EOTD - Smokey Purple Eyeshadow

Eye of the Day - Smokey Purple

Lid - Mac Linear Lilac (purple)
Crease - Mac Graphic Garden (black)
Inner eye - Ulta liner pencil in Halo
Liner - MUFE black on top and outer 1/3 of bottom

Forgot what mascara I used... possibly the Dior Extase? I applied too much so it looks clumpy on the ends.
I think Ulta's Halo is a really nice inner highlight color. It would probably work pretty well on the waterline too instead of pure white. It should really get more love- I've never seen it mentioned on youtube. In fact I can't find it in stores b/c my Ulta never restocks. You can find it online here though.

Mac Graphic Gardens Palette

September Favorites

My favorites for September. First time doing this!

Chanel Jade Rose Polish - My first polish spurlge! It's a beautiful light peach-pink nude cream color. It's the first polish that I wanted to keep wearing and stare at in a long time. There's gotta be a reason why this was released a second time! It originally came out with that Jade green polish that overshadowed this one. This year it came out with Paradoxal which also stole the spotlight. I even love this polish so much I need to get a backup. You can probably still find this at your local Macy's or Dillard's. And if you want to try a dupe...

Milani Bare in Mind Polish - This is close but not a dupe for Jade Rose. It's more pink toned and has slightly more shimmer. It's not exactly a favorite but it's still pretty!

Long handled mirror - I originally got a small mirror like this from Maggie's giveaway, and since I liked it so much I searched for a bigger one! It probably sounds stupid but the "design" of long-handled mirrors seems much more practical and easier to use than clam shell ones. Having a grip is nice and the mirror's not in the way.

Mac Notoriety Quad -Seeing that I liked Skintone 2 and Notoriety from the Felines collection I did some research and found that they are repromotes from this quad! I tracked it down on ebay for about $25ish including shipping which is similar to a CCO price I think. Yay for me! I really like the neutral colors in this.

Dior Addict Ultra Gloss in Negligee Pink 256 - It gives a beautiful pink glow to my lips. It's instant LOVE with this pricey gloss. It's opaque enough to wear alone even on my pigmented lips! <3<3

Dior diorshow Extase - I've been having fun playing with the sample. It works pretty well on my lashes. I'm not too picky. Thanks Cat! <3

Nars Orgasm Blush - I got this in a blogsale from Amy and I love it! Really lives up to the hype!

Rock and Republic shader brush - The cut on this brush is nice so that it picks up shadows really well. I like how thin it is too. I was not looking for a fluffy one. This brush is perfect! It's not worth the retail price though.

That's it for September. Thinking of doing a September Returns/Misses.

mac pigments and shady sellers!

I decided to try out some Mac Pigments. I didn't want to shell out $20 for a whole bottle of a pigment I knew I wouldn't finish so I went searching for sites that sold pigment samples. I ended up at a shop on ecrater.com. Not only did it take more than 3 weeks to arrive, there was no communication between the seller and I, plus 1/4tsp is really a very tiny amount! My goal was to find them for no more than $3 each including shipping. I managed to find a seller who had all the colors I was interested in at a great price... but service was just not there. It's a trade off I suppose since other sites charge $4-5 + shipping for the same amount. Ecrater had sent me an email to rate my transaction with the shop after a few weeks of placing my order. Since I had still not received the package or any response to my mail from the seller I left a negative feedback. Then suddenly I get a response! She e-mails me asking if I can remove the negative because she had a death in the family... and it will hurt her sales... I dunno if that's true or not but it's shady. She also said she'd refund me the money... Sounds like she'll give me a refund if I take back my review.. well sorry lady that is just wrong! If she had family problems she could have put a notice on her page or sent an e-mail. I ended up just ignoring her e-mail. Funny thing is the next day my order came!

I was curious about Melon and Mauvement at first, and then I added in Circa Plum for fun. I realize now I should've shown you the inside so you could see how little 1/4tsp is.

Turned out to be my favorite! I think this came out with the Rose Romance Collection. It also may be a Pro color? I would love some more- anyone want to share? :P

Awesome, but not particularly amazing. It looks different at different angles.

I was hoping this would be much prettier. It's not!

All three swatched here. Circa Plum, Melon, Mauvement. All in all the pigments in general are pretty cool. It's not something I'm going to start collecting or lusting after though. Actually I have been curious about how Lithe pigment is.. hehe :)

I used Mauvement and Circa Plum, plus I added About Face's The Big Guns to the lower outer corner. You can hardly see anything. My photos never capture the colors on my eye. I also used Milani Liquif'eye pencil in Black and Diorshow Extaste mascara (thanks Cat!).

The Milani pencil is nice but not completely smudge proof. It glides like an Urban Decay pencil but it's still prone to small amounts of smudging. I'd say it's pretty good for a drugstore pencil though.

 MAC pigments are the easiest to press so here's how they look. Even though I ordered 1/4 tsp of each I didn't get 1/4 tsp of each. As you can see I got the least of Circa Plum. :( Showing that you CAN press 1/4 tsp of pigments! Just add alcohol!

Here's the whole palette in case you were curious. It's really random stuff together that I don't even use anymore. Random Everyday Minerals and The She Space (about face) minerals.

Here is something that I've been working on. It's my Urban Decay Naked inspired palette! Using all About face minerals. I'm still trying to figure out what colors to put in. I need to pull up a picture of the Naked palette and try to pick out the ones I have. Pressing mineral shadows is another animal haha.

EOTD with prep for colour

So I picked up two shadows from Mac's collection, Prep for Colour, that came out recently. I got Hey and Prepped for Glamour. Hey is a Veluxe Pearl which I like and Glamour is a Frost finish which is just okay. I'm more used to the softer shadows which veluxe pearls are. When I got Hey I was frustrated b/c it looked just like All that Glitters which was my first Mac Shadow and Prepped for Glamour is supposed to be close to Satin Taupe. I don't have Satin Taupe but it was on my list of shadows to buy. So I finally buy some shadows and they end up being dupes? ugh, they did not have all that glitters and satin taupe at the store (lost!) so I couldn't do a comparison. I've seen swatches online but I'd like to see it in person.

Originally I liked All that Glitters but the more I look at Hey- the more I like it! It's still looks pink like All that Glitters but it's less red. Some say it's like Naked Lunch? I dunno. At first Hey wasn't soft like All that Glitters and it was pissing me off b/c my brush could not pick up and deposit it very well. Now I've messed with it enough to "break it in" and it's fine. Is this normal for Mac? So right now I'm not really liking All that Glitters anymore, and I may end up swapping it on MakeupAlley.

Then there's Prepped for Glamour. I'm not extremely happy about this color because I think pulls red when I put it on my eyelid too. I've read that Satin Taupe is more purple and that's what I've been looking for. So dang- I might just swap this for Satin Taupe... The last thing a poor girl needs are mac dupes. [karlasugar swatches]

In order to get a photo that had any resemblance to what it looks like I had to sit in front of a window even though it washed me out and makes me look like I have no eyeshadow on. But it is what it is...

MAC Shroom as highlight, Hey in inner corner, and Prepped for Glamour in outer crease.
MUFE black liner top, maroon (bottom), and Estee Lauder mascara (weak)
When looking at this photo I realize I need to tight-line and re-curl my lashes! oops.

MAC Peach Ombre blush- I love this blush!
Rose studs in denim blue. I've got a few new colors in! They go quickly.

Swap with Cookiie for Gosh

I did a swap back in February (?) with Tiffany aka Cookiie from MilknCookiie. Their blog is really pretty and light plus there's tons of product reviews of things from Sasa. (mostly Asian products)

Anyhow, Tiffany wanted some ecoTools, and I was curious about the Gosh Lipsticks so a swap is born. She lives in the Netherlands, but it only took a week to arrive I think. I remember it being extremely fast! Take a look below if you're nosey. :P

There was really good gummy candy too. All gone...

Gosh Velvet Touch Lipsticks in Nougat and Darling. I really like Nougat. It looks messed up because I had trouble opening the seal. I ended up twisting the tube when it was still closed. Darling looks way to light to me. I probably going to be swapping this if there is any interest. I'm probably not even going to swatch it- I can just tell already. A part of me is just still curious though.

Everything else was extra! Thank you so much girls!!

Catrice Absolute Moisture Lipstick. It's a nice coral with some shimmer. Soft Coral or Spicy Coral... I forgot. I love the logo too! haha, remind you of something? I wonder if she knew?

Etos Baked Eyeshadow. The pigmentation is really good! I love it! I always wanted to try a shadow from overseas. I heard something in them (not allowed in US) makes them much better. I love something a little illegal. I also have a new love for baked eyeshadows. Thank you so much for going out of the way to include these extras :)

It's exciting to try things from other countries, and I'm so lucky to have made friends from all over the world. You gals are the best! If anyone needs help locating something- don't hesitate to ask!

Next up: Sasa Haul Revealed...

EOTD with Natural Smokes

A quick Eye of the Day

Laura Mercier Lid Primer- good enough
Maybelline Stylish Smokes (Natural)- Love the colors but the so called lid color is not very pigmented
L'oreal Lineur Intense in Black Mica - just bought this. I'm liking it so far.
Physician's Formula Mineral Mascara - crap
Angel Grey lenses - love

Not sure about the new lighting. It's indirect lighting and you can see my flaws too well, lol. You can also see the reflection in my eye!

L'oreal Lineur Intense in Black Mica
I just bought it this weekend. I've wanted to try liquid liners again after failing to make sharp wings with cream liners. Plus they tend to smudge. I knew I wanted to get one with a felt tip so I ended up with this. Also, I always see this recommended on blogs and videos, so it should be some sort of good right?

More mail love

A lot of mail love from the fab Stephanie of Beauty Is Not Caused, It Is. If you have not been to her blog, you must go and show her some love! I think she may be my #1 Jewelry fan, and I love her right back! <3

The cutest lip gloss ever! Complete with a girly bow on top!
NYX Mega Shine gloss in Cream Soda and NYX Goddess of the Night in French Kiss
Non-sticky and very pretty!

NYX trio with Orange, Golden Orange, and Peach. Thanks for adding to my trio addiction!
To depot or not? I have a 12-pan MAC palette because I was obsessed with depotting and organizing, but sometimes I miss the convenience of a little palette. I do have the 4-pan ones that I fill up with coordinating shadows, but most of the time I only use three! So I kind of defeat my original plan of depotting them all! Depotting gets addicting, once you start you can't stop!

Palladio Rice paper, oil-absorbing tissues - to keep my oily face in check from my bad diet of late. I haven't tried this brand before! oooh!

Maybelline Stylish Smokes in Natural Smokes!! Finally I have my chubby fingers on this baby! Thanks Steph!! <3 I will try your looks with this, YEAH!

So many goodies for me to play with! Thank you!! I never thought I'd make friends with so many wonderful people on blogger! Love my handful of readers! <3

Oh yeah, I updated my blog sale earlier this week with drugstore items. CLICK HERE or the TAB at the top of the page. Most items are NEW.

Mail Love from Megan

Gotta post some stuff so I can bury the food posts. I don't want Megan to run out in the middle of the night on a hunt for spring rolls!

Megan sent me this package after I surprised her with Christmas gifts in our swap. She really wanted the HiP gunmetal duo, and I wanted to try some fancy korean lashes, so that's what we swapped! Thank you! The Darkness lashes look so nice! Not too scary, lol.

Gotta be the cutest Hello Kitty stickers I've ever seen!

Flirt eyeshadows from Kohls! They're pretty good eyeshadows especially when you have Kohl's Cash to spend! They're not the most pigmented on their own, but they have really pretty colors! It's great over any eyeshadow base. I think they're generally better than some drugstore brands for sure. The packaging has got to be the worst ever though, it's hard to figure out how to open it the first time. I ended up depotting my other ones. The shadow pans are very magnetic so they'll stick to any magnet-backed palette.

Limoncello (on my wishlist! I have a weird thing for lime shadows. I'm all satisfied now!)

Moonstone (like some of my usernames. it's my birthstone.)

Lime Light (pretty and iridescent)

swatched on base from L to R: Limoncello, Moonstone, Lime Light

Thank you Megan! <3

I'm so behind on all my posts. I've got more mail posts and tags to do, then I can do reviews!

Pretty Smoky Eyes from Korres

Eveyone's gotta love the gift sets because you feel like you're getting a good deal. Most of the time you are! Sephora sent me this email today (and all of you too) about the Korres Smoky Eyes Collection. It looks so nice so I clicked in.

It's $39.50 and you get:
- 0.27 Fl. Oz Abyssinia Mascara Black
- 4 0.06 Oz Full Size Eyeshadows in Plum 77S, Dark Gray 54S, Grey Brown 18S & White
- 0.04 oz 10S Eyeliner Pencil Black 1S
- 0.20 Fl. Oz Cherry Oil Lipgloss Beige Pink 32

From what I can tell, everything is full sized!

After checking out the set I noticed the Korres eyeshadow singles were marked down to $7 from $16!

Anybody tried these? It looks like most of the good colors are OOS though. Ok, so the universe doesn't want me to have it. yay, I can save money.

Quick Look: Book of Shadows II

Maggie of THE POLKA-DOTTED APPLE had a giveaway, and I won, omg! I'm never this lucky...

The holy book of shadows! I still can't believe I have it! Thanks Maggie for having an insanely awesome giveaway! It comes with 16 eyeshadows, 2 eyeliners, and a mini UDDP. I really, really have to do EOTDs now! no excuses!

LOOK at the shades! The first three rows are right up my alley. I love neutrals shiny or not. The last row contains more daring shadows that I would use on special occasions. I have never tried urban decay before, but I do have this little 4 palette one that I am saving. I like the texture of these shadows more than my NYX.

Book of secrets! Gotta love the peacock designs.

PRETTY cover! These are sold out in stores, so you'll have to look elsewhere to find it. I took a look at the new Alice in Wonderland palette, and I like this one better! This palette has 8 LE shades, and the Alice one has no new shades. I would hold out for the book of shadows III if you missed out on this one.

Silly, but I LOVE that container for mineral powder! It's been on my list of things I NEED (vs want). Glad I finally have one- a cute one too! I need it to mix up all my mineral samples from EDM. The lippies look real cute, but I haven't tried them yet. I like to keep things unused cause when I'm sad or bored I'll go and open something new.

Cinnamoroll is too cute! She put these stickers ALL over the box! :)

I was at CVS and saw these on display. This is one of my current favorites. Sometimes I think it's too sweet smelling, but overall I like it. I got one for me and one for...

another secret giveaway. It's not exactly secret- just not in the title, haha. You will get one tiny bottle of Viva La Juicy perfume + extra goodies. Rules: 1. comment "I smell pretty" 2. Answer: Who is your favorite singer/band? 3. This giveaway will end 1/8/2010 midnight cst. 4. US residents only since it's perfume. 5. Check back on a future post to see who won. It is your duty to e-mail me if you won. Prize claiming rules revealed in future post. You do not need to be a follower. When I ship this, I will unbox it for easy shipping!

Happy New Year

First FOTD for the year (5 minute look)

Had dinner with my grandpa at my Aunt's today. Me in my glasses! Just a plain look for dinner.

Maybelline DREAM LIQUID Mousse Foundation in Natural Beige Medium 2.5- the coverage is good, and the shade matches really well! I just don't like how it still feels "wet" right after you put it on. It's like floating on my face or something. When I apply powder with a kabuki the brush will just stir the foundation on my face instead of glide over it with setting powder. I have to wait too long for it to "dry." It could also be breaking me out, I dunno.

24.7 Skin Care Mineral Highlighting Bronzer Palette- can't be seen, but I used it earlier today. I do LOVE this stuff though. It looks like the shimmer bricks.

Julu Jewelry Island Citrus Earrings

smashbox Waterproof Shadow Liner in Bronze- like it but it may be dried out now...

MUFE Aqua Eyes liner in Dark Grey 21L- great staying powder, no smudges! Great alternative to black.

Définicils High Definition Mascara in Black- it's okay, not too picky about mascara. my lashes are wonky and curve toward my nose on one eye.

Maybelline Volume XL Seduction Lip Plumper in 605 (Seductively Nude)- I like the glossy shine it adds and how it plumps my lips by getting rid of the lines. I was in dire need of chapstick before putting this on, but I don't even need it now! It also gives you a little tingle like most plumpers do. Very smooth! I love this stuff!

Some people may not like the twisty lip glosses, but this one does not have a brush. You don't have to wait and keep twisting for the gloss to come up. It's plastic with 6 holes that the gloss comes out of. Favorite drugstore gloss so far!
Note: I don't rate this based on the plumping effect, mainly just smoothness or stickiness and the look you get on your lips. I don't believe anything will really plump the lips.

Happy New Year everyone! 2010 woo hoo!

Silly question, will you be saying twenty-ten or two thousand ten? Currently I'm saying two thousand ten.

December My Pretty Pink Box Review

I wanted to post this before December is over! Only a couple more days!!

I finally decided to join in on the whole My Pretty Pink Box (MPPB) madness. I noticed that this month it was eyeshadow heavy. That's really the reason I decided to buy one. Plus I've been craving some new EDM stuff.

MPPB's list of sponsors from their website:
*Everyday Minerals- 2 full-sized shadows
Skin Nutrition
Orglamix
*Sassy Minerals- 1 full-sized shadow
*He Qi Crystal Designs- 1 crystal phone fob
*Abbey St. Clare- 1 full-sized shadow
BrigaBauble
*kNotes for kNitters- 1 hand creme sample
Digital Soaps
*The All Natural Face- 1 shadow sample
*Lux Addiction- 1 coupon

*- is for the companies that were included in my box

My thoughts on the box:

The site claims you will get samples from 6-8 retailers and you will have atleast 2 full-sized products. I got things from 7 retailers and 4 full-sized shadows. So I got everything that was promised! :) Some people like surprises, but I don't when it comes to my money. I kinda wish I could've tried Skin Nutrition, but oh well! That's part of the "fun" of MPPB. You never know what you'll be getting.  MPPB is $10.49 + $3 shipping = $13.49

Linda, the owner of mppb also has sample bags for $11.50 including shipping.
With the My Pretty Sample Bag you can get 5 items of your choice. I looked at this month's offerings, and I noticed I could've gotten 4 full-sized eyeshadows and 1 lip gloss. Or 2-3 full-sized shadows, plus a sanitizer, and skincare stuff. I think that's a much better deal since I can pick what I want. Instead of getting 6-7 items I may or may not want, I'd get 5 I picked. The EDM is listed on there now and you get 2 eyeshadows! Prolly the same ones I got with my box. So honestly, if I had looked at the Sample bag first, I would've gone with that over the box. It's only a $2 difference so I feel really cheap saying this, haha!

The December box is sold out now, and there's no January box so I would recommend the sample box if you're looking for new companies and products.

So all in all, it is fun to try new companies and not have to pay separate shipping for samples from a bunch of different companies. Linda's shipping is low so that it is a good convenience. If you tried to get samples from 5 different companies, you'd prolly pay $2 per place each, which is already $10 just for shipping. I really admire her business sense for putting all of this together!

The Pretty Red box for Christmas!

Crazy Huge The She Space Sale

Heather, the owner of The She Space has discounted ALL of her eye pigments to $2.50/jar! That's a $2 savings/jar! It has never ever been that low! She's doing it in celebration of her 40th birthday. (plus I think her sales are down lately. hard times!) Whatever the reason, there's no reason you shouldn't order! yay! shipping starts at $2!

I really like her Velvets. So smooth! Everything else is very sparkly.

swatches available upon request

Broken Rules-

Soft twinkling honey with layers of gold and pink (Go glam or go home)
light honey gold with tint of pink

Shadows of Doubt-

Electric blackened cocoa with layers of copper and pink (Go glam or go home)
gold mixed with copper mixed with taupe plus sparkles

Bubble and Burn-

Golden Copper (Powdered Diamond Dust)
black with gold sparkle

Rock and Roll-

Blackenend metallic rasberry with a twinkling layer of purple (Go glam or go home)
very dark purple with dark red sparkle

Read my full review here. I wrote it back when nobody read my blog, hahaha!

Her website is kinda messy, but I love the Leo Collection ASTROLOGY collection. I ordered the sampler a couple weeks ago, and I'm definitely gonna order a full size!
View the leo collection here.

Let me know if you're gonna get something! Hope that I don't go crazy and buy things I don't need!

depotting origins eyeshadow

I got to try this eyeshadow because I received a $10 off coupon from Origins (my fav!) for my birthday! This is my first eyeshadow from them! They cost about the same as mac.. so I wouldn't buy them without a coupon.. but the coupon made is seriously affordable! I was looking for a good color to diffuse dark shadows in a smokey look, and this is perfect for that! It's called Sun Tan. I don't think it's sold anymore since it's a limited edition color. Though you may be able to find it at your Origins because the makeup line is not as popular as the skincare stuff they have. Not that it isn't good, it's just not popular!

I've recently been into filling up my Mac palette.. and this fits perfectly! Pictures after the jump!
Depotting this is really easy!

Try to wedge a thin knife into where I have shown. If you wedge it in there real good, you'll be able to pop the top part of the shadow out.

This is what the back looks like. Loosen the glue holding the eyeshadow pan to the plastic by dropping a few drops of alcohol into the tiny hole on the back. Then just take a hard and pointy object like a thumb tack or nail and poke the whole. Gently ease it out, you don't want to crack the shadow.

After gently pushing out the shadow, add a magnet, and you are done!