Two of my purchases from Seoul were these Glam Rock Urban Shadows from Too Cool for School. I got a dirty olive in a satin finish (13 Viva Green) and a frosty light peach (3 Peach Glow). They are very easy colors to wear, apply, and pair together. The texture of the shadows is smooth, but not so soft and buttery that it goes all over the place. They crease on me without a primer, but so do all other eyeshadows, except for Ellis Faas Creamy Eyes.
I’ve been running behind on unboxing posts for the Le Métier de Beauté Beauty Vault VIP, a monthly subscription box for the brand. (Not that anyone looks forward to these, amirite?) They are on their second year of the program, and I’ve got to admit that it just keeps getting better! For a subscription program that requires subscribers to pay upfront for the entire year, expectations are understandably high. Luckily, we’ve been getting awesome products (see other unboxing posts here), the only hitch being their sometimes slow and inadequate responses to customer service queries. For September, the second month of the sub as shipments start getting mailed out in August, the product is the Peau Vierge Anti-Aging Complexe, a tinted base that provides “sheer natural-looking coverage for instant smoothing and perfecting.” It can be used as a standalone (very sheer!) foundation or as a luminous base under other foundations.
I haven’t quite been able to keep up with my One Week series, mostly because I’ve been enjoying rotating my old and new products. I figured that I had to get around to using some of my sets and palettes that I haven’t been touching eventually. Here are a couple of looks that I came up with using my bareMinerals Degrees of Dazzling set (reviewed here). This came out last Christmas/holiday, so I don’t know if this is annoying that I’m posting about it. I don’t know, I pretty much believe that you can recreate most looks with whatever you have. (Which is probably a bit weird coming from a self-confessed hoarder, but you must admit that I do have a point.) Ahem. I picked this “palette” to work with because I wanted to explore and play a bit more with colors, and my goal is to use at least 3/4 or 15 of the 20 shades in this collection. Unlike my previous One Week series posts, I chose to go the full week and …
Sonia Kashuk was one of the drugstore brands I was most looking forward to trying when I went to the States. Unfortunately, none of the items I wanted to try out—except for the cream bronzer, which I decided I didn’t need more of—were in stock at the places I went to… so I picked this palette up instead, thinking it was a good move to stray away from my usual neutrals. Unfortunately (again), the Sonia Kashuk Precious Gems Eye Palette is not the best representation of the brand. The six-pan palette features jewel tones, of which the green was best performing, imparting color without much effort. I can’t say the same for the others. For the swatches below, I kind of mangled the palette and applied them on my arm really heavily. My palette now resembles an ice cube tray of colorful molten lava. Swatched, L-R: Green, Blue, Red, Gold, Purple, Brown — these aren’t the color names, FYI.
As far as high-end, truly luxury makeup goes, Cle de Peau has always been off the table for me. I don’t think I can live with myself if I spent $60 on a single sheer lipstick. As it happened… I was at Barneys one day and made heart eyes at the new eye color quad display for Fall 2014. And then, I blacked out and ended up with one of the quads. Or, I guess I should say, one of the refills. Like I said, CdP is very much “up there” when it comes to pricing. After I came to terms with spending $50 (plus tax!!!) on an eyeshadow quad, the lady asked me if I was interested in the $25 case. Ex-squeeze me?? I don’t think so, pushy SA who shall remain nameless. The mechanism of the refill is a “pop in” instead of magnetism. Which means that these aren’t going to stick to your Z-palettes by themselves. So, I’ve been keeping the quad in its plastic shell and box… like someone who has …
Just an interlude from the Wes posts (I’ll just be posting two more): an actual review! You know when you’re “not collecting” things, but you have one or two things missing from your “non-collection” and it just seems wrong not to get the last one? Well… That’s what happened here. MAKE Colour, a New York based brand that I am pretty much in love with, currently has four palettes, three of which I already had… which left the New Medieval Palette. This was what I originally wanted when I discovered MAKE (though this was the only one they had out at the time, if I remember correctly), so I kind of had my heart set on it already anyway. Sidenote Check out my other reviews for the Aether Palette*, Post-Impressionism Palette, Celeste e Verde Palette*. True to the direction of their other collections, this MAKE palette, created by Faye Toogood in collaboration with Ayami Nishimura, draws inspiration from specific sources, in this case the “Romantic landscapes” of J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. This is probably …
Slicking on one eyeshadow on your lid isn’t an entirely new concept for the lazy girl. In fact, before you (we) went off the deep end of the makeup world, that’s what you (we) probably did. So, I’m here to show you some of my favorite singles to put all over my lid when I’m feeling particularly rushed or stumped. Before I begin, here is Liz’s take and here is Bea’s. Here are just a few… by which I mean, most eyeshadows will work for this purpose anyway. I love the type of shades that actually have dimension, though, and these ones are quite effortless to wear. Swatched, L-R: MAC Groundwork, MAC Constructivist, Oslo Vela, shu uemura ME medium brown 885, Rouge Bunny Rouge Abyssinian Catbird, Le Métier de Beauté Alexandrite, & Other Stories Percaline Khaki, Addiction by Ayako Fudge MAC Groundwork – my favorite colored eyeshadow base that, fortuitously, can be worn alone, too. It’s definitely a go-to eye color, both as a base and as a shade itself. MAC Constructivist – darker than …
Softly Sometimes 