My Leopard Halloween Makeup

I wanted to get this post up today so last night I redid the makeup I wore to my friend's Halloween party. Unfortunately the flash washed out a lot of the contouring but you get the general idea of what I was going for!

By the way, it's a bit tricky to clean out black eyeliner from your nostrils, trust me on that. I tried to go off of Petrilude's tutorial on this but of course, his version was so much better.

What are you guys going to be/do for Halloween? I'll probably buy some candy and hand it out to the kidlings or turn off all the lights and close the windows and pretend I'm not home.

The Beauty Social Recap: The Gift Bag

Oh what treasures does this packed canvas tote have?


Oh but a plethora of amazing goodies. Needless to say, if I keep buying stuff in person I'll need to be reminded of this so I know NOT to spend any money.


And yes, that is a tube of Kate Somerville Exfolikate. I kind of hope I dislike it so I won't want to shell out $85 for more. I'm also super excited about the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish. Look for reviews of everything I got coming up on the blog :)

If you want to sign up for the email list for next year, you can through here!

The Beauty Social Recap: The People I Met *Picture Heavy*

I loved the event, if only because it gave me the chance to meet and interact with bloggers and companies that I admire and respect. I didn't think ahead of time enough to bring business cards but it was still awesome to network.

Bloggers/Vloggers first!

I saw Leesha, Xsparkage on youtube near the Sugarpill booth and had to run over there to get a picture because I didn't want to miss a chance to not meet one of my favorite youtubers. She's super photogenic and I am unfortunately not, she was so so pretty in person!


That day was the first time I'd ever met Alicia from Funny Face Beauty in person. She actually recognized me first and it was amazing to meet someone whose blog I loved to read and who in turn read my blog. We had spent a good part of the day hanging out together and we didn't take a picture together until near the end of the day.

Lauren, Queen of Blending on Youtube was the nicest person ever and she had the most amazing nails, earrings, and makeup ever. Just as awesome in person as she is in her videos.

And of course, Christine from Temptalia. It was so nice to talk to her, I asked her about how the site was going and am still astonished at how she managed to work on the site while in graduate school. Utterly amazing and someone who really knows how to prioritize and get the work done.


I met Jenn, Bellapepper53 on Youtube right as Alicia and I were about to go into the VIP reception. I've been watching her videos for awhile now so again, it was awesome to meet and talk to her.


Karen from Makeup and Beauty Blog was great to talk to. Alicia and I chatted with her outside while getting drinks and oh my god I was just starstruck. It's admirable to see how much effort she puts into each and every post she does.


The last blogger I met was Kelly from Vampy Varnish. I remember reading her blog when it used to be just about nail polish and it's been nice to see the evolution of it beyond just nail polish.


Company owners!

I met Amy/Shrinkle of Sugarpill Cosmetics early in the morning. Do ignore my awkwardly floating hand around her waist.


and I was really excited to meet Marissa, the CEO and Founder of theBalm. I liked hearing her speak during the "Brand Stories: How Your Beauty Brand Got Big" speaking event.

I've been wondering about how TJ Maxx managed to get so much of theBalm Cosmetics so who better to ask than the CEO and Founder? Turns out theBalm dealt directly with TJ Maxx with the sale of their products because of how well TJ Maxx stores are distributed across the US. theBalm were able to get their products out way better that way. I know at my local Sephora, theBalm was pulled from the store so I imagine it must have happened at other stores.

Here comes the bit of bad news. I asked about the The Balm and the Beautiful palette and I was told that TJ Maxx bought up their whole stock of those palettes. I don't believe they will be making anymore so if you managed to get one of the The Balm and the Beautiful palettes, cherish the hell out of it.

I've got one last Beauty Social post to do and it's all about my swag bag from the event! Needless to say, I've got a crapton of things to review in the upcoming weeks and months.

Super Strawberry FOTD

To break up the Beauty Social recap posts, I decided to do a FOTD using some of the products I got from the swag bag. It was the first time using these products and a lot of them I've been lemming for ages. I'll hopefully be working on reviews and swatches of the projects in the upcoming weeks!


Face:

MAC Studio Sculpt Concealer in NC30

theBalm Down Boy Blush

Benefit Watt's Up Highlighter

Eyes:

Clinique Lid Smoothie in Seventh Heather

Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara in Ultra Black 01

Benefit Watt's Up Highlighter on the Browbone

Wet n Wild Mink Brown Eyeliner in the Brows

Lips:

Clinique Chubby Stick in Super Strawberry

The next Beauty Social Recap post will be about the people I met at the event.

Here's a bonus Picture of me after my Oath Ceremony yesterday. I look pretty good for someone who was up at 5:30am right?

The Beauty Social Recap: The Speakers

As part of the event, there were lots of speakers throughout the day and I thought I'd give a bit of a recap of everyone there.

The first panel was "Brand Stories: How Your Favorite Beauty Brands Got Big". It featured the founders of Cover FX, LORAC, theBalm, and Byron, which is a hair care brand.

I really liked this segment. I especially loved hearing Marissa from theBalm talk about how she started looking up books on how to make makeup and how she bought the website name for $200 and things like that. She really started her brand from nothing and made it become what it is now. I've only recently been interested in theBalm Cosmetics so it was amazing to actually be in the same room as the founder.

Jenny Frankel from Cover FX and Carol Shaw from LORAC both talked about how it can be so important to have good skin. Both of them worked towards developing foundations that helped to hide skin imperfections and build up people's confidence in themselves. As someone who suffered/suffers from not so perfect skin, it was good to hear how they both worked towards creating foundations to help peoples' skin.

I just loved being able to hear how they developed their brand out of nothing and to see how successful it is now. Utterly inspiring.

Next up was "From Makeup Counter to Makeup Mogul: Jerrod Blandino" This was an interview with one of the founders of Too Faced Cosmetics.

This was my favorite speakers event, hands down. This whole segment was perfect. There was a video intro before Jerrod came out and it really gave us an impression of what kind of person he was. He was the most exuberant and joyous and entertaining person ever. He was so funny and so amazing to watch, I absolutely loved him. He talked about how he had gone from working at a makeup counter to starting the brand Too Faced.

I enjoyed how he talked about trying to be a pioneer in makeup. I didn't know that it was his company that created the first glitter eyeshadows and lip plumpers. He talked about how back then they didn't have noncompete contracts (meaning the product you created was only supposed to be for one company) and after that everyone came out with glitter eyeshadows.

He also talked about how he created "Drop Dead Red" lipstick for Madonna.

At the end of it, he stressed how you could accomplish anything as long as you kept going at it and not giving up. I just loved him and I wished he talked for longer.

I didn't pay attention to the next speaker event, "Hottest New Web Services" so I can't comment on how it was.

The segment after that was "Made: Sabi's Music Videos" and it featured the singer Sabi who was recently in a Cobra Starship song.

I was having my hair braided when she started speaking so I don't remember all that was said. She was super pretty and I loved her hair, I was so jealous.

The next panel was "Expert Trendspotting Secrets Revealed". It featured several beauty and fashion stylists talking about upcoming trends.

I thought the panel was a little too fashion oriented. I guess I didn't really expect a lot of fashion from an event called The Beauty Social. I don't think fashion and beauty are necessarily on the same wavelength, although they are related.

Despite this, I did like how they emphasized that trends are just trends, and personal style can be so different from what the trends are. They really emphasized dressing for yourself and that what they view as trends may not be what they personally wear on a day to day basis and I loved that they were honest enough to say that.

The last speaker event was the "So You Want To Be a Guru" talk featuring beauty gurus and a fashion blogger.

I was actually pretty disappointed in the panel. It was supposed to last for 45 minutes but for some reason they only spoke for 15 and maybe answered two questions each? We ended at 3:20ish and I was wondering why it was so short. They didn't really talk about how to succeed or to differentiate themselves in the youtube community. I think it was a lukewarm way to end the speakers part of the Beauty Social event.

I would so love to go to another event and to see other people speak. Jerrod needs to come back, he was the best, most entertaining speaker there.

I hope you're not too tired of these recaps. I have another one coming up with pictures of everyone I met there. If you didn't already know, I attended my oath ceremony today and became an official United States Citizen!

Sneak Peek and Swatches of New Sugarpill Colors and Products!

I posted yesterday about my events The Beauty Social event and I wanted show Sugarpill and some of their upcoming products off today. I asked Yume Ninja (she was working at the booth and was super patient in answering my questions) about the eyeshadow primer because I've been wondering about it and she told me that it's sort of on the back burner of things so we probably won't be seeing it anytime soon. *Apparently it will be out soon, they're just changing the packaging last minute*

There are also new eyelashes coming out (22 different kinds apparently!) and while I didn't take any picture of the new eyelashes, Siryn did a great post with four of the new ones.

The new products out were five pressed eyeshadows and three sets of loose eyeshadow trios. In the top left corner of the picture, you can see the new loose shadow trio sets. I asked about when the loose shadow trios and pressed eyeshadows would be coming out and Yume said in the coming months, so probably around Christmas time. According to Siryn's sources, they were available last Christmas in the Netherlands and this time they'll be coming to us in the US!

Here are the different names of the sets along with the colors included in each. They're all existing colors, nothing new.

I looked at the display and as far as I could tell, there weren't any new loose eyeshadows. I wish I took a picture of the display though because it super tricked out.

Here are the five new pressed eyeshadows coming out.

I swatched the colors over bare skin, no primer. I went in order of bottom left, middle left, top right, middle right, and bottom right.

The far left red eyeshadow is like Love+ but with tons of silver glitter. The 2nd from the left color was an icy shimmery blue. The middle shade was a pale pink/lilac with a violet duochrome. The 2nd from the right shade was like Dollipop but with glitter. The far right shade was kind of lighter turquoise aqua shade.

The red with silver glitter had excellent pigmentation, it was crazy. Even though I already own Love+, it is a good option for those who may not own a red eyeshadow already and want a matte with glitter.

I also liked the middle shade, that violet duochrome flash looked so so pretty.

Are you looking forward to the up and coming Sugarpill shades?

The Beauty Social Recap: The Sponsors and Activities *Picture Heavy*

This is going to be the first of this week's posts talking about The Beauty Social event I went to on Saturday. I didn't plan on going until about a week before the event but I'm so happy I did. Today I'm recapping the day's events, the sponsors and the activities. Stay tuned for the rest of this week's post of what happened (I couldn't condense it down to one post, there was a lot to say!)

Right up to the event, I felt like I wasn't really sure what was going to be there and what was going to happen. I read the speakers schedule and saw the list of activities but I still felt like I wasn't really sure what to expect.

The main event was held in a one large conference room that had a stage in the middle and all the participating companies against the walls. However music playing in the background combined with the speakers throughout the day made it really difficult to hear anyone speaking in the room. I understand that they wanted everyone to be able to listen to the speakers while doing all the activities but was hard to understand people sometimes.

A side perspective of the room and part of the Benefit booth.

There were nine companies in the main conference room and one outside of the room next to the signup booth. I'll talk about each company and their booth.

Cover FX

They were the main sponsor of the event and their booth seemed large in comparison to the other ones. Cover FX was also doing another event with Kandee Johnson on the same day in the Sephora in Santa Monica. She was having a meet and greet there and if you were the first 100 people to go to the Sephora and buy a Foundation, you got a free primer. I thought it was kind of strange that they were advertising for another event off site at The Beauty Social, I didn't think many people would have wanted to leave.

At the booth, they were doing color matching with the cream Cover FX foundation. The woman there had asked me what kind of foundation I liked to use and I said powder, so I was expecting to be color matched with one of their powder foundations. They also had a computer where you could sign up for their pro club and get set up for a 40% discount. I can't remember now if it was a one time thing or membership deal. They also had small samples of their SkinPrep FX available.

Fresh

After Cover FX, I went to the Fresh booth. It was there that I meant Alicia from FunnyFace Beauty :D She's the first blogger I've ever met in person and it was so nice to meet someone whose blog I not only read but who also read my blog. We hung out for most of the event and at the VIP Reception.

I didn't spend a lot of time at Fresh. It looked like they were doing a short demo of their products and helping you figure out which kind of tint of lip treatment best suited you.

I don't remember what order I visited the booths after this so I'll just talk about all of them in no particular order.

Sugarpill

I loved Sugarpill's booth if only because Amy was there. I liked that they had some of their upcoming colors and after asking, I took swatch and product pictures of the new eyeshadows which I'll show in the next post. In the beginning I didn't notice them doing makeovers or anything like that but I did later on in the afternoon.

Amy and I!

Urban Decay

At the Urban Decay booth, they had all of their recent Holiday collections out and were doing eye looks for girls with glasses or a glitter tattoo with their new Starlight Glitter Body Art kit. I opted for the glitter tattoo and got a black glittery one. The process of course was super messy because of the glitter. She had put the stencil on me and then covered the area with glue. After that, she shook on the glitter and then had to sweep the excess away. She then covered it with All Nighter Makeup Setting Spray.

It lasted pretty damn long, this picture was taken on Sunday after I had slept with it on because I forgot about it.

CND

Sigh CND. They were doing Shellac manicures and unfortunately booked up so fast. I wasn't able to get one done. There's not much to say but I really wish I could have gotten a Shellac manicure done.

Temptu

I don't really know why I didn't visit the Temptu booth, I just didn't. It looked like they were doing skin makeovers with the Temptu Airbrush System.

Makeup Mandy

I hadn't heard of Makeup Mandy before the event. They're a salon that specializes in doing eyelash application, makeup, hair, tanning, etc. At the event, they were doing eyelash extentions, putting in either one day eyelash clusters or eyelash clusters lasting a week. I had gone there earlier in the day and they were all booked up, but I was told to come back later to see if someone had skipped their appointment.

Alicia from Funny Face Beauty went at 4:20 to get her eyelashes done. I tagged along and waited while she was getting it done. I asked the person setting up the appointments if she could tell me if they were able to squeeze me in. I'm pretty sure she took pity on me and I managed to get my eyelashes done.

Here's how they looked. I really wish I had taken a before picture but I think you've seen my lashes enough to know that they were nowhere near this awesome. I wore Darling Girl's Jeweled Taupe by the way :)

I did notice that Alicia's eyelash application and mine seemed to go a lot faster than the ones happening earlier in the afternoon. I remember seeing some of the girls in the afternoon having fans to dry the glue on their lashes but Alicia and I didn't get that when we were having ours done. I think it's just because we were getting ours done close to the end of the event.

Benefit

Benefit had their brow bars there and I got my brows tweezed and shaped. I really loved what they did to my brows (The picture above shows off my new brows). I felt like the overall shape was softened but she didn't try to make them too skinny. They also did a makeup application after my brows were done.

Wella

Oooh but this place was fun. I got my hair braided and curled at the booth and I loved how Alicia got a full wraparound brain. It was a really nice place and the woman doing my hair was so nice.

How it looked from the front :)

Goody

Goody was the only brand that wasn't featured inside the conference room. Instead, they had a small table outside of the conference room, next to the desk where you signed in. They were so generous though, they had packs of their new Doublewear line to give away as samples. I got two packs of the ponytail holder/bracelet in silver and gold and a necklace/headband in gold and silver.

At the lunch I paid for an overpriced lunch ($12 bucks for a ham sandwich, crudite and hummus, a chocolate chip cookie and a drink is a little too much). I did like the VIP reception, it gave me a chance to take pictures with a lot of bloggers that I super admire and love reading. I mean, I was in the same room they were in, it was amazing. They had a lot of hors d'oeuvres there like these mini cupcakes.

During the event a man from Beautylish asked Alicia and I questions about the site and how we felt about it and what they could improve. I liked that they were proactive enough to ask us about how we felt about the site but I wasn't really expecting it so I think my answers weren't very good.

I will say that I felt like they weren't able to handle all the people wanting to do some of the activities. At the CND Booth, they got booked so fast, I was the 2nd person on the waiting list in case someone didn't show up to their Shellac appointment and I think I signed up a little before noon. I know when I got my brows done at the Benefit booth at 1:20 they were turning people away because they were booked for the day. I don't believe the Wella booth was booked and Makeup Mandy was but I was able to squeeze in.

I was lucky enough to be able to get my brows done, my eyelashes done, my glitter tattoo, etc. I imagine though that some of the people arriving later might not have been so lucky, and what could they have done in between the speakers you know? I'll talk about the speakers in the next part of my recap of the event. I believe there will be a Beauty Social 2012 event and that it'll be bigger and better than this year's first one. I hope they get a better idea of how many people to get for each service. I was there from 10-6, lunch was at 12-1 so I had seven hours to do a lot of stuff.

At the end of the event, I got this amazing amazing swag bag. My god I am set for blogging for the next couple of weeks! I need to show off the swag bag because it was amazing! I know you guys will be super jealous.

Team Pink Eye Project EOTD and Giveaway!

Team Pink Eye Project is a collaboration project between bloggers and indie makeup companies working to bring awareness to breast cancer and to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month. In our efforts to raise money for the Foundation, several of us are holding giveaways on our blogs. You can find the link of participating blogs and giveaways by clicking here and that'll take you to Team Pink Eye's blog.

Right now we're working towards a goal of $1000 and we're a little over a 1/3rd of the way there. Hopefully this week will push us towards our goal! All the giveaways are sponsored by Team Pink Eye and the sponsoring shop.

If you don't want to enter a giveaway, you can also purchase several pink-themed products from different indie companies (Check the list of participating shops on Team Pink Eye's blog). In addition to doing a giveaway, I am also doing a look to help with awareness.

I was super inspired by this makeup look on BoA in her Game music video. Here are links to pictures of the look. I adjusted the look a little bit to suit my eye shape.

Eyes:

ELF Mineral Eye Primer

MAC Goldenaire pigment on the lid

Wet n Wild Crease shade from the We're Blasting Off Trio in the crease and lower lashline

Physicians Formula Eye Booster Liner in Deep Brown on the upper lashline

NYX White Eyeliner on the outer eye in the triangle and a bit on the waterline

ES A66 Eyelashes (from KKCenterHK, review coming up soon!)

Maybelline The Colossal Waterproof Mascara in glam Brown

Maybelline Great Lash Clear Mascara through the brows

Giveaway Time

I'm going to be holding a giveaway for a $25 Gift Certificate to Shiro Cosmetics and here are the rules on how to enter not only my giveaway but the other giveaways held by the other Team Pink Eye blogs!

To enter to win a $25 Gift Certificate to Shiro Cosmetics, donate $5 to Team Pink Eye at the Passionately Pink page. After that, comment on this post with the name that you donated under (you can donate under a nickname, just remember to give the nickname) along with a valid email address so we can contact you if you win and that's it, you'll be entered to win.

That donation of $5 gives you an entry into all of the Team Pink Eye Giveaways so just search through Team Pink Eye to see links to all the participating blogs and comment on the blog post hosting the giveaways you want to win in the same fashion. You can enter as many or as few as you like. All giveaways will end 10PM CST on Sunday. The entries will be tallied by Frances and Rebecca. Winners will be announced and emailed on Monday. After you've entered on my blog, be sure to check out all the other giveaways! This giveaway is sponsored by Team Pink Eye and Shiro Cosmetics. All proceeds go to Susan G. Komen Passionately Pink for the Cure.

So remember, try to do a self exam on your breasts at least once a month and see your doctor if you're worried about any changes. Be mindful of when you examine yourself, the best time is 2-3 days AFTER your period, not during your period. If you're not sure of how to do a self exam, take the time to watch this video to see a more light hearted perspective on self exams.

Keep in mind that women aren't the only ones that can get breast cancer, men can too. Men may only account for 1% of cases but it doesn't mean those 1% are any less serious than the other 99% of women with breast cancer. Awareness has done a lot to help catch breast cancer cases early and there's a lot more we can do to work towards a cancer free future.

Physicians Formula and Revlon Haul, $30 of product for less than $8

I'm supposed to be on a no/low-buy but since I was running low on my staple eyeliner and wanted to try a Revlon Lip Butter, I did a mini haul at Rite Aid. I want to show how I managed to get $30 worth of products for $7.92. Had I purchased everything full price, it would have been $31.67 after tax and since I paid $7.92, I got a 75% discount. The promotions that enabled me to get such a great deal end this week so I wanted to post this as soon as I could so everyone could take part in it!


Here's how I did it:

This week, all Revlon Lip, Nail, Eye, and Beauty Tools are 40% off and if you bought one of these products, you got $2 in Up+ Rewards. Physicians Formula is 40% off and if you spent $15 after the discount, you got $4 in Up+ Rewards.

Transaction One

I bought a Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple for 40% off, lowering the original price for $4.49. I then used a coupon for $2 off any Revlon Lip Product. After tax, I paid $2.85 and received $2 in Up+ Rewards.

I then used that in my second transaction. Don't be afraid to split up your purchase into two transactions to get a better deal. I've NEVER gotten any flack from the cashier about it and I've done three transactions once and still didn't get any trouble.

Transaction Two

I bought a Physicians Formula Eye Booster Liner in Deep Brown that was one of the promotional duo packs with a bonus full size Eye Booster Lash Boosting Serum. I got that for 40% off, lowering the original price for $6.57 and I used the $2 in Up+ Rewards that I just got from my previous purchase. After tax, I paid $5.08.

I paid $7.92 for three products that would total $31.67. Not bad eh? The Revlon Lip Butter alone retails for over $8 after tax so it was a pretty sweet deal.

Do you have any extreme couponing stories?

Darling Girl Glitter Glue vs Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy Comparison

I know that Glitter Glue and Pixie Epoxy have been compared to each other a lot and I thought I'd have a go at trying to find differences between the two. After lots of testing I will say that I honestly like them both. There are positives and negatives with both products but honestly, if I'm going to shop at Fyrinnae I'll pick up a Pixie Epoxy and if I'm low on Glitter Glue while shopping at Darling Girl, I'll pick up some of that.

I've outlined some of the differences between the two.


Product Packaging, Price, and Size Options

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy has two different size options, a sample size jar that holds around 1.5 mL for $1.50 and a full size tube with a doefoot applicator holding 9 mL for $7.00. I should note that on the site they say the sample jars lasts for at least 10-15 full size uses. That's a very very conservative number because I recall using Pixie Epoxy for several months with a couple of uses a week. I don't own the full size so I can't comment on the full size container.

Darling Girl Glitter Glue comes in a full size squeeze tube with a squishy rubber or silicone tip holding 10 mL for $6.75. There's no sample size option. There's something I've noticed about the containers though. I used to try to have the hilt (I'm not sure of another way to describe it) of the rubbery/silicone tip pushed all the way into the container but I found I'd have problems with built up pressure and having it not dispense any product. The solution is to have the hilt of the tip not twisted fully into container but with a little bit of room between to prevent pressure build up.

Here's a picture to better explain what I mean, note the space in between?


You get a little more in Glitter Glue and it's cheaper but you don't have the option of getting a sample (which I know may be important to some people, I know I'm a sample fanatic when it comes to Indies).

Product Consistency

Pixie Epoxy is a clear slightly foggy but translucent gel that applies clear and has a tacky slightly sticky texture.

Glitter Glue is white in the tube but applies clear and has a thin lotion texture.

Product Usage

Both products have the same instructions, apply a tiny bit on your eyes and wait until it dries slightly tacky and then put eyeshadow on. I noticed that because of the consistency differences I had to wait a bit longer for Pixie Epoxy to dry down whereas because Glitter Glue has a thinner, less sticky texture, it dried down a little faster.

Availability

It's important to say that for ease of purchase, it's Darling Girl over Fyrinnae. Fyrinnae is a really popular site and because of the major influx of orders, the owner occasionally closes the shopping cart to catch up. Darling Girl very rarely closes down the shopping cart and they will give a warning when they're about to. I will say that my Darling Girl orders have always stuck to the Turn Around Time, whereas I've had instances where Fyrinnae orders get to me faster than their stated Turn Around Time. That might be something to take into consideration.

How does it fare with shimmery shadows?

They work exactly the same. I found no discernible differences in application. I've done a couple of swatches with Darling Girl and Fyrinnae shades to compare. I don't own any really glittery shades from Fyrinnae so I just tried to find a super sparkly one.

In all the swatch pictures, Glitter Glue was used under the left swatch, Pixie Epoxy was used under the right swatch. Any color differences in the eyeshadows is only because of the light source, there were no discernable differences in real life.

This is Darling Girl's Smoking Gun eyeshadow.

This is Darling Girl's Jeweled Taupe eyeshadow. This has red,pink, and purple glitter in it and it adhered well with both fixatives.

This is Fyrinnae's Medieval Haunting.

How does it fare with mattes?

In my experience, Darling Girl wins out but Fyrinnae is upfront about not working well with mattes. After all, Pixie Epoxy was meant to be a product to help minimize fallout and help with glitter adhesion with shimmery eyeshadows. Glitter Glue is meant to be used the same way. I don't think that it's a negative that Pixie Epoxy doesn't work over matte since it doesn't claim to.

How does it fare with glitter?

This is Coastal Scents' Purple Punch Glitter, size .004.

Can you blend eyeshadows over it?

I personally don't have issues blending eyeshadows over Pixie Epoxy and Glitter Glue but I have heard of people having an easier time blending with Glitter Glue.

Conclusion

Personally, I've never had that much trouble with Pixie Epoxy, it had a slight learning curve that wasn't hard to master. Darling Girl was the same way. Because Glitter Glue takes less time to dry down I think it'll be easier for most people to use. At the end of it, I like both. If you want to use matte eyeshadows with a fixative, you're better off with Glitter Glue.

If you're having trouble and feel like it's a little too wet then wait a few seconds and add more eyeshadow. I love the foiled without the water look that both of them give.

Do you guys own both? Do you notice a difference?

Tick:Tock Cosmetics Eyeshadow Swatches and Review

Another part of my Utopista prize. I think I first heard of Tick:Tock Cosmetics through a facebook group I'm in. I looked through the site but being in a state of no to low-buy prevented me from trying anything out.

My first thought when I saw the samples was that the stickers on them are so so tiny, only about 1/2 inch across in diameter. I didn't think you could make stickers with such small print. The sticker has the name of the company, the eyeshadow shade in addition to really really tiny text saying that the list of ingredients can be found on their site and the url to the site. I would rather they make larger stickers because it's a pain in the ass to read the tiny font.

They measure out .5 gram for samples which retail for .70 cents and come in a baggie like pictured above. The full size jars retail for $4.95 and have approximately 1.5 grams of product but these are filled by volume up to the top of the threading of the jar, not weight. This information isn't listed on the site and was answered on their facebook.

I think their store website is laid out quite well. There are individual listings for full sizes and sample sizes and the eyeshadows are organized in a gradient rainbow style. They also favor a comprehensive swatching style, showing off the eyeshadow over bare skin, primer, NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil or their Infinity Base, and over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy.

These swatches are fingerswiped over ELF Mineral Eye Primer.

From left to right: Cuckoo, Digital, and Metronome

Daylight picture.

Direct sunlight picture. This is the most accurate picture of Cuckoo, the other pictures I took didn't show off the robin's egg blue hue of it.

Cuckoo: It's described as a medium teal with with light blue and purple shimmer but I think it's more of a Robin's Egg Blue/Tiffany's blue. It was sheer when swiped on but performed better.

Digital: It's a shimmery black with a slight blue shimmer. A pretty basic eyeshadow, it wasn't sheer and patted on well.

Metronome: It's described as a shimmery white with holographic glitter but I didn't see the holographic glitter at all, not even in the sunlight. To me, it's just a shimmery white that built up to medium opacity on the lid.

I was pleasantly surprised by the brand. They don't have that many eyeshadow colors out and the colors they do have aren't all that unique but they're done well. I definitely would like to see them work on adhesion so I don't have to rely on a sticky base or primer for the best performance. The brand actually makes and sells their own black and white eyeshadow bases. If they make more unique colors, I think I'll try more of them out.

Urban Decay Loose Eyeshadow Swatches and Review

I didn't realize that I didn't do swatches of the Urban Decay Loose Eyeshadows I had until I won a couple more. The loose eyeshadows are discontinued but if you swap or find them on Ebay, you should definitely pick them up as long as they're not full priced.

From left to right: Asphyxia, Graffiti, Gunmetal, Shag, Shattered, Smog

Swatched over ELF Mineral Eye Primer

Asphyxia is a fuchsia with a purple pearl. It reminds me of MAC Pink Pearl Pigment. It had the worse texture, sort of flaky and reminescent of MAC Rose pigment which makes it difficult to apply.

Graffiti is a bright grassy green.

Gunmetal is a gunmetal grey with a lot of silver sparkle.

Shag is a pink toned tan. Definitely liked this as a wash over my lids. A little more pink toned in real life.

Shattered is a frosty aqua, a little more green toned in real life.

Smog is a darker bronze brown with a golden sheen.

For $17, I think Urban Decay was just setting itself up for failure. You only get one gram of product packaged very inconveniently. I'm very glad to have gotten them on sale and in Utopista's giveaway because I can't imagine having paid $102 retail.

As a nice bonus, here's a picture of the aftermath of depotting.

Gunmetal of a Smoking Gun EOTD

I've really been into doing winged liner so here's a EoTD using Darling Girl's Smoking Gun and Urban Decay Gunmetal. On a quick note, I'm happy happy because I got my oath ceremony letter in the mail today meaning I'll soon be an official US Citizen :)

I really like Smoking Gun because it's sort of a silvery taupe but it's got a red flash to it which makes it stand out from other taupes.

Eyes:
ELF Mineral Eye Primer
Darling Girl Cosmetics Smoking Gun all over the lid
Urban Decay Gunmetal Loose Eyeshadow on the outer half of the lid, over Smoking Gun
Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express Waterproof Mascara

Physicians Formula Eye Booster Liner in Ultra Black
Wet n Wild Color Icon Eyeliner in Mink Brown for the brows

Guest Post on Turtle Beauty

I imagine some of you are already following Wendy at Turtle Beauty and have already seen the guest post I did on her blog. If not, here's a link and a peek at the look I did for her! Click the link to see more pictures and swatches I did!

Cinnamon Cosmetics Eyeshadow Swatches and Review

As part of my prize pack from Utopista's giveaway, I got three full size eyeshadow jars and three samples from Cinnamon Cosmetics. I've never tried the company before although I have heard about them a little bit on twitter. They seem to be fairly unknown in the mineral makeup world. Cinnamon Cosmetics sells a variety of products including mineral eye liners, lip balms, lip scrubs, finishing powders, and a mineral eyeshadow pressing kit. Most of the eyeshadow colors I got were satins with a bit of sparkle and those were great. There were a couple I didn't like but the ones I liked, I really liked.

Some of the colors aren't listed on the site because the owner needs to some of the ingredients in so she removed some of the listings. I believe they'll be back in the next couple of weeks so I can update my links then.

The full size jars come with an shrink wrap seal, no sifter, and an ingredient label on the bottom but no amount specified turns out my labels are older, the new labels have an amount specified on them!. The sample size has 1/4tsp of product and is now in clamshells, not in sample baggies. You have two options with the full size eyeshadows; you can get the full size with the jar for $4.50 and if you like it you can get a refill of the eyeshadow in a baggie for $3.00. The full size has between 1.4-2 grams of product and the refill has around the same net weight, sometimes a bit more. There's also a third size option with the mini jar for $2.00 but I'm unsure how much is inside.

Swatches

From left to right: Hearth, Jadis, Jazz, Ranger, Royal, and Tank


Hearth, Jadis, and Jazz


Hearth: It's a darker teal blue satin with blue/green sparkles. I think the listing picture is a little misleading since I didn't get that intense shimmer sheen when I wore this on my eyes. It stayed satin with the blue/green sparkles.

Jadis: It's an icy blue shimmer that worked best as a wash of color on my lid. Sheer, not too pigmented. This is a color that has been discontinued.

Jazz: The listing picture and my swatch of it are spot on. It reminds me of a less orange terracota color with gold sparkles. This had amazing pigmentation and adhesion on the lid. I was rather surprised because it didn't look like much in the jar but really had a lot of oomph on the lid.

Ranger, Royal, and Tank. The finish of Tank is more accurate in the first picture but I wanted to show off the sparkles.

Ranger: It's a dark green with a green sheen to it. I didn't like this at all, I thought the pigmentation was lacking on the lid and it was too sheer for my liking.

Royal: Love this, Cinnamon Cosmetics knows how to make this satin because it had excellent adhesion and pigmentation like Jazz. This is unfortunately also discontinued.

Tank: Oh man I thought this was going to be great on my eyes because of how well it swatched but no, it required a lot of packing on and didn't really adhere well to my lids.

I like Jazz and Royal a lot and was disappointed in Ranger and Tank. If you're going to get anything from Cinnamon Cosmetics, get Jazz and Royal.

As much as I like what I won, there is something that bugs me. I don't like that the net weight/amount information is not given on the jars (there are new labels with the net amount on the jars) on the site. I think that's basic information that I as a consumer need to know and it isn't on the site (not under the F.A.Q) or on the individual listings. I tweeted the owner and she did respond back quickly which I liked. However, I feel like that's not something I should have to search for, it should be clearly listed.

Anyway, have you tried Cinnamon Cosmetics yet?