Thursday, March 31, 2011

Wet n Wild I Dream of Greenie Color Icon Trio

I'm a sucker for anything green, so when I saw the rave reviews on Wet n Wild's new Color Icon Trios I decided to drop the the $3 and see what all the fuss was about.  I haven't bought a Drug Store eyeshadow in 10 years!  I purchased I Dream of Greenie and Silent Treatment (I'll review that one later).  Needless to say I was pleasantly surprized!  The colors are creamy and very pigmented when finger swatched.  I did find them to be a tad powdery with a brush.  The colors also fade a bit throughout the day, but I find that even my vibrant MAC greens do that as well.  I Dream of Greenie consists of a frosted pale silvery mint labeled Browbone, a bright lime with a hint of shimmer for labeled Lid, and a GORGEOUS shimmery muted evergreen for the Crease.  The Crease color is worth the $3 alone IMO.  The icy mint for the browbone is too frosty for my liking to in that area so I did some rearranging.  Here's the look I did:

I Dream of Greenie Browbone on inner 1/3 of lid
I Dream of Greenie Lid on outer 2/3 of lid
I Dream of Greenie Crease in the crease, blended into outer 1/3 of lid
Bare Escentuals Turquoise Sea wetlined upper lashes
MAC Blanc Type on browbone
Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Mascara

Friday, March 18, 2011

Happy St Patrick's Day~ Nubar Reclaim

Ah the gloriousness of a shamrock green holo.  :)

Bare Escentuals Golden and Gorgeous Ulta Exclusive

I recently picked this up sight unseen with my Ulta.com order.  The colors are pretty and looked good with my eyecolor, not so much with the rest of my face LOL  This kit contains High Shine Copper, Honey Eyecolor, Big & Bright Liner in Bronze & a tapered shadow brush.  The bronze liner is a standard warm brown, not much shimmer.  Honey is a beautiful cool tan color that takes on a soft silvery sheen/finish when foiled. This finish can be found on other BE shades like Vanilla Sugar, Soul, Fog, & Butterfly.  Hish Shine Copper is most definately misleading in it's name.  There is nothing copper about this shade.  It is straight up burnt gold, almost brassy.  With a name like "copper" there should be some pink or red tones to it and there are none.  I really liked Honey, everything else was no my cup of tea. This kit is definately for warm skintoned ladies, but will look good on any eyecolor.

Swatches:  Top B&B Liner Bronze, Bottom Bronze smudged
Left to Right:  Honey dry, foiled, HS Copper



Bronze liner upper, lower, waterlines
Honey lash to brow dry, the foiled on lid
High Shine Copper in crease


Monday, March 14, 2011

China Glaze Tronica Swatches & Comparisons

I've never done this much swatching and comparing.  I have a great appreciation for the blogs I visit daily, but that appreciation is now 10 fold.  :)  Pretty much all across with board with Tronica is a big DISAPPOINTING.  None of the colors hold a true holo status IMO.  Electra Magenta & Gamer Glam had the strongest holo effect.  All the others just give off an extremely mild holographic glow in bright sun.  Anything less than bright sun and it just looks like a dull shimmer.  This collection as a whole gets a huge fail  from me.  It's almost wrong that they labeled these holographic and got the nail world all a twitter about them.  Anyway... off to the pictures!

Thumb: OPI DS Original
Index: China Glaze OMG IDK
Middel: China Glaze Tronica Gamer Glam
Ring: Color Club Fashion Addict
Pinky:  China Glaze Kaleidoscope Visit Me in Prism



Thumb: OPI DS Original
Index: China Glaze Kaleidoscope Octa-gone Wild
Middle: China Glaze OMG LOL
Ring: China Glaze Tronica Virtual Violet
Pinky: Color Club Wild at Heart



Thumb: Wet N Wild Hannah Pinktana
Index: China Glaze OMG BFF
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Electra Magenta
Ring: China Glaze Kaleidoscope How About a Tumble?
Pinky: Wet N Wild Hannah Pinktana
Thumb: OPI DS Exclusive
Index: China Glaze OMG QT
Middle:  China Glaze Tronica Hyper Haute
Ring: China Glaze Kaleidoscope Tickle My Triangle
Pinky: OPI DS Exclusive


Index: China Glaze OMG L8R G8R
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Laser Lime
Ring: Milani Hi Tech

Index: China Glaze LOL TMI
Middle: China Glaze Tronica 3D Fantasy
Ring: OPI DS Couture


Thumb: OPI DS Glamour
Index: China Glaze OMG 2NITE
Middle: China Glaze Tronica High Def
Ring: China Glaze Tronica Techno Teal
Pinky: China Glaze OMG DV8

Thumb: China Glaze Kaleidoscope Sexagon
Index: Color Club It's Worth the Risque
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Hologram
Ring: China Glaze OMG OMG
Pinky: Nfu Oh 61 w/ aqua base

Bare Escentuals Metallic Smoky Eye Kit

Snagged this beauty from the recent BE stint on QVC.  This is so gorgeous it's almost ridiculous.  It is absolutely perfect for spring.  High Shine Pewter is a medium cool toned pewter shade that has a stong lavender cast to it when swatched on the hand, but it doesn't translate to the eye in my opinion.  The High Shine aspect of this shadow also toned down quite a bit on the eye, which I was happy for.  I love the HS Shadows, but they can be a bit too much sometimes.  Steam is hands down the winner here for me.  I was so shocked by how lovely this color is.  It is the lightest shade of grey with a golden warmth to it.  I really hope they make this a permanent color as it is unique to anything I've seen or tried from any brand and I will be reaching for it quite often I'm sure. Black Gold Big & Bright liner was another pleasant surprize.  It is simply a warm black shade.  It doesn't have gold shimmer or sparkle in it that I could see, and it wasn't jet/absolute black either.  Reminds me of Retro loose liner.  Really pretty and a nice addition to the pencil liner line.


Swatches:   Steam dry, Steam Foiled, HS Pewter, Black Gold Liner on top.  Top Pic: Natural Light  Bottom Pic: Direct Sun


The Look: 
BE Prime Time for Eyes Original
B&B Black Gold Liner on upper, lower & waterlines
Steam dry lash to brow, then foiled on the lid
HS Pewter in crease & outer lid with sponge applicator f/ packaging, then blended with a crease brush
Snow lightly on brow bone to highlight
Heavenly Diamond lightly foiled & patted on center of eyelid only (right above the iris of the eye)
Maybelline One by One Mascara in Brownish Black topped with CoverGirl LashBlast Length in Black
BE Pink Pearl Blush
BE Bavarian Creme Lipstick topped with Funnel Cake Gloss


 So what do you think ladies?  Did you purchase this?  Are you wishing you had? 

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Misa Wishes Collection: Never Say Never

My first Misa polishes!  Yee Haw :)  I saw the Wishes Collection on VampyVarnish and just fell in love, especially when she said they weren't sheer.  I don't care for sheer polish and it is difficult to find pale/pastel polish with any sort of opacity.  Misa Wishes Collection for Spring 2011 does just that, gorgeous pale color, no visible nail line.  The formula flows easily on the nail, the brush is easy to wield, and it dried quickly.  Sign me up for more please!  The Collection consists of 6 colors, a nude, peach, green, blue, lavender & grey.  All have a similar shimmery satin finish.  I'll be showing them all this next couple weeks.  Up first is Never Say Never, a pale greyed silver shimmer.  Absolutely stunning! Also very different from other silvers I've seen.  Colors similar to this one tend to lean lavender or take on a lavender cast.  This one is just pure light grey.  So pretty!

Back to Bare Escentuals: Surreal Suspense on Pebble Beach requires Patience

I haven't done a look with total Bare Escentuals in ages.  I find myself gravitating towards my UD & MAC so frequently that I decided to do a look with all Bare Escentuals to make sure I still love it.  I DO!  Here's the skinny:

Pebble Beach Foiled on the browbone
Patience Foiled on the lid
Surreal Foiled on outer half of lid
Suspense Wetlined upper & lower lashlines, draged into crease lightly (dry)
Buxom Mascara in Blackest Black


Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Tarte 8th World Wonder Review

Tarte will have a TSV on QVC Tuesday, March 15, 2011 called The 8th World Wonder 7pc Clay Collection.  As a Q Insider I preorder & it came in the mail today. I am LOVING this kit!  This is my first big Tarte Experience and I'm way jazzed about it.  I previously only played in Tarte's Cheek Stains, Lip Stains & Bronzer (all of which I love).  Every part of this collection is amazing.  I am SO GLAD I signed up for Auto Delivery! Here's what you get:

Amazonian Clay Balancing Foundation SPF 15 choice of Fair, Light, Medium, Tan or Deep:
I purchased Fair, but it is too light for me.  I normally wear Bare Escentuals foundation in Fair or Fairly Light, Philosophy Supernatural Hybrid in Sand, or Smashbox Halo in Light.  The Tarte foundation in fair is a tad too ghostly for my complexion (my husband actually said "Your forehead looks pasty."  LOL  Thanks honey!), so I'll be swapping it out for Light or maybe mixing the two.  Anyhow, I'm loving this foundation.  It has a medium thick consistency but spreads out and blends very well.  It doesn't feel heavy on the skin and has a very smooth velvety texture when dried down, which only takes a minute or less.  I am really flakey right now and this foundation does cling to my dry spots, quite terribly at first, but after everything warmed up & melded (about 15 minutes) it didn't look so bad.  My skin looked smoother, had good coverage (more so than I'm used to) but did not look cakey.  I do not use a foundation primer.  After 8 hours of wear, it still looks great and I do not have the normal shine/oiliness I get with all my other foundations, so I'm stoked about that!  Can't wait to see how my skin reacts over extended use.

Foundation brush:  Huge fluffy super soft WINNER!  I didn't use this to put my blush or foundation on.  I think I will give it a go with my Tarte Park Ave Princess Bronzer.  I hope we get one of these with every kit!

Lights, Camera, Lashes Volumizing Mascara in Black :  I'm a mascara fiend and this was my first experience with this formula.  I like it!  The brush gives fantastic volume and decent length, no major clumping and no flakes or smudges at the 8 hr mark.  I probably wouldn't buy this at full price, but I'll totally take it as a perk in the big kit :)

Amazonian Clay12-Hour Wear Powder Blush in Glisten:  Holy Blush Batman!  THIS IS IT!!  This has to be the most pigmented, long wearing, creamiest powder blush EVER.  A little bit goes a very long way.  I tapped my BE Heavenly Blush brush on this and got loads of color, had to blow a bit off & it still laid down some serious color.  Speaking of the color, it's gorgeous, very NARS Orgasm, a tad more coral than O.  This probably leans pinker or peacher depending upon your coloring.  It has a fine gold shimmer to it that looks pretty blingy at first but buffs down to a golden sheen or glow.  Not glittery at all :)  I loathe super shimmery or glitter blushes, but this one is that perfect amount of glow.  At the 8 hr mark it looked like I had just applied it, no fading, no migrating all over my face.  This is an absolute first for me & a blush.  And YES IT IS WATERPROOF!  When I went to wash it off it was still there after my initial wetdown, then it turned my Clarisonic brush coral LOL  But it wasn't difficult to remove.  The compact is pretty & I like that it's the same color as the blush.  Makes it super easy to find in the drawer!  It also has a mirror, which is nice.  I will be purchasing this blush in several colors.



Amazonian Clay Long-Wear Eye Shadow Quad in shimmering dark brown, shimmering bronze, shimmering light sand & shimmering plum:  I cannot say GORGEOUS enough with this kit.  These colors are simply stunning.  They're all labeled shimmering which I feel is a bit misleading.  These colors are far from matte, but they don't sparkle or glimmer or frost.  They remind me quite a bit of Bare Escentuals old label of a Glimpse.  They have a subtle shimmer/sheen/pearl, but nothing too much for older eyelids or folks who don't like to wear a lot of sparkle.  The Light Sand shade is perfect for highlighting.  It's not too light, chalky or frosty,  and although pigmented, has a sheerness to it that lends it to not overhighlighting or drawing attention away from the main colors.  Shimmering Bronze is a beautiful old gold shade.  It reminded me of a toned down, less frosty Urban Decay Baked.  Shimmering Dark Brown is just that, a medium dark brown that is very neutral, almost leaning cool in tone.  Shimmering Plum is a medium dusty plum with a wink of blue shimmer in the pan but it doens't translate to the eye.  This plum is warm and soft.  All the shadows in this quad are highly pigmented, soft, & easy to blend. The case is bamboo with a beautiful leafy swirl design and magnetic closure.  I'm looking forward to the future quads!



Amazonian Clay Automatic Waterproof Gel Liner in Golden Plum:  This liner is extremely smooth and pigmented.  Absolutely no tugging whatsoever.  The color is exactly as described, a golden plum shade.  It's like Urban Decay 24/7 Liner in 1999 and Rockstar had a baby with some gold dust.  I couldn't get this work on my waterlines for some reason.  Every once in a while my waterlines just won't line though, so I'm not sure if this was the case or if it was the liner.  I'll have to test it again.  Aside from that issue, this liner is lovely.

PureOptic- Moisturizing lip Gloss in Golden Pink:  This was the piece I figured would be a throw away for me as I am pretty much a die hard MAC Lipglass/ BE 100% Natural kind of girl.  I wanted to use it once so I could photograph the whole look with the kit and I was blown away!  This color is unbelievable!  Super shiny, golden shimmery, just bitten, juicy amazingness!  It has a thicker texture and a peppermint scent/taste.  I need a back up... or 4!

Purple Woven Purse/Bag w/ Zipper:  This is actually really cute, fairly roomy & quite nice!

Swatches & Look:  Swatches are labeled going clockwise.  For the look I used everything from the kit and ONLY from the kit with the exception of Urban Decay Primer Potion Orginal & Benefit Bo-ing Concealer on eyes.  I used Shimmering Light Sand on the browbone, Shimmering Bronze on the lid, Shimmering Dark Brown on the outer 1/3 of lid & Shimmering Plum in the Crease.  Lined Upper & lower lashlines with Golden Plum, Lights Camera Lashes Mascara.  Glisten blush, Golden Pink lipgloss 


Clockwise: Golden Plum Liner, Glisten Blush, Golden Pink Lipgloss, Shimmering Light Sand, Shimmering Plum, Shimmering Bronze, Shimmering Dark Brown










China Glaze Tronica Comparisons: Digital Dawn

Next up is Digital Dawn.  This color is more holographic than Cyberspace, although still very weak and disappointing in the world of holos.  Digital Dawn was also much easier to use.  Thickness & ease of application were all standard China Glaze that we know & love.  Digital Dawn has the same satin finish the entire Tronica Collection has upon drying.  Pics are 3 coats, no topcoat.

Interior w/ flash
Pinky: OPI DS Vintage
Ring: China Glaze Kaleidoscope Rated Holographic
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Digital Dawn
Index: China Glaze OMG TTYL

Direct Weak Sunlight
Pinky: OPI DS Vintage
Ring: China Glaze Kaleidoscope Rated Holographic
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Digital Dawn
Index: China Glaze OMG TTYL

Outside Natural Light (weak sun)
Pinky: OPI DS Vintage
Ring: China Glaze Kaleidoscope Rated Holographic
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Digital Dawn
Index: China Glaze OMG TTYL

Natural Light (inside by window)
Pinky: OPI DS Vintage
Ring: China Glaze Kaleidoscope Rated Holographic
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Digital Dawn
Index: China Glaze OMG TTYL

Natural Light (inside by window)
Pinky: OPI DS Vintage
Ring: China Glaze Kaleidoscope Rated Holographic
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Digital Dawn
Index: China Glaze OMG TTYL






China Glaze Tronica Comparisons: Cyberspace

Soooo, my China Glaze Tronica collection showed up on Saturday!  WHOOT!  First impression upon seeing the bottles?  BOO!  These are SO not Holos!  I immediately did skittle swatches of one coat over my current mani to see if I was right & discovered that these are all over the place as far as texture, ease of application & holographicness.  That being said, I decided to break out the review into individual colors with comparisons from my collection.  I'm a holo nut and own many :)  First up is Cyberspace.  Cyberspace is a taupe shimmer with a slight holographic nature.  This polish was thick and runny at the same time.  Thick in the sense that it did not spread super easy onto the nail, but runny because despite how much I scraped off the brush a big glob would run down and flood my nail with polish in the middle of application.  Despite this, the polish did level itself out on the nail decently upon drying.  After completely dry it has a semi matte or satin finish.  Topcoat is needed for a glossy look.  Overall I do like this color, I feel it is unique in the world of taupes, however being touted as a holographic finish is a bit of a let down :(  I managed to find some weak sunlight to snap pics in, which show how not holographic this shade is.  To my surprise, interior direct overhead lighting brought out the most holo in this shade, which was only a light yellow green glow.  Pics are 3 coats, no topcoat.

Outside Natural Light
Thumb: Color Club Love Em Leave Em
Index: China Glaza Kaleidoscope Spin Me Round
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Cyberspace
Ring:  China Glaze OMG FYI
Pinky: OPI DS Design

Natural Light (inside by window w/ weak sun)
Thumb: Color Club Love Em Leave Em
Index: China Glaza Kaleidoscope Spin Me Round
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Cyberspace
Ring:  China Glaze OMG FYI
Pinky: OPI DS Design

Inside w/ flash
Thumb: Color Club Love Em Leave Em
Index: China Glaza Kaleidoscope Spin Me Round
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Cyberspace
Ring:  China Glaze OMG FYI
Pinky: OPI DS Design
 
Outside Direct Weak Sunlight
Thumb: Color Club Love Em Leave Em
Index: China Glaza Kaleidoscope Spin Me Round
Middle: China Glaze Tronica Cyberspace
Ring:  China Glaze OMG FYI
Pinky: OPI DS Design



Thursday, March 3, 2011

Chanel Black Pearl

When I bought this polish I thought I was insane for spending $25 on a bottle of nail polish.... then I put it on my nails.  This color is just absolutely STUNNING. Are there friends & family of this color out there?  Yes, but no dupes and certainly nothing I could find that even came close to the wow factor.  It's not a WOW in your face, it's subtle, elegant and fresh.  There's something soft and feminine about this color.   It's silver, charcoal, sea glass green, deep teal and every shade in between without being a duochrome.  It has the luminosity of a pearl, that subtle shimmer and glow.  Opaque at 2 coats, the formula is perfect, application is perfect, & I have not run into any of the wear problems many bloggers have had with Chanel polish.  I'm simply in love with this color, I could care less what it costs or what label is attached to it ;)

Chanel Black Pearl

Rewind: China Glaze Let's Do it in 3D!

With China Glaze releasing their Tronica Collection this month I thought I would revisit one of the greatest holos ever, IMO.  Hailing from the 2006 Kaleidoscope collection is Let's Do it in 3D, a smokey grey scattered holographic wonder.  This manicure was also my first real attempt at Konad :)

Base: China Glaze Let's Do it in 3D
Stamp: Konad Special White w/ Konad M56

P.S.  The full China Glaze Tronica Collection is making its way across the USA to me as we speak!  Once I receive it I plan to do a full review with comparisons to Kaleidoscope, OMG, and other holo familiars from random brands.