Urban Decay Naked Basics Review and Swatches

In the process of moving, I sorted through my makeups and got rid of things I don't (at least semi-) regularly use. This included theBalm Nude 'Tude, leaving a brown-neutral (matte) hole in my stash, which I decided to fill with Urban Decay's Naked Basics. (Urban Decay just released Naked2 Basics, which I have not seen in person. It claims to be a cooler-toned version to Naked Basics, but swatches online suggest it doesn't have the same range of depth as the original, so while I love cool-toned neutrals, it's not calling to me particularly strongly.)

Naked Basics is UD's matte companion to the more glitter-tastic full Naked palettes, none of which I own. Basics includes 5 matte shades and one shimmer (Venus), with 3 pale highlighting-type shades. It is definitely not a palette that everyone will find useful (though the denizens of the internet review sites certainly seem to like it), as you have to like mattes and light shades, but I find it to be a very valuable addition to my stash.

Shiseido Luminizing Satin Eye Color Trio in RD711 Pink Sands Review and Swatches

HSN sent me a $10 off coupon for no reason at all, but I'm not one to ignore free money, so I used it to pick up a Shiseido eyeshadow trio after having heard nothing but raves. (Oddly, though, now all the Shiseido stuff is gone from their website! How peculiar.) I chose Pink Sands, because I don't have enough neutralish palettes, I guess? I wanted something I would get a lot of wear out of, anyways.

Beautiful untouched pans!

MAC Viva Glam V Review and Swatches

Larie threw this in with my order from her blog sale awhile back, because she is generosity incarnate :) I have many lippies, but few nudes, as they tend to make me look dead, but I thought Viva Glam V, which has been hailed as "universal", might work. And so it does!

Too Faced Boudoir Eyes Soft and Sexy Eye Shadow Collection Review and Swatches

Look! I'm reviewing something that's not a lippie! *pats self on back* I picked this up during Sephora's F&F because I wanted a cool-toned palette of "neutrals", since I gravitate towards those shades during winter and felt a lack in my collection.

Influenster Jolly VoxBox Review and Swatches

I signed up for Influenster in August and proceeded to not log-in again for another, um, 3 months. Somehow, they still thought I was a good candidate for the Jolly VoxBox (I'm great at filling out questionnaires!), so I gleefully received these goodies (for free, but all opinions are my own! Which you could probably figure out on your own after reading my comments, as they are not all favorable...):

Puffs Plus Lotion tissue 10-pack* 

(though the card in my box says I should have received 

the lotion-free kind, I'm not complaining)

These tissues are a welcome addition to my purse, now that we are solidly in winter cold season. They're soft, smell vaguely medicinal, and are very very lightly moisturizing, enough to keep my nose from getting chapped from nose-blowing. I can't say I would purchase them myself, because I am extremely cheap when it comes to some things (like tissues, for example) and would never opt for brand name when store brands are the same thing, but I'm certainly happy to have these!

theBalm Nude 'Tude

I picked this up from Birchbox several months ago when I had a coupon. I'd heard good things about it, and I was wanting a replacement for my Too Faced Natural Eye, which has deteriorated in the pigmentation department over the years.

Guerlain Écrin 4 Couleurs 06 Les Fumés Review and Swatches

I bought this from Tracy during her blog sale for $44 including shipping, which is more than 25% off the full price. It's still rather more than I would normally spend, but I wanted something compact and pretty for the conference. (Ironically, it was so hot that I only did my eye makeup one day out of the 4, but hey, best to be prepared?) Now that I have it, I see myself getting a lot of use out of it for school––between my new hair and the classy eyes this palette creates, I'm gonna get mad respect from my students.

Which is clearly warranted.

Manicure Monday

It's quite remarkable how much work there is to do before leaving the country for a month––who knew?! So even though I had topics for Sunscreen and Skincare Saturday, neither ended up happening. Whoops! But here's a couple more of the Color Club Halo Hues shades, taken with my phone because that's what all the cool kids do, right? Right.

Starting with the less-good picture, here's Color Club Miss Bliss. It's a pink holo, very pigmented and holographic, with noticeably lilac undertones. It's very pretty, quite girly, and have I mentioned the rainbows?!

2 coats

Sleek Original i-Divine Palette Review and Swatches

At some point in the last couple years (which was the last time I'd checked, ha), Sleek Makeup of the UK changed their shipping prices such that they're now insanely affordable for us here in the US, so I decided to order from them after finishing last term's finals. (Does anyone else find that stress –> makeup explosion? The past few weeks have definitely attested to that reality in my life, ha.) I wanted a ton of stuff, but managed to restrain myself to just this one palette, as I was wanting an injection of color into my eyeshadow collection. And color, this provides!

Inglot Freedom Palette Eyeshadow in 32, 352, 415, 428, 439 and Matte Eyeshadow Single in 391 Review and Swatches

When Inglot had their 20% off sale, I decided it was time to finally try out the brand. I spent days researching swatches and narrowing down my choices, and managed to convince L to split an order with me so we didn't have to pay for shipping, but when I went to place my order, the code was no longer working. My theory is that they were overwhelmed by the response, so they deactivated the code before they said they would, but I am a cynical person so take that with a grain of salt. However, when I tweeted them angrily, they told me to email their customer service, which I did, and a few days later I received a code for 30% off an order. Yay for additional savings, boo for delayed customer service response and hassle. Putting that tale of woe aside, though, here are my thoughts on the product itself.

Inglot 352, 32, 415, 428, 439, and 391

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Barely Beige Review and Swatches

Part of Maybelline's LE Fashion Week collection were a few new shades of Color Tattoo cream eyeshadows, including a shimmery champagne. I don't find myself wearing the other Color Tattoo I have (Bad to the Bronze) all that often because it's a little dark and really only works if I wear it as a base to a smoky taupe eye, but I bought Barely Beige in the hopes that it could be a good eyeshadow base/quick and easy nude eye.

Maybelline Barely Beige Color Tattoo

Neutral Eyes: Quick Reviews of Urban Decay Shadow Pencils in Juju and Sin and Hourglass Visionaire Eyeshadow Duo in Gypsy

I wanted to get my thoughts on Urban Decay's shadow pencils up before the end of the giveaway (extended through Memorial Day! Go enter if you haven't!), but didn't feel like doing a full review and happened to have swatches of Hourglass Gypsy that I needed to do something with, so...here's a quick combo review!

Juju (left),
Sin (right)

Urban Decay's eyeliners are cult favorites (I have Mildew and Rockstar, and love the former [the latter is a bit too glittertastic]), so everybody was pretty psyched when they came out with bigger shadow pencils. I picked up the 5 pack they'd released for the holidays when it was on super-sale and kept the two lighter neutrals for myself (the others are here), and have been using them on and off for the past couple months.

Juju (top), Sin (bottom)

Sin is a shimmery light champagne, and Juju is a shimmery taupe. They're pretty firm, so I just swipe it all over my lid and then blend to soften the edges. On their own, they crease and fade pretty badly on my oily lids, but they last ~8 hours over TFSI, and longer if I top them with powder shadow.

Sin blended all over lid, Juju blended in crease

They do need to be sharpened, but I've gotten a lot of wear out of them without needing to do so yet (the only reason I did was to test and make sure it could be sharpened before writing this review, and yes, it can––I used the larger hole in the $2 Revlon sharpener I have to no ill effects). I wouldn't pay $20 for one, but I'm very pleased to have the ones I do! Grade: B (if you get them for cheap, A-)
$20 for 0.10 oz, available from Sephora and Urban Decay

Fyrinnae Swatches, Part I

Welp, I finally got around to swatching all of the Fyrinnae samples from my order. I'm sorry it took so long! I had some issues figuring out how to best get Pixie Epoxy to work (more on that in a bit), and I had to get enough work done to feel like I had the time to slather my arm in pigments. But the long-awaited day has finally arrived! Confetti! Cheers! Alcohol!

Left to right: Nijiro, Rapunzel Had Extensions, Platinum, Koala, Arcane Magic Evocation, Arcane Magic Sorceress, Arcane Magic Raven's Prophecy

I've decided to break the shadows into at least two posts (considering a third on Pixie Epoxy), so this first batch is the non-Arcane Magic shadows, aka the first 4 from the left in the picture above.

L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow in Bronzed Taupe and Iced Latte Review and Swatches

Warning: this is a really wordy post. I have been lusting after these shadows for many, many months, ever since they released abroad last year, and I am so frickin' excited that they're available in the States now. This excitement manifests itself as verbal (or textual?) diarrhea, so: you've been warned.

Bronzed Taupe (left) and Iced Latte (right)

Anyways. Why would I want these so badly, you ask? (You did ask, right? That wasn't my imagination? Guys? Right?) Well, you may recall that last year, Giorgio Armani released a new eyeshadow formula, Eyes to Kill, which had the blogosphere all lit up with excitement. These shadows are pressed loose pigment (I know, weird) with intense pigmentation, metallic shine, amazing wear, and the most gorgeous marbled look. They are also $32 apiece, and therefore not something I can purchase lightly. Shortly thereafter, L'Oreal (which is owned by the same company as Armani) released a budget version, available only overseas and in Canada. The consensus seems to be that the quality of these is about on par with the Armani Eyes to Kill, but the colors are less complex (which makes sense, as the L'Oreal versions don't have the beautiful marbling color mix that the Armani do).

Why did it take so long for them to release them in the US? Psychological torture is my guess, but really, who knows. They've finally seen the error of their ways, though, and Infallible eyeshadow started trickling into US stores late last year and are now becoming available at the major drugstores. I think they've been available at Fred Meyer (and Meijer, and Harmons/Bed Bath and Beyond) for awhile now, but I didn't make my way over to the nearest Fred Meyer until a couple weeks ago. Fortunately, they had most of the colors, and I was able to pick up the two I knew I had to have to start with: Bronzed Taupe and Iced Latte. They were $8 each, BOGO1/2 off, so they ended up being $6 apiece, which given the quality and quantity is quite a deal! These are also available at Walgreens, Rite Aid (for $8, and are currently on sale BOGO1/2 off), and Ulta (probably CVS as well, but we don't have CVS around here, so I'm not positive).

Okay, wow, I really need to learn to get to the point. Here's hoping you find my rambliness charming...

Currently Coveting: Too Faced Natural at Night Sexy & Sultry Neutral Eye Shadow Collection

Currently Coveting is a near-daily feature on products that look interesting, whether new releases, cult classics, or anything in between!

image via Sephora

I stumbled across this while browsing Sephora (not even to buy, just to look...yes, I have problems) and immediately knew I had to share it with you! I love my Too Faced Natural Eye palette, which is the warmer counterpart to the TF Naked Eye palette in Too Faced's arsenal of neutral eyeshadows. They are now joined by Natural at Night, which seems to have some more unconventional neutrals, including pinks and greens, and I'm really interested to swatch it in-store (since my local Sephora is inside JCPenney, and they actually carry the complete Too Faced palette line!).

Here are the promotional pictures for the other two neutral palettes for comparison purposes:

Naked Eye Soft & Sexy (left) and Natural Eye (right) Neutral Eye Shadow Collections, images via Sephora

$36 for 0.39 oz, available from Sephora

Urban Decay Rollergirl Palette Review and Swatches

I picked up several things during the Sephora F&F sale, including this palette from Urban Decay.  Originally released this summer, I wanted it from the first time I saw it on Temptalia, but I knew it would eventually go on sale, so I bided my time.  I've never tried any Urban Decay eyeshadows, but the Naked palette has gotten such rave reviews that I've been wanting to for a long time.  Luckily for me, on sale did it go, and with my 20% off code, I picked it up for a mere $14.40.  Happy days!

Closed Rollergirl palette (gloss not shown, obviously)