Some Random Polish Swatches

I'm not wearing polish on my nails for the time being while I use Nailtiques on them to try and make them not suck, but I have some swatches from before my self-imposed polish absence that I don't care enough about to write individual posts for, but that I would nonetheless like to be able to get off my computer, so I figured I would just throw them at you! And use a really long sentence to do so!

Essence Where Is The Party?

How it looks in the bottle most
of the time

The name of this polish makes me laugh, because you would never hear it said like that (except by ESL speakers, which I would guess the namers of this polish are, since Essence is a German company). It sounds so formal! So funny how little things like not contracting sounds so weird (even though I wrote that sentence, I was still momentarily confused by the status of "sounds". I've clearly spent too much time linguisting...).

And how it looks in the bottle at an angle!

How it looks in head-on light

Crazy color shift!

Anyways. Linguistic entertainment aside, this is a pretty cool polish. It was the first duochrome I got, though I've actually yet to wear it as a full mani. It's a purple-green duochrome, and shifts from being a rich purple head-on to being a softer grey-purple that shifts to green in different light. It's got a slightly frosty finish, so you do have to be a bit careful about applying, but it's not really high-maintenance. It's a little thick, too, so you have to let it dry between coats if you ever want it to fully dry, but for a buck, I can't complain! I think this was 3 coats, but it's been awhile, so I'm not sure. You can get Essence at Ulta and Fred Meyer, as far as I know, though there may be other retailers, and from drugstores in Germany (and possibly elsewhere in Europe?).

Best Affordable Makeup Brushes

See the updated version here!

Note: I considered breaking this down into a Tip Tuesday and Recommendation Thursday, but ultimately decided it would be more trouble than it was worth to try and separate them in a way that still made them make sense.  As a result, this post is really long (and it took me so many hours to write, I don't even want to think about it), but I've tried to organize it in such a way that you can find specific parts easily and skip what doesn't interest you.  I'll be including reviews for the brushes in my collection under their respective categories, so keep an eye out for those.

My makeup brush collection is frighteningly large.  They all fit in a coffee mug (because I'm too cheap to buy an actual brush holder, duh), but only barely!  I've been amassing my collection over the past few years, and have finally decided to post about them so you can hopefully learn from my experience (and I from yours!).  This brush is dedicated to L, whose prompting inspired me to actually get around to a) washing and b) photographing my brushes, neither of which is very labor-intensive, but I'm just so lazy I'd never gotten around to it.

Okay, crash course on why makeup brushes matter: Using quality tools to apply your makeup will ensure you get the most out of your products, or, put more accurately, using bad brushes will make even the nicest makeup look and behave like crap.  Regardless of whether you use high- or low-end cosmetics, you want to get the most out of your collection, and good brushes are a vital part of that.

So, what makes a brush good?

E.L.F. Cream Eyeshadow in Dawn Review and Swatches

I went upstate last weekend to visit the family for Labor Day, and managed to convince my brother to stop at Kmart on the way up so I could pick up a few things.  One such thing was this cream eyeshadow from E.L.F.'s studio line.  I was drawn in by the neutral shimmery brown, and have been wanting to try a cream eyeshadow (the only other one I've ever used was not very successful), so plunked down the $3 for it.  Following, my thoughts.

Dawn in window sunlight

E.L.F. Essential Beauty School Eyelid Primer Collection Review and Swatches

I've been playing with the three primers that came in the adorable little primer set I snagged at Target the past few days, and thought it was time to share some of my observations.

E.L.F. Primer Preview

I'm still testing my new E.L.F. primers for wear and effect which will take another few days, but here are some swatches to whet your appetite before a full review:

Left to right: Pearl, Nude, and Champagne primers

Top to bottom: Pearl, Champagne, Nude alone; topped with Silk Teddy; topped with Insane Jane; topped with Sexpresso

Whee!

E.L.F. Review and Swatches

E.L.F., short for Eyes Lips Face, is a super-cheap makeup brand available at some Targets and online.  My biggest gripe with them is that shipping is $7, which is completely absurd, so I've only ordered from them a couple of times, when they happened to have 50% off coupons (which is quite often; you can check at Retail Me Not for current discounts) which saved me an amount equivalent to shipping (so I ended up just paying retail).  I haven't tried very much from them, but some of the things I've tried I do really like.