Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Coastal Scents palettes

I have had these 2 palettes in my stash for a while and decided to swatch and review them since everyone loves them so much. I didnt even know these palettes existed a year ago, but thanks to my favorite makeup guru TiffanyD, she swatched them (better than me ) and it was love at first sight :) (with the palettes of course lol) Right away i was on the hunt for them, but before purchasing i always do my little research. To make sure that im purchasing quality items and that they wont be a waste of money. To be honest each review i watched was better than the last. I was sold and had to have it. I bought the 42 double stack eyeshadow and blush palette in matte and the 88 shimmer palette. My next purchase which will be very soon is the 88 matte palette!
Gorgeous colors and incredible color payoff and staying power. Well at least with me.

Great blushes, very nice color payoff and some of them are very mac comparable. I will do a post comparing them to high end brands :)

The swatches are kinda ehh, but in real life they r super pigmented with one swipe across the shadow. They dont need a base at all but i did use UDPP when swatching these shadows only.

These have no base and look great! Finger swatches are way better until i get the hang of making colors pop on my hand, but practice makes perfect :)

These are the blushes and there are 2 brown colors, one more shiny than the other. They can be used to contour or bronze.

They do have more color to them but my flash made them look sheer. Well they are sheer but they do show up very nicely when applied correctly.
Great soft pinks :) There are 2 very similar hot pinks and they are very comparable to the MAC Hello Kitty Tippy blush.

Pretty! These colors look great on light and dark skintones. There is something for everyone in this palette! The best thing is that you dont pay like $16 or $25 for a blush individually as you would in HE stores, with the same pigmentation and color pay off.
Behold! The 88 Shimmer palette. Ok you're probably wondering why in the world it looks like this. Well, again this was a trick i learned from TiffanyD. You get a painter brush, some glitter of any kind that you prefer ( i used the MAC pigment 3-D glitter, and mod podge. You sprinkle some glitter on top and then pour a bit of mod podge on it and brush it up and down. It doesnt dry quickly so its ok to take your time. It dries in a couple of hours. You can purchase mod podge at craft stores. I got mine from Michaels and it is a waterbase sealer, glue and finish for all surfaces. Its white in the beginning but dont freak out as it dries to a clear finish :)

Love these colors, i've had this for quite a while and there's still so many colors untouched.
Look at the color pay off, they are very long lasting, and if you put a base then they are sure to stay. Another great thing with these shadows is that they can be applied wet or dry. They are a lot more pigmented if applied wet. I just ran my fingers across the shadows, so you see its really pigmented dry, imagine how pigmented they would be if applied wet. And as with the last palette, these shadows do not need a base but you can use if you prefer.
I love the purples! I love all colors of course, but purples are my favorite color eyeshadow since they look so great on me! Until next time lovelys :)

Friday, January 22, 2010

China Glaze and OPI swatches!

Here are some swatches of the China Glaze Red Stallion nail polish. Excuse the middle nail, i know it looks crappy but i was in a hurry lol. This is my first time taking pics like this so hopefully in the future ill progress and have them look a bit better :) Any way on to the review. I think this is the perfect pop of red, this would look great with the perfect red lipstick and a black smokey eye with some falsies. The color payoff is great, one coat gives you so much color, but i always usually like to do 2 coats no matter how bold the color, but thats just me.
It definitely is great quality, you get what you pay for kinda thing. I didnt notice any chipping and usually with cheaper brands, they chip within hours :( Sux.

This is such a gorgeous color, its OPI Pompeii purple. Its a cute summery pink, lol i know wrong season, but hey rules are meant to be broken :). The color pay off is great, it kinda has the same consistency as the China Glaze. As i said i always do 2 coats but it looks great with just one coat. I did not notice any chipping with this polish either.

Can anyone say OMG?!

What in the world was going on in Heidi's head for her to do something like this? We all know the annoying reality tv show celebrity couple Spencer and Heidi, and all of their weird shenanigans. We all knew they are free spirited and pretty much do whatever they could to be more annoying and more "known". Never did i think that a complete transformation of Heidi would be on the tabloids, at least not any time soon. I mean i dont mind nose surgery or implants, but a whole different face? She looked cuter and a LOT more natural before. She looked all innocent and the fun girl next door type of girl should i say. Now she looks all made up and fake and "plasiky". Honestly, she looked better before, her own natural self on the old days of the hills with pal Lauren Conrad. But hey, i guess Hollywood can get to anyone.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Top 4 must have brushes

Well, i decided to talk about brushes today, since it is an important subject on all make up lovers mind. We all look for those brushes that really make a difference when applying make up. The better the brush , the better the final result. I know that all of us girls can never JUST have 4 brushes lol, we have to have more for every single part of our face. But if you're still new and not sure what to get or not sure what you need, these should be your basics. The brushes i am showing are sigma brushes. Now for those of you that dont know, sigma is a rather new brand that is famous for their MAC like brushes. They recently started to make cosmetics and accessories as well. These brushes feel and look exactly like MAC brushes but without the hefty price tag, which is a total steal! You are getting the same great quality of MAC brushes if not better, for much less and what girl doesnt love a great bargain? I know i do. On to the brushes.... This here is a Sigma ss109 comparable to the MAC 109 brush. This is such an awesome brush and is a great multi tasker. You can use this brush to contour your face, apply bronzer, apply liquid foundation, and to apply blush. Great huh? I use it for all of those and i also have like a bunch of different brushes that are made for each one of those things, but if you're on a budget then this is a great multi tasker brush.

My next favorite brush is of course the muct have kabuki brush. There is usually a kabuki brush and a baby kabuki brush, so which ever you prefer to use. This is the ss182 which is comparable to the MAC 182. This brush is great to apply powders, or buff in your powder foundation for that flawless airbrushed look. Some might use this for liquid foundations but i wouldnt really recommend it because its big and wont be able to apply the foundation evenly to small areas such as around your nose, and under the eye. If the liquid foundation isn't buffed into your skin really well, it will tend to look cakey and at times very ugly and noticable. So you really need the right brush to apply your liquid foundation.

Ok, this brush counts as one since my point was to talk about the eye liner brush. There are people that prefer a straight one which is the one below or the bent eyeliner brush which is the one on the top. I personally prefer the bent eyeliner brush since it wont be a hassle applying your liquid, cream, or gel liners. With the straight brush, your arm can easly get in the way and you have to move around a lot to get a perfectly lined eye. Whereas teh bent brush you hold it in only one position since nothing is getting in the way. The bottom brush is ss266 which is comparable to the MAC 266 and the one on the top i ordered from AVON for $1.99! I know, teh price is awesome and so is the brush. The avon brush is precise and great for its price, the hairs arent sticking out all over the place like some cheap brushes do, and i love to use it more than my sigma one.

The next must have brush is for the eyes, its a shader brush. Its the ss239 which is comparable to the MAC 239. You can use this brush to apply eyeshadow( of course, thats what its made for lol), you can use this brush to put color in the crease, to blend, and to highlight the brow bone. So, its kind of the multi tasker eye brush. Yes, i noticed it isnt white like the MAC brush, but it works the same if not better. Anoth thing about this sigma company is the lady that makes these has of course all of the MAC brushes. She tests them and figures out the flaws of the MAC brushes and fixes them when she makes her own brushes. So some brushes from MAC might be stiff or not have enough hairs packed, or not exactly have the right shape to apply the make up better in a certain area, well this lady fixes the flaws and makes them just perfect! I've seen lots of people on youtube recommend the sigma brushes over MAC brushes, since there are some flaws, which is great news, now you guys dont have to spend as much :)

Thursday, January 14, 2010

NYX Haul and Swatches!!

I recently placed an order on Cherrculture.com and got myself some NYX goodies! Im super excited about them even though they dont look new anymore. I was swatching them with a qtip and you will see what happened to my shadows but no biggie :) its still usable. I love NYX make up and for a "drugstore" brand, they have a huge selection of pigmented lipsticks, blushes, shadows and so on. Its great that they are so affordable, so we can grab as many things at a time and not have to wait to save up money lol. They're shadows are really pigmented, some more than higher end brands, and they dont really need a base either. The lipsticks have
a strong staying power without drying out your lips, and are also very creamy :) Their jumbo pencils is what got me hooked in the first place on NYX. They make great bases and are very cheap. Depending on your skintype, oily people might have to use a base before these jumbo pencils as they do tend to crease. Some of my friends have very oily lids and the pencils crease on them like in the first 10 minutes of putting them on. I use them without a base and so far so good, they didnt crease on me.. YET ( fingers crossed lol) Ok ok enough of my rampbling and lets get on to the exciting part... SWATCHES :) Enjoy! These are the jumbo pencils, no base, in strawberry milk, cottage cheese, milk, and black bean.

Since they are very creamy, they do tend to get messy, especially the black bean :(

This is the # 509 lipstick in Narcissus, i think it kind of reminds me of MAC's saint germain? I might be wrong but i will do a post, comparing them :)



I know the shadows dont look very pigmented but they are, trust me. I think finger swatches are better, you can see the color a lot better and looks a lot more pigmented.

My lovely NYX shadows :) I ran over them with q tip and since they are soft, they broke in a bit, but you cant really tell.
See how pigmented? Finger swatches are way better! This palette is tropical, yellow, and lime green :) I love wild colors, you never know when they are going to come in handy :)


My favorite palette of all NYX palettes! I love purples because i feel its the best color on me and most of the shadows i have are purple. NYX shadwos have great color payoff dont they :)
These are the swatches for the palette below. Purple, deep purple and prune. I know the palette looks weird, my last color shattered sadly :( . But i did fix it with alcohol. If you guys have no idea what im talking about, ill do a post on showing how you can fix shattered powders, and shadows with alcohol. Ill do a step by step with pics just to be clear. So if something shatters, DONT THROW IT AWAY! You can still fix it and make it work :)
I hope you guys enjoyed, my 1st still in the learning process post lol :)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

2010 A new beginning

Well, i have always loved reading blogs. Especially anything beauty related since i am a make up fanatic. I have finally convinced myself in the last couple of weeks that i should start one and see how it goes. Since it is still early January, i figured i should start now. Ill be talking mostly about anything beauty related and possibly more. Im obviously pretty new to all of this and will take sometime to get everything in order and have my blog looking like i want it to. I would love to give out great beauty, make up, skincare, or even personal tips, share pictures of swatches and products. Im really excited to have finally started to blog. Usually i have so much to write but my mind is blank now, but this is only like an intro i guess you could call it.