Iridescent Purple eyes of the day

I had to get this color from Meow after I saw it on Phyrra and I'm really glad I did. I liked it so much that I wore this look for three days in a row! I did try different eyeliner colors every day, but I used the same two main colors. I think this is one of my favorite looks now, it may become part of my "I'm lazy, I can't think of what to wear" insta-look rotation!

I took a lot of pictures of this... Needed to show how awesomely duochrome this shadow is!






You may need to enlarge the pictures to see the color shift in this eyeshadow. See the pinky-gold-orange flash on top of the periwinkle blue type color?? Isn't it awesome?! I can't get enough of it!

This was:
MAC Paint Pot in Painterly
Meow Friday the 13th shadow in Skeptic applied wet on lid
MAC Grape pigment in crease and on lower lashline
MAC Sugarshot highlight
Wet n Wild liquid liner in Black
Maybelline The Falsies Mascara

The Falsies is starting to look better, too. I'm still not sure about it, though. It's better than it was before, but it's still not as smooth and volumizing as my Lash Blast.

The Skeptic shadow kinda pissed me off at first. I tried to apply it dry and had a horrible sheer streaky patchy disaster on my lids. Some of the color would stick, but then it wouldn't stick in other places... I'd have smears of the pink-orange shimmer in patches all over my lid and very little of the blue would show up... Ugh...

I knew I'd probably have to use it wet but I wanted to try it 'natural' first.... it confirmed my suspicions. It works beautifully wet, though! Woohoo!

And then here's pretty much the same look again, except it didn't turn out as good because of the primer I used:





I like the red liner much better than the black!

This was:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Meow Skeptic applied wet on lid
MAC Grape pigment in crease and lower lashline
Urban Decay Gash liquid liner
MAC Sugarshot highlight
The Falsies mascara

This one isn't blended as well as the first one and I blame it on Urban Decay Primer Potion. I normally like it but it is a lot more finicky than other primers. The main problem I have with it is that if I apply too much it doesn't let your shadow blend evenly. Sometimes it's hard to tell how much you're applying when you're at the end of a tube. With a new tube you can dot it on and visually gauge how much is there, but when the tube is near empty you have to kinda smear it on and it's not as clear how much you've applied. It seems to grab the shadow in some spots and not let the shadow adhere in others, and then you get weird patches and sharp lines and that's no good!

I think I may switch to Too Faced Shadow Insurance permanently when I finish the rest of my tubes of Primer Potion. The packaging is better, the application is smoother and it doesn't to that dry-patchy-streaky thing. I love it.

Color Club Fall 2010 Untamed Luxury Collection Part 2: Covered in Diamonds

Got my replacement polishes and finished my swatches!

Usually I'm all over Color Club's glitters, but this set isn't quite as nice as the creme set... Have a look:

Covered in Diamonds. This is a really interesting glitter. It's a clear base with varying shapes and sizes of clear opalescent mylar glitter. To give you an idea of the texture, think of those horrible NYX "Avenue" polishes, how they're filled with those little irregular chunks of plastic. This is similar but much, much nicer. These pieces are mostly flat and very densely packed so you can actually do one coat and have a good amount of glitter end up on your nail. It's a little difficult to apply- it's extremely thick and a lot of glitter will end up on your nail so you have to spend a little time smoothing it out with the brush. The end result is quite pretty over certain colors but I prefer it alone. It looks like ice crystals and flashes blue, green, gold, yellow, red orange and purple! In fact... this is made of the same stuff the fake snow they use in Christmas displays at the store is made from- opalescent Mylar flakes.



De-Luxe-Cious. It's really not blue like in the second picture, that's just the lighting. I only posted it to be sure you could all see the pretty opal glitter that didn't quite show up in the sunlight picture. This is a grey metallic jelly/sheer base with lots of opal glitter, very much like those Limited Edition / Japanese glitters or the glitters from the Pardon My French Collection. It does look a bit more lumpy because of the darker base color, but not as bad as Ms. Hautie...


Ms. Hautie. I hate to say it, but this polish just doesn't work. The base is too thick and frosty and the glitter is too fine, so when combined and applied it just looks... lumpy. Chunky. Not so hot. In the second picture you'll notice an amazing pink duochrome in the bottle. Sadly, it does not seem to show up on the nail. It looks great while you're applying it before it dries, but I can't seem to make this work for me. It's a metallic grey/silver frost with teeny tiny hologram microglitter.

Red Velvet. Black base with red glitter. While this polish is very beautiful, I can't say it's unique. It's another China Glaze Lubu Heels clone. Worth getting if you don't have any of the other similar shades.


Resort To Red. A frosty medium red. This particular shade of red doesn't really speak to me, and combined with the frosty base it's a color I would normally never wear. However, it does have a redeeming factor- when you apply it to your nail you'll see glints of iridescent color sparkling at you- almost like a microglitter, but so small I can't even make out definite particles.

Snakeskin. This one is really nice. It's a metallic silver base- not quite a true foil but with definite metal properties. It has a strong green tone to it but it's still mostly silver/grey. The best feature is the tiny gold microglitter. It all combines to actually give the appearance of true snake skin. Crazy! Really pretty and not lumpy like the others!


Untamed Luxury. The star of the collection! A breathtaking jewel-tone glitter. It's a blue-green... aqua... turquoise? It's a bit like the color of Zoya Charla- blue green fusion. Super hot amazing! Very flashy. The glitter is suspended in a sheer matching color base, which I feel adds depth.


I experimented a little using Covered in Diamonds over the other shades in this collection and ended up with a couple unexpectedly pretty combos!

Left to right (pinkie to index): Untamed Luxury, Red Velvet, Ms. Hautie, De-Luxe-Cious.

Wild Orchid, Pretty in Platinum, Snakeskin, Resort to Red.

Ready to Royal, Nothing But Truffle, Soft as Cashmere, Positively Posh.


And with one coat of Covered in Diamonds, no topcoat:


Chunky but pretty! Certain polishes seem to make the glitter sink down and create holes while others hold up better and let the glitter sit on top. My favorites for layering with Covered in Diamonds are Red Velvet (how pretty is that combination?!), Ready To Royal, Wild Orchid, Untamed Luxury and De-Luxe-Cious.


The formula on these was fine- same as the other half. The only one that's different is Covered in Diamonds which could benefit from some three-free thinner, but that might make the glitter application more sparse. It takes a little work to get that polish just right, but I really like the look of it.

I hate to say it but I'm a little let down by this set. I wish Ms. Hautie didn't look so bumpy because it's amazing in the bottle! And I like Red Velvet but unfortunately it's a very frequently-duplicated color. Covered in Diamonds is pretty but really strange to use. Resort to Red falls flat for me... My favorite is definitely Untamed Luxury- it's a must have for any glitter lover. I adore it. Snakeskin is fantastic, very odd and unique, but it works. De-Luxe-Cious is also a nice shade but it is a bit on the bumpy side...

I think this collection is missing a holo (and no, Ms, Haute doesn't count!). I've loved the few holos Color Club has done and I'd love to see more of them! I'd also freak out if they did a collection of glitters like Slamming Red and Purple Medallion but in every color. How incredible would that be? I wonder how we could convince them to make those... Hmmm...

(These were sent to me for review.)

Chanel Rouge Noir with Revlon Slipper

I was having kind of a crappy day so I decided I wanted to wear a fancy color to cheer myself up... Somehow fancy in my mind always equals vampy, so I picked out Chanel Rouge Noir (aka Vamp, but the creme version.)

I had just finished applying my topcoat when my hand kinda spazzed out and hit the bottle of Seche and put a huge gouge in the polish on my index finger! ARGH! It was still wet enough that it evened out a little, but it was still really obvious. I didn't feel like re-doing one nail (because that's a pain!) and I wasn't quite as fond of the mani as I'd hoped I would be, so, of course, I covered everything with glitter!

Glitter makes everything better.

A couple different angles to show the sparkle. The glitter is Revlon Slipper, from the fall collection. I only grabbed the glitters from the collection because the creme bases were pretty basic looking. These glitters are amazing, though. So sparkly. And it's square glitter, too! I love square glitter! Slipper is a combination of silver and red square glitter and some silver hologram hexagon shaped glitter. This is one coat over two coats of Rouge Noir and topped with Nubar Diamont topcoat.

Haven't played around much with the other Revlon glitters, though. They're super pretty but I just never think to layer when I'm doing manis lately!

BB Couture For Nails Butterfly Collection for Spring 2010

Again, super behind on posting these! But I don't think they're limited edition, so I suppose there's no need for rush... Beautiful collection, take a look!

Caterpillar. Another one of BB Couture's amazing greens. This is a lighter shade of green, slightly muted, yellow-toned with tiny gold sparkles. Definitely reminds me of a caterpillar, I'd say that name is right on!


Emperor. The only one in the collection I'm not crazy about. It's a peachy pink with subtle shimmer and it's not quite right on my skintone. Not really exciting, more of a conservative soft and delicate shade.

Horned Devil. Dude. Dude! LOOK AT THIS!! It's freakin' HOT!!!!! I can't really contain my excitement. I feel the same way about BB Couture Sex on the Beach, too (and I'll post that shortly). It's one of the things that I consider to be BB Couture's signature- that teeny tiny green/gold super sparkly glitter. I don't see any other brands use it and BB uses it in a lot of their polishes and it's just so special. It looks especially incredible suspended in this red-orange jelly.


Painted Lady. Is has that same glitter as Horned Devil, but less of it and instead of a jelly it's in an orange creme. Still gorgeous, very striking and fresh and fun, but not quite as sparkly as Horned Devil. More of a subtle glitter look.


Peacock. Peacock? This name doesn't quite seem to go with the color! When I hear peacock I think of the bird, though I'm aware there are a few butterflies referred to as "peacock" (but I always thought those were orange?) Though I was inspired to search for a yellow peacock butterfly due to this polish and apparently sometimes Swallowtail butterflies are called peacock. Anyway, the name doesn't really matter cause the color is beautiful. I don't care what it's called. It's a soft yellow and it screams SPRIIIIIIINNNNNG!!! *covers ears*

Skipper. Funny... Skipper is a great name for this polish. Not because of the butterfly, but because it totally reminds me of the other Skipper- you know, Barbie's little sister? It's that perfect plastic Barbie pink that I remember from my childhood. Has a hint of blue sparkle to it. Very stereotypical 'girly' pink!

The formula on these was great. The only one that gave me trouble was Peacock, but it's yellow and yellows are notoriously bad so I'm not going to fault them for that too much. All the rest were on the thick side but applied evenly. Three coats of everything pictured here. Drying time was a little longer than the BB Couture For Men line (am I imagining this? The Men's ones dry so much faster!)

I love BB Couture. It seems like every collection they do lately has a glitter and a green in it. They're so creative, too, especially with the colors they release for BB Couture for Men. Keep the glitters, duochromes and greens coming and I'll love you forever, BB!

(These were sent to me for review)

It's growing on me... Fourth and Fifth tries with The Falsies Mascara

I've been forgetting to take pictures of my makeup every day! I wanted to show the process of this mascara evolving from 'suck' to 'pretty good.' I used it again yesterday and you know what? I actually kinda liked it. It was chunky-textured but much better! It's weird how each time I use this it gets less clumpy and adds more volume. Weird. Here's #4 and #5.


This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
MAC Sugarshot on lid
L'Oreal HIP Platinum silver side, just a tiny hint dabbed on middle of lids
MAC Bell-Bottom Blue in crease
MAC Blue Storm in crease and lower lashline
MAC Copper Sparkle pigment applied wet as liner
Maybelline The Falsies Volum' Express Mascara

Another attempt to use more blue eyeshadow. I was afraid this was going to turn out really frosty-80's-tacky blue eyeshadow but it ended up looking kinda beachy and ghostly... kinda sheer and shimmery with a whisper of color... very unusual for me and quite outside my comfort zone. I did like it, though... Maybe blue is becoming more comfortable for me...

And see how the mascara looks less like insect legs and more like eyelashes now? Definitely getting better the more the tube dries out...

Except this time it clumped my lashes together more! I did comb them, but you can only comb so much before it takes off too much mascara and you have to start over!

This was:
MAC Paint Pot in Painterly
Evil Shades Heartless Queen on lid
Evil Shades Devil's Bonfire in crease and on upper and lower lashline
Don't remember what I used for highlight
Maybelline The Falsies Volum' Express Mascara

I'm in love with Evil Shades Heartless Queen. It's a bright red matte with a little bit of subtle silver sparkle thrown in... The sparkles are on the larger side so they're not the main focus of the shadow- it looks like a matte red with silver accents. I like it very much. And Devil's Bonfire is SUPER black. I've been looking for a blacker-black and this one is really, really black. And not just black, but black with holo glitter. Sadly, I couldn't get the holo glitter to stay on my eye, I'll have to use it differently next time to keep the glitter in there...


So... what do you think? Should I still chuck it? It's getting less clumpy and chunky every time I use it so maybe I should hold out another week or so. It's still no Cover Girl Lash Blast, but... it has a gimmick and I wanted to try it! And I'm always looking for new beauty products to try. Plus, the tube is purple.

Color Club Untamed Luxury Fall 2010 Part 1: Every Shade of Indulgence

Every year I look forward more and more to Color Club's collections... They seem really willing to think outside the box and make awesome colors but also offer them at a reasonable price without sacrificing quality. Definitely one of my most favorite brands of all time.

It goes without saying that I've been eagerly awaiting their fall collection, and now it's finally here!

I'm going to do this in two parts for one specific reason: The second half of the collection had a few casualties in shipping and I hate posting partial sets! So hopefully I can get a replacement soon and post the glittery half of this collection :)

This set of 7 - Indulgence- seems to be the 'trendy' set while Diamonds seems to be the fashion/edgy set.

Jewel of a Girl. Really rich, dark mahogany. This is mostly red with some brown and some wine, maybe a little purple. It's one of those deep dark lit-from-within glowy shimmers that I love so much. You know, the ones that look bright and glowing in the center and dark around the edges? Love them. Can't get enough.


Nothing Butt Ruffle... er, I mean Nothing But Truffle... Similar to Jewel of a Girl in finish and depth but this shade is a glorious chocolate brown. It's so amazing... look at it... it looks so smoldering hot!

Positively Posh. This is a dirty brown taupe with a slight hint of purple. This color seems to be really hot right now... everyone and their uncle are releasing this color lately. Not that that's a bad thing cause I love these types of colors!

Pretty In Platinum. Interesting! It's a light pearl grey/silver. Sort of reminds me of another one with Platinum in the name that I used to use all the time- OPI Gone Platinum in 60 Seconds. Not that they're the same, they're just similar. This is a really good example of the difference between frost and pearl. The shimmer in this one is extremely fine and smooth and sits on top of the polish to provide a layer of smooth pearl reflectiveness- just like a real pearl. Whereas with a true frost you get streaks of silvery, shiny reflective brushstroke-filled shimmer.

Ready To Royal. Extremely dark eggplant purple. Is it just me, or are all the polish companies mimicking each other a whole lot this year? This is really similar to Essie Velvet Voyeur and also kinda like OPI William Tell Me About OPI (though that one is lighter than both of the others). Really dark, really glossy, nearly black. Inexpensive alternative if you can't get the Essie or OPI!

Soft as Cashmere. Grey/beige... Greige? I'm not quite used to using that word. Is it a real word or is it like 'blurple'? Either way it's a really nice cozy color. I don't know if it's just the power of suggestion or what, but it makes me think of a warm cozy sweater on a cold fall day. Or maybe a fluffy bunny!

Wild Orchid. This is a blued grey shimmer. It's on the medium to light side of grey with a pretty strong blue undertone and some really interesting iridescent/silver shimmer particles. It flashes different tones depending on the angle of your hand, but indoors it just looks silver. Very nice!

The formula is perfect as usual. Color Club usually has excellent application and these are no exception. I had zero application problems. Pigmentation is great and all are two coats and don't need a third. Drying time is fast and most of the colors stay glossy without topcoat, but you should use topcoat anyway. No flaws here. Brushes are good too.

I really love these shades. Not a single ugly color in the bunch! Wait till you see the glitter ones, though! I'm wearing Untamed Luxury right now and it's fan-freakin'-tastic. More to come soon, hopefully!

(These were sent to me for review.)