiliate link

Swatches of 7 Persephone Minerals eyeshadows

2011-09-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

I am SO excited about these swatches - not only are they some of my most beautiful unique eyeshadows, but I also somehow managed to capture the duochromes really well in the photos (quite by accident) :D

Persephone Minerals is an Etsy-based company, also on Artfire, that is run by the owner and creator, Victoria (who also has a blog where she sometimes gives us sneak peeks). While in many ways it's not as impressive as other indie brands - the lack of branding, very basic shop, and longer TAT with occasional shop closings all spring to mind - in my opinion, it could easily become a huge success with just a few changes, simply because the colors are stunning. Many of them are unlike any I've seen elsewhere, and for a smallish shop she has a lot of duochromes and hardly any "basic" colors. Her Sailor Senshi (SS) collections are among the most popular indie collections (check out Phyrra's swatches and review here), and fans are eagerly awaiting the next one - she recently released Pluto and my vote is for Neptune next!

Jarred Persephone Minerals samples. Top L-R: Falling Angel, Bi-curious, Stagelights. Middle L-R: Mars Crystal Power (SS), Smoke, Infinity. Bottom: Makoto (SS).

Anyway, here are the seven samples I have. I do not know why I haven't ordered more, but it's probably because there is so little advertising or social network-bombing that I forget about them! Bad makeup junkie, bad! Five of these were from her ongoing offer of five jarred samples for $8 now $10, one was a free sample with my purchase, and one I snagged from a certain traveling box :) You can see that there is a good amount in there - about on par with samples of Fyrinnae Arcane Magic or free gift with purchase shades - but I'm not sure if the amount in them has changed since I ordered. I'm also unsure if you can still get Sailor Senshi sample jars in that offer. Normally, full-sized (3g) jars are $5, 10g jars of highlighters are $10, and samples in baggies are available as a set of five for $5, but SS are priced differently (more expensive).

Swatches over Pixie Epoxy and bare skin. Top L-R: Falling Angel, Bi-curious, Stagelights. Bottom L-R: Mars Crystal Power (SS), Smoke, Infinity, Makoto (SS). Direct sunlight, no flash.

I tried to do two stripes of Pixie Epoxy, leaving room for bare skin swatches in between, but the top row ended up just on Pixie Epoxy T__T Anyway, the top row has (from left) Falling Angel, Bi-curious, and Stagelights, and the bottom row shows Mars Crystal Power (SS), Smoke, Infinity, and Makoto (SS).

Falling Angel is described in the item listing as "shimmering, soft, beautiful shift from blue to pink." That's pretty accurate! It's an icy blue with strong light pink duochrome. The swatches in the item listing are really accurate and capture the color shift very well.

Another angle, showing the duochromes. Top L-R: Falling Angel, Bi-curious, Stagelights. Bottom L-R: Mars Crystal Power (SS), Smoke, Infinity, Makoto (SS). Direct sunlight, no flash.

Bi-curious is described in the item listing as "more of a trio-chrome than a duochrome. It shifts from a beautiful baby blue to a light gold, but seems to have the slightest tinge of pink to it as well." Again, the description is dead on; it's showing up more pink in my photos, but in real life, the gold flash and sky blue are most apparent, with pink reflects at different angles. Absolutely gorgeous. The photos in the listing are also very accurate and show the color change well.

Stagelights is my favorite! It's described in the item listing as "a lighter version of that UV purplethat glows off a black light. It shifts from this amazing purple togold." I'm not familiar with the UV purple she mentioned, but this is an incredibly lovely lilac with strong gold shift. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Again, the listing has great pictures showing off the duochrome.

Another angle, showing the duochromes. Top L-R: Falling Angel, Bi-curious, Stagelights. Bottom L-R: Mars Crystal Power (SS), Smoke, Infinity, Makoto (SS). Direct sunlight, no flash.

Mars Crystal Power is one of the most-talked-about Persephone colors, and the item listing says, "Inspired by the pink & gold crystalpower wands and the transformation sequence of Sailor Mars. This isone hell of a duochrome shift from bright red to gold, chock full ofpink and gold sparkle! It looks like a pinkish color in the jar, butdo not let that fool you!" I love this color and had to get it when I saw swatches of it online (especially since Sailor Mars is my fave), but I hardly ever use it, because I don't use red eyeshadows that much. I want to make it into a lip gloss, though (it is lip safe). It's this incredible pinkish-red with a strong gold shift, which can appear coppery-orange straight on, or pinky-peach-red at one angle, or straight gold at another angle. Definitely deserves the built-up rep! Again, the swatch and eyelid photos in the listing do a great job of showing the color changes.

Blurred to show sparkles. Top L-R: Falling Angel, Bi-curious, Stagelights. Bottom L-R: Mars Crystal Power (SS), Smoke, Infinity, Makoto (SS). Direct sunlight, no flash.

Smoke is described in the item listing as "like a cross between purple &silver with sort of a pink tinge to it. Topped with various spa[r]kles,with green being the one to stand out the most. Super shimmery!" I think you can tell from my photos that it is a silvery purple, almost like purple steel, with tons of glitter. Yes, the green glitter does stand out more than the rest, but it's not super noticeable unless up close - it mostly looks like a dark silver purple with pinkish glow. This listing doesn't have the best swatch photos, but they still show the color fairly well.

Infinity is described in the item listing as "a deep sexy silver-grey that shifts toviolet, complete with blue-violet sparkle." I don't see an actual color shift in this one, it's more like you can see silver and lavender at the same time. The glitter I see is more shades of pastel, like pink, light green, etc. This isn't one of the more popular shades and I think it's due to lackluster pics in the listing, because although this isn't a duochrome exactly, it's still really gorgeous.

Blurred to show sparkles at another angle, showing the duochromes. Top L-R: Falling Angel, Bi-curious, Stagelights. Bottom L-R: Mars Crystal Power (SS), Smoke, Infinity, Makoto (SS). Direct sunlight, no flash.

Finally, Makoto, from the Sailor Jupiter collection, is described in the item listing as "inspired her lovely, voluminousbrunette hair. It is a somewhat deep brown with light brown and greenmicrofine glitters." I would call this a warm brown, sort of chestnut, which definitely resembles Makoto/ Lita/ Jupiter's hair color, and I definitely can see the green glitter in it. This will be a cool one to use with the MAC Club/ Blue-Brown dupe we all own in one form or another ;) This is another example of great product photography, the glitter and color are very accurately shown in the listing photos.

So to recap, Persephone Minerals is a small company with huge potential - a little investment, enough to provide branding (website design, labels, etc), advertising (on popular blogs), and maybe the hiring of an employee or two (to help with packing, shipping, and social networking), could turn this somewhat unknown indie into a megastar, in my opinion! I am just a business student though so obviously I'm not an expert, that is just what I think about it ^_^

Basically, I want this company to succeed because the ideas, colors, and fandom are so great! I mean, look at any one of the SS item listings and you can immediately tell that this is not just an attempt to capitalize on a popular cartoon, Victoria obviously knows and loves the story and genuinely was inspired by it. You can Like the Facebook fan page to stay up-to-date on what's going on at Persephone (and browse the pics of Victoria modeling her shadows, and see other blogger's swatches) and beg for your fave Sailor Scout to be immortalized next :)

Revlon lipsticks for $1.50 each

2011-09-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

I am very helpfully writing this on the very last night of the sale, so it is probably too late for most of you to take advantage of it ... but if you hadn't heard, CVS had a sale on selected Revlon lip products this week in which prices were reduced to $5.99, with $5 in ExtraBucks if you purchased one. The ExtraBucks could then be used to buy another, and another, and - up to six in total! (I "only" got five, because I was so overwhelmed by lipsticks ... what a problem to have, eh? I have the $5 ExtraBucks and I will be using it on something else soon!)

Obviously this sale was like Christmas in a candy shop in Disneyland to me, since I adore Revlon lipsticks. I was a little over-excited and grabbed one I already have, which I then returned when I realized my mistake, and I also got a backup of my HG lipstick Soft Rose and another Black Cherry for a future giveaway. And, since I lost my Coralberry a while ago, I replaced it this week (even if I find it, $1.50 is nothing for an extra!), so I really only got two new shades! But since I haven't really shown Coralberry before I've swatched it here.

L-R: Revlon Colorburst Raspberry, Revlon Super Lustrous Pink in the Afternoon and Revlon Super Lustrous Coralberry

The colors I got are Raspberry from the Colorburst line, and Pink in the Afternoon and Coralberry from the Super Lustrous line.

L-R: Revlon Colorburst Raspberry, Revlon Super Lustrous Pink in the Afternoon and Revlon Super Lustrous Coralberry, all swiped onto otherwise bare skin, direct sunlight, no flash

I hadn't bought Raspberry before because I have so many reds already, but actually almost none of my other lipsticks look like this! All of them were either too red or too plum to be dupes, so I'm glad I got this finally. It is very sheer, and I've really been noticing lately that "Colorburst" lipsticks are sheer and glossy and "Super Lustrous" are more opaque and less shiny ... o_O Anyway, Pink in the Afternoon (which has me humming "Nine in the Afternoon" whenever I look at it) is a light nude pink and Coralberry is a peachy pink. Both Raspberry and Coralberry have very subtle shimmer in them.

All three Revlon lipsticks with the closest dupes I could find in my collection.

I did find one sort-of-similar shade for each lipstick, and will be sharing those, along with lip photos, of these on my other blog Ravings of a Lipstick Lunatic soon!

If you went for this sale, I want to see your hauls, so link them in the comments :D

Swatches of 2 Darling Girl Halloween goodies

2011-09-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

These two Darling Girl samples came with a replacement item that arrived today, and of course I had to swatch them immediately. My camera could not handle the glitter, though!

All of these photos are clickable for closeups

Sample baggies of Darling Girl Cosmetics "Darling Ghoul" eyeshadow in Pumpkin Eater (L) and Pixie Sprinkles loose glitter in Candy Corn (R)

See? Even in the baggie, the glitter wants to jump out at you :) This is the "Darling Ghoul" (cute!) eyeshadow in Pumpkin Eater and Pixie Sprinkles (loose glitter) in Candy Corn. I knew I needed Pixie Epoxy to swatch these:

L-R: Pumpkin Eater, Candy Corn. Swatched over Pixie Epoxy; direct sunlight, no flash.

My camera wanted to blur the photos to show off the sparkles!

L-R: Pumpkin Eater, Candy Corn. Swatched over Pixie Epoxy; direct sunlight, no flash.

Pumpkin Eater is a pinkish-orange with pink, yellow, and green glitter and an iridescent green flash. The green glitter, for some reason, didn't want to adhere with the rest of it. ETA: ~~No official color description for this one yet.~~ the website calls this "Pumpkin orange with loads green iridescence"

L-R: Pumpkin Eater, Candy Corn. Swatched over Pixie Epoxy; direct sunlight, no flash. Blurred to show glitter colors.

Candy Corn is a jumble of copper/ orange, blue, pink, and green glitter. You NEED a sticky base to wear this, if you can't tell from the pic - even with Pixie Epoxy the glitter was going everywhere! The orangey glitter is the most blatant, but the blue, pink and green twinkles can also be seen in different lighting and from different angles. ETA: The official color description is "A blend of deep chocolate, caramel, and orange."

~~I don't have official color descriptions or links because I can't get Facebook to work right now -_- Will update with that later!~~

The photo album with swatches and descriptions of all the Halloween 2011 goodies is here, and the collection is not listed on the DG webshop at the moment but should be sometime next week. I have my eye on Poisoned Plum (lippie) and Just Bitten (cheek stain to dupe the Tarte for True Blood one) so far!

Also, Wendy of Turtle Beauty has swatches of ALL the Halloween collection goodies - eyeshadows, glitters, lippies and blush - so go check it out!

Swatches of 8 Darling Girl eyeshadows

2011-09-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

Continuing my attempt to blog about all of the Darling Girl (DG) products I've accumulated, here are swatches of the eyeshadows I have in both sample and petit form!

As I said in the post about ordering, etc, samples cost $0.70 each and come in baggies, while petit sizes come in 3g jars and cost $2.25, and gift with purchase (GWP) shades are the same size as petits and are included in every order over $10 (before shipping). However, a couple of my samples were actually from the package that is offered for bloggers/ vloggers, which only costs $0.75, and some were free with my orders - yes, orders under $10 also get free samples, just not the GWP. None of that has affected my honest opinion of them.

Darling Girl Cosmetics eyeshadow samples. Top L-R: My Little Pony, Spottie Dottie, Barbarella. Bottom L-R: Curious, Champagne Kisses.

To the prettiness! These are all five of the samples I have from DG. You can see that there is a generous amount of product in the baggies; more than enough for several uses, let alone swatches to see if you like the color! Here are swatches, over Pixie Epoxy on top and bare skin on the bottom:

L-R: My Little Pony, Spottie Dottie, Barbarella, Curious, Champagne Kisses. Swatched over Pixie Epoxy on top and bare skin below. Direct sunlight, no flash

My Little Pony is from the "All the Pretty Little Horses" collection and is one of the better-known DG shades, which is why I requested it in my blogger pack. It's a lovely rosy lavender with flourescent green shift duochrome. Like many duochrome eyeshadows, it shows up pretty well on bare skin, but to maximize the effect you should really wear it over a sticky base. DG's description, "[a]t first glance it looks like a palepastel lavender with green shift and aqua and pink iridescence, buthold it close to a light source and it takes on a coppery rose color," is pretty spot on except that I don't see the coppery rose thing!

Spottie Dottie, from the "Hello Kitty" collection, is another fan favorite, and I requested it for the same reason. It's interesting; to me this is like the daytime, or slightly--shy-younger-sister, version of My Little Pony. It has the same sort of shift, but with the volume turned down; it's a bit more pink with lighter green. DG calls it "Pink pearl with baby green shift." Again, it shows up on bare skin, but looks best over a sticky base.

Barbarella was a surprise to me - the webshop describes it as "gorgeous metallic melon-y gold," but I can much more precisely call it "metallic new-penny copper!" My swatches and experiences with it in real life show a less orange color than the swatch in the item listing. Very sheer on bare skin, but gorgeously metallic over a good base.

Curious is a new-ish shade which caught my eye right after I had placed an order, and Susan super-nicely offered to include a sample of it in the order - and she remembered, even when I had forgotten! Yay for great customer service! Anyway, it is a gorgeous color: sort of a rose-gold with subtle pink, blue and gold shimmer, and a satin finish. The official description is "kind of sheer iridescent taupe with agold/copper shift. When foil[ed] it turns beautifully metallic, sopretty!" Super sheer on bare skin and will give you lots of glittery fallout, so wear it over a sticky base!

Champagne Kisses was not a color I was terribly excited about when I received a free sample of it, until I swatched it. This color has the best formula of all the ones I have from DG. It's a smooth, creamy, opaque cream with subtle pink, violet, gold and green shimmer. I had mentally relegated it to my highlight category, but no, this deserves full lid-covering status! DG lists it as "Pearly champagne shimmer with redsparks." This shows up well with or without a base, but again, without a base you risk getting glitter all over your face!

Sorry I don't have a photo of those swatches blurred to show off the sparklies :/

Darling Girl Cosmetics Petit eyeshadow jars, L-R: Jeweled Taupe, Legion, Emerald City

Here are my three petit jars of DG eyeshadows! Two I ordered and one, sadly, was a GWP that you will hate me for showing off when you can no longer get it :(

L-R: Jeweled Taupe, Legion, Emerald City. Swatched over Pixie Epoxy on top and bare skin on bottom. Direct sunlight, no flash

Jeweled Taupe was one of the most highly-anticipated new releases a month or two ago - Susan had posted swatches on Twitter and Facebook that had us all ooh-ing and ahh-ing over it and I could not resist! It's a stunning metallic golden-bronze loaded with visible hot pink and pale blue glitter, but watch out - this one is glitterbomb/ fallout city. Seriously, DO NOT attempt to wear this color without a sticky base!! DG's item description is "amazing metallic bronzey taupe withamazing multi-colored shimmers like tiny little jewels ribbon-edthrough it." Very much worth ordering, especially if you are afraid to break out of your neutral rut, or love bold shades but need a neutral color for work.

Legion is one of my favorite DG colors, and was another new release that I ordered with Jeweled Taupe. This is a beautiful plummy brown with visible hot pink, pale blue, gold and green glitter - which, again, can cause major fallout issues, so you need to use (say it with me) A STICKY BASE. On the website, it's described as "deep lustrous raisin brown taupe withaqua shimmers. Foiled it has a gorgeous orange/copper afterglow."

L-R: Jeweled Taupe, Legion, Emerald City. Swatched over Pixie Epoxy on top and bare skin on bottom. Direct sunlight, no flash, blurred for maximum sparkliness

Finally, the GWP you can't have! Emerald City is a color I chose to wait for, holding off on placing my order until after midnight on Sunday night just so I'd get this GWP instead of the other one from the previous week. What excellent taste I have; this color is soooooooooo pretty! I think this is what many people envisioned when they first heard about Jealousy Wakes - it is a true emerald/ grass green with gold shimmer.

L: Emerald City; R: Jealousy Wakes; direct sunlight, no flash, shown blurred on the right to emphasize glitter

Comparing the two, Emerald City is obviously not a dupe for Jealousy Wakes, since it is a lot less blue and more glittery. Honestly, I love them both, and I'm so sorry you can't get Emerald City anymore! Maybe if you ask Susan really nicely she'll re-release it after the holiday collection madness is over :)

Because I own a lot of purplish duochrome eyeshadows and I know they are popular offerings from many indie companies, I decided to do a dupe-hunting comparison for you. All of these were swatched over Pixie Epoxy:

Center: DG My Little Pony. Clockwise from top L: Lucky 107 Bunny, DG Spottie Dottie, Persephone Minerals Stagelights, Fyrinnae Meerkat, My Pretty Zombie Gangrenous. Shown blurred on the right to emphasize glitter.

My Little Pony emerges unscathed! It is not a dupe for any of my other duos, although it is close to Spottie Dottie, as I said before. I was actually surprised to realize how many completely unique purpley duochromes I have in my collection!

In conclusion, I want to point out that while most of these shades require the use of a sticky base to bring them to life, so do most indie mineral shadows and these ones are absolutely stunning when applied properly. DG has a pretty big selection of shades, three sizes to choose from, and reasonable shipping costs (plus excellent customer service, free samples with every order, and a GWP with all orders over $10). The longer TAT is so worth it in the end, and if you don't want to take my word for it, search "Darling Girl Cosmetics review" and see what comes up :)

Darling Girl: Ordering, TAT, packaging

2011-09-20T00:49:00.000-07:00

I have SO much Darling Girl Cosmetics (DG) stuff to post about, and it was starting to overwhelm me, so I've decided to split it up! It should make it easier to read, too. Otherwise it would be one insanely long post!

Darling Girl is run by Susan, who also has a blog in which she posts FOTD using her own products as well as others, and talks about non-DG-related stuff too. She lists each week's free gift with purchase (GWP) shade in her sidebar, and sometimes even the next week's GWP too. Occasionally you'll see sneak peeks of upcoming products, so I highly recommend following her blog! You can also see swatches of new and upcoming items on the DG Facebook page, but be warned, it's dangerous for your wallet!

DG is one indie company that I feel has a fantastic business plan. First of all, DG is not on Etsy or Artfire, which have both been so troublesome lately; it's run on eCrater, which seems to have far fewer "hiccups" (or major security issues >_<). The webshop isn't the easiest in the world to navigate, but if you go to Categories, it's pretty straightforward from there. Susan is also pretty active on Twitter and Facebook and is great about responding to inquiries quickly. The branding is fantastic - everything from labels to packaging to business cards and even her Twitter profile background all tie together perfectly.

The packaging for my first order - adorable!

It helps distinguish DG from "just another MMU" - and so does the product list! DG sells eyeshadows, blush, yeah, okay, you've seen those before - well, there are also lip balms, tinted lip balms, lip glosses, "holo" glosses with holographic glitter, cream blushes, liquid eyeliners (currently unavailable as the formulas were lost in a catastrophic computer fail), loose eyeliners, loose glitter, concealer, primer, lip scrub, salve, dry oil spray, solid lotions, branded accessories and the big one: Glitter Glue, a sticky base that has been called better than Pixie Epoxy (is that even possible? ETA: Apparently, because here is another comparison with GG as the winner, and here is yet another one)! Also, with eyeshadows and loose powder blushes, there are 3 sizes: sample (1/8tsp in baggie, $0.70), petit (1/4tsp in 3g jar, $2.25), and full (3/4tsp in 5g jar, $5.50), allowing you to try many different items without spending a fortune! There is also a blogger review pack for just $0.75, which I added to my first order and will discuss later :) Every order over $10 (before shipping) includes that week's GWP shade, and shipping costs are reasonable.

GWP shades come in petit size, as shown here; sealed and with a sticker over the sifter

For me, the petit size is perfect - it is a generous amount of product, so I won't run out unless I use it every day, and it's not taking up as much space (or money!) as a full-size jar would. I also love that the jars come sealed, with a sticker over the sifter, to prevent leakage, and that the labels on top are transparent so you can see the color through it.

Things that are less great about DG include the TAT - it seems to be stuck at up to 16 business days, which can feel like forever when you're waiting for DG goodies - and the fact that 99% of the GWP shades are limited edition and can't be purchased! This is a problem because a.) they're gorgeous and b.) by the time people get their orders and excitedly post swatches online, that color is no longer available. She has very kindly brought back shades before (like Clusterfluff, which I am thinking I must own), but it's the exception to the rule. ETA: Forgot to mention that Susan also has an awesome habit of tweeting you when your package has just been shipped :) I mean, obviously you get a PayPal notification too, but a personal message from the owner makes it even more exciting!

I'll be posting tons of swatches and my opinions of the products all week, so stay tuned!

Swatches of 6 Virus Insanity Eyeshadows

2011-09-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

Virus Insanity Eyeshadow (VIE) is a company I might never have heard of if not for bloggers and makeup groups - oh, the horror! - because the products are only sold on their Facebook fan page. I am so very glad I did hear of them, and though I only have a small collection of VIE shades so far, I completely love each of the colors I do have.


Top L-R: "Fuck Me," "Ferris Wheel," "Eternal Life"; Bottom L-R: "Faerie Knoll," "Between the Sheets," "Decay" (sample)

I'm just going to jump right into the swatches first and then go back to tell you more about VIE at the end!

Top L-R: "Fuck Me," "Ferris Wheel," "Eternal Life"; Bottom L-R: "Faerie Knoll," "Between the Sheets," "Decay" (sample); direct sunlight, no flash

Here are all six colors, each applied over a stripe of Pixie Epoxy (above) and dabbed onto bare skin (below). I also took a blurred shot of them to try to capture the fantastic sparkles:

Top L-R: "Fuck Me," "Ferris Wheel," "Eternal Life"; Bottom L-R: "Faerie Knoll," "Between the Sheets," "Decay" (sample); direct sunlight, no flash

Since some of these colors are so complex that I couldn't really get an accurate shot of them, I'll talk about each color in detail.

"Fuck Me" - Though it's described by VIE as matte purple, I think I'd have to disagree and call it a satin finish lavender. You can see from the blurred photo that there is a bit of shimmer in it. When applied without a primer, it does adhere to the skin, but looks much more sheer. Over primer, it's a great opaque lavender that doesn't lean too red or too blue. And obviously I bought it for the name! (Matte Eyeshadows album)

"Ferris Wheel" - VIE says it's a "medium pink with green iridescence and lime glitter," and I agree. This color has a deep rose base with a very strong fluorescent green flash, which unfortunately translates in my photos as light pink ... in person, however, you can absolutely see the rose to green duochrome, whether you apply it on bare skin or over primer. Without a sticky primer, though, you will lose some of those lime green sparkles to fallout. (More Individual Colors album)

"Eternal Life" - This is pretty straightforward, VIE and I both call it black with red glitter. I love this shade and knew I had to own it, even though I also knew I'd rarely wear it, if at all. Without primer, it's matte charcoal gray, and you get red glitter all over everything but your eyelids; over sticky primer, it's a stunning black with red sparkles that glows like the Ruby Slippers (and looks a lot like the Deborah Lippmann polish of that name)! (NEW Goth Collection album)

"Faerie Knoll" - VIE describes it as "bright lime with turquoise glitter," and the swatch in the VIE album makes it looks SUPER bright, almost neon. But in real life it's a fairly normal lime green, and sadly the turquoise glitter isn't very noticeable; it just looks like glittery lime to me. This applies sheer without primer, and the glitter flies everywhere if you don't use a sticky base. (Leah's Faerie Collection from the Custom Collections album)

"Between the Sheets" - Described as "light, opal-like brown with pink iridescence," this color was one that I ordered when seeking a dupe for Meow's Soft Porn. Definitely very different colors! While my photos show this as being almost silvery-lilac for some reason, it appears gray with strong orange/ pink duochrome in real life. This duochrome effect is visible with or without primer, but the color is more sheer without it. (Beth's Dirty Girl Collection from the Custom Collections album)

"Decay" - This sample came with my last order, a very generous amount in a clamshell container, and although VIE calls it a "golden brown with green iridescence" I don't know what to call it! In the clamshell, the product looks charcoal gray with teal and orange glitter, and when applied to the skin it looks warm taupe with green and blue shimmer. This color was the most opaque without primer, but again, you'll get sparkly fallout on your face and clothes if you do choose to wear it without a sticky base. (Individual Colors album)

All six of these colors are beautiful, and several are unique and stunning. However, I rarely order from VIE, and here's why (aside from lack of funds): it's kind of a hassle :/ The reason I listed the album for each color is that otherwise, you could spend hours searching through VIE's photos trying to find them. While the swatch photos are very helpful (shown in different lighting and at different angles), they are also incredibly hard to find even if you know which collection they're from - multiple custom collections are in each Custom Collections album. Which brings me to my next point: Colors from custom collections can only be purchased individually on the first of each month; otherwise, you have to buy the entire collection as a set. And although the pricing is fair ($5 for individual jars, less per jar when you buy a whole collection or "Get the Look" set, and many sales offered often), it still sucks to not be able to order the one color you want by itself unless you remember to do it the first of the month. Most people order by asking for an invoice for their specific items, though there is a Shop Now tab - special offers need to be calculated separately or you would have to pay normal prices and get a refund later. Shipping is flat rate $5, which always bothers me, since I tend to order one or two items at a time and know it'd cost $2 max to ship - I could use that extra $3 to buy other stuff ^_^;

ALL that aside, VIE is still one of my favorite indies, right up there with Sugarpill and Fyrinnae! They may "just" sell eyeshadow, but there are hundreds to choose from and if you have an idea for a custom collection, you may be able to dream up your own shades. Customer service is always great, questions are answered promptly on the Facebook page by either the owner and primary model, Jenni, or one of her admins, and I've even had her offer to take more swatch pics of a color for me if it'd help me decide whether or not to get it! If you can look past the inconvenience of sifting through hundreds of photos to choose colors, or if VIE switches to a new format (Etsy, Artfire or their own website), I very highly recommend you try some of their shadows (especially Ferris Wheel and Decay)!

Dirty denim shadows

2011-09-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

Finally, here is the second item I promised to show you from my mini-Sephora haul last month: Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow/ Liner in Tidal Rave.

Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow in Tidal Rave

It's a beautiful dirty-denim teal blue with gold shimmer, and can be applied in a thin layer to look more sheer or built up to a darker, stronger color.

Tidal Rave swiped onto bare skin, blurred on the right to show glitter; direct sunlight, no flash

As I think you can tell from this swatch, it does apply a bit patchy; you have to smear it on, wait a few seconds for it to start to set, and then go back over it if you want to even it out with another layer. I use my fingers to apply this and other cream shadow products, it's just a lot easier to warm the product and spread/ blend it that way. I can't comment on wear time, or the truth of the "creaseless" part of its name, since I haven't had a chance to try it out much yet >_<

Part of the reason I decided to get this was that I already had two eyeshadows I considered "dirty denim" colored, which I thought would be excellent to intensify over this supposedly creaseless base. So here are some swatches of those two colors over Tidal Rave, and on their own (no primer):

1: Aromaleigh "Oops" patted on over Tidal Rave; 2: Aromaleigh "Oops" patted onto bare skin; 3: Shiro Poliwrath patted on over Tidal Rave; 4: Shiro Poliwrath patted onto bare skin; direct sunlight, no flash, blurred on the right to show glitter

The Aromaleigh "Oops" shade is perfect to set this cream shadow (although it shouldn't need to be set with powder), because it doesn't change, but does intensify, the color. Shiro's Poliwrath* is a bit darker blue, so it would look fantastic in the crease. Both eyeshadows have that gold shimmer which works beautifully with the similar sheen of Tidal Rave.

I am happy to own this lovely cream shadow and doubt I'll ever be able to use it all up - it's more likely to dry out first, frankly. The pot has some unnecessary thick glass to make it look bigger, but the actual amount of product in there (0.16oz) is enough to last forever, unless you use it every single day.

This color is one of the several exclusive to Sephora*, although for some reason they list it as Tidal Wave instead of Tidal Rave.

*Not an affiliate link

Outfit/ face of the night - date night

2011-09-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

First of all, this is not the only date night we've had while he's been here, this is just the first time it occurred to me to take pics of my outfit/ makeup!

I had a $10 off thing for Havana, a restaurant/ bar downtown that makes the best mojitos and sells them at half off on Mondays ... so we went there Monday night. The manfriend is not a big drinker, but the mango mojitos at this place are so sweet you literally can't taste any alcohol in them at all, so I thought he might enjoy them :)

Sorry about the dead look on my face ^.^

I wanted to wear the dress I got at Forever 21 a while back, and the bracelet my boy gave me for my birthday (a custom-made replica of this bracelet from Arrested Development!!! SO AWESOME), and I didn't want to look too over-the-top with the loud print of the dress so I chose a small pendant necklace and purple suede heels to go with it. (Neither are for sale anywhere at this point so I'm not listing the brand or anything)

Sometimes I forget how to smile like a normal person

For the makeup, again, not wanting to go too over-the-top I just did a modified copy of the double liner look I showed you before, using my new Rimmel London Colour Mousse in Galaxy and the black-with-purple-sparkle liner from the Physicians Formula gel liner trio called "Hazel Eyes." With Fyrinnae's primer for dry skin, Chanel Vitalumiere foundation in Diaphane (which seems to be unavailable now -_-) applied using the Beauty Blender dupe I won in Delicate Hummingbird's giveaway, a bit of Matte Silk finishing powder from Evil Shades, Benefit High Beam highlighter, Catrice gel blush in Birds of Paradise and Deadly gloss from Evil Shades, I did my best to create a somewhat natural look on the rest of my face.

EOTN closeup

The Rimmel cream shadow (used as liner) dried a lot less purple and more blue than I was expecting, but I still liked the way it looked! And don't adjust your monitor settings, the eyeshadow was really that green-toned unfortunately. I was playing with the Sleek i-Divine Monaco palette and at first it was too light, then too gray, then I began adding more and more colors to try and get it looking right ... bleh. I'd list the colors used, but it got really crazy and I'm not sure I remember all of them.

Photobomb!!!

Someone decided to help me with the picture-taking ^.^

Happies!

And after enjoying 3 mango mojitos (2 were mine, but he did like his despite the mint bits in it), the spiciest tortilla soup ever, uber-garlicy Boniata fries, and a Cuban sandwich, we stopped by a festively lit tree to take some pics :) The loopy smile and off-camera gaze, I can only attribute to those sneaky mojitos! They taste so innocent, but they can pack a punch!

So there you go, my first outfit post and also the first time I've shown the boy on here I think ... hope I haven't sickened you too much ^.^

Makeup haul from overseas

2011-09-07T14:40:00.000-07:00

Somehow, the manfriend managed to fit ALL of this in his suitcase and still get some clothes in there too:

I paid for everything but the Sleek Pout Paints (birthday gift from boy!) and brushes (gift from Suzy!) myself

I'll update this post with links to swatches, reviews etc as I go along, but wanted to get this up for now :)

From Sleek:
Luminaire concealer in L01
Blush in Rose Gold, Santorini (LE), and Scandal (LE) (swatches, review and dupe comparison here)
True Color Lipstick in Amped (swatches and review here) and Coral Reef (swatches, review and dupe comparison here)
i-Divine Palette in Monaco (LE)
High Shine Gloss in In Your Dreams and Sweet Sixteen (minis - free GWP) (swatches and review here)
Pout Paints in Peek-A-Bloo, Cloud 9, Pin Up, and ~~Pinkini~~ oops, no it isn't! It's Mauve Over (swatches here)

From Essence:
Gel Eyeliner in 04 I Love NYC (swatches and review here)
Stampy polish in 02 Black

Brushes:
Sigma F80
Everyday Minerals Dome Blending
HEMA Blending
e.l.f. Studio "C"

From Benefit: (swatches and review here)
PosieTint (mini - free GWP with Glamour mag)
BeneTint (mini - free GWP with Glamour mag)
High Beam (mini - free GWP with Glamour mag)

From Boots 17:
Blusher in First Flush (swatches and review here)

From Rimmel London:
Colour Mousse Eyeshadow in 014 Mermaid (used in this FOTD), 013 Galaxy (used in this EOTN), and 004 Splash (swatches and review here)

My tiny little MAC collection

2011-08-22T03:02:00.000-07:00

Collection posts/ videos are always so fun, aren't they? Even when you're consumed with jealousy over how much Christine from Temptalia has, you're still having so much fun ogling all of it ...


Top: Shadowy Lady e/s, Parisian Skies e/s, Jealousy Wakes e/s; Bottom: Pop Mode l/g, Russian Red l/g, Coral Polyp l/s

Well, I am the cheap chick, so my MAC collection is very small. And in fact, all the eyeshadows were free (giveaway wins and one referral contest prize), and one lipglass was from a blog sale; I only paid retail for Russian Red lipglass, way back in high school or thereabouts, and Coral Polyp - well, I paid more than retail for that quite recently and still consider it a great deal!

I have eyeshadows in Shadowy Lady (dark bruise purple, Matte, permanent), Parisian Skies (blue-gray with sky blue shimmer, Satin, LE Bloggers' Obsessions), and Jealousy Wakes (blue-green with gold shimmer, Veluxe Pearl, LE Bloggers' Obsessions), lipglasses in Pop Mode (raspberry with gold shimmer, LE Pop Mode) and Russian Red (slightly warm-toned opaque red, permanent), and lipstick in Coral Polyp (nearly-neon coral, Amplified Creme, LE Dame Edna).

L-R: Shadowy Lady e/s, Parisian Skies e/s, Jealousy Wakes e/s, Pop Mode l/g, Russian Red l/g, Coral Polyp l/s, direct sunlight, no flash

Shadowy Lady was my first MAC eyeshadow and it definitely did not inspire me to get more - you can see how difficult it was to get the color to show up in the swatch; I think that was 3 or more swipes on my skin. It feels dry and applies very sheer. Parisian Skies feels a bit dry too and only pops over a very good primer, while Jealousy Wakes can look good on bare skin and amazing over good primer.

L-R: Shadowy Lady e/s, Parisian Skies e/s, Jealousy Wakes e/s, Pop Mode l/g, Russian Red l/g, Coral Polyp l/s, direct sunlight, no flash

Pop Mode is an absolutely beautiful berry-toned lipglass that's perfect for fall, and Russian Red is an incredibly opaque fire-engine red - honestly, I'm surprised I haven't bought more lipglasses, with these two beauties inspiring me - and Coral Polyp, my first and only MAC lipstick, is pretty opaque, smells nice and wears very well, so I'm impressed by that, too! (See Coral Polyp on my lips here)

But overall, I think indie cosmetic companies have more interesting and better eyeshadows. Maybe it's slightly harder to find such high-quality lip products, but several companies (Silk Naturals, Darling Girl Cosmetics, Morgana Cryptoria etc) have mastered the art of producing fabulous lippies and sell them for lower prices - so really, you don't need to wait for the next LE collection from MAC to become available, you just need to research some indie brands to get your hands on some gorgeous fall products :)

PS: My manfriend will be here in lessthan 19 hours and he's staying for 3 weeks (he lives 5500 milesaway), so if I disappear, that's why ^_^; He is bringing me English/European makeup though so I will have some fun stuff to show you!

Dawn Eyes Cosmetics swatches

2011-08-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

But only two, sorry. And they're both the same shade, actually, just one is more glittery than the other ...

When I saw these swatches of Grey Fire at Mascara and Mineral Junkie, I sat up and took notice of Dawn Eyes Cosmetics (DEC) for the first time. If you've been "in" the indie makeup community for a while, you sort of get cynical about all the new companies constantly popping up, and I definitely have been guilty of assuming that just because a company is new, it won't have any really unique shades. DEC put me and my assumptions to shame!

Dawn Eyes Cosmetics samples with metallic silver labels

The website is nothing fancy, but easy enough to use - certainly not any more difficult than Artfire, for example. Eyeshadows are listed in different color categories and by collection, and below each swatch photo is a link to an entire album of unedited photos of the color, which is incredibly helpful! I wish more companies could do this, it makes it so easy to see all the different nuances of each shadow.

When I went to look at Grey Fire, I discovered that it had a sister, so to speak: Glittering Grey Fire. I decided to sample both versions (samples are $1 each for 1/8 tsp) ... and can I say that these are kind of weird? Is that okay? Look:

L: Grey Fire; R: Glittering Grey Fire; swatched over Kiss My Sass Cosmetics primer, direct sunlight, no flash

Okay, see how Glittering Grey Fire has weird whitish patches in the swatch? The loose shadow starts out tan with red sparkle, but apply the least bit of pressure and it turns ashy and the white cast spreads like oil dropped on water. SO WEIRD!!! But that's what the color is supposed to look like, as you can see in the product photos on the website (listed under Reds & Oranges). It just took me completely by surprise because ... well, I've seen pressure-sensitive colors before, but none that behaved like this ^_^;

L: Grey Fire; R: Glittering Grey Fire; swatched over Kiss My Sass Cosmetics primer, direct sunlight, no flash

"Weirdness" of the formula aside, this color is very pretty in both variations. I'm not sure a normal person would need both the super-sparkly and more matte versions, but I do think they're different enough to warrant being offered separately: Grey Fire is that whitish-tan with a red duochrome that was hiding in the photos (grr!), and Glittering Grey Fire is that amped up with very visible red glitter ... like a work-safe version and a party version, basically :)

At the moment I am in a deep financial hole, so I can't see myself ordering more from DEC for a while but I do intend to explore their collection further at some point! I wish I could take advantage of the sale currently in progress, which offers three different deals to choose from, but it ends tomorrow (8/20) at noon CST and I don't think I'll find myself a ton of money by then ^.^ They are offering rainchecks on a case-by-case basis for those who won't get their paycheck before the sale ends, though, and I think that is incredibly thoughtful and generous of them. So overall, I am impressed with this "young" company and recommend you take a look and see if anything catches your eye!

For all you Game of Thrones fans ...

2011-08-18T04:20:00.000-07:00

This series seems to have taken the world by storm! I was given the first book by my dad a few months ago, and he and my brother both asked to borrow it before I had even finished reading it ^.^ It took me a while to get through it just because each unfolding drama seemed more and more twisted and creepy to me ... but now I'm hooked! Unfortunately I don't have HBO, so I haven't seen the TV adaptation. But since it's become so popular, I've seen a lot of GoT-inspired things online, and here are a few of them:

Geek Chic Cosmetics has come out with a new eight-color collection called "Win or Die," including shades like "The Imp" (Lannister gold) and "Brotherhood of Crows" (blackened steel).
Lillith of Lillith's Dark Tower is doing a series of looks inspired by different characters, and the three she's done so far are STUNNING!!! If you are a fan of this drama then you MUST go look at them, especially the ones inspired by the Night's Watch and Cersei! I can just see her defending the Wall, or plotting sick schemes with her brother ... what an artist Lillith is, truly!
And finally, Grey of Le Gothique has done a Style Diary post based off Winterfell, from an icy manicure and "winter is coming" bracelet right down to a foresty perfume! She's said she has at least one more GoT-inspired Style Diary coming up, which I'm definitely looking forward to :)

Have you been sucked in by this series, or are you feeling left out in the cold?

Venomous Cosmetics swatches

2011-08-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

I'm tackling Venomous Cosmetics first (from my long list of indie companies to review) because I only own one full-sized product and have just two eyeshadow samples ... so it's a bit less intimidating ^_^

Mini Lip Poison and two loose eyeshadow samples

I don't have any pictures of how it was packaged, but I think it was a standard bubble mailer with some more bubble wrap around the gloss. This was just one order: purse-sized "Lip Poison" in Dazed, free samples of loose eyeshadows "Bravest Astronaut" and "Surfing the Gold Coast."

Venomous Cosmetics (VC) has quickly become internet-famous for two things: the deadly creatures that inspire the item names (photos of which are on the website so watch out if you hate spiders), and their pressed eyeshadows which are available in adorable miniature pans for samples! I would love to own some of those tiny shadows someday, they look so cute (tiny things rule) and the colors all look beautiful!

But all I ordered was the mini Lip Poison in Dazed ($3.50 for the 3.7mL tube, or $5 for full-sized 5.9mL tube), because it looked like it might be a good dupe for the limited edition color Caqui from the MAC Blogger's Obsessions collection, and I didn't allow myself to splurge on that. I managed to convince myself that persimmon orange would not suit me. Well ... Dazed does look a lot like Caqui (just based on internet swatches I've seen), and I'm still not sure it looks good on me!

Swatched on bare skin, direct sunlight, no flash

It's very orange - not orangey-red, not coral, just straight-up orange that leans slightly reddish. It is pretty pigmented, very shiny, glitter-free and looks like a very expensive high-end gloss on the lips. There is no scent or taste that I can discern, and it doesn't burn, tingle, or dry out my lips, nor does it goop up in lip lines or slide around to make it look like I applied it without a mirror (hate glosses that do that).

Naked lips for reference, direct sunlight, no flash

One layer on otherwise bare lips, direct sunlight, no flash

Aside from the way the color frightens me (despite being very accurate from the website and the swatches I'd seen online so what exactly was I expecting? Lol), the only criticism I have of the gloss is that the label is oddly sticky and transfers ink onto my hands whenever I touch it. It's a great label otherwise, since it lists the company name, color name, and ingredients on a semi-transparent sticker that doesn't obscure the color of the gloss in the tube.

L: Surfing the Gold Coast; R: Bravest Astronaut; swatched over Pixie Epoxy, direct sunlight, no flash

These are the two loose eyeshadow samples that were sent for free, with 1/8 tsp per sample according to the webstore. I just swatched them over Pixie Epoxy since that's the only way I would use them, and they applied very easily with no patchiness, streaking, or lumps of unblended pigment. On bare skin, you probably wouldn't get this color payoff, and you'd lose some of the glitter.

Surfing the Gold Coast is from the Well-Traveled collection, and is a baby blue with subtle gold shimmer.
Bravest Astronaut is from the Spaced Out collection and is described on the website as "strong red with magenta shifts," but I would say it's hot pink with blue-violet shift. Both colors are currently available to purchase ($1 for samples, $6.50 for 5g sifter jars).

Shipping was pretty reasonable, I think it was $2 for this order if I'm not mistaken, and although the current TAT is listed as a perfectly reasonable 2-8 business days my order was shipped within 2 days of being placed - always love when you get the lower end of the estimated TAT :)

Overall, I'm very impressed with VC so far! I love the formula of the Lip Poison, especially because it's hard to find good quality non-glittery lip glosses from indie brands for some reason. I also think the loose shadows are normal-to-good quality and fairly original. I definitely would order from them again if I could afford to, and snag some tiny pressed shadows to ooh and ahh over!

Buxom Lolita

2011-08-16T02:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, not too suggestive, amIright? One of the things I bought with my Sephora giftcards was the Buxom Big & Healthy Full-Color Lip Polish in the color Lolita:

Buxom Big & Healthy Full-Color Lip Polish in shade Lolita

I had never tried Buxom or even the mother line, Bare Escentuals, before, but Phyrra has raved about so many beautiful lip products by this brand and I trust her opinion! I actually was looking at the Big & Healthy Lip Sticks display when I noticed a little sign in front of a mostly-empty part of the display, hidden down in the bottom corner. Evidently two shades* of gloss were on sale for $9, down from $18 - if you can read the title of this blog you'll understand that 50% off makes me happy - and although there was only one shade left in stock, it happened to be gorgeous. So I bought it!

Swatched on bare skin, direct sunlight, no flash

Lolita is a very pigmented mauve, slightly cool-toned but warm enough that it could still look great on those with warm skin tones (or a tan). The gloss itself is ... um, interesting: it's meant to be plumping, as well as opaque and moisturizing, and while two out of three ain't bad .... it's just a little weird to me that my lips feel cold and wet the entire time the gloss is on my lips because of the plumping agents, yet my lips don't actually look any plumper (sorry, Buxom). Weird cooling/ damp sensation aside (it's not actually unpleasant), I am very impressed with this gloss! It's almost more like a liquid lipstick because of the opacity, but very shiny as one would expect with a gloss, so it's the best of both worlds :D

Compare my naked lips to glossed lips:

One semi-thick layer of Lolita, direct sunlight, no flash

The sunlight seems to have washed out the color a bit; the hand swatch is much more color-accurate. In real life this is darker on me, and completely covers my lips like a really pigmented lipstick would. I can apply a thin layer for a more natural color and it still covers my lips perfectly. When I apply a slightly thicker layer, it doesn't goop up or gather in nooks and crannies, just behaves very nicely and stays right where it is supposed to be, giving me dark mauve shiny lips to die for!

When I bought this, I thought I was getting a fantastic deal since the lipgloss is so huge. Well, it is a good deal at 1/2 off, but the tube is very deceptive! It looks like you're getting way more gloss than the norm, but in reality it's only 0.15oz. For comparison purposes, MAC Lipglass have 0.17oz, Stila Lip Glazes are 0.08oz and Hard Candy Glossaholics have a whopping 0.38oz. So never let an item's packaging fool you! Look at the actual net weight before you buy it ^_^;

And now for the bad news: I think this color is discontinued ... it's not on the Sephora website and obviously it was half off the regular price in-store. So if you're interested in this color, I'd advise either calling your local Sephora to see if they have any left, or turning to evilBay - sorry :(

Although the tube is tricksy and doesn't contain as much product as it would seem, and the gloss feels super different on my lips but doesn't really plump them, I am actually very pleased with this gloss! I really didn't buy it for plumping; I bought it because of the color and the price, and on those counts it doesn't let me down. I'm not sure I'd buy one of these at full price unless I had another giftcard, but this set of seven mini Lip Polishes for $15 (originally $29) is very tempting :) To the birthday wishlist!!

*I can't remember what the other shade on sale was >_<

So much to talk about!

2011-08-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

Or rather, blog about. I have a mini-Sephora haul from a couple of giftcards I spent recently:

Swatches, etc for two of the items will be in their own posts. Two other items are for gifts!

I also want to blog about alllll these indie companies (in alphabetical order): Dark Heart Designs, Darling Girl Cosmetics, Dawn Eyes Cosmetics, Evil Shades, Kiss My Sass Cosmetics, Venomous Cosmetics ... I think that's all ... there may be more! ETA: Yeah, I missed a few. Black Rose Minerals, Silk Naturals, and Virus Insanity Eyeshadow will be covered, too!

I need to get some EOTD/ FOTD done, too, and then my manfriend will be here in one week (WOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!) and he's bringing me a TON of cosmetics from England/ Europe - so much, I worry he won't be able to fit clothes in his luggage, not even kidding - so ... I have a lot about which to blog.

I've got a lot of photos done, edited and ready to go, but I've had them for a while; I just hadn't been blogging because so much unpleasant stuff was going on, I was just in no mood to blog. Things actually have now gotten even worse (I'm not even talking about the internet drama that never dies; I'm talking my car broke down for the last time, I'm about to get sued for unpaid bills, and cannot even get an interview let alone a job, plus health issues, etc ...), but now I want to turn to blogging as an escape - and a means to be somewhat productive, even if it is only "helping people decide what makeup to buy." That's way better than nothing, especially if it means that some truly fantastic products/ companies get the attention they deserve!

ETA: And a giveaway!!! I've been collecting stuff for it for ages now, and I think I've decided to split it into two prizes, so I will definitely try to get that up soon :D

So expect to see a lot from me coming up, though I probably won't be too active online during the three weeks my boy is here. And if you've tagged me for an award and I haven't done it yet, don't worry, I definitely plan to :)

Sometimes two wrongs CAN make a right

2011-08-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

The Wet n Wild limited edition DreamWeavers collection has been one of the most sought-after drugstore collections of 2011, and the palette most people wanted above all the rest was Dancing in the Clouds (DITC).

With a gold, purple, and copper shade, this trio is one of the more unique and special of the collection, but also the hardest to find! I had to turn to my favorite "Wet n Wild pimp" Lena* again for help, and she very kindly CP'ed the 2 palettes I wanted along with some awesome extra goodies just cuz she's so awesome like that!

Forever 21 rose hairpins, L.A. Colors palette, We're Blasting Off and Dancing In The Clouds, plus chocolates and a lovely note :)

Now, anyone who's found this palette or seen reviews and swatches of it online will know that the purple shade is a huge letdown. It has a funny texture in the pan, like ancient velvet, and is nearly impossible to transfer to your skin, even over good primers.

BUT - beauty genius Emily Noel of Beauty Broadcast has figured out how to make this color work! In her Dancing in the Clouds tutorial vid, she used the Wet n Wild Idol Eyes cream shadow pencil in Techno as a base for the purple shade, and the combination worked beautifully, bringing the purple up to a much better level of pigmentation. Since I happened to own Techno, I decided to show you how this works!

Dancing In The Clouds palette; Idol Eyes cream shadow pencil in Techno

I don't use Techno much on its own because it's really streaky and liquidy and difficult to apply evenly. For this experiment, I scribbled it onto my hand and gently patted it with my finger to try to even it out. Then, apply the purple from DITC over it and - voila!

L: Purple from DITC swiped onto bare skin; C: Techno applied to bare skin; R: the two combined over bare skin. Direct sunlight, no flash

Two fail products, combined to make a totally acceptable color :) It's still not going to be THE most vibrant color ever, but it's much closer to what we've come to expect from our Wet n Wild shadows. And since Techno costs only $1.99, and is part of the core collection available at most drugstores, it's easy to add this to your routine! I highly recommend you go pick it up if you want to get some use out of your DITC purple :)

*Lena doesn't have a blog, but she's a Twitter regular and will be doing a giveaway when she hits 500 followers, so if you're on Twitter you might want to check her out :)

Parisian Skies

2011-08-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was excited to find out that I had won Parisian Skies eyeshadow from the very blogger who dreamed it up, Lesley of Lipstick Powder N Paint! Since the blog is Canadian, I prepared myself to wait patiently (why it takes so long to mail things between the US and Canada I will never know, I have things get to Australia quicker than things sent right up to Canada) ...

It says "sample" on the box and label since they were sent to Lesley pre-launch :D

... and my patience was rewarded about a week ago when this arrived!

I've seen swatches of this lovely color around on many different blogs, but when I tried swatching it myself I sort of failed. I found I couldn't make the color show up over anything but NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk, and even then it wasn't quite right:

L: bare skin; R: NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk; direct sunlight, no flash

Luckily I found a new primer that shows Parisian Skies in all its glory, shimmer and all!

Over Kiss My Sass Cosmetics primer, direct sunlight, no flash

I don't have any similar colors in my collection to which I could compare this color, it is very unique for me. It's a grayed blue with sky blue shimmer, and it's very easy to see the connection between the color and its inspiration:

Image from http://lipstickpowdernpaint.com/

So I'm very happy with my win :) I'll be doing at least one EOTD with this color soon, I've just been playing with different color combinations to see what looks best next to this. So far I love lavender with Parisian Skies!

Another care package of WIN from Europe!

2011-07-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

Suzy and my boyface have done it again! They thought I needed cheering up, so when the boy was visiting Suzy in Holland, they did some shopping and mailed a big box o' stuff my way. It actually arrived on a really horrible day, when I was falling to pieces and in desperate need of a reason to smile, so the timing was perfect and it was just so lovely and kind of them to do this for me ♥ THANK YOU GUYS!!!

Merry Christmas to meeeeee

This is *most* of the contents of the box - not even all of it! Talk about like Christmas in July - every single item, including the box itself (not shown since it got awfully battered by the USPS -_-) was wrapped up in pretty paper, and there were super cute Hello Kitty stickers on the outside of the box which you can see in the top left corner. I won't be showing you the card, sorry 0_~

Vero Moda top

So originally, Suzy wanted to send me this top she had found and thought would look good on me (SUPER AWWW!), and this was the foundation of the big box o' win. It's a bit more lilac than it appears in this photo, a bit sheer, very flatteringly cut, and perfect for summer! I love it!

Hopefully-not-real Anna Sui wallet

Can you imagine how I freaked out when I unwrapped this gorgeous wallet?! It says Anna Sui on it. I made the boy reassure me that it was not real Anna Sui before I even let myself open it up ... I can't have nice things like that! But oh, it's so beautiful, and really functional too. I shall use it as a clutch for going out!

Kruidvat anti-age eye cream

This eye cream is specifically from Suzy because the manfriend officially does not condone the sending of anti-aging products to me :P which is weird because I'm already older than him and likely to keep on getting older, so why the pro-aging sentiments? Anyway, I do not know if this has any real effect, but I can say I have been without an eye cream for[literally]ever and the scent of this one is fantastic, plus it doesn't sting or burn my eyes or the surrounding skin. I've heard some eye creams do that ... and now I won't have to go spend a million dollars on an eye cream cuz I have this ooooooone! If you don't read Dutch or French, I will translate for you: "Kruidvat" is the brand and orchid is the scent. That is all I have figured out so far.

L-R: Catrice Birds of a Feather eyeshadow quad, Bird of Paradise blush stick, and Bird of Paradise Crystal Clear Gloss Stick, all from the LE Papagena collection

Then ... OMG. Did my eyes deceive me? No - it truly is THE CLEAR LIPSTICK I was gibbering about a while ago! Okay. Maybe she saw that post and remembered that I had been wanting it, but how did she know I was drooling over the other stuff in the LE Papagena collection as well?! It must be her psychic abilities, I'm not the only one who believes this of Suzy ^.^

I now own enough Catrice to make a judgment about the company, I believe. And my opinion is that they are fantastic! I have been impressed by the quality of every single thing I have from them :D

Catrice Birds of a Feather eyeshadow quad, swatched in clockwise order starting at top left in quad, in direct sunlight, no flash. Top half is swatched over Pixie Epoxy, bottom half swatched over TFSI.

The eyeshadows are so beautiful, in fact, too beautiful to use since they have different textures and patterns pressed into them. Oh well, I'm using them anyway. Surprisingly, the purple is not my super favorite of the bunch! Actually I do really like it, but the two greens are so lovely: a lighter citrus green that brings lemon-lime soda to mind, and a darker green with red, gold, and other glitter in it (click photo to zoom in).

L-R: Catrice Blush Stick in Bird of Paradise, Catrice Crystal Clear Gloss Stick in Bird of Paradise, GOSH Light'N Shine lip gloss 04, direct sunlight, no flash

The blush stick is really cool, with a creamy texture sort of similar to a lip balm, and the perfect amount of pigmentation - it starts off really sheer but can easily be built up in color. It's a great neutral light pink which I think probably would work best on pale girls like me. And the ~~lipstick-shaped-lollipop~~ "gloss stick" is more or less transparent, but with a slight tint of wine. It also smells like fruit punch, yum! Not that moisturizing though, so it's definitely not meant to be a balm. That third swatch is the gloss from this next bunch ...

L-R: GOSH Cosmetics Mono Eyeshadow in 005 Purple, Light'N Shine Lip Gloss in 04

GOSH goodies! I looooove this stuff. They know me well, so they chose a purple eyeshadow for me, and then the gloss is just way cool! It has a mirror on one side (I left the sticker over it for this photo), and it lights up when you pull out the wand, making it super easy to apply the gloss in any lighting conditions.

GOSH Cosmetics Light'N Shine lip gloss in shade 04, direct sunlight, no flash

The gloss is a pale milky pink with tons of violet, blue and silver sparkles. I think I'll wear it most often over more opaque lipsticks, just to add some cool glitter.

GOSH Cosmetics eyeshadow in 005 Purple, direct sunlight, no flash, swatched over Pixie Epoxy on top and TFSI on bottom

This eyeshadow was the slightest bit chalky, as you may be able to tell from the swatch. It really resembles Sugarpill's Poison Plum in the pan, but not at all on the skin! It's darker, with some pink and blue sparkles, where Poison Plum is a bright red-toned matte purple.

Last but definitely NOT least, the candy! I got some Curly Wurlies from the boy when he first came to visit me, and I loooooved them, so I ate this one right away. For us non-UK peeps, a Curly Wurly is just like caramel covered in chocolate but sort of made like Swiss cheese with big holes ... yums :) And in fact, laws were broken here, because it is illegal to import Kinder Surprises into America O_o That's because they contain non-edible bits inside which could be choking hazards. Wanna see my choking hazard? (WOW THAT SOUNDS DIRTY)

It came all folded up in that little yellow pod, inside the egg-shaped milk chocolate lined with white chocolate

I got ... a little windsurfer! I had to put it together myself ... on-camera ... with commentary from the peanut gallery ^.^ But I got it eventually!

So *whew* I think that was everything! Can you believe how generous these two are? Man, if not for the fact that I got to send him a big birthday present right before this, and am already stockpiling stuff for Suzy's birthday (ahahahahaha yes, yes I am Suzy), I would have felt ... even more undeserving of all these awesome goodies! Sometimes you just meet the best people through the internet :)

OMG I forgot to mention!

2011-07-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

The voting was reset on the Beauty Blog Awards due to some overzealous people voting multiple times with proxies ... and I forgot to mention it and the voting's almost over! (August 1st)

I'm not about to win for Best Beauty Blog (but still super flattered to be nominated :) BUT there's a very close race between Darling Girl Cosmetics and Fyrinnae for Best Indie, so every vote counts - get over there if you haven't already, and cast your vote!

More awards/ tags/ surveys, pt 1

2011-07-28T22:52:00.000-07:00

Larie from Eye Heart It tagged me for these awards, which come with a fun questionnaire! Actually, Sandi from Peace, Love, and Sparkles also tagged me for them, but I'm going to post separately for the Top 10 Award :)

Name your favourite color:Purrrrrrrrrple!

Name your favorite song: Exogenesis Symphony, by Muse. There aren't many words in it, but it's hauntinglybeautiful!

Name your favorite dessert: All ofthem? Well, I especially love chocolate raspberry cheesecake, orflavored crème brulee, or grilled Hawaiian Gold pineapple rings withmelting ice cream on top ...

What is pissing you off?: People wholove to say hateful, ignorant, hurtful things online that they wouldnever have the courage or stupidity to say in person. Flakiness andgoing back on your word. Know-it-alls, particularly teenagers, whose minds are not open toseeing other points of view. Every single bad thing piling up on meunceasingly.

When you're upset, you...: go quiet,choke up a bit, hear roaring in my head, bite my tongue until I canspeak rationally rather than lashing out with curse words orviolence!

Your favorite pet: Mah pretty kitten!

O hai, I'm pwetty and I need snuggles

Black or White?: It's rarely thatsimple. (Nerrrrrd)

Your biggest fear is...: being sent toa mental hospital, and then having everyone in the world think of itwhenever they look at/ speak about/ think about me … or being sentto debtor's prison (or the modern equivalent, you know what I mean)and having everyone find out … I do really hate how nothing staysprivate or secret for long, and yes I worry about very extreme things^_^;

Your best feature is...: According toother people, cheekbones or eyes. According to ME, my newly growncleavage! I was always on the flatter side and now am on the fatterside, which has had a very pleasing effect on my rack ^.^ (TMI? Oops)

Everyday attitude: Stressed – oh,that's a mood. Erm, pessimistic but patient.

What is perfection?: Whatever makes youhappy.

Guilty pleasure: So many! ParticularlyWild Berry Skittles, ginger ale, paranormal romance novels (LOL),buying new perfume/ nail polish/ makeup, etc etc etc

Wheeee, now I get to tag people! I want to tag people I haven't yet, and there are a lot of them, so here is a random selection of bloggers I feel are deserving of these awards:

Georgina of Cupcake's Clothes

Susan from Darling Girl Cosmetics

Ivy of Rock, Roll, Glam!

D. Sadie of DGS Beauty

Yami of The Dark Side of Beauty

All 4 contributors at Parokeets

I'd love to find out your answers to those questions if you want to do the tag!

Simply Sweet Skin [long-overdue] review

2011-07-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

A stupidly long time ago*, there was a special promotion announced on the Simply Sweet Skin Facebook page: buy a $5 sample pack, get free shipping + 2 extra free samples. I had been itching to try SSS for a while and after looking at the listing for the sampler, I caved!

Packaging (inside a bubble mailer)

Clockwise from top L: Solid perfume samples (2), body frosting sample, whipped soap sample, lip scrub sample, perfume oil samples (2)

Check out what $5 got me. Can you believe it? I mean, I've seen generous samples before, but this was like ... like ... paying for one soda and having another one fall out of the vending machine, too xD

And these were packed FULL, too. I'll start with the solid perfume samples because those were the things that shocked me the most when I went to photograph them twisted up all the way:

Solid perfume samples

I don't know about you, but what comes to mind when I think of a sample of something is just a tiny amount of it for you to decide whether or not you like it. This could honestly be sold as a full-sized product on its own, that's how much is in there. Those are oval lip balm tubes FULL of solid perfume!

The scents I ordered were Hawaiian Hibiscus, which I'd heard of and thought I knew exactly what it would smell like, and Midnight Tuberose. HH is a very sweet floral, and I'm not sure why I was expecting it to smell like gardenia, but for the record it does not ^_^; I can't find the actual scent descriptions anywhere, so unfortunately you'll have to accept my amateur description: "kind of floral candy, like watermelon Jolly Ranchers but with a bit of a tropical flower scent too." Although I expected this to be my favorite scent, hence ordering almost all HH samples, I actually prefer Midnight Tuberose! Don't get me wrong, I love candy and I love flowers, but it's not a scent I'm in love with. Midnight Tuberose, on the other hand, I loved, and is easy to describe: "musky tuberose." It's very simple and straightforward - and not too musky, I happen to hate musk in itself - and if you love tuberose like I do, then you will love this scent.

The solid perfume formula is pretty average compared to the many other ones I've tried. It's not too hard that you have to scrape product out with your fingernail, but not so soft that it'll melt with the slightest suggestion of heat. In fact, it feels like a normal lip balm, and I do get confused sometimes and want to apply it on my lips O_o The scent is not overpowering, but does fade rather quickly, within a couple of hours. This is common in solid scents, at least in my experience, which is why I tend to carry them in my bag and use them to "touch up" my scent if I feel I no longer smell great!

The perfume oils have better staying power, as perfume oils tend to. If you're not familiar with perfume oils, please rest assured that it's not like smearing olive oil on your pulse points; perfume oil has a similar consistency to normal rollerball perfumes, but maybe a touch slower to evaporate on your skin. When I apply these, I can still detect a bit of the scent much later in the day.

Forbidden perfume oil was one of the two free extra samples included with my order, and I really love it, too - it's a sexy warm citrus scent, like yuzu or possibly mandarin, that isn't cloying or sickeningly sweet. I mean, there's some sugar there, but not so much that you feel like a pre-teen wearing this scent. I have a bit of a thing for citrus scents, and this one is gooooood - it actually smells a lot like OHWTO's Yuzu scent, if you're familiar with that (another favorite citrus perfume).

Moving on to the bath stuff, I'll just quickly explain that the reason I ordered soap and lotion and solid perfume and perfume oil all in one scent was that I like to apply layers of scent for the most lasting effect. I've found that if you use a scented soap in the shower, followed by scented body oil and/ or lotion, perfume oil, and then a spritz of perfume, you will not reek of scent but you will stay nicely scented all day. That sounds like a lot, but really, each layer is such a tiny amount that it doesn't add up to too much; it just sticks around much better. And the Hawaiian Hibiscus perfumes in both solid and oil, the soap, and the lotion all smell exactly alike, which is good - I hate when the lotion or soap of a perfume smell slightly off - and when layered, they truly do last all day on me.

After about three weeks' usage

The whipped soap (white) is not the texture I was expecting based on the ONE other non-traditional soap I own (pink), so I have comparison pics to explain:

See how the soap looks really hard compared to the pink one? It's almost like regular bar soap in its consistency, only slightly softer ... and I really hate bar soap. The item description calls this fluffy and creamy, and I'd have to disagree about that. But I found that this does lather well, scent me nicely and does not require a lot per use - that photo was taken after using it at least once a day for a few weeks, and it hasn't gotten much emptier since then! It also doesn't leave my skin feeling tight, dry, or covered in soap film. So even though it's not what I expected, I still think it's a winner!

After about 3 weeks' usage

The body frosting, again, was a totally different texture than I expected. It's described as being creamy, and the photos in the listing make it look like, well, like frosting. Here I have a bit next to a body frosting from a company no longer in business:

Once again, it was so much more stiff than I expected! In fact, it feels more like soap than lotion until it melts into your skin, which does happen pretty quickly. Then, it turns into what feels like oil (you can see it happening in the photo) ... and after much rubbing into the skin, it still leaves a bit of greasiness that will get all over your cell phone, iPad, etc, so be careful!

HOWEVER - I have very dry hands. I have to wash them often, so I tend to use a lot of lotion to make up for it. Prior to this, I had been using a lotion meant specifically to heal very dry skin, and my hands were still a bit scaly and dry. Once I started using this every night, my skin became ... softer. Actually softer, not just "less dry!" Plus, there were no flaky, peely bits of dead skin until I forgot to use this one night and used a different perfumed lotion instead ... then I saw some dry skin coming back. So this has become Holy Grail material for me, and my little pot is now almost completely empty D: I must order a full-sized jar ASAP or say hello to my old nemesis, crocodile skin, once again!

Lastly, the other free sample that came with my order was the Creamsicle Lip Scrub. Once again, I got a very generous amount in my sample; the little green tub may look tiny, but you only need a tiny bit per use, so it will last me quite a while. I've used it several times when my lips needed it, and found it to be a bit oilier than other lip scrubs I own, though it feels dry to the touch in the tub - it's not a gloopy mess like some body scrubs. It does a fantastic job of exfoliating, and the oil leaves my lips feeling soft, plus the scent is EXACTLY like a delicious Creamsicle so it is an absolute pleasure to use.

Overall, I was really impressed with my Simply Sweet Skin goodies! I think the quality is excellent, and it's certainly a good value for your money - I definitely recommend you try a sample pack first so you can make sure your skin won't have any allergic reactions to any products, plus you can determine which scents you like before ordering full sized items. Seriously, the samples I got are going to last me ages, and the only ones I know I'll run out of completely are the lotion (very soon) and the soap (maybe in another month)! There are many scents available, including famous brand dupes, and Catina, the owner, does run promotions off the Facebook page fairly often, so you can always get a great deal. I'm sorry to say that the sample packs are not listed in the shop right now, but if you can get them listed for you or see them in the shop again, definitely grab at least one and try this stuff out!

*The weekend of June 12th

I got my Jealousy Wakes!

2011-07-26T23:21:00.000-07:00

Last week I found out that I won the Jealousy Wakes giveaway at Cosmetics Aficionado, and it arrived on Monday! Perfect timing - my car broke down on the freeway while I was heading to a party Saturday night, and on Monday, I found out that I basically no longer have a car. Yet I am still paying it off. FML

But anyway, Monday was a fantastic mail day and one of the packages that helped cheer me up a bit was this one from Leticia.

My prize :D

Quite Cute buttons and JEALOUSY WAKES!!!

Look how prettyyyyyy

If you follow me on Twitter (you should, btw, if you enjoy nail "art" pics, lemmings* and mini-rants) then you may remember me going a bit crazy trying to show how my manicure matched Jealousy Wakes ... suffice it to say, I was infatuated with the color and unable to buy it. Plus it sold out IMMEDIATELY.

I was overjoyed when I found out I won it, obviously! Here is about the worst swatch EVER, please look it up on Temptalia or just Google for much better pics of it ... I was all out of clean brushes so I had to wipe it on with my finger -_-

Swatched over Pixie Epoxy (top) and TFSI (bottom). Direct sunlight, no flash

AND the Blogger's Obsessions collection is back on the MAC website once more and when it's sold out this time, it won't be back! So run, don't walk, over there and please buy me Caqui, Sonoran Rain and Nitro:licious 2046 while you're at it :P

Small[ish] Victoria's Secret haul

2011-07-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

Remember when I mentioned that you could take an extra 20% off* clearance items on the Victoria's Secret website? I had been doing so wellllllllllllll, avoiding the semi-annual sale ... until then.

Well, anyway! Here's what I grabbed:

I'm not going to model the apparel for you. You're welcome :P Those two boxes contained my eyeshadows, one per box with a TON of bubble wrap cushioning them - pretty good packaging for clearance stuff!

L-R: Decadent, Wanted

I owned one of their shadows already and absolutely love the quality, it's a smooth texture commonly likened to "buttah" and great pigmentation, so I definitely couldn't resist the clearance pricing of $4.79 each (after coupon code)!

Product in pans - MASSIVE, no included applicators, click to see how STUNNING the blue is in the pan!

The webstore had tiny squares of color that you roll over with your mouse to see larger detail swatches (they appear to be closeup photos of the product in the pan), and based off those I ordered a bright cobalt blue and plummy taupe in the "Lustre" finish.

Direct sunlight, no flash. Swatched over: top - bare skin; middle - Pixie Epoxy; bottom - TFSI

The blue, Wanted, is described only as "deep blue" by VS, and the product in the pan is STUNNING sapphire blue with violet flecks. Sadly, it was a bit of a challenge to get my swatch to look that vibrant. It looked best over Pixie Epoxy (middle of the swatch), but still not quite as dark or deep as I wanted it to. You can see the violet flash if you click the photo for close-ups!

Decadent is called "steel plum," which sounds a bit silly, but I guess it is a metallic plummy taupe ... This is a gorgeous taupe, and the finish is beautiful, but if you click the photo to zoom in, you'll see some weird fallout. It's not glitter, it's like ... chunks of eyeshadow o_O

It may not sound like I'm very pleased with these colors, but actually I am! They definitely are worth the $4.79 I paid for them, considering that not only are they pretty, but also contain 3.5 grams of product each - to put it in perspective, MAC shadows are 1.5g, Sugarpill are 4g and Wet n Wild trios contain 3.5g total for all three shades combined. So you're getting a massive amount of product with these! (Visual size comparison in my own palette here - it's the biggest one!)

I suggest checking out your local VS and swatching them sometime - it seems like they might be discontinuing them, so now's the time to try them out if you're at all interested. They're a great value and very pretty!

*Sorry, the code has expired

Little bit o' haul

2011-07-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

I was at CVS for perfectly innocent reasons, intending to just do a return and get out of there. Of course I couldn't just do that -_- I went to peek at their Wet n Wild display in search of the new trios, and as usual, there was nothing LE in the stand ... but I did find a cool lip thing I had never seen before, and since WnW was marked BOGO50%, I also grabbed the Walking on Eggshells trio.

Right before my stuff got checked out, I thought to myself, I should scan my card at the box first. But it was pretty much too late so I just went through checkout, and sure enough, I had $5 extrabucks AND a coupon for $5 off any Revlon ColorStay Ultimate lip product. I'd hate for those to expire or something, so I decided to use them immediately ^_^;

About $6 total for this!

So I thought it said ColorBurst at first, and was all excited thinking I could get the Peach lipstick I wanted for free! But no, it was only the longwear range that was eligible for this coupon. I spent a little while gazing in puzzlement at the display because I couldn't figure out which one to go for ... finally I noticed someone (not me!) had opened one of the liquid lipsticks, so I swatched it, and decided to get it. It's the ColorStay Ultimate Liquid Lipstick in Miracle Mauve, and it claims to last up to 24 hours. Its price was $10.99 before my coupons. I'll be doing lip swatches and review for this on my other blog soon!

Has anyone ever seen the Wet n Wild "Perfect Pair Lip Wand" before? I never had, and couldn't recall seeing anything about it on any blogs, but I thought it looked great so I picked it up in the only color that was there,Passion Plum #123. This was $2.99, I think ETA: Nope, $3.99! I have only 2 lip liners right now, so I liked the idea of having a ~~matching~~ coordinating lip liner and lipstick in one tube ...

... but the liner is definitely not the same color as the lipstick. It's darker, and more brown, yet it looks fine when on the lips (no noticeable darker line where it's applied). Here are quickie swatches of that and the liquid lipstick:


L-R: Liner, lipstick from Passion Plum; Miracle Mauve (artificial light, no flash)

I love the color of the lipstick, a cool-toned berry, and actually the liquid lipstick, which is a cool-toned mauve with a bit of what looks like blue and silver shimmer, looks great on top of that!

Walking on Eggshells is a trio I have been eying for a few months now, but never managed to ignore my guilty conscience long enough to buy it. It just seemed unlikely that I didn't have similar shades already in my stash. But I watched Emily Noel's video of MAC dupes recently and she showed swatches of these three shades next to three MAC shades, so that was excuse enough for me! Now if I see a tutorial or look I like online that uses the MAC shades I can whip out this palette and try to copy it :)

L: no flash - R: flash; swatched over Pixie Epoxy on the left and TFSI on the right of each swatch

Luckily for you, there are lots of swatches of this palette online already, so please Google it instead of relying on these crappy pictures :P I really need to make better use of the California sunshine and take my pics outside!

So that's my little $6 haul! I've already been wearing the WnW lip duo and like I said, will be reviewing it (and the Revlon liquid lipstick) along with lip swatches on my other blog soon, so stay tuned for that :)

Giveaway - happy blog birthday, Funny Face Beauty!

2011-07-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Alicia of Funny Face Beauty has only been writing her blog for one year! I always assumed it was a blog that had been around for a while, I mean she has over 2,000 followers! But it's her 1-year blog birthday, so she's doing a massive giveaway of all kinds of awesome goodies ...

... including OCC Lip Tars (I've always wanted to try them), MAC lipstick(now that I have one, I want more!), even a perfume!

Enter to WIN here!

Free lollipop day at See's!

2011-07-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

See's Candies are giving out free lollipops today (instead of the usual free samples)! This is nationwide, and I don't know what your location may have, but mine was handing out Root Beer flavor ... meh, but still worth the excuse to go poke at (and buy and eat) chocolates :)

PLUS, they're doing a National Lollypop Day sweepstakes where you can enter to win a trip to San Francisco and tour of their factory, or one of ten $50 gift cards! Enter to WIN here!

Extra 20% off clearance at Victoria's Secret

2011-07-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

Just a heads-up, you can take an extra 20% off clearance merchandise at Victoria's Secret online right now with code HOT20 - clothes, shoes, obviously lingerie, and more are already marked way down, so 20% off those prices? Not too shabby!

I have one VS eyeshadow, and I think the quality is fantastic, so $7.99 - 20% is an excellent price on these! Also, they've got Too Faced Aqua Bunny Bronzer, and look how cool the zebra-print quads are!

Let me know what you haul - I'm nosy :) *goes off to drool*

Two SUPER IMPORTANT things!

2011-07-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

Both shameless self-promotion, I'm afraid ;-)

Thing 1: Have made a new blog called Ravings of a Lipstick Lunatic, which my Twitter pals have already seen, but I wanted to wait to link it once I got my new LE, DC, MAC lipstick (SO MANY ACRONYMS)! It's a blog for, obviously, my lipstick obsession ... swatches, hauls, dupes etc ... so if you love lipstick, go check it out and maybe follow! I'm ridiculously pleased with my graphics over there so I hope you'll like them, too :)

Thing 2: I entered KimmieKarmaLove's Show Me Your Inner Animal contest and it's voting time! I did a look based on my cat. Yes, I'm that person.

My pweshus! Looking very grumpy even though she was very happy at the time, hence the drooly nose

Photoshopped my eyes green, but it was impossible to get them to match her eye color!

Making a bitchy face to be more like my cat xD

I used a slightly pink brown on the outer corner, pinky taupe on the center of the lid, and pure silver in the inner corners, all over a base of silver Jumbo Pencil, to mimic the colors of her fuzz. Then I drew around my eyes with Milk Jumbo Pencil to mimic her thick white eyeliner! I did a bit of very amateur contouring under the apples of my cheeks to try for more cat-like bone structure, and applied a peachy lipstick and pale pink gloss to approximate the color of her nose. I used matte white eyeshadow on the cupid's bow as a nod to her white mouth. A very strange look overall, but it's how I imagine my girlie would look if she was a people (are my Sailor Moon roots showing?).

Anyway, head on over there and vote for your favorite before next week! I had a hard time choosing who to vote for (despite boyface telling me to just vote for myself), I think all the entries look really cool :)

Hidden Treasure: maybe not so hidden anymore?

2011-07-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

Yes! I HAZ SALLY HANSEN HIDDEN TREASURE!!!

I heard Essie Braziliant polishes were on clearance at Rite Aid, and Revlon cosmetics are 40% off this week, so you can bet I spent some time there yesterday ... I didn't find any Braziliant at all, but lookie what I did find in the midst of the clearance polishes!

Sadly, it was not on clearance, and was nearly $8. What. Why is this drugstore brand selling for so much? You may have a new and improved formula, but why would I want to take your word for it when I could buy OPI for the same price??? But it was Hidden Treasure and I had no idea they were even still making HT so I grabbed it!

You've probably seen a million swatches of this polish and its twin Nubar 2010 all over the internet, but if you haven't, here's my official color description: Fire opal chipped into tiny flakes and mixed into a pale sheer gold nail polish. Ahhh, so beautiful!

I was just complaining to myself the other day that my Revlon Craving Coral pedicure I did on the 4th of July is still looking perfect and I'm bored with it ... so now I'm going to put HT over it :)

I'm also going to put it on my next manicure, maybe over Sinful Colors Verbena ... the possibilities are endless! I don't think there is a single color that would not look good under Hidden Treasure :)

ETA: Here it is: 1 thick coat over 2 coats of Verbena!

Stay Beautiful 500 follower giveaway

2011-07-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

Rocks my socks! We're talking Sleek, MUA, Barry M, Collection 2000 ... all kinds of English stuff I can't get here! Plus a few indie items, yay :D

Enter to WIN here!

HORRIBLE CHOICES tag!

2011-07-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

That's what I'm going to call this, since so many of them made me go "nnnooooo!!!" mNg over at I'm Not Skinny, So What? tagged me to do this would-you-rather thingy ... here are my responses!

1. Would you rather lose all of yourmascaras, eyeliners, lipsticks and lipglosses or lose all of yourpalettes and eye shadows?

Noooooooooo!!! Well, to be honest, Icould survive without eyeshadow, but not eyeliner or lipstick. Ithink they make a big difference to my overall appearance, whereaseyeshadow is more … an extra, you know?

2. Would you rather chop off all yourhair or never be able to cut it again?

D: another nooooooooooo!!! Um, never beable to cut it again, I guess. I like how long it is right now (allthe way down my back), and although it could use a bit more shapingit's not toooooo bland at the moment. ETA: The boy pointed out to me that the "never be able to cut" option means letting it grow and grow forever, not keep it as it is now forever. Derp! Oh well, I still choose "keep it as it is now, forever"

3. Would you rather have a coral cheekor a pink cheek?

I want to say pink, it just gives sucha pretty, windblown look compared to coral.

4. If you had $1000 to spend, would yourather buy clothes or makeup?

Gotta go with clothes! I'd seriouslyspend most of it at discount stores too, just to maximize that $1k!

5. Would you rather apply lipstick aseyeliner or eyeliner as lipstick?

Errrm … I guess lipstick as eyeliner,since I have purple lipsticks that'd be decent eyeliners, but noeyeliners I'd be okay with using on my lips!

I do not ever want to look like this!

6. Would you rather only shop at MAC orSephora?

Sephora, hands down. Not only do theyhave a variety of brands and price points, but products as well –skincare, perfume, tools, and of course makeup!

7. Would you rather use only oneeyeshadow color or one lip color the rest of your life?

Gahh! Well, I'll say eyeshadow (justdon't ask which one) … although I have one lipstick I turn to moreoften than the rest (Revlon Colorburst Soft Rose), I still love tochoose different ones for different looks!

8. Would you rather wear winter clothesin the summer or summer clothes in the winter?

Ha, I'm going to cheat and say summerclothes in winter, because … I generally do anyway! It doesn't getvery cold here in winter. Plus, I could just stay inside ...

9. Would you rather have dark nails orbright nails all year round?

Bright, for sure – I almost never dodark nails.

I love this blog and want to try to mimic this next week!

10. Would you rather only be able towear your hair in a pony tail or a messy bun?

Ew to both, I hate how my face lookswhen my hair is pulled back :( I'll go with ponytail though, you canglam up a ponytail but a messy bun would get old after a while.

11. Would you rather never be able topaint your nails again or never use lipgloss?

Lipgloss, not lipstick? I guess …hmm. This is a tough one, I may just have to say no more nail polish!I do have fun painting my nails but lipgloss can make me pretty andnail polish really is just for giggles.

12. Would you rather shave youreyebrows and have none at all? Or sharpie them in everyday?

Ew-ew-ew! Neither, PLEASE! Ugh, if IHAD to choose it'd be Sharpie, but for the love of anything, pleasenever make me actually choose D: I can't stand unnatural-lookingbrows, I think they're the quickest way to turn a pretty girl ugly!

13. Would you rather live withoutmakeup or nail polish?

Nail polish. Again, makeup makes such abig difference in appearance and therefore self-confidence, whilenail polish is just to make me smile!

I don't know exactly who has already been tagged, so can I please cheat and say that I tag anyone reading this who wants to do it? Kthanxbye ^.^

Gem of Roses Giveaway!

2011-07-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

MAC's newest collection, Semi Precious, had some hits and misses, but one of the standout, and then SOLDout, items is the strawberry-pink lipstick Gem of Roses.

Now $30+ on eBay, this lipstick appears to be universally flattering and a must-have for any girl (or guy)'s collection. Luckily for us, Wendy of Turtle Beauty is giving one away!

Enter to WIN here!

INCREDIBLE Hello Kitty Giveaway!!!

2011-07-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

Biggest ... Hello Kitty .... haul ... EVER!!!

Lipgloss Love Affair has been hinting about this giveaway for what seems like ages, building up the suspense - and the stash - til it reached epic proportions! Check out all that Hello Kitty stuff :O

I am entering this giveaway because my manfriend's best friend Suzy, who keeps buying me lots of stuff over in Holland and sending it to me, is a huge fan of Hello Kitty ... and while I did suggest she enter to win herself, I happen to have really good luck at winning stuff and I'm in the US, so I would be able to get the nail polish, too (and then have the boy bring it back to England with him in his luggage, because that's legal even though shipping it via airmail isn't. Whatever)!

Uh, anyway - enter to WIN here!!!

But please don't actually win. Because I want to. xD

Voting has begun!

2011-07-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

The nominations are in and the poll is up! Head over to Cinnamon Candies to vote in the Beauty Blog Awards, with categories ranging from Best EOTD/ FOTD Blog to Best Indie Make Up Company. And you'll notice some friends nominated me for Best Beauty Blog (awww! But as if! Lol) and my boyfriend voted for me xD

Cast your votes now, the poll will remain open until midnight July 24th!

Wearable trends: Orange Lips FOTD/ Tutorial

2011-07-10T23:40:00.000-07:00

Orange lips are still going strong, and this trend can be intimidating for a lot of us. What orange will I look good in? What do you wear with orange lips? What if I spend a million dollars on an orange lipstick and then it immediately goes out of style (no longer seems likely, but still)?

I've never worn orange much before, as it just hasn't ever looked good on me ... clothes, makeup, nail polish, I avoided orange at all costs. I have a few bits of orange in jewelry, but that was it until recently. Suddenly, everyone in the stylish world was obsessed with orange lips ... and I began to wonder if I could make it work for me, too.

I'm happy to report that orange can be very wearable! It's bold, it's fun, and as long as you pick one with the right undertones to complement, not clash, your skintone, it's completely wearable (for example, I needed a more reddish orange, not a yellow or pinkish one). It can also be very affordable - no, you don't need to buy the NARS gloss, you can just head to a drugstore and pick up some Revlon or Barry M! Here's my first FOTD with bold orange lips and slightly neutral, yet complementary-colored EOTD:

Sorry this pic is a bit out of focus :/

When trying to figure out what eye makeup would go well with a bright orange lip, I first thought "it had better be softer," or else I'd venture into dangerous clown territory. But then it was boring, so I thought, why not just do a pop of bright eyeliner, in a complementary color, and wear a bright blue top as well? I loved the way it turned out! ETA: Thanks, Yami, for pointing out that this look could also be considered colorblocking, another hot summer/ fall trend!

Can you see the double liner?

Here are the products I used (aside from foundation, etc):

Benefit Creaseless Cream (mini) in R.S.V.P. - this was my base for the look, I've found it can replace TFSI* and give a bit of extra depth to the colors for more neutral looks

Simply Naturals eyeshadow in Raw Sienna (DC*) - lid color

Silk Naturals eyeshadow in Bare Back - crease color

Lost in Makeupland highlighter in English Rose - browbone highlight, inner corners

Inaz Pigments shadow in Electricity - foiled* as liner

Physicians Formula gel liner, black with silver sparkle, from "Glam" green trio - line closer to eyes, under eyes

Urban Decay Lash Primer Potion - to prepare lashes

Physicians Formula mascara - as mascara (duh!)

Essence Smokey Eye brush for crease/ blending, resold angled liner brush to apply liners, and e.l.f. $1 eyeshadow brush for lid color

Revlon Colorburst lipstick in Coral all over lips and lipgloss in Papaya just in center of lips

And this is something new I'm trying: a color-by-numbers eye map to help explain the look! Photoshopped entirely by me, hence the slight awkwardness:

Does this make more sense than the photos? Is it redundant? Confusing? Too 80s? Super awesome? Let me know!

1 & 2 - Benefit Creaseless Cream or similar eyeshadow primer base

1 - Raw Sienna eyeshadow or lid color to match your skintone

2 - Bare Back eyeshadow or crease color slightly darker than your skintone

3 - Electricity pigment, foiled, or bright blue liner applied in thick winged shape

4 - Black with silver sparkle gel liner or similar black liner applied close to lashline on upper lid and halfway along lower lashline

I also think this type of look would be awesome with a purple lip and emerald green eyeliner - because in my mind, purple and green are complementary, not purple and yellow ...

HUGE Morgana Cryptoria Giveaway!!!

2011-07-10T22:11:00.000-07:00

The model for the new Morgana Cryptoria 1920's Lipstick Collection, Blix of Glitter is my Crack, is giving away the entire collection and some eyeshadows too!

Plus, she's giving away the jewelry she handmade for the photoshoot! Those pictures are insanely gorgeous :O

Enter to WIN here!