Hello, Lovlies! I'm back! I'm sure this comes as no surprise, but I've been on a buy / sell / swap bender the last few weeks, and I have some new acquisitions to rave about!!
Tarte - Be MatteNificent Palette
I ordered one of these for a gal in the UK, as she wasn't able to get it over there. I didn't open hers, but for whatever reason (probably that I read it was limited edition, and something primal took over), it stuck with me, and I decided to buy it for myself. I ordered directly from
Tarte Cosmetics, and received it in what seemed like an instant!! I'm pretty sure I audibly gasped when I opened up the box, as the cover is GORGEOUS!!
My crap photography equipment can't capture the radiant beauty of this palette, unfortunately. I was even more excited when I opened, and subsequently started using the gorgeous palette of matte, subtle neutrals. They are super creamy (they are powders, not creams, but are so finely milled as to feel creamy!), they are really, really well pigmented! The shadows go on like a dream, and blend effortlessly.
I had been finding it difficult to replicate some of the looks I come across in my travels, particularly, the light eyelid, darker-yet-still-subtle crease color and had not quite mastered keeping the outer "V" color from turning everything into a muddy shit-show. Not any more!!! This palette allows me to accomplish the look I just described. Sure, I could probably have done it with something else, but this gorgeous, buttery palette made things so much easier! And sooooo pretty!
Again, I don't have the technology to really capture the beauty of the colors here, but you get the idea. Do a Google Image Search - you'll see what I'm talking about.
As if all of that weren't enough, it has a fantastic mirror in it! It's the size of the palette itself, not one of these hinky, tiny things you have to squish your face into for it to be usable! It also comes with a functional brush, a double-ended dealie - neither end is that cursed sponge-applicator shit, either!!
This beautiful thing was $36 and worth every single cent!! I will be loving this palette long time!
theBalm - Mary-LouManizer
I picked this up in a swap (I think), on a whim. theBalm seems to be a very popular brand, and I'm fairly certain I hadn't yet tried anything from them yet. In pictures on the web, the Mary-LouManizer didn't look like much. Frankly, it looked like a bronzer, which I'm not a fan of, personally. Who knows why I grabbed this one, but I am always on the hunt for highlighters that show up, don't shower me with glitter, aren't chalky, and are in powder form, so I figured I'd give it a shot, ahving previously tried liquid / cream highlighters, with a very "meh" result. It became apparent that I needed the control you get with a powder and brush, versus trying to pat the liquid on, then racing to try to blend it out before it set (and left me with blobs of patchy highlighter).
This stuff is AMAZEBALLS! It is divine! Perfectly hued, perfectly balanced shimmer in a very silky pressed powder format. It looks absolutely stunning on, and gives that "I'm on a romantic date, bathed in candlelight, and I'm going to get lucky later!" glow. It's glimmery! No chunky glitter, no harsh pigmentation - just a lovely, subtle, ever-so-slightly gold shimmer.
Here's what it looks like when you swipe your finger across it. Now, imagine the subtle sweep of shimmer you'd get by applying it with a big, fluffy brush. It's really, really, VERY lovely! I'm fairly frothing over it. Might be my "hnnnng, HG, go-to" highlighter! And of course, now I simply have to try out at least one of the others, Betty-LouManizer or Cindy-LouManizer. Leaning towards the Betty-Lou, as I just looked at swatches of it, and for summer, it would be divine!!
The -LouManizers are $24 on
theBalm Cosmetics' website, and very much worth it! Treat yourself to one of the girls today!
MAC Pro Lip Palette in 6 Select Plums
Now, I know this blog is supposed to focus on drugstore cosmetics, but I seem to be swinging like a pendulum between DS and mid to high-end stuff these days. A lady likes to have nice (read: too expensive!) things, right?
One of the banes of my existence is mixing spirits and online shopping. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a damn 12-step program for this "affinity" pretty soon. One vodka-infused evening, I decided it was time to grab some MAC products, since the last time I bought anything MAC was about ....too long ago! Let me share an important tip with you, while I'm on the subject -- if you aren't totally sure what your foundation shade is, I don't recommend winging it. I ordered a Studio Fix powder along with the lip palette (and whatever the hell else I impulse-purchased that night) and it was just horribly wrong for me, and I seriously don't know WTF I was thinking. I also realized I didn't have a clue how the MAC foundation naming conventions worked, and ended up with a pressed powder that was way too dark and so very wrong for me. Sad panda is sad.
Anyway...As if in some sort of "balancing of the universe"thing, the lip palette I purchased was a fantastic acquisition!! Sure, I didn't
neeeeed six more plum-like shades, but "need" is such a subjective word, and it was so pretty and I wanted it!! Additionally, there were a couple of shades (Cyber, Twig and Hang Up) that I wanted to try, and this seemed like a far more fiscally responsible option, versus purchasing three (or more, who am I kidding) full-sized lipsticks at $20-something bucks a pop.
I'm pretty much thrilled with this, and it was worth the $40, for sure. I have been able to try out, and mix and match not just the three colors I was interested in, but was also able to try out three more that I didn't know I needed, ha ha. If you're familiar with MAC at all, you already know their lipsticks are pretty awesome. They're gloriously pigmented, smooth to apply, I find that they aren't particularly prone to bleeding, and they wear very well - and I'm someone who is either chewing on my lips, talking, drinking something, puffing on something, etc. These even work well without lipliner, which is a huge plus, in my opinion. Surprisingly, because each pan is relatively firm, I'm finding that these apply best with the tip of my ring finger, versus a brush. The heat from my finger melts them just the tiniest bit, and alleviates me having to mash a lip brush around in there. I didn't want to much up the palette by having to dig into the pans, because I'm odd like that. So, as serendipity would have it, they do better via the fingertip application. I just swipe the very tip of fingertip gently over whatever color I want to use, then dot it on within the lines of my lips. If I'm feeling really fancy, I can pair it with lip liner and/or blend with a lip brush.
I also love the fact that these don't have a scent. I recently received a Kat von D "Foiled Love" lipstick, which I'll review later, and remembered that "lipstick" smell everything used to have in the 80s or whatever. You know the one - that kind of plastic-y, nondescript smell-taste? Not my bag. Getting back to the palette, the colors are, from top left to right, top row: Twig, Captive; middle row: Verve, Amorous; bottom row: Hang Up, Cyber. Hang Up and Cyber are probably my favorites - rich, vibrant plums in different hues, and they look fabulous paired together! Cyber is a very deep aubergine with a satin finish. Hang Up is a more violet-tinged burgundy and has a bit more shine to the finish. The other three colors are lighter, more in the "lady in springtime" pink family, versus the "terrible frosty pink we all wore in junior high school" end of the spectrum. Thankfully, none of the colors are shimmery or frosty. I think that would ruin the effect and the look of these particular shades.
Huge thumbs up to the three new lovelies I've reviewed above. These will definitely be staying in my arsenal!!
Ciao for now!
I received the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette recently, and it is quite an impressive item! It's a big, hefty palette shaped like a segmented chocolate bar. When you open it up, the first thing you'll notice is the tantalizing scent of chocolate. TF uses cocoa powder in their formulation -- sounds really odd at first, but if you think about cocoa powder (the unsweetened kind), you'll note that it has an incredibly smooth, finely-milled and very silky texture. Turns out, cocoa powder is loaded with antioxidants, and like I said, the texture of cocoa powder is divine, especially in this application. The palette has an assortment of 16 shimmers and mattes, in shades of "natural browns, delicate pinks and luscious plums", according to Too Faced's own description. The shadows are buttery smooth, and the colors are gorgeous and well-pigmented. The ratio of shimmer to matte is about 4:1, and the shimmer is a true shimmer, not a big, chunky glitter. One of the best things about this palette, and something I think I'm starting to see more often, is the inclusion of larger pans of highlight and lid shades. This makes sense, if you consider how much of each shade you might use, and for what you'll use them for. If you, like me, apply an all-over neutral shade first when applying shadow, then you proceed with the crease, "V" and highlight shades. Given this routine, in any given palette, I will end up hitting pan on the neutral all-over shade far in advance of hitting pan on anything else in the palette. Not with this one! Kudos to Too Faced (and others who are doing this) for such forward thinking :) It would have been nice for this to come with a brush (like the Urban Decay Naked palettes do), but in reality, this is quite a hefty palette, and I doubt you'd be toting it around with you - which means you'd probably be doing your makeup at home, with your myriad of brushes. At least I HOPE you have a myriad of brushes! ;) I ended up trading away this palette, but only because I'm finding I do much better with matte shades, for the most part.
