ModelCo Eye Shadow Trio in Smokey Eye Review and Swatches

Another eyeshadow palette! This one was a gift from Larie, and fills the black-smoky-eye hole in my collection.

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.

L'Oreal Infallible Gilded Envy and Infinite Sky Review and Swatches

I picked these up a while back when Rite Aid had 40% off L'Oreal and I felt like injecting some new sparkle to my eye collection. I love Bronzed Taupe, though I don't find the Infallible formula to be ironclad like others do, but I always wear eyeshadow primer anyways, so whatever. Gilded Envy and Infinite Sky are both very different from anything else in my stash, at least!

Gilded Envy is a crazy pewter-olive-grey-sage-whatthefuck glittery reflective pile of amazing.

macros r us

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!

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.

Urban Decay Deluxe Palette Quick Review and Swatches

I said I would review this once I had some EOTDs using it, but I have decided to just post this now since it's being discontinued but is still available at Sephora and Urban Decay and I don't know how long it will last. And I have one EOTD, which is something, I guess? (I know y'all stop by for some quality blogging, and I am clearly here to deliver...)

30 Days: Day 21

I buckled down and spent the couple hours needed to swatch my eyeshadow collection, in large part for my own benefit, but hey also 30 Days! According to my spreadsheet (you can't go about these things lackadaisically, after all), I have 77 eyeshadows, including cream and those in palettes. Though after doing this swatchathon, I have decided to discard several of them, and if I ever get around to depotting my shadows, yet more may go the way of the dodo. But at this moment in time, here are all of my eyeshadows. Enjoy, I guess?

Key
Guerlain = Guerlain Écrin 4 Couleurs 06 Les Fumés
Inglot = this post
Sleek = Sleek Original i-Divine Palette; numbers are assigned from left to right, top to bottom (1 = top far left, 7 = bottom far left, 5 = top second from right, etc.)
TT = Tarina Tarantino Jewel Eyeshadow Palette Fantastical
theBalm = theBalm Nude 'Tude, which will be reviewed once I can get past my issues with the packaging (or decide to share my rant with the world, whichever ends up happening first)
TF = Too Faced Natural Eye Neutral Eye Shadow Collection
UDD = Urban Decay Deluxe Palette, which will be reviewed once I take some pictures of EOTDs using it
UDR = Urban Decay Rollergirl
WNW CZ = Wet N Wild Comfort Zone
All others will be linked in their respective captions; all labels are from left to right.
All swatches are two layers on primed skin, unless otherwise noted, and all pictures are clickable––I uploaded them full size (not the usual 800 pixels), so you can see more detail.

Black

Inglot 391, Sleek 1, theBalm Serious, UDD Zero

Inglot 391 is by far the most pigmented; that's a single swipe of each shadow. Zero is the only one with shimmers. Sleek 1 and Serious both fared quite poorly, but Serious got mostly opaque with a second layer, while Sleek 1 did not (see below); Zero built up nicely, and I didn't add anything to the Inglot because it was not needed.

poor Sleek.

I rarely use black in my eye looks because it's so dramatic against my pale skin, but I should evidently use Sleek 1 if I don't want to overwhelm myself, ha!

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.

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 EOTDs

These are a little belated, as I'm generally pretty harried in the morning so I don't remember to take photos, but I managed to get my act together 3 days, so here they are! I've made note of what I wore where; all looks feature lashes curled courtesy of Shiseido's lash curler and Maybelline Full N Soft mascara.

Look 1: The Pretty Peacock
Maybelline Barely Beige Color Tattoo as base, Inglot 352 all over, 415 above the crease, 428 in the crease and outer corner, 391 along lash line. I like this because it's colorful without being over-the-top, and I love how the duochrome in 415 makes it look like I'm wearing green in it, too!

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

Wet N Wild Petal Pusher Color Icon Palette Review and Swatches

While this is the second purple palette I'm reviewing, it was the first to join my stash. I picked it up when I was contemplating making color a regular addition to my eye looks, and figured for $2.99 (on sale) it would be hard to go wrong. And, while I ended up buying another palette (Tarina Tarantino Fantastical) as well, Petal Pusher has not been entirely pushed aside (bahaha). It does, however, have its issues...

The palette has two sides, each split into browbone, eyelid, crease, and definer (which they say is meant to be used along the lashline).

On the left, the browbone is a sheer white-pink shimmer with blue shift. It has a nice texture, not too powdery, and the sheerness means it can be worn as a highlight without looking overly bright or weird. The eyelid is a satin-finish mauve with subtle gold iridescence, though it looks matte at first glance/before being used. It's a very pretty color, but it requires a ton of product to show up (even on my super-pale eyelids!). The crease shade is a neutral-cool purple shimmer, cooler than it looks in the arm swatch above. It's got decent pigmentation and isn't too loosely packed, so it's easy to build up without worrying about overapplying, though it could be a bit softer. The definer is a semi-chunky glitter mix of silver and blue in a cornflower blue sheer base. It's pretty sheer, not to mention the fallout from the glitter, but I find it works fine layered over other shades for some extra glitz and shine (and it doesn't suffer from much fallout after application). Here's an EOTD using the shades; I placed them as recommended by the palette, though I brushed the definer shade over the crease shade rather than along the lash line.

On the right, the browbone is a high frost pale lavender-pink. It is entirely too shiny for me to want to wear it on my browbone, but the pigmentation and texture are wonderful and I like to wear it on my inner lid to add some glitz. The eyelid shade is a warm coppery mauve shimmer with mediocre pigmentation, though the texture is fine. The crease shade is a blackened red-brown with shimmer, and the definer is a black with silver shimmer. The crease shade has good pigmentation, while the definer leaves something to be desired. My problem with the two shades is that a) once they're blended out, they look basically identical, b) they're too soft, and whenever I've tried to use them I've kicked up way too much product, and c) blending makes all the pretty shimmer go away! ((c) is a bit of a corollary of (a), but it irks me enough I wanted to mention it separately.)

I make use of the left browbone, eyelid, and crease shades, usually wearing them as suggested, though I also like the crease shade with other shadows in my collection, and the lid shade is also nicely versatile. On the right side, I'll use the browbone as an accent on my lid, as I find it to be too light and shimmery for much else, and occasionally I'll wear the eyelid shade in a warmer look. I pretty much steer entirely clear of the bottom two right shades and use the bottom left shade only sparingly. But hey, 5 shades ain't bad!

I think this palette is a good choice if you:
-are on a budget
-like softer shadow colors
-have light-to-medium skin (I think the lighter shades will look chalky on darker skins, if they show up at all)

I'm happy having it in my collection, but when I strike it rich I'll buy the same shades from, say, Inglot, and kiss this palette goodbye. Until then, purple onward!

Overview
$4.99 for 0.30 oz, available from drugstores

Quality: 7.5
Effectiveness: 3.5 (supposed to have "high pigment and pearl for ultra-impact color", which is overstating things)
Ease of Use: 4
Senses: 5
Pigmentation: 3.5
Duration: 3.5 (it does fade over the day, alas, and creases after a few hours without primer, and after ~7 hours with primer)
Consistency: 3.25
Price: 5
Value: 5
Grade: B-

What do you think of Petal Pusher? Have you tried any Wet N Wild palettes? What did you think?

Tarina Tarantino Jewel Eyeshadow Palette in Fantastical Review and Swatches

Another birthday purchase! I bought this one after much research and consultation with other beauty nerds, and I must thank Larie for suggesting Tarina Tarantino to me (not to mention encouraging me to wear color!). Purple is a color that I feel comfortable wearing on my eyes, unlike, say, lime green, and I thought it would be a nice way to dip my toes into non-neutral shadows. Read on for more thoughts!

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

30 Days: Day 9

Well, I guess one of these posts every 6 weeks or so means I'll be done with this series in...another 3 years, ok. I should probably step up the pace if I actually want to have any hope of finishing it! (If you're not familiar with the series, see my original post here, though I'm not following Magi-Mania's prompts too strictly!).

Show us your (powder) eyeshadow collection!
I wear glasses and am effectively blind when applying eye makeup, so I tend to rely on neutral staples when I wear eyeshadow. As such, my collection is pretty boring by most bloggers' standards, but it serves my purposes very well! I sometimes think I should cut down on it, because I just don't wear eyeshadow that often, but I like them all...

Le Métier de Beauté Pure Color Eyeshadow in Corinthian Review and Swatches

After having seen review after review extolling the virtues of this shadow, I knew I needed to buy it for myself, so it was one of the few items I picked up in New York. But seriously, how was I supposed to restrain myself in the face of this:

It's TAUPE!

And AWESOME!

More Product Mini Reviews

Hey hey, it's time for another post of mini-reviews! I got to try a lot of products during my New York visit, thanks to L's impressive collection, and will remark on them in a succincter-than-usual fashion. I've decided to post this rather than a monthly favorites/empties (or Skincare Saturday, for that matter, though there are several skincare products here), mostly because I'm sick and don't have the energy to write a new post. Here they are, in no particular order:

Philosophy The Microdelivery Exfoliating Wash

$25 for 8 oz, available from Sephora

This is a very nice, gentle exfoliator. I only used it the one time, since I spent 4 out of 6 of my nights at Z's, but I found it to do its job without unnecessary irritation. I'm not sure I'd want to spend that much myself, especially since I have my Clarisonic which takes care of my physical exfoliation needs, but if you don't have a Clarisonic and want something mild to exfoliate, Microdelivery is definitely worth checking out!

Fyrinnae Swatches, Part II

And here's the second part of my Fyrinnae order! You can find part one here. These are all Arcane Magic shadows, which are duochrome, so naturally I had to get a few. I don't even want to talk about how long it took me to narrow down which ones to order...

The rightmost 3 are featured in this post: Evocation, Sorceress, and Raven's Prophecy.

Evocation was a natural pick, since hello, it's DUOCHROME TAUPE! *flails* It's a neutral taupe base that color shifts from rose to green. It is awesome. The duochrome shift isn't crazy dramatic, so it doesn't swamp the taupiness of the shadow, but it is still there, giving a bit of a kick. This is the one shade that I've actually tried to wear on my eyes; it's...still a work in progress (see below).

Evocation looking rosy and very similar to Koala (I had a dickens of a time figuring out which swatch was which!)...