Goldiux Gleam EOTD

I got Medieval Haunting in my recent Fyrinnae order and I just knew it was the perfect shade to pair with Sugarpill's Goldilux. Goldilux is a bright metallic gold whereas Medieval Haunting is a gold with a brown/black base. The more you rub down on Medieval Haunting, the more the black/brown base shows through between the gold color. Very much an antique gold.

I also wanted to use my Stila Smudge Stick eyeliner in Koi that I got in Stila's Summer Set, a set that I got from Costco. If you can go to your local Costco, check out the beauty section because you can find packs of Blinc mascara or La Roche Posay sunscreen. The blister packs are a pain in the ass to rip open but it's worth it for the discount products.




Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Darling Girl Glitter Glue
Fyrinnae Medieval Haunting in the crease
Sugarpill Goldilux on the lid

Stila Smudge Stick Eyeliner in Koi on the bottom lashline

Wet n Wild Mink Brown Eyeliner on the brows
ES Eyelashes in A166

Nude Neutral Newcastle EOTD

Between Fyrinnae and Darling Girl, I acquired 18 new sample jars of pigments. Needless to say I'm going to have to be on a no buy soon to stave off an overflow of makeup. Today was my first day of school meaning I have textbooks to buy and my science-y major means that they will be so damned expensive. I've already had to buy $200 worth of books for just one class. I may put up a blog sale in the near future just to fund everything.

My blogging will probably diminish as school goes along with my 12 units of regular classes and 3 units of my online class. Let's hope I survive my audiology courses.

On a more happy note, here's an EOTD I did using my Fyrinnae and Darling Girl loose shadows.




Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Darling Girl Glitter Glue
Fyrinnae Sacred in the inner corner
Darling Girl Curious on the middle of the lid
Fyrinnae Newcastle in the outer lid

Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express Waterproof in Glam Brown

Bare Escentuals Girlfriend Collection Swatches and Review

Based off of the name, I thought that it was marketed as a gift that men would get for their girlfriends. After reading the description of the product turns out it meant girlfriends as in girl friends.

I'm going to stick to my original thought because my boyfriend actually did get this for me. He was on vacation and there was a spa where he was staying. After searching my blog under the assumption that if I didn't blog about it I didn't have it (a very smart idea but not true considering the massive amount of makeup I have) and getting advice from his cousin he got me this. He's helped fix little details on the blog before too so he's my free webmaster. So I must say thank you to him for being a very nice generous boyfriend, the best boyfriend I've ever had.

Anyway, onto the makeup! This kit is sold on Bare Escentuals's site and QVC for $42.00

Everything all laid out. The kit includes a 1.5 gram jar of the Original SPF 25 Mineral Veil, two .57 gram jars of k.i.t and b.f.f eyecolor, a .85 gram jar of t.t.y.l blush, a Big & Bright eyeliner in Sage and a mini Leslie Buxom Big & Healthy Lip polish with 2 mL of product. You also get a nice scratchy brush to use on your face.

Swatches in daylight. The cream colored eyeshadow is b.f.f. and the blue-grey is k.i.t. T.t.y.l blush is a little darker in real life, not so barbie pale pink as it photographs here.


Swatches in direct sunlight.

I've never tried Bare Minerals eyeshadows before and I'm actually very impressed. I think this one the best out of all my loose eyeshadows, including indie. They're soft, pigmented and k.i.t is a satiny matte that applied SO well. Sage eyeliner wasn't too soft but it did take several swipes to build up pigmentation on my eyes. The liner didn't drag. I felt the blush took a couple of swipes to build up color on my cheek; I may be a little too tanned for this because I only got a slight hint of color, more of a glow than a blush. It's matte though which I thoroughly enjoy because of my large pores.

Bottle picture of Leslie


Lip swatch of Leslie.

I didn't realize that this was one of those tingly lip products until I felt it a couple of seconds after application. Does it make my lips look fuller? Sure, of course because something glossy and shimmery will naturally catch the light and look fuller than something that is not glossy. It doesn't actually make my lips look bigger (indeed, they only make the claim that they "create the look of fuller lips". The tingle goes away after a while but I don't prefer it.

Fyrinnae Haul, Eyeshadow Swatches and Review

When the rumors were swirling around about Fyrinnae possibly closing I rushed to the site to make an order in case they were. They are not closing/out of business by the way and I'm so extremely happy for that. Right now I believe they have disabled the shop to catch up on order but they should be back soon. I made my order on the 19th and received it yesterday, which is way below the stated Turn Around Time listed on the site (last I checked, it was 18-22 business days).

I ordered samples of Kurisumasu, Gilded Wings, Knickers In A Twist, Sacred, Damn Paladins, Beholder, Newcastle, Medieval Haunting and an Arcane Magic sample in Velvet Vampire. I also got a sample of Pixie Epoxy and a 3 gram jar of Fluff powder. I received a free sample of Samhain Spirits eyeshadow.

Everything all laid out. The sample jars of eyeshadow are $2.00 for 1/3rd tsp in a 3 gram jar and the Arcane Magic sample was $2.00 for 1/4 tsp, also in a 3 gram jar. I've always been one for jars over sample bags so I like how they do this.


Open jars photo


Fluff is a silica based powder with other ingredients and it works to diffuse my large pores and acne scars so so well. This was $4.00 for 3 grams of product.


This product needs no introduction but I'm giving one anyway. This is the infamous Pixie Epoxy, a fixative that works to give eyeshadows a foiled "applied wet" effect. It works to minimize fallout and to keep sparkles on. I recently got Darling Girl's Glitter Glue so I'll make a comparison post between the two.

This is about 1.2 mL of product for $1.50


Onto the swatches! These were done dry over Coastal Scents Shadow Worx Matte Eye Primer and all the pictures were taken in daylight.

Beholder, Damn Paladins, Gilded Wings, and Knickers in a Twist

Beholder: A silvery brown taupe, one of the colors I will buy in a heartbeat. In some lights, it looks a little mauvey and sometimes I see a bit of pink to it. It can look really complex.

Damn Paladins: A light taupe with a blue highlight. It's a little too light for me but if you're looking to bring out the blue highlight, apply it with your fingers instead of a brush!

Gilded Wings: This is a sparkly bronze copper gold. Excellent adhesion and a pretty metallic.

Knickers In A Twist: This is a deep purple brown. I personally don't like the shade but if you're looking for MAC Moth Brown, I've heard this touted as a dupe!

Kurisumasu!, Medieval Haunting, and Newcastle

Kurisumasu!: I actually got this color because I wanted to compare it to MAC Goldenaire but it's a little darker and not as metallic. Still very pretty though!

Medieval Haunting: An antique gold, it's got this brown sheen that comes off as you rub it down. One of my favorites.

Newcastle: A deep sparkly bronze. I feel like the picture on the site is a little off, especially since I think that there are slight green tones in this. I really loved the gold sparkle in this.

Sacred, Samhain Spirits, Arcane Magic in Velvet Vampire

Sacred: Ooh baby, I loves me a golden color. It's a light golden color, not too taupey.

Samhain Spirits: My free sample. It's a burgundy raspberry color with nice sparkle.

Arcane Magic in Velvet Vampire: This is similar to Samhain Spirits but it's a little lighter, with a copper highlight and tons of gold sparkle.

Additional jar pictures!

The top row (Knickers In A Twist, Beholder, Kurisumasu!, Damn Paladins, and Samhain Spirits)

The bottom row (Gilded Wings, Sacred, Medieval Haunting, Beholder, and Velvet Vampire)

These are some of the most pigmented eyeshadows I've ever had. I prefer swatching over a base but some of them were so pigmented they didn't even need one!

Anyway, thank you for reading if you've managed to get this far. I was very very wordy in this post!

Have you tried Fyrinnae eyeshadows or any of their other products?

A Curious EOTD

I just wanted to share an EOTD I did that I managed to photograph well in natural lighting. I usually like photographing my EOTDs with flash but the sun was out and it made for clear pictures. I got a bit lazy and didn't curl my eyelashes but I think it still looks nice otherwise and I loved using Darling Girl's Dark Ember.

Hopefully you can see the sparkle in Curious and the glitter in Dark Ember.

Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Darling Girl Curious applied wet on the inner half of the lid and the lower lashline
Darling Girl Dark Ember applied wet on the outer half of the lid and the lower lashline.

Giveaway Winners!

Sorry about taking so long with announcing the winners, I was sort of procrastinating because it's a little tedious having to go through all the comments. The next time around, I'm going to make a google docs form so it'll be easier on me post-giveaway.

Anyway, the winner of the Konad Nail Art set is....

Maryam!

The winner of the Wet n Wild Trios and the Morgana Cryptoria lipstick is....

Sammi!

I shall be emailing you guys soon enough and will send everything out. Thank you to everyone for continuing to read my blog. It's nice to see how it's evolved from just having a few readers to having as many followers as I do now.

Thank you for that :)

Darling Girl Cosmetics Eyeshadow and Holo-Gloss Swatches and Impressions

Guess what came in the mail today :D? Did I need more Darling Girl goodies, no I did not but I got a crapton anyway.

I ordered full size jars of Cozy Nights and Falling Leaves, petit jars of Curious, Clusterfluff, Dark Ember, Bijou, and Nectar. I also got a Blogger Review Pack with samples of Goldfinger Holo-Gloss, Jeweled Taupe, Abbey Road, Knowing, and Devotion eyeshadow samples. I also got free samples of Mercurial and Champagne Kisses. The GWP was a petit jar of Emerald City.

I have to add in that Susan's customer service is amazing. There was a mixup with one of the things in my order and not only did Susan answer me promptly she offered a replacement and refunded me too. So thumbs up for that.

Anyway, here's everything I ordered. This is the Blogger review pack. The stickers seem to be a new addition and I've already stuck one on my Melmer where I store my makeup.

My petits and full size jars with Glitter Glue.


My Blogger review pack.


The free samples I got plus my GWP of Emerald City.


All of the jars laid out. The top two are my full sized jars of Falling Leaves and Cozy Nights. The petit jars from left to right are Clusterfluff, Bijou, Dark Ember, Nectar, Curious, and Emerald City (GWP)


Here's also a size comparison between the full size jar, petit sized jar and a sample.


Now onto the swatches! These are swatches of the petit jars. I've already swatched Falling Leaves and Cozy Nights and you can see them in this post. These were taken in daylight over Coastal Scents Shadow Worx Matte Primer.

From left to right; Bijou, Clusterfluff, and Curious

Bijou:-"A soft silvery brown". With this shade, it had a strong green iridescence in the pot, less so when swatched.

Clusterfluff: "A silvered lilac taupe". This was a GWP shade that was made permanent.

Curious- "A sheer iridescent taupe with a gold/copper shift" I actually don't agree with the description, I found that it had a more prominent pink shift come out with the copper shift. So pretty and I wish I could have captured it better on camera. So extremely sparkly too.

Dark Ember, Emerald City (GWP), Nectar.

Dark Ember- "A deep metallic smoked burgundy with flashes of pink shimmer and a coppery rubdown". One of the shades I was most looking forward to. It's crazy how the more you rub it the more the copper sheen comes out. Very pretty.

Emerald City (GWP)- a pretty emerald green, not much more than I can say about that!

Nectar- "A soft peachy pink pearl with a soft silvery sheen and green iridescence". I'd attest to the green iridescence, it shows up a little lighter on me than it appears in the jar. I had to get this color because it was one of Sandi's favorites. When applied wet it positively glows with the green iridescence.

These were my sample bags. From left to right; Abbey Road, Champagne Kisses, and Devotion

Abbey Road-" A bronze beige pearl leaning a little metallic". I actually really liked this, it's a gorgeous bronze!

Champagne Kisses- " A pearly champagne shimmer with red sparks". I do see the slight red sparks in my swatch, it's a pretty vanilla color.

Devotion- "A tannish taupe with pink undertones". For me, it turned out a little too red toned for my taste, but I am generally picky about my taupes.

Jeweled Taupe, Knowing, Mercurial

Jeweled Taupe- "A metallic bronze taupe with multi colored shimmers". Oh baby this is the motherlode of taupes. It's a gorgeous bronze toned taupe with an amazing amount of purple and red glitter running through it. Utterly amazing!

Knowing- "A deep chocolate brown". This is unfortunately discontinued. For me, it leaned the slightest bit green while still keeping its chocolate brown-ness.

Mercurial- "A plummy bronze taupe". I actually thought this had a base color like Jeweled Taupe but with a prominent pink sheen to it and without the glitter.

Here are extra closeup pictures of Jeweled Taupe so you can see the fine pieces of glitter running through it.

The shadows were all nice and smooth, blended very well. When I was finger swatching them, I noticed that Nectar, Jeweled Taupe, and Dark Ember had a more textured feel to it due to the glitter in the shades. This didn't affect application though!

Here's a swatch of Goldfinger Holo-Gloss taken in daylight. This was a nice smooth gloss, not grainy at all or gritty from the shimmer.

Bare Lips first

Then Goldfinger applied.

Phew that was a lot to do. If I had to pick my must-haves, they'd have to be Dark Ember, Jeweled Taupe and Curious.

Have you picked anything up from Darling Girl?

theBalm Meet Matt(e) Palette and Swatches

*I'm still tabulating the entries from my giveaway, I'll announce winners soon enough!*

Man alive, these mattes are rivaling Inglot for best matte eyeshadows. When I was swatching them they felt very smooth and creamy, not at all chalky. I had only had a slight issue with one of them, which I'll detail later on. Two of the eyeshadows in the Meet Matt(e) palette are a little more on the satin side, with a definite sheen to them. The palette does look small but for the quality I think it's worth it. You get 9.5 grams of shadow, so around 1 gram per shadow and it retails for $34.50 and I got it from TJ Maxx for $16.99.

Note the small ribbon under the included brush to make it easier to remove. I love all the little details in the palette.


The entire palette swatched. I did finger swatches over ELF Mineral Eye Primer



From left to right: Matt Smith, Matt Gallagher, Matt Ramirez. I am loving Matt Gallagher, it's a nice neutral tan.


From left to right: Matt McDonald, Matt Horowitz, Matt Chung. Matt McDonald and Matt Horowitz definitely has a nice sheen to them, it makes them that much more workable. Matt Chung is a pale pink by the way, but it's looking a little more white than it really is.



From left to right; Matt Batali, Matt Schilling, Matt Patel. Matt Patel pulls very purple on me, even though in the pan it is a little more brown and Matt Schilling definitely pulls more blue on my skin than in the pan.


None of these felt chalky for me. Again, I'm so impressed by the formula with the slight exception to Matt Batali; I felt like I had to build up the color a little more than the other eyeshadows but I didn't have any problems with fallout over a base. This is going to sound weird but I noticed the eyeshadows had the slightest peppery smell but only in the palette, it definitely didn't smell like anything on my eyes.

theBalm The Balm and the Beautiful Palette Review & Swatches

So you know the frustration you get with those palettes that mix cream and powder products together so when you get the tiniest bit of fallout it magically attaches itself to the cream product? That's not a problem with this theBalm palette because they are super smart about their packaging and I can appreciate a company that thinks not only about the product itself but how it works with their packaging.

The smart thing that theBalm does is have separate covers for the cream products and the powder products which helps to prevent fallout from messing up the cream products. The covers are magnetized and it is not difficult to open at all.

There's ingenuity in the design and it's something I honestly wouldn't mind other companies copying. It looks like the design isn't exclusive to this palette, as their Balmbini palette also had separate covers for the cream and powder products.

It's also the little details that count. If you can see in the picture above, there's a small piece of ribbon underneath the brush and it's there to help get the brush out of the crevice easier. You simply pull on it and out comes the brush. Honestly, such a small thing and while I may never use the included brush it's good to know that they think of ways to make it easier for me as a consumer to use their product.

As I said in my 2nd to last post, this is the same as the Muppets palette, only in a "TV Soap Opera" theme. I think the Muppets palette is rather cute but it's limited edition (only 1000 were made) and has a price point of $44.50

Anyway, this palette consists of sixteen eyeshadows, two lip/cheek stains, and one lipgloss. Unfortunately my camera is eating up the purple tones in "The Brain Surgeon" and making it look very blue toned.

Note the separate cover and the design ideas on the inside of the cover.


So eyeshadows first. These were done with a swipe of my finger over ELF Mineral Eye Primer. This is the first row of swatches. From left to right; The Oil Tycoon, The Estranged Mom, The Supermodel, and The Bad Boy. The Oil Tycoon is a little more red toned in real life.

The second row. From left to right; The Southern Belle, The Mother-In-Law, The Guy Who Died But Didn't Really Die (an awesome name for an eyeshadow by the way!), and The Mistress

The third row. From left to right; The Step Brother, The Coma Patient, The Police Man, and The Brain Surgeon


The last row. From left to right; The Neighbor, The Stockbroker, The Basket Case, and The Older Woman. The Basket Case is a real contender for being a Stila Kitten dupe but I have yet to compare the two. The Stockbroker is one of the best opaque shimmery whites I've ever seen, it's amazing.

When it came to the eyeshadows, the only one I had trouble with was The Coma Patient, the pale lilac/pink in the second row. I felt I had to do a little more work to get it to work but it's still a decent color. The rest of the eyeshadows are smooth, buttery, pigmented and I didn't get oodles of fallout with it. They're also not too soft.

Now onto the lip/cheek stains and the lipgloss. On my oily unprimered skin, I got six hours of wear time. On my lips, I wore it for two hours, ate pasta and some of it was still there afterwards, although a little uneven. My lips do not feel dehydrated at all after wearing it on my skin. It dries to a nice soft matte finish on the lips.

From left to right; The Drama Queen, The Perfect Man, and the Evil Twin. The Drama Queen and The Perfect Man are the lip/cheek stains.



Here are some lip swatches too. By the way, you can really build up the color to make it brighter, I chose to do a sheer layer on my lips.

Bare lips

The Drama Queen. This is a really pretty watermelon pink type of color, something I think would be flattering for most people and it has no shimmer or glitter.

The Perfect Man. This seems to have silver glitter running through it.


The Evil Twin, a nude color with no shimmer or glitter.


Of the two lip/cheek stains, I prefer The Drama Queen only because I think the color suits me better. The Perfect Man is a little more bubblegum pink/purple tinged with glitter which I think doesn't work that great with my skin tone plus I don't think it'd be friendly with the enlarged pores on my cheeks. Both are still good products, colors that I can build up but can also apply sheerly. I hope theBalm decides to release these two lip/cheek stains separately.

I'm not sure about how I feel on The Evil Twin lipgloss. I don't know if it is a little too light for me but I shall keep wearing it to see how I like it.

All in all, a fantastic palette and a positive first foray in theBalm. I may need to check out the rest of their brand because I'm so impressed with their eyeshadows. I think that theBalm has been a very underrated brand and right now I'm convinced that I need to see the rest of their products.

This retails for $44.50 and you get 28.8 grams of eyeshadow, around 1.8 grams per shadow, 4.4 grams of lip/cheek stain, so 2.2 grams per color, and 2.2 grams of lip gloss. If you were thinking about getting an eyeshadow palette, let it be this one. I'm actually skipping out on the Urban Decay Book of Shadows because I'm much happier with this one.

The eyeshadows are comparable to the Shady Lady eyeshadows but for the rest I can't find anything. Either way, it's worth the $44.50. To put it in perspective, MAC eyeshadows retail for $15 and have 1.5 grams of product. For the price of around three MAC eyeshadows, you're getting sixteen eyeshadows, two lip/cheek stains and a lipgloss.

Hope this helps to sway you one way or another on whether you want this palette or the Muppets one (this is the same palette but just in different packaging).